Too Little Nurturing Plus Too Little Structure In The First Two Years

I have been writing about the effects of no father on black youths, but what about the effects of no mother? Many children, regardless of race, in America are being raised by grandmothers, because their mothers and fathers are unavailable to provide basic nurturing and basic structure. Nurturing without structure (such as telling the child "no" regularly and consistently) can have the same results as neglect: children are much more likely to grow up with anti-social and aggressive tendencies. We get them in our foster home, but by the time they near two years of age, and have been basically on their own for those two years, with no one to give them structure, it is too late. They are completely self-absorbed. They cannot stand to be thwarted. They want what they want when they want it. Tell them they cannot have something that belongs to another child, and you'll get a major temper tantrum.

Dr. Sanity has more on the importance of early nurturing and structure here. She cites a study which says emphatically and unequivocably what I just said in the paragraph above. "Failure to provide the correct mothering may reset the brain's circuitry irreversibly to patterns of antisocial behaviour, aggression and self-destruction, possibly to enable sheer survival in the absence of motherly protection during infanthood." I am adding the words correct fathering. Let's not talk just about the mothers.