If you want to help the child, support the parent

At a family function shortly after we announced we were going to have a baby, one of my in-laws had a quiet word in my ear. “I hope your relationship is strong,” he said.

I remembered his words often in the months after the baby was born. She was wonderful, but she didn’t sleep. We got help, eventually, and we coped, and then she was joined by twin sisters. For three years, we ...