Alain De Botton

Because they know that if it had to break up, they'd have to call everyone up going, oh, you know, you came all that way.

And Auntie Jane would be going, what?

What?

What's happening?

And you'd be going, well, you know, we're actually splitting up.

And then, you know, but we know that there is reward in kind of sticking with it.

Because you know that because the person's not going to be able to run away immediately, you know that you can introduce into the relationships troubling dynamics that you might otherwise have to not wrestle with.

So it gives you the kind of security to get to grips with all sorts of stuff that, you know, it might be easier on a superficial level, but less rewarding ultimately to ignore.

Well, it is definitely a bomb.

And I think, you know, what's striking is I think looking around me and something that happens in the novel too, people are pretty good with children nowadays.

Parents are pretty good with kids.

You know, 150 years of child psychology has told us a lot about how we should behave with a child and we should affirm them and love them and confirm their views, etc.

But what I find striking is the difference between the way that people treat kids and the way they treat adults.

So, you know, imagine a typical parent.

You come home from work.

You make a nice dinner for your kid.

You put it in front of them.

They're maybe two and a half years old.

And they go, bleh.

They throw it on the floor.