When babies are born in hospital delivery rooms, they come without an instruction manual. Although there are parenting courses and lots of advice from experts and amateurs in the press and social media, many mothers and fathers grope in the dark and in the end use the parenting technique that seems natural – or practical – for their children as they grow up. One method is psychological control in which parents try to improve their children’s behavior by making them feel shame or guilt about their actions. Another is the “silent treatment,” in which parents ignore their kids following bad...