For most of my early life I wanted nothing to do with children, many of whom I found barely tolerable with their constant interruptions and endless questions. I had a friend whose 6-year-old son spoiled every outing with his screaming and yelling, and another whose two-year-old daughter sat permanently on her lap, holding her hand over her mother’s mouth whenever she tried to join in adult conversation. It was the era of Frederick Leboyer’s ‘Birth Without Violence’ and I ev