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In this episode of VPRO Tegenlicht: a plea for the village from the ubiquitous statement: it takes a village to raise a child. The first thousand days of our lives are crucial for our development and important for our opportunities in society. A society that needs these new generations to continue to exist. But mothers in our society bear an unfairly large share of the financial, emotional and practical costs of raising the next generation. In the meantime, society is constantly looking with a raised finger to see whether those mothers are doing a good job. How did this come about, and is that actually what makes mothers, children and society happy in the end? The myth of motherhood stems from our belief in traditions and biology. Author Aminatta Forna argues that we quickly call something a tradition, even if it only goes back three generations, such as the idea of the nuclear family. And what does biology actually tell us? Anthropologist and primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy points out that our attachment theory is based on research into a limited number of ape species, such as chimpanzees. Models of care from other primates and historical human practices, where children were raised with the help of multiple 'allo-parents' (non-biological caregivers), are ignored. In her book Motherhood, science journalist Lucy Jones described the intense physical and mental transformation that women undergo when they become mothers, comparable to the brain changes during puberty. Before she became a mother herself, she lived without much thought according to the 'myth of individualism': the logic of a society that revolves around autonomy, self-realization and freedom of choice. Until the reality of interdependence presented itself when she brought another human being into the world. Historian Noëmi Willemen emphasizes that we too often dismiss having children as a personal choice: "You wanted children yourself, didn't you? Then you have to take care of them yourself." But we rarely talk about our collective desire to have children. Whether or not you want children, as a society we count on the next generation to build our roads, take care of us and secure our retirement. Archive Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision / collection Jos. A. Huygen Motherlove - CBS / Periscope KRO-NCRV VPRO Dorst, Lattepappas VPRO Noorderlicht More stories? Follow us here: Website: https://tegenlicht.vpro.nl/ Instagram: / vpro.tegenlicht FaceBook: / vprotegenlicht TikTok: / vprotegenlicht Meet-ups: https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/tegenl... Viewing guide: All ages