
Our memory shifts into high gear when we think about raising our children - dnetesn
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-12-memory-shifts-high-gear-children.html
======
rdtsc
This reminded me of this gem from the Simpsons:

[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/do-it-for-
her](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/do-it-for-her)

When job gets boring or uninteresting I always remember that. For some reason
it seems to help and it cheers me up.

~~~
flanbiscuit
That is such a sweet episode and always makes me tear up at the end.

------
ProuGrammer
Been working as a developer full time for the past 5 years with some 1 week
vacations thrown in here and there (I can count them all on one hand).

I'm on week 4 of a 12 week loa for baby #3. I was totally focused on my
career, side project(s), and keeping up w/ latest tech to stay relevant my
memory felt foggy if you were to ask me household/family things that my
awesome wife just took care of on the daily.

I've noticed a complete change in me remembering what my family has going on.
Household stuff, etc. It's been great!

~~~
austincheney
If you want to take that a step further leave your family for a year and come
back. It wildly changes how all these things work in the mind.

~~~
kkleindev
Would you mind describing in more detail?

~~~
austincheney
People tend to fall into routines when doing the same things day after day.
The behaviors are predictable like training pets.

When you leave for a year all that predictability and programmed thinking goes
away. It really alters how you perceive many parts of the world around you. I
have done this three times when my part time second job magically becomes the
full time primary job.

------
johnny313
_According to Miller, the failure of the mating scenario may reflect our
prehistoric ancestors not realizing that mating could result in children
because of the nine months between mating and birth._

This seems to imply that successful evolutionary neural behaviors are
consciously learned, as opposed to being "learned" over generations due to
natural selection [0], in a similar way to how a neural network is trained.

[0]
[https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/50/10/883/234025](https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/50/10/883/234025)
William G. Wright; Neuronal and Behavioral Plasticity in Evolution:
Experiments in a Model Lineage: Evolutionary changes in sensory neurons
correlate with changes in learning phenotypes, BioScience, Volume 50, Issue
10, 1 October 2000, Pages 883–894

~~~
mc32
Maybe a nit, but I'm sure at least the female of the species observed
something within a few months, rather than 9. Sure birth by 9, but I'm sure
they felt hormonal changes, physical changes etc which culminated with
bearing... so not quite a 9 month gap.

------
maxander
Makes sense- for a prehistoric adult, with very little cultural guidance to go
on, to be able to empathize at all with a tiny version of him/her-self, it
would probably be crucial to be able to remember a time when they themselves
were that small. And when _else_ would a hunter-gatherer be called upon to
remember events more than a few years back?

Dealing with children could be the only evolutionary reason we have very-long
term memories _at all_.

~~~
fjsolwmv
Long term memory is a key aspect of learning. We often consciously remember
things that are similar to current experience. So being near baby triggers
recall of memories of childhood.

