Comment by mandevil

So, there is something to overcoming childhood adversity. Since the rise of the modern primary system for electing US Presidents most of our Presidents had traumatic childhoods(1). It seems like most of the people who want a stadium full of people chanting their names are trying to fill the hole where parental love should have been. Of course, most people don't grow up to be President, so I don't think this isn't something that you should be optimizing for!

I think where I ultimately come down on this (and I'm a dad so I've given this a lot of thought) is that a crappy childhood is a high risk play: it might give you a slightly better chance of a really amazing outcome, but at a much greater risk of a truly terrible outcome. A happy childhood doesn't guarantee anything, none of us are guaranteed anything. But it can make truly negative outcomes less likely- though again not impossible. So all things being equal, I want my son to feel loved.

1: Just looking at the Baby Boomer presidents, and staying far away from actual politics, Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe, his dad died in a car accident before he was even born and his mom remarried and he was adopted. GWBush had a famously withholding and demanding mother and was viewed as the family scapegoat into his 30's- JEB! was the golden child in that family, George was the family screw-up. Barack Obama wrote an entire book (when he was a campaigning for an Illinois State Senate seat, long before he thought about running for President) about how he never really had a relationship with his father and what effect that absence had on his life. Donald Trump wears much of the damage Fred Trump inflicted on him on his sleeve.