Everybody thinks they’re a good parent, but then, miraculously, we notice there are plenty of bad kids around. These kids grow up, they think they’ll make excellent parents, they have children of their own, and so the cycle is perpetuated.

But that’s not the only way an apple will rot, so to say. Sometimes, it’s all down to a cumulus of conditions that nobody is really at fault for. I mean, you have no reason to suspec…