Earlier this year author and New York psychoanalyst Erica Komisar published a book called Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters.

In the book Komisar highlights the critical role moms play in the first three years of a child’s development. She also shows the devastation caused when a child’s mother is absent.

For example, Komisar notes that from 2011 to 2012 the number of children diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder rose to 19%, and that nearly one in four children will be diagnosed with a mental disorder before the age of 18.

Komisar says the cause of the problem is simple: “The essential presence of a mother is missing” from the lives of these children.

Komisar is essentially echoing what we and many others have said for years: Kids need a mom and a dad.

Our friends at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview have put together an excellent commentary on Erica Komisar’s book here.

Photo Credit: By No machine-readable author provided. Doreendotto assumed (based on copyright claims). [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.