Column: Why You Shouldn’t Love Your Kids More Than Your Partner

Parents' love for their children can make them do peculiar things. Like staying up until 1 a.m. gluing glitter on a second-grade class project. Or driving 40 miles to deliver a single soccer cleat. Or, perhaps, bribing their teenagers' way into a fancy college. But one of the weirdest things parents do is love their children more than their partners.

Before you call child services, let me be clear: Of course you have to love your kids. Of course you have to put their needs first.

Parents' love for their children can make them do peculiar things. Like staying up until 1 a.m. gluing glitter on a second-grade class project. Or driving 40 miles to deliver a single soccer cleat. Or, perhaps, bribing their teenagers' way into a fancy college. But one of the weirdest things parents do is love their children more than their partners. Before you call child services, let me be clear: Of course you have to love your kids. Of course you have to put their needs first.