We've talked about family being relegated to the extended family bracket in favor of the new nucleus. But what is the hierarchy within this novel structure? Were we being rationalists, we could say the baby factory should precede the baby, but a lot of resources go into babymaking. Replenishing them is a ~2 year long task, and as any parent would have you know, pair bonding murks the waters and shifts reality away from pure logic… It's nuanced, and nuance is the greatest enemy of the bitter rationalist.

Children > Significant Other > You >>> Extended family

Although to you, children may be the most important, from their perspective, parents should be prioritizing one another, at least when it comes to TIME in the presence of a constraint. Why? To model the ideal relationship and set expectations, sure, but ultimately, anything that lowers the odds of failing and creating single parents is the single most important thing one could model! The absence of such foments single sided selfishness in the romantic relationship of the child and spawns the generational curse of divorce.

Child sees parents deprioritizing one another for their sake. "This is normal!" Parents' relationship breaks down as a result of years of neglect, but the behavior has already been subconsciously imprinted on the child's precarious mind. Now it is only a matter of time before it takes root under the guise of a nurturing nature and activates the curse.