well, statistically speaking...

I've been meaning to write down some thoughts on behavioral economics and the adventure that is motherhood.  I think the phrase that I have to keep repeating to myself while learning how to raise M is that there are 'lies, damned lies, and statistics.'  Or, more crassly (which is really much easier to remember), is that statistically, every person on the planet has one testicle (half of the population are women who have 0 testicles, the other half have 2 testicles, so (1/2*0+1/2*2)/2=1).  So figuring out which statistics really make sense for the situation is difficult because, clearly, sampling the wrong population will get a useless statistical answer.  As a corollary, every child is a point in a population and it's difficult to say where along the continuum that child falls.  So it makes it even more difficult to decide whether the correct statistic is relevant to M or if he's outside the 95%.  If there's a 'fog of war', there should also be a 'fog of parenthood.'  Sigh.