Chapter 3 delineates the contribution of attachment theory to understanding parental caregiving. Bowlby saw caregiving as the counterpart of attachment, based upon the parent’s ‘retrieval’ instinct: regulating the child’s desire to explore and learn, with the need to protect them from harm. There are three principal strategies: The chapter describes the ways parents interpret their world, and their child’s, to facilitate these options. These are best seen as the compromises parents make to manage the challenges they face now, and in the past. It is important to understand what parents are adapting to, as well as how they defend themselves. A systemic reading of attachment theory has considerable potential to recognise the impact of social and economic adversity on parent-child relationships.