The ethnographer studied a kin network in New York City, headed by a black woman who was 65 years old in 1996. The research focused on the concrete expectations and actual practices (conduct norms) with which the household adults responded to or nurtured the children and adolescents. Results revealed that the children were taught to pay attention to what adults did, but the adults typically model various deviant activities and rarely engaged in conventional behaviors. Drug-using mothers and fathers, especially those using crack, were expected not to raise or financially support their children; other relatives were expected to raise these children. In addition, the children were neither expected nor able to develop strong affective bonds with any household adults and received little or no psychological parenting. Moreover, adults did not take strong measures to protect their children from harm; adults were often a major source of harm. In many ways, the conduct norms in such crack-using households were well designed to nurture those persons who will be antisocial as children; delinquents as juveniles; and criminals, drug abusers, and prostitutes in adulthood. Thus, these children had very few chances to become conventional adults. Figure, table, notes, author biographies and photographs, and 62 references (Author abstract modified)