All children live with their mothers until they reach the age of ten; boys then go to live with their fathers. Children remain with their appropriate parent until the approximate age of 18. Despite this separation of sexes, the barast find the idea of considering either sex better than the other for any reason to be completely foreign (female barast do not suffer any large-scale physical incapacity due to pregnancy). The separation is a voluntary and cultural thing, and people of both sexes are free to go where the other lives at all times, but find it physically and socially discomfiting to do so when two are not one. However, facilities and living styles are fully and truly 'separate but equal' in barast society, and in the rare event that it is too difficult or resource intensive to do so (for example, large scale scientific facilities), this separation is ignored without incident.