From the New York Magazine: Why Parents Hate Parenting, or, "I Love My Children but Hate My Life."
I am just reading through the article now but it discusses a lot of frustrations with being a parent, especially the diminishing returns. There is not much hope two pages in to the article.
2 comments:
What I find interesting about this article is the discussion of cultural differences. Do Americans approach parenting incorrectly? Is it a governmental issue? Certainly the U.S. government doesn't seem to value family in the way that the ongoing conversation about "family values" would suggest. In Canada, there are numerous systems in place to help parents, including year long family leave, in home nurses to help moms suffering from PPD, and on-call lactation consultants, just to name a few things that come readily to mind. None of these things exists in the states.
As I parent my own children, I often wonder if we give kids too much choice. Sometimes I think we forget to treat kids like kids. . .
In the U.S., our primary language focuses on the individual (success in business, etc). For example, in the abortion debate, the focus is on the life of the unborn, which serves as a convenient deflection for policy purposes because then you avoid discussion of family and, consequently, of policies for the family after a child is born (more childcare and support for the baby/mother/family).
Discussions of family exist but it is regulated to second place, can focus on a parent protecting their family (still maintaining that primary language of the individual), and government plays little role with the family as it creates dissonance with individual liberty (i.e. paternalism).
For more on the first and second language, see Robert Bellah.
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