Are your parents stressed out these days? What about your friends’ parents? If so, what do you think is causing this? Overall, do you think parenting is harder in 2024 than it has been in the past?
Last month, US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy said: Issued a recommendation Survey on parental mental health and well-being. Many parents feel stressed by the demands of parenting, including managing social media use, in an environment of gun violence, drug epidemics and other ills, Dr. Murthy said.
What do you think about Dr. Murthy’s advice? Do you think parental stress is a public health crisis? If so, what should be done to address it? How would your parents answer these questions?
In “Modern Parents: ‘Exhausted, Burned Out, and Always Behind,'” Claire Cain Miller reports on the Surgeon General’s warning about parental health and well-being.
His Recent Recommendations On parental mental health, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy voiced what many parents only quietly acknowledge: “Parenting today is too demanding and too stressful.”
Of course, concerns about family well-being have always been there, and while some of the fears parents face today are relatively new — cell phones, school shootings, fentanyl — parents have always worried about their children.
So why has parental stress risen to the level of a rare Surgeon General’s warning about an urgent public health problem that has been placed in the same category as tobacco and AIDS?
That’s because parents today face a different, more demanding situation: the expectation that they will devote more time and money than ever before to educating and enriching their children. Researchers say this pressure is driven in part by anxiety about the modern economy: If parents don’t give their kids every advantage, they might not be able to achieve a stable, middle-class life.
This parenting style is known as “intensive parenting,” as sociologist Sharon Hayes calls it. Explained it It began in the late 1990s, and sociologists Melissa Milkey and Kay Nomaguchi write that it involves “the deliberate and deliberate development of children’s talents, learning, and futures through everyday interactions and activities.”
But the Surgeon General and other experts suggest we may be reaching a point where intensive child care is becoming too demanding on parents.
The article continues:
Much of the debate about parenting these days has centered around whether intensive parenting harms or helps children. There are fears that intensive parenting can go too far, robbing children of opportunities to develop self-reliance and resilience. Child development experts say: Children generally benefit Increase parental involvement.
But the Surgeon General’s warning focuses on parental health, which he says in turn impacts on children’s mental health, given the increased demands of childcare, combined with responsibilities such as paid work and caring for an elderly person. Sacrifice Mental health, leisure time, sleep, time spent alone or with a spouse, etc.
“For the benefit of society we are placing a huge burden on parents and in a sense giving them a free ride,” Prof Swins said.
Kane Miller outlines some recommendations from Dr. Murthy’s recommendations:
The recommendations called on policymakers, employers and health care providers to better support parents through family policies such as paid leave and the child tax credit, ideas that have historically been supported by Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, but also have some support from some Republicans. Donald J. Trump has said he would expand the child tax credit if he were president.
But Dr Murthy said family-oriented America also needs a cultural shift to view parenting as a collective good, a collective responsibility as important as paid work, which he described as “sacred work.”
That might mean relaxing parenting a little, he suggested. Friends, relatives or after-school programs can help with child care. Parents should make time for themselves for activities that bring them joy or promote wellness, without feeling guilty about spending time away from their kids, he said.
Dear students, Read the full article And tell us:
-
Do you find parenting difficult and stressful these days? Do you think your parents are stressed too? (Don’t be afraid to ask!)
-
What challenges do you think your parents face and how do they deal with them?
-
What do you think about the Surgeon General’s warning about parental mental health? Do you think this constitutes a “serious public health concern for our nation”? What impact do you think this recommendation will have?
-
Kane Miller writes: “The increasing demands of parenting, combined with other responsibilities like paid work and elder care, come at the expense of mental health, leisure, sleep, and time alone and with one’s spouse.” Do you think this applies to you? Why do you think parents today are so stressed?
-
Do you think it’s harder to be a parent now than it was in the past? Why?
-
Dr. Murthy calls for “a culture, policy, and program shift to ensure all parents and caregivers can thrive,” including “access to paid family leave, improving early childhood education and child care, and making historic investments in mental health care.” What do you think about these proposals? What other ideas would you suggest? What advice would you give to your own parents to make their lives less stressful?
-
Dr. Murthy described parenting as “sacred work.” Do you agree? Why? How important is the work of parenting to the health and well-being of society as a whole?
Comments are open to all students aged 13 and over in the US and UK, and 16 and over everywhere else. Please note that all comments will be moderated by Learning Network staff, but if your comment is approved it will be made public and may appear in print.
More student opinion questions can be found here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how to incorporate these questions into your classroom.
