From WORLD Opinions
Last week, a flurry of headlines announced that parenting may be harmful to your mental health. That argument came from none other than U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who issued an advisory. It’s “a significant public health issue,” reported NPR. “Parenting is hazardous to your health,” noted The Wall Street Journal. This follows months of reports about falling birth rates worldwide (in the Journal and in Science, too). Now we can add to fears that we’re not having enough babies the possibility that those who do venture into parenthood may suffer from mental illness. Either we go extinct or we go mad trying not to.
The fine print of Murthy’s advisory clarifies that his concern is parenting stress that leads to “mental challenges,” defined as not “necessarily meeting the criteria for a diagnosable mental health condition.” But this nuance is lost in the news stories about the dire consequences of parenting, followed by a call for government programs, workplace support, and more self-care.
Why is this news? Parenting has always been hard. Keep reading.
Listen to the radio version of this story on The World and Everything In It.