“ Drawing from 1.7 million Gallup surveys collected between 2008 and 2012, researchers Angus Deaton and Arthur Stone found that parents with children at home age fifteen or younger experience more highs… Jennifer Senior
“ IN HIS 2005 COLLECTION of essays Going Sane, Adam Phillips makes a keen observation. Babies may be sweet, babies may be beautiful, babies may be adored, he writes, but they have all the characteristic… Jennifer Senior
“ It’s a heady question, how women balance these concerns. Recently, the question has found its way back to the center of a contentious and very emotional debate. If you’re Sheryl Sandberg, the chief op… Jennifer Senior
“ Parenting pressures have resculpted our priorities so dramatically that we simply forget. In 1975 couples spent, on average, 12.4 hours alone together per week. By 2000 they spent only nine. What happ… Jennifer Senior
“ But the truth is, there's little even the most organized people can do to prepare themselves for having children. They can buy all the books, observe friends and relations, review their own memories o… Jennifer Senior
“ The author says this socially respectable option NOT to parent has actually made parenthood more stressful. The knowledge that parents have chosen that role allows for unrealistic buildup of expectati… Jennifer Senior
“ Your children are going through life with their eyes closed, so YOU'RE the one who has to steer. Jennifer Senior
“ And if that's the case -- if we are our remembering selves -- then it matters far less how we feel moment to moment with our children. They play rich and crucial roles in our life stories, generating… Jennifer Senior
“ Couples with children may argue more, the author suggests, because children are a reminder of just how crucial our choices are. Jennifer Senior
“ The author describes the critic within us as adults as "the selves who live too much in their heads rather than their bodies, who are burdened with too much knowledge about how the world works rather… Jennifer Senior
“ Parenthood is harder than conventional work, the author suggests, because our jobs develop a somewhat predictable flow and offer relatively short-term feedback. This leads to internal comparisons to t… Jennifer Senior
“ The 20th century, the author observes, fostered the idea that fulfillment is possible on Earth. Jennifer Senior
“ That women bring home the bacon, fry it up, serve it for breakfast, and use its greasy remains to make candles for their children's science projects is hardly news. Yet how parenting responsibilities… Jennifer Senior
“ As parents, we sometimes mistakenly assume that things were always this way. They weren't. The modern family is just that - modern - and all of our places in it are quite new. Unless we keep in mind h… Jennifer Senior
“ During childhood, it’s about trying to help develop who your kid’s going to be. During adolescence, it’s about responding to who your kid wants to be. Jennifer Senior
“ The author says that one of the difficulties of modern parenting is the uncertainty of what parents are preparing children for. In traditional societies this was clear, as parents prepared children fo… Jennifer Senior
