“A child’s happiness is a very unfair burden to place on a parent, and happiness is an even more unfair burden to place on a child,” says Jennifer Senior. Do you agree?
“Something about parenting right now, at the moment, is the problem,” observes Jennifer Senior, award-winning journalist and author of the new book, All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood.
During her TEDTalks presentation filmed last March 2014, Senior explains why today’s “mothers and fathers experience parenthood as a kind of crisis.” She points out the root cause of parental anguish — and it happens to be the universal mantra all parents agree on: “All I want is for my children to be happy.”
Senior stresses that happiness as a goal is an elusive one, even warning audiences that a “child’s happiness is a very unfair burden to place on a parent, and […] an even more unfair burden to place on a child.”
Do you agree with Senior? Watch her TEDTalks video below as she explains how happiness, while well-intentioned, has created a crisis in parenthood and lists achievable, less frustrating goals that parents can aim for instead to raise their kids well.
If you have any insights, questions or comments regarding Jennifer Senior’s views on modern parenthood, please share them in our Comments box below.
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