Today’s edition is a personal essay from our founder, Isaac Saul.
Before my wife and I had our son in January, I was bracing myself.
Almost everything I had heard from the centers of media and pop culture about parenting in America was dire: Your kids aren’t welcome here, the stories told me. Children are going to ruin your life.
These perspectives ran the gamut — and they came from across the political spectrum, from mainstream legacy media, from politicians, and from influencers and artists. Vice President JD Vance told The New York Times that America was “pathologically anti-child.” Business Insider blared headlines like, “Why America hates its children.” The Washington Times blamed “anti-kid culture” for why so few people are choosing to have children. Evie Magazine asked, “When did America become so hostile to children?” CNN published an entire feature on why people seem so annoyed with kids. In Salon Magazine, Kelly Lawler wrote that “any parent who walks through American society with tiny humans in tow can tell you that children are simply not welcome in public here.”
I was told life in America is hard for kids, and that it’s even worse for parents. On the Call Her Daddy podcast, singer Chappell Roan said everyone she knows with kids is “in hell.” The New York Times is currently surveying its readers to share the “challenges that would be unimaginable” to previous generations of parents. NPR has a guide for parents to consult so they can look for signs of burnout. Shoot, the U.S. Surgeon General issued warnings about parental stress as a public health issue.
Then something funny happened: My wife and I had our son, and our experience was completely different.
