What's a Parent's Role?

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Parenting content on social media, along with intensive parenting ideals, can fuel anxiety.

Bite-sized scripts can't provide the nuance that real parenting challenges require.

The invisible mental load of parenting falls disproportionately on mothers.

Parents need structural support, like paid leave, childcare, and community.

The kids are finally asleep, and that margin of time between their battle of bedtime and your own is finally here. If the first thing you do when you plop onto the couch is open your phone and switch between watching Instagram Reels or your TikTok feed, you’re not alone. And if your algorithm is anything like mine, between the pop-culture hot takes, funny animal videos, political travesties, and videos on how to get your neighborhood crows to bring you gifts (OK, maybe that’s just me and too niche), I’m guessing you’re also getting fed a steady stream of bite-sized parenting tips on every topic imaginable.

Your kid isn’t listening? There’s a video for that! Craving a '90s summer for your children? Here’s a nostalgic take on what your child is missing! Any question you have—How do I get my baby to sleep through the night? How do I stop yelling at my kids? How do I get my teen off their phone?—the algorithm somehow knows (or, yikes, is listening) and there’s an endless supply of videos ready to tell you exactly what to do.

Our nervous systems were never meant to absorb as much information as we do. Our ancestors definitely weren’t processing videos of devastating events immediately followed by a........

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