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I'm going to admit to something I'm deeply ashamed of. I've gone back and forth on whether to write this post because I'm afraid of how people will perceive me after reading it. I suspect they'll jump to all sorts of conclusions about who I am and what I believe, based on what I'm about to tell you. Am I shooting up crack cocaine or selling drugs to teenagers on street corners? No. I have just become a parent for the first time, and I love it.

That was hard to write. But now that I've gotten it out of the way, let me explain why I was so loath to admit it.

Certain beliefs tend to cluster together and frame a person in a particular light. If I told you I believed the moon landing was faked, that climate change wasn't real, and that vaccinations cause autism, there's a good chance you'd clock me as being a certain type of person. Now, for better or worse, saying you want children and are enjoying the experience is one of those things that hints at placing me in a camp I don't identify with and would loathe to be associated with: a sort of Jordan Peterson, manosphere, tradwife category.

And yet, a recent article in The Atlantic by Jean Twenge gives me pause. Twenge is a widely published professor of psychology at San Diego State University. In her September 2025 piece, "The Marriage Effect," she presents findings from a nationally representative survey of 3,000 American women that challenges some of the cultural narratives around........

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