For parents, happiness is a very high bar
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0:01 - 0:02When I was born,
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0:02 - 0:04there was really only one book
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0:04 - 0:06about how to raise your children,
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0:06 - 0:09and it was written by Dr. Spock.
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0:09 - 0:11(Laughter)
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0:11 - 0:12Thank you for indulging me.
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0:12 - 0:16I have always wanted to do that.
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0:16 - 0:18No, it was Benjamin Spock,
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0:18 - 0:22and his book was called "The Common
Sense Book of Baby And Child Care." -
0:22 - 0:27It sold almost 50 million copies
by the time he died. -
0:27 - 0:31Today, I, as the mother of a six-year-old,
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0:31 - 0:32walk into Barnes and Noble,
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0:32 - 0:35and see this.
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0:35 - 0:37And it is amazing
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0:37 - 0:41the variety that one finds
on those shelves. -
0:41 - 0:45There are guides to raising
an eco-friendly kid, -
0:45 - 0:47a gluten-free kid,
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0:47 - 0:50a disease-proof kid,
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0:50 - 0:54which, if you ask me, is a little bit creepy.
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0:54 - 0:56There are guides to raising a bilingual kid
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0:56 - 0:59even if you only speak one language at home.
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0:59 - 1:03There are guides to raising a financially savvy kid
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1:03 - 1:06and a science-minded kid
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1:06 - 1:09and a kid who is a whiz at yoga.
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1:09 - 1:12Short of teaching your toddler how to defuse
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1:12 - 1:13a nuclear bomb,
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1:13 - 1:20there is pretty much a guide to everything.
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1:20 - 1:22All of these books are well-intentioned.
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1:22 - 1:27I am sure that many of them are great.
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1:27 - 1:31But taken together, I am sorry,
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1:31 - 1:33I do not see help
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1:33 - 1:37when I look at that shelf.
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1:37 - 1:39I see anxiety.
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1:39 - 1:42I see a giant candy-colored monument
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1:42 - 1:45to our collective panic,
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1:45 - 1:48and it makes me want to know,
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1:48 - 1:50why is it that raising our children
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1:50 - 1:52is associated with so much anguish
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1:52 - 1:54and so much confusion?
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1:54 - 1:57Why is it that we are at sixes and sevens
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1:57 - 2:00about the one thing human beings
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2:00 - 2:02have been doing successfully for millennia,
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2:02 - 2:04long before parenting message boards
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2:04 - 2:07and peer-reviewed studies came along?
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2:07 - 2:10Why is it that so many mothers and fathers
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2:10 - 2:16experience parenthood as a kind of crisis?
-
2:16 - 2:19Crisis might seem like a strong word,
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2:19 - 2:22but there is data suggesting it probably isn't.
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2:22 - 2:24There was, in fact, a paper of just this very name,
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2:24 - 2:28"Parenthood as Crisis," published in 1957,
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2:28 - 2:31and in the 50-plus years since,
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2:31 - 2:33there has been plenty of scholarship
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2:33 - 2:35documenting a pretty clear pattern
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2:35 - 2:37of parental anguish.
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2:37 - 2:41Parents experience more stress than non-parents.
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2:41 - 2:44Their marital satisfaction is lower.
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2:44 - 2:45There have been a number of studies
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2:45 - 2:46looking at how parents feel
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2:46 - 2:49when they are spending time with their kids,
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2:49 - 2:53and the answer often is, not so great.
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2:53 - 2:55Last year, I spoke with a researcher
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2:55 - 2:56named Matthew Killingsworth
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2:56 - 3:00who is doing a very, very imaginative project
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3:00 - 3:02that tracks people's happiness,
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3:02 - 3:05and here is what he told me he found:
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3:05 - 3:07"Interacting with your friends
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3:07 - 3:10is better than interacting with your spouse,
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3:10 - 3:13which is better than interacting with other relatives,
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3:13 - 3:17which is better than interacting with acquaintances,
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3:17 - 3:20which is better than interacting with parents,
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3:20 - 3:23which is better than interacting with children.
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3:23 - 3:25Who are on par with strangers."
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3:25 - 3:30(Laughter)
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3:30 - 3:32But here's the thing.
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3:32 - 3:35I have been looking at what underlies these data
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3:35 - 3:37for three years,
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3:37 - 3:40and children are not the problem.
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3:40 - 3:45Something about parenting right now at this moment
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3:45 - 3:47is the problem.
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3:47 - 3:50Specifically, I don't think we know
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3:50 - 3:52what parenting is supposed to be.
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3:52 - 3:55Parent, as a verb,
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3:55 - 3:59only entered common usage in 1970.
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3:59 - 4:02Our roles as mothers and fathers have changed.
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4:02 - 4:05The roles of our children have changed.
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4:05 - 4:07We are all now furiously improvising
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4:07 - 4:09our way through a situation
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4:09 - 4:13for which there is no script,
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4:13 - 4:15and if you're an amazing jazz musician,
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4:15 - 4:17then improv is great,
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4:17 - 4:20but for the rest of us,
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4:20 - 4:23it can kind of feel like a crisis.
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4:23 - 4:26So how did we get here?
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4:26 - 4:28How is it that we are all now navigating
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4:28 - 4:30a child-rearing universe
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4:30 - 4:32without any norms to guide us?
-
4:32 - 4:35Well, for starters, there has been
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4:35 - 4:36a major historical change.
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4:36 - 4:39Until fairly recently,
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4:39 - 4:42kids worked, on our farms primarily,
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4:42 - 4:45but also in factories, mills, mines.
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4:45 - 4:48Kids were considered economic assets.
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4:48 - 4:50Sometime during the Progressive Era,
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4:50 - 4:52we put an end to this arrangement.
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4:52 - 4:54We recognized kids had rights,
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4:54 - 4:56we banned child labor,
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4:56 - 4:58we focused on education instead,
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4:58 - 5:02and school became a child's new work.
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5:02 - 5:03And thank God it did.
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5:03 - 5:06But that only made a parent's role
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5:06 - 5:07more confusing in a way.
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5:07 - 5:09The old arrangement might not have been
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5:09 - 5:12particularly ethical, but it was reciprocal.
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5:12 - 5:14We provided food, clothing, shelter,
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5:14 - 5:17and moral instruction to our kids,
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5:17 - 5:22and they in return provided income.
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5:22 - 5:24Once kids stopped working,
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5:24 - 5:27the economics of parenting changed.
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5:27 - 5:30Kids became, in the words of one
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5:30 - 5:33brilliant if totally ruthless sociologist,
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5:33 - 5:38"economically worthless but emotionally priceless."
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5:38 - 5:41Rather than them working for us,
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5:41 - 5:43we began to work for them,
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5:43 - 5:44because within only a matter of decades
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5:44 - 5:46it became clear:
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5:46 - 5:48if we wanted our kids to succeed,
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5:48 - 5:51school was not enough.
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5:51 - 5:56Today, extracurricular activities are a kid's new work,
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5:56 - 5:58but that's work for us too,
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5:58 - 6:01because we are the ones
driving them to soccer practice. -
6:01 - 6:04Massive piles of homework are a kid's new work,
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6:04 - 6:05but that's also work for us,
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6:05 - 6:07because we have to check it.
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6:07 - 6:10About three years ago, a Texas woman
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6:10 - 6:11told something to me
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6:11 - 6:14that totally broke my heart.
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6:14 - 6:18She said, almost casually,
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6:18 - 6:23"Homework is the new dinner."
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6:23 - 6:25The middle class now pours all of its time
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6:25 - 6:29and energy and resources into its kids,
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6:29 - 6:30even though the middle class
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6:30 - 6:34has less and less of those things to give.
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6:34 - 6:37Mothers now spend more time with their children
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6:37 - 6:39than they did in 1965,
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6:39 - 6:45when most women were not even in the workforce.
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6:45 - 6:47It would probably be easier for parents
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6:47 - 6:48to do their new roles
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6:48 - 6:52if they knew what they were preparing their kids for.
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6:52 - 6:54This is yet another thing that
makes modern parenting -
6:54 - 6:56so very confounding.
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6:56 - 7:00We have no clue what portion our wisdom, if any,
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7:00 - 7:02is of use to our kids.
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7:02 - 7:03The world is changing so rapidly,
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7:03 - 7:05it's impossible to say.
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7:05 - 7:07This was true even when I was young.
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7:07 - 7:10When I was a kid, high school specifically,
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7:10 - 7:12I was told that I would be at sea
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7:12 - 7:14in the new global economy
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7:14 - 7:19if I did not know Japanese.
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7:19 - 7:21And with all due respect to the Japanese,
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7:21 - 7:24it didn't turn out that way.
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7:24 - 7:26Now there is a certain kind of middle-class parent
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7:26 - 7:29that is obsessed with teaching their kids Mandarin,
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7:29 - 7:31and maybe they're onto something,
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7:31 - 7:34but we cannot know for sure.
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7:34 - 7:37So, absent being able to anticipate the future,
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7:37 - 7:39what we all do, as good parents,
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7:39 - 7:41is try and prepare our kids
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7:41 - 7:44for every possible kind of future,
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7:44 - 7:48hoping that just one of our efforts will pay off.
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7:48 - 7:50We teach our kids chess,
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7:50 - 7:53thinking maybe they will need analytical skills.
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7:53 - 7:55We sign them up for team sports,
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7:55 - 7:59thinking maybe they will need collaborative skills,
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7:59 - 8:01you know, for when they go
to Harvard Business School. -
8:01 - 8:04We try and teach them to be financially savvy
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8:04 - 8:08and science-minded and eco-friendly
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8:08 - 8:11and gluten-free,
-
8:11 - 8:13though now is probably a good time to tell you
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8:13 - 8:18that I was not eco-friendly and gluten-free as a child.
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8:18 - 8:23I ate jars of pureed macaroni and beef.
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8:23 - 8:25And you know what? I'm doing okay.
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8:25 - 8:28I pay my taxes.
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8:28 - 8:31I hold down a steady job.
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8:31 - 8:35I was even invited to speak at TED.
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8:35 - 8:37But the presumption now is that
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8:37 - 8:40what was good enough for me,
or for my folks for that matter, -
8:40 - 8:42isn't good enough anymore.
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8:42 - 8:45So we all make a mad dash to that bookshelf,
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8:45 - 8:49because we feel like if we aren't trying everything,
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8:49 - 8:51it's as if we're doing nothing
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8:51 - 8:56and we're defaulting on our obligations to our kids.
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8:56 - 8:59So it's hard enough to navigate our new roles
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8:59 - 9:00as mothers and fathers.
-
9:00 - 9:03Now add to this problem something else:
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9:03 - 9:05we are also navigating new roles
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9:05 - 9:06as husbands and wives
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9:06 - 9:10because most women today are in the workforce.
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9:10 - 9:11This is another reason, I think,
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9:11 - 9:14that parenthood feels like a crisis.
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9:14 - 9:16We have no rules, no scripts, no norms
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9:16 - 9:19for what to do when a child comes along
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9:19 - 9:22now that both mom and dad are breadwinners.
-
9:22 - 9:25The writer Michael Lewis once put this
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9:25 - 9:26very, very well.
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9:26 - 9:28He said that the surest way
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9:28 - 9:30for a couple to start fighting
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9:30 - 9:33is for them to go out to dinner with another couple
-
9:33 - 9:34whose division of labor
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9:34 - 9:38is ever so slightly different from theirs,
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9:38 - 9:42because the conversation in
the car on the way home -
9:42 - 9:44goes something like this:
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9:45 - 9:49"So, did you catch that Dave is the one
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9:49 - 9:53who walks them to school every morning?"
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9:53 - 9:57(Laughter)
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9:58 - 10:00Without scripts telling us who does what
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10:00 - 10:03in this brave new world, couples fight,
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10:03 - 10:07and both mothers and fathers each have
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10:07 - 10:08their legitimate gripes.
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10:08 - 10:10Mothers are much more likely
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10:10 - 10:12to be multi-tasking when they are at home,
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10:12 - 10:15and fathers, when they are at home,
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10:15 - 10:18are much more likely to be mono-tasking.
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10:18 - 10:20Find a guy at home, and odds are
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10:20 - 10:24he is doing just one thing at a time.
-
10:24 - 10:27In fact, UCLA recently did a study
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10:27 - 10:29looking at the most common configuration
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10:29 - 10:32of family members in middle-class homes.
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10:32 - 10:34Guess what it was?
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10:34 - 10:37Dad in a room by himself.
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10:37 - 10:39According to the American Time Use Survey,
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10:39 - 10:42mothers still do twice as much childcare as fathers,
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10:42 - 10:46which is better than it was in Erma Bombeck's day,
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10:46 - 10:48but I still think that something she wrote
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10:48 - 10:51is highly relevant:
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10:51 - 10:55"I have not been alone in the
bathroom since October." -
10:55 - 10:59(Laughter)
-
10:59 - 11:04But here is the thing: Men are doing plenty.
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11:04 - 11:06They spend more time with their kids
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11:06 - 11:09than their fathers ever spent with them.
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11:09 - 11:11They work more paid hours, on average,
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11:11 - 11:13than their wives,
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11:13 - 11:15and they genuinely want to be good,
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11:15 - 11:16involved dads.
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11:16 - 11:20Today, it is fathers, not mothers,
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11:20 - 11:24who report the most work-life conflict.
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11:24 - 11:26Either way, by the way,
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11:26 - 11:28if you think it's hard for traditional families
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11:28 - 11:30to sort out these new roles,
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11:30 - 11:32just imagine what it's like now
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11:32 - 11:34for non-traditional families:
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11:34 - 11:36families with two dads, families with two moms,
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11:36 - 11:38single-parent households.
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11:38 - 11:42They are truly improvising as they go.
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11:42 - 11:46Now, in a more progressive country,
-
11:46 - 11:49and forgive me here for capitulating to cliché
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11:49 - 11:52and invoking, yes, Sweden,
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11:52 - 11:55parents could rely on the state
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11:55 - 11:57for support.
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11:57 - 11:59There are countries that acknowledge
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11:59 - 12:01the anxieties and the changing roles
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12:01 - 12:03of mothers and fathers.
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12:03 - 12:06Unfortunately, the United States is not one of them,
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12:06 - 12:08so in case you were wondering what the U.S.
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12:08 - 12:14has in common with Papua New Guinea and Liberia,
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12:14 - 12:17it's this:
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12:17 - 12:20We too have no paid maternity leave policy.
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12:20 - 12:28We are one of eight known countries that does not.
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12:28 - 12:31In this age of intense confusion,
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12:31 - 12:35there is just one goal upon which
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12:35 - 12:37all parents can agree,
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12:37 - 12:38and that is whether they are
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12:38 - 12:43tiger moms or hippie moms, helicopters or drones,
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12:43 - 12:47our kids' happiness is paramount.
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12:47 - 12:49That is what it means
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12:49 - 12:51to raise kids in an age
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12:51 - 12:53when they are economically worthless
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12:53 - 12:55but emotionally priceless.
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12:55 - 12:59We are all the custodians of their self-esteem.
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12:59 - 13:03The one mantra no parent ever questions is,
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13:03 - 13:08"All I want is for my children to be happy."
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13:08 - 13:10And don't get me wrong:
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13:10 - 13:15I think happiness is a wonderful goal for a child.
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13:15 - 13:19But it is a very elusive one.
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13:19 - 13:23Happiness and self-confidence,
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13:23 - 13:25teaching children that is not like teaching them
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13:25 - 13:26how to plow a field.
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13:26 - 13:29It's not like teaching them how to ride a bike.
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13:29 - 13:31There's no curriculum for it.
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13:31 - 13:35Happiness and self-confidence can
be the byproducts of other things, -
13:35 - 13:38but they cannot really be goals unto themselves.
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13:38 - 13:40A child's happiness
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13:40 - 13:44is a very unfair burden to place on a parent.
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13:44 - 13:46And happiness is an even more unfair burden
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13:46 - 13:49to place on a kid.
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13:49 - 13:51And I have to tell you,
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13:51 - 13:55I think it leads to some very strange excesses.
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13:55 - 13:58We are now so anxious
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13:58 - 14:01to protect our kids from the world's ugliness
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14:01 - 14:06that we now shield them from "Sesame Street."
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14:06 - 14:08I wish I could say I was kidding about this,
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14:08 - 14:10but if you go out and you buy
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14:10 - 14:13the first few episodes of "Sesame Street" on DVD,
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14:13 - 14:16as I did out of nostalgia,
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14:16 - 14:20you will find a warning at the beginning
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14:20 - 14:22saying that the content is not suitable
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14:22 - 14:24for children.
-
14:24 - 14:26(Laughter)
-
14:26 - 14:27Can I just repeat that?
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14:27 - 14:30The content of the original "Sesame Street"
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14:30 - 14:33is not suitable for children.
-
14:33 - 14:37When asked about this by The New York Times,
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14:37 - 14:40a producer for the show gave
a variety of explanations. -
14:40 - 14:43One was that Cookie Monster smoked a pipe
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14:43 - 14:45in one skit and then swallowed it.
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14:45 - 14:46Bad modeling. I don't know.
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14:46 - 14:49But the thing that stuck with me
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14:49 - 14:52is she said that she didn't know
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14:52 - 14:56whether Oscar the Grouch could be invented today
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14:56 - 15:01because he was too depressive.
-
15:01 - 15:03I cannot tell you how much this distresses me.
-
15:03 - 15:05(Laughter)
-
15:05 - 15:07You are looking at a woman
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15:07 - 15:10who has a periodic table of the Muppets
-
15:10 - 15:13hanging from her cubicle wall.
-
15:13 - 15:17The offending muppet, right there.
-
15:18 - 15:23That's my son the day he was born.
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15:23 - 15:25I was high as a kite on morphine.
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15:25 - 15:29I had had an unexpected C-section.
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15:29 - 15:33But even in my opiate haze,
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15:33 - 15:36I managed to have one very clear thought
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15:36 - 15:38the first time I held him.
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15:38 - 15:40I whispered it into his ear.
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15:40 - 15:49I said, "I will try so hard not to hurt you."
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15:49 - 15:51It was the Hippocratic Oath,
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15:51 - 15:54and I didn't even know I was saying it.
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15:54 - 15:57But it occurs to me now
-
15:57 - 15:59that the Hippocratic Oath
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15:59 - 16:03is a much more realistic aim than happiness.
-
16:03 - 16:07In fact, as any parent will tell you,
-
16:07 - 16:10it's awfully hard.
-
16:10 - 16:14All of us have said or done hurtful things
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16:14 - 16:20that we wish to God we could take back.
-
16:20 - 16:23I think in another era
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16:23 - 16:27we did not expect quite so much from ourselves,
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16:27 - 16:31and it is important that we all remember that
-
16:31 - 16:35the next time we are staring with our hearts racing
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16:35 - 16:39at those bookshelves.
-
16:40 - 16:44I'm not really sure how to create new norms
-
16:44 - 16:45for this world,
-
16:45 - 16:48but I do think that
-
16:48 - 16:52in our desperate quest to create happy kids,
-
16:52 - 16:55we may be assuming the wrong moral burden.
-
16:55 - 16:56It strikes me as a better goal,
-
16:56 - 16:59and, dare I say, a more virtuous one,
-
16:59 - 17:01to focus on making productive kids
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17:01 - 17:03and moral kids,
-
17:03 - 17:05and to simply hope that happiness will come to them
-
17:05 - 17:08by virtue of the good that they do
-
17:08 - 17:10and their accomplishments
-
17:10 - 17:13and the love that they feel from us.
-
17:13 - 17:18That, anyway, is one response to having no script.
-
17:18 - 17:22Absent having new scripts,
-
17:22 - 17:25we just follow the oldest ones in the book --
-
17:25 - 17:31decency, a work ethic, love —
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17:31 - 17:35and let happiness and self-esteem
take care of themselves. -
17:35 - 17:37I think if we all did that,
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17:37 - 17:41the kids would still be all right,
-
17:41 - 17:44and so would their parents,
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17:44 - 17:48possibly in both cases even better.
-
17:48 - 17:49Thank you.
-
17:49 - 17:53(Applause)
- Title:
- For parents, happiness is a very high bar
- Speaker:
- Jennifer Senior
- Description:
-
The parenting section of the bookstore is overwhelming—it's "a giant, candy-colored monument to our collective panic," as writer Jennifer Senior puts it. Why is parenthood filled with so much anxiety? Because the goal of modern, middle-class parents—to raise happy children—is so elusive. In this honest talk, she offers some kinder and more achievable aims.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 18:11
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for For parents, happiness is a very high bar | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for For parents, happiness is a very high bar | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for For parents, happiness is a very high bar | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for For parents, happiness is a very high bar | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for For parents, happiness is a very high bar | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for For parents, happiness is a very high bar | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for For parents, happiness is a very high bar | ||
Madeleine Aronson accepted English subtitles for For parents, happiness is a very high bar |