9780063078352

006307835X

9780063078369

0063078368

9780063078376

"In this timely and necessary book, New York Times opinion writer Jessica Grose dismantles two hundred years of unrealistic parenting expectations and empowers today's mothers to make choices that actually serve themselves, their children, and their communities"-- Provided by publisher.

"Close your eyes and picture the perfect mother. She is usually blond and thin. Her roots are never showing and she installed that gleaming kitchen backsplash herself (watch her TikTok for DIY tips). She seamlessly melds work, wellness, and home; and during the depths of the pandemic, she also ran remote school and woke up at 5 a.m. to meditate. You may read this and think it's bananas; you have probably internalized much of it. Journalist Jessica Grose sure had. After she failed to meet every one of her own expectations for her first pregnancy, she devoted her career to revealing how morally bankrupt so many of these ideas and pressures are. Now, in Screaming on the Inside, Grose weaves together her personal journey with scientific, historical, and contemporary reporting to be the voice for American parents she wishes she'd had a decade ago. The truth is that parenting cannot follow a recipe; there's no foolproof set of rules that will result in a perfectly adjusted child. Every parent has different values, and we will have different ideas about how to pass those values along to our children. What successful parents have in common, regardless of culture or community, is close observation of the unique humans our children are. In thoughtful and revelatory chapters about pregnancy, identity, work, social media, and the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, Grose explains how we got to this moment, why the current expectations on mothers in wholly unsustainable, and how we can move toward something better." -- Book jacket

How did we get here?

Pregnancy

Identity

Work

Social media

Everything falls apart

How do we make meaningful change?

Motherhood > United States.

Mothers > United States.

Women > United States > Identity.

Parental leave > United States.