💬 Thursday Thread: As a parent, what's your stress level?
The Surgeon General has issued a public health advisory related to parental stress
At the end of the summer, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a public health advisory about the mental health and well-being of parents. He noted the urgent need to better support parents and caregivers at a time when parents are dealing with higher than normal levels of stress.
“Over the past decade, parents have been consistently more likely to report experiencing high levels of stress compared to other adults. In 2023, 33% of parents reported high levels of stress in the past month compared to 20% of other adults.”
Among the top stressors: financial strain and economic instability, time demands, children’s health, children’s safety, parental isolation and loneliness, technology and social media, cultural pressures and children’s futures. Dr. Murthy goes on to describe the steps that we can take in this country to take some of the pressure off like connecting parents with crucial support services and elevating the voices of parents and caregivers to create change in communities. It’s worth reading his advisory in full. The Daily podcast also covered this topic on Wednesdays episode.
👉 What I’d like to hear from you in the comments is this:
What do you feel is your stress level as a parent or caregiver?
What are the things causing you the most amount of stress?
What would make things easier for you, or, where do you wish you had support?
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Welcome to the Thursday Threads, a weekly chance for us to connect with one another in the comments. Join me and other readers as we navigate important discussions. And a note: a difference of opinion is always okay, being unkind to one another is not. Let’s keep these conversations respectful.
I'd call my stress level medium at the moment. Now that both of my kids are in school things feel easier on me from a "touched out" perspective which was a huge struggle for me when they were smaller. But of course, school aged children brings with it a whole other set of fears and stress - namely gun violence and bullying. My oldest son is also at the age where he is the only one of his friends who doesn't have a phone and that's been tough to navigate. And explaining the state of the world in age-appropriate terms, especially right now because we live in Pennsylvania and they're even getting blasted with campaign ads on YouTube is really hard. Aside from those things, we're in the privileged position that I work from home, for myself, so my schedule is easily flexible. We live in a pretty safe area in one of the best school districts in the state so we are lucky in that regard. I do know that as my kids continue to age (they're 10 and 6 now), my stressors will only increase.
There are many reasons for increased stress as a parent, but I’d say the biggest for me are: 1) the proliferation of dangerous content being spoon fed to my teenaged son, and how it has drowned me out, making it ever more challenging to reach him; 2) teen mental health more broadly, as I watch my daughter struggle with heavier anxiety, and 3) the instability of what used to be safe spaces for kids - schools, movie theaters, concerts, parties- because of the gun culture run amok.
Beyond those, the fundamentally broken systems that touch every area of family life and ultimately are upheld to instill fear and harm and to maintain division : racism, the climate crisis, attacks on women’s rights, the weaponization of education. I could go on. These are heavy, heavy burdens for parents everywhere to carry.