We Want To Read: All Joy And No Fun
Written by Katie Hintz-Zambrano
Photography by Photo Via Amazon
Oh, reading…it’s one of those things we hardly have time for anymore. But, once we do find the minutes and hours, we’re looking forward to giving Jennifer Senior’s All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood a go. We’ve already indulged in the CliffsNotes (a.k.a. Busy Mom) version of the tome, via Senior’s 7-minute, 40-second NPR interview, and her 18-minute, 11-second TED Talk. And we suggest you do the same.
In essence, Senior is looking to flip the script and look at parental happiness (vs. children’s happiness), gathering a bunch of studies that show having children does not make a person happier. She also does her own research, interviewing parents across the country and finding mothers generally berate themselves over the quality and quantity of their parenting (which Senior thinks needs to stop), while men generally have more relaxed expectations of themselves and often like the experience more.
Senior explains that it boils down to an erosion of confidence in what modern parents are supposed to be doing, which is likely leading to the unhappiness. Don’t worry, she supposedly covers the immense joy that having children brings, too. Although the title alone makes us a bit uncomfortable, it definitely grabs our attention. Then again, any book that does a deep-dive into the trenches of mommy guilt and tries to reassure mothers that their best is good enough is fine by us.
All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood, $12.96, Amazon.
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