All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood
- ISBN-10
- 0062072269
- ISBN-13
- 9780062072269
- Category
- Social Science
- Pages
- 336
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2014-01-28
- Publisher
- Harper Collins
- Author
- Jennifer Senior
Description
Thousands of books have examined the effects of parents on their children. In All Joy and No Fun, award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior now asks: what are the effects of children on their parents? In All Joy and No Fun, award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior tries to tackle this question, isolating and analyzing the many ways in which children reshape their parents' lives, whether it's their marriages, their jobs, their habits, their hobbies, their friendships, or their internal senses of self. She argues that changes in the last half century have radically altered the roles of today's mothers and fathers, making their mandates at once more complex and far less clear. Recruiting from a wide variety of sources—in history, sociology, economics, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology—she dissects both the timeless strains of parenting and the ones that are brand new, and then brings her research to life in the homes of ordinary parents around the country. The result is an unforgettable series of family portraits, starting with parents of young children and progressing to parents of teens. Through lively and accessible storytelling, Senior follows these mothers and fathers as they wrestle with some of parenthood's deepest vexations—and luxuriate in some of its finest rewards. Meticulously researched yet imbued with emotional intelligence, All Joy and No Fun makes us reconsider some of our culture's most basic beliefs about parenthood, all while illuminating the profound ways children deepen and add purpose to our lives. By focusing on parenthood, rather than parenting, the book is original and essential reading for mothers and fathers of today—and tomorrow.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, Second Edition with an Update a Decade Later
By Annette LareauThis book is a powerful portrayal of class inequalities in the United States.
-
Why Have Kids?: A New Mom Explores the Truth about Parenting and Happiness
By Jessica Valenti—gayle tzemach lemmon, New York Times best-selling author of The Dressmaker ofKhair Khana “Timely . . . [Valenti] states early on that her book is meant to anger people and incite discussions . . . She wades deeply into the moral and ...
-
When Partners Become Parents: The Big Life Change for Couples
By Philip A. Cowan, Carolyn Pape CowanBased on a landmark, internationally-known ten year study of men and women having a first child, this book describes how couples can make small changes to avoid the toll that this happy transition can take on marriage.
-
Your Child's Self-esteem: The Key to Life
By Dorothy BriggsLila, absorbing their exaggerated praise, sees herself as a talented singer —an illusion fed by her money-hungry voice teacher. She has trouble, however, because audiences are lukewarm to her singing. If she refuses to change the ...
-
The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed
By Jessica LaheyAs teacher and writer Jessica Lahey explains, even though these parents see themselves as being highly responsive to their children’s well being, they aren’t giving them the chance to experience failure—or the opportunity to learn to ...
-
Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety
By Judith WarnerThat's the question Judith Warner asks in this national bestseller after taking a good, hard look at the world of modern parenting--at anxious women at work and at home and in bed with unhappy husbands.
-
Do Fathers Matter?: What Science Is Telling Us About the Parent We've Overlooked
By Paul RaeburnExplores fatherhood from psychological, genetic, and neuroscience perspectives to challenge misperceptions and demonstrate the profound impact of fathers on children's lives.
-
How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success
By Julie Lythcott-HaimsRelevant to parents of toddlers as well as of twentysomethings-and of special value to parents of teens-this book is a rallying cry for those who wish to ensure that the next generation can take charge of their own lives with competence and ...
-
Parentology: Everything You Wanted to Know about the Science of Raising Children but Were Too Exhausted to Ask
By Dalton ConleyIn Parentology, Conley hilariously reports the results of those experiments, from bribing his kids to do math (since studies show conditional cash transfers improved educational and health outcomes for kids) to teaching them impulse control ...
-
Parenting Out of Control: Anxious Parents in Uncertain Times
By Margaret K. NelsonAnxious Parents in Uncertain Times Margaret K. Nelson. 20. Bernstein, Class, Codes, and Control; Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, ... Karen W. Arenson, “Applications to Colleges Are Breaking Records,”. 1. All names are pseudonyms. 2.