Addressing the Epidemic of Anxiety in Kids & Their Parents
We’ve seen the shift in the ways American parents are raising their children. Since the mid-70’s, parents have been sold a bill of goods, one that convinced them of lurking danger in the world (selling fear & hypervigilance), a growing need for success in a changing world (selling pressure and busyness to make sure your child has all the advantages), and above all, an impossible goal of erasing any hint of unpleasantness in our kids’ lives (selling the myth of the “perfect parent” who resolves all issues & makes everything ok).
As a result, parents are more stressed, depressed, and exhausted than at any time in American history. Raising kids is typically a season of lower marital satisfaction, lower financial means, and lower free time than any other time in a couple’s relationship. Since the 70’s, when cultural roles dramatically shifted, creating more dual-income families, parents have been asked to juggle more and more with less and less support. A quick scroll through the internet turns up words like “crisis,” “anguish,” and “anxiety” when psychologists and researchers weigh in on what’ s happening in American homes. If PARENTS are this mired in emotion, no doubt their kids pick up on it and even adopt the same feelings.
On social media, parental coping has become a meme-fest full of hands thrown into the air and mommy juice. (There’s been a sharp rise in women struggling with alcohol dependence as a result of dealing with increased pressure and isolation of being a modern mom.)
In this podcast episode, we examine a series of three articles from The Atlantic that shed some light on these issues. These are excellent, often poignant, and offer solutions to curb the anxiety trend in many homes.
https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2020/04/the-anxious-child-and-the-crisis-of-modern-parenting/609901/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/05/childhood-in-an-anxious-age/609079/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/how-to-land-your-kid-in-therapy/308555/
And one additional article that chimes in: