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Claire Cain Miller is a Pulitzer Prize winner for public service. Here she writes about the results of the Pew Survey on Parenting. It shows that many of today's parents feel they had emotional needs which were not met and are trying harder to do this for their children, to show love and build relationships with their children. In open ended responses they say want to check in on the emotions of their children to see how they are.  About one third of mothers say parenting is a lot harder than expected. parents today worry about the mental health of their children, about anxiety and depression. Mothers also found competing pull from work and careers which made it a lot harder. During Covid many mothers simply focused on the children and gave up work to do this. Economic anxieties are also present for today's parents who see the financial independence of their children and finding careers they enjoy as more important than starting families of their own. ...

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Parenting poses risks for mental health. Loneliness in tackling situations is an added burden. Dealing with tech platforms that act with impunity disregarding parents and pursuing profit are another burden. The solutions to tackle this also are not easy or don't work, says Julie Jargon.

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Japanese Dads are taking on a bigger role and changing parenting. BBC Future shows this story about Japanese dads from a new generations that are taking on the joys, difficulties and responsibilities of parenting.  A new kind of superhero in Japanese manga comics is Ikumen, a Japanese term (from ikuji for childcare) for young dads actively spending time with their children compared to an earlier generation of fathers who spent most of their time at work, and rarely took on family responsibilities. During the sixties and seventies as Japan emerged from the wartime recovery and modernized Japanese culture defined men's role to spend most of the time at work, even getting allowance for spending from their wives who controlled the family budget.  In 2010 the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare started the Ikumen project to increase paternal involvement in child caring. This was a major cultural change and was part of the change in culture needed for the Third Arrow of Japan's Abenomics project to get women's participation up to western country levels. Today the women's participation rate in workplaces exceeds that of the U.S. Even in the 1980's men spent on average about 40 minutes with their children mostly during the family meal in the evening and even had to have their wives find their clothes. The common saying was - "jishin, kaminari, kaji, oyaji," earthquake, thunder, fire and father, remote and given respect. Women's reaction was not positive as they postponed marraige for later, then even not marrying at all for the next generation, leading to reduced childbirth rates. The Ikumen project projected fathers in a masculine role of heroes for taking on parenting, like the t-shirt logo "Strength for Society" portraying them as saving society, saving the  country. About 45% now support the idea of "men should work, women should stay at home" compared to 60% in 1992- drop of 15%. The statistics do not quite tell the story because during this period women participation in the workplace has jumped to western country levels as part of Abenomics Third Arrow to revive the economy. The problem that is still being tackled is that of bosses in the workplace who lack awareness and discourage taking paternal leave which has risen from 2% to 7% in five years 2012 to 2017. ...

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No matter what you call it caring parenting requires self discipline and setting rules, boundaries, and deftly managing situations with toddlers and teens.

Social media poses challenges by offering permissive parenting as gentle parenting and rules parenting as gentle parenting. Despite the pushback against authoritative parenting of earlier generations  emotional needs of children as well as needs for rules and discipline does not change from period to period.

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A 1500 metres women runner who chooses to stay at her farm in Vermont than stay in Boston with New Balance running team to practice. She reflects on her pregnancy and having a child while competing in the US.

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Pamela Druckerman is the author of "Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting," which describes her experiences in France and with French ways of child raising. Unlike Ms. Druckerman's book title, the title of this article is about why French parenting is superior, which is not really the point. The point being how Americans can learn from other ways of doing parenting that would make it easier, more effective and less stressful. Brigid Schulte in an article in the Washington Post reviewing Druckerman's observations, says an important reason why French parenting is more relaxed is the comprehensive system of child care in France. This is financed by the government and has wholehearted French support. By contrast the American system is chaotic in comparison with constant worry about finding good child care, leaving mothers with the difficult choice between careers and being stay at home mothers.

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Members of the U.S. Congress lead a lousy life with life split between the capital and their home state location, most are weekend dads or moms. This makes them less likely to grasp the issues of work-life balance and the issues of parenting faced by average working families or couples with both parents working, says this essay in Politico magazine. This is true also of understanding issues facing women and mothers. Hard to believe but this report points out that Congress in the U.S. does not have a family friendly leave policy and no restroom for women till 2011 on the floor of the House. Similar issues face women in Japan and other countries for women in parliament. Former Speaker Ryan says he is tired of being a "weekend Dad." Senator Biden, former vice president says of his commute from Delaware to Washington D.C., he realized that "a child has a thought he wants to share and 12-18 hours later its gone, gone, gone." ...

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This special series in the Guardian called Mother Load looks at the situation of mothers in the U.S. who lack the social protections that are taken for granted in England and other European countries. One mother calls it an ever present mental and emotional stress from the lack of social support such as maternity leave and family leave. The constant stress of parenting and motherhood in America is described here in the first person with the stories of many mothers in different parts of the U.S.

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One third more dads at home is a silver lining from the pandemic says The Guardian. Dads are spending more quality time with their children. In this way the lockdowns were a catalyst for a much needed change.  There has also been a change in the perception of what a good father looks like- parenting is part of the new dad's active role. Dads having tried this during the extra time they now spend doing remote work from home, say this has shown them what things look from the women's side. And it has been a positive change.

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It says a lot about America at this time in 2025, and should be reassuring to all that these women are standing tall in their effort to do this- to pursue satisfaction of contributing to national life and professional lives, and being good parents involved in raising children. Shown in this report in WSJ as examples of Conservative Women are Alabama Senator Katie Britt 43 years, May Mailman deputy assistant to the President, and ,Shannon Clark. Other women shown are former North Carolina governor Nikki Haley,  Karoline Leavitt, press secretary to the president, Huckabee Sanders, governor of Arkansas. They all say their faith, grit, family and spouse, and setting priorities, are helping them both make it in their careers and be engaged parents at the same time. Pew Research shows of women in both parties Republican and Democratic, about 70% want careers outside the home, and about 88% want good parenting at the same time.   ...

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Brigid Schulte says French parents can be more relaxed in their parenting because of the reliable state financed childcare system in France. France ranks first in the 34 nation OECD for 100% preschool attendance, with the U.S. way below at 46%. The U.S. is the only country in the developed world that has no federal paid parental leave policy. This puts enormous stress on mothers, and also on fathers who share the tasks of parenting. This is one reason why there is a long tradition of working mothers in France, and why American mothers are constantly having to make choices of staying at home and parenting or trying to juggle work and careers.

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This report in the WSJ shows how Amy Barrett, the new Supreme Court nominee, has managed to combine parenting with her career as a Notre Dame professor and judge on the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A lot of help from her husband, a flexible workplace, living in a smaller town South Bend, Indiana, and a willingness to go with nonconformity, make it possible. She is up at 4 or 5 am to exercize. Blending different worlds is part of this. She can go from work to run an activity for the children. She also views raising children as the activity that has the "greatest impact on the world," so that her career is seen in a bigger context of life.

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Letters to the editor on the excessive cost of asthma medications, and the faulty permitting of re-patenting of asthma inhalers as a result of a environmental law related to ozone layer. The re-patenting resulted in the asthma inhalers commonly used being priced much higher than before. The letters from doctors and nursing practitioners details their alarm at what is happening in asthma inhaler pricing that hurts the middle class and the poor in America.

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Currently Asian-Americans make up 62% of students at top high schools in New York. Mayor Blasio aims to give 20% of the seats to students who almost reach the qualifying scores on an entrance exam for Stuyvesant and seven other specialized high schools. Under Blasio's plan Discovery program for economically disadvantaged students would get 800 of the 4000 specialized high school seats for ninth graders in fall 2020 up from 250. 

Another view is presented by Parenting While Black organization of low income parents and children, who say that more important is to improve the quality of education for the city's 1.1 million students and start at the early grades. They see the high school debate for these 7 specialized schools as taking attention from the real problem to focus on s small sliver of students. The mass of students, the vast majority, they say are left to dangle in the wind.

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Friedman looks at the situation for inner city kids in cities like Baltimore. Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, tells him most of these kids suffer from a lack of parenting. Duncan says, that with the lack of parents around them, the only presence round the clock is that of gangs which make an influence on these kids. One solution discussed is using the boarding school option to save these kids from the pernicious influences around them in the absence of adequate parenting. Other experts suggest tackling the source of the problem by economic revival of these communities. As a separate article in the NYT (Patricia Cohen, May 24, 2015) shows this is not easily done- black communities depended heavily on public sector jobs which were hit hard in the last decade, as the hollowing out in manufacturing was also hitting these communities and the industrial labor force. Blight such as that in Detroit from bankrupt cities unable to provide public services has added to the strains on these neighborhoods. William Galston (WSJ, May 6, 2015) points to the revival of Pittsburgh, and says cities such as Baltimore could do more with their medical technology and university assets. ...

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Two leading funds Jana Partners and the Cal State Teachers Retirement System raise questions about the iPhone addiction among young people turning into a health crisis. The Wall Street Journal asks readers to comment on the issue how to respond, what teachers and parents need to do, what Apple needs to do. Many teachers say the drift is towards shorter and shorter attention spans for children, and children lacking the essential ability to delve deeper into learning topics. One teacher says the iPhone does not belong in high schools. One response is that it is the responsibility of parents, yet another response says parents are getting exhausted in the process. This parent calls it like playing a game of whack--a-mole from hell. Take away the iPhone and the same thing goes on in the computer, then on smart TV, finally the parent has to return the laptop because lessons are done online.

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Orlando Patterson, a Professor of Sociology at Harvard, says Mr Obama is seen by inner city blacks as too remote from them and their lives to be a role model. And that he is more likely to influence the racial attitudes of middleclass blacks and younger white Americans. He sees constructive effort in policies for education, improved parenting in black families, and efforts to help disadvantaged white and minority families. But he does not see Obama in any way ending America's long ordeal with race.

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Melinda Gates says even though she spent years at Microsoft immersed in technology she was not prepared as a parent when she had her youngest child, who is part of what is called the iGeneration. This term is used for children born between 1995 and 2012. Many of the children born since 2000 find themselves in a new world of smartphones, iPhones, iPads and social media apps. Melinda Gates says she would have preferred to put computer devices in children's pockets at a later age, and worries about their effects on children. It exacerbates the problems of growing up and reduces some of the empathy that comes from face to face human contact. Parents have to find other ways of giving their children much needed empathy and understanding that is missing when children spend many hours in front of such tech devices. The professor who coined the word iGeneration says many of this group spend as much as 6 hours in front of these devices with different apps. Yet the development of these children lags behind that of children of previous generations. It is hard not to say out loud that one worries about this- that the tech devices after all the hype really aren't that great when it comes to giving children an advantage in life. That human interaction, the use of imagination, motivation from family and school, live human interaction, cannot be replaced by staring at a screen for hours at a time. After all the hoopla about tech making children smarter and better, it is a huge let down. One must depend more on the basics that have served children and parents well over generations- the human interaction that spurs the imagination and motivates leading to exploration, reading on one's own, and curiosity to learn. Tech is just a tool, not the real thing. ...

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Anne Lukits brings this exceptional bit of evidence about improved parenting and family life. Only about 15% of families in a University of British Columbia research study had fathers who shared equally in household work with mothers. About 65% of fathers and 14% of mothers reported inconsistent behaviour about their beliefs in gender roles and how they acted at home. Girls were seen as more likely to pursue careers in science and nontraditional fields if fathers played out their beliefs in real life by taking active part in household work, from doing the laundry, washing dishes, vacuuming and cooking meals. The study is discussed in the August 2014 issue of Psychological Science. This means that only one in four fathers who believe women should not have to do all the household work and work outside in paid jobs, actually play their beliefs out in real life roles in the home by sharing in the household work. Other aspects of this that are still to be researched are how much an active role by fathers in the home can improve the number of meals that are home cooked with fresh ingredients, with fathers taking daughters or sons out to fresh food markets, which have a significant bearing on how families can eat healthy and pass this onto the next generation. An unnoticed aspect of this is that it improves the overall quality of life for families through healthy eating and healthy living. When companies recognize this and encourage their employees with some extra time for family acitivity and work the overall benefits would include- healthier employees able to do more productive work in shorter time, less paid for employee medical coverage, and healthier members of society....

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What happens to the 70,000 residents of Anacostia, near the Capitol in Washington DC where a third of the people live in poverty and there is a 40% dropout rate, and only 8% of all students there attend college. Vacant homes, drug use and crime sap the neighborhood here. Obama said he would bring 20 cities an antipoverty program successful in Harlem, New York that would include parenting and infant care classes, as well as early childhopod education and free medical care for children. An investment of $1 billion for 5 years for a transitional jobs program, to place the unemployed in temporary jobs. The Obama transition team did not return requests seeking comment on the 20 city plan or the $1 billion for transitional jobs, says the WSJ on January 20, 2008, the day of the inauguration. Its incredible that right in the nation's capital there exists another Washington DC of such neighborhood decline within sight of the Capitol.