Parenthood PhD — Parenthood PhD

After a year cooped up with their kids, parents - or at least many parents - are struggling. In my interviews with parents of young children, they talk about being exhausted, about feeling like failures as parents and in their paid work roles. They talk about depression and anxiety and about being so on edge all the time that they’re frequently yelling at their partners or their kids.

And those stresses don’t just show up in the qualitative data. They can be seen in the quantitative, as well. Here, I’ll share some basic descriptive data from an online survey I ran in December 2020 with a sample of about 2,000 U.S. parents. Participants were recruited through the Ipsos iSay panel and received points for their participation. The data are weighted to be representative of parents with children under 18.

academia on parentingJessica CalarcoMarch 6, 2021parents, pandemic

the first day of school

Wednesday was my daughter’s first day of Kindergarten. And I managed to get through the whole day without any tears. I got through Thursday’s drop-off, too, even when my daughter stopped me outside the school and said: “You don’t need to come in, Mom. I know where to go.”

As I walked back home, I scrolled through Twitter on my phone. And that’s when I first saw the articles. On Wednesday, hundreds of immigrant workers in Forest, Mississippi had been detained, taken away without warning when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers raided the food processing plants where they worked.

The children of those workers came home from school to empty, locked houses. They were crying and looking desperately for their parents. It was their first day of school, too.

academia on parentingJessica CalarcoAugust 9, 2019immigration, schools, parents, race, racism

"It's Not Fair"

"It's not fair."

If you spend time with kids, you probably hear those words a lot. And for adults, it's easy to respond with "Life isn't fair." But if your kid is growing up with privilege, that response is problematic. Here’s why…

academia on parentingJessica CalarcoMarch 18, 2019privilege, parents, fairness, college, social class, race, preschool

"Whole Milk or Two-Percent?" Mommy Shaming in the Doctor's Office

Last week, I took my son to the doctor for his 15-month check-up. I tried to keep my son entertained while the nurse went through the standard battery of questions, marking my answers on her laptop…

academia on parentingJessica CalarcoOctober 23, 2018healthcare, doctors, race, social class, nutrition, children, parents, stigma

"Get the Girls": Patriarchy on the Preschool Playground

When we think of gendered aggression, it’s easy to think of beer-fueled moments at high school and college parties. But young girls’ first encounters with gendered aggression often happen much earlier and in seemingly more “innocent” settings. Like preschool playgrounds.

Studying Privileged Parents as a Privileged Parent

I study privileged parents. And I’m more than a little critical of privileged parents. Especially for hoarding opportunities for their children and teaching their children to hoard opportunities for themselves. But, I am a privileged parent. So I also get why they do what they do. To give you an example…

parenting in academia, academia on parentingJessica CalarcoSeptember 21, 2018privilege, preschool, teachers, schools, email

Backpacks Full of Privilege

It’s that time of year again. Parents are frantically checking supply lists and packing their children’s backpacks for school. But pencils and notebooks and glue sticks aren’t the only things parents send from home. Rather, parents—or at least affluent, white parents—also send their children with strategies for securing unfair advantages in school….

parenting in academia and academia on parenting