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Why have kids? : a new mom explores the truth about parenting and happiness / Jessica Valenti.

by Valenti, Jessica.

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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

Working mothers.

Work and family.

xx, 178 p. ; 22 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [171]-178)

Children make you happy -- Women are the natural parent -- Breast is best -- Children need their parents -- "The hardest job in the world" -- Mother knows best -- Giving up on parenthood -- Bad mothers go to jail -- Smart women don't have kids -- Death of the nuclear family -- Women should work -- Why have kids?

Would-be parents must navigate the decision to have children amidst a daunting combination of cultural expectations and hard facts. And new parents find themselves struggling to reconcile their elation with the often exhausting, confusing, and expensive business of child care. If parenting is making Americans unhappy, if it's impossible to "have it all," if people don't have the economic, social, or political structures needed to support child rearing, then why do it? And why are anxious new parents flocking to every Tiger Mother and Bébé-raiser for advice on how to raise kids? Here, feminist author Jennifer Valenti explores these controversial questions through on-the-ground reporting, startling new research, and her own unique experiences as a mom. She moves beyond the black-and-white "mommy wars" over natural parenting, discipline, and work-life balance to explore a more nuanced reality: one filled with ambivalence, joy, guilt, and exhaustion.

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