Nina Bandelj alongside her book cover for Overinvested
  • March 31, 2026

  • UC Irvine sociologist Nina Bandelj, author of Overinvested, shares how emotionally and financially draining childrearing hurts more than parents in this piece for Psychology Today

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"I’m a mom. And I’ve been exhausted for years. Not just from the physical caregiving work—though that’s real—but also from the nonstop pressure to manage emotions and futures, with the uneasy sense that none of it is optional. Parenting today requires giving it all to our children: undivided attention, all our love, and loads of money. We build our entire lives around kids’ schedules, racing from soccer to piano to tutoring, eating dinner in the car; no rest on weekends because there are games, recitals, tournaments, play dates, and birthday parties to fit into the overflowing calendar.

At the same time, childcare costs are through the roof, parents are financing mortgages to live in neighborhoods with top schools, and college costs saddle many parents with more debt than students themselves carry. And somehow this all comes wrapped in the feeling that we should probably be doing even more. I’m tired just writing about it."

Continue reading, courtesy of Psychology Today.

 

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