https://werd.io/2023/doing-it-all

Interesting to see what, in generations past, might have been a gendered (female) striving for "having it all" (entailing time with children, family and a career) has crossed over into the masculine space.

Sounds like Ben's got some basic priorities set, which is really the only thing necessary. Beyond this, every parent, especially of new babies, in the W.E.I.R.D. culture is tired. By this measurement he's doing it "right". What is missing is an interpersonal culture around him of extended family and immediate community of daily interaction to help normalize his conditions. Missing this he's attempting to replace the lack of experience with this area by reaching out to his online community, which may provide a dramatically different and biased sample.

Some of the "it takes a village" (to raise a child) still operates on many facets, but dramatically missing is the day-to-day direct care and help that many parents need.

Our capitalistic culture has again, in this case of parenting in the W.E.I.R.D. world, managed to privatize the profits and socialize the losses. Here the losses in Ben's case are on his physical well-being (tiredness) and his mental state wondering if his case is "normal". A further loss is the erosion of his desire for a family unit and cohesion of community which the system is attempting to sever by playing on his desire to "have it all". Giving in to the pull of work at the expense of family only drives the system closer to collapse.

Sulik, J., Deroy, O., Dezecache, G., Newson, M., Zhao, Y., Zein, M. E., & Tuncgenc, B. (2021). Trust in science boosts approval, but not following of COVID-19 rules. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/edw47

Raab, Marius Hans, Claus Christian Carbon, and Niklas Döbler. ‘A Game of COVID. Ludification as a Way to Make Sense of a Pandemic’. Preprint. PsyArXiv, 5 September 2020. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/cwktm.

Smith-Keiling, Beverly L., Archana Sharma, Sheritta M. Fagbodun, Harsimranjit K. Chahal, Keyaira Singleton, Hari Gopalakrishnan, Katrina E. Paleologos, et al. “Starting the Conversation: Initial Listening and Identity Approaches to Community Cultural Wellness,.” Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education 21, no. 1 (April 10, 2020). https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v21i1.2073.

Travaglino, G. A., & Moon, C. (2020, May 26). Explaining Compliance with Social Distancing Norms during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Roles of Cultural Orientations, Trust and Self-Conscious Emotions in the US, Italy, and South Korea. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8yn5b

So if it threatens our understanding of what it means to be human.. is that beneficial to our ongoing research of essentially what makes us humans by constantly pushing our understanding to be deeper? or is harmful and uprooting of the interpersonal/cultural norms we've established?