Recently, in these pages, Ivana Greco made her pitch for why parents should opt out of the escalating arms race around parenthood. Elizabeth Grace Matthew, in her contribution, similarly puts the onus on parents to make their lives easier by, well, acting like parents.
They are correct to make the case, but their solutions don’t go far enough. Just as parents who want to protect their kids from internet brainworms need state laws, not just individual actions, to improve the climate in schools, lowering the competitive pressures around parenthood may require systemic, in addition to individual, action.