Boomers: Please stop being weirdly macho about parenting

A reflection on parenthood then and now

“You’re going to be tired for the rest of your life,” the only grandmother in my class tells my friend, a youngish, first-time mother who has just admitted to nursing her eight-month-old at 40-minute intervals all night, every night. Everyone laughs, but nervously.

Of course, she is tired. We all are. It’s a time-worn trope of new motherhood, widely understood by parents and childless adults alike. This much I can accept.