All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood

by Jennifer Senior
All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood cover
Good Books rating 4.08
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  • ID: 3245
  • Added: 2025-10-17
  • Updated: 2025-10-17
  • Reviews: 3
Reviews
economicequityformoms.org · Unknown · 2025-10-20
mixed 3.50

Jennifer Senior's book 'All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood' explores the highs and lows of parenting, highlighting the emotional struggles and societal pressures faced by parents. The book is praised for its insightful depictions of family life but criticized for its reliance on social-democratic and feminist thinking to address parental stress.

Jennifer Senior's 'All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood' delves into the complexities of modern parenting, capturing the emotional rollercoaster that parents experience. The book is filled with vivid vignettes of families struggling with the demands of childrearing, particularly the guilt and exhaustion felt by working mothers. Senior's observations about the differences between mothers and fathers in their approach to parenting are particularly insightful, as are her descriptions of the emotional turmoil that comes with raising teenagers. However, the book is criticized for its tendency to fall back on tired social-democratic and feminist solutions to the challenges of parenting. The reviewer notes that while the book provides valuable insights into family life, its solutions to the financial and emotional strains of parenting are often unrealistic and fail to consider alternative approaches that might better address the needs of families.

Quick quotes

    The poetry is gone but it sums up the experience pretty well.

    Senior evokes how unsettling it is for adults to feel, in this sense, way more emotional than those notoriously emotional teenagers.

    The European countries that fit her description are bankrupting themselves by ladling out these benefits and amenities.

goodreads.com · Unknown · 2025-10-20
insightful 4.50

All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior explores the paradox of modern parenthood, highlighting the emotional and literal capital parents invest in their children. The book offers a support group-like experience, sharing real families' struggles and the highs and lows of parenting, without providing self-help solutions. It contextualizes studies showing children can contribute to stress and unhappiness, but also offers hope by illustrating the greater feelings of meaning and reward parents report.

All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior is a book that resonates deeply with parents, offering a sense of camaraderie and understanding. The book is structured chronologically, following the stages of childhood and the impact each stage has on modern parents. It's not a self-help book but rather a support group where parents share their experiences and what to expect. The book contextualizes studies that find children can weaken marriages, increase stress, and contribute to unhappiness. However, it also offers hope by illustrating how parents of young children experience more highs and lows than those without children, and report greater feelings of meaning and reward. The book discusses the loss of autonomy and isolation modern parents feel, the decrease in marriage satisfaction after children, and how young children teach parents to be more present in their own lives.

Quick quotes

    Today parents pour more capital — both emotional and literal — into their children than ever before, and they’re spending longer, more concentrated hours with their children than they did when the workday ended at five o’clock and the majority of women still stayed home. Yet parents don’t know what it is they’re supposed to do, precisely, in their new jobs. 'Parenting' may have become its own activity (its own profession, so to speak), but its goals are far from clear

    This book isn’t a self-help book. It does not tell parents what to do when they encounter these almost-universal struggles with children or why those struggles are happening. This book feels more like a parent support group in which people share how children are impacting their lives and tell newer parents what to expect going forward.

    Young children may be grueling, young children may be vexing, and young children may bust and redraw the contours of their parents’ professional and marital lives. But they bring joy too. . . They . . . create wormholes in time, transporting their mothers and fathers back to feelings and sensations they haven’t had since they themselves were young.

claremontreviewofbooks.com · Unknown · 2025-10-20
enlightening 4.25

All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior is a comprehensive exploration of the effects of parenthood, particularly on women, in the modern era. The book is dense with information but presented in an accessible and interesting way, providing a perspective on how parenting today compares with the past. It is both enlightening and different from other parenting books, offering a must-read for parents or those considering parenthood.

All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior delves into the multifaceted impact of parenthood on modern families, with a particular focus on the challenges faced by women. The book is not a typical parenting guide but rather an exposition on the effects of parenthood, drawing from numerous surveys, studies, and personal interviews. It addresses the juggling act of work, childcare, and household duties, the strain on marriage, and the complexities of navigating adolescence. The information is presented in a dense yet accessible manner, making it both informative and engaging. The book provides a unique perspective on how parenting today differs from the past, highlighting both improvements and new challenges. It is a must-read for parents and those considering parenthood, offering valuable insights and a fresh take on the subject.

Quick quotes

    Based on the title of this book, I came into the book expecting a parenting guide on how to enjoy the experience of parenthood in a more well-rounded way. However, this book is more of an exposition on the effect of parenthood, particularly on women, in the modern era.

    This book is a must read for parents. As author Jennifer Senior notes, most books on parenting are about the parents influence on the children. This book is about the children's influence on us, the parents.

    3.5 stars. This felt like a good, if not overly optimistic, essay on the benefits and stability of parenting. Left me with a lot to consider. I hoped it would be more focused on younger children and it starts out that way but spends a good chunk of the book in teenage years as well.

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