Overinvested

In her latest book, Bandelj argues that parents have become overinvested in having children. She pinpoints when the shift happened at the turn of the 20th century — from the economic usefulness of having children to this overinvestment that has led to parenting becoming an all-consuming and expensive endeavor. Overinvested (Princeton University Press) includes interviews with parents, datasets on the financial impacts, and books about child-rearing, to make the case that the framework for “good parenting” has become unrealistic. It also covers the fact that the economy has capitalized on this phenomenon to guilt parents into investing even more. Bandelj argues that parenting needs to be reimagined for the well-being of parents and children.