I Did Everything I Was "Supposed" To. I Still Can't Afford The Childhood I Had.

"I can't afford to give them the childhood I had. I am prone to replaying my own childhood highlight reel and, despite knowing full well that comparison is the thief of joy, comparing the sh*t out of it anyway. It's getting harder - and bleaker - to say no to the things I never had to think twice about: extracurriculars, family vacations, the idea that college was a given."

"Millennial parents - when they're not worrying about their children's screen time, magnesium intake, and active shooter drills - are also facing the uncomfortable reality that we're financially falling short. We are hamstrung by our own expectations and depressed by being the first generation of the expanded middle classes to slide backward."

"We can't raise our crotch goblins in the social media-free utopia we enjoyed, and we can't afford to parent the way our parents did. Even school dress-up days throw into sharp relief who's crushing it and who's being crushed by the brutal realities of late-stage capitalism."

Millennial parents face a difficult reality: they cannot afford to replicate the comfortable middle-class childhoods they enjoyed for their own children. This generation, the first to experience downward economic mobility despite being raised in expanded middle-class prosperity, grapples with the gap between their nostalgic expectations and current financial limitations. They cannot provide unlimited extracurriculars, family vacations, or the assumption that college is guaranteed. Beyond material constraints, millennial parents navigate a fundamentally different parenting landscape—one with social media, screen time concerns, and active shooter drills—while managing the psychological burden of comparison and the desire to be the "fun parent" rather than the one constantly saying no or seeking discounts.

Read at Scary Mommy