Do Not Disturb · A podcast about motherhood
Emily Oster:
Parenting without the optimisation race
Pregnancy already comes with enough decisions. Emily Oster asks which advice deserves your attention—and which rules need better evidence. Watch the clip or listen to the full interview below.
The Do Not Disturb edit
Three things to take with you.
Three ideas from the conversation, in our words.
Do
Ask what evidence actually supports a parenting rule.
Not
Turn preparing for a family into an optimisation competition.
Disturb
The industry selling parental anxiety as preparation.
Does every parenting decision need a rule?
Before you have even started trying for a baby, someone can be selling you a way to do it better. Emily and Simona discuss the pressure to optimise pregnancy and parenting, and what happens when preparation becomes another competition.
Start with the question behind a piece of advice: what evidence supports it, and what does it actually mean for your family? You do not need to treat every choice as equally important.
What comes up
- The pressure to optimise before pregnancy
- Looking for evidence behind a parenting rule
- Making decisions without a promise of certainty
Meet Emily
Emily Oster is an economist, Brown University professor and founder of ParentData. Her books include Expecting Better, Cribsheet, The Family Firm and The Unexpected.
The guest’s bookshelf
Read Emily’s work
Expecting Better
An evidence-led look at pregnancy decisions, from the economist behind ParentData.
Explore the book →Keep the conversation going
Anna Mathur ↗
For the emotional cost of trying to get parenting right.
Angela Saini ↗
For a closer look at the assumptions presented as evidence.
More from Simona: get Simona’s Cultural Edit on Mondays →