Helping American parents out is crucial.
A new analysis from Surgeon General Vivek Murthy shows that nearly half of parents are barely functioning due to stress, money troubles, and loneliness. This is on top of the fact that they suffer more from these conditions than their childless colleagues.
Government assistance, according to Murthy, can be beneficial in the following forms: paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave, universal preschool, early childhood education programs, paid sick days, and investments in social infrastructure. That is in keeping with the platform of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, but Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is also thinking about ways to increase parental income, a subject that his running mate JD Vance has actively supported.
“The overwhelming amount of stress and loneliness that parents are experiencing has serious consequences,” Murthy stated in an interview with AWN. The government must increase its financial assistance.
In addition to negatively impacting their children’s development, parents’ mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, are worsened by the chronic and excessive stress that comes from having to pay bills.
Murthy found that 4 out of 10 parents are so overwhelmed by stress that they report being unable to function on a daily basis. Financial trouble was cited by 2/3 of these parents.
While both Trump’s and Harris’ camps have acknowledged the issue, they are competing to see who can do more to assist families.
Harris has expressed her desire to revive the $3,600 per kid tax credits that were in place during the pandemic and establish a new $6,000 credit for infants. Among other things, the Democratic platform has called for paid family leave, a universal preschool program that is free for 4-year-olds, and affordable child care for working families—less than $10 per day.
Vance has proposed tripling the child tax credit, based on his belief that individuals are hesitant to have children due to financial concerns. A campaign official informed Semafor earlier this month that Trump is contemplating it.
When asked about the child tax credit on CBS News’ Face the Nation two weeks ago, Vance said, “We think it should be bigger.” This was in response to a question about whether he agreed with the Biden administration on the issue.
According to Adrienne Schweer, a fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank and a former employee of then-GOP Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, who spoke with AWN, initiatives to support families are likely to be introduced regardless of the outcome of the election. She made the statement: “We haven’t really seen in a suite of candidates any history of working on paid leave and pro-family policy.” She went on to say that both the Harris-Walz and Trump-Vance camps, along with all four of them, had worked on these issues in the past.
This month, Republican senators rejected a measure that the Republican-led House had enacted earlier this year to enhance the child tax credit. This shows that there are divides within the Republican Party over whether or not this measure will discourage people from working.
Along with long-standing GOP support for the credit, coalition director Duncan Braid of the conservative American Compass think tank noted that Trump and Vance, as representatives of new right-wing currents, offer “more room to think creatively about how to solve the problems of the American family,” suggesting that the measure could be revived under their leadership.
Although Murthy has stated that he does not support any particular laws or legislative initiatives, he is an advocate for equal credit.
“We must acknowledge that parents do require a great deal more assistance than what they are currently receiving, and the child tax credit is one mechanism for achieving that,” he stated.
Besides monetary considerations
According to Murthy, parents require more than just financial resources.
In his most recent public health advisories, Murthy argues that strengthening social infrastructure and in-person ties will help revitalize the declining mental health of Americans. These advisories cover topics such as youth mental health, social media, loneliness, and gun violence.
As many parents and caregivers experience, 47-year-old Murthy says he battled feelings of isolation after becoming a parent. While 55% of those who aren’t parents report feeling lonely, 65% of parents and 77% of single parents do.
According to Murthy, parents rely heavily on online parenting groups and advice forums, but nothing beats face-to-face communication.
We should aim for a mix of face-to-face interactions and virtual ones. Many of us now spend the most of our time interacting with people online and only seldom meet in person, thus the ratio has turned upside down. “We have to alter that ratio,” he proclaimed.
Politicians from both parties are paying attention to the problem of loneliness, even though neither of their campaigns has offered any solutions.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut has responded to Murthy’s plea for policy remedies to the social malaise plaguing the United States by, among other things, introducing a bill to establish a new White House office of social connection.
We can expect a new Republican colleague who shares his anxiety about our unimpressive social lives to join him next year. Bipartisan legislation to screen more Americans for loneliness and send them to resources was proposed earlier this month by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a Trump friend and front-runner to succeed departing Republican Sen. Mike Braun.
Murthy had friends all across the nation before he had children and planned to keep in touch with them even after he had a family of his own. According to him, he greatly failed to appreciate the significance of face-to-face interactions.
The type of community I required after becoming a father was distinct from the one I had before, and I learnt that the hard way. He admitted that he should have put more resources into face-to-face gatherings if he had known.