More parenting advice from everyone's favorite local rag 😉

Culture, Media, General Food Media and News
1

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/style/dopamine-kids-michaeleen-doucleff-hunt-gather-parent.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QFA.bFrn.QW8Pioxw-r7S&smid=url-share

Discuss.

2

“Ms. Doucleff’s new favorite hobby is cutting up wood with a chain saw and splitting it with an ax.”

Where do I begin? :musical_notes: satan, get thee behind me …

2 Likes
3

I can’t. My eyes have rolled so far into the back of my head I can no longer think. Although I agree with this: “serving kids the same food as adults”. It’s done worldwide with little to no issues. Don’t cater. They’ll eat.

2 Likes
4

Yeah. Might be fun to read the comments section for this one. I just kinda skimmed the article.More rage bait for parents :wink:

Abso-fuckin-lutely.

3 Likes
5

How CONVENIENT for the NYT - no comments section. :rofl: You’d think they’d want the ability for commenting for ad serves.

1 Like
6

Oh, too bad. And odd. They almost always have a comment section for their articles.

Harumph.

3 Likes
7

Summary: Basically she’s advocating raising the kids to be young Gen Xers.
Full circle.

3 Likes
8

And Gen X is to blame for Gen Z. Funny how that works. You’d think “we” should have done a better job.

9

I know someone who has to make her adult daughter pasta with butter and parm at family get together dinners because she won’t eat what’s being served. :person_shrugging:

10

“Has to.”

No, they don’t. JFC.

3 Likes
11

At my history events, phones are for photos only and hidden away quickly (but most of us doom scroll briefly before we actually blow out the lanterns for the night if there’s phone service…there isnt, always)

Kids, then, climb trees and run barefoot and come back to the family tent(s) with dirty feet and sunburnt noses. There’s actually a school at the big one I attended in January. They chase hoops with sticks, help gather and/or carry firewood and kindling, carry water if theyre big enough, and are taught to shoot archery and later muzzleloaders from about 10 and older. (For adults and children, safety is absolutely top priority)

We cook over fires, bake in beehive ovens, and make recipes handed down over generations…lots of roasts, braises, and lots of beans.

So parts of this DO hit close to home, but we do it for a week or two at a time as a reset. This article feels quite a lot over the top.

3 Likes
12

I. Just. Can’t. :face_with_raised_eyebrow::thinking::exploding_head:

Her adult daughter should be perfectly capable of making her own damn food. And if not? She can bring her own takeout.

1 Like
13

The adult daughter is also a mother!

1 Like
14

"Ms. Doucleff, who grew up lower-middle class in Virginia, eating fast food almost every day, hates the assumption that whole foods are a “privilege” for the middle and upper classes. “This is a myth in our society: that ultraprocessed foods are cheaper,” Ms. Doucleff said. A box of cereal at her local grocery store costs $7.

“The traditional diet where we live is extremely inexpensive: masa and beans and some fat and lard,” she added. Yes, eating whole foods requires cooking at home, Ms. Doucleff allowed, but if you know how, “it doesn’t take that much time.”"

This does strike me as dismissive and privileged. Maybe the column space didn’t allow more room to get into these issues, but for many, they’re bigger hurdles than she allows. It’s a different situation in single income, single parent homes, for example. And on behalf of those of us with a terrible innate sense of direction, I say, you can pry my GPS-enabled phone from my cold, dead hands.

4 Likes
15

Apropos.

1 Like
16

I had to find the lyrics. My hearing is bad. :weary_cat:

Yep.

17

It’s actually a poem by Philip Larkin that she put to music:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
*By fools in old-style hats and coats, *
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

Lo and behold, it’s from my birth year. So cheerful! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

1 Like
18

I’m old. I’m also almost completely ignorant of all English literature later than Shakespeare (thats a long story). :old_woman:t2:

1 Like