--:-- Shamitha Basu: Hey there, it's Shamitha here. You may know that on our weekly interview podcast, Apple News In Conversation, we're running a series called Think Again about reimagining some of life's biggest transitions.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Last week, we talked to psychotherapist Satya Doyle-Bayak about the transition into early adulthood and how to balance your head and your heart. This week, we're taking on another seismic life shift, becoming a parent.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: I read this article a couple of months back about millennials struggling to make their way through adulthood. And I haven't stopped thinking about it since. It was by Jessica Gross, who writes about parenting and all things affecting the American family today for The New York Times.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And it wasn't a knock on millennials. It was a smart analysis of all the bigger societal changes that have made everything from buying a house to raising a family fundamentally different than it was for past generations.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Jessica says there was one statistic in particular that made her want to write that piece. The silent generation who are in their 80s and 90s now, when they were at 40, around 70 percent of them lived with a spouse and a child in a household. And the comparable percentage for millennials is 30%.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: That a huge shift over not a very long period of time. That insight for her unlocked a new way of thinking about the challenges of modern parenthood.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And I think a lot of people were sold this idea that if you just follow the right steps, you will have the stereotypical American dream. And it's not to say that that's not still possible. It just doesn't look like what it used to look like.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: The milestones are moving. Goalposts shifting. And that makes the personal transition into parenthood, as well as our shared vision of what parenting should look like, even more unclear. It's like we're working with an outdated roadmap.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: I never want to look at these massive changes as all bad or all good. They're just changes. And society sometimes has to catch up with these big changes and how our lives don't look like the lives of our parents necessarily.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Jessica has some practical advice on how to rethink the old scripts that came with parenthood and instead define your own roadmap for the person and parent you want to be.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: My interview with her is out now. If you missed our previous Think Again episodes, I highly recommend going back and checking them out. Follow Apple News in conversation in Apple Podcasts to make sure you don't miss an episode.
--:-- Note: Based on the additional information provided, I identified the host as Shamitha Basu.
