PsycHacks Episode 583: Staying at home (no one wants to do it)
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Dec 29, 2025 Delve into the fascinating debate about the realities of staying home with kids. Both men and women often push the idea, yet few actually want to take on full-time parenting. Explore the unique challenges of caregiving versus workplace struggles. Discover how the monotony of young children's play can lead to boredom for caregivers. The isolation of modern motherhood contrasts starkly with past social networks, highlighting how work offers a vital sense of belonging. It's time to rethink the narratives around work and home life.
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Behavior Beats Rhetoric On Who Should Stay Home
- People's actions reveal values more reliably than their words about staying home or working.
- Orion Taraban argues neither sex truly wants full-time childrearing since both try to persuade the other to do it.
Childcare's Unique Tedium
- Staying home presents a different kind of difficulty than paid work, especially boredom.
- Taraban highlights repetitive child interactions and limited intellectual stimulation as core problems.
Isolation In Modern Stay-At-Home Life
- Isolation is a major downside of staying at home that used to be mitigated by larger families and earlier childbearing.
- Taraban notes modern women's social lives often center on work, making home isolation harder to bear.
