LessWrong (Curated & Popular) [Linkpost] “The Missing Genre: Heroic Parenthood - You can have kids and still punch the sun” by null
Nov 30, 2025
The narrator shares her journey of losing her love for reading after age 30 and explores the genres that mirrored her life stages. She highlights a lack of compelling stories about mothers who pursue ambitions beyond childcare. Imagining a new genre, she advocates for heroic parenthood where parents can embark on adventures while raising kids. Family constraints are depicted as enriching rather than limiting, blending love, ambition, and epic goals. This vision seeks to inspire a balance of family life and personal aspirations.
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Losing The Reader Identity
- The narrator stopped reading obsessively at age 30 and then lost that feral devotion for nine years.
- She traced the change to shifting life stages and finally to becoming a mother who found no matching stories.
Genres Map Life Stages
- The narrator found her genre choices tracked life stages from childhood to early adulthood.
- Each genre matched developmental needs, revealing fiction as scaffolding for identity shifts.
The Missing Genre
- She realized mainstream fiction lacks fully realized parents who remain active protagonists.
- This gap left her without templates for combining parenting with ambition and adventure.