Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting

In this online book discussion, we discuss with Nina Bandelj her book Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting.

Parents are exhausted. When did raising children become such all-consuming, never-ending, incredibly expensive, and emotionally absorbing effort? At the turn of the twentieth century, children went from being economically useful, often working to support families, to being seen by their parents as vulnerable and emotionally priceless. In the new millennium, however, parents have become overinvested in the emotional economy of parenting.

In her eye-opening book, Nina Bandelj explains how we turned children into financial and emotional investments and child-rearing into laborious work. Analyzing in-depth interviews with parents, national financial datasets, and decades of child-rearing books, Bandelj reveals how parents today spend, save, and even go into debt for the sake of children. And yet, Bandelj warns, the privatization of child-rearing and devotion of parents’ monies, emotions, and souls ultimately hurt the well-being of children, parents, and society. Overinvested offers a compelling argument that we should reimagine children and what it means to raise them.

Nina Bandelj is a Chancellor's Professor in the Department of Sociology, Associate Vice Provost for faculty development, and co-director of the Center for Organizational Research at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). She studies money, and how culture, power and emotions influence the economy.

MPIfG & Alumni Online Book Discussions aim to promote intellectual exchange and networking between alumni and current researchers at the Institute. By invitation only.