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Jennifer Senior on All Joy and No Fun
Senior discusses the paradox of modern parenthood and the research behind her bestselling book.
Quick facts
Psychology · ParentingOn my shelf
All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood
Where most parenting books examine the effects of parents on children, Senior inverts the question: what do children do to their parents? Drawing on history, sociology, economics, and psychology, and following real families from toddlerhood through the teenage years, she analyzes how children reshape parents’ marriages, careers, friendships, and sense of self.
An instant New York Times bestseller and Amazon Best Book of the Month, All Joy and No Fun grew out of Senior’s viral 2010 New York magazine cover story of the same name. It’s not prescriptive — Senior isn’t telling parents what to do differently — but its explanation of why modern parenthood feels the way it does landed as genuine, widely shared relief for readers who’d never seen the feeling named so precisely.
Frequently asked questions about Jennifer Senior’s books
From the bookshelf
“The very things that used to keep families afloat, financially and emotionally, are now the source of their deepest anguish.”
— Jennifer Senior, All Joy and No Fun
For more writers who name a feeling everyone has but no one had quite described, browse the full shelf.
