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Today's Parents: ‘Exhausted, Burned Out and Perpetually Behind'
如今的父母：‘疲惫，倦怠，永远落后于其他人'
In his recent advisory on parents' mental health, the United States surgeon general, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, said out loud what many parents might have only furtively admitted: Parenting today is too hard and stressful.
美国公共卫生局局长维韦克·H. 穆尔蒂博士最近在关于父母心理健康的报告中公开说出了一件许多父母只能偷偷承认的事情：现在养育子女太难了、压力太大了。
So why has parental stress risen to the level of a rare surgeon general's warning about an urgent public health issue -- putting it in the same category as cigarettes and AIDS?
那么为什么父母的压力已经上升到了罕见水平，需要公共卫生局局长发出警告，称其为紧迫的公共卫生问题----将其与香烟和艾滋病归为同一类别？
It's because today's parents face something different and more demanding: the expectation that they spend ever more time and money educating and enriching their children.
这是因为如今的父母面临着一些不同的、要求更高的情况：他们被期望花费更多的时间和金钱来教育孩子和丰富孩子们的人生。
These pressures, researchers say, are driven in part by fears about the modern-day economy -- that if parents don't equip their children with every possible advantage, their children could fail to achieve a secure, middle-class life.
研究人员表示，这些压力部分源于对现代经济的担忧：如果父母不能为孩子提供一切可能的优势，那么他们的孩子可能无法获得稳定的中产阶级生活。
Several factors led parents to feel this way. Scientists learned more about how early childhood experiences could affect children's long-term outcomes, and some parents took it further, concluding that young children's lives must be constantly optimized and stimulating.
有几个因素导致父母有这种感觉。科学家们越来越了解童年时期的经历如何影响儿童的长期发展，而一些家长则更进一步，认为儿童的生活必须不断优化和促进发展。
Many parents, even of very young children, were driven by anxiety about college, as a degree became more essential to earning a middle-class wage, and admissions became more competitive.
许多父母，甚至是孩子非常年幼的父母，都对大学感到焦虑，因为学位对于赚取中产阶级工资变得更加必不可少，而入学竞争也变得更加激烈。
Social media has made comparisons with other parents inescapable. Technological change has made it harder to prepare children for future work. Americans have less faith that the political system can address families' problems.
社交媒体使得父母不可避免地要与其他父母进行攀比。技术变革使得帮助孩子为未来的工作做准备变得更加困难。美国人对于政治制度能解决家庭问题的信心也降低了。
Behind it all is the American belief that parenting is an individual task, not a societal one. Unlike other rich countries, the United States has few universal federal family policies, like paid leave or child care subsidies.
在这一切的背后是美国人的一种观念，即养育子女是个人任务，而不是社会任务。与其他富裕国家不同，美国几乎没有覆盖全体的联邦家庭政策，比如带薪休假或儿童保育补贴。
During the women's movement of the 1970s, the country considered the idea that government and employer policies could help parents work and care for their families, as Kirsten Swinth, a history professor at Fordham, has written.
福特汉姆大学的历史学教授柯尔斯滕·斯温思写道，在20世纪70年代的妇女运动期间，美国曾考虑过让政府和雇主制定政策，帮助父母兼顾工作和家庭。
But the Reagan era ushered in a different idea -- that the government should not interfere in family life. "This was very compelling -- ‘I want control over how I raise my kids,'" said Professor Swinth, who studies women's and economic history.
但里根时代带来了一种不同的理念：政府不应干涉家庭生活。"这种理念在当时非常有说服力----‘我希望能掌控我抚养孩子的方式'，"研究女性史和经济史的斯温思教授说，
"But practically, it meant that the systems that would aid parents, especially as women went into the workplace, like after-school and summer care, didn't get funded."
"但实际上，这意味着那些本可以帮助父母，尤其是在女性进入职场后提供帮助的体系，比如课后和暑期托管，这些体系没有得到资金支持。"
The increased demands of raising children, combined with responsibilities like paid work and elder care, have come at the expense of mental health, leisure time, sleep, and time alone or with a spouse.
养育孩子的要求变得更高，再加上有薪工作和照顾老人等责任，履行这些责任是以牺牲心理健康、休闲时间、睡眠以及独处或与配偶相处的时间为代价的。
"We're crushing parents under an enormous burden, for the benefit of society, and we're sort of free-riding" on them, Professor Swinth said.
"我们为了社会的利益，让父母被沉重的负担累垮，我们在某种程度上是在搭便车。"斯温思教授说。
