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Public Books ·For the curious

The “Emotional Economy” of Parenting: a Conversation with Nina Bandelj

by Megan Cummins

Published 2026-06-25 15:00:00+00:00

When did the language of investment and returns become the primary way parents show their love?

0:00 / 22:10 · Narrator Gacrux

Context

In this conversation from 25 June 2026, the focus is on the quiet ways economic logic has moved from the boardroom into the nursery. Nina Bandelj observes that while parents rarely use terms like human capital, their behavior—from 529 accounts to the specific exhaustion of parental burnout—suggests a life lived as a series of high-stakes investments. The piece considers why the pressure to turn childhood into a productive asset now cuts across every class line, leaving individual families to shoulder a burden that was once a collective responsibility.

Show notes

An examination of the shift from intensive to invested parenting, where child-rearing is treated as a combined financial and emotional project. Interviews with diverse families and household finance data detail how economic logic and the moral pressure to show love through money have privatized the costs of raising children. This transformation is linked to widespread parental burnout and widening disparities driven by the rising costs of education and extracurricular activities.

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