I get that parenting is stressful. We raised 4 children and for a good chunk of the time, we didn’t have a pot to pee in. But come on… people need to toughen up. We have created a culture of coddled whiners.

In a new advisory report, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is sounding the alarm on the realities of parenting today, revealing just how dire the situation is for millions of parents of children under 18. In his report, Murthy cites a bleak statistic issued by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2023: 41% of parents say that most days they are so stressed they cannot function and 48% call their stress “completely overwhelming.”

It seems the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated or worsened stressors that were already there, also creating new financial, childcare, and health concerns for so many parents. These stressors disproportionately affect low-income families and those in marginalized communities, who face increased discrimination and a lack of resources that only contributes to mental health concerns, including anxiety and depression.