This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
I’ve spent my entire life watching people’s eyes widen when they discover I have 10 siblings.
“Any twins?” they always ask.
&#8220;Nope.&#8221;
“All from the same parents?” they wonder.
“Yes!” I tell them.
“It must be loud around there,” they laugh.
It&#8217;s louder than you think. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
So you can imagine my amusement when I stumble upon very-online big family debaters clutching their pearls over influencer Hannah Neelman — better known as Ballerina Farm — and her nine children.
Some argue that big families just aren&#8217;t for everyone. Others, like pro-abortion playwright Rebecca Reid, suggest parents of large families cannot give their children adequate “time, attention, and connection.”
Very few people, if any, are telling young women that they must have big families. We do hear constant warnings about how unfathomably hard and expensive children are and how children limit your freedom, your fun, and your time with your spouse. On the flip side, we also hear constant chatter about how women can balance career and family if they truly want to. Are we not allowed to hear about the women, like my mother, who defied the world and raised a clan at home?
As the oldest daughter and second-oldest child in a very large family, I can tell you firsthand that big families are not universally wealthy, and parents of such broods certainly aren’t calculating how much each child costs before they make the decision to have one more. These mothers and fathers look at life and family differently.
When you ask them how many children they are going to have, they’ll probably tell you with a big smile, “As many as God sends us.” And if you question how on Earth they plan to pull this off, they will probably say something to the effect of what my own mother told me: “God gives you the grace, one child and one day at a time.”
Families like mine don’t have a dozen children to “own the libs” or populate an aesthetic Instagram page. They’re open to life and to as many children as God blesses them with based on their deeply held religious convictions. They view each child as a gift from God, and they trust that He will provide for them.
I’m well aware that this reasoning sounds crazy to secular outsiders. But at the end of the day, does it matter? God has, in fact, provided for us, and my siblings and parents are the greatest blessings of my life.
<div id="attachment_1055369" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1055369" class="size-large wp-image-1055369" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/IMG_7618-2-768x576.jpeg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/IMG_7618-2-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/IMG_7618-2-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/IMG_7618-2-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/IMG_7618-2-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />The author and a smattering of siblings.</div>
I could never imagine life without my six brothers: Tommy, Patrick, Michael, Barry, Daniel, and Seamus. I certainly can’t picture a world without my sisters: Catherine, Theresa, Janey, and Brigid. While we may all look alike, thanks to some good Irish genes, each one of us was uniquely created and brings a diverse array of talents, interests, virtues, and vices to the table. It has been my parents’ role to sort through all of that and to raise us to be the men and women we were created to be.
A large family necessitates a different kind of lifestyle than a smaller family might have, of course: My parents didn’t take our growing family on exotic vacations, and when I was a child, we had PB&amp;J lunches and spaghetti dinners probably more often than my father and mother would have liked. There isn’t as much room in the budget for going out to eat after sports practice or daytime kid activities. The other big families I have known throughout the course of my life are largely the same.
I have never wished for anything different. When I think about my childhood, I don’t really even remember the PB&amp;Js, except maybe the 11 I made for an infamous road trip. (The siblings still accuse me of sitting on them. I maintain my innocence.)
<div id="attachment_1055393" style="width: 877px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1055393" class="size-large wp-image-1055393" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/image1-867x576.png" alt="" width="867" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/image1-867x576.png 867w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/image1-300x199.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/image1-768x510.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/image1.png 1253w" sizes=" (max-width: 867px) 100vw, 867px" />The author giving piggybacks.</div>
What I do remember is eagerly waiting by the phone with my grandmother and the other kids as my parents called from the hospital to tell us that our ninth child would be a boy (Daniel, who now towers over me at 6&#8217;3&#8243; and texts me after my TV hits to say, “Well done, Marg”). Believe it or not, I cried that day because I wanted a girl. I got her when my mother had our 10th baby, Brigid, my goddaughter and close friend.
I remember sitting at the kitchen table with all the siblings, a toddler on my lap as always, as we begged my dad for stories about his childhood in Massachusetts, or standing, at his request, on the brick hearth of our fireplace with my sisters to sing Irish ballads to company.
I think of our cozy school days all working away in our makeshift classroom, my mom waking us up early to go to daily Mass, hours and hours of sister doll games, swinging the baby to sleep on the play set, and the fun we had teaching the little ones to walk, play games, and propose like Mr. Darcy (jury’s out on that one, but we tried).
In functioning big families, kids necessarily help out with chores, with babies, and with each other. We each had our designated chores every day, and we did them with gusto. To this day, we help each other review resumes, emails, job applications, middle school papers, you name it.
Eleven kids means 55 unique relationships between the siblings, and in big families, those relationships hold so many possibilities: the friend, the mentor, the confidante, the babysitter, the tutor, the partner in crime. As we grow older and start families of our own, those relationships necessarily evolve.
The constant in our lives remains the same: We are the Olohan family, and we will always be there for one another.
Of course, the life of a big family is not without its crosses. I grew up with a number of large families, including my own, who have dealt with hardship and tragedy. We know that nothing worth having is easily come by, and for my part, I know I’m very lucky to have been given the parents God gave me. As I’m sure my readers are well aware, every family is the product of the caliber of its parents, and mine are made of good stuff.
Being open to the children God sends you is absolutely a leap of faith. It’s a leap of faith that my parents took and the parents of most big families take. It&#8217;s a surrendering of your will, time and time again, and it&#8217;s a beautiful sacrifice with a beautiful reward. As my grandmother, the mother of 10, would tell us, “Love multiplies; it never divides.”
That is why failing to include God in the conversation about big families doesn&#8217;t make any sense. He’s woven into every step of the way.
***
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Father carrying baby son while pulling four children in a wagon

I’m One Of 11 Kids. Here’s Why The Internet Doesn’t Realize Big Families Are Great.

Children

family

kids

Parenting

Religion

Upstream

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
In the first two months of 2026, there were <a href="https://x.com/GunDeaths/status/2026794212671332570">more than 50</a> mass shootings in the U.S., many in schools and churches. Assassination attempts on public figures have swelled. We see constant talk about syndromes such as &#8220;gender dysphoria&#8221; that were once almost unknown. At elite institutions such as Stanford University, four out of 10 students now <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/01/elite-university-student-accommodation/684946/">claim</a> they have a disability. These occurrences illustrate a troubling paradox.
Americans today are wealthier than ever before. We&#8217;ve jumped ahead of Europeans and other developed nations in national economic growth and household income. Our technology has dramatically improved. Our houses are much more comfortable. Our medical care and diets are richer. Yet all around us, especially among the young, we see record levels of depression and loneliness, addiction, crime, educational failure, economic disappointment, and community decline.
There is a root to these social and psychological maladies: the explosion of out-of-wedlock births, divorce, single-parenting, father flight, careerism, and child neglect that began in the 1960s. More than half of all young Americans now live separated from one or both of their parents for at least part of their childhood. Millions of kids from all income levels, races, and localities bear scars from family instability.
Youth suicide jumped 62% from 2007 to 2021. Drug-overdose deaths among young people were nearly twice as high in 2022 as 10 years earlier. In 2023, 4,450 kids were killed by guns, most of them by other youths. Family breakdown now drives many of our collective social problems: poverty, homelessness, street crime, drug abuse, educational failure, and economic lags.
These heartaches and these social problems will not go away until we manage to knit mothers and fathers and children more tightly together in natural families (biological parents committed to each other and their children). Such families are not perfect, but as a source of human happiness and success, they greatly surpass single-parent families, step-families, scientifically designed group homes, hired care, and every other alternative that has been tried.
You see, we Homo sapiens have a serious biological problem called childhood. As Harvard scientist Stephen Jay Gould pointed out, &#8220;Human babies are born as embryos, and embryos they remain for about the first nine months of life.&#8221; If humans were born at the stage of development more typical of other mammals, a baby would remain in utero for up to a year longer than the nine months it already does. The reason we are born &#8220;premature&#8221; instead is elemental: Very few female pelvises could expel a neonate the size of a one-year-old infant. Human labor is already quite difficult compared to that of other animals, and newborns are only 40% the size of the average one-year-old.
Premature birth solves a human physiological dilemma, but it creates a cultural one. Monkey infants can navigate independently and find and cling to their mother when they need her. Newborn horses can run from danger just a few hours after birth. Other animals can hunt, dig, swim, or fly within days of their arrival into the world. But human young remain utterly helpless for an extended period, unable even to control their own temperature, see clearly, grasp, or roll over. Even the healthiest of babies thus requires intensive care and supervision.
And the incapability of humans extends far beyond infancy. It is a long time before we are finally able to survive on our own. Most mammals are autonomous and essentially full-grown within a single season, but it takes our brains about 15 annual cycles to reach their final capacity, and our bodies even a little longer. We are far slower to develop to independent maturity than any other living creature.
This problem is made even knottier by the fact that human culture is so complex that no individual can begin to be a competent citizen until he or she has undergone years and years worth of intensive acculturation. We must absorb millions of bits of information from our progenitors — on everything from desirable foods to language — before we can safely navigate our world.
The combined result of our premature launch and our heavy dependence upon cultural transmission is an extraordinarily long and demanding childhood. Absent a critical cultural adaptation, human beings could never have thrived in the face of this constraint. But they did fashion an adaptation, and a brilliant one: the family. The traditional family was a way of capturing the energy of the male parent as well as the female and channeling it into the rearing of the young.
In this way, mothers gained an ally to help them through their vulnerable periods of pregnancy and lactation. Frail youngsters won the benefit of not one but two protectors, producers, and caretakers. And under this joint nurturing structure, reproductive success soared. Even prior to the advent of the civilized era, one out of every two human babies survived to adulthood, thanks to the aid of their families. This compares to between 10 and 30% for other primates and group-hunting carnivores, which lack any counterpart to the nuclear family. And parent-guided humans turned out to be unusually competent creatures, bearers of a rich culture.
By stitching fathers to mothers and mothers to fathers, and weaving both to their children in a mission of mutual aid, the traditional family allowed humans to transcend brutish self-interest and produce higher civilization in its full splendor.
The evidence for this is ample and ancient. In 1978, anthropologist Mary Leakey made a breathtaking discovery in a fossil lava bed in East Africa: the first human footprints, 3.6 million years old. They clearly indicate two creatures walking upright, between four and five feet tall, one larger than the other, apparently a male and a female. They were walking next to each other, perhaps holding hands, Leakey thinks. There is also a third set of prints, much smaller, belonging to a child. These are carefully placed within the larger prints — as a youngster playfully following his parents through soft ground would do. Leakey&#8217;s find disputes the claim that the traditional family was invented in Victorian Europe, or some other moment, and forced on humanity by narrow-minded manipulators.
Over the last generation, heaps of research findings have proven the irreplaceable benefits of the natural family, particularly when it comes to raising healthy children. I recently collected some of this evidence in a book, and it demonstrates clearly that where the traditional family is in trouble, there will be trouble all across society. This is no longer scientifically controversial. It is merely inconvenient for ideologues promoting the kind of radical individualism, sexual autonomy, and economic selfishness that are incompatible with loyal family life.
As I summarize in my book, biology, human history, recent psychological discoveries, and much more demonstrate that the traditional family is a natural and irreplaceable component of human society. It will be with us so long as our civilization flourishes. And if natural families continue to crumble, no amount of money, technology, personal liberation, artificial intelligence, or wishful thinking will be able to fend off the chaos that results when wounded youngsters grow into our next generation of citizens.
***
Karl Zinsmeister is author of the new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Family-will-never-obsolete/dp/B0GQBD7JV3">&#8220;The Natural Family Will Never Be Obsolete.&#8221;</a> He has written 20 other books and served in the White House and U.S. Senate as a policy adviser.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

GettyImages-1345161790

America’s Kids Are In Crisis — One Cultural Shift May Explain Why

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
I have an MBA from the University of Florida but struggle with basic algebra. I have traveled to 36 states but can only confidently name the capitals of 12. I can name all nine Supreme Court justices but don’t know how desert plants adapted to conserve water. Apparently, it’s not because they “try really hard.” Fifth-grade homework sucks.
But here I am on most nights slapping down the assignment in front of one of my kids, puffing my chest out and saying, “Let’s knock this out!” Three minutes later, I’m googling the capital of Wyoming and reevaluating my life.
Homework creates as much frustration for my children as it does for me. We share equally in the struggle to get through it. It’s certainly not where I’d think we were forging our bond. It’s natural to think rules create resentment, but it turns out that homework may be building our relationship, not harming it. Hard parenting has positive consequences. 
Research from the Institute of Family Studies <a href="https://ifstudies.org/blog/hard-parenting-better-relationships-new-evidence">discovered</a> that “parental-enforced rules are mostly associated with better relationships with kids, both in the parent’s own assessment of their relationship, and the assessments of the subsample of teenage children surveyed.” 
The study looked at factors such as strict curfew, strict bedtime, screen time limits, dedicated homework time, and others. It found that “virtually every parental-enforced rule … is linked to better parent-child relationships.” 
As a dad who struggles with the “friend-parenting” model, this research is so revealing. All we want is for our kids to love us, and I do seriously consider my kids to be my friends. But it is my responsibility to forge that friendship in an appropriate way that breeds a healthy, long-term relationship.
I’ll admit that this research seemed counterintuitive to me. While I am hard on my kids, there is still an instinct to go “gentle” on so many things and avoid conflict. That’s usually the path of least resistance. I also sometimes fear that discipline will create emotional distance. But ultimately, the key to any healthy relationship is communication. And rules require interaction, which is the foundation of communication. 
Once I stepped back, it became obvious to me. Rules create necessary dialogue. When my daughter and I sit down to do homework, it is natural to discuss her day at school. When my wife and I tell the boys they’ve watched enough Dude Perfect for one day, it leads to conversations about content. Taking out the trash leads to conversations about teamwork and contribution. Bedtime leads to conversations about making healthy choices.
Permissiveness allows distance, but a parent who enforces rules must constantly be checking in, following up, correcting, and explaining. Trust is forged in that communication, and trust leads to healthy relationships. 
Since we&#8217;re a Florida family of six, a boating analogy is natural. Parenting is a lot like steering a boat. The longer the trip, the more important small corrections turn out to be and the more consequential even the tiniest veering off course becomes. Small adjustments early prevent huge corrections later. Unfortunately, parenting doesn’t come with an autopilot option, and disciplinary nudges are required to maintain the route to arrive at the desired destination.
A boater’s worst nightmare is a storm, and chaos is the storm inside our homes. If you think “enforcement” is hard, try chaos. Building relationships requires order. Rules repeated daily become habits, and habits bring order in the house. Order is the solution to chaos.
With four kids of my own, I can compare the amount of friction in each of our relationships. Over time, rules become habits and habits reduce the friction of rule-enforcement. As my kids age, we have fewer arguments and less friction around the rules. While chaos exhausts our relationship, order protects it. 
Finally, trust and freedom play important roles in this equation. Trust is the glue that holds relationships together. Through years of rule enforcement, I am training our kids to be reliable. Reliability builds trust, and trust earns freedom. Eventually, our kids are freed from us, and if we have built enough equity in the relationship, they will use that freedom to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-so-many-grown-kids-are-cutting-off-their-fathers">invest</a> that equity back into our relationship.
Ultimately, the homework will only get harder — for me. The algorithms will get more competitive. And the trash will always come on Tuesday and Friday. But maybe these are all blessings. In them, this dad holds the secret. 
I’ll close with one admission. There is one thing we don’t limit in our house: country music. It is our love language. While I was driving home from the office recently, George Strait’s hit “Love Without End, Amen” came on. As King George belted out, “Let me tell you a secret about a father’s love,” I knew I had it.
* * *
Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast “We The People.” Follow him on Instagram and X @GatesGarciaFL.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Father and daughter crafting a special Mother’s Day card in the cozy kitchen

The Parenting Secret That Might Surprise ‘Gentle Parents’

You’re not ready to become a mother.
I wasn’t &#8220;ready&#8221; when I became one at 29. I definitely wasn’t ready to be married at 22, either. Happily, I did it all anyway. And then I watched as I steadily grew into these roles, finding my footing with a little grace, a lot of missteps, and more joy than I would’ve ever expected.
For this, I’m probably an anomaly — and definitely not a good feminist, according to The New York Times, which on Friday published its latest <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/us/politics/us-birthrate-decline-women.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/us/politics/us-birthrate-decline-women.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1772321232845000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3hYnYfwr9CW_joLMOUB1GT">article</a> about the precipitous decline in the U.S. birthrate. The framing was predictable: this is a good thing, insisted the gaggle of childless twenty-something women interviewed for the piece, because it means women are finally waiting until they’re &#8220;ready&#8221; to have children.
The most obvious first rebuttal to this argument are the statistics on marriage, motherhood, and happiness. According to the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), the <a href="https://www.compactmag.com/article/get-married-young/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.compactmag.com/article/get-married-young/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1772321232845000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3-NbsFdVUogNa1Ku-mQhlO">happiest</a> young women in America are married moms, and it’s not close.
And the longer women wait to marry and have children, the less likely they’ll be able to reach those milestones — socially and biologically. Recent IFS <a href="https://ifstudies.org/insights?id=3886" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ifstudies.org/insights?id%3D3886&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1772321232845000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0TJTJPhmOurlAEs7kT_KPJ">research</a> indicates that women’s odds of having children fall dramatically after they turn 30.
But the deeper issue with framing the debate over falling birthrates as a feminist win is the suggestion that anyone is ever &#8220;ready&#8221; to become a mother. By today’s cultural standard — what Brad Wilcox has called the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFzU4ND77tA" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DNFzU4ND77tA&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1772321232845000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1FLr-6BB0wE7G5jU5CLi1-">Midas Mindset</a>” — the term &#8220;ready&#8221; usually has capitalist connotations. It’s defined by having a certain income, reaching a certain level of professional success, or having racked up enough life experiences, like traveling and dating around before settling down.
Indeed, the women <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/us/politics/us-birthrate-decline-women.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/us/politics/us-birthrate-decline-women.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1772321232845000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3hYnYfwr9CW_joLMOUB1GT">interviewed</a> by the Times — the young marketing student who regrets having to care for her siblings while her mom hustled to make ends meet; the recent grad who wants to build her career first; and the gym employee who “enjoys the [childless] peace” with her husband — are all under the impression that being ready for kids is primarily a logistical and financial proposition.
But if this standard were real, we should expect there to come a moment in most women’s lives when they’ve reached some or all of these benchmarks, prompting them to wake up and suddenly find they’re ready to become mothers.
But that’s not what’s happening. Because that’s not how any of this works.
The women featured in the Times seem to believe that becoming a mother is something they can accurately imagine ahead of time. They believe it’s an endeavor that will someday fit into pictures of their lives they’ve already painted. The problem is that motherhood doesn’t lend itself to that kind of logic. There is no analog to having children by which women (or men, for that matter) can ever really make an informed decision not to do it. That would be like saying, “I’ve looked at this from every possible angle, and I’ve decided not to live on Mars.” To say such a thing would be to have no actual idea what we’re choosing or not choosing.
What many of the women interviewed by the Times don’t seem to understand is that to become a mom is to fundamentally change. A woman in her early twenties can look at the prospect of motherhood as if it were simply another life choice. She might think “maybe I’ll move to another city,” or “maybe I’ll break up with my boyfriend,” and she can pretty fairly imagine what those experiences would be like, because she’d still be herself when or if they happened. But to contemplate motherhood as the same sort of question is a category error. Because when she becomes a mom, she will change so fundamentally that she, frankly, has no business making decisions today on behalf of that stranger.
That probably explains why childless women who try to defend their decision tend to overestimate the hard parts of motherhood and wildly underestimate the wonderful parts. Rose Paz, a young college student who spoke to the Times, said she doesn’t want to have kids right now because it would be a financial struggle, and she remembers the painful experience of watching her own parents stress out over money.
I can empathize with that fear, and it’s true that below poverty, motherhood can be a daily crisis. But if Ms. Paz is imagining some future point in her life in which she won’t feel stressed about money — that is, I’m sorry to say, a fundamental misunderstanding of both stress and money. Life just doesn’t work that way, and motherhood has nothing to do with it.
Another woman, a social demographer, told the Times that the falling birthrate is a “success story” because women are finally making sure they have their &#8220;lives in order&#8221; before having kids. &#8220;We spent decades shaming women for having kids under the wrong circumstances, for not having their ducks in a row… now they are holding up their end of the bargain,” she said.
Certainly, no woman should ever be shamed for having a child; much less a woman whose deadbeat partner has chosen to abandon her to single motherhood. But the social stigma on teen and single motherhood was never really about women having kids when they were poor; it was about women having kids when they weren’t married. These supposedly empowered women claiming to have taken back control of their own lives aren’t talking about making sure a man commits to them before having babies; they’re talking about making enough money.
Again, that’s not the right perspective. The happiest women in America are married moms. Past a certain level of basic material security, the hardships of parenthood aren’t really mitigated by more money, because they’re much deeper and much more existential than the merely financial. They are mitigated by marriage, though. And that’s because, just as it takes a man and a woman to make a baby, it also takes a man and a woman to raise a baby.
It turns out, the best parts of marriage and motherhood have nothing to do with money, either. In my experience, they are surprising and unscripted. The best parts are finding your babies in bed, reading under the covers with a flashlight. It’s when they say “ex-shepally” when they mean “especially.” It’s watching their hair grow wild and curly. It’s catching them being kind to a young stranger. It’s seeing yourself care more about them than your own comfort, when you hadn’t really known that was possible.
I’m almost 40 now, with two young daughters and a marriage going on 17 years. I can’t imagine a deeper source of both vulnerability and joy than this family of mine. I can reasonably imagine what life would have been like if I hadn’t gotten married young. I remember what it was like to travel alone, to answer to no one but myself, to sleep in on Saturdays, and to pee in solitude.
Women who haven’t married or had children, however, don’t have the same insight into their own what-ifs. They may really believe that not having children during their healthiest childbearing years is the path toward their deepest happiness. But they don’t know it, and they’re almost certainly wrong. From a Christian perspective, I believe this is why God made childbearing something totally outside our control.
The hard things in life are usually the very best things, but most of us don’t have the strength, on our own, to choose the hard things. Young women should get married and have babies anyway. They’ll see — I mean this literally — exactly what I mean.
Maria Baer is a contributing writer at the Institute for Family Studies and co-host of the Breakpoint podcast with The Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
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The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Mother of Girls

No One’s Ready To Be A Mom

babies

Motherhood

New York Times

The new “Toy Story 5” trailer has the internet buzzing as the popular animated franchise will take on the growing problem of children having too much screen time.
As the teaser trailer, which was released in November, indicated, the villain this time around is a new tablet called “Lilypad,” which steals main character Bonnie’s attention as she forgoes playing for screen scrolling. This recognizable storyline is resonating with parents and justifying the idea of yet another “Toy Story” sequel.
The voice cast includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Cusack, who return to their roles of Woody, Buzz, and Jessie. Greta Lee voices Lilypad.
The official synopsis says, &#8220;The toys are back and this time, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Jessie and the rest of the gang&#8217;s jobs are challenged when they come face-to-face with Lilypad (voice of Greta Lee), a brand-new tablet device that arrives with her own disruptive ideas about what is best for their kid, Bonnie. Will playtime ever be the same?&#8221;
In the trailer, Jessie says to Lilypad, &#8220;Me and the toys have been working all summer to try and get Bonnie to make friends, but then YOU had to ruin it.&#8221; She decides to call Woody, who tells her, &#8220;Toys are for play but tech is for everything.&#8221; 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Toy Story 5 | Official Trailer | In Theaters June 19" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c51ND9Hdbw0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The full trailer was released on February 19. “Toy Story 5” hits theaters June 19. 
“I’m generally opposed to milking these franchises dry until they’re nothing but a shriveled husk, but if this movie is going to villainize iPads and scold parents who use screens to babysit their kids then I wholly support it. This may be the only &#8216;part 5&#8217; movie that has ever had a valid reason to exist,” Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh <a href="https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/2024561411423109343">wrote</a> in response to the trailer.
“Finally, a movie calling out the iPad baby epidemic,” another X user <a href="https://x.com/KingZahyd/status/2024570820375236820">agreed</a>. “It’s about time we admit that parking a kid in front of a screen 24/7 isn’t parenting, it’s just surrendering. Woody and Buzz are basically fighting for the soul of childhood at this point.”
“Facts, if Part 5 is finally calling out iPad parenting and the screen babysitter culture, I’m in. Make Hollywood preach something useful for once,” another person <a href="https://x.com/Joe1Awe/status/2024562945691123748">agreed</a>.

Woody and Buzz

Buzz And Woody Team Up Again To Battle Big Tech In New ‘Toy Story 5’ Trailer

'Toy Story 5' Targets Too Much Screen Time With New Trailer

Entertainment

Hollywood

Movies

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
Nothing can disprove a belief in the interchangeability of the sexes like having children. When I had my first baby, I assumed my husband and I would split things as evenly as we could. I’d be breastfeeding, sure, but when it came to other tasks, the work would be 50-50. How idealistic I was.
Our baby was clingy and needy, as babies usually are. But the problem was that what he often wanted was not just to be held and rocked to sleep; it was to be held and rocked to sleep by mom — aka, me. I remember watching other fathers bounce fussy babies at church or on a plane and feeling defensive of my husband. He would like to be doing that too, I thought. But it just doesn’t work. (And here is where I add the disclaimer that he did often bounce our baby to sleep and was as involved as possible. But there are some things only moms can do.)
As much as we might like to be, people are not robots. We can’t organize our lives according to a theoretically optimal system without setting ourselves up for failure. Nothing puts that in such stark relief as a baby, who has no interest in holding his poops until dad is around so mom can skip a diaper change, or saving his latest bout of screaming for mom after dad has finally gotten him down to sleep. Babies want what they want, and they couldn’t care less about your so-called equality. 
This hasn’t stopped some parents from pursuing the elusive even distribution of work. A recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/opinion/baby-formula-marriage-equality.html">opinion column</a> in the New York Times offers a solution: “The Secret to Marriage Equality Is Formula.”
“It’s time to explicitly tell parents-to-be, before they’re in the trenches, that the two worthwhile enterprises of exclusive breastfeeding and equal parenting are a zero-sum game — and that it can be utterly life-changing to choose the latter,” writer Nona Willis Aronowitz concludes. 
She’s correct that the two are mutually exclusive; there is no equality in baby feeding when one parent is literally sustaining a child and the other is just there for moral support and water bottle refills. But she’s wrong in her implication that equality should trump other considerations where children’s wellbeing is concerned.
The problem appears to be one of perspective. “The bonding effect” of breastfeeding her first child “was real,” Aronowitz writes, “but it also meant my ability to understand the contours of her needs deepened as Dom [her husband] became more and more sidelined. The resulting resentment nearly broke us as a couple. The unfair burden and sleep deprivation nearly broke me.”
I can attest to overwhelming effects of sleep deprivation, having just gotten my second child to sleep through the night in the past month. I chose to exclusively breastfeed him knowing my husband would be able to sleep mostly peacefully while I was waking hour after hour to resettle our baby. Instead of getting up throughout the night, my husband was changing diapers and spending hours walking our neighborhood in desperate attempts to get our baby to take his naps. Was it equal? No. Did I resent my husband for it? Well, only until I’d had my morning coffee.
READ MORE FROM UPSTREAM: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/weight-loss-medication-may-have-dangerous-side-effects-i-dont-care?author=Bethany+Mandel&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Weight-Loss+Medication+May+Have+Dangerous+Side+Effects.+I+Don%E2%80%99t+Care.">Weight-Loss Medication May Have Dangerous Side Effects. I Don’t Care.</a>
My husband and I have been married for almost six years, and if there’s one piece of advice I feel qualified to pass down, it’s that the pursuit of equality is a path to a miserable marriage. It’s best to think of the workload in your marriage swinging like a pendulum: Sometimes the wife does more while the husband does less and vice versa. Sometimes the duties just look different. When it comes to small children, their mother is biologically wired to take on a larger portion of their childcare. For the kids’ sake, and for the sake of avoiding resentment, that’s worth accepting.
Brené Brown, the researcher most well known for her TED Talk on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o">vulnerability</a>, calls the idea of a 50-50 marriage “one of the worst myth[s] in the world.” She and her husband have two kids together and have been married since 1994, so I’m guessing she knows what she’s talking about. 
“Strong, lasting relationships are rarely 50-50, because life does not work that way,” she <a href="https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-on-comparative-suffering-the-50-50-myth-and-settling-the-ball/">said</a> on her podcast in 2020. “Strong, lasting relationships happen when your partner or friend or whoever you’re in relationship with, can pony up that 80% when you are down to 20, and that your partner also knows that when things fall apart for her, and she only has 10% to give, you can show up with your 90, even if it’s for a limited amount of time.”
Equality in marriage sounds nice, but it’s an ideal not rooted in reality. Husbands and wives get sick or sleep-deprived, take high-pressure jobs, have high-needs children, struggle with mental health issues, and more. Sometimes one spouse will be doing more than the other. And holding yourself to an unrealistic ideal will necessarily result in resentment. 
This doesn’t mean you can’t communicate your needs to your spouse. Quite the opposite. If there are ways in which the workload seems unfair to you, and your partner is able to do more, then he or she should. What you want is a spouse who is willing to step up when you’re feeling down, not one who is hyperfocused on making sure you each wash the same number of dishes. 
Marriage is a partnership, but it can’t — and shouldn’t — always be equal.
Have an idea for Upstream? We welcome submissions; interested writers can send pitches to upstream@dailywire.com.

parenting_equality_v1_720

The Marriage Myth We’ve Been Told To Believe — And Why It Backfires

Culture

Marriage

Disney is preparing to fundamentally reshape the streaming landscape. After taking full ownership of Hulu in 2023, the company is now moving to shut the platform down and fold its entire library into Disney+ as part of a “one app experience.” That migration could occur imminently, and the scale of change is staggering.
When Disney launched Disney+ in 2019, the streaming marketplace was already crowded. Amazon Prime Video debuted in 2006, Netflix in 2007, and Hulu in 2008. With few external restrictions on content — no oversight from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and no advertisers, at that time, to hold content in check. As a result, these platforms broke boundaries that even premium cable channels like HBO and Cinemax would not have dared. offering more vulgarity, more graphic violence, more sex and nudity.
Disney+ promised to be different. 
From the beginning, Disney positioned its platform as a safe haven for families; a platform parents could trust implicitly. That promise worked. More than 10 million subscribers signed up within the first 24 hours, many of them parents desperate to escape the exhausting and never-ending task of shielding young eyes from suggestive poster art and racy titles like “Zac and Miri Make a Porno” or “Nymphomaniac” while they searched menus for the handful of child-appropriate titles that might be available. 
Market research confirmed this distinction. One industry analysis <a href="https://morningconsult.com/articles/disney-plus-streaming-market-brand-data">called</a> Disney+ “the category’s most intentionally chosen service.” Morning Consult found Disney+ scored +45 for “entertaining the kids,” while competitors posted negative scores across the board. “Disney+ is not interchangeable here,” the analysis concluded. “In household decision-making, this is Disney+’s moat.”
Disney executives publicly reinforced this family-first positioning. Months before launch, entertainment reporter Eric Vespe recalled asking a Disney representative whether R-rated content would appear on Disney+. The answer: Disney+ would remain PG-13 or softer, while more mature material would live on Hulu. Disney invested heavily in Hulu so adult-oriented material could remain off the Disney+ platform.
That intentional separation is now being completely dismantled. 
In the summer of 2025, executives signaled plans to shut down Hulu and migrate its entire library into Disney+.
Concerned Women for America (CWA) <a href="https://concernedwomen.org/2026-cwa-netflix-research/">looked at</a> the numbers and discovered that while Disney+ currently hosts fewer than 20 R-rated films, after the merger, that number will exceed 400 — a more than 2,200% increase. Mature-rated television series will escalate from 45 to nearly 400 — a more than 800% increase. Families who subscribed specifically for child-friendly programming will suddenly find their child’s favorite streaming platform flooded with volumes of adult material.
Parents have already seen glimpses of what this future looks like. Last year, families reported surprise and frustration when mature-themed series promotions appeared on Disney+ home screens, prompting uncomfortable questions from young children. Many parents believed Disney+ was designed to prevent exactly this scenario.
This shift represents more than a technical update. It represents a fundamental brand reversal.
Disney was once synonymous with wholesome family entertainment. Parents built household media habits around that identity. Children were given access to Disney+ because families trusted the brand.
That trust is now being put at risk.
Even more concerning is the creative direction Disney leadership appears eager to embrace. One of the most striking examples is the company’s reported interest in hiring producer Ryan Murphy as soon as his development deal with Netflix ends; Murphy’s career has largely focused on dark, adult-themed dramas. 
Murphy’s previous projects have centered on crime, horror, and provocative themes that were never intended for children. Yet Disney executives appear willing to fold this creative approach into a corporate ecosystem historically built around family audiences.
Walt Disney famously said, “Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.” That philosophy guided decades of storytelling built around imagination, optimism, and moral clarity.
Today’s leadership seems increasingly disconnected from that legacy.
And while Disney may point to parental controls as a solution, technology cannot solve a branding problem. The issue is not whether filters exist. The issue is whether adult content belongs on the same platform that parents deliberately chose for preschoolers and elementary-age children.
Mixing Mickey Mouse with mature television may make business sense on a spreadsheet. But it erodes the trust that made Disney+ successful in the first place.
The question now is simple: Will Disney honor the promise that built its streaming success — or abandon the families who made it possible?
The future of Disney+ may depend on how loudly parents answer that question.
* * *
Melissa Henson is the Senior Policy Advisor for Media and Culture for <a href="http://www.concernedwomen.org/">Concerned Women for America</a>, the nation’s public policy women’s organization, dedicated to promoting biblical values and constitutional principles in public policy. On X: @CWforA
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Rear View Of Two Boys Watching Movie Together, Lena, United States

Disney+ Is About To Be Flooded With Adult Content, And Parents Are Right To Be Alarmed

Disney

Family Values

Film

Hulu

sexual content

Television

Violence

Singer Meghan Trainor spoke out this week about her decision to use surrogacy after welcoming her third child through a third party.
The 32-year-old recording artist shared photos of herself on Tuesday holding the newborn skin-to-skin against her bare chest, prompting a mix of reactions online. 
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Trainor gave a lengthy defense of surrogacy during an <a href="https://people.com/meghan-trainor-explains-why-she-used-surrogate-third-baby-exclusive-11889284">interview</a> with People, saying people shouldn’t “whisper” about or “judge” anyone who does it. 
&#8220;It wasn’t our first choice, but we had endless conversations with our doctors on this journey, and this was the safest way for us to be able to continue growing our family,&#8221; the pop star, who has two other children she birthed herself, said of choosing surrogacy. &#8220;We are forever grateful for that option.&#8221;
&#8220;I want people to know that surrogacy is just another beautiful way to build a family. It’s not something to whisper about or judge. It’s rooted in trust, science, love, and teamwork,&#8221; Trainor told the outlet. &#8220;Every family’s journey looks different, and all of them are extremely valid.&#8221;
The Grammy winner announced the baby’s birth in the caption of the Instagram post.
&#8220;Our baby girl Mikey Moon Trainor has finally made it to the world thanks to our incredible, superwoman surrogate. We are forever grateful to all the doctors, nurses, teams who made this dream possible,&#8221; she wrote in the caption. &#8220;We had endless conversations with our doctors in this journey and this was the safest way for us to be able to continue growing our family.&#8221;
Some critics online questioned Trainor for posting the image, including one widely shared comment that Trainor dismissed as a misunderstanding of both surrogacy and post-birth bonding.
“Skin to skin here is doing nothing. The purpose is so that the baby can smell the one they’ve been inside for 9 months, hear the heartbeat she’s heard for 9 months, and get the hormones flowing to the mother for milk production,” one popular <a href="https://x.com/thebereanmillen/status/2013804422782980572">comment</a> on X says.

Megan Trainor

Meghan Trainor Speaks Out About Choosing Surrogacy

Meghan Trainor Defends Using Surrogacy As Fans Question Skin To Skin Photo Of Newborn

Celebrities

Surrogacy

For most of my adult life, I thought I knew exactly what my family would look like.
Two kids is the cultural norm now. That’s the number most people plan for, budget for, and feel comfortable defending. Two fits neatly into modern life. Two feels responsible. Two feels safe.
But I didn’t grow up in a family of two kids.
I came from a family of three. And because of that, three always felt right to me. Three felt full. Three felt lively. Three felt like the right amount of chaos and connection. So when my wife and I started our family, I assumed we’d land there — not to make a statement, but because it was the model I knew and loved.
For a long time, that plan held.
But I was also very clear about one thing: I would never have a kid in my 40s.
That was the line. The boundary. A promise I made back when 40 felt distant and theoretical — something older people dealt with.
Then I turned 40.
And a few weeks ago, my wife and I welcomed our fourth child into the world.
What I’ve learned, slowly and humbly, is that many of the promises we make when we’re younger are less about wisdom and more about fear.
Fear of sacrifice. 
Fear of inconvenience. 
Fear of losing control over a life we’ve worked hard to build.
Our culture feeds those fears relentlessly. It is engineered for comfort, speed, and personalization. It trains us to ask one question above all others: What do I get right now?
Children ask a different question.
They ask: What are you willing to give, over and over, for something that won’t pay you back today?
In that sense, kids are the ultimate form of delayed gratification.
They require sacrifice upfront — years of it. Sleep. Freedom. Money. Flexibility. Control. There is no way to sugarcoat that. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying or trying to sell you something.
But the reward comes later. Slowly. Quietly. Compounding over time.
The first time your toddler reaches for your hand in a crowded room. 
The first time your child looks to you for moral clarity. 
The first time siblings defend one another without being asked. 
The moment you realize you are no longer the center of your own universe — and feel relief instead of loss.
This is what our culture never explains: sacrifice is not the enemy of happiness. Selfishness is.
A society addicted to instant gratification struggles to understand children, because children force adults to play the long game. They demand patience. They require faith — not just religious faith, but faith in the future. Faith that what you are building today will matter tomorrow.
That’s why having a big family today feels almost rebellious.
Birth rates are collapsing. Marriage is delayed or avoided. Children are framed as “lifestyle constraints” rather than blessings. Entire industries exist to convince young people that adulthood is something to postpone indefinitely.
And yet, there is a truth no one likes to say out loud because it cuts against the narrative.
No one — absolutely no one — who loves their kids ever says, “I shouldn’t have had that child.”
People regret jobs. 
They regret cities. 
They regret relationships. 
They regret wasted years chasing empty validation.
But parents do not sit at the end of their lives wishing they had fewer children. They wish they had more time with them.
At 40, with four kids, I don’t feel old.
If anything, kids keep you young. They pull you into the present. They keep you moving. They force you to laugh when you’d otherwise brood. They remind you that joy is often loud, messy, inconvenient — and worth it anyway.
And then there is the gift that often goes overlooked: siblings.
Watching siblings grow up together is one of life’s quiet miracles. They fight. They forgive. They learn loyalty, compromise, and love — not from lectures, but from living shoulder to shoulder.
Long after parents are gone, siblings remain.
They are the ones who know your childhood stories. Who remember your parents’ voices. Who will sit beside you at hospital beds and holiday tables. Who will help one another bury the people who once tucked them in at night.
In a world that prizes radical independence, siblings teach something far more enduring: you are not meant to do life alone.
And yes, one day, God willing, these children will flip the script. They will care for us the way we once cared for them — not out of obligation, but out of love forged through years of shared sacrifice.
Which brings me to faith.
From the beginning, Scripture tells us, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Not as a burden, but as a blessing. Children are not described as liabilities, but as arrows, as gifts, as signs of hope.
Faith teaches us that the point of life is not comfort, but calling. Not consumption, but creation. Not hoarding time, but giving it away for something eternal.
That doesn’t mean every family looks the same. It doesn’t mean everyone is called to the same path. But it does mean we should be honest about what leads to meaning — and what leads to emptiness.
For my wife and me, welcoming a fourth child at 40 was not reckless.
It was faithful.
Faith that love multiplies when shared. 
Faith that sacrifice produces joy. 
Faith that the future is worth investing in, even when it costs us something now.
In a culture obsessed with shrinking horizons, we chose to expand ours.
And if I’m being honest, part of that choice is simple.
I’m trying to make heaven crowded.
* * *
Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast “We The People.” Follow him on Instagram and X @GatesGarciaFL.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Father holding her newborn baby

I Said I’d Never Have A Child In My 40s. Then I Turned 40 And Had My Fourth.

Faith

Fathers

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is being mocked for saying he can’t fathom parenting without the use of artificial intelligence.
The tech entrepreneur made the remarks during an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” When the host asked Altman if he used the platform to help raise his newly adopted baby, whom he shares with partner Oliver Mulherin, Altman said it was a crucial part of his parenting.
“I do,” he told Fallon. “I mean, I feel kinda bad about it, because we have this genius-level-at-everything intelligence sitting there waiting to unravel the mysteries of humanity. And I’m like, ‘Why does my kid stop dropping his pizza on the floor and laughing?’”
“I feel like I’m not asking a good enough question,” he continued.
“I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT,” Altman admitted before quickly adding, “Clearly, people did it for a long time, no problem… I know [that] clearly it was possible,” he repeated, as Fallon laughed while replying, “Yes, it was possible.”
“But I have relied on it so much. I mean, it’s obviously the most important thing to happen in my life, so it’s top of my mind, and I use it all the time,” Altman said.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Sam Altman Says Technology Is the Greatest Equalizing Force in Society | The Tonight Show" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qMAg8_yf9zA?start=113&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Social media has not been kind to the OpenAI exec, especially as the topic of surrogacy and gay adoption continues to make headlines.
“And this, folks is why we shouldn’t let gay people adopt kids,” one X user <a href="https://x.com/yosoymario91/status/1998475717911466216">replied</a>. 
“That&#8217;s some terrifying propaganda,” another commenter <a href="https://x.com/MadamSavvy/status/1998500574325583953">chimed in</a>. 
“See: why infants need their mother,” a third person <a href="https://x.com/RealBrittHughes/status/1998766261451309444">agreed</a>. 
Beyond the broader conversation about the widespread adoption of AI chatbots like ChatGPT and the potential adverse effects on society, parents are also sounding the alarm about specific incidents involving their children. In one case, ChatGPT provided information about how a 14-year-old could have an abortion without her parents finding out. 
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The platform also encouraged gender-confused kids to reach out to radical LGBT organizations to obtain so-called “gender-affirming” resources like chest binders, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chatgpt-will-help-kids-access-gender-affirming-resources-behind-their-parents-backs">reported</a>.
The parents of a 16-year-old boy who consistently engaged in conversation with ChatGPT about suicide are suing OpenAI for their role in the death, per another <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/after-repeatedly-confiding-in-chatgpt-teen-committed-suicide-now-his-parents-are-suing">report</a>.

Altman on Fallon

Tech CEO Dragged For Saying He Can’t Imagine Raising A Child Without AI

Sam Altman: 'I Cannot Imagine Figuring Out How To Raise A Newborn Without ChatGPT'

Artificial Intelligence

ChatGPT

Jimmy Fallon

Sam altman

A newly published <a href="https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/doi/10.1542/peds.2025-072941/205716/Smartphone-Ownership-Age-of-Smartphone-Acquisition?autologincheck=redirected">study</a> by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that children who were given smartphones before the age of 12 were at a greater risk of developing future issues, including depression, obesity, poor sleep, and more.
Researchers noted that the earlier the study participants were given the devices, the more likely they were to develop the adverse effects.
Lead study author Dr. Ran Barzilay <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/kids-smartphones-age-12-higher-risk-depression-obesity/story?id=127998537&amp;cid=social_twitter_abcn&amp;utm_social_post_id=612027417&amp;utm_social_handle_id=28785486">told</a> ABC News that his motivations for conducting the study were both personal and professional. “I have a nine-year-old who wants a phone, and I think [whether to get them a smartphone] is a question that is relevant for every parent of a kid going into adolescence, even before adolescence,” he told the outlet.
“We didn’t even look at what the kids did on the phone,” the child psychiatrist said, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/children-smartphones-increased-risk-of-health-problems-study/">per</a> CBS News. “We basically asked one simple question: does the mere factor of having one’s own smartphone at this age range have anything to do with health outcomes?”
The study included data collected from 10,500 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD) between 2018 and 2020. It was noted that 63.6% of the ABCD study participants owned a smartphone, and the median age at which they received the phone was 11 years old.
Researchers focused on children aged 9 to 16, seeking to identify health outcomes associated with when they were given a smartphone. The team found that 12-year-olds who had a cell phone had a 1.3 times higher risk of depression, a 1.4 times higher risk of obesity, and a 1.6 times higher risk of insufficient sleep as compared to their peers who did not have phones. 
The risk of developing these problems increased by 10% for each year earlier the children were given phones, with some kids being given smartphones as young as 4.
Dr. Barzilay said it was “quite surprising” to find that children who had no smartphone at 12 and then got one at 13 also had worse mental health and poorer-quality sleep that year, even after the study controlled for those factors.
The study’s conclusion stated, “Smartphone ownership was associated with depression, obesity, and insufficient sleep in early adolescence. Findings provide critical and timely insights that should inform caregivers regarding adolescent smartphone use and, ideally, the development of public policy that protects youth.”
The researcher also concluded that his 9-year-old, who wants a phone, is “not getting a phone anytime soon. Clear decision.”

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Children Given Smartphones By Age 12 Have Greater Risk Of Depression And Obesity, Study Finds

American Academy of Pediatrics

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Smartphones

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Technology

This Thanksgiving, parents across America have much to be thankful for — their children, their health, and the simple gift of gathering around the table with people they love. We’ll share food, laughter, and stories about how quickly the kids have grown. And yet, many parents will also feel a quiet, unspoken worry about the world their children are growing up in.
Today’s kids face a culture that’s louder and more confusing than ever before. From social media to entertainment, they’re bombarded with messages about identity, relationships, and sex that can leave them adrift. They’re told to “follow your feelings” and “do what feels right.” Commitment is treated like a burden, and pornography is always one click away. It’s no wonder parents worry about how their kids will turn out — or whether they’re equipped to guide them through it all.
But amid the noise, Thanksgiving gives us a moment to pause and remember there’s still so much to be grateful for. Because despite the cultural chaos, research continues to show there is a proven path that works, one that’s as practical as it is hopeful.
It’s called the Success Sequence.
Researchers Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill at the Brookings Institution <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/brookings-scholars-ron-haskins-and-isabel-sawhill-make-history-as-the-first-joint-recipients-of-the-daniel-patrick-moynihan-prize/">uncovered</a> this refreshingly simple roadmap to stability. Finish high school. Get a full-time job. Get married. Then have children, in that order. It may sound old-fashioned, but the results are remarkable. Only about 3 to 4% of young adults who follow this path end up in poverty. What once seemed like common sense has become one of the strongest predictors of lifelong success.
And it’s not just about money. Young people who follow this path will have fewer sexual partners, fewer sexually transmitted infections, and more stable families. I’ve seen this to be true throughout my medical career. Decades of experience tell us that children who grow up with both parents in a committed home are more likely to thrive emotionally and physically.
That’s something to be thankful for, not just as researchers or clinicians, but as parents and grandparents who want to see the next generation flourish.
So this Thanksgiving, as we give thanks for food and family, let’s also give thanks for the wisdom that still lights the way forward. Let’s be grateful for the teachers, mentors, and parents who still model responsibility, hard work, and faithfulness. And let’s be grateful that even in a changing world, some truths don’t change.
The future isn’t fixed. Despite what the headlines say, our kids aren’t doomed by the world around them. The choices we encourage and the examples we set can profoundly shape their lives. The Success Sequence isn’t about restriction, it’s about freedom. It gives young people a sense of direction and the structure they need to build meaningful lives, one decision at a time.
That’s what I’m most thankful for this year, the privilege and responsibility of guiding the next generation. As parents and grandparents, we get to be the competing voice our children need. We get to show them that real joy doesn’t come from instant gratification, but from purpose, discipline, and love.
So yes, be thankful for the turkey and the laughter, but most importantly, be thankful for the family gathered around the table. Look at your children and the generations below you and be thankful for truth that still holds, for children who still turn out right, and for the grace that allows us to keep trying.
The world may change. The challenges may look different. But the truth doesn’t change, and that’s something worth celebrating every Thanksgiving.
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Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., MD, is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist who resides in Plano, Texas.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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