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.
***
Feeling anxious while being a parent is no joke. We have real stressors that affect us. But there are a variety of things that we put on our plates that don’t belong there. Your child&#8217;s report card is not your report card; their cleanliness is not a reflection of your cleanliness. Your children are humans that are totally separate from you.
Parents have become so anxious about their children succeeding or not being lazy or clumsy or whatever other unfortunate adjective you can suggest. Some parents worry so much that they inadvertently make the thing they are concerned about happen because they don’t think with intention; they allow their emotions to dictate their decisions. 
The Pew Research Center reported in 2023 that as many as <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/01/24/parenting-in-america-today/">45% of parents</a> described themselves as overprotective. For this, you can thank the limbic system, which oversees behavioral and emotional responses as well as memory formation. The system includes the amygdala, the part of your brain that&#8217;s responsible for emotional processing and is key in fear and survival instincts.
A drastic number of parents, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/01/24/parenting-in-america-today/">three out of four</a>, are concerned that their children will develop anxiety or depression issues. Do you know what happens when we worry about that happening? Instead of looking at a situation where we notice our children show fear, anxiety, or sadness and allowing them to work through it, we may step in or try to distract them. We hop in to fix it. If we don’t want them to develop those mental health issues, that means keeping them away from those feelings, right? Wrong. As a clinical counselor, I will tell you right now that this is going to hurt them in the long run. 
When a child doesn’t face the things that bother him and has someone else step in for him, what he learns is that he is not capable of doing things on his own and that those feelings should be avoided. He wonders if there is something wrong with him for feeling those emotions, and he doesn’t believe in his own abilities.
Other parents worry about their children getting kidnapped, so they listen to their limbic systems and start tracking and monitoring where their children go all the time. They check in over and over. They don’t allow sleepovers. Would you like to know what kids learn from this? They assume that the whole world is totally dangerous and that they should fear it. They believe that they can’t trust their own abilities. They miss out on developing the skills of managing a healthy amount of risk. Then those kids may do one of two things: push back really hard on all the rules or internalize the belief that they are constantly in danger and are incapable of taking care of themselves.
When your amygdala jumps to the worst-case scenario, remember this: Most <a href="https://leb.fbi.gov/spotlights/crimes-against-children-spotlight-child-abductions-known-relationships-are-the-greater-danger#:~:text=Moreover,%20despite%20media%20reporting,%20the,the%20FBI's%20Criminal%20Investigative%20Division.&amp;text=en_US&amp;PageId=4046%20(accessed%20April%2026,%202011).&amp;text=For%20the%20purpose%20of%20this,of%20a%20parent%20or%20guardian.%E2%80%9D&amp;text=The%20FBI's%20Child%20Abduction%20Rapid%20Deployment%20(CARD)%20team%20was%20established,most%20deployments%20since%20its%20inception.&amp;text=Based%20on%20FBI%20investigations.&amp;text=Ibid.&amp;text=National%20Center%20for%20Missing%20and%20Exploited%20Children,%202009%20AMBER%20Alert,accessed%20April%2026,%202011).">kidnappings</a> are done by a biological parent, and the type of kidnapping people are most worried about has almost a one in a <a href="https://letgrow.org/crime-statistics/">million</a> chance of happening. If you were a sociopath who wanted your child to be abducted, he would have to be left outside on his own for <a href="https://letgrow.org/crime-statistics/">750,000</a> years before it even became a statistical likelihood. You’re welcome.
Here&#8217;s what parents can do instead. A lot of the work is going to be cognitive, meaning it will be based on what you tell yourself. This is a key component because when we have awareness of our thoughts, we can challenge them and not let the anxious thoughts dictate our choices. When you notice that initial uptick in anxiety (stomach hurting, heart rate increasing, something sitting on your chest feeling), acknowledge it. Don’t ignore it. Get curious. Use that glorious prefrontal cortex.
If the anxiety is rooted in your child struggling with a task, take time to observe how she is navigating it and see what she comes up with; talk with her about how things can be hard sometimes and that we can try again or continue to work at something because it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time. Remember that kids doing things differently doesn’t mean they are doing them wrong. Your kid can ask you for help if she needs it. What your child will learn is that she can figure out things on her own. She will also learn that her parent believes in her abilities! This leads to confidence in oneself.
If the anxiety is rooted in your child&#8217;s physical safety, take a beat to observe what is happening in front of you and determine if he is engaging in age-appropriate risky play or exploration. Let your prefrontal cortex know that the physical world is much safer than we think it is. (Violent crime has been <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/us-crime-rates#:~:text=Violent%20crime%20rates%20increased%20during,overall%20trend%20has%20been%20downward.">decreasing</a> since the &#8217;90s, there is CCTV everywhere, and most of the predators are online now.) If he wants to go for a sleepover, get to know the parents and his friends. What your child will internalize is that he can conquer hard things, he can navigate social situations on his own, and the world is his oyster. He will be able to problem solve, use risk management skills, and know how to operate in the real world.
If the anxiety is rooted in the pain of experiencing “bad” emotions, please let me assure you that our emotions are there for us to feel. All emotions are okay (but not all behaviors). In order to support your child in developing healthy emotional regulation skills, name the emotion you see her experiencing, let her tell you about it, give her empathy and validation (this doesn’t mean you accept a poor choice she made; it just means you understand how she feels), work together to problem solve (don’t just give her the answer), and let her try out what she comes up with.
This can be a really hard balance. We hate to see our children struggle through emotions that feel heavy. But if we don’t let them navigate those emotions, they will have zero idea what to do when they are independent adults. By pushing through hard things, your child will realize that emotions are a normal part of life and that when there is a struggle, he can handle it. This will lead to increased frustration tolerance, emotional regulation skills, self-confidence, and competency.
What I want parents to know is that you don’t have to let your anxiety or worry or fear control how you make decisions. Be intentional. Work on wrangling your limbic system so that it can balance emotion and reason. And believe in your child’s abilities.
***
Gabrielle Frook is a licensed clinical professional counselor who has worked with children, adolescents, and adults, delivering evidence-based treatment for PTSD, depression, and anxiety. She writes her own <a href="https://theclinicianstea.substack.com/">Substack</a> and has been published in <a href="https://medium.com/@gemfrook">Medium</a> publications.

GettyImages-2226790560

The Moment You Step In To Help Your Kids Might Be The Moment You Hurt Them

Parenting

Upstream

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s &#8220;first partner&#8221; Jennifer Siebel Newsom is going viral after a video resurfaced in which she said she gives her sons dolls and changes male protagonists in books to female protagonists when reading to her children.
The resurfaced conversation comes from a 2019 interview with the Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez honoring Women’s History Month. 
“I’ve given our boys dolls … to learn that care and caregiving is not just an activity reserved for women but is also an activity that is a responsibility for men,” she said. Later in the interview, she added, “If I’m reading a book and the protagonist is a male, I just change the he to a she.” She said it normalizes women being the star of a story and that “women matter and women are interesting.”
Her comments were quick to draw criticism from the Right.
Conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey said, &#8220;Being a boy isn&#8217;t a disease that needs to be cured. Masculinity is a strength that needs to be fostered and encouraged.&#8221;
Fox New&#8217;s Tomi Lahren added, &#8220;I told yall the other night on Watters PrimeTime as bad as Gavin is, the wife will be the woke weight on his ankles.&#8221;
Popular commentator Link Lauren said, &#8220;I&#8217;e sounded the alarm for years. Jennifer is on eof the most radical women in public life. Imagine how she is behind closed doors if this is what she says publicly.&#8221;
The Daily Wire obtained the interview in its entirety and found that in addition to her parental advice, Siebel Newsom said conservative politics conflict with viewing women as equal.
“I grew up revering Ronald Reagan … my father did, so therefore we did,” she said. “My dad has always been the biggest champion of women, especially marginalized and vulnerable women, but unfortunately his politics led him in a direction that is sort of in conflict with seeing women as equal.”
She also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7_5zEr_OuM">blames</a> California’s K-shaped economy on the “devaluation of all that we’ve feminized.”
“Everything that we’ve feminized in American culture — whether entire industries like education, health care, etc., or just attributes like empathy, care, and collaboration — because of the devaluation of all that we’ve feminized, we actually have this incredible inequitable system whereby socioeconomic mobility has never been as poor.” She added that “with California, for example, being the richest and poorest state in our country, we know that we have a lot of work to do to ensure that every California resident achieves not just the American dream, but the California dream.”
Siebel Newsom concluded, saying this is a policy she’ll champion as &#8220;first partner&#8221; of California, a title she created, explaining that she sees it as a more inclusive alternative to the traditional title of “first lady.”
It’s not the first time critics have questioned the first partner’s beliefs and word choices. Siebel Newsom even mentioned her husband has at times been a critic. “Every once in a while, he’ll [Governor Gavin Newsom] say, ‘That’s not really helpful that you said that,’ and I’m like, ‘I know, I’m sorry,’ but it’s the truth and I’m always going to speak the truth, and I’m always a mama and I always care about not just my children, but California’s children, and I’m always going to advocate for women.”
CNN’s Scott Jennings has <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWjVVMgAtfI/">argued</a> Siebel Newsom will be a problem for the governor of California if he chooses to run for president in 2028. Jennings made his remarks after Siebel Newsom discussed traveling to red states to learn about racism and misogyny.

California Governor Gavin Newsom Interview On The Circuit

‘I Just Change The He To A She’: Wife Of Gavin Newsom Draws Backlash With Parenting Advice

California

Gavin Newsom

General

Politics

The First Lady is meant to embody unity, home, and family. She is the right hand of the president and, in her own way, a mother to the nation. Melania Trump has taken that charge seriously — focusing her platform on children’s well-being, online safety, and opioid abuse prevention, placing service above self and motherhood above politics.
So as 2028 rumors gather and the question of our next president looms, it’s worth considering who would stand beside him and what she would do with the platform.
If California Governor Gavin Newsom becomes our next president, ask yourself how detrimental it would be for our nation if his First “Partner,” Jennifer Siebel Newsom, assumes greater power. Not First Lady — First Partner. The title she bestows on herself tells you everything you need to know, and the damage would follow accordingly.
Siebel Newsom wouldn’t be the mother of our nation. She’d be the caregiver, the parent, whatever gender-neutral term doesn’t upset the acolytes of the far Left who propelled the couple to power.  She wouldn’t reserve that terminology for herself alone; she would conscript the rest of us into it as well.
We need not wonder how she would parent the country. She’s already told us by how she parents her kids.
I recently wrote about how she’s taken her children on what amounts to a Racism Safari through Red State America — hunting for “misogyny, racism, and bullying, oh my!” But a newly resurfaced video reveals the indoctrination began far earlier.
Siebel Newsom told an interviewer that she gives her boys dolls &#8220;to learn that caregiving is not just an activity reserved for women.&#8221; She added that when reading a book with a male protagonist, she simply &#8220;changes the he to a she&#8221; so her sons can see that &#8220;women can be at the center of a story. That women matter. That women are interesting.&#8221; You have to rewrite literature to teach your children that women are interesting? Isn’t this something they should be able to observe at home, or is that a problem in the Newsom household?
Then she went further. We are all, she said, &#8220;recognizing what it is to ultimately deconstruct all of these gender roles and ultimately be human.&#8221; She will &#8220;continue to do her work to try and deconstruct these limiting narratives about what it means to be human.&#8221;
Read that again. In order for the Newsom family to be fully human, they must first dismantle what it means to be a man or woman. I can’t imagine what their dinnertime conversations sound like, but it seems as if the Newsoms are engaging in a war against the imago Dei — the truth that every person is made in God’s image, with an unchangeable, sexed soul.
When elites like Newsom use their platform to rewrite children’s books, hand boys dolls as ideological instruments, and treat biology as a social construct to be dismantled, they don’t make us more human. They make us less. They tell boys that the natural drive to protect and provide is toxic. They tell girls that the capacity to nurture is something to be questioned.
The result? Confused children, skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, and identity disorders, and a culture that treats objective reality as bigotry.
The leftist upper echelon calls this harmless. It isn&#8217;t. It is state-adjacent indoctrination with a smile and a reading circle.
True humanity is not found in endless deconstruction. It is found in accepting the Creator’s blueprint, in living out complementarity, and in rejecting the nihilism that insists man can redefine what God has made.
If the Newsoms become our nation’s next parents, we can be sure that their form of “progress” will aggressively erode that very humanity they openly vow to deconstruct — in the form of gender clinics in schools, pronouns in kindergarten, and a generation that no longer knows what a mother is.

California Governor Gavin Newsom Meets With Campaign Staff And Volunteer On Day Of Recall Election Vote

The Newsoms Are Parenting From Another Planet And They Want To Be America’s Parents, Too

Elections

First Lady

gender ideology

Leftists

United Airlines is introducing a new seating option aimed at making long flights more comfortable, especially for families traveling with young children. 
The airline recently unveiled &#8220;Relax Row,&#8221; which transforms three adjacent economy seats into a lie-flat space. The feature, announced on social media, is expected to roll out in 2027.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The entire row is alllllll yours.
Welcome to United Relax Row, three adjacent United Economy seats with adjustable leg rests that can each be raised or lowered to create a cozy lie-flat space for stretching out&#8230;
You&#8217;ll also get a mattress pad, blanket and two pillows. If… <a href="https://t.co/Q6gcOuXbXo">pic.twitter.com/Q6gcOuXbXo</a>
— United Airlines (@united) <a href="https://twitter.com/united/status/2036505633470431412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“The entire row is alllllll yours,” the X caption says. “Welcome to United Relax Row, three adjacent United Economy seats with adjustable leg rests that can each be raised or lowered to create a cozy lie-flat space for stretching out.”
Passengers will also receive a mattress pad, blanket, and two pillows. Families traveling with children will be offered a plush toy. United said the option would be available on more than 200 Boeing 787 and 777 aircraft, with up to 12 designated rows per plane.
According to the airline, the setup is designed to give travelers more flexibility and comfort.
“Whether you’re traveling as a family, solo or as a couple, you’ll have the freedom to stretch out, cozy up and make the journey your own,” United said on its website.
The announcement drew mostly positive reactions online.
“Much needed. United is innovating faster than anyone,” one reply <a href="https://x.com/DrWilliamBrady/status/2036532429846917544">said</a>.
“Good idea. Finally, something new from the airlines,” another commenter <a href="https://x.com/LeviSpires/status/2036519609558262177">replied</a>.
“May this set the standard for more child-friendly travel!” a third <a href="https://x.com/The_Nomad_News/status/2036613595925303521">added</a>.
United has not yet released details on pricing or how the seats will be booked.
This is the second encouraging update from the airline, which made <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/united-airlines-threatens-to-ban-passengers-who-make-this-noisy-faux-pas">headlines</a> recently when it added language to its contract of carriage stating it may refuse to transport passengers who fail to use headphones while listening to audio or video content. 
A spokesperson for United noted that headphone use had long been encouraged.
“We’ve always encouraged customers to use headphones when listening to audio content — and our Wi-Fi rules already remind customers to use headphones,” the spokesperson said. “With the expansion of Starlink, it seemed like a good time to make that even clearer by adding it to the contract of carriage.”
The policy change was widely supported on social media, with many travelers saying it addressed a long-standing frustration and should become standard across the airline industry.

Traveling family

United Airlines Just Changed The Game For Families Traveling With Kids

Air Travel

Airlines

United Airlines

Large American Family Group Gathering

Why Kicking Your Kids Out At 18 Is Actually Insane

Children

family

Family Values

Gen Z

Marriage

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Teenagers

A new ad for Disney Cruise Line is receiving rave reviews online thanks to its pro-family messaging and touching storyline.
The 90-second ad “Midnight Magic,” which debuted on Sunday during the Academy Awards, focuses on a father’s bond with his son. 
It opens with a father walking his infant son around on the ship in the middle of the night. The ad follows the pair as the son grows into an older kid and then a teen who briefly rejects the ritual. This heartwarming tale ends when the adult son knocks on the door and asks his now elderly father to go for a late-night walk on the cruise ship with him and his young daughter. 
Social media users loved the message of present fathers, family traditions, and making memories.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Where Magic Meets The Sea | Disney Cruise Line" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yw922nyPxZs?start=3&#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>
“Challenge any father to watch this without crying,” one commenter <a href="https://x.com/mondoggg/status/2033347711261348292">wrote</a>. 
“You crushed it with this one!!  Dads are amazing and well worth those quiet moments of reflection and the impact it has on kids. Love this!!!” another <a href="https://x.com/oyveynottoday/status/2033608013773148624">said</a>. 
Other commenters delighted in the company promoting traditional values once again.
“Back to the basics Disney..  your BRAND was built on this RIGHT HERE….,” one person <a href="https://x.com/THEprivbnkr/status/2033374671379247267">responded</a>.
“You guys really nailed it with this,” another reply <a href="https://x.com/JoshChavis65/status/2033351196174360701">said</a>. “More of this from this brand, please. It’s what it’s supposed to be.”
“The culture shift is real, this Disney cruise ship ad aimed at dads is fantastic,” echoed <a href="https://x.com/claytravis/status/2033719663624888745?s=43">another</a>.
“Disney has brought families closer together for generations,” <a href="https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/news/midnight-magic-cruise-line/">said</a> Asad Ayaz, Chief Marketing and Brand Officer for The Walt Disney Company. “This campaign embodies what guests tell us time and again: that the Disney experiences they cherish most are the ones spent with the people they love. We’re grateful to make that kind of Disney magic a reality.”
The ad comes as fans speculate over Disney veering away from the woke path it had been traveling down. The entertainment giant ended 2024 by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/will-woke-exit-stage-left-hollywoods-culture-clash-in-trumps-second-act">erasing a trans character</a> from one of their shows, followed weeks later by walking back their DEI policies.
While Disney hasn’t done a complete about-face, the company has been less controversial over the last year, especially as compared to when it was bragging about a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” in 2022.

Disney Cruise

Did Disney Finally Get The Memo? Surprising New Cruise Ad Has Viewers In Tears

Disney Got The Memo? New Cruise Ad Celebrating Dads Has Viewers In Tears

advertising

Disney

fatherhood

Fathers

Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an important ruling in Mirabelli v. Bonta, a case addressing whether schools can implement policies that deliberately exclude parents from critical decisions about their children’s well-being. The Court answered that question with a clear and resounding no.
In its order, the Court reinstated a prior injunction, barring California schools from enforcing policies that conceal students’ gender transitions from parents or require teachers to use names or pronouns inconsistent with biological sex. Under these rules, this information was withheld from parents unless the child consented. Naturally, many parents and teachers challenged these policies, arguing that they violated constitutional rights.
The Court agreed that the parents raising religious objections are likely to win their claims under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. The justices also found that the policies are likely to interfere with parents’ long-recognized constitutional right to direct the upbringing and care of their children under the Fourteenth Amendment.
In reaching that conclusion, the Court relied on decades of precedent that affirm the role of parents in guiding their children’s development, including Wisconsin v. Yoder and Troxel v. Granville. The message is straightforward: when it comes to consequential decisions affecting a child’s identity, mental health, and moral development, the government cannot simply push parents aside.
This ruling arrives amid a broader national debate over how schools respond to students experiencing gender dysphoria. In many districts, policies have emerged that treat transgender identity as a matter between the student and the school, <a href="https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/protecting-children-from-social-transition-act">rather than between the child and their family</a>. Supporters argue that such policies protect vulnerable students. But the Court’s decision highlights a critical problem: removing parents from the conversation can undermine the very support systems children need most.
Parents are typically the first line of care when a child is struggling emotionally or psychologically. The Court recognized this reality, noting that <a href="https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/gender-dysphoria-and-the-social-transition-intervention">gender dysphoria</a> is a condition with significant <a href="https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/gender-dysphoria-and-the-social-transition-intervention">mental health implications</a>. When schools conceal information about a child’s confusion with their biological sex from parents, they risk shutting out those most responsible for providing guidance, counseling, and medical care.
The Court’s reasoning also exposes an uncomfortable truth that has been too often ignored in public policy debates: decisions about “gender” identity during adolescence can have profound and lasting consequences.
That reality becomes particularly important as more individuals speak openly about the experience of detransition — discontinuing gender transition procedures after coming to regret them. While research on detransition remains limited, emerging evidence suggests that some young people who went through so-called “gender affirming care” did so because of social pressure. Others say the real reason for their psychological distress was not addressed, and the transition process only further complicated their existing pain.
This is why parental involvement matters. Adolescence is a time of rapid emotional and cognitive development. Decisions made during that process should not occur in isolation from parents who are legally and morally responsible for their children’s welfare.
This week, advocates and researchers will observe Detransition Awareness Day on March 12. The day highlights the experiences of individuals who have reversed or questioned their earlier identification as transgender and seeks to promote better research and support for those navigating a similar path.
Their stories underscore an important point: the debate surrounding our biological sex is not simply theoretical. It involves real people whose lives are shaped by the policies adopted by schools, medical institutions, and governments.
Acknowledging detransition means recognizing the complexity of adolescent identity and the need for careful, responsible approaches that prioritize long-term well-being.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Mirabelli does not resolve every problem that surrounds the gender topic, but the ruling establishes a vital principle: parents cannot be treated as obstacles in their children’s lives. In fact, they are the opposite – parents are the people primarily responsible for guiding their children through the most difficult and formative stages of adolescence. To exclude them from decisions that carry permanent, harmful, and lasting consequences is contrary to the very concept of what it means to raise a child.
As the nation reflects on detransition and the broader questions surrounding the gender issue, policymakers would do well to remember what the Court reaffirmed this week — families matter, and parents deserve a seat at the table.
* * *
Dr. Jennifer Bauwens is America First Policy Institute’s Director of American Values.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Mother hold hand schoolboy walking to bus. Energetic pupils running crossway.

The Parent Trap: The Detransition Reality Schools Tried To Hide From Moms And Dads

detransitioner

Parental Rights in Education

Parents rights

Public Schools

Supreme Court

Transgender

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.

kids

Religion

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

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