Today is Saturday, November 16th. The U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory earlier this year

about the stress and burnout American parents are dealing with and called for a fundamental shift

in how we prioritize the mental health and well-being of parents. But why is parenting so stressful

to so many Americans? And what can be done about it? Darby-Saxby is a clinical psychologist

and professor at the

University of Southern California whose work focuses on how parenting changes the brain and body.

She recently wrote a New York Times op-ed titled, Parents Should Ignore Their Children More Often.

Though there's some context to that you'll want to hear. Today, she joins me to talk about it all,

the multiple factors why parents are

stressed, both on a personal and societal level, and perhaps most importantly, what might help.

Welcome, welcome to the Newsworthy special edition Saturday when we sit down with a different

expert or celebrity every Saturday to talk about something in the news. Don't forget to tune in every Monday through Friday for our regular episodes where we provide

all the day's news in 10 minutes.

I'm Erica Mandy. It's now time for today's special edition Saturday.

Darby Saxby, thank you so much for joining us here on the Newsworthy.

Glad to be here.

So earlier this year,

the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory about the mental health of parents. And the report said

nearly half of American parents reported that most days their stress is completely overwhelming.

What's your reaction to that report? And do you agree that the mental health of parents today is a public health problem?

I thought that report was very troubling, but not surprising. I do agree that we have this looming

public health problem that I think really became salient to a lot of people during the COVID-19 pandemic, having to kind of be their

...