Measuring the stress endured by mother rats doesn’t allow you to draw simple conclusions about humans. | Photo: zVg

Parent-shaming has also had support from science. The American philosopher Cailin O’Connor recently analysed this particular phenomenon in the science magazine Nautilus. She discussed an article published by the magazine Time back in 2016 that wrote of the long-term adverse effects when parents using mobile phones are distracted from looking after their kids. But Time’s source was a single study of rat mothers that were deprived of nesting material. The animals were so stressed out that they subsequently failed to provide sufficient care to their young, who later developed emotional problems. The results of this study were clearly used to draw very far-fetched conclusions, as O’Connor explains. Evidence is certainly needed for us to understand the impact of parenting, she writes, but instead, “norms about parenting tend to shape how the science is interpreted and communicated. This can lead to a vicious feedback cycle”.