Nina Bandelj: We don’t see children as people, but as capital we invest in

Money becomes a language of love. Paying for tutoring, travel or extracurricular activities doesn’t feel like economic calculation — it is experienced as devotion to children.

Has parenting become the hardest “job” of modern life? Why is it that, even as parents devote more time, more money and more emotional energy than ever to their children, more and more of them say they feel exhausted, anxious and as though they are never doing enough?...