Brittany Luce

Have you talked to a parent recently?

Well, newsflash, the parents are not okay.

And I mean this in a couple of ways.

Yes, there's the financial strain of raising a child right now, but I'm also talking about this underlying anxiety that seeps into every conversation I have with a parent.

The question of, am I a good parent?

For the next few weeks, we're going to look at the culture of parenting in America today.

From the political propaganda that preys on new parents to the challenges of raising a child equipped to survive in our rapidly changing world.

We're showing you how not to fall for the parent trap.

That's Cynthia Wong.

She's a professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University.

And she studies how fear and shame affect a parent's self-image and, in turn, their kids.

Lord have mercy.

It seems like it's very driven by this idea that your child is an extension of you and you are on the hook for every single thing that could ever happen to them or that they could ever do good, bad or indifferent.

It's a lot of pressure.

The question of, am I a good parent, isn't a new one.

But in the era of the self, the era of who am I and am I doing okay, I'm seeing some extra baggage parents are putting on themselves.

You can think of a couple different types of fear-based parenting styles.

Go ahead and ask yourself, based on your own personality, which kind of parent are you or would you be?

Are you a perfectionist parent?

Or are you a helicopter parent?