Dr. Jennifer Reich

and which ones do they feel like might be minute or rare and therefore they can delay the decision or skip this particular vaccine.

And so having those conversations, even if it's things like rubella where your child might not personally benefit, but it might be really important to the people around your child can be a really powerful conversation.

And we saw that during COVID.

We see that with flu vaccines, right?

Flu is terrible for everybody who gets it, but it's a powerful tool for protecting seniors in our community.

And so thinking about how we do that together and where families see their role, where parents see their participation can be really important too.

And those are really different kinds of conversations that I think we all have to start thinking about how to have.

Some people need statistics.

Some people will only be compelled if they can see the numbers.

They respond with their head.

But there's people who respond with their heart, right?

They want that social connection.

They want to feel like this is relevant and they want to really manage their own anxieties.

And because I continue to do research on vaccine decision-making and I watch lots of online communities, even right now as measles is hitting a record high, parents, even when they say I'm really nervous about getting the MMR vaccine and I'm also nervous about my child getting measles, how do I manage this?

That emotional experience of what if I make the wrong choice for my child is ubiquitous.

And to be fair, mothers in particular are constantly bludgeoned with the message that they might make the wrong decision.

That good mothering is supposed to be a series of perfect decisions, whether it's tutoring or schools or clothing or car seats or strollers.

Every decision is supposed to be a perfect decision.

And we know from other people's research, that's exhausting.

It's wearing people down.