Most women work one shift at the office or factory and a 'second shift' at home.

Most women without children spend much more time than men on housework; with children, they devote more time to both housework andchild care. Just as there is a wage gap between men and women in the workplace, there is a "leisure gap" between them at home. Most women work one shift at the office or factory and a "second shift" at home.

Here is a new car, a new iPhone. We buy. We discard. We buy again. In recent years, we've been doing it faster.

If in previous decades large historic events drew people together and oriented them toward collective action, the recent double trend toward greater choice but less security leads the young to see their lives in more individual terms. Big events collectivize. Little events atomize.

Most women work one shift at the office or factory and a 'second shift' at home.

If in the earlier part of the century, middle-class children suffered from overattentive mothers, from being "mother's only accomplishment," today's children may suffer from an underestimation of their needs. Our idea of what a child needs in each case reflects what parents need. The child's needs are thus a cultural football in an economic and marital game.

Many of the young aspire to happy marriages and dot-com fortunes but end up in guarded love and okay-for-now jobs.