What Are Grown-Ups For?

Home
Notes
Archive
About
When Parenting is Politicized
Without agreed-upon markers of adult maturity and the importance of reaching it, society devolves to the point where moms are arrested for letting…
 • 
Elizabeth Grace Matthew
6
Girlboss? Tradwife? How about neither?
On the hollowness of (non)maternal identity and the necessity of female vocation.
 • 
Elizabeth Grace Matthew
8
Why Modern Motherhood Needs Religion
Want more fairly typical women to couple up and have 2+ kids? Want to reverse the fertility crisis? Get to church. And bring a friend or three.
 • 
Elizabeth Grace Matthew
2
Is There a Coherent Case for Parenthood that is Secular and Progressive?
In a recent book, "What Are Children For?" Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman come as close as to making such a case as anyone can. Their argument falls…
 • 
Elizabeth Grace Matthew
In the new year, resolve to parent like Mufasa
If more parents would turn away from ‘gentle’ parenting, society would be better off
 • 
Elizabeth Grace Matthew

December 2024

My Favorites of 2024 (and 2023).
Check out my first attempt at a personal "best of" list. Then, subscribe free, recommend, post everywhere, and tell a friend!
 • 
Elizabeth Grace Matthew
How 'gentle parenting' robs your children
Unconditional love means preparing children to grow up, and for the world's conditional demands.
 • 
Elizabeth Grace Matthew
4
The Case Against Gentle Parenting
Parenting isn't about fostering the parent-child relationship. It's about facilitating the child's relationship to a wider world that doesn't revolve…
 • 
Elizabeth Grace Matthew
How ‘gentle parenting’ actually fosters fragility
It's not "just" that gentle parenting doesn't work. It's also that its underlying assumptions about human nature and about the world are wrong.
 • 
Elizabeth Grace Matthew
4
The Sopranos at 25
Masculinity, Motherhood, and American Moxie
 • 
Elizabeth Grace Matthew

November 2024

© 2025 Elizabeth Grace Matthew
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture