Namely, Murthy addresses “the mental health and well-being of parents.” He cites stress levels of stress, depression, and loneliness and considers the “unique stressors” that parenthood brings: finances, time, cultural pressures, and health conditions. The parent-focused advisory is pertinent to a presidential election season in which family policy has become salient.

Democratic and Republican campaigns have both engaged concerns over what to offer parents, policy-wise, with most debate surrounding the child tax credit, paid leave, and child care. Voices from liberal and conservative media place imperatives on sorting out these concerns. Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-OH) backlash-fraught “childless” comments seem to have resonated with people on the Left more than they care to admit, unless the Democratic Party has always chosen to cater to married over single people.

So, Murthy responds accordingly: He recommends “shifting norms to foster a culture that values, supports, and empowers parents,” and seeks to promote Biden-Harris-era policy structures for those same issues of child care, family leave, and “historic investments” elsewhere. 

Policies like these are objectionable in their own right and do little to alleviate the mental stressors about which the surgeon general is concerned. Paid leave incentives, for example, incline parents’ preferences toward full-time work, while they provide no choice for part-time or single-income preferences and only heighten the frustration of balancing work life with family life. Universal child care does the same thing, with an even more direct blow to the life benefits that parent-child relationships naturally offer.

Murthy’s cultural comments are the more interesting and most necessary component of his advisory. He does not go into detail on where the culture is right and wrong in its relationship to parents, but one might imagine a “fundamental shift” would have something to do with inverting the burden-and-challenge-laden view of parenthood that often overshadows its goodness.

In his advisory from last year titled, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” Murthy alluded to the surge of single-person households in recent years and the “significant health impacts” associated. It is simple to see why life as a parent is reported to be less lonely and notable that it is also much happier and consistently meaningful.

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Despite arguments that married life takes from community life and relational satisfaction in general, the statistics just do not match: Marriage results in significantly less loneliness and more satisfaction. The the same data show single parenthood proves far more lonely and unsatisfactory than married parenthood. A life full of social commitments loses its valor when unmarried, self-sufficiency is what motivates it. It is the self-sacrifice inherent to marriage that makes for particularly loving, meaningful relationships outside of the married couple. The same goes for the esteem we grant to people who seemingly “do it all” while married with kids.

The huge cultural shift that Murthy points out is a change in “how we value parenting.” Besides tax cuts and external help, parents need support in the endeavor of parenting itself. It is the intimate, relational benefits that are primary to its value, independent of societal gain.