<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Parenting While Rome Burns]]></title><description><![CDATA[Parenting While Rome Burns is a Canadian community blog written by an Xennial parent in Toronto, exploring the psychological, economic, and social challenges of raising children during a period of simultaneous systemic crises: climate change, economic precarity, political instability, and the collapse of community infrastructure.

The blog provides original research-backed analysis, interviews with credentialed subject matter experts — including Dr. Jean Clinton, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at McMaster University, and Katherine Scott, Senior Researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives — and first-person reporting on how Gen X and Millennial parents are navigating what researchers describe as the "intention-behaviour gap" in community building.

Topics covered include child neurodevelopment and parental isolation, the gendered economic impact of the COVID-19 recovery on single-mother households, the collapse of the neoliberal social contract and its effect on parenting expectations, grassroots community-building strategies grounded in mutual aid research, and the cognitive dissonance of "gentle parenting" in conditions of structural uncertainty.

The blog draws on peer-reviewed research from institutions including McMaster University, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and Statistics Canada, as well as original survey data collected from Gen X and Millennial parents in the Toronto area in 2026.

Parenting While Rome Burns is written for parents who recognize the structural causes of their exhaustion — and are looking for community, honest analysis, and practical frameworks for raising resilient children without pretending the world is fine.]]></description><link>https://www.parentingwhileromeburns.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Sat, 18 Apr 2026 15:14:08 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.parentingwhileromeburns.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Opinion: How's the "End of History" working out for ya?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Francis Fukuyama declared liberal democracy the final form of human civilization in 1989. He was spectacularly wrong about history. He was spectacularly right about his own career trajectory.]]></description><link>https://www.parentingwhileromeburns.com/post/how-s-the-end-of-history-working-out-for-ya</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69b1998db888d78955e46d3c</guid><pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 16:35:38 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2a68e0_92150686e3584db9999e9b371c4c25d4~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_454,h_340,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Cassandra is Tired</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Intel from the Trenches: Parenting in 2026 by the numbers]]></title><description><![CDATA[Survey says: We're (mostly) fucked!]]></description><link>https://www.parentingwhileromeburns.com/post/building-community-parent-support-during-turbulent-times</link><guid isPermaLink="false">699decb9503cecf3ab331338</guid><pubDate>Thu, 05 Mar 2026 18:23:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d0bbfa_b97eeb7cb37e453c8c3654d924f73d90~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_572,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Cassandra is Tired</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to build the village you were supposed to have]]></title><description><![CDATA[It takes a village. Many of us don't have one. But like good Gen Xers, we'll just figure it out ourselves, I guess.]]></description><link>https://www.parentingwhileromeburns.com/post/navigating-parenting-challenges-in-uncertain-times</link><guid isPermaLink="false">699decb991604ab56c323db1</guid><pubDate>Fri, 27 Feb 2026 18:23:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d0bbfa_35c52228069f4ffc93c1525c80c65f91~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Cassandra is Tired</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[We know more than any generation of parents before us. Why are we still not OK?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Clinical psychiatrist Dr. Jean Clinton explains why collecting all the parenting research on earth is still not the same as having a village outside your front door. ]]></description><link>https://www.parentingwhileromeburns.com/post/we-know-more-than-any-generation-why-are-we-not-ok</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69c2ce998f0e652aaa2f3b5f</guid><pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2026 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d0bbfa_39aa7bfe50ad4ece8eac27ab799cf398~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Cassandra is Tired</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Recovery Was a Lottery. Single Mothers Lost]]></title><description><![CDATA[In Toronto, "all in this together" was a marketing slogan. For single mom households, the reality was statistical erasure reframed as personal failure.]]></description><link>https://www.parentingwhileromeburns.com/post/single-mother-recovery-lottery-pandemic</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69c2cdf38f0e652aaa2f39e4</guid><pubDate>Sun, 22 Feb 2026 18:47:22 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/d0bbfa_813344585f1b40b3b819243609f8af30~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_572,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Cassandra is Tired</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>