A week after the midterms, many Americans say the emotional fallout from the election hasn’t faded, and a Los Angeles-based political commentator and columnist, Shirin Yadegar, says she’s found ways to keep that national tension from taking over her own household.
Yadegar, who writes as a political commentator and columnist and founded www.lamommagazine.com, says her work exposes her teenage daughters to more political news than most families encounter, leading to arguments and tears at the dinner table since the midterms. She says other parents outside the political commentary business have reached out with similar anxieties, asking questions like “What do you do now that the socialists are taking over?” and “Are we still safe in America?”
Looking for guidance, Yadegar says she turned to her rabbi, Steve Leder of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, who told her: “The news is not the world and we are not the news.” Leder also told her, “The question remains: How do we evolve and grow? It’s not the survival of the fittest; it’s the survival of the most adaptable.”
Five habits she recommends
Drawing on that conversation, Yadegar outlined several practices she says help her family cope:
- Starting each morning with a prayer or moment of gratitude, regardless of religious belief.
- Replacing morning news consumption with music, which she says lifts her mood enough that dancing in the kitchen now makes her daughters laugh when they come down for breakfast.
- Holding a weekly family dinner — for her family, the Jewish Sabbath dinner on Friday nights — as a fixed time to check in and reconnect.
- Taking a full 24-hour break from social media and the news cycle.
Yadegar cited the late Charlie Kirk, who said: “Turn off your phone for one day a week. The world will keep on turning and you will be happier.”
She argues that stepping back from the news for a day won’t change national events, but can improve mental health and strengthen relationships. “People are still busy fighting on social media about the election — an election that’s been over for a week, and that will be forgotten soon enough,” she wrote. “You’re not missing anything.”
Her closing advice: put the phones down, take a breath, and remember that “we are not the news.”
