Happy Mothers Day: The week in Well+Being

August 04, 2024

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Happy Mother’s Day! This week we’re writing about moms, of course, as well as “good enough” health decisions and why feet get bigger with age. Plus we’ve got our weekly “joy” snack. But before that …

This week’s must-reads:

High levels of ultra-processed foods linked with early death, brain issues
Confused by new mammogram guidelines? Here’s what to know.
Olive oil use associated with lower risk of dying from dementia
Cicadas are loud. For those with sensory issues, it can be overwhelming.
This strange brain reaction to pain is called ‘muscle guarding’

Celebrating motherhood

I love Mother’s Day — not because it’s a day that honors my role as a mother but because it’s a time to reflect on the empowerment, confidence and joy that motherhood brought to my life.

There are so many ways to mother. Some of us care for our own children — biological, adopted or fostered. Others take on the role of mothering nephews, nieces, neighbors or other young people in their lives. Given the immense care people give their pets, I believe pet “mothers” deserve recognition, too. Love is love!

To celebrate Mother’s Day, we’ve collected several stories celebrating moms. Enjoy!

Defining motherhood: How do you sum up something so extraordinary in 100 words or fewer? We asked readers to try.

For these women, motherhood opened the door to new careers: Motherhood can create challenges at work, but for some, it generates better opportunities.

The plant that became a metaphor for motherhood: This plant followed my family across generations. I couldn’t let it die.

My mother died young. My journals are for her and my daughters: There wasn’t time for her to answer all my questions, but documenting my children’s lives gave me a way to honor her and cherish my girls.

7 Mother’s Day recipes to give mom a sweet treat: Treat your mom to scones, drinks, dessert and more.

The upside of motherhood you don’t hear about.

Why ‘good enough’ is okay

When it comes to making decisions, are you maximizing or “satisficing?” Satisficing is a term coined by political scientist Herbert Simon that combines “satisfy” and “suffice.”

“Maximizers want to make the best decision,” says Ayelet Fishbach, a professor of behavioral science and marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. “Satisficers want to make the ‘good enough’ decision.”

Anything that makes life a little easier, I’m in. Here’s what to know about “good enough” decisions.

“Good enough” decisions aren’t haphazard or rushed — but they aren’t overthought, either. Once something clearly meets your needs, you decide that’s good enough and call it a day.
A maximizer, for example, might spend two hours looking for the perfect pair of headphones online. They’ll meticulously scan the reviews and compare features. A satisficer simply clicks “buy” once they’ve found a pair that meets their needs.
Maximizers, who are so focused on finding the best option, often feel more regret than satisficers. Give yourself a limited set of options — say, three pairs of socks — and choose. When the option set gets too big (a quick Amazon search for socks produces 80,000 results), it’s harder.
Maximizers experience “analysis paralysis” — such as looking all day at cheap flights and not picking one.

For more advice on “good enough” thinking, read the full report.

Is it normal for my feet to get larger as I age?

I feel like my feet are getting larger as I get older. Is that normal? What’s going on?

We stop growing in height in our teens to early 20s, but our feet usually keep growing. Even in a single day, our foot size fluctuates — expanding as much as a half size — according to the Royal College of Podiatry.

And it is not just our individual foot size. There’s been a major shift over the last century in our collective feet size. Historians have noted that in 1900, the average man in North America wore a size 6.5 shoe, and the average woman wore a size 4.5 shoe.

Our expanding footprint probably reflects a few generational changes. We weigh more because of the obesity epidemic, and we are taller, partly because of improved childhood nutrition, which can accelerate foot growth during adolescence.

The effect of weight gain on foot size may be reversible: A 2017 Turkish study found that male and female patients who had a sleeve gastrectomy for obesity had a decrease in shoe size, sustained a year after their surgeries.

To read the complete answer from our Ask a Doctor columnist, physician Trisha S. Pasricha, click on this link.

Find your joy snack!

Here are a few things that brought us joy this week.

This week’s best photographs from The Washington Post include clownfish, red-carpet ducks and dining sea lions.
Deaf baby hears for the first time after ‘groundbreaking’ gene therapy trial
Auroras could light up skies Friday night after multiple outbursts on the sun
Make mom dinner. Try Seared Scallops With Creamy Herb Sauce
Dog hit by car loses leg, is adopted by firefighter who helped her
How to pick a retirement home and thrive

Want to know more about “joy” snacks? Our Brain Matters columnist Richard Sima explains. You can also read this story as a comic.

Please let us know how we are doing. Email me at wellbeing@washpost.com. You can also find us on TikTok.

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