kids
Imagine you’re 3 years old. You’ve gorged yourself on an afternoon snack of expensive berries, and you have no idea what the Strait of Hormuz is. Life is good. Your mom or dad needs to take a bathroom break and hands you their phone to watch some videos while strange…
As top students are starting their college applications this summer, parents are asking me: Should my teenager use AI to write their college essay?As a college admissions expert, I tell most parents that the honest answer depends entirely on how and when AI is used.For starters, a student producing a…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga and author of “Life at the Speed of Play.” It has been edited for length and clarity.Whether I’m doing interviews or just talking with friends, people always want to know more about my parenting. I’m a…
This story is based on an interview with Lisa Desai, 46, founder and CEO of a facility management corporation that operates remotely in her adopted country, Barbados. It has been edited for length and clarity.Our twins were approaching 14 when my husband, Ebrahim, 59, and I decided to move them…
When Dr. Lindsay C. Gibson’s son first brought up job-hopping, she worried about how it would look on his resume.Fresh out of college, he’d only worked at one job for a year when he considered switching to a new role. Gibson was surprised to hear that, unlike for her generation,…
Every few years, I take each of my three kids on a trip for just the two of us. They pick the destination, and I help plan as much (or as little) as they want. What I love most about these trips is how much I learn about who my…
I just bought a new bed. When it arrived, I struggled to put it together on my own. I’m not very good at following instructions, and I couldn’t twist the Allen wrench tightly enough to prevent the bed from collapsing as soon as I lay down. I thought about asking…
Last year, when my Grandma Annette died, my cousins and I got to pick out some of her jewelry to take home.I was glad to keep a few mementos of my grandmother, but I wished I knew the stories behind the necklaces and bracelets I’d grabbed. Which was her favorite?…
When I first suggested a “kids’ dinner” with our upstairs neighbor, I was mainly thinking about getting a night off. Feeding my three kids (ages 4, 6, and 10) can feel endless — just when I think I’ve found a meal that works, one of them suddenly refuses to eat…
On a recent trip, my sister asked her 14-year-old son if he wanted to send a postcard. “Why? I have Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram,” he responded, listing all his social media apps. When she shared this story with me, we laughed, but I felt a lingering sadness. Before everything became instant…
