Parents
My best friend and I leave a trail of sand from our day at the beach as we hurriedly run ahead of my parents, beach cruisers haphazardly parked outside the rental.We’re on a mission to hide a disheveled Barbie doll named Trixie (a victim of a DIY haircut long ago),…
Several years ago, while driving behind a car with a “my-child-is-an-honor-student” bumper sticker, I said to my oldest son, sitting in the passenger seat, “I always wanted one of those.” Loading audio narration… He, then a college student, replied, “Why? It doesn’t mean anything.”He was right. In the greater scheme of things,…
Elementary school is filled with so many monumental moments that parents try to capture. There are the kids standing by the balloons in front of the school on the first day, the holiday concert, Field Day, or a hundred other school activities that we’re lucky to join in on. For…
Pratik Desai’s childhood home in Roselle Park, New Jersey, is full of reminders of his mother, Smruti. After she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her small intestine, he did what he could to keep her around a little longer.The 34-year-old startup founder used AI platforms NotebookLM and Claude…
Luke Howland, 24, moved back in with his parents this year. It wasn’t part of the plan. Loading audio narration… At 19, while many people his age were heading to college, Howland used his savings from high school jobs to open an electric bike retail store in Flagstaff, Arizona. After…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jason Belmonte. It has been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… My career in professional bowling began before I was born, on a rainy day with some bored relatives. My parents had family visiting the small town where we…
A new Pew report about teens and social media reveals something you probably could already guess: Parents are more concerned that teens are watching too much TikTok than teens are. Loading audio narration… Among respondents, 44% of parents say their teen spends too much time on TikTok, while only 28%…
I have four sisters and one brother, and I have always shared a great bond with my siblings. Loading audio narration… Despite significant age gaps (four of us are Gen X and two are Millennials), and the fact that we live in different time zones with demanding careers, we remain…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jason Zhang, a 25-year-old former Google employee based in Seattle. It’s been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… When Google hired me as a software engineer at 22 years old, it felt like a huge accomplishment. It wasn’t just…
