Parenting

Parenting

Don't let them push you around, my youngest son said halfway through the Camino de Santiago. You don't have to get up early if you don't want to. I didn't know that was an option, replied his brother from his bunk. This subversive banter is what our family sounds like now. The old hierarchy has loosened. We are four adults negotiating the day.

There are dramatic proposals on airplanes happening just in the nick of time, and love that blossoms in the face of terminal illness, and seemingly impossible relationships thriving against all odds. But while I enjoy a good love story as much as the next mom, my work as a pediatric emergency medicine physician informs my perspective on the myriad ways romantic relationships have the potential to cause young people harm.

Kids may say the darndest things, but parents post about them in the funniest ways. Every week, we round up the most hilarious quips from parents across social media platforms like X, Threads and Bluesky to spread the joy. Scroll down to read the latest batch. Realness delivered to your inbox. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners.

Honestly, there's no one I love shopping for than my two toddlers. Plus a theme like Valentine's Day? Consider me a dog with a bone. If you *too* have a tiny Valentine in your life, you might just fall in love with one of these little gift ideas. From a nostalgic Polly Pocket ring and a K-Pop Demon Hunters sensory jar to crayon-shiped Lip Smackers and dazzling Minnie Mouse stud earrings, your darling Valentine is going to look like the heart-eye emoji when they're done opening their gift.

Classic and once-popular baby names are falling out of favor, with some at risk of disappearing entirely. A new report from BabyCenter, which tracks the names parents consider and choose for their newborns, analyzed the top 1,000 names to identify which have seen the steepest declines since 2024. Among girls, Charleigh, Mckinley, Prisha, Ezra, Sasha, Mía, Kenna, Kori, Dior and Shaikha are all slipping down the rankings, with Charleigh and Shaikha taking the hardest hits.

Kids have been telling their parents they're bored for as long as there have been parents. Nothing new there. But lately, it seems different. Many 21st-century kids, especially bright or neurodivergent kids, report being bored a lot. They're bored at school. They're bored on short car trips. They're bored when they're home and stuck inside without a friend. They're bored outside if there's nobody nearby to play with.

You can't do it all. And early on as a parent, I found that out by burning out completely while trying to be the perfect mother. One of the first things I abandoned to reestablish my sanity? Not trying to cook three from-scratch meals for my family every day while also trying to parent, work, and clean. Let's face it: if you're in the parenting business, you better have a few incredibly easy go-to meals up your sleeve

As summer school breaks stretch longer and childcare becomes harder to secure, some families are turning to an unexpected solution: hotels offering full-day, structured kids' camps that allow parents to travel, work and keep routines intact.

So before her 12-year-old started middle school last fall, she taught him how to make a frozen pizza. "His immediate response was, 'No, I don't want to,' Rosenbleeth recalls. After all, the oven is "hot and intimidating." And why would a tween want to make his own pizza when his mom was doing a perfectly fine job making it? "So I think we were working on two different skills," she says.

My mom died when I was young, so I grew up spending summers with her mom in South Dakota. I loved that time with her, but I often only saw her that one time of year. I lived back in Florida with my dad for the rest of the year. When my grandma was older, she embraced the snowbird lifestyle and spent half the year in Florida to escape the Midwest winters.

For many women in the U.S. and around the world, motherhood comes with career costs. Raising children tends to lead to lower wages and fewer work hours for mothers - but not fathers - in the United States and around the world. As a sociologist, I study how family relationships can shape your economic circumstances. In the past, I've studied how motherhood tends to depress women's wages, something social scientists call the " motherhood penalty."

There are always Valentine's Day date ideas for parents and kids. From free dessert walk around Lower Manhattan to Broadway experiences, we have you covered no matter your children's age or budget. Whether you're sharing tea, exploring the city, pampering yourselves, or stepping into an immersive world together, the real magic is the time you spend together, talking to your kids while making memories.

I grew up skiing. As in, we lived in the mountains and skied every weekend of winter, kind of thing. At one point, early in our relationship, my husband looked at me, semi-astonished: "I think you're better on skis than feet." So it was reaaaally important to me that, first, my then fiancé (now husband) and I could share this amazing sport together,

I don't think worrying and letting him do his thing are your two alternatives. I imagine that you're going to continue to (kind of) worry-as parents tend to do when their teenage and young adult (and sometimes even older adult) children become involved in something they find weird or don't understand or that just gives them the ick.

As a parent myself, I know what I'm mostly looking for when buying another toy is that it'll ACTUALLY keep my kids engaged long enough to bring a sliver of peace to my home (a tough task, to say the least!). From Magna-Tiles and the new Toniebox 2 to colorful sensory tubes and a LeapFrog Touch and Learn eReader, my kids have tried out enough of these items to lead you in the right shopping direction!

Start with being completely honest with yourself: You do want to meddle. I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong to, despite the word's negative connotation. So let's call it, instead, "get involved," which is a bit more neutral. To get involved, begin the conversation at the first rung on the school ladder: with his classroom teacher. (If a regularly scheduled parent/teacher conference is coming up soon, save it for then; if there's nothing on the horizon, contact the teacher and ask for a private meeting.)

I had gotten along fine with my son until this moment nine years ago. Since then, he won't speak to me or return my texts, letters or phone calls and I haven't seen him. If I call him and he answers, he hangs up as soon as he hears my voice. I have no idea where he lives now (he's out of the Marines) or what his life situation is.

The moment I rise in the morning, I check my phone. Bad habit, to be sure. But I know I'm not the only one. There is a message from an editor marked "urgent," there is an email from the school reminding me it's parent-visit morning, and a text from a fellow soccer mom making sure I remembered the time change for Sunday's tournament. (I hadn't). The day had barely started, and I already felt hopelessly behind.

It's not that I don't have a maternal instinct. I do, I just don't want children,

I can't even count the number of thoughts I have every single day, just bouncing around in my head like a ping pong ball. I think every mom feels the same way, which is why when you ask a mom what's on her mind, her response could range from something like "Oh, just thinking about my kid's new soccer team" to "The fall of democracy and the state of the world."

I worked hard to build a life for Penny and myself, and I have remained single all this time. Her father has passed away, but he had several other children, and his parents still live in our same small town. I thought my secret (and right to privacy) had been respected, but I recently found out that someone told Penny about her other family several years ago.

I am a new mom to a very sweet 3-month-old boy. I am lucky to work somewhere with a very generous (for the U.S.) parental leave policy, and am preparing to go back to work when my baby will be 4 months old. I'm looking into childcare options, and feel torn. In our area, daycare is very expensive (everything is expensive), and hiring a nanny will be more affordable. This is very surprising to me, but that's how the numbers seem to be working out.

It was mid-morning when Nadine Jones got the daycare call every working mother dreads-her son spiked a fever and needed to be picked up. Jones, a senior associate at a big D.C. law firm, newly divorced with full custody of her 14-month-old son, knew what that call meant: her day was about to unravel. At the daycare, another single mother pulled Jones aside. "Don't you have to work?" she asked. Yes, Jones replied.

No longer is gambling confined to Las Vegas casinos. A 2018 landmark ruling by the Supreme Court allowed states to legalize sports betting, opening the doors to new types of online gambling and games of chance. 'Young boys are largely being pulled into this universe online by algorithmically sent messages,' said Steyer of online games that include chances to open loot boxes and 'win' a prize. 'It seems so innocent, but in fact, it's no different than going into a casino and putting down five or $20 on a hand of blackjack.'

I think my personality definitely leaned Michelangelo, I still think TMNT is one of the greatest movies ever, too. I have two brothers and a sister, and the deal was that we had to be good in church for like a month to be able to go to the theater to see that movie. The last weekend, when we were supposed to go to the movies right after church, one of us got in trouble.

A few weeks ago, our son's friend "Derek" came over for a sleepover and during the night somehow my son bruised his nose. We didn't know until he went home the next day and his parents texted us. Of course, we apologized and our son said it was an accident, but his friend's father refused to let him play anymore. Apparently the boy wanted to go home at 3am, but he didn't say so to us. (They were up late playing games).

Your husband did a pretty terrible thing. First, remind him that your mom's making a choice to not wear deodorant. It's an odd, kinda gross one, but it's her choice. Unless your mom is putting your husband in a headlock every time she visits, he has to learn to deal with it. But one way he can't deal with it is to use your 3-year-old child as an insult shield. That's just bad parenting-bad adulting, really.

Now, some parenting experts say that paying kids to do chores is actually counterproductive in some way, and kids should help around the house without the expectation of financial compensation because, obviously, one day, they're going to grow up and have a house of their own. And as we all know, no one is paying us to make our beds when we're grown.