November 21, 2012
Pass the Turkey, Hold the Politics: How to Get Through Thanksgiving Without a Big Dumb Argument Around the Dinner Table QUESTION ONE (POSED BY YOUR DAD): You see that Papa John’s guy? I’m telling you: Obamacare is going to ruin this country. I know Jeff [your 22-year-old brother who is currently insured on your family’s health plan as a direct result of Obamacare] went knocking on doors for our “president” because he’s never had a real job and doesn’t know what it’s like to pay taxes just so a bunch of people can get a free ride. But I’m not mad, because he’ll figure it out, once he gets out into the world, and sees what it’s like to make payroll or buy a house after the government’s gotten through with you. ANSWER: Here’s what I think about Skyfall. It was an awesome movie — and, wow, Sam Mendes totally brought it — but it wasn’t a Bond movie, you know? It was so cool and Bardem was ah-may-zing but seeing where James Bond grew up? That’s more Batman, right? What do you think, cousin Sam? Read more. [Image: Norman Rockwell, Reuters]

Pass the Turkey, Hold the Politics: How to Get Through Thanksgiving Without a Big Dumb Argument Around the Dinner Table

QUESTION ONE (POSED BY YOUR DAD): You see that Papa John’s guy? I’m telling you: Obamacare is going to ruin this country. I know Jeff [your 22-year-old brother who is currently insured on your family’s health plan as a direct result of Obamacare] went knocking on doors for our “president” because he’s never had a real job and doesn’t know what it’s like to pay taxes just so a bunch of people can get a free ride. But I’m not mad, because he’ll figure it out, once he gets out into the world, and sees what it’s like to make payroll or buy a house after the government’s gotten through with you.

ANSWER: Here’s what I think about Skyfall. It was an awesome movie — and, wow, Sam Mendes totally brought it — but it wasn’t a Bond movie, you know? It was so cool and Bardem was ah-may-zing but seeing where James Bond grew up? That’s more Batman, right? What do you think, cousin Sam?

Read more. [Image: Norman Rockwell, Reuters]

9:00am
(Notes: 208)
  
Filed under: Thanksgiving Family Politics LOL 
November 1, 2012
"I am more convinced than ever that the only way to make the kind of change we need to allow workers to build, provide, and care for strong families is to change conditions and cultural mores for men as well as women. But men have to join the conversation—publicly, candidly, and loudly."

— Anne-Marie Slaughter

10:28am
(Notes: 92)
  
Filed under: Parenting Family 
September 6, 2012

Here, but Not Here: Family Portraits Held Together by Skype

We live in a world in which some of the people we are closest to are often not near us at all.

When we document our day-to-day existence in photographs and Instagrams, these people are absent. Their presence in our lives is missing from our digital memories.

Photographer John Clang’s series Being Together seeks to correct this. Using Skype and projectors, he captures families visually as they are virtually. 

“In these images,” Clang told me over email, “I am marking the time for these families, enabling them to remember these strange moments of togetherness with the technology presently available. The picture doesn’t stop here, it lingers on in their memory. It embraces the intimacy and closeness of a family, no matter how far apart they are.”

Read more. [Images: John Clang]

3:14pm
(Notes: 12,406)
  
Filed under: Art Tech Photography Skype Family 
August 10, 2012
School’s Out Forever: Parents Who Don’t Believe in Education Radically unschooled children are allowed to live each day in freedom, being exactly who and what they are at that moment. They have no bedtime, no mandatory foods, no off-limit words. If your child is tender-headed and shrieks like a parrot when her hair is brushed, the Radical would suggest you not brush her hair. If she prefers to let it mass into a giant dreadlock that collects food and gnats, well, it’s really not your problem, is it? After all, it’s not your hair; it’s hers. The basic operating principle is that you should not treat a child any differently than you would treat another adult, which is to say without guilt, coercion or threats. Read more. [Image: Lisa James/Shutterstock]

School’s Out Forever: Parents Who Don’t Believe in Education

Radically unschooled children are allowed to live each day in freedom, being exactly who and what they are at that moment. They have no bedtime, no mandatory foods, no off-limit words. If your child is tender-headed and shrieks like a parrot when her hair is brushed, the Radical would suggest you not brush her hair. If she prefers to let it mass into a giant dreadlock that collects food and gnats, well, it’s really not your problem, is it? After all, it’s not your hair; it’s hers. The basic operating principle is that you should not treat a child any differently than you would treat another adult, which is to say without guilt, coercion or threats.

Read more. [Image: Lisa James/Shutterstock]

2:00pm
(Notes: 280)
  
Filed under: Education Family Parenting School Politics 
June 15, 2012
The Manly Job of the Stay-at-Home Dad It might not look it to the casual outside observer, but stay-at-home dads are a tough breed. Behind all of the dangling diaper-bags, strollers, children’s songs, and dried-up drool is a very capable man. A man who can transfer two snoozing children, one on each arm, from the mini-van through the heat of the day — unlocking the door to the house and slipping them into their respective beds without waking them up. A man who, on little to no sleep, must plan for any and every situation, magnificent or mundane. A man who must learn not to panic through bouts of uncontrollable backseat tears and screams while driving in bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic. A man who truly knows the value of taking a long, deep breath. Stay-at-home mothers feel these same stresses. But the ways men deal with them are another matter entirely. As proud and contented as I feel with my children, and as comfortable as I am with the choices my wife and I have made, there are definitely times when I find myself desperately needing to do something specific to assert my manhood. I daydream about spending weekends with a few buddies in the mountains, throwing a hatchet into a tree, or finding the time to grab a paddle and spend hours of solitude on a river in a canoe. Read more. [Image: Melissa Jordan]

The Manly Job of the Stay-at-Home Dad

It might not look it to the casual outside observer, but stay-at-home dads are a tough breed. Behind all of the dangling diaper-bags, strollers, children’s songs, and dried-up drool is a very capable man. A man who can transfer two snoozing children, one on each arm, from the mini-van through the heat of the day — unlocking the door to the house and slipping them into their respective beds without waking them up. A man who, on little to no sleep, must plan for any and every situation, magnificent or mundane. A man who must learn not to panic through bouts of uncontrollable backseat tears and screams while driving in bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic. A man who truly knows the value of taking a long, deep breath.

Stay-at-home mothers feel these same stresses. But the ways men deal with them are another matter entirely. As proud and contented as I feel with my children, and as comfortable as I am with the choices my wife and I have made, there are definitely times when I find myself desperately needing to do something specific to assert my manhood. I daydream about spending weekends with a few buddies in the mountains, throwing a hatchet into a tree, or finding the time to grab a paddle and spend hours of solitude on a river in a canoe.

Read more. [Image: Melissa Jordan]

10:32am
(Notes: 305)
  
Filed under: Parenting Children Fatherhood Father's Day Family Parenthood 
May 5, 2011
The Secret to Happier Parents Is Doing Less: …parenting should thrive in an age of austerity, says Bryan Caplan, an economics professor at George Mason University, and author of the new book Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Parent Is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think. The secret joy of being a parent, Caplan argues, comes from understanding the limited liability of parenting. Studies have found that child-rearing is, if you can believe it, a little overrated. In surveys of twins raised together and apart, behavioral scientists consistently found that nature overpowered nurture in almost all categories, from character and intelligence to happiness and health. Once you accept that bad parenting won’t always keep your kids from being great (and good parenting might not make a difference!), it’s easier to relax and enjoy the state of being a parent. If the seeds of a good person are sown in a child’s DNA, it follows that parents are probably paying too much to improve their children. Caplan suggests that parenting doesn’t have to be so expensive. Kids don’t need the latest gizmos or the ceaseless, and expensive, attention we provide them. You can easily raise a great kid on a modest budget. Caplan suggests marginal improvements in four areas — sleep, discipline, activities, and supervision - would ease the emotional and financial costs of parenting. Parents typically lose “three years of sleep per child,” Caplan says. Read the rest of the story at The Atlantic.

The Secret to Happier Parents Is Doing Less:

…parenting should thrive in an age of austerity, says Bryan Caplan, an economics professor at George Mason University, and author of the new book Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Parent Is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think.

The secret joy of being a parent, Caplan argues, comes from understanding the limited liability of parenting. Studies have found that child-rearing is, if you can believe it, a little overrated. In surveys of twins raised together and apart, behavioral scientists consistently found that nature overpowered nurture in almost all categories, from character and intelligence to happiness and health. Once you accept that bad parenting won’t always keep your kids from being great (and good parenting might not make a difference!), it’s easier to relax and enjoy the state of being a parent.

If the seeds of a good person are sown in a child’s DNA, it follows that parents are probably paying too much to improve their children. Caplan suggests that parenting doesn’t have to be so expensive. Kids don’t need the latest gizmos or the ceaseless, and expensive, attention we provide them. You can easily raise a great kid on a modest budget.

Caplan suggests marginal improvements in four areas — sleep, discipline, activities, and supervision - would ease the emotional and financial costs of parenting. Parents typically lose “three years of sleep per child,” Caplan says.

Read the rest of the story at The Atlantic.

6:01pm
(Notes: 87)
  
Filed under: Business Parenting Children Parents Family Budget Finances Economics 
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