Our instinct is to make sure every second of their time is filled. They’ve got school. And swim practice. And guitar lessons. And play dates. We tell them to go play outside. To read or do their homework or practice their instrument. We ask them what they want to do next. We are always telling…

It was overwhelming. It was exhausting. There was never a break. You had them for every second. Your kids had every second and every inch of you. They were in your space. They were in your business. They needed something. They wanted something. Crawling over you, reaching for you, until you felt completely touched out….

Yes, they sometimes throw tantrums. Yeah, they often don’t listen. They make messes. They break stuff. They hit their siblings. They refuse to eat what they just asked you to make…and then scream in hunger a few hours later. They do all this and more…and yet, they are perfect. You understand that, right? They are behaving…

Parenting is relentless. It can be as challenging, stressful, frustrating, and worrisome as it is beautiful, joyful, rewarding, and life-changing. You’re always trying to do better. You want to break generational cycles. You want to raise good humans. You don’t want them to struggle with the same things you did. You want to support them, you…

We don’t get them for long. We don’t get them as much as we’d like. Because they grow up so fast. Because of the divorce. Because we travel for work. Because they have to go to school. And as crazy as they drive us when we have them, we miss them so much when we…

They’re embarrassed of you. They don’t want you to talk to them in front of their friends. They don’t want to be seen going in with you. They ignore you. They’d rather look at their phone than have a conversation with you. This is what kids do. This is what teenagers do. The comedian Paul…

It’s like a kind of an insane infatuation. They become obsessed, our kids—with dinosaurs and trash trucks and tractors. With Disney characters and soundtracks. With bunnies and sharks and mermaids. And for a period, our lives revolve around these obsessions. We take them to an airshow because we know that seeing that many planes will…

You sweated for it. You worked for it. You saved it. You invested it. You may need it someday. But if your money could talk, do you know what it would say? It would say spend me on your kids. It would say to do it now, not later, too. Now, to be sure, this is not the…

Tomorrow you’re heading out of town. Or today is the last day of your trip. Or next week is their week with their mom. The point is you’re at a point of transition—or maybe approaching a transition. So why are you spending it like this? Why are you choosing to pick this battle? Why are…

Theodore Roosevelt loved sports. He loved the outdoors. He loved martial arts. He loved boxing. He loved football and rowing and wrestling. He also loved books, so it’s fitting that one of his best pieces of advice—featuring a sports metaphor—was inscribed on a book he was signing for someone. “Don’t flinch,” he wrote, “don’t foul,…