All of our upbringings were different. Some were given two parents. Others only one. Maybe it took a village to raise you. Either way, we didn’t get to decide who our mom was or who our dad was, if they got divorced, if they were present, if our stepparents were a blessing or a nightmare….

It can be easy to question your parenting. To feel like you’re not doing good enough, that you’re not nearly enough. You see what other parents are doing, or hear what other fathers say they are doing, and it can seem like you’re the worst parent ever: The food you give them isn’t healthy enough,…

The odds of any of this happening is literally incomprehensible. Some scientists have estimated that the chances of any one person being born are somewhere in the realm of one in four hundred trillion. But what are the odds that you would meet your spouse or co-parent? That you would both have the experiences you’ve…

Everyone says that becoming a parent changes you. The responsibility. The stress. The unconditional love. The cuteness. This is big stuff. But as the comedian Tom Segura observes in one of his great Netflix specials, it’s wrong to say that it changes people–that’s just not the right language. It’s that having kids should change you….

There’s so much we have to teach our kids. How to tie their shoes. How to drive. How to do math. How to throw a football and hit a baseball. How to put up and down the toilet seat. How to clean up after themselves. These are the practical skills of life. But they are…

It’s good that your kids participate in sports. It gives them confidence. It keeps them active. It shows them the value of teamwork. It gives them the thrill of victory. These are all things we hope they’ll carry with them in life. That was Theodore Roosevelt’s view. He loved “manly sports.” Football. Wrestling. He took…

Have you ever heard your kids say something that just stops you cold? One of those remarks that instinctually makes you do a double take? It can be an unexpected curse word, or some preposterous old-timey expression, or one of those heartbreakingly earnest statements about love or happiness. Where did that come from, you think?…

Eva Amurri had a privileged childhood. Her mother is movie star Susan Sarandon, and her father is Italian director Franco Amurri. She spent her early days on the sets of blockbuster movies. She got to travel to beautiful places. She never had to want anything that could be bought with money. Still, it was her…

Early in his career, the neuroscientist Andrew Huberman worked mostly in isolation. In his lab, he kept a list of the scientists he loved and admired. “I would read that list over and over,” he said. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but this is what is called introjection.” Introjection is the process of…

One of the great things about kids is that they keep you on your toes. Not just because you have to worry about them all the time, but because they give you so many more things to notice. As we talked about a long time ago, if you have a son that likes helicopters or…