You read an old book and it’s pretty common: Dads didn’t used to be present for the birth of their children. Sometimes they weren’t even in town—they’d heard about it in a letter or a call, and not meet their own kids for days or weeks or months until after they were born. It’s stunning…

You work hard for your family. You know how you sweated for each dollar, which can make it hard to spend. Especially if you have an eye toward investing—every dollar expended now comes at the cost of returns in the future.  That’s one way to think about it, but it’s not the only way.  Marcus…

If you haven’t read Emily Oster’s work, then your wife probably has. She’s a wonderful, brilliant economist (who also has a brilliant newsletter) whose work focuses on parenting and children.  It shouldn’t surprise us that her work is brilliant and often contrarian, given the unique childhood she had. Oster was the children of two professors…

You check the ingredients in their food to make sure they are ingesting needless chemicals. You make sure they wear a mask when they go outside during a pandemic. You’re like every parent who ever lived: You’re concerned about their safety—what goes in their bodies, what happens to their tiny little bodies.  2000 years ago,…

It was one of those nights. The boys would not go to sleep. They had that contagious energy that so often keeps brothers awake. The first time their father came in to tell them to go to bed, they didn’t listen. The second time, too. More giggling. Fighting. Playing games. Messing around. Getting into mischief. …

A lot can go wrong. You and your spouse could split up. You could get cancer and die before your kids grow up. They could join a cult. They could move far away. They could be the victim of injustices or experience serious adversity. We have no idea what life has in store for our…

Cato the Elder was a great man. He was successful at agriculture. He was successful as a writer. He was a powerful politician. He towered over Roman life not just in his own time, but for generations hence.  Yet that wasn’t what he was proud of. That’s not what he worked hardest at, or admired…

Tracee Ellis Ross has a famous, successful mother: the singer Diana Ross. You might think that someone that successful would care a lot about success. Indeed, it’s a pretty common pattern: the driven parent drives their children—to get good grades, to win games, to be the strongest, prettiest, or most popular. They want to continue…

There’s a lot of darkness in the world. A pandemic. Corrupt and failed politicians. Institutions groaning under the weight of modern problems. Maybe your neighbors are a jerk, or your boss sucks.  It can be easy to feel depressed about how things are. It can be easy to pass this onto your children. But how…

It hits you randomly. You’re in the middle of packing your kids up for a drive to the beach. You’re laying on the couch because your back hurts. You’re telling your daughter to stop messing with the thermostat.  Holy crap. I have become my parents. There’s a funny part of it, of course. Like those…