Peter Clark

Product Manager and tinkerer.

The Growing Cohort of Single Dads by Choice

Sometimes when he does, he thinks the father seems a little begrudging, walking slightly behind the child, and he wonders how many of these dads were told by their wife to take the kid out to play. He understands: He, too, is stretching to be not just a provider, that classic masculine trope, but also a nurturer—someone softer, more open. The other day, when he was visiting his cousin’s two daughters, the 5-year-old got in trouble and ran into the living room and hid behind the couch. He picked her up and took her to the mirror, and they looked at their reflections together. “You are wonderful,” he told her. “And you don’t have to worry about anything.”

Working towards more Dad friends

Working towards more Dad friends

The One Parenting Decision That Really Matters

There is more evidence for just how powerful role models can be. A different study that Chetty co-authored found that girls who move to areas with lots of female patent holders in a specific field are far more likely to grow up to earn patents in that same field. And another study found that Black boys who grow up on blocks with many Black fathers around, even if that doesn’t include their own father, end up with much better life outcomes.

How to Quit Intensive Parenting

So how do we move away from the cult of intensive parenting? Very carefully and intentionally. We have to start thinking of parenting not as a set of instructions but as several dials. Research suggests that certain dials, such as “display love,” “validate feelings,” and “set aside some regular quality time,” should absolutely be turned up to 10. Others, such as “solve your child’s (nonserious) problem for them,” should be pretty low. And many, such as “provide educational support” and “offer enrichment activities,” should be somewhere in the center. Your exact dial settings will depend on your values and your family situation, of course. All 10s and all ones are almost always a bad idea.

Parenting Pride

On the parenting pride of my big trip.

It lowkey sucks when you’re on vacation but the only parent within a group.
It’s difficult to persuade people without kids to stick to a kid schedule, there’s no other kids around, and it’s just generally more not less work…

Why are kids pens circular rather than square? they roll away.. maybe triangular is the move…

Cool app that turns an iOS device into a baby monitor (either speaker or microphone)

One Way Parents Can Fight the Phone-Based Childhood

But if parents want their kids to put down their phones, they need to open the front door. Nearly three-quarters of the children in our survey agreed with the statement “I would spend less time online if there were more friends in my neighborhood to play with in person.”

Let your kid climb that tree

The decline of kids biking

D started pedaling recently and it's our favourite thing.

The survey shows a steep decline in the number of parents reading aloud to young children, with 41% of 0- to four-year-olds now being read to frequently, down from 64% in 2012.