Advanced Placement courses can be a real boon to students motivated by intellectual curiosity and a love of learning. But for students looking to please their parents or for those in pursuit of transcript padding and other false academic idols, A.P. courses can be an unpleasant and unhealthy slog.Read more…
After four years of infertility and many failures, this little baby popsicle of an embryo was our best hope at finally becoming parents. Read more…
This spring, my older daughter announced that she was pregnant. And I realized almost immediately that I knew nothing about today’s birthing or parenting issues. I had a lot of catching up to do.Read more…
The Lens blog takes a look at photojournalists who are also mothers. “Gender aside, it takes a resourceful person to succeed, but for a woman who also wants to raise children it takes more — the ability to juggle assignments and the needs of child and partner,” Jim Estrin writes. Read more.
Working Life columnist Rachel Swarns would like to hear from working parents or guardians who do the majority of the cooking. Does the message about the importance of home cooking inspire you? Or does it irritate you? How often do you cook in a given week for your family, and how does it make you feel? Do you have help from your spouse, partner, relatives, babysitters and/or housekeepers?
You can share your responses in comments on the City Room blog, by email at swarns@nytimes.com or on Twitter at @rachelswarns. She may follow up with you for possible inclusion in a Working Life column.
Military experience was once common. Many of us grew up surrounded by parents and family who had served. Now, military life seems removed from the everyday for many of us. Here, for Veteran’s Day, stories of military family. Read more…
When I told the man at the baggage counter that my husband was deployed, he immediately replied, “Thank you for your service.” I didn’t quite know how to respond.Read more…
Most schools conduct some form of standardized testing. What helps a child who finds the tests stressful, and when is the testing too much? Read more…
What happens when children are considered the adorable lifestyle choice of a nation of “mommies?” No one else needs to worry about the needs of those children—or of any children. Read more…
Parents, students and school officials have joined a national protest of the consequences of Common Core testing, Lizette Alvarez writes in The New York Times. States have repealed their graduation test requirements, postponed the consequences of testing for the Common Core — national standards in more than 40 states — and rolled back the number of required exams. Read more.
As a new mother, newly laid off, it quickly became painfully clear that the life I’d imagined for myself once upon a time—as a professional, wife, and mother—had been a modern-day fairy tale. Read more…
About 6,000 trips to the emergency room by children under age 6 were connected to the laundry packets in 2012 and 2013, a report found. Read more.
In today’s episode of “The Triumph of the Well-Stocked Kitchen,” our heroine runs out of bread and chicken broth, but is able to save the day on both occasions. The exciting weekly cooking routine of this mother of four.Read more…
If I want to grocery shop, there is the Leo Factor — will a bagel appease him, or will this require juice? I fantasize about not needing to consider that, and that doesn’t make me unworthy of being a parent.Read more…
Social scientists who study families and work say that men who take an early hands-on role in their children’s lives are likely to be more involved for years to come. But researchers also have a more ominous message. Taking time off for family obligations, including paternity leave, could have long-term negative effects on a man’s career — like lower pay or being passed over for promotions. Read more.