After finishing up a yearlong work project, Maura Rhodes faced the daunting job of cleaning up her home office. “The place was a disaster. And one of the big things that kept me from getting started were several years’ worth of magazines strewn all over the place,” says Rhodes. So the freelance editor from Montclair, N.J., offhandedly offered to pay her 9-year-old daughter to deal with her magazine...
Why on earth would any parent go camping with their kids? Between the packing, the hauling and the dirt, it’s enough to send you running to the Holiday Inn. But it’s these very same rustic realities that make a weekend or even a week in the woods the perfect glue for a great family bonding experience. “Unlike other types of vacations, you aren’t led around, signs don’t tell you what to do...
For decades, pop psych has embraced the premise that there are three basic parenting styles: authoritarian (“Follow my rules because I say so!”), permissive (“OK, you can stay up to 11 p.m., but you’re going to be really tired tomorrow!”), and last but not least, authoritative (“I know other kids are doing it, but we think it’s too dangerous, so no, you can’t.”). It’s that approach...