It’s the antidote to a social-media-induced inferiority complex. — Here’s something I never thought I’d miss until Covid took it away: getting a tour of people’s houses. I’m talking about the kind of informal walk-throughs that happen when you drop your kid off at a new friend’s house to play and the host asks, ”Do you want to a…

Don’t depend on the kindness of strangers, but do celebrate it — To paraphrase a great sage: The subway’s like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. Some days, what you get is human fecal matter underfoot. In case you’re wondering, that’s the best case scenario for encountering human fecal matter. It’s also possible to encounter it underhand…

Letting go of the desire to “win” isn’t easy, but it’s worth it — A few days ago, I gave my 16-year-old a trumpet. He does not know the first thing about playing the trumpet — or playing any brass instrument for that matter. When he was younger, he dabbled in guitar briefly, and that’s been the extent of his musical training. A few…

Keeping kids safe is great in life but terrible in literature — Contrary to popular belief, parents do not ruin everything. They do, however, ruin many, many things — and topping the list are freedom, fun and adventure. …

We’ve all been stuck in some way or another — Last summer, my eight-year-old got trapped inside a couch. Under the couch, technically, in its undergirding. It was complicated, the way scenarios involving children often are, especially in the middle of a pandemic. See, this is a story about a kid in a couch, but it is also an allegory. …