Sorry, kids, we’re those parents

My family is perhaps “stick in the mud” about tech despite being nerdy and internet-dependent. My husband works for a tech company. We’re kind of paranoid as parents because of his job. He sees how the internet works and what can go wrong. My experiences working with a nonprofit that addresses a number of important […]

RIE Parenting IS for Working Parents

So, I have a lot of friends who took on attachment parenting. This doesn’t jive for us, as I’ve said. I don’t believe it is best for our lives or our child but I see why it is good for our friends. AP is one of those things that people seem evangelical about. It’s very […]

Golden Boobies, Guilt, and a Dose of Reality in Mom Achievements

Ever seen a “super mom” badge for those women who exclusively breastfed for 12 months ? If you’ve had a kid in the past 5 years, you would be living under a rock if you haven’t seen one of these badges on social media. My personal favorite type of these awards comes from the “Boobie […]

Down with Clickbait: An Empirical Look at Co-sleeping

Benjamin Reiss wrote an interesting op-ed earlier this year for the LA Times that was everywhere on my social media. As the “non-crunchy” friend in a sea of Tula-loving, bedsharing families, I am often bombarded with articles which seem to affirm I am defective to my friends. I don’t think they actually believe that, it’s […]

It’s All Political: Raising Kids without Indoctrination

As a political scientist, I know about political socialization. People learn first from their families about political values. Kids then talk to their peers in high school and college and learn more. People may have formative experiences occur when we engage with people of different education levels, income brackets, and races/ethnicities. This may also challenge […]

It’s Suicide Awareness Month but we are not helpless.

September is Suicide Awareness month so this post will not be all hearts and flowers. Trigger warning: this post deals with that issue intimately. Today, I will open my heart and share something deeply personal not for my own benefit but for the benefit of other people and families struggling and to raise awareness for […]

How NOT to write about the science in sleep training literature.

As someone who has devoted her life to empirical research, it is really, really hard to read journalistic accounts of “studies” which totally miss the mark. In my younger years as a hungry PhD student, I taught methods labs to aspiring political scientists and double-majors in journalism at a university with a top J-School. My job […]