Magazine

A frustrated dad staring at a laptop screen filled with a spreadsheet of baby names

The Google Sheet That Nearly Broke Us: A Guide to Baby Girl Names

Row 47 of our shared Google Sheet was where my marriage nearly met its untimely end over the name 'Blythe'. My wife, heavily pregnant and radiating a sort of exhausted menace, argued that it sounded literary and sophisticated. I argued...

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Twin toddlers looking aggressively demanding while sitting in high chairs

Living With a Real Life Boss Baby: Who Is Actually in Charge?

Before the twins were born, my mother-in-law tapped her teacup and said, "Establish dominance early, Tom, or they'll walk all over you." Two days later, a bloke at the Dog & Duck assured me, "Just let 'em cry, mate, show...

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Tired mother looking at a glowing television screen in the dark

That Midnight Streaming Trap Every Tired Parent Nearly Falls For

My phone lit up the nursery at 2:14 AM like a localized lightning strike. I was currently covered in what I hoped was just formula, trying to rock a teething toddler back to baseline. The text was from Sarah in...

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Baby girl in organic cotton bodysuit playing on the living room floor

The Truth About Raising Daughters and Surviving the Pink Explosion

The ultrasound gel was freezing, and Dave was staring at the monitor like it was a blurry weather map he didn't quite understand. I was lying there in a paper gown that was definitely tearing at the shoulder, clutching a...

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Priya reviewing a list of baby names scribbled on a hospital notepad

The brutal truth about picking baby names that won't ruin them

My mother-in-law cornered me in the kitchen at twenty weeks pregnant to gently suggest that our child's name needed to reflect our deep ancestral roots. Later that afternoon, my hipster neighbor in Logan Square casually mentioned over the fence that...

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Dad holding a baby wearing a simple A-line dress

Buying schΓΆne kleider fΓΌr kinder: A dad's dress debugging

It was 7:14 AM on a Tuesday when the mobility crisis officially peaked. My eleven-month-old daughter, Maya, was stranded in the middle of our living room rug, her knees firmly pinned to the floor by an excessive layer of synthetic...

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Exhausted dad staring at a thick knitted jumper with impossible wooden buttons

Surviving the cursed reality of the chunky knit baby outfit

We were at my mother-in-law's house for Boxing Day when I realised we had made a terrible mistake. The thermostat in her living room was set to what I can only describe as "equatorial," and the twins were both strapped...

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A tired dad looking at a disorganized pile of aesthetic baby gifts.

The truth about baby gift boxes and the newborn denim delusion

It was day four of being a dad, precisely 2:14 AM. The baby was actually asleep, which felt like a trap, but I was too exhausted to care. I was standing in our living room illuminated only by the microwave...

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Exhausted dad holding a fussy baby wearing organic cotton clothes at 3 AM.

Debugging the Strick Baby: How We Fixed Our Fussy Trick Baby

The clock on the microwave said 3:14 AM, glowing in that menacing green font that just mocks your life choices. My son, who during the day usually resembles a slightly drunk, happy old man, was currently arched backward in my...

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