Magazine

Dad folding a blue universe pattern bamboo baby blanket on a crib

Surviving the Night Sweats: A Dad’s Guide to Bamboo Blankets

It was 2:14 AM in the middle of a freak Portland August heatwave, and the Nanit camera monitor above the crib was glowing with a red 78-degree warning. My son, who was about eight weeks old at the time, was...

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Toddler sitting on an organic cotton playmat next to natural fiber storage baskets

How to survive the kinderzimmer einrichten phase without losing it

I was thirty-eight weeks pregnant when I sat on the bare floor of our second bedroom in Chicago and cried over the smell of a dresser. We had just assembled a suspiciously cheap piece of nursery furniture I bought online....

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A scattered pile of wooden sorting blocks on a living room rug

My Desperate Search for "Spielzeug fΓΌr 1 JΓ€hrige" (Toys)

Yesterday at 5:14 AM, I staggered into the living room to grab a burp cloth and stepped directly onto a plastic cow that immediately began mooing "Old MacDonald" in a haunting, battery-depleted baritone. My 11-month-old daughter, sitting in her playpen,...

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A wooden toy block and a soft baby blanket on a messy living room floor.

Spielzeug ab 3 Jahren: The Brutally Honest Guide for Parents

There I was, barefoot in my own living room at 6:30 in the morning, stepping squarely on a tiny plastic firefighter hat that came with some massive, overpriced fire truck my oldest got for his third birthday. I’m just gonna...

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A highly unamused toddler sitting on the floor wearing stiff boys dress pants

Why buying boys dress pants is a specific kind of modern torture

I'm currently wedged next to the sanitary bin in the disabled toilet of a twelfth-century Surrey church, sweating completely through my only clean wedding suit, attempting to wrestle a screaming two-year-old into a pair of miniature, fiercely rigid navy slacks....

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Marcus's 11-month-old baby reaching for a wooden block on the living room floor.

Why I Stopped Trusting the Internet About Early Development Toys

When my son was about four days old, my mother-in-law bought us a plastic command center that flashed strobe lights and yelled the alphabet in a robotic British accent. "He needs cognitive stimulation," she told me with absolute certainty. The...

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Dad trying to put a quarter-zip sweater on a squirming 11-month-old baby boy.

A Letter to Past Me About Surviving The Boys Sweater Phase

Dear Marcus from six months ago: You're currently standing in the baby apparel aisle holding a tiny, adorable, heavily patterned wool pullover. Put it down. Seriously, drop it right now before your wife sees it and you both convince yourselves...

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A dad nervously watching his twin toddlers tangle themselves in a loose cot covering

The Messy Truth About Giving Your Twins a Toddler Blanket

My mother told me that if the girls weren't under a thick wool quilt by November, I was essentially committing child neglect. My aggressively modern NCT friend, on the other hand, strongly implied over flat whites that introducing any loose...

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Mom folding a bamboo toddler sleep sack in a nursery

Why the Toddler Sleep Sack is the Only Way We Survive Bedtime

It was 2:13 AM on a random Tuesday when I heard the unmistakable, bone-chilling thump coming from the nursery down the hall. I dropped the Etsy shop packing tape I was holding, sprinted down the hardwood floor expecting the absolute...

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