Magazine

Exhausted mom holding a fussing newborn in a dimly lit living room with the TV glowing.

Dear Jess: Surviving Colic and Why We Watch Cry-Baby 1990 Now

Dear Jess from six months ago. You're currently sitting on the cold linoleum of the laundry room floor at 3:14 AM. The dryer is tumbling a single wet towel just to generate enough white noise to drown out the ringing...

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A tiny plush elf doll sitting next to an 11-month-old infant who looks completely bewildered.

Debugging the Holiday Magic: Our First Baby Elf Setup

"Put it on the mantle so he knows Santa is watching," my mother told me on Thanksgiving, handing me a felt doll with suspicious eyes and unnaturally long limbs. "Don't bring that surveillance state psychological warfare into your home," my...

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A stressed mom holding a baby while a smart speaker plays music.

When Britney Spears ...Baby One More Time Ruined Our Tuesday

The snow outside our Chicago apartment was coming down completely sideways. It was day three of being trapped indoors with a 6-month-old who had abruptly decided that afternoon naps were a biological construct he no longer believed in. I was...

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A tired dad trying to keep up with his highly energetic dancing baby

Surviving the Kitchen Disco: The Truth About Your Dancing Baby

Before the twins arrived, I received three distinct, entirely contradictory pieces of unsolicited advice regarding music and infants. The frighteningly intense instructor at our antenatal class warned us that bouncing a child incorrectly to a beat could permanently traumatize their...

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Stressed mom holding a crying infant dressed in an itchy polyester pumpkin outfit

Choosing the Perfect Baby Costume Without Losing Your Mind

It was late October, and I was standing in the middle of a crowded Target aisle, sweating profusely into a stretched-out grey maternity tank top I still couldn't stop wearing. I had a screaming four-month-old Leo in one arm and...

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Tired mother rocking a toddler in a dark nursery with a smart speaker nearby

Unpacking the hit me baby one more time lyrics at 3 AM

It was 3:14 AM in Chicago. The wind was doing that thing where it aggressively rattles the apartment windows, and my toddler was running a mild fever from an ear infection. I was operating on maybe three hours of broken...

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Marcus holding a vintage 90s plush toy next to a modern baby-safe organic teether

Why That Vintage Ty Beanie Baby Is a Terrible Gift for Infants

My mom's care package arrived at 2 PM on a Tuesday, smelling faintly of mothballs and unfiltered 1997 optimism. I sliced open the cardboard, pulled out Claude the Crab—complete with the pristine heart-shaped tag encased in a plastic protector—and handed...

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A glowing red nightlight on a bedside table next to baby items

What The Baby Baby Justin Bieber Era Taught Me About 3 AM

If you want to know exactly how to make sure your child never, ever goes back to sleep, let me share my foolproof method from the first month of raising twins. When you hear the inevitable 3 AM wail, you...

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Dad looking at phone in dark nursery holding a sleeping baby

How Always Be My Baby Lyrics Fixed My Kid's 2 AM Sleep Bug

It's 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, the Portland rain is actively trying to break my windowpanes, and I'm standing in the exact center of the nursery desperately trying to remember the bridge to a 1996 Mariah Carey pop anthem. My...

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