In the United States, most people just turned their clocks back one hour for the end of Daylight Saving Time. This annual ritual happens in fall when we “gain” an extra hour of sleep but also notice that the sun starts setting earlier in the evening.
For many of us, we get, once again, bright daylight at least 30 minutes before the kids are due at school. In most parts of the country, that means sunrise is now somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. This helps families who are trying to get moving, find shoes, and make breakfast before the first bell rings. The morning light makes it feel to kids like the day is starting as opposed to Mom trying to “make them get up.”
Although every child and schedule is different, sunlight helps parents navigate the morning with their dependents.
I hear people complain every year that they can’t hang out with friends in the daylight after work once the clocks change. I understand that. It’s not easy to balance all these competing needs. If I were only in charge of myself, I could imagine getting up in total darkness and finishing work with a couple of hours of daylight left to enjoy. I think I could handle that just fine. But as a society, with kids, parents, teachers, bus drivers, and caregivers all trying to operate on a shared schedule, it seems reasonable to prioritize morning light. That’s when the essential stuff happens. If it helps parents, consider keeping it.
A last note for parents: If this system is going to work, turn off devices and screens at some reasonable time such as before 8:30pm. Otherwise, the world practically turning on its axis to help you (okay, I’m exaggerating) won’t do much good. The blue light from phones, tablets, and televisions suppresses melatonin, the hormone that helps us fall asleep, and tricks the brain into thinking it’s still daytime. As a bonus, if you were hoping your kid would read more, they might read before bed if it’s the only thing they are allowed to do. Reading a paper book with a normal light does not mess up the sleep schedule so much.
The brilliant thing about reading to kids who are in bed is that, if they aren’t paying attention, you can turn out the light and tell them they are going to sleep 5 minutes early. This works best if it’s pitch-black dark outside at bedtime. Stop scrolling and go to sleep (if you are reading this after dark).
Some people deal with different circumstances close to the poles like seasonal depression. I have no advice about that, although the technology of sun-mimicking lamps is available. Maybe that’s why Americans are moving to the sun belt with air conditioning.
I suppose I’m sold on their claim that most kids can learn basic facts and some academic skills from an iPad app. Listen all the way through if you are going to listen at all, because even some cracks in the tech product are revealed after the big pitch in the beginning.
I have been using Duolingo to review my high school French and Spanish. I think the few minutes a day I spend have helped drag some vocabulary back out of long-term storage. Although, as I recently heard a comedian say, “All my friends who have Duolingo are still speaking English to me.”
Folks should consider whether AI learning apps is just MOOCs again. Essentially, they need to get kids to watch (short, this time) videos of lecture content. MOOCs were longer lecture content videos. Maybe shorter is the key, combined with personalized feedback. Maybe not, for getting cheap effective comprehensive education that scales.
About half an hour in, Liemandt asserts that anyone in America would agree that kids learn life skills through “sports” not school. That’s an oversimplification, but I agree that sports ranks higher than “math class” for developing leadership ability.
Since they at Alpha School believe that have solved quickly learning facts, it’s interesting to hear how they do the rest of “education.” The school must fill enough time that the parents don’t have to see their kids half the day and also teach leadership/ communication/character. Alpha school is expensive ($40,000 a year) and there are many paid adults involved who are called “guides and coaches.”
My students at Samford are especially good at taking on leadership roles and creating a thriving community. Residential college provides a good testing ground for leadership and there are real “market tests” of success for things like sorority events, as the Alpha school encourages for older kids.
I applaud people trying to innovate. I think we’ll see more educational apps in schools, and that will be great. I’m not trying to dump on Alpha School. I just think the underperformance arc of MOOCs should temper our enthusiasm.
As marriage rates decline nationally, Esther Perel’s “Where Should We Begin?” offers more than dating advice. These episodes are recordings of real couples or single people today who explain why they are struggling to find relationship success. It provides an anthropological study of why coupling is challenging in the 21st century.
Each couple’s struggle with intimacy and commitment reflects broader questions about what it means to build a life together in an age of individualism. “Where Should We Begin?” doesn’t offer easy solutions to the coupling crisis, but it does helps us understand the deeper currents shaping modern love. Especially now that she has branched out to non-romantic friendship topics this year, almost anyone can find an episode here that might help them navigate one of their own personal problems as if they had the world’s leading relationship therapist on hand.
One of Perel’s points is that modern couples are drowning under expectations that previous generations never faced. Partners are expected to be best friends, passionate lovers, co-parents, financial partners, emotional support systems, and personal growth catalysts all at once. Perel points out that they’re asking their relationship to fulfill needs that used to be met by entire communities.
One episode I listened to is “I Can’t Love You the Way You Want Me To” Description: Their relationship is on the edge. They’re grappling with communication issues and the emotional scars from their past. And they’re trapped. Trapped in an endless cycle of blame, defensiveness, and attack.
As someone who grew up on the periphery of Philadelphia, I was interested in their specific fight. The man said that Philly sports fans are trash. The woman defended the honor of Philly with specific examples, and now they hate each other. Honestly sounds like my high school.
I posted See New York City for Free in 2022 and See New York City for Cheap in 2024. In summer 2025, we spent 4 nights in Midtown. I will post general reflections about kids and New York here. Last week, l posted a short itinerary for our half-week in Manhattan with elementary-aged kids, as suggestions for other parents: NYC Family Summer Trip Itinerary
1. Assuming a middle-income family with 1-3 kids, when it comes to travel, I propose Do Less for Preschool. Save money by staying close to home when the kids are under the age of 6. I know people who do international trips with babies, usually because they are visiting family. I have not.
2. A mentor encouraged me to have kids early. One of my objections in 2014 was that I hadn’t traveled the world yet. Everyone I knew was posting selfies in Thailand. How could I have kids if I haven’t even posted from Thailand yet? He told me that you can travel with your kids when they are older. Now it’s 2025. Did that time go by fast? It’s a blur at this point. I remember the time when I read in a book that your kids will potty train themselves if you let them walk around with no diaper. When I tried that, my folks just went on the floor. That’s the stage of life when you might want to put unnecessary travel on hold.
3. Someone had told us that the NYC Subway is not safe and we should not take our kids on it. We used the Subway every day and it was fine. I saw one young man jump the turnstile. The elevator smelled bad. One night when I was checking routes, I noticed a warning on the map reading, “trains are delayed while we request NYPD for someone being disruptive on train…” So, people who rely on the Subway at all times might still have some complaints.
We enjoyed peace and safety in touristy areas between the hours of 8am and 9pm. Were we the beneficiaries of the crime decrease? I saw a bus ad celebrating the decrease in murders in NYC. Before I left Birmingham, Mayor Woodfin announce a big decrease in murders. The trend seems to be real.
Last year was the largest one-year percentage point decline in murder ever recorded. This year is on track to do so again. In fact, nearly every category of crime is down sharply, with many at multi-decade lows or even the lowest per-capita rates ever recorded. pic.twitter.com/5ZLsNVwyhO
4. The Observation Deck of the Empire State Building trip is almost more meta than the MOMA. You are inside the building looking at pictures of the outside of the building. You are posting pictures of yourself next to 50-year-old pictures of the outside of the building. People appear to go to the real thing in order to poast.
You can just do things, as they say, or at least you could in 1930.
Both kids voted that the Empire State Building was more “wow” than the MOMA. Maybe they like constructing more than deconstructing.
5. I vote the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) as more “wow” because the permanent installations include many famous pieces including Starry Night by Van Gogh.
I had booked a day at MOMA without knowing exactly what was inside. My kids got to see me going around saying things like, “Wow. They have a real Picasso!” Instead of acting as a docent through a world I’ve already explored, my kids get to discover a lot along with me. We discussed what counts as “art” and “how did that get on the wall of a museum?”
6. If you are going to Lower Manhattan to see the New York Stock Exchange and the World Trade Center, don’t miss a free tour of Trinity Church. (Hamilton’s tomb is in the churchyard.) It is an example of progress to see the cathedral dwarfed by the surrounding skyscrapers considering that: “With its 281-foot steeple, the third Trinity Church became the tallest building in the United States.”
Here at EWED, Jeremy has often pointed out that people are richer today than in the past. The maligned Boomers would have seen a shorter New York skyline as children. Many of the supertall glass structures you see today were built after 2001, meaning it’s Gen Z who gets to live with them. (I learned that on our harbor boat tour.)
7. The 7-year-old got Lion King and the M&M store in Times Square. The tour of the United Nations headquarters was for the older people. The 10yo and I learned a lot from an excellent tour guide.
The 7yo had to be carried. She did not understand why they were calling “an emergency meeting on Syria.” The next day I asked her what she remembered from touring the UN. She sincerely replied, “What United Nations?” If you are wondering if she remembers anything from the trip, the answer is yes. The Empire State Building and the Chrysler building, among many other things, are newly part of the family vocabulary.
After the UN tour, I took the family back across 1st Avenue to see the Isaiah Wall. Scaffolding blocked our view, which is not encouraging for the hope of peace. The idea is that: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
Imagine a child named Johnny trying to form a model of the universe from the journey I set up for my kids this summer. In New York, Johnny embarked on a cultural safari that began at the MoMA, where he stood wide-eyed before melted clocks and soup cans, absorbing the idea that the world might be an absurd, fragmented collage. Then came The Lion King as a dazzling counterpoint, suggesting that the world is imbued with cosmic purpose. Every giraffe, ghost-dad, and blade of savannah grass existed in service of a divine, eternal monarchy. Finally, at the United Nations, he was led past flags and translation booths, where no one bowed to anyone and the world’s contradictions were negotiated over coffee. By the end of the day, Johnny wondered: is meaning a myth, a fact taught by the Spirit, or a matter of committee?
I noticed that they serve Starbucks coffee in the basement of the UN and in the Empire State Building. As long as we can get coffee before and dinner after, no one seems to care if the message is coherent.
This is a condensed list of what we did with elementary-aged kids for three fun days in Manhattan in July.
Like a camping trip, NYC with kids depends on the weather. In good walking weather you can occupy many hours exploring free outdoor attractions. In bad weather, you might feel the need to constantly buy admission tickets, retail, taxis and sit-down restaurant meals.
Our hotel was a 5-minute walk from Grand Central Station. We had a good view from our room on the 28th floor. We could even look down on an interesting active construction site. When traveling with kids, or any group larger than a couple, you’ll probably be stuck in the hotel sometimes, so paying extra for a good view might be worth it.
In the hotel lounge, adults could drink a free glass of wine and listen to a guy playing calm piano songs from memory like “My Heart Will Go On.” When my ten-year-old (10yo) asked for “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes, the request was denied.
Tuesday
We walked to The Empire State Building. Passing the Public Library was a highlight although it was not open yet. I had booked entry tickets to the Empire State building online months ahead of time for a 9:30am time on a Tuesday. We spent no time waiting in line.
Next, we took the Subway to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). I had reserved tickets for the day. If your kids need a break from quietly appreciating art on the wall, there is a garden courtyard and kid’s craft area.
It was hot but we were lucky to not be in the middle of a genuine heat wave. We got to-go food from a shop and walked north to Central Park for a picnic on rocks in the shade. Playgrounds and fun statues provide points of interest for kids.
We walked up to the Chess pavilion where my kids dropped in on chess games with friendly strangers (a nice man provided the pieces). You could bring your own chess or checkers pieces if you want to guarantee a game.
Note: Even though many places claim to have bag polices online, you can almost always get a regular sized backpack and/or metal water bottle through security.
Wednesday
This might sound like a planned itinerary, but the only thing we locked in ahead of time for Wednesday was an afternoon Broadway show. By the time we got back to our hotel at night, my phone had counted over 14,000 steps for the day. Our first stop was Clinton Castle on the southern edge of the island. Benefits to children include bathrooms and a museum display of how Manhattan was expanded through land reclamation. I’m not including all the places we stopped to eat in this blog but we especially liked discovering Liberty Bagels.
We saw the bull statue and the New York Stock Exchange (from the outside). A great stop in Lower Manhattan is a free self-guided tour of Trinity Church. We walked to the 9/11 memorial and then back to the subway so we could rest in our hotel during the hottest part of the day.
Lion King on Broadway was fun (and expensive). Afterwards, we were in Time Square, and it was finally time to do what my kids had been talking about all year: return to the M&M store. Kids love the M&M store.
Then we walked to Hell’s Kitchen for dinner. We went back east to Rockefeller Center and bought books for the kids at McNally Jackson. From there, with a “we can make it” attitude, we walked back to the hotel in the dark. This is where the “safe streets” matter as much as the weather.
Thursday
This morning had not been planned ahead of time, so we spent some of our time figuring things out. We walked to the United Nations headquarters. I was able to get visitor passes and a guided tour. We had a great guide who explained the building and the aims of the UN for 45 minutes. I learned a lot and my 10yo was engaged.
Should you take your children on a tour of the UN? I had to carry my 7yo most of the time. The next day, I asked her what she remembered. She sincerely replied, “What United Nations?” If you don’t think your younger child will be outright disruptive, then you might take a younger kid along with an older kid who can appreciate it.
We had an appointment to enter the USS Intrepid Museum at 2:30. We didn’t make it until 3:30 and it closes at 5pm. The place deserves more than 90 minutes. It has a big kids’ activity area that is fully indoors.
Our last scheduled event was a Circle Line Harbor Lights Cruise from 7pm to 9pm. In the summer, this is a sunset cruise of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. Just at the end you see the city lights against the night sky. The tour guide was entertaining and smart! I learned interesting NYC facts and history. They have enclosed areas with windows for bad weather but that would not be as fun. Being able to sit up on the open-air top deck made the view amazing for everyone.
Recently there has been some discussion in the Presidential race about the taxation of parents vs. childless taxpayers. The discussion has been ongoing, but it was kicked up again when a 2021 video of J.D. Vance resurfaced where he said that taxpayers with children should be lower tax rates than those without children. There was some political back-and-forth about this idea, much of it tied up in the framing of the issue, with the usual bad faith on both sides about the fundamental issue (in short: most Democrats and a small but growing number of Republicans support increasing the size of the Child Tax Credit).
Let’s leave the politicking aside for a moment and focus on policy. As many pointed out in response to Vance’s idea, we already do this. In fact, we have almost always done this in the history of the US income tax — “this” meaning giving taxpayers at least some break for having kids. For most of the 20th century, this was done through personal exemptions which usually included some tax deduction for children, and later in the century the Child Tax Credit was added (after 2017, the exemptions were eliminated in favor of a large CTC). Other features of the tax code also make some accounting for the number of children, most notably the size of the Earned Income Credit.
The chart below is my attempt to show how the tax breaks for children have affected four sample taxpaying households. What I show here is sometimes called the “zero bracket” — that is, how much income you can earn without paying any federal income taxes. The four households are: a single person with no children, a married couple with no children, a single person with two children (“head of household”), and a married couple with two children. All dollar amounts are inflation-adjusted to current dollars
I’ve been traveling. Here are some things I noticed (on the internet, not on my travels). (On my travels I learned that rental golf carts are as fun as they look.)
2. This is a poastmodern election. “Campaigners use the internet medium to dunk on their opponents instead of offer solutions to problems.”
“deeply online left wing instagram women are meeting, for the first time ever, deeply online right wing twitter guys. both have developed intricate, sacred language foreign to the other. both are waging war they thought already won. fyi in case you’re wondering about the meltdown”
deeply online left wing instagram women are meeting, for the first time ever, deeply online right wing twitter guys. both have developed intricate, sacred language foreign to the other. both are waging war they thought already won. fyi in case you're wondering about the meltdown
4. This woman who gave up professional dancing and now has 8 kids.
I don’t think people understand just how insane it is that #ballerinafarm left julliard to start a family. They chose 12 female dancers a year to be accepted into that program. She would’ve gone so far.
One does wonder if the skills that get a person into Julliard relate to the ability to turn family into an Instagram sensation. Is this Ambitious Parenting?
Hannah Neeleman, the mom at Ballerina Farm, has told her story in what appears to be her own words here: https://ballerinafarm.com/pages/about-us Neeleman says that when she was living in Brazil, she would vacation at, “farms and ranches. A place where you could eat farm fresh cheeses and meats, learn about animals, watch chores being done, etc. We were hooked.” I’m tempted to say that it’s weird to say she was into watching other people do chores. But maybe the word “weird” just has lost all meaning after this week.
Jeremiah Johnson points out that, “It doesn’t matter that their farm isn’t a very productive farm, because the husband’s family founded JetBlue.” My take is that these are rich people who are taking a reality-show approach to their lives like wholesome Kardashians. The Neelemans are into watching people do farm chores. (Yes, they do chores themselves, too, but clearly a large professional staff runs the place.) Good for them. As I said at the beginning, I’m into renting golf carts now.
Do you have a robot vacuum? The first model was introduced in 2002 for $199. I don’t know how good that first model was, but I remember seeing plenty of ads for them by 2010 or so. My family was the cost-cutting kind of family that didn’t buy such things. I wondered how well they actually performed ‘in real life’. Given that they were on the shelves for $400-$1,200 dollars, I had the impression that there was a lot of quality difference among them. I didn’t need one, given that I rented or had a small floor area to clean, and I sure didn’t want to spend money on one that didn’t actually clean the floors. I lacked domain-specific knowledge. So I didn’t bother with them.
Fast forward to 2024: I’ve got four kids, a larger floor area, and less time. My wife and I agreed early in our marriage that we would be a ‘no shoes in the house’ kind of family. That said, we have different views when it comes to floor cleanliness. Mine is: if the floors are dirty, then let’s wait until the source of crumbs is gone, and then clean them when they will remain clean. In practice, this means sweeping or vacuuming after the kids go to bed, and then steam mopping (we have tile) after parties (not before). My wife, in contrast, feels the crumbs on her feet now and wants it to stop ASAP. Not to mention that it makes her stressed about non-floor clutter or chaos too.
Two years ago, when we still had a preschooler, I wrote “See New York City for Free.” In the spirit of Do Less for Preschool, we did not actually go into the city. We looked at the Manhattan skyline from Liberty State Park in New Jersey (free parking). The park has points of interest. I do not believe my kids would have benefitted from an expensive trip into NYC, in 2022 (which isn’t to say that parents should rule it out if they are primarily going for themselves). Remember that a 4-year-old enjoys poking a bucket of rain water about as much as a trip to Disneyworld. Sticking to the nap schedule is probably better for everyone than doing a forced march through fancy landmarks in any weather, for preschool kids.
Now in 2024, we have graduated to actually going into the city (for now, assume the constraint of spending our nights in New Jersey, you guys). I’ll describe two low-budget day trips that will tire but not exhaust school-age kids.
On the first day, we used NJ Transit trains to get to New York Penn Station. Since my kids do mostly cars and suburbs, the train itself was fun. On weekends and holidays, kids ride free on NJ Transit. From there, we walked all the way to Central Park, which took us through Time Square. You call this “urban hiking” now (previously known as walking). We stopped into a few stores along the way. I’ve taught my kids to “window shop” in a store, meaning they are warned ahead of time that we are not buying anything. We spent money on food and drinks, but it would have been possible to pack in a lot more food if desired. Once we had walked all the way to the upper east side (about 3 miles), we took a taxi back to the train station.
On the second day, we avoided high parking fees once again by departing on the ferry from the New Jersey terminal to see the Statue of Liberty. There were plenty of families with preschool kids or babies, by the way. Strollers are allowed on the ferries, just not inside the pedestal or statue. The ferry ticket includes access to all of the indoor museums and audio tours. If you want to be allowed to walk up the stairs into the crown of the statue, be aware that you need to book those tickets many months in advance. If you just want to take the ferry to the island, then you don’t have to plan so far ahead.
These plans rely heavily on being outside, so rain would pose a problem. There are plenty of places to escape the rain, but it would not be nearly as fun/cheap.
If you are road tripping anywhere with kids, read Zach on long family car trips. I’ll add that you can fill up a large insulated thermos of ice from the hotel and bring it along to provision drinks from cans throughout the day.
Pictured: Central Park, view from Statue of the Statue, view from the Statue of the city
Emily Oster took on the Jonathan Haidt-related debate in her latest post “Screens & Social Media“
Do screens harm mental health? Oster joins some other skeptics I know. She doesn’t fully back Haidt, and she does the economist thing by mentioning “tradeoffs.”
Oster, ever practical, makes a point that sometimes gets lost. Maybe social media doesn’t cause suicide. Maybe there is no causal relationship concerning diagnosed mental health conditions, as indicated by the data. That doesn’t mean that parents and teachers should not monitor and curtail screen time. Oster says that it’s obvious that kids should not have their phones in the classroom during school instruction.
Here’s a personal story from this week. My son wants Roblox. The game says 12+, and I’ve told him that I’m sticking to that. No. He can’t have it now and he can’t start chatting with strangers online. We aren’t going to re-visit the conversation until he’s 12. Is he mad at me? Yes. You know what he does when he’s really bored at home? He starts vacuuming. I’ve driven him to madness, with these boundaries I set, or to vacuuming. (Recall he likes these books. Since hearing Harry Potter 1 as an audiobook in the car, he’s started tearing through the series himself via hardcover book.)
An innocent tablet game I let him play (when he’s allowed to have screen time) is Duck Life. Rated E for everyone.
Economist Writing Every Day 