Parenting

You, Parent, Should have a Robot Vacuum

Zachary BartschLeave a comment

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.

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See New York City for Cheap

Joy Buchanan3 Comments

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

Oster on Haidt and Screens

Joy BuchananLeave a comment

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.

Previously, I wrote “Video Games: Emily Oster, Are the kids alright?“

And more recently, Tyler had “My contentious Conversation with Jonathan Haidt” Maybe Tyler should debate Emily Oster next about limiting phone use.

Advice For Travelling With Children

Zachary Bartsch3 Comments

My family regularly takes long trips up and down the east coast of the US. It takes us about 6 hours just to travel through Florida. We have several kids between the ages of 1 & 7 and we’ve got it down to a pretty good science. Here’s some great advice for travelling with children. A lot of it is OK advice if you cherry pick, but together their benefits compound.

1) Depart Early

It doesn’t matter if it’s a 3 hour trip or a two day trip. To us, ‘early’ means that our target departure time is 5 AM, but ‘early’ may mean something different for you and yours. Benefits include:

  • Kids may remain or resume sleeping for the first portion of the travel. That’s time that they are occupied.
  • Earlier arrival at your destination gives kids time to burn off some energy and adults time to decompress. For multi-day trips, we like to stop at a hotel that has a pool.

2) Carry-on Backpacks

Just as you would have a small personal item on an airplane, such as a purse, give each child a backpack that contains car-ride content (make sure that they put away one thing before beginning the next). Maybe ensure that each kid has a different color. This puts their stimulation in their own hands. The idea is not to avoid interacting with your kids. The idea is to help them take care of themselves. Here’s what to include:

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Gear Swaps are Happening

Joy BuchananLeave a comment

Everyone feels like we throw away too much stuff. One small way to help is to try to find someone who can use the items before you toss them.

I’m happy to say that one of my economic ideas got to the policy implementation stage. I was staring at the Scout gear my son had grown out of and dreading the thought of throwing it away. I could donate it to Good Will, but I thought that the chances it would get to someone who wants it are very low. What parent wants exactly that stuff? So, I emailed our Pack leader and asked if we could start doing a gear swap.

Parents can bring any scout-related items that they do not want anymore to a pack meeting. It is organized on one table with clear information. Anyone can take anything for free if they can use it and store it.  

This works better than posting to internet Buy Nothing groups because the scout parents are right there. No one has to drive across town for a “porch pick up.”

More sports teams or clubs should do this. Seize the moments when like-minded people are already together in one place.

Previously from me on Fast Fashion:

Secondhand for AdamSmithWorks

Is the repair revolution coming?

Joy’s Fashion Globalization Article with Cato

Do Less for Preschool

Joy Buchanan7 Comments

Today I will write about something I care deeply about: the wellbeing of the moms of young children.

I can remember having a child enrolled in preschool. It was expensive but it was worth it, for us. What follows will be most relevant to readers who are working full-time and have children enrolled in full-time daycare/preschool. That is not the right choice for every family. If it’s the choice you made, then read on.

Do less for preschool. Save your energy and money for the years when your child will actually remember.

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Childhoods of exceptional people

James Bailey2 Comments

Henrik Karlsson read lots of biographies of geniuses and tried to sum up the things their childhoods had in common here. Some highlights:

At least two-thirds of my sample was home-educated (most commonly until about age 12), tutored by parents or governesses and tutors. The rest of my sample had been educated in schools (most commonly Jesuit schools).

As children, they were integrated with exceptional adults—and were taken seriously by them.

They had time to roam about and relied heavily on self-directed learning

A common theme in the biographies is that the area of study which would eventually give them fame came to them almost like a wild hallucination induced by overdosing on boredom. They would be overcome by an obsession arising from within.

They were heavily tutored 1-on-1

An important factor to acknowledge is that these children did not only receive an exceptional education; they were also exceptionally gifted.

There is lots of discussion of John Stuart Mill and John Von Neumann, who each had major contributions to economics:

When they were done, James Mill took his son’s notes and polished them into the book Elements of Political Economy. It was published the year John Stuart turned fifteen….

There is a moving scene in John Stuart Mill’s biography, when John Stuart is about to set out into the world and his father for the first time lets him know that his education had been . . . a bit particular. He would discover that others his age did not know as much as he did. But, his father said, he mustn’t feel proud about that. He’d just been lucky.

Let’s make more people lucky.

Other nice posts along similar lines are Erik Hoel’s “How Geniuses Used to Be Raised” (linked in Karlsson’s piece), and Scott Alexander’s review of Laszlo Polgar’s book “Raise a Genius” (about raising his 3 daughters to be chess grandmasters). Karlsson’s post, worth reading in full, is here.

Why Don’t Full Daycares Raise Prices?

James Bailey12 Comments

We put my daughter on a waitlist for the daycare her siblings attended when she was one month old. Fourteen months later, she is still waiting, and we are looking around for other options. Almost every daycare I contact is full, with many saying their waitlists run into 2025.

This sounds like a classic shortage: demand exceeds supply at prevailing prices. But I am puzzled by such a shortage in the absence of price controls. Why don’t these daycares simply raise prices enough to eliminate their waitlists?

Theories:

  1. The kind of person who runs a daycare is not inclined to act as a ruthlessly efficient profit maximizer. This probably explains some of it, but some of the daycares are literally publicly traded for-profit corporations, and they still have big waitlists.
  2. Daycares deliberately underprice infant care as a loss leader to sell care to older kids. Sure, they could raise prices for infants and make more money today, but they want to make sure their preschool stays full down the road, and the easy way to do that is to keep infants as they age.
  3. This is a temporary dislocation due to Covid. Demand fell off during Covid, some centers closed, then demand came back and the remaining centers are full. Perhaps opening a new center would be a good business, but regulation is slowing this down, or people just haven’t realized the opportunity yet.

I think there is something to each of these, but I still feel puzzled, especially since the most expensive locations seem to have the longest waits (at least here in Rhode Island). I can’t come up with a definite answer without lots more data on prices, waitlist sizes, entry, and exit. But I’d love to hear your theories.

Sugar Fast Blog

Joy Buchanan5 Comments

Why do Americans eat a lot of junk food? Because it’s the easy way out.

Unhappy? Open a candy bar. You’ll feel happy again in seconds. Kid crying? Hand them a fun-sized candy bar. They will be quiet.  

If you are struggling with paying bills or health (I know, the health one is ironic here), then you’ll tend to reach for anything that is fast and easy to deal with immediate problems.

For me, I decided to wait until my semester is over, so I won’t be attempting this while teaching or traveling. A 40-day sugar fast for the whole family technically began on May 1, but the grocery shopping changed earlier. The idea was to eat down junk and not buy new for over a week.

Forty days isn’t much in the big scheme. The idea is to make a deposit on health. Possibly, I’ll break a mild sugar addiction to the point where the body doesn’t expect it so much. Maybe something that we end up doing to meet this artifactual goal will end up getting into the routine on a regular part of the year when there is more travel and work. Part of the problem I identify is that there are points throughout the day where people feel unhappy. If sugar is on hand, then there is a tendency to reach for it. Part of what I’m going to do is insert more healthy food and activities, but of course that is a lot more work. If it’s just not there, people barely miss it.

I’m already so much happier at home. There is barely any sugary junk food left in the house. Now if the kids circulate the kitchen, I don’t have to stress out and yell at them to not eat cookies before dinner or whatnot.

Internet: So, you’re going to meal plan and not eat dessert for a month? This was worth telling everyone?

Me: I’ve been thinking about it constantly since Christmas.

Internet: Wasn’t this the site where we get more optimistic about the world?

Me: There are some things I read about and decided against. I will not worry about sugar in sauces (e.g. Chicken teriyaki bowl). I will not cut out bread or pasta. There is a sliding scale of how healthy you can be and how much time you are willing to put in. I have decided on a level of effort and a fixed amount of time. I’m not even going to turn down cookies if they are offered to us for free. The most important thing is to stop buying junk from the grocery store. It’s financially very cheap, but actually very costly.

P.S. It’s a small step toward getting my personal chef, but I saw an ad for Walmart “emeals” which is more intelligent grocery delivery plus recipes. I haven’t tried it myself, but it seemed like an update on What the Superintelligence Can Do For Us. When I have the equivalent of “former restaurateur, Frances,” in my house, then I just won’t need anything else and innovation can stop there, thanks.

Hanging the curtains back up

Joy Buchanan3 Comments

There were not a lot of successful female writers and academics in the 1970’s. Maybe I underestimate how many there were, but obviously they would have been in the minority. I’m reading a chapter on the anthropologist Mary Douglas who somehow combined raising three children with remaining active in academia. I read a few pages while helping at the Cub Scout camping trip.

In one of her books, Douglas added an apology for professional duties eclipsing domestic ones: ‘All our things have fallen into neglect while I have been writing, floors unpolished, curtains falling off hooks. I am grateful to my family for their patience.’

page 130 of The Slain God by Timothy Larsen

It is irksome to hear this woman apologizing for working
what is essentially two jobs and performing so well at each one. (I wouldn’t want
to put anyone off reading Larsen, who admires her very much.)

I had planned to do this a year ago, but then I ended up
writing papers on artificial intelligence and doing a bunch of related speaking
engagements. (I love it – anyone who wants a speaker on ChatGPT should invite
me out.) Anyway, I’m going to try to do the equivalent of fixing the
“curtains falling off hooks.” The curtains really do fall down. You
could have a well-functioning household and drawers full of clothes that fit
your children… and then if someone is not engaged in constant warfare… it
will all fall apart in about 6 months.