Viva the European Welfare State!

Life is no less complicated in Europe, of course: people die, divorce, and occasionally find themselves imprisoned in Austrian dungeons. But the German government is making at least one part of life a little easier: parenting. I just got back from a week in Berlin and beyond visiting friends with babies, all of whom rely, …

How to Shout at your Child… the Right Way

Over the weekend I hurt my 3-year-old daughter’s feelings. The first thing she did afterward was rat me out: “Daddy called me ‘bad Dalia,’” she told her mother before proceeding, in a very deliberate way that she must have picked up in school, to describe how this had hurt her feelings and she didn’t think …