Plain pieces about outdoor play, screens, child development and what the science actually says. Aimed at the parent who reads at the kitchen table after the dishes are done.
Outdoor play
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6 min read
A generation of children grew up with one bedtime cue and very little supervision. The science of why that was good for them is finally catching up.
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Health
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5 min read
The WHO is not asking for an athlete. It is asking for a sweaty kid. Here is what that looks like in real life, and why it is the single most important number on this site.
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Child development
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5 min read
A bruised knee is not a parenting failure. It is, almost certainly, a regulatory upgrade in your child's nervous system.
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Screen time
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7 min read
It is not weakness, it is not addiction in the casual sense, and it is not your fault. It is a calibrated reward schedule, and it is doing exactly what it was designed to do.
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Health
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6 min read
Richard Louv coined the phrase in 2005. It is not a clinical diagnosis. The findings underneath it, however, are surprisingly hard to argue with.
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Parenting
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6 min read
Two generations of research on independent mobility tell a story most parents don't hear: the radius your child is allowed to roam is now about a fifth of what yours was, and the country isn't safer.
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Child development
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6 min read
The number of close friends a person has at 30 is set, mostly, by the friendships they made in person between 7 and 14. The current generation is short on the practice.
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Health
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5 min read
Almost every "is my kid getting too much screen time?" question is, underneath, a sleep question. Here is the research, and the one rule that does most of the work.
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Parenting
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4 min read
Outzy is mostly an outdoor app. On the days when outdoor isn't happening, here is the short list of indoor activities that do, in our family, actually replace the screen.
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Screen time
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5 min read
Not all screen time is the same screen time. The research is unusually clear on which kinds are net-positive, which are neutral, and which are just sitting still in front of variable rewards.
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Health
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5 min read
A short, evidence-based answer to one of the most-googled parent questions, sorted by age.
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Screen time
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6 min read
Jonathan Haidt's four norms, translated into actions a normal family can take this month.
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Outdoor play
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4 min read
You don't need a wilderness, you need a defined patch of outside the kid is allowed to use without asking.
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Child development
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5 min read
If you live within a mile of the school, the walk is one of the highest-value parenting decisions you can make. Here is the evidence.
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Parenting
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4 min read
Boredom is the engine of every interesting thing your child has ever made up. Don't solve it.
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Child development
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4 min read
A simple, evidence-based ladder for what a child should be able to do on a bike, and roughly when. (Spoiler: balance bikes change everything.)
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Screen time
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5 min read
When schools cancel outdoor break for weather or staffing, the next two hours of class are measurably worse. Here is what you can do at home to rebuild the gap.
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Screen time
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6 min read
There is a useful answer to this question. It is not the answer the rest of your child's class wants.
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Outdoor play
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5 min read
Cold weather is not the reason your kids are inside. Lack of routine is. Here is what Scandinavian families do that the rest of us could copy.
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Child development
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5 min read
Shyness is not a problem to solve. It is a temperament to work with. Here is how to do that without forcing it.
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Parenting
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4 min read
How you handle pickup determines about half of how the rest of the day goes. The interventions are tiny.
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Parenting
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4 min read
Risky play is good. Hazards are bad. The two are not the same and conflating them is what produces overprotective parenting.
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Outdoor play
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5 min read
A few specific Dutch practices that produce one of Europe's highest outdoor-childhood rates. Most are copyable.
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Health
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5 min read
If your school-run is a daily fight, the cause is almost certainly downstream of bedtime. Three changes that work.
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Child development
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6 min read
Between 9 and 12 something specific happens. It is not bad, it is not their fault, and it is the foundation of who they will be at 25. Here is what.
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Parenting
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4 min read
Companion piece to "when your kid says they're bored": the philosophical case for a slower afternoon.
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Parenting
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5 min read
A short, copy-pasteable agreement we use in our own families. Not aspirational. Actually used.
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Child development
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5 min read
Both are good. They do measurably different things. A short guide to picking which to spend your time and money on.
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Health
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4 min read
A short note on aerobic load, when to worry that a child is over-doing it, and why structured "training" almost never makes sense before 12.
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Parenting
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5 min read
A specific decision most parents agonise over. The data is friendlier than your gut says.
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