That is the eeriest part of these videos — the parents are barely interacting with their kids. Instead they are relating to a mirror image of their children that they are spreading online. And they are reveling in their power over that image. Children in crisis have been an onscreen fascination since the beginning of […]
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I want to begin this column by sharing with you one of the worst things I ever did. I was only 18 years old, but that was no excuse. Late one night I got a call from a close friend. “My dad’s on the way to the hospital,” he said. “It’s really bad.” His voice […]
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I didn’t know what to make of the dolls. There were a half-dozen Black Barbies, Bratz and more arranged neatly on a windowsill. My wife and I were moving to coastal Maine, and as we walked through an open house, the toys in the child’s room bothered me in a way that wasn’t rational but […]
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Photo: Fly View Productions (Getty Images) From the moment you find out you’re expecting until you help them move in to their first apartment, your role as a protector, educator and nurturer is more important than ever. And as Black parents, we face the unique challenge of raising our children in a world that often […]
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It is an economic imperative to break the vicious cycle of a widening class gap in family structure — and more generally, a high share of one-parent homes outside all but the most highly educated groups in society. That won’t be easy to do. For decades, academics, journalists and advocates have taken a “live and […]
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American liberals have led the campaign to reduce child poverty since Franklin Roosevelt, and it’s a proud legacy. But we have long had a blind spot. We are often reluctant to acknowledge one of the significant drivers of child poverty — the widespread breakdown of family — for fear that to do so would be […]
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Not long after Crystal Springs started her new job at a large insurance company in Midtown Manhattan earlier this year, she realized that a much bigger chunk of her paycheck than she expected was going directly to child care for her 5-year old daughter. Ms. Springs had dreamed that the job, which allowed her and […]
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My husband became an outcast in our own home, second fiddle to me, the primary source of nourishment and comfort, but also to the institution of motherhood, to which my body also now belonged. I sensed his disappointment because a mother, too, is meant to belong to her husband. But I frequently found myself “touched […]
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