What a strange world we live in that I have to make the point that adults are the heads of their households.

The evidence for the apparent need for this clarification is all around us. So many parents seem to need to be told that a family is not a group of friends who happen to be related to each other. Friends are equals; healthy friend-to-...Read more

Q: Our breakup was nasty, and I rarely talk to my child’s other parent. When we do, it’s on a court-ordered app. Lately I have been getting notifications that my ex is trying to talk to me. I don’t want to talk. He drives me crazy. How can I convince the court that my child is better off with me? What’s good ex-etiquette?

A: I ...Read more

“Sit down and take a deep breath,” the husband says, as he brings in the mail. “You’re going to love this.”

“We won the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes!” I yell.

“No,” he says.

“It’s a check from the government saying they’re sorry they overcharged us on taxes for the past 45 years.”

“Wrong again,” he says...Read more

Karlo Campana is usually outnumbered these days. He has three young kids under age 4. On a recent Saturday, he played a mini game of basketball with his two older kids in their Southern California home, shooting a ball into a hoop on the door, while his baby boy watched from his bouncy chair.

Campana took paid time off in May after the birth of...Read more

I don’t want to beat around the bush, so I’ll come right out and say it: I should start a hedge fund.

It could have paid for my hospital stay — or, worse, my funeral — after I came close to being electrocuted while trimming the hedges.

Instead, I should have paid my wife, Sue, the going rate for being a master electrician. That’s ...Read more

Costs are soaring for people who care for their older parents and other family members, according to a new study.

Out-of-pocket expenses are nearly 60% higher than they were just five years ago for family caregivers, who now spend an average of $11,508 a year on caregiving, according to a report released this week by AARP, a nonprofit that ...Read more

ELKHORN, Wis. — Bray Road runs for 3 miles through Elkhorn, Wisconsin. At the south, it begins not far from Lake Geneva. Enter off U.S. Route 12, curl east, and other than a slight jog, it’s pretty much a straight shot to State Route 11. Hence all the snaking peel-out marks left by amateur racers. Foliage rustles in the autumn wind here, and...Read more

In case you haven’t noticed, you have been living through an explosion of new varieties when it comes to hydrangeas. It has been like a wonderful tsunami of shrubs that we could not have even dreamed about.

Today I looked at the Proven Winners online catalog and there were 66 varieties. Can you imagine how many there would be if you counted ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’m 29, and my fiancee is 28. We’ve been together for five years and are supposed to get married next spring. Since I proposed about a year ago, her mental health has gotten progressively worse, and she’s not seeking any kind of treatment for it. She eventually quit her job and now spends most of her days at home. I work full ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Emily Hanford is a superstar in education reporting. Four years ago, her APM Reports podcast “Sold a Story” rocked the K-12 world. Soon after its launch, more than two dozen states, including Minnesota, passed laws or policies intended to change the way schools teach reading.

You can see the seismic effects of her reporting ...Read more

Ever since Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Plug and Play Solar Act last month and opened the door for Californians to plug small solar panels directly into wall outlets without utility permissions, people have been asking: Can renters use this technology?

“It’s a bit of an open question,” said Joseph Kaatz, senior staff attorney at the ...Read more

CHICAGO -- When she was in fifth grade, Lexie Ippolito watched her mother get married in a stunning Michelangelo-style strapless wedding dress. Ippolito, now 28, always imagined that she, too, would one day wear that same beaded gown and matching sheer veil. Once she got engaged, she wanted her mother’s to be the first wedding dress she tried ...Read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Is your memory faltering, or are you experiencing early signs of Alzheimer’s? Does your family history mean you are more likely to develop the disease?

Learning your Alzheimer’s risk — and taking steps to curb it — is getting easier in South Florida with less invasive, more accessible, and more accurate testing...Read more

A client of mine recently was set up on a date through friends. She walked into the bar to meet him, and she said he immediately started peppering her with questions. At first, they were innocuous enough:

Where are you from?

What do you do for work?

Then, she said, the questions started to get a little deeper:

Do you like your family?

Do ...Read more

Q. My child tells me that she can do various things at her mother’s home that she can’t do at mine. It seems to me that there are no rules over there, and it makes me look unreasonable. I think my ex is doing this on purpose, so the kids will prefer her home. What’s good ex-etiquette?

A. My first question is, how do you know?

You said ...Read more

We often race one another clearing the table after dinner. It’s not an overt race with running shoes, numbers strapped to our chests and the crack of a starting pistol, but a low-key, passive-aggressive, run-walk type race.

I move toward the sink with a dish holding the scattered remains of a lone chicken enchilada. He pulls back his chair; I...Read more

Last week’s column was all about how allowing kids to be resentful (the bitter indignation of having been treated unfairly) and entitled (the belief that one is deserving of certain privileges) is the best way to make sure your kid lives a life of misery.

In case you make a terrible weekly life choice and don’t read this column with perfect...Read more

KEWANEE, Ill. — The educators made their way into the white outdoor tent first, decked out in master’s regalia that provided a bit of warmth on the nippy October morning and accessorized with wide smiles. In purple robes and tassels displaying Northwestern University’s seal embossed on a metal medallion, 18 women followed, the sound of �...Read more