Category: Child Development and Developmental Issues
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Should You Homeschool? A Pediatrician’s Honest Take on Stay at Home Parents and Why I Barely See Their Kids
Someone recently asked me what I think about homeschooling. I’ll start by admitting that whatever I say here, people will read it and see what they want to see. You know the story of the blind men and the elephant. One grabs the trunk and says, “It’s a snake.” One touches the leg and says,…
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Sure Kid, You Can Carry Your Own EpiPen, The Data Says You’ll Leave It in Your Gym Bag
Almost weekly, my inbox fills with the same PDF: the school self carry form. One box for “student is capable of carrying and self-administering emergency epinephrine,” one line for my signature, and one implicit assumption that a twelve year old who cannot reliably carry a library book is a competent field medic. And every day,…
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Extracurricular Activities and Teen Mental Health: Put Down the GPA, Pick Up a Hobby
There is a particular kind of adolescent we have collectively decided to manufacture: the teen with a spotless transcript, seven AP classes, a color-coded planner, three standardized-test prep books, and the emotional bandwidth of a dying phone battery. They are impressive. They are exhausted. They may also have no earthly idea what they enjoy when…
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Crawling Is Not a Milestone — It’s a Temporary Floor-Based Lifestyle Choice
Somewhere along the way, crawling became the infant-development version of getting into an Ivy League preschool: apparently mandatory, morally significant, and proof your baby will one day run a hedge fund. They crawled at six months? Gifted.They belly-scooted at nine months? A future engineer.They skipped crawling and walked? Obviously doomed to poor handwriting, weak core…
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Should I Stay Home With My Child? A Pediatrician’s Take
A pediatrician with 30 years of experience explains why more time with young children may matter more than the work-and-spend treadmill—and how families can adjust. No One on Their Deathbed Wishes They Answered More Emails In 30 years of pediatrics, I have watched parents pull off miracles. They have survived the newborn months on approximately…