Dear Jack
A father writes his son a note on election night. It gets passed around their family and friends—and soon the entire world. What viral impact looks like, post-Trump.
children
A collection of 37 issues
Being John
When five million people share your name, your Google-ability is miserably low. Will this forever change naming?
The Girl on the Lawn
Forget anxiety, overcaution, or just plain unhappiness. The real problem with parenting is philosophy.
Our Imaginary Brother Only Watches PBS
How one family schemed to be the best TV-watchers in America.
Our Dino Love Will Never Die
Dinosaurs haven’t been super-popular for 65 million years—it only feels that way. Fans and experts explain our obsession with dead monsters.
Symbolism for Beginners
For tens of thousands of years, wild horses have inspired humans—to nurture, to create, to slaughter—culminating in the past century of America’s legal and psychological battles over the horses we can’t own.
In the Wilderness
A young girl in South Dakota—the last school-age child remaining in her community—epitomizes the challenges of rural American Judaism.
Do You Believe in Ghosts?
Ignore the critics: Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” is not only a serious, complex comment on space policy, it’s a heartbreaking, philosophical look at the value of time.
It Made Me Feel Like More Than One Person
You can learn how to read a poem, but you can’t choose how it will affect you. Here, a little cough launches a journey through a reader’s mind.
The Statue in the Corner
It's time once again for our annual Halloween ritual, where we dust off a classic urban legend and reanimate it with a few new endings.
You Never Forget
At 36, a schoolteacher learns how to ride a bicycle from his former student, who’s still struggling to succeed in school programs that value order above all else.
The Influencing Machine
When a genetic disease looms, we’re more like our parents than we’d like to believe—and when we become parents, that fear only grows.
Let It Stop
Disney’s “Frozen” juggernaut has been criticized for “sexy walking.” But the roots of what’s wrong lie in Midwestern pageants, not hip-hop videos.
A Country’s Width
Years go by easier when there are 2,000 miles separating a father and son. Then an American flag turns up in your lap.
The Illuminated
A family that relies on the satisfactions of the logical—calculus, physics, chemistry—finds itself haunted by ghosts.
Read It Again, Dad
Good books are frequently credited with being worth reading twice. But when was the last time anyone had time for that?
No Blanket Left Behind
Across generations, when children can’t find their comfort objects—usually soft toys like blankets or favorite stuffed animals—all hell breaks loose.
After Birth
A home birth begets a crash course in DIY medical waste disposal.
White Rabbit
When illness erases the fine line between love and obsession.
Do Not Endure Verbal, Emotional, or Physical Abuse
Offered an opportunity to help a father reach out to his young daughter, a writer agrees to assist. But the challenge isn’t as simple as grammar and commas.
Send, Dad
Ever since my dad got an iPad last year, he sees it fit to multitask: Read an article, and text me about it.
Burying the Present
Thirty years ago, two friends created a vision of the future—a space opera put to tape—and buried it in a time capsule. Listening again today, it turns out we remember the past as it never quite was.
Born, Still
A newborn wavers between life and something else. For the father, a walk in the woods elucidates the struggle between nature and nurture.
The Complete Biography of North West
A baby is born to a celebrity couple. Meanwhile, many more babies are born to countless other non-famous couples. This is what happens next.
Heartplunger
A childhood ban on toy guns didn’t erase the specter of death from a neighborhood.
It’s Complicated
Though mothers may gnash their teeth at forgotten flowers and missing brunches, the poets still sing of the worst Mother’s Day ever: that of Oedipus and his bride.
Night Vision
An unexpected pregnancy, tuna sandwiches consumed in darkness, and woman after woman of a certain age living by the ocean—eventually, all connections make sense when it comes to prescient grandparents.
I Wish That We Could Both Be There
In 1974, a car hits a seven-year-old boy in central New Jersey. The boy dies. From 2013, a former friend starts to probe the causes, effects, statistics, and consequences.
Handicapped Children
All parents like to believe their children are special. But horse breeders know better: Progeny can be unique, but for very particular reasons. How to be more honest about your offspring and their ability to finish in the money.
Eyes Wide Open
The next time jet lag ruins your day—exhausted, yawning, blurry-eyed, fiending for any means of correction—what if you were to stop looking for a cure inside purgatory and, instead, embrace the cloud?
Beloved Children's Books
With the imminent release of the Where the Wild Things Are movie, we're swept up in childhood literary nostalgia. Our staff and readers tell us what filled their tiny bookshelves.
Daddies Unbound
The stereotype that dads don't show much skill or interest in child-rearing should have gone out when you were still in diapers—so why does it persist?
New Fathers, Round III
Are you ruining your child's chances at future employment by blogging about his poop? By becoming a father yourself, do you finally understand your own dad? A look at the challenges of contemporary paternity.
New Fathers, Round II
Twelve months ago a number of TMN contributors were becoming first-time dads—now it's time to check in and see how they're doing. A look back at a year of highs, lows, and Diaper Genies.
New Fathers
For some reason not involving pods or alien harvests, a number of our writers are about to be fathers, or have recently become dads, and it seemed appropriate to convene a meeting of minds. A discussion of fears, frustrations, and why the name you've picked out for your kid will inevitably be mocked
Early Broadcasting
What happens when a ten-year-old enters the ranks of ham-radio enthusiasts and Dirty Old Men? Our writer remembers his friends, his call letters, and his place in broadcast history. No ham or ham-product punnery included.
My Father Speaks Another Language
It's been said that parents just don't understand. But what about when it's the other way around?