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'THE FALL GUY'

Rated PG-13 for action and violence, drug content and some strong language.

What it’s about: A stuntman gets involved in a murder mystery while trying to save the movie directed by his estranged girlfriend.

The kid attractor factor: Big movie stars and even bigger stunts.

Good lessons/bad lessons: The truth will always come ...Read more

Years ago, we would pick up our son downtown after he took the Megabus home from college. He would get in the car and we would routinely ask, "Where's your luggage?" He would respond by holding up a small brown paper bag that most people use to pack a lunch.

The kid was a walking definition of "travel light."

These days he occasionally travels...Read more

This column is the latest in a series on parenting children in the final years of high school, "Emptying the Nest."

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I recently saw a headline in the New York Times that I thought was the answer to my prayers: "Anxious Parents are the Ones Who Need Help."

Yes, please, I thought, hoping to find acknowledgment of all the very real forces ...Read more

Q: My husband's sons live with us about 40% of the time and I have my three sons full time. My husband works in another city during the week, so it is sometimes only me and 5 boys. Now his ex says we need to have the kids 50/50 (and the kids want this as well), and even though my husband is out of town a lot, she still thinks it's his ...Read more

After having their first child, Naiya Atkins and Tristan Griffith were settling into a routine. On leave from her job as a second grade teacher, Naiya was home with baby Joseph, whom they nicknamed JoJo. Tristan worked late hours and took care of JoJo at night.

JoJo was 2 weeks old when Naiya stood up from snuggling him in bed and almost ...Read more

When HelioCorp’s connection to the Eastern U.S. power grid blows up — literally, killing one of the employees in the process — a firewall glitch or a system hack breached by an insider is suspected. Louise “Weezy” Napolitani, a brilliant computer specialist (hacker) for the IAC, is summoned to investigate the blow-up. She is not happy ...Read more

Dr. Christina Rahm’s third book in her Cure the Causes series, "Be Your Own Inspiration," stands out as a unique and comprehensive guide to self-discovery, self-empowerment and self-evolution. It’s not just another self-help book, but a transformative journey that starts with the self.

Rahm’s approach is not just theoretical, but highly ...Read more

Band-Aids and other popular brands of adhesive bandages have been found to contain higher-than-expected levels of cancer-causing “forever chemicals.”

In partnership with the Environmental Health Sciences blog and Mamavation, the Institute for Green Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University examined 40 bandages from 18 different brands, and ...Read more

Decades of research show that on average, children who grow up with parents who are not married and living together have worse achievement and behavioral and well-being outcomes than children of two-parent homes. Despite this evidence, rates of nonmarital childbearing have risen dramatically in the U.S., especially among the noncollege-educated....Read more

This month, 21 current and former Major League Baseball players invested their own money in youth baseball. If that sounds like a feel-good story in which baseball’s past paves the way for baseball’s future, think again.

The MLB team invested in Perfect Game, a company that holds pricey tournaments and prospect showcases for college and ...Read more

'CHALLENGERS'

Rated R for language throughout, some sexual content and graphic nudity.

What it’s about: A love triangle set in the world of professional tennis.

The kid attractor factor: This is an adult drama, not much appeal for kids.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Relationships are complex, messy and require compromise.

Violence: Just ...Read more

Parents may shrug that it's too late to reverse the epidemic of smart phones. But if we all banded together, couldn't we save childhood?

My oldest child just turned 11. Now is the time to be begging my friends — the parents of his closest buddies — to sign a pact: We will resist the temptation to hand them their own smart phones or let them...Read more

I was lucky in many ways that my parents were young when I was born. My mother was 19, my father 22.

Their youth meant their parents were also relatively young, as were their parents’ parents, which dropped me into a multitude of grandparents and great-grandparents at birth, a tribe of elders whose physical presence would enrich my life for ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Rose and Rob Bronstein were blindsided by their 15-year-old son Nate’s suicide in early 2022.

The Bronsteins say Nate was a funny, athletic and well-liked kid. What they didn’t know, they said, is that in the weeks leading up to his death, Nate was being harassed by other Latin School of Chicago students on the social media ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Anxiety among children and teens is on the rise, and that concerns clinical psychologist and Temple University professor Philip Kendall.

Kendall directs Temple’s Child & Adolescent Anxiety Disorders Clinic, which treats kids ages 7 to 17. The clinic charges low treatment fees in exchange for enrolling children in research to ...Read more

From state capitols to Washington, D.C., lawmakers are scrambling to come up with regulations that can protect kids from the potential harms of social media, since the platforms have been unwilling to adopt reasonable safeguards themselves.

In just the last few months, Florida passed a law banning children under 14 from having a social media ...Read more

When our kids were young, I briefly considered home schooling. Then I was teaching our son to play piano, found myself with the John Thompson Book for Beginners rolled up in my hand, ready to swat him on the arm, and realized I was not home-school material.

We paid a neighbor for piano lessons. She taught all the kids in the neighborhood and ...Read more

Q: My sister is getting married, and her fiance has asked my ex to be his best man. My ex and I don't get along very well and I have asked her fiance to reconsider many times, but he refuses to consider how I might feel. I am also in the wedding party as well as my two children, ages 10 and 12. Plus, there are other former couples who are ...Read more