Dear Kid Whisperer,

Is it ever OK to yell at your kid? I know you shouldn't do it constantly, but I do feel like it sometimes works to scare my kid into listening to me. My wife tells me I'm mean every time I yell. Am I wrong?

Answer: Why do I have the feeling that if I write that you are correct, you will share my answer with your wife ...Read more

Q. My ex and I share equal custody of our 2-year-old son, but we do not get along. There is a court order that states that we can each have one FaceTime call a day when our son is with the other parent. However, these calls always turn into an argument, from her not picking up to telling me our son does not want to talk to calling right before ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — For nearly 75 years, there has been at least one Kauriga teaching students music in the Philadelphia School District.

First, there was Paul, who taught strings at schools around the city, beginning in 1951. His sons — Gregory, Dimitri, and Paul — and Gregory's son, another Greg, followed.

The streak ended this month, when ...Read more

I may be only one bag of Miracle-Gro away from going officially overboard on the whole garden thing this year. I blame it all on a long, hard winter. My survival kit during snowbound months with no sun and sub-zero temps consisted of chocolate and mail-order seeds.

Starting seeds indoors was how I convinced myself winter would one day pass and ...Read more

Divorce isn’t just about emotional separation: It’s about financial separation, too, especially when it involves shared property like a home, the most valuable asset many people own. When a couple decides to part ways, one of the most challenging aspects of splitting up is figuring out what happens to the home — and each party’s ...Read more

Thanks to the wonderful values instilled in me at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, where I graduated magna cum lager, I do not (as yet) have a criminal record.

But I do have a happy marriage because my wife, Sue, also went to St. Mike’s and recently accompanied me to our 50th reunion, where we saw dozens of cheery classmates,...Read more

The greatest school in history isn’t Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard or any other university you know. And no matter how hard you try, your kids won’t get in. Why? Partly because it was so selective it only admitted one student — but mainly because it closed in 336 BC. For me, Aristotle’s seven-year tutelage of Alexander is the education ...Read more

There’s cost-cutting, and then there’s cruelty.

The Trump administration appears determined to blur that line to the point of indistinction, using the former, over and over, to justify the latter. The decision to abruptly shut down the LGBTQ+ youth suicide and crisis hotline — a service that has no doubt saved countless lives — is the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Maybe you didn’t want your kid to play with toy guns or toy soldiers, so you gave him some wholesome, creative Lego bricks.

Which works until he uses the interlocking plastic pieces to make a tank.

And that explains why World War Brick exists.

World War Brick was a three-day convention held June 6-8 in Minneapolis devoted to ...Read more

Five years ago, I started growing and writing about Rainbow Rhythm daylilies from my landscape perspective in Muscogee County, Georgia. That first year I reached out to Jenny Simpson, who along with husband Jerry, owns Creekside Nursery in Dallas, North Carolina. At the time I told everyone to follow them on Facebook, and that recommendation is ...Read more

A woman recently messaged me with a dilemma. She had planned a trip to the Grand Canyon months ago with a platonic male friend. Since then, she started dating someone new, and after one month of exclusivity with her new boyfriend, she told him about the trip. The boyfriend’s reaction? Not good.

Her question to me: “Do I cancel the trip out ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. -- Dozens of graduates and parents stopped Lawson Boeth on his way into the Florida State Fairgrounds, asking why the soon-to-be Newsome High School graduate already had his diploma in hand before the ceremony.

He didn’t have much time to stop and explain. It wasn’t his: It was for his brother Walter, who died in 2020 at 16.

�...Read more

No one could fault Lisa Kirkbride if she cursed the stars for her wicked diagnosis: a rare and inoperable brain tumor usually found in children, one that doctors have approached with scientific intrigue. Most people with this type of cancer have only a year or so to live.

The fact that Kirkbride is speaking to me in her living room nearly three...Read more

Dear Kid Whisperer,

How do you teach a kid respect? Not just for people, but for things, as well. For example, how to be responsible in caring for jackets or lunch containers, and how to respect belongings (not cutting clothes or leaving things at school). And what about respect for other people, like listening while others talk and not rolling...Read more

Q. My ex argues about everything. It’s gotten so bad that if I even say, “Good morning!” she accuses me of having an ulterior motive. “That was fake,” she’ll say. I don’t know what to do. This goes on in front of the children — at Little League games and exchanges. I think about her and I sweat. How can we problem-solve and ...Read more

Get a group of women together and chances are they will talk about relationships. And shoes. More specifically, relationships with shoes.

The conversations are about shoes somebody loves, shoes somebody used to love (but broke up with due to plantar fasciitis), and shoes somebody dreams of meeting in the future.

These are women in crisis ...Read more

If a shampoo were ever named after me, which would work everyone else into a lather, it would be called Empty Head & Shoulders.

That’s because I have more gray matter on the outside of my head than I do on the inside.

My barber, Maria Santos, knows this and has not only added color to my life but recently answered a question that had me ...Read more

If there’s one thing Americans can agree on, it’s confusion about tipping.

While tipping is expected sometimes, it’s unclear in other situations. Do you tip the DoorDasher who picked up your food order and dropped it at your door? Do you tip the plumber on top of the bill they hand you? If so, how much? Is 20% generous or the new normal? ...Read more