letters from your suburban dad

Dear Child, Things are tough right now. The world has been thrown into chaos by the COVID-19 pandemic. The last two months have been a roller coaster of stress and uncertainy; unfortunately, there are no clear signs that things will be slowing down anytime soon.  At the time I'm writing this, you're only two and a half years old. It's probably hard for you to understand what's going on, but your life hasn't been disrupted too much. Sure, you miss going to school to see your fellow toddler classmates, but I'd like to think that you appreciate the additional time you get with your mother and I each day. Source:  https://www.fox19.com/2020/03/27/photographer-capturing-covid-era-with-free-family-photos/ Unfortunately, for many families worldwide, things are far more dire. For starters, there's the financial side of things. Now, I don't say this lightly — but this pandemic has caused total economic devestation for so, so many people. Over 26 millio...

Dear Child, This may come as a surprise to you, but I wasn't always close with your grandparents. Like a lot of other folks, I grew a lot closer with my parents only after becoming a parent myself. You already know a bit about how helpful grandparents can be with childcare, but there's a multitude of other benefits to mental health, social capital, and free time that multigenerational families enjoy. Here are a few highlights that I hope you'll consider when your mom and I are old and empty nested... Mental Health : The first year of parenthood is really, really hard. Things go from exciting and joyous to chaos and exhaustion in a matter of weeks. Once your friends stop coming by to drop off meals and to fawn at the new baby, it's just you and your partner trying to survive! Postpartum depression is such a real, underreported issue that tens of thousands of women struggle with silently (Cheng et al., 2006).  Photo Credit: VectorStock So what do you do? Well,...