The Family Firm

From age 5 to 12, parenting decisions do not come with the frequency that they do with a baby, but they are almost always more complicated. What’s the right kind of school? How do you get them to eat healthily? Should they play a sport? Are you a helicopter parent, a free range parent, a tiger parent, an ostrich parent? Is that last one even a thing? Daily logistical challenges are punctuated by big, consequential decisions that you often have no idea how to think about. Oster outlines a framework and some systems: a way to run your family a bit more like a firm, beginning with the ‘Big Picture’ for your family and going on to explain ways to structure your day-to-day, and how to approach big decisions. People will often tell you parenting is a job, albeit an underpaid one where the employees frequently tell you they hate you and you ruined their life. So maybe it’s time to start treating it like one.