The American Academy of Pediatrics has finally come out strong against spanking. In a policy statement released Monday, the leading organization of pediatricians advised “that parents do not use spanking, hitting, slapping, threatening, insulting, humiliating, or shaming.” What a thing that this must be said!

If you have spent much time with children, you probably feel that you cannot escape Paw Patrol, the cartoon about a heroic team of rescue dogs. Well, just FYI, while Paw Patrol toys litter the floor of your home, the show’s creator is driving around Monaco (where he lives) in one of his Aston Martins, like James…

Keira Knightley has penned a frank, uncompromising essay about the bloody, crusty, torn-vagina reality of giving birth—and the societal pressures to cover up that reality. But you wouldn’t know it from the ensuing media coverage, which has cast her as a MEAN ANGRY FEMINIST MOMMY criticizing PERFECT MOM Kate Middleton.

On Monday, Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand, brought her baby along to the U.N. General Assembly for the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit. The sight of a baby with a pacifier popped in her mouth was an odd one amid a sea of business attire—and, as such, it’s made headlines. “At just 3 months, she is said to be…

A couple months ago, I bought some Pampers diapers for my baby and opened the box to find the unthinkable inside: a highly pleasant design. Gone were the Sesame Street characters that had at every diaper change reminded me of the ever-advancing creep of commodified childhood. Instead, there was a range of…

NBC has run a terrifying/innovative feature on a trend trendy parents are calling: “free-range parenting.” The meaning is stop helicoptering and, I dunno, let them fall out of a tree. It’s extremely controversial.

Everyone makes mistakes. For instance, you might mistakenly write an entire column about how Chip and Joanna Gaines can’t possibly be good parents for USA Today, like writer Daryl Austin did, and then have to publicly apologize. It happens.

When Cassidy Green learned that she was pregnant, she and her husband didn’t discuss cribs, co-sleeping, or even diapers. Instead, they worried about more basic and immediate challenges, like whether Green would be able to spend more than a few days with her baby. Green was in prison, nine years into a 15-year prison…

Like so many parents, novelist Ian McEwan was once roped into helping his son with his homework. The assignment was regarding one of McEwan’s own novels, and his son received a C+ for their mutual efforts. Everyone’s a critic!

We already know that the so-called “motherhood penalty” plays a key role in the persisting gender wage gap. Now, a new unpublished study suggests an age-related catch: When women in opposite-sex marriages have their first baby before the age of 25 or after the age of 35, they eventually catch up with their husband’s…

Diapers might be getting better, thinner, long-lasting, but they certainly aren’t getting any less expensive.

The only sell you need for this movie is that Nicolas Cage scream-sings “Hokey Pokey” while cursing and wielding a sledgehammer in one scene. Mom and Dad is set in a crazy dark-comedy fantasy world where parents become murderous toward their children in droves, almost like the opposite of Boss Baby, where babies got…

Welcome to Dear Jane, Jezebel’s advice column.

In collaboration with Rise magazine, Jezebel is publishing a series of articles written by parents affected by the child welfare system. This post, the last in the series, is written by Piazadora Footman, who lost her son for three years after she was arrested for buying drugs. In New York City, an estimated 25 to 40…

In collaboration with Rise magazine, Jezebel is publishing a series of articles written by parents affected by the child welfare system. This post, the fourth in the series, features narratives by Deborah McCabe and Adisha Garner, two parents who were unable to reunite with their children. In New York City, an…

In collaboration with Rise magazine, Jezebel is publishing a series of articles written by parents affected by the child welfare system. This post, the third in the series, features narratives by LaQuana Chapelle and Lashonda Murray, two mothers who themselves grew up in foster care. In New York City, an estimated 25…

In collaboration with Rise magazine, Jezebel is publishing a series of articles written by parents affected by the child welfare system. This post, the second in the series, features narratives by Antoinette Robinson and Jeffrey Mays, two parents who felt unjustly treated by the Family Court process.

In October, a new “community hub” for families is opening up in Los Angeles called Loom. Loom may not be open yet, but its membership quota is full (you can join a waitlist on their website). They have 16,000 followers on Instagram and 18 reviews on Yelp, mostly effusive praise for one of its co-founders, a practicing…

Dear Jane,