Family Life
Small family traditions do more than big ones
The things children remember tend to be cheap, repeated and slightly odd. The expensive set pieces are mostly memorable to the…
Family Life
Siblings, grandparents, holidays and everything with more than two people in it.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 2 of 2
Family Life
When two parents disagree about the same child
Different instincts are normal and mostly harmless. What causes damage is the disagreement being conducted in front of the child…
Family Life
Age gaps change the logistics more than the relationship
Every gap is described as the best or the worst by somebody who had it. What actually differs is which years are hard and what the…
Family Life
Keeping a family close when it is spread across countries
Distance does not end relationships; irregularity does. What holds a scattered family together is a rhythm that survives time zones…
Family Life
Nobody is keeping the family archive, and it is disappearing
More images of family life exist than ever before and less of it is retrievable. The photographs survive; finding one, or knowing…
Family Life
Sleepovers, and the questions worth asking before the first one
The first invitation arrives with no guidance and a short deadline. There are a handful of things worth knowing, and asking them is…
Family Life
A day out with a mixed-age family is an averaging problem
Anything chosen to suit everybody usually suits nobody particularly. The days that work well are built around one person at a time.
Family Life
Two languages in one household is a logistics decision as much as a cultural one
Families rarely fail at this for lack of commitment. They fail because the arrangement was never made explicit, and the majority…
Family Life
Apologising to your children teaches something a lecture cannot
Adults get it wrong regularly and children notice every time. What they learn from the aftermath depends entirely on what the adult…