Smash Cakes
Silver Bullet Sleep Book?
Parents are always on the lookout for sleep remedies for their little night owls, and the marketplace always has something claiming to be the silver bullet. In 2015, it was in the form of "The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep" book by Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin. With ugly drawings, lots of text and specific reading instructions, "The Rabbit" promised to get children from 2.5 to 9 years old to nod off within minutes of cracking the book's spine.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Crown Books
The Year Parents Got Serious About Sleep
Health, happiness, good grades, great beauty—they all come down to one thing: sleep. And 2015 was the year we got serious about it. The National Sleep Foundation came out with guidelines that shocked even the most sleep-righteous of parents into realizing that their kids? They're not getting enough sleep. There was even a conference bringing together health practitioners, sleep researchers and media bigwigs to discuss this great deprivation of our times.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Twenty20
Nationwide Opt Out of Standardized Tests
Last year saw the parental commiseration and mockery of Common Core, but this year is when parents started saying, "Enough is enough." Thousands of public school kids in dozens of states refused to show up for the spring standardized tests, opting out of the requirement in an effort to push back against stringent federal standards that have changed the focus of school from children as learners to children as test-takers. Policymakers got the message and even President Obama, whose administration is largely blamed for this classroom shift, said kids take too many tests.
Letting Kids Fail
The helicopter mom has landed. Between cries from universities and employers that young kids can't even to the publication of Jessica Lahey's "The Gift of Failure," parents took (baby steps) back in an effort to raise more resilient, risk-taking, self-assured kids.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Twenty20
We Embraced the Screen (Yes, That Screen!)
As if there were some kind of collusion between the American Academy of Pediatrics and the showering industry, parents looking for some private moments to clean off got pretty good news this year. The AAP backed off its recommendation against screens for kids 2 years and younger. Instead, they said parents should use common sense, interact with their children while the screens are on and generally keep communication open to talk about what everyone's doing and when. And maybe send the kids outdoors once in awhile.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Twenty20
Dads Are the New Moms
This is the year dads broke through (or at least cracked) the pink ceiling, at home and at work. The number of high-profile corporations lengthening their paid maternity leave and offering significant paid paternity leave for new dads snowballed.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Twenty20
