Grown and Flown

So this is it — the third and final time. Next week I will sit through my youngest son’s high school graduation. Like every parent in that audience, high school auditorium, and football field, I will burst with pride and a touch of sadness. We will have weeks an...

The screwdriver was still in my hand when I realized it.

My son Eli was seventeen, standing in the doorway of his bedroom with a broken desk lamp in one hand and his phone in the other. He glanced at me for maybe half a second and then he looked back down at his phone, typed something, and walked away.

My daughter is a junior in high school, which means our family is deep in the college search with campus visits, SAT nerves, Common App deadlines, financial considerations, the best

The first time my daughter drifted toward the center line, I grabbed the wheel. It was a reflex. Two months into teaching her to drive, on a quiet road I’d picked precisely because nothing ever happens there. She eased six inches to the left, a totally normal correction, the kind every driver makes a hundred times a day without thinking. But my hands were already moving. I ya...

Tuition, room, and board may be the largest line items for college students, but they are far from the only costs of higher education. College students need to furnish their dorms, buy books for classes, and pay for transportation to and fr...