RELATED: These Animated E-Cards Are the Perfect Holiday Gift for Dad And to help them do just that ⏤ not to mention minimize their screen time and let you fold the laundry in blessed quiet peace ⏤ we’ve rounded up awesome non-electronic, tech-free, back-to-basics toys to give your kids this holiday. From dinosaur puzzles and scientific silly putty, to wooden cars and window stickers, there’s something here to keep kids of all ages busy, as well as help them develop motor skills and smarts....

Bankrate wanted to find out more about how people feel about homeownership. The company commissioned a new poll of more than 1,400 U.S. homeowners. The results? Nearly two-thirds, or 64 percent, of adults between 24 to 40 years old say they have at least one regret about buying their current home. “These purchases, even for those who are well qualified, can be a leap of faith,” says Mark Hamrick, Bankrate’s senior economic analyst....

Candice Hunter Kennedy from Verona, Kentucky, is homeschooling her 8-year-old son Ben. As part of his homeschooling, Candice asks him to write a small entry into a journal. On the first day of homeschool, Ben’s entry into his journal was particularly fitting, and when Candice shared it on Facebook, it went viral quickly. “Y’all I’m dying!!!” the mom writes while sharing a photo of Ben’s writing. “This is Ben’s journal entry from Monday about our first ‘homed school’ day....

LeBron’s comment about his kids drinking wine was ambiguous but hardly alarming. Did he say his kids drink wine every night at dinner? No. Did he say they were drinking full goblets? No. Did he say that they prefer the fuller, richer flavors of a Chilean Carménère? No. He said they’d drink “whatever mom and dad are having.” Then he pointed out that this was his decision. “Don’t put it on mom, though,” he told reporters....

Regardless of how respect was lost, it can be hard to get back. And commanding respect is never the answer. “If you have to insist on respect, you probably don’t have it,” says Oakland, California, psychologist Erica Reischer, Ph.D., author of What Great Parents Do: Simple Strategies for Raising Kids Who Thrive. “By then, it’s too late.” The sources of diminished family esteem and subsequent disrespect in marriage can be unsurprising (being caught cheating, chronic substance misuse, or abusive behavior) or more subtle (issues that arise from years of little let-downs or demeaning behavior toward your family)....

READ MORE: The Fatherly Guide to Chores Japan: Where Students Minor In The Custodial Arts Japanese kids are expected to be super independent and self-reliant, which means taking subways by themselves, running errands, and lots of chores. Kids as young as 5 bond over making meals and folding laundry with their families. Some schools even have students bust out mops and scrub brushes to clean their own classrooms on the regular....

The new child tax credit is a far cry from the old one. Whereas parents who filed taxes in the past had access to a tax credit at filing time that was not fully refundable, and only came during tax season, the new tax credit consists of six monthly cash payments and ends with a big lump sum of the rest of the cash when you file taxes in 2022....

Actually, that’s not quite it: I was desperate to be a great father. I was 32 at the time, and I’d seen enough of life — especially during my three years as a public defender — to have concluded that bad fathers are responsible for most of society’s ills. Abusive fathers, alcoholic fathers, sexist fathers. Fathers who were domineering, or selfish, or manipulative, or distant. Or fathers who just didn’t show up....

Of course, it helps when your dad designs stuff like this for a living. Here are tips on pillow fort building that Pell has learned the hard way: By giving his kids free reign over the living room. Think Like An Architect Sort your available pillows based on which ones are best for walls and which ones are a good for laying on inside the fort.Identify which pieces of furniture you’re going to work with....

“There can be long-term effects of being born premature, but generally preemies do quite well,” explains Michael Langbaum, M.D., a board-certified neonatologist and chief of pediatrics and the NICU at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, MD. “They can be at an increased risk for neurodevelopmental issues but this is on a case-by-case basis. Early intervention is key to helping with development. By the age of 4, most preemies have caught up to their peers....

We’ve got a whole collection of Halloween-themed step-by-step drawing tutorials, meaning, you can start with a pumpkin, then draw a bat, a moon, and now, the final drawing to make the spooky art projects complete. A cat in a hat. No Halloween picture is complete without a black cat. Here’s how to draw a cat in 5 simple steps. Don’t be worried! When guided by a professional artist, that even the fuzziest whiskers are nothing more than three short lines....

But now the jokes aren’t as funny and your life is about permission slips and putting together/taking apart/not stepping on LEGOs. You’re lucky if you’re not asleep by 10 p.m. But he still is texting requests to meet up. You’re not feeling it. Getting together isn’t the same, and you’re wondering if you’re still friends. Mostly likely you’re not. Friends are important, and, for men, often hard to maintain. Losing some friends to fatherhood is often inevitable....

As of now, if you call 877-7-MICKEY — or 1-877-764-2339 — you’ll get a quick recording of a guy telling you which options you have. Press 1 for Mickey, 2 for Minnie, 3 for Donald, 4 for Daisy, or 5 for Goofy. It totally works. The messages also aren’t just the characters saying “goodnight,” there’s a decent little preamble there, too. They’ll say “thanks for calling,” and mention some stuff about pajamas and snuggling for good measure....

However, those math woes are completely unfounded: There are still a few years before the dreaded common core and calculus come into play, giving parents more than enough time to prepare to help their kids succeed. At the kindergarten level, though, parents can begin helping their kids with math games and activities by preventing the very thing that might have instilled fear of math in the first place: stress....

“The process of developmentally growing up is all about the pruning that takes place in the brain, and that happens based on experience and reinforcement. So if in an extreme situation, a baby is institutionalized and not allowed to run around, they can never make up for those early years of being held back. It’s not just physical restrictions that you see later,” says Murphy. In other words, if kids don’t run to the edge every once in a while, that sense of limitation will harm their brain development....

“We really should be in the womb at least another 18 months,” says Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame. “Compared to other animals, we’re just not ready for birth.” But out we come. So, what is a Homo sapien parent to do? Simulate the feeling of the womb, and the best way to do that is by rocking a baby to sleep. Rocking a baby to sleep helps them accomplish many things they can’t physically do on their own, like regulating their digestion, Narvaez explains....

Fortunately, intervention is usually not necessary. “What commonly happens is that families start thinking this is an allergy or related to reflux and want to go on medications for it,” explains American Academy of Pediatrics spokesperson and pediatric gastroenterologist Dr. Anthony Porto. “Most of the time it happens in the setting of normal growth and happiness with feeding.” How to Soothe Baby Indigestion Wait it Out: Sometimes what seems like indigestion is spit up or gas related to the way a a baby’s body is naturally growing....

“Expecting a 3-year-old toddler not to interrupt is a little much,” says Gloria DeGaetano, founder and executive director of the Parent Coaching Institute, a Seattle-based organization that trains educators, childcare directors, counselors, and social workers. “They’re going to interrupt. They’re simply not coherent enough to not interrupt, because their brains are going in all different directions.” But you can limit those interruptions, and DeGaetano’s been teaching parents how to do it for more than 25 years....

The last thing anyone wants is to be responsible for someone else’s illness. But it can certainly happen even if protocols are followed. If there’s the chance that you have given coronavirus to someone, you have to let them know. Will the conversation be difficult? Yes. It could lead to any number of reactions, from understanding to unabashed anger. And you will likely feel guilty. But there is a script to follow to ensure it goes as smoothly as possible....

Luckily, you don’t need an overpriced cable package, VPN, or shady Reddit links to watch Premier League soccer in the U.S. You just need Peacock, the nascent streaming service from NBC that carries tons of live EPL matches. Here’s everything you need to know about watching the Premier League on Peacock. Which Premier League games are streaming on Peacock? In its inaugural season as the American streaming home of the Premier League, Peacock will host 175 live matches and full replays for all 380 of this season’s matches on-demand, the latter of which will be posted after 9 p....