The Family Firm

From age 5 to 12, parenting decisions do not come with the frequency that they do with a baby, but they are almost always more complicated. What's the right kind of school? How do you get them to eat healthily? Should they play a sport? Are you a helicopter parent, a free range parent, a tiger parent, an ostrich parent? Is that last one even a thing?Daily logistical challenges are punctuated by big, consequential decisions that you often have no idea how to think about. Oster outlines a framework and some systems: a way to run your family a bit more like a firm, beginning with the "Big Picture" for your family and going on to explain ways to structure your day to day, and how to approach big decisions.People will often tell you parenting is a job, albeit an underpaid one where the employees frequently tell you they hate you and you ruined their life. So maybe it's time to start treating it like one.