It was an eventful year. The biggest milestone for me was the August publication of The Family Firm, which was in the works from pre-pandemic times. Launching a book during the pandemic was weird, but I came to (sort of) like Zoom book talks. And launching a book from a newsletter platform — where I get to interact more in real time with readers — was nothing but good. 

The Family Firm is really, in the end, two books. On one hand, it’s a book about data. There’s data on sleep, screens, nutrition. I’ll link to some posts on those topics below. That part of the book is a true follow-up to Expecting Better and Cribsheet. It’s data-forward, even if the data on older kids is sometimes even less compelling and complete than for babies. 

On the other hand, much of the book is about decision-making, about family-life structure, about managing a world with competing or complementary values and complicated logistics. I’ve also written about those parts of the book: the decision tools, creating a big-picture schedule, using the workbooks (see them below!). Since this is mostly a roundup, there are lots of links, including to other resources I found helpful. But before getting into that, I wanted to suggest two simple exercises, inspired by ideas in The Family Firm, that you might find useful.