In 2020, amidst a worldwide pandemic, we published some of our most thought-provoking and poignant family-themed posts to date. We covered evergreen topics about the joys and challenges of the parenting experience, and featured pieces offering advice for parents and children alike. We shared your parenting stories related to pandemic life—about what you’ve learned while in quarantine, the struggles of managing a work-life balance, the unique difficulties of online learning, and much more. Oh, what a year it’s been!

Here are our ten most-read original essays of 2020:

 

 

My preoccupation with sick kids on Instagram, by Justine Feron

Maybe following these accounts is a form of penance for the guilt of being one of the lucky ones who got to take her baby home.

 

 

 

Movies to watch with your family right now, by Daisy Alpert Florin
Every night this family of five sits down together to watch a movie. Rotating who picks, no opting out. 

 

 

 

 

How to help your teen be a (functioning) person, by Catherine Newman
Catherine Newman’s wonderful new book offers a guide to 65 hugely useful, super-important skills for teens and tweens.

 

 

 

 

It’s time to drop the Karen stereotype, by Laura Catherine Hanby Hudgens
Karen is the internet equivalent to the age-old double standard that a man who is vocal is assertive but when it’s a woman she’s a shrew.

 

 

This is how perspectives change during a hard time, by Teresa B. Duffy
He said, “I never knew you started dinner at 4pm every weekday.”

 

 

 

 

 

I have a trans teen. This is why it’s hard right now to be a Harry Potter fan. By Carrie Goldman
It’s a shock that J.K. Rowling—one of our family’s champions—has chosen to deny the very existence of our child.

 

 

 

What it means to be the mother of a black teenage son right now, by Kai McGee
I’ve been sitting with the reality that this world will never see my son’s heart before they see his color.

 

 

 

What have you learned about yourself during the pandemic
Parenting, relationships, work-life balance. Your pandemic self-growth in 100 words or less.

 

 

 

A thank you note to all teachers, by Maureen Boesen
This job is hard—physically, mentally, emotionally—it’s so damn hard.

 

 

 

 

You will want to remember this, by Michelle Riddell
How you went from the rigid enforcer to letting your kids to eat cake in their bedrooms. How you learned to wait. How you learned what mattered.

 

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