Are We Wrong About Helicopter Parenting?

The other evening, I was over at my friends’ place and we were comparing notes on our seventh-graders. Like in New York City, seventh grade in Montreal marks the traditional start of solo commuting on public transit. My friends’ kid has had some trouble adapting to the logistics of getting around alone. For a while, a parent would ride the bus with him, but he wanted to be more independent. He switches buses on the way to school, and that was the tricky part that needed practicing.

So for a week of morning commutes, his stepdad tailed the bus on his bike, pedaling the snowy Montreal streets to make sure his stepson got off where he was supposed to. One morning, the kid missed his stop, and my friend had to race the bus, ditch his bike at the next stop, and rush on to get him. But now he’s riding alone every morning, a seventh-grader making his way.

Happy first day of spring! Here are tips for protecting your mental health as you tackle spring cleaning. Speaking of the weather getting warmer, U.N. climate scientists are running out of ways to warn us that we’re in dire, soon-to-be-irreversible trouble. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s reputation has begun to erode as its antiquities collection practices are reexamined. After ten years, Jeremy Scott is leaving Moschino. Maybe don’t taste the rainbow. Today, The New Yorker published a new short story by Mary Gaitskill in which she revisits her short story “Secretary” in a post–Me Too world. And we love Ali Wong, but her favorite NYC pizza spot being Artichoke is inexcusable.

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