Guess how many parents leave STEM careers

How to teach kids about fame |

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SUBSCRIBE to TIME Magazine Hello hand-holders, I got around to answering a letter this week from a reader who wanted to know about what to do when his kids kept asking him for junk food. His wife tended to give in after a while and he never did. He feared they would be spoiled and he wanted to know who was right. I'm not an expert, but since he asked, I gave him some suggestions. I told him that he and his wife should probably make a plan that they both can live with and do their best to stick with it. The key in these things, I believe, is that it has to be a solution you both actually like, which requires a bit of unpacking about what's really going on. "Why does your wife want to give in?" I asked. "To make the girls happy? Because she's too tired too cook? And why don't you want to give in? Because you fear the girls will become unhealthy or because you think they will become undisciplined?" I suggested that one plan that might work would be to let the kids have junk food once a week. So when they ask, he can say, "No, because it's not Wednesday." And his wife can say "Yes, on Wednesday." I'd be really interested to hear how others might have approached this parenting challenge. As ever, you can reach me at belinda.luscombe@time.com or @luscombeland on Twitter. P.S. If you like this newsletter, please pass it on to a friend. And if you got it from a friend, sign up here for email delivery each Friday. You know, more or less. roundup A new study has found that "almost half of new mothers and a quarter of new fathers leave full-time STEM careers after adopting or bearing a child, and do not return by the time the child starts school." This  (a) partly answers why there are so few women in STEM and (b) shows that parents generally have a tough time in that career. "We were startled by the size of the attrition rates for both new mothers AND new fathers," one of the authors wrote to me. TIME. One of the wonderful things about writing about parenting is that when somebody really nails it, a piece can speak across generations and languages. I came across such a piece this week, under sad circumstances. An acquaintance lost his son and was moved to republish a piece he had written about him many years before.  It captures some of what is in many of our hearts. Esquire The puzzling, tragicomic, infuriating story of Jussie Smollett has been hard to avoid this week. It's a developing situation, but it now appears that Mr. Smollett staged his own beating, blaming it on Donald Trump's supporters, to increase his fame and thus get a bigger salary on Empire. (Famous actors get paid more than non-famous ones. ) A lot of kids want to be famous and it is very much a double-edged sword, so here's a piece to help you talk to your kids about it. TIME Are you suffering from mom guilt? Or even dad guilt? Well, dont. There's no need and it isn't helping anyone. Here are some tips on how to overcome it. Psychology Today It seems like a larger number of college students are struggling with depression than ever before. And without their parents around, colleges are having to step in. The New York Times takes a look at what colleges are doing to address the issue. The New York Times The Oscars are on Sunday. (Good luck with your Oscar pools!) I'm hoping it's a big night for Roma, because I think it's the most beautiful and honest movie I have seen about a family and about raising children in  a long time. If you haven't seen it yet, here's the back story as to what the director was trying to do. Variety. PFFT: Parenting from Famous Types Reese Witherspoon, actress, producer and mother of three "Imagine if we could all accomplish as much as unsupervised toddlers can…" To Unsubscribe You have received this e-mail because you are subscribed to this newsletter from TIME.com. Unsubscribe here. Update Email Click here to update your email address. Privacy Policy Please read our Privacy Policy, or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://timeinc.net/subs/privacy/td/policy.html TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. For Further Communication Please contact parents@time.com Meredith Corporation 1716 Locust Street Des Moines, Iowa 50309 Connect with TIME Find TIME on Facebook Follow TIME on Twitter Subscribe to more TIME Newsletters Get TIME on your Mobile Device Get TIME on your iPad Subscribe to RSS Feed