Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? A few months ago, I needed to have an emergency C-section a month before my due date. Thankfully I came through it safely, and have a wonderful little son. There is just one problem.

Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? I've just been informed of an assignment my son "Patrick" was given in middle school. He's to select a topic from a pre-approved list, ask ChatGPT to write an essay about it, submit that essay to the teacher, and then fact-check the essay, looking for things the AI got wrong. I do not want Patrick doing this assignment.

Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? We made a huge mistake. This summer, we purchased a switch for our boys (almost 5, and newly 7). The 5 year old isn't that into it, but my 7 year old is thrilled to finally be able to talk games and be in the loop with all his peers. We researched and picked games that were age-appropriate.

Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? How should we guard against cheating with AI? Long explanation: My 13-year-old rising 8th grader had minimal summer homework to complete. The homework was reading with related writing and it was not difficult. One of the books he had to read was The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan.

Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? My husband and I share one child together, as well as my child from a previous marriage and his child from a previous marriage. We are a wonderfully blended family and are fortunate to share our lives. Our blended bliss has had one major challenge, though.

Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group. I don't have kids but a number of my peers now have babies and toddlers, which means I've heard an awful lot of my smart, articulate friends talking about themselves in the third person, like Elmo. I understand why toddlers do this in their language acquisition journey (pronouns are hard!), but why on earth do my friends say, "Mommy loves you," and, "Mommy needs you to not touch that," when they are "Mommy"? Basically, is too much time with a toddler scrambling their brains and I'm within my rights to roll my eyes, or is there a real cognitive reason why my friends speak this way to their kids?

Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group. My husband is very involved with the kids. He's a good father--he does the hard parts of parenting, happily.

Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? This may seem like a low-stakes question, but I am truly concerned. My 15-year-old daughter is an extreme introvert, and strongly dislikes big groups of people and large events. She finds it difficult to make conversation and is seemingly uncomfortable even with talking with some of her classmates, even those she has known for years.

Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? I'm currently attending college, and to help pay for various expenses I got a summer job at a daycare. A few weeks ago, a parent accused me of making an inappropriate hand gesture at them during pick up. I didn't do it; I've never had so much as a conversation with this woman.

Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group. My nephew Nicolas is 9 and only plays video games. He wakes up around 2:00 pm doesn't brush his teeth or shower and begins playing games.