Photo by Pat Piasecki It was a spectacular, sunny day on Cape Cod. And yet I was devastatingly sad. While my kids and wife were happily getting ready for the beach, gathering our sandcastle tools and packing up peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and juice boxes, I had quietly stepped outside as I had several times over the past few months—to cry privately. Secretly. It was the summer of 2022, and I was nearly 15 years into a career in television news that most people would consider highly successful. I was the morning anchor at the legendary WBZ in Boston—the station I had grown up watching ..read more

Illustration by Kagan McLeod Delta. Mask mandates. Still no vaccines for children under 12. This September isn’t exactly what students, teachers, or parents imagined on the last day of classes in June. Still, at a time of great uncertainty, one thing is sure: The kids are finally going back. If you find yourself riddled with anxiety and asking an avalanche of questions as your child transitions to in-person learning, rest assured you’re not alone. What’s the best way to stay safe? How can I keep my student motivated? And will my kid still get into college? We went searching for answers. Plus ..read more

Illustration by Benjamen Purvis Every weekend, from the summer of 2018 until the start of the pandemic, Ana Lavour had a ritual, albeit not a very relaxing one. Whenever she could steal a free moment—usually when her toddler son, Alarik, was engrossed with his toys or napping—she’d sit down at her kitchen table to balance the books. Glancing back and forth between her laptop screen and a calculator, she worked out whether she was on track to make rent for the month. It was always a nail biter.The issue wasn’t that she lived in an extravagant home: She paid $1,300 a month for two bedrooms in ..read more

Illustration by Comrade Of the gazillion times as a parent that I’ve looked around and thought, Everybody else is doing this better than I am, one moment comes easily to mind. I was at my 10-year-old daughter’s strings concert a few years ago, perched on a metal folding chair beside a hundred other eager moms and dads. Yet instead of enjoying the sweet, tentative sounds of Beethoven and Bach emanating from the stage, I kept sneaking glances at my phone, worried whether I’d get out in time to pick up my twin boys from basketball practice, if I had enough deli meat left to make the kids’ lunch ..read more

Resembling a tepee with fluted detail, the birdhouse on the left stands 21 inches tall and sells for $169; the birdhouse on the right, geared toward hummingbirds, is inspired by architect Steven Holl’s work and sells for $25. Chirpbirdhouses.com Several years ago, Nima Yadollahpour, principal of Boston architecture firm ONY Architecture, and his young daughters built a birdhouse for a robin that had made a nest in their yard. “It was a nice project,” Yadollahpour recalls, noting it was largely forgotten until the winter of 2020 when his oldest daughter, Mina, then 10, asked if they could mak ..read more

This year’s rankings offer a statistical analysis of the top high schools in the Greater Boston area. To ensure accuracy and consistency, it is compiled with the most recent data available at press time from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which publishes a limited amount of information on each school, including MCAS and SAT scores. As the challenges of the pandemic continue to amplify the opportunity gap in education, there has been increased scrutiny over the factoring of test scores, which tend to be correlated with higher family incomes and are increasin ..read more

Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The baby formula shortage that has rocked the nation and caused immeasurable stress for parents across Massachusetts is far from over. Earlier this month, amid the fallout from supply chain issues and the abrupt closure of a critical Abbott formula-producing factory in Michigan, the out of stock rate for the essential source of nutrients for infants soared to 43 percent. That, plus a mad dash to the stores to scoop up whatever supply parents can get their hands on, has left many shelves around Boston bare. It could be weeks or months befo ..read more

Photo illustration by Benjamin Purvis. Master1305/Getty Images (boy), CGinspiration/Getty Images (cap) It’s a wintry weekend in the suburbs. Sleet and snow sheet the frozen streets. Route 9 is barren, a winter weather advisory in effect. Yet the massive parking lot at the 220,000-square-foot New England Sports Center in Marlborough is overflowing. Land Rovers and BMW SUVs—many with Connecticut license plates, most with hockey decals—disgorge tiny kids, struggling with their giant bags, into the slippery mess. Inside the complex, frazzled parents consult an airport-style video monitor, search ..read more

Children aged 12 to 15 years old were vaccinated at the Cross River Center in Lowell, MA on May 13, 2021.  Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images All the Massachusetts parents who waited patiently (and not so patiently) for the chance to get their kids a COVID vaccine are breathing sighs of relief this month, because as of November 2, the CDC has officially authorized shots of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11. There are about 515,000 kids in that age group in the state. Looking to get a vaccine for your little one as soon as possible? Here’s what you need to know ..read more

This year’s rankings offer a statistical analysis of the top high schools in the Greater Boston area. To ensure accuracy and consistency, it is compiled with the most recent available data at press time from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which publishes a limited amount of information on each school, including MCAS and SAT scores. At a time when the opportunity gap in schools is top of mind, there is increased scrutiny over the factoring of test scores, which tend to be correlated with higher family incomes and are increasingly regarded as an inadequate me ..read more