Decision Making

Last Sunday, our family gathered to decide how to spend our weekend. My 9-year-old raised her hand enthusiastically and said, “I think we should go to the new water park!” She had researched it online and prepared a compelling argument about the slides and attractions. After hearing everyone’s ideas, we voted and decided on visiting my grandmother instead. My daughter’s face fell as she realized her idea had been rejected by the majority. I knelt beside her and whispered, “Life-Ready Parenting means your child won’t face this for the first time at age 25—with rent due and no safety net.” In that moment, I realized we had a perfect opportunity to practice democratic disappointment in a low-stakes environment. ...

The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment of the 1960s showed us that children’s ability to delay gratification predicts future success outcomes. But what exactly is self-control, and how can we measure and understand it in our own children? The ability to resist an immediate temptation in favor of a long-term goal is one of the most important skills for success in academics, relationships, and life in general. Yet self-control isn’t a fixed trait—it’s a trainable cognitive skill that follows predictable patterns and can be systematically improved. By designing simple experiments and tracking your child’s self-control performance, you can gain valuable insights into their executive function development and implement targeted strategies to strengthen their willpower. ...

What is the perfect number of children to have? It is one of the most personal and consequential decisions a person can make. For generations, the answer has been shaped by culture, religion, and personal circumstances. But in an age of data, we can now look at this question from a new perspective. What does the data say? This article will not give you a single “magic number.” Instead, it will explore the research from three different angles—parental happiness, child outcomes, and economic realities—to provide a more complete picture. The goal is not to tell you what to do, but to provide a data-informed framework for making your own best decision. ...