Remote Parenting

Newsletter 2022-02-21

If the last few years have proven anything, it’s that a huge number of previously in-person jobs can be done remotely. It’s a shame that parenting isn’t one of them. Teaching kids by Zoom is the hardest thing in the world, but raising them by Zoom sounds kind of magical. It would drastically decrease the chances of them sneezing in your face, and if they accidentally messed up their sound settings, all the better. Every kid should come with a mute button.

Nobody is seriously advocating for remote parenting—except for me. While everything in my life (and the world in general) is in flux, it’s looking more and more like, in the coming months, there will be times when my kids will be home from school while my wife and I will be out of the house. After saving thousands of dollars on child care in the work-from-home era, I’m hellbent on not sending my kids back to daycare. Instead, I’d like to let my kids watch each other, an approach that’s basically parenting by natural selection. My olde…