As parents, we’re told that we’re our kids’ first teachers. It’s true, but to me this conjures up the idea that we must stand over their shoulders with a red pen, telling them they exactly what to learn and how. To better support their natural inquisitiveness, it can help to instead think of yourself as a librarian.

Mealtime is tough with a picky-eating child. There’s pleading, negotiation, and flash visions of him munching on dino nuggets and applesauce at his future wedding reception because you’ve failed to get him to try new foods. Here’s a tool that just might end the struggle: A food maze tray.

How do you help kids learn social skills, gain persistence, and wow their friends at the school lunch tables? Magic. Specifically, teach them some magic tricks.

But you can’t just hand them a Magic 101 guidebook and expect them to become young Houdinis — how you introduce the art makes a difference. Here are some good ways to do it, according to magicians.

Kids are naturally curious — this is a wonderful thing. But they also haven’t mastered social cues. This can make parents uncomfortable.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released a new policy statement about how to support children and teens who identify as transgender or who fall under an umbrella they call “gender diverse”.

It’s winter, the season of the never-ending cough. Every year, my kids get some kind of phlegmy hack that peaks after a few days and then gets... mostly better, except at night, when the hackathon reasserts itself. Eventually I get tired of this and head to the paediatrician.

Moving from one activity to another can be difficult, even for adults. It’s especially challenging for kids when the transition is being made from something enjoyable (such as playing or watching TV) to something less desirable (such as leaving a fun place or doing chores).

When my son was a toddler, he had a really hard time being dropped off at and being picked up from preschool. He’d cry or physically resist leaving, refusing to get into his car seat.

When you have a preschooler, you learn that simple tasks can be quite complex. Take putting on a jacket, for example. I always see parents standing in doorways, holding up little coats and windbreakers while instructing: “Right arm! No, the other one! OK, now the other arm! Stretch! You’re almost there! Got it. Now onto the buttons.” It is a process.

If you intended to breastfeed your child, but end up wanting or needing to give formula, you may think you’ve switched teams: You’re now a formula feeder. But it isn’t an all-or-nothing choice, and part-time breastfeeding has important benefits.

There is magic in stories. We all remember hearing them as children, and we loved them. Imaginary adventures set in faraway places. Tales about how the dishwasher isn’t working. It doesn’t matter! Whether made up by parents or read from books, kids love to hear stories.

Before my daughter learned to speak she learned to sign, and the first sign she mastered was “more”. More meant more — as in, “Give me more milk before I scream-cry in 5-4-3-2-1...” — but for her, it also meant “again”. Sing that song again. Push the toy cash register button again. Make that funny sound with your armpit again, again, again.

For a car seat to work properly in the instance of an accident, your child must be, well, in the thing. The shoulder straps must be in the correct position and snug on their body.

On the parenting podcast What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood, co-host Amy Wilson told a childhood story about how she loved to poop in a nappy “until a pretty ripe old age”. She knew she shouldn’t do it, and her mum and dad knew she knew, but their efforts to get her to stop weren’t working. And so they finally took her to see a doctor.

Through the ages, parents have tried various tactics for getting kids to eat more vegetables — baking them into brownies, blending them into smoothies and brainwashing them with songs. But there may be a simpler way to get some green stuff in your child's diet — no trickery required. Simply serve frozen veggies. A few kid-favourites: frozen peas, frozen corn and frozen edamame.

I have a massive stack of parenting books on my desk. Some of them tell me I'm doing an awesome job raising my kid (those books, I dog-ear and pet lovingly). Others tell me I'm screwing everything up, from bed time to screen time. I devour them all, for my job, but also because there's part of me that keeps looking for that thing to cling to.

On Slate's parenting podcast "Mum and Dad Are Fighting", the hosts debated a tough question: After a divorce, should you spend time together as a family if a child requests it?

Becoming a parent of any kind requires planning, preparation, and a whole lot of flexibility along the way. But when that child comes to you with a past you have few details about, trauma you didn’t inflict, and zero socks or underwear, it turns your world on its side.

As an introvert who is married to an introvert, I assumed that our son would, of course, be an introvert.

Reading with your kids is important. We all know this. If you're like me, you dive into book after book with abandon.