The Family Firm

Product Description THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom age 5 to 12, parenting decisions get more complicated and have lasting consequences. What's the right kind of school? Should they play a sport? When's the right time for a phone?Making these decisions is less about finding the specific answer and more about taking the right approach. Along with these bigger questions, Oster investigates how to navigate the complexity of day-to-day family logistics. The Family Firm is a smart and winning guide to how to think more clearly - and with less ambient stress - about the key decisions of these early years. Review Oster is a self-described data nerd, a delightful contrarian who dared question the status quo, shush the shamers and tell parents what made sense. ― The New York Times Book Review A targeted mini-MBA program designed to help moms and dads establish best practices for day-to-day operations ... Because this is an Oster book, there's data scattered everywhere - on the development of reading skills by age, on the concussion risks of playing soccer, on the benefits of dipping Brussels sprouts in sweetened cream cheese. It's all presented in the breezy, skeptical style that's made Oster's work a must-read for parents who don't have the time to investigate Finnish studies about integrating extracurriculars into the school day. ― Washington Post A guide ... to chart a child's path with less stress and more optimization for healthy habits and future success. ― TIME Magazine Oster's prose flows well (as usual) lightly sprinkled with the dry wit that suffuses her other books. ― Salon With Oster's help, rather than fear this next stage of parenting, readers can embrace (and even enjoy) the challenge. ― Booklist Praise for Cribsheet: ― - She has crunched all the statistics on breastfeeding, potty training, working mothers and playgroups and discovered there is no optimal set of choices that will produce the perfect child. Most parents say they want happy, well-adjusted, robust kids and there are myriad ways to achieve those results. She's right -- Alice Thomson ― The Times It couldn't be more relevant ... steers clear of recommendations and cast-iron guarantees, instead promising to arm parents with information to make the decisions that are right for them ― Daily Telegraph Parenting can be fraught. Cribsheet aims to help parents do better. ― Economist A huge relief from the scare stories ... Cribsheet is not another call for the end of helicopter parenting or snowplow parenting or whatever kind of parenting is lighting up social media today, and it's not a call to overthrow medical wisdom; it's a call for parenting with context, and it's freeing ― Washington Post Both refreshing and useful. With so many parenting theories driving us all a bit batty, this is the type of book that we need to help calm things down. ― LA Times The Guilt-Free, Data-Driven Guide to Parenting ... uses science and stats to cut through the confusion of raising a family ... Smart, relatable, and funny ― Bloomberg Praise for Emily Oster: ― - A revelation -- Pandora Sykes I am so grateful for her work -- Amy Schumer In my household, [Emily Oster] is the all-knowing Aunt we have never met. Parenting would be a lot more stressful without these books. -- Adam Ozimek ― Forbes Book Description Navigate the primary school years with best-selling author Emily Oster About the Author Emily Oster is a professor of economics at Brown University and the author of Expecting Better. She spoke at the 2007 TED conference and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Esquire. Oster is married to economist Jesse Shapiro and is also the daughter of two economists. She has two children.