Parenting from Prison. Plus. . .

June 21, 2026 - 03:50

Happy Father's Day.

When is the worst possible time to decide to have a baby? When you are about to deploy for war? When you have just lost your job? P.G. Sittenfeld and his wife chose to try for a second child while he was fighting through the courts to prove his innocence after an FBI sting. Many young people today say they do not want kids because the future feels uncertain and scary. They need more money first. They do not want to bring a child into a burning world.

But in his essay, P.G. gently argues that uncertainty is not a good reason to reject fatherhood. He knows this firsthand. When he was sentenced to 16 months in prison, his wife was 32 weeks pregnant. He writes that being an inmate and a father at the same time was anguishing. Still, he never questioned his decision. His story is a moving case for becoming a dad despite everything.

Fatherhood is not easy even outside prison. Society offers few good blueprints. Alex Berenson writes that the media has stereotyped fathers as goofy fools who depend on their superhero wives. The only good dad, according to modern ideas, is a feminized gentle parent who never raises his voice and never lets a kid take a risk. Alex rejects this and argues that dads must be free to be dads, with tips any father might find useful.

Hollywood has a long history of daddy issues, but a new movie finally gets it right. Toy Story 5 follows Woody as a balding father to discarded toys facing a new villain. Liel Leibovitz says the real story is about fathers confronting the hardest truth of parenthood: children become adults and there is nothing you can do to stop it. All you can do is help them along.

Summer reading lists are here. We asked contributors for the best book they have read that did not exist last summer. Douglas Murray recommends a novel about Gustav Mahler's final voyage. Abigail Shrier loved Lena Dunham's memoir. The result is a list you will not find anywhere else.

River Page met Dean Ball for two drinks. Ball advised the Trump administration on AI policy and now works at OpenAI. He says we just have to let AI play out because we do not have enough information to make good judgments. He admits a lot of crazy and destabilizing things might happen.

Mah-jongg is taking American kids by storm. The tile game once associated with elderly women in retirement homes is now popular with children. One 11-year-old asks her mom to play. Is this a sign kids want to escape screens? Or just another way for parents to give their kids an edge? One mom hosting a mini-mahj night in the Hamptons says everyone is looking for a way to show their kid is smarter.

Suzy Weiss talked with Luke Burgis about his new book on social contagion. He studies how people follow the herd, from Knicks fans flooding streets to endless froyo lines. He offers thoughts on breaking out of cult-like conformity to find your solid self.

For your weekend, see Giant on Broadway with John Lithgow as Roald Dahl. Watch the second season of Beef. Read Among Friends, a novel about two college friends whose resentment boils over during a weekend away. And look at Norman Rockwell's painting Breaking Home Ties, one of the most beautiful images of fatherhood.