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Yahoo
13 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Why the overwhelmed American family need its own software
There are things you can do to prepare yourself for parenthood: Read the books, take the classes, set up a college fund. Nothing can truly prepare you for the overwhelm. More specifically, nobody tells you how hard it is to keep up with the logistical demands and bureaucratic bloat. If deciding what to eat for dinner was annoying before children, try meal planning for a week with a family. There are chores to do, school emails to answer, trips to plan, bills to pay, and only so many minutes in the day. Running a family has become akin to running a small business for many Americans. So it's no surprise that a cottage industry has cropped up to support those fledgling families using a range of tools borrowed from work culture. Offering everything from AI-powered assistants to wall-mounted touchscreens, these tech companies promise to provide your family with its own command center or operating system — a software-based solution to the societal problem of parenting while overwhelmed. The need for such a fix has cropped up as the demands of parenting have escalated. A 2025 report from the Office of the Surgeon General showed that nearly half of American parents said that 'most days their stress is completely overwhelming.' Women tend to carry more of the mental load. The vast majority of parents in opposite-sex households say the mother spends more time managing schedules, according to a Pew Research Center poll published in 2023. A separate study found that mothers, on average, did 71 percent of the cognitive labor at home — child care, cleaning, scheduling, finances, managing relationships — while men did just 29 percent. It's no surprise that a cottage industry has cropped up to support those fledgling families using a range of tools borrowed from work culture. 'This work of organizing the family is work, and it's falling on women, particularly in different-sex couples,' said Allison Daminger, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the upcoming book What's on Her Mind: The Mental Load of Family Life. There's no relief in sight for most families. The cost of child care has steadily increased in recent years, and most working parents do not have access to paid family leave. An app won't solve these policy challenges, but it might make a tired parent's day slightly more streamlined. 'We have some of the most family hostile public policies and workplace practices of any high-income country, and parents are absolutely strapped for time and money,' said Brigid Schulte, director of the Better Life Lab at New America and author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time. 'Are these apps the answer? No, they're not,' Schulte told me. 'At most they're Band-Aids. They can help people manage, keep their heads above water, but the real solutions we need are much bigger than any app.' That was my experience trying out many of these new tools. The touchscreen in my kitchen is not paying for pre-school. However, I'm in no position to run for Congress and champion the cause, because I still have to make a pediatrician appointment, schedule a playdate, and plan the next week's worth of family meals. But do you need a $600 family command center? My child is not yet 2, but my wife and I already feel the strain of administrative overload. And we learned the hard way that just creating a new Google Calendar wasn't going to cut it, where family obligations get mixed in with work meetings and personal to-dos, turning the whole thing into a soup of confusion. That led me to check out dedicated family calendar apps, like Maple, before exploring full fledged family command centers, like Skylight. The idea of using software to help families stay organized is not new. Some 20 years ago, a couple of former Microsoft employees created an online family organizer called Cozi, which is still around today. It wasn't until the pandemic that the concept really took off, though. I'm in no position to run for Congress and champion the cause, because I still have to make a pediatrician appointment, schedule a playdate, and plan the next week's worth of family meals. Skylight, makers of the touchscreen in my kitchen, started out as a digital picture frame company over a decade ago. In September 2020, the company made a meaningful pivot toward building a family command center with the launch of the Skylight Calendar, which syncs with existing digital calendars, like Google Calendar and Outlook, but puts the entire family on one screen. There are also tabs for a to-do list, a grocery list, and a meal plan, all of which are also available on a mobile app. Skylight has since added features, like a gamified chores tab for kids, and an AI assistant called Sidekick that converts emails and even pictures of things like fliers and recipes into calendar events and meal plans. The 27-inch Cal Max, launched last year, costs up to $600, plus an additional $80 a year for access to all the features. Hot on Skylight's heels is an app called Maple, which launched in February 2021. Initially described as 'the back office of every family,' Maple has gone through a few iterations, including one that enabled parents to sell 'ready made plans' to other families, but the app is primarily a family calendar powered by to-do lists. You can create to-dos, assign them to members of the family, and then see a schedule of everything that needs to be done. There's also a meal planner, a family messaging platform, and a project management feature that's surprisingly good at planning birthday parties. It costs $40 a year to sync external calendars, get rid of ads, and access AI features. I know what you're thinking: Google and Apple software can do a lot of this stuff for free. And you'd be right. There's no need to pay for a dedicated family calendar app, if you want to bootstrap existing software, including what you use for work, to stay organized. Tech-savvy parents have been doing this for years. In 2016, a dad in Sweden went semi-viral for blogging about using Slack to keep track of his family and helped inspire The Atlantic story, 'The Slackification of the American home.' Emily Oster, the economist turned parenting guru, canonized the concept in The Family Firm, a book about using off-the-shelf enterprise software like Asana to keep her family organized a few years ago. Just last year, the New York Times spoke to a number of parents, many of whom worked in the venture capital or crypto industries, that use project management tools like Trello and Notion to run their families like startups. 'Tasks and chores, to-do lists, grocery lists: There are apps that do those individual things better than we do,' Michael Segal, co-founder and CEO of Skylight, said in an interview. 'It's just more convenient to do it all in the place where you go to manage the family and home.' Michael Perry, Maple's co-founder and CEO, similarly told me that his company's job is 'building a calendar that's all encompassing for seven days a week of our life as a working parent.' Maple also invites its users to join a Slack community, where they can weigh in on features they love or hate or check out upcoming releases, like Maple's new web app, which is set to launch this fall. Skylight and Maple are the two family assistants I've used the most, but they're hardly the only ones. Hearth sells its own giant touchscreen calendar for your kitchen, and Jam looks like a Maple clone with some Gen Z design flair. Apps like Milo and Ohai lean into the AI of it all, promising to use chatbots to keep your family organized. There are also tech companies trying to connect parents. Honeycomb says it helps parents 'share the mental and logistical load' via group chats and smart calendars, and the Sandwich Club is an AI-powered advice platform that lets other parents weigh in on your questions. The rise of famtech Together, these companies comprise a burgeoning new industry, referred to as famtech. There's even an industry association dedicated to promoting its interests, drumming up investment, and pushing for policy changes for caregivers, like paid family leave. 'Liken it to where financial services has fintech, we look at the care economy as having famtech as its innovation sector,' said Anna Steffany, executive director of 'and we look at family technology as all things addressing the caregiving space.' One trend report, which Steffany contributed to, values the care economy at nearly $650 billion. It's easy to feel skeptical about a single app or kitchen-based touchscreen that promises to make parents' lives easier. Heck, I've been using both for a few weeks now, and it's certainly nice not to have to text my wife every time there's a change in the schedule or to remind me who's on preschool pickup duty that day. Then again, I'm also starting to wonder if using a parenting app just means I'm giving up more data about my family in the services of better targeted ads. (The privacy policies of both Maple and Skylight say the companies may collect and share personal data with third parties.) I'm also acutely aware that having a new tool to manage my family means I've got yet another thing to manage. 'When you're trying to integrate across so many different apps and systems and interfaces, the real cost benefit ratio can get thrown off,' said Daminger, the UW-Madison professor. 'Sometimes we're trying to make things easier, but in the end, we actually end up just creating new forms of labor.' A version of this story was also published in the User Friendly newsletter. Sign up here so you don't miss the next one! Solve the daily Crossword
The Hill
01-07-2025
- Health
- The Hill
The power of the ‘Influencer General'
The Office of the Surgeon General isn't often in the news these days, for the simple reason that it isn't much of an office any more. It certainly was once. Until the mid-'60s the Surgeon General's budget was in the billions. He (always a he, back then) had charge of the entire public health apparatus, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. Then, suddenly, with Lyndon B. Johnson's approval, every one of these responsibilities was stripped away, handed to an assistant secretary in the department of Health, Education and Welfare (which later became Health and Human Services). Why? For ease of political control, in an era of burgeoning health and research budgets. But, like the smile of the Cheshire Cat, the office of the Surgeon General remained, with the dignity of Senate confirmation, ceremonial command of the 'commissioned corps' of public health officers and — should the incumbent be so inclined — a splendid uniform befitting a vice-admiral. Beyond that, the Surgeon General was, as one writer put it, a 'glorified health educator,' though not actually all that glorified. The main thing he had to do was give Congress an annual report on smoking. Yet he did not write the report. He just signed it. He did not even supervise the staff who wrote it. All of this was painfully learned by our one memorable modern Surgeon General, Charles Everett Koop. The New York Times denounced him in an editorial headed 'Dr. Unqualified;' a nimbler commentator christened him 'Dr. Kook.' He had no public health experience and unpopular abortion views. As controversy raged in inverse proportion to the actual importance of the office (Bill Clinton managed one whole administration without appointing anybody), Koop was thinking through what could actually be accomplished from his modest but high-profile perch. And he decided to be an influencer. Long before 'influencing' became a profession, Dr. Koop, retired pediatric surgeon and anti-abortion combatant, demonstrated genius at wielding a combination of medical authority, moral conviction and media savvy, to shape public opinion and national health policy. From his 'merely health educator' perch, Koop emerged in the 1980s as one of the most recognizable and trusted figures in American public life. He harnessed his visibility to effect sweeping cultural and behavioral changes, particularly around smoking, HIV/AIDS and a range of preventive health issues, setting a potent precedent for his successors. Koop understood the power of his persona. The instantly recognizable look — a patriarchal beard, the navy-type uniform, and an often gruff demeanor — lent him a visual authority that matched his vocal clarity. He never sought to cultivate charm, and it was his credibility that granted him instant access to media gatekeepers and undercut partisan resistance. He leaned on scientific consensus, communicating it in direct, digestible terms — a technique today's influencers use (whether or not science is backing them up!). Koop's most influential, and controversial, moment came with the AIDS epidemic. At a time when many public officials refused even to speak the word, Koop insisted on candor. In 1986, tasked by the Reagan White House with writing the first government report on AIDS, he advocated not merely abstinence (as many had expected) but also comprehensive sex education and condom use. His conscious choices about audience, tone and accessibility all reflect how social media influencers communicate today. Then, in 1988, Congress enabled him to follow up with an unprecedented eight-page AIDS mailer to all 107 million U.S. households. At the core of Koop's influence lay his reputation for refusing to be silenced or co-opted. An evangelical Christian, with initial support from the religious right, he disappointed many ideological allies by resisting their push for anti-abortion messaging, though others understood his argument — that anti-abortion speech-making would undercut his credibility in anything else. In today's influencer ecosystem, authenticity is the core currency. Koop's brand of unwavering integrity gave him a moral authority that transcended partisanship. Koop was an influencer before Instagram, before YouTube, almost before the internet itself. He built his influence through scientific credibility, and a gravitas that carefully cultivated public trust. He redefined the potential of his anachronistic office as a bully pulpit for national transformation. His legacy offers a blueprint for public health communication in the 21st century. I've never met Dr. Casey Means, the president's choice for Surgeon General, and I'm not here to take sides on her nomination. I understand that many feel she has some strange views and limited experience. Yet if she retains the president's confidence, she will shortly find herself a vice admiral with a navy-style uniform (if she chooses to suit up), and become our influencer-in-chief of public health. Nigel M. de S. Cameron recently published 'Dr. Koop: The Many Lives of the Surgeon General' (University of Massachusetts Press, 2025).
Forbes
12-06-2025
- Health
- Forbes
Lessons On Leadership From Fatherhood
Dr. Ujjwal Ramtekkar is the Chief Medical Officer at LifeStance Health. As a father and a C-suite executive, I've learned many of my most valuable leadership lessons from moments spent with my children. Parenting has shaped my leadership style just as much as my professional experiences have influenced how I show up as a 'pappa.' This Father's Day, I'm reflecting on a few lessons that apply equally at home and at work and how leading with trust, empathy and presence has helped me grow stronger as both a parent and leader. My son taught me one of my most vivid lessons about trust as I was teaching him how to ride a bike. We started by removing the balancing wheels, me running alongside as he wobbled. Then came the most difficult part: letting go. I thought I needed to trust that he'd figure it out. But the moment he looked at me and said, 'Dad, I knew you'd be there when I fell,' I realized I had it backward. It was him who needed to trust me. It's no secret that trust is important in both parenting and leadership, and maintaining it requires modeling consistency, honesty and self-awareness. Not every moment requires intervention, and just because you could intervene does not always mean you should. As with parenting, effective leadership often means knowing when to provide guidance and resources and when to step back. If we immediately fix problems for our teams or our children simply because we can, then we deny them the opportunity to develop their own agency or problem-solving skills. Growth happens when we allow people to make mistakes, adjust and succeed on their own terms, with the trust and knowledge that someone has their back. Of course, stepping in is sometimes necessary, especially depending on one's life or career stage. But the goal should be to create a fair, fail-safe environment where mistakes become growth opportunities and not setbacks. Effective leadership extends beyond the workplace to include how we lead our personal lives. One thing I've adopted is a mindset shift from 'work-life' balance to 'life-work' balance. What this looks like in practice is making time every day for what matters to you personally and treating it as non-negotiable. Family dinner. Therapy. Exercise. Reading. The things that fulfill you deserve to be a part of your daily life. When you prioritize your health, family and the things that recharge you, it sets the tone of respect—first for yourself and then for your teams. A 2024 advisory from the Office of the Surgeon General on the mental health and well-being of parents noted that many parents and caregivers feel undervalued when they make tradeoffs to prioritize family. Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. surgeon general, called for a shift in cultural norms to help them thrive. As leaders, I believe we have a responsibility to normalize life-work balance for our teams and help this shift become a reality. As a child psychiatrist, I've seen how the presence and modeling of a father or father figure supports positive emotional and behavioral outcomes for children. As an adult psychiatrist, one of the most common regrets I've heard from 'successful' fathers is not being there for their children when it counted most. Presence matters. Being skilled at multitasking is often worn as a badge of honor. However, I believe the ability to single-task and be fully present and focused on one thing at a time is far better for relationships, long-term performance and well-being. I suggest creating intentional boundaries at work and home. When you're at work, give undivided attention and focus on your work. When you're at home, silence your phone and step away from your inbox. It's not easy, especially in leadership roles, but feeling like you have to be constantly available makes prioritizing and modeling balance all the more important. Work hard and strive for success, but never lose sight of staying present with your family. As parents and leaders, we are the role models: We're always being watched. It's not what we say that matters most, but what we do. There's a saying in medicine: 'Patients don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.' The same holds true in leadership. To me, empathy is about consistently demonstrating that you care about your teammates. One small but meaningful habit I've adopted is asking my teammates a simple question: 'How are things going for you today?' It's a deliberately broad question to invite a reflective, personal response. While their instinct is often to share something work-related, I gently clarify, 'Not about work.' That distinction serves as a reminder that I'm genuinely interested in them and their well-being as people, not just as colleagues. While these lessons have helped me grow as both a leader and parent, none would be successful without embodying one core value: kindness. At my son's school, the motto is 'choose kind.' It's a daily reminder that kindness isn't a natural trait but a decision we make. Be kind as a parent. Be kind as a leader. Be kind to yourself. Use good conduct and demonstrate positive values to build trust everywhere you go. Model good behavior, and everything else will fall into place. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Higher tobacco prices reduce youth smoking
Tobacco use is costing Nebraskans money and their health. The state sees lower use each time it increases tobacco taxes. (Alvaro) There's no debate that significant price increases on tobacco products reduce smoking among adults and children. A 2014 report by the Office of the Surgeon General called raising prices on cigarettes 'one of the most effective tobacco control interventions' — especially among kids. Every 10% increase in the price of cigarettes reduces consumption by about 4% among adults and about 7% among youth, according to the American Lung Association. But Nebraska hasn't raised our cigarette tax since 2002, and this failure to act is costing Nebraska lives. At 64 cents per pack, Nebraska's tobacco tax remains one of the lowest in the nation. We're well behind peer states like Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and Colorado and far behind the national average of $1.97 per pack. When considering inflation, Nebraska's tobacco tax has actually decreased. This is concerning because data show fewer adult tobacco users are seriously considering quitting, according to the 2023 Nebraska Adult Tobacco Survey. One of the key findings of the 2020 Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General was that adult smoking cessation can be increased by raising the price of cigarettes. While overall youth tobacco use in Nebraska has continued to decline, according to results of the 2023 Nebraska Youth Tobacco Survey, we at the Metro Omaha Tobacco Action Coalition (MOTAC) know that vapes and nicotine pouches in particular are designed to appeal to young people. Nebraska must remain vigilant to continue our momentum. Tobacco's impact on the health and well-being of Nebraskans is dire. In Nebraska, an estimated 2,500 people die prematurely as a result of tobacco use each year, resulting in an average loss of 10 years off their lives, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. At least 75,000 Nebraskans are suffering from at least one serious smoking-related illness. Even people who do not use tobacco experience health effects. Secondhand smoke, which contains more than 7,000 chemicals and chemical compounds, is a proven cause of lung cancer, heart disease, serious respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis and asthma, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome. The U.S. Surgeon General has found that secondhand smoke is responsible for tens of thousands of U.S. deaths each year. These health consequences extend to young Nebraskans, too. E-cigarettes, the most commonly used tobacco product among Nebraska middle and high school students, contain a high amount of nicotine, which is highly addictive. Nicotine harms the parts of an adolescent's brain that control attention, learning, mood and impulse control, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Aerosol from e-cigarettes can also contain harmful, potentially cancer-causing chemicals and tiny particles that can be inhaled deep into lungs. These health effects cost Nebraska taxpayers. Every year, Nebraska spends $900 in taxes per household for smoking-related costs, such as health care and loss of productivity. Smoking-related health care costs about $924 million in Nebraska each year. Thus, significant increases in tobacco taxes not only save lives — they can help address Nebraska's persistent property tax crisis, bringing in tens of millions in dollars in the coming years. Tobacco tax increases are a reliable, predictable source of substantial new revenue. And for current tobacco users who are impacted by increased taxes, it is imperative that the state continue the current state funding level to help Nebraskans quit and keep young people from starting. Current proposals in the Nebraska Legislature to increase taxes on cigarettes, vapes and cigars are a clear win-win for public health and the public pocketbook. Raising the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1 is projected to result in a 7.5% decrease in youth smoking. About 4,000 adults would quit smoking, and roughly 1,300 premature smoking-caused deaths would be prevented. Nebraska should keep taking proactive steps to prevent tobacco use, save lives and protect the health of our communities. Shelby Bingham is the director of the Metro Omaha Tobacco Action Coalition (MOTAC). The group works to strengthen tobacco prevention and control efforts in the Omaha metro area.
Newsweek
12-05-2025
- Health
- Newsweek
Casey Means and MAHA Remove the 'Public' From Public Health
On Wednesday, Donald Trump nominated Casey Means, a holistic doctor and wellness influencer, to be the next U.S. surgeon general. If confirmed, Means will be the first surgeon general who openly practices alternative medicine. She is an unusual candidate for surgeon general but an unsurprising one. Under an administration that is senselessly gutting science and research funding, "MAHA" priorities largely put the wellness dreams of the wealthy before public health. The Office of the Surgeon General is responsible for communicating scientific information to the public and addressing public health issues. Means' record would normally be considered antagonistic toward this fundamental goal, but Trump has praised the nominee as having "impeccable 'MAHA' credentials." Means describes herself as someone who left "traditional medicine," and has expressed health beliefs that flirt with pseudoscience and closely align with those of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Co-author of Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health and co-founder of Levels (a company that sells continuous glucose monitors), Means has peddled health claims that are questionable at best and dangerous at worst. Like other wellness influencers, she has dabbled in some Goop-esque activities, like consulting with a spiritual medium and taking part in a full moon ceremony, which are a little woo-woo but don't harm anyone else. Of greater consequence to public health is Means' skepticism of vaccines. She has also called birth control use "disrespect of life" and endorsed the supposed health benefits of raw milk. The prospect of having a surgeon general who believes such things is terrifying. Beyond the pseudoscience, Means' general orientation toward health is out of touch with the needs of average Americans. She has built her career and reputation on promoting lifestyle choices such as healthy eating and exercise. From afar, her takes may appear sensible, and at times, even compatible with sound medical advice. A healthy diet and exercise are important, but they alone do not translate to good, humane policies. Means has suggested that health issues like "depression, anxiety, infertility, heart disease, erectile dysfunction, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's dementia, [and] cancer" are "under our control and simpler than we think." Simpler for whom? An emphasis on lifestyle ultimately assigns structural and institutional problems to individual Americans to solve for themselves. In a country where wealth buys health, how many Americans can afford to insulate themselves and their families from risks of disease and disability? The federal minimum wage has been stagnant at $7.25 since 2009. Meanwhile, the cost of necessities like housing, food, and child care have increased precipitously. WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 12: U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks alongside President Donald Trump during a press conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on May 12,... WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 12: U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks alongside President Donald Trump during a press conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on May 12, 2025, in Washington, DC. MoreIn her "health wishlist" for the Trump administration, Means says we need leaders who will "inspire people to care about their health, the food they eat, and their fitness." Americans do not need inspiration. Americans need access. It is cruel to push the idea that people are unhealthy simply because they do not care. Our most urgent public health problems cannot be solved with personal empowerment and lifestyle choices. For instance, 7.2 million children live in food-insecure households. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is planning to cut $12 billion from federally funded school meal programs. Health care is also inaccessible to many Americans because, unlike many of its peer countries, the U.S. does not offer universal health coverage. Even for those who do have health insurance, coverage is often insufficient, causing many to accrue medical debt. The Trump administration has added new public health problems: the Food and Drug Administration recently suspended quality control for milk, the Department of Agriculture withdrew a proposal to reduce Salmonella in raw poultry products, and the Environmental Protection Agency has loosened restrictions on mercury pollution. Meanwhile, Kennedy continues to fuel vaccine hesitancy amid a national measles outbreak. MAHA priorities are misaligned with public health needs. Means' sunny website—where she promotes her book, recipes, and newsletters—frames good health as an individual project. Means' wish list to the Trump administration proposes actions that would address processed foods, "Big Pharma," vaccine safety, alternative medicine, and paternalistic restrictions on SNAP. It is apparent that her and Kennedy's health concerns reflect the airy worries of the rich. Their brand of health care is for people who can choose to be healthy, people with the time and money to pursue health optimization, and people comfortable enough to be fussy over food dyes. Pandering to the desires of the upper class, MAHA pushes products and services that are out of reach for the average American. The surgeon general is supposed to be the nation's doctor. Means is just an entrepreneur who peddles an expensive lifestyle. Catherine Tan is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at Vassar College. She is the author of Spaces on the Spectrum: How Autism Movements Resist Experts and Create Knowledge, published by Columbia University Press. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
