Parenting Long Reads
I love learning, I always have. Like many parents, I have an ever-growing list of topics I’d genuinely like to learn about: child development, psychology, parenting, learning, the science behind why children behave the way they do and how I can be a better dad.
The problem is I have a demanding job and two young children. I don’t keep up. Rather than pretending that one day I’d magically find the time, I wanted to try to solve the problem with AI.
Twice a week, ChatGPT writes me a 10–15 minute long read on a parenting or child development topic that’s relevant to the ages and stages of my children. Each article explores a single idea in plain English, draws on research where appropriate, includes links to the original sources, and avoids repeating topics covered previously. The prompt is pretty simple:
Write an engaging 10–15 minute parenting / child-development long-read tailored to a parent with two young children: one born in Spring 2023 and one born in Summer 2025. Use their current ages and stages to choose relevant examples, but do not publish the children’s names or exact dates of birth in the public article; use age/stage wording instead. Cover a different topic each time and avoid repeating previous topics. Keep the language simple, practical, reflective, and readable. Include reliable source links for research or specific evidence-based claims.
These articles are published here almost exactly as I receive them. I want to be clear that I’m not trying to pass AI-generated writing off as my own. Quite the opposite. The point of this series is to share a bit about how I’m using AI in my own life.
I hope this series is useful for two reasons:
-
Firstly, if you’re a parent, perhaps you’ll learn something alongside me.
-
Secondly, if you’re interested in how AI can be used in everyday life, I hope this serves as a practical, honest example. There’s a lot of discussion about what AI might do. This series is simply a record of what it already does for me.
If nothing else, it’s a fun experiment.