When Will 6-7 Actually End?

If you’ve spent more than five minutes around a pre-teen or teenager lately, or dared to open TikTok without body armour, you’ve probably encountered the unstoppable force known as 6-7. At this point, it feels less like a meme and more like a gas leak slowly filling the house. You don’t see it at first. Then suddenly your kid is muttering “six-seven” while pouring cereal, entire classrooms are chanting it like it’s the national anthem, and some poor teacher is Googling “how to manage children possessed by numbers.”

The real question for those of us in the trenches is simple: when does this actually stop? As a dad who has survived the dab era, the flossing era, the Skibidi Toilet era, and whatever the hell was going on with “griddy” for three years too long, I’ve earned the right to ask.

How Are We All Doing?

Yep, that’s the question. How are we all doing? For me, November is one of the tougher months to get through, so I figured I’d do a check-in. Drop something in the comments if you’re feeling it too. Honestly, I think November might be a harder month than the usual poster child for feeling down: February.

February gets all the blame for being grey, miserable, and never-ending, but November quietly sneaks in with its own brand of heaviness. The days get shorter in a way you can actually feel. One day you’re having dinner in daylight, and the next you’d swear midnight starts at 5:07 p.m. You step outside, and the air has that sharp edge that reminds you winter is auditioning. The first snow shows up uninvited, wet and clingy, just to remind you what’s coming.

Teens In Winter: The Annual Negotiation That Makes Zero Sense

Parenting teenagers in Canada during winter is like arguing with a person who fundamentally believes they are immune to the laws of thermodynamics. You can show them sideways snow, minus 20 wind chill, ice pellets hitting the window like BB gun fire…and they’ll still walk out the door in a hoodie like they’re genetically engineered for a climate-controlled mall. Every generation thinks they invented rebellion. Today’s teens seem convinced they’ve also invented not needing a core body temperature.

There is this cultural myth that you get better at parenting the older your kids get. I’m here to report that is absolute nonsense. Parenting teenagers is mostly bargaining, strategic surrender, and muttering to yourself in the backyard while pretending to take out recycling that isn’t even full.

This is the winter version.

When Teens Get Nostalgic for a Life That’s Only Just Begun

It caught me off guard. My oldest son, now sixteen and firmly in the “don’t make a big deal out of anything” phase, casually asked if we were going to do a family walk on Thanksgiving. It was something we used to do when the kids were little, mostly due to needing something to do when all the usual options were closed. You know the walk. A post-breakfast shuffle through a local neighbourhood, everyone bundled up, and ideally enjoying themselves.

ChatGPT and Parenting: What AI Can (and Can’t) Do for Your Family

Parenting in the digital age comes with its own unique set of challenges. From managing homework and extracurricular schedules to meal planning, managing household chores, and even keeping kids entertained, it can sometimes feel like there are not enough hours in the day. Enter ChatGPT and other AI tools, these digital assistants promise to make life easier, but what can they realistically do for parents? Let’s be honest: a lot of what’s being hyped as “AI magic” often ends up being slightly helpful at best and, in some cases, just a fancy version of what we could already do ourselves.

The AI Cheat Sheet for Parents Who Don’t Speak Tech

A practical guide for parents who want to keep up with their kids without having to learn Python overnight.

Confession: I’m not a tech person

Let’s get this out of the way — I couldn’t code my way out of a paper bag. I don’t know Python, JavaScript, or whether “machine learning” involves actual machines. But lately, I’ve been diving into the world of generative AI (things like ChatGPT, DALL·E, Claude, etc.), and I’ve realized something:
You don’t need to be a tech wizard to understand enough about AI to keep up with your kids.

And you should keep up — because they’re already using it.

AI and Teen Privacy: What Every Parent Should Know (Without Freaking Out)

Alright, parents, it’s time for a real talk. If you thought the hardest part about raising teens was surviving the teenage attitude or keeping up with their music tastes, think again. Now you’re dealing with AI — yes, artificial intelligence, creeping into your kid’s life faster than an eye roll after you suggest something logical.

Your teen is almost certainly using AI tools like ChatGPT, Snapchat’s My AI, or god-knows-what else, probably better than you. They’re asking it for homework help, writing poems, or just having weird conversations with bots. But here’s the kicker: AI isn’t just a fancy calculator. It’s collecting data, it’s listening, it’s learning about them, and frankly, about you too. And if you don’t get ahead of this privacy stuff, you’re basically letting your kid hand over their digital keys without a second thought.

So what should you know about AI and teen privacy? How do you keep your family safe without turning into the ‘AI police’ and killing the fun? I have thoughts, so let’s break it down.