In your twenties, a good test of a friendship is travelling with someone. In your thirties and forties? Add kids to the mix. Watching how others parent is revealing – friendships become either rock-solid or they quickly dissolve. I can think of lots of personal examples. Lots*.

Cutting Teeth by Julia Fierro exposes differences in parenting styles and how these differences influence relationships. Fierro takes a playgroup (the parents are all thirty-something hipster couples from Brooklyn) and sends them for a family weekend away at a modest beach house on Long Island (‘modest’ equals thin walls and shared bathrooms). Continue reading →