My Ex Is Such a Typical, Conservative Guy. And He’s Doing a Major Disservice to His Teen Daughter.

Care and Feeding is Slate’s parenting advice column. But I don’t think it’s your place to offer her the morning-after pill “if she ever needs it” if she hasn’t asked you for this kind of help. —Desperate for Hope Dear Desperate for Hope, I don’t know that we can “make sense” of what’s happening. And I know you said your question wasn’t “about parenting,” but for parents—I know you know this—everything life throws at us is also about parenting, because we need not only to find ways to cope, to take action, and to feel hopeful about the future, but to model the same for our children. For me, “meaningful action” also means finding ways to make a difference in people’s lives with the resources I have.