Family meals remain a signature advantage of being human. They are a breeding ground for memories, capable of birthing great laughter one minute and forcing us to confront dark realities the next. Perhaps most important, the table is a remarkable classroom where we learn essential skills for life.

Although there seems to be a trend of more fathers being hands-on parents in general – possibly the result of more mothers entering the workforce and having less time for child-rearing – the phenomenon seems to be more pronounced among millennials, some of whom are more comfortable switching up traditional gender roles in the household.

Most parents would do anything for their kids — after all, they just want what’s best for them. But what if continually being at your child’s beck and call actually meant they failed to become independent and launch into adulthood? An expert says parents need to take a step back and give their kids room to find their own feet.

Even though significant progress has been made toward gender equality in parenting, more subtle inequalities remain. Many fathers – even those in the households most likely to have progressive views on parenting – have not achieved equality with mothers in key areas. In other words, mothers are more likely to make child care arrangements, schedule doctors’ appointments and sign the permission slips. Mothers remember and mothers remind.

Mass incarceration in the US is more than a statistic, and it affects more than just the people behind bars, argues Prof. John Hagan, sociology and law, Northwestern University. And the forgotten victims of the incarceration state, Hagan said, are children whose parents are prisoners. As people born during the War on Drugs begin to come of age, the consequences of having imprisoned parents are now coming to light.

The fear of what our increasingly technology-dependent children may find online is a feeling shared by most parents. But despite these concerns, a survey has found that almost half are not keeping track of what their kids are getting up to online. Now experts have revealed four tips on how to keep kids safe on the internet, without having to watch their every move.