Six desks
A household is not one subject. It is an operation, a balance sheet, a school-run, a partnership, a sickbed and an extended family, and each of those has an editor whose job it is to know it properly.
Operations
8 piecesThe systems that make or break a house.
Operations covers the running of the place: routines, chores, the mental load, calendars, meal logistics, the annual accumulation of objects, and the systems households build to keep all of it from landing on one person. We treat a household as an operation with a throughput problem, because that is what it is.
Edited by Helen Moriarty. Operations manager, logistics.
- household routines
- the mental load
- chore division
- family calendars
- meal planning
- decluttering
- household systems
Accounts
9 piecesHousehold money, in dollars and out loud.
Accounts covers money as households actually hold it: childcare and housing, college and eldercare, allowance and insurance, and the arguments that come with all of them. Personal finance is written for individuals. Almost nobody decides as an individual, so we report the household's numbers instead.
Edited by Marcus Whitfield. Staff writer, a national personal-finance site.
- household budgets
- childcare costs
- housing costs
- college saving
- eldercare costs
- allowance
- money conflict
- insurance
Dependents
7 piecesRaising the people who live here.
Dependents covers children and teenagers: school, screens, independence, discipline, and neurodivergence. It is written for the adult doing the raising, assumes that adult is competent and under-resourced, and does not moralise about anybody else's household.
Edited by Priya Raman. Middle school teacher, eight years.
- school
- screen time
- teenagers
- discipline
- independence
- neurodivergence
- homework
Partners
5 piecesTwo adults, one household, unequal labour.
Partners covers marriage and partnership as a working arrangement: the division of labour, money, conflict, sex, and what happens when a household separates and has to be run across two addresses. Reported honestly enough to be useful and without any interest in telling people to stay or go.
Edited by Tom Beckett. Features writer, a national men's magazine.
- division of labour
- marriage
- conflict
- separation
- co-parenting
- partnership and money
Care
6 piecesHealth, caregiving, and the paperwork of being sick.
Care covers the health of a household and the work of looking after it: sleep, food, mental health, aging parents, and the administration of illness — the calls, the forms, the appeals. Every clinical claim in this desk is reviewed by a named clinician before it publishes.
Edited by Anna Kowalczyk. Hospital care coordinator, twelve years.
- family sleep
- caregiving
- aging parents
- mental health
- navigating insurance
- medical paperwork
- food and nutrition
Relations
4 piecesEveryone else who has a claim on the house.
Relations covers the household's borders: grandparents, in-laws, siblings, blended and immigrant households, estrangement, and the holidays — the annual audit of every relationship you have. The extended family is not a footnote to a household. Often it is the labour supply.
Edited by Rosa Delgado. Reporter, a Spanish-language daily.
- grandparents
- in-laws
- siblings
- blended households
- immigrant households
- estrangement
- holidays