Slate's Parenting Advice Column, Care and Feeding, Complaining That His Wife, Marianna, Has Decided Their Kids, Ages 6 and 8, Can Only Drink

The kids are miserable and begging for other drinks, and the father calls the rule ridiculous. The columnist, who has parented in a near water-only house for 13 years, sides with Marianna, saying juice and soda are unhealthy and milk can be dropped if kids get calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin A elsewhere. However, the columnist notes Marianna erred by not getting her husband on board first and by imposing the rule on kids already used to sugary drinks.

The advice: explain the health reasons to the kids, but accept that they'll still get juice and soda at parties and elsewhere, so treat those as occasional treats rather than banning them entirely. The column also includes a separate letter about a wife's strained relationship with her paternal family after her father's death, which improved once she could drive, and the recent passing of her grandmother, leaving an inheritance.