Ultimate In What Way?

Cover by Justin Winslow Illustration

At the end of May, I was out to dinner with my 12-year-old daughter and four of her friends to celebrate her birthday and I asked them what would be the top New York City activity they’d recommend to a kid who was visiting the city for a first time. They were united in their response: Statue Of Liberty? No. The Met? No. Broadway? Absolutely! At the time, I was thinking a lot about questions like these because I was in the throes of planning this issue. Even though their answer was not surprising, it was encouraging to hear their enthusiasm. By age 12, they seemed to appreciate how lucky they are to grow up with easy access to Broadway and the city’s other blockbuster attractions. I did not ask them the follow-up question on my mind because they had moved on to school gossip and other pressing issues. But what I wanted to know was what their recommendation would be if they had to steer a kid to an under-the-radar alternative to Broadway, to a more low-key experience that was special in its own way.

This particular exercise was the basis or our lead-off story, “The 15 Greatest Things To Do In New York City By Age 15 (Plus, Some Really Good Alternatives).” But it is also an apt metaphor for how our team at New York Family thought about this very special annual issue. If you’re going to call a publication an “Ultimate Guide,” you better deliver something really good. For us, that meant being comprehensive, but also surprising and selective. Broadway should be on childhood’s grand checklist. But you know what?  This is New York City, and there are always interesting alternatives to explore as well.

On that note, let me formally welcome you to the 2012-2013 edition of our Ultimate Guide To Raising Kids In The City. While I’d like to fancy that all our issues earn a place on your night table, this is the one issue I recommend as a long-term keeper, to use for information and inspiration until the next version comes out a year from now.

To earn our place in your home, we offer a resource guide that has more and better info and tips about the topic you care most about—your children—than any other local resource. Take a quick jaunt through these stories. Wherever you end up—be it in a directory-heavy section like our guide to children’s classes, or a more a personal and opinionated overview like our guide to kid-friendly restaurants—I’m sure you’ll find stuff that is new and helpful to you, whether you’re a freshly minted parent or you’ve been at the parenting game for a while.

And while I hope you return to the magazine again and again in the course of the year when you want some help with planning a birthday party, or picking a museum to visit, or finding a place to buy nursery furniture and accessories, I also encourage you to enjoy a more leisured stroll through it as soon as you can, perhaps after your child has gone to sleep. Because then you’ll be able to look it over with some thought to the year ahead and how it may help you solidify some plans (like choosing a children’s class) and lead you to others (we have a great calendar of can’t-miss exhibits and events).

You also might have some fun (see our “Pop Quiz For Parents: How Well Do You Know NYC?”), and maybe even feel some validation about one of the biggest choices you’ve made your adult life: to raise your children here. As the editor, it would normally be my impulse to have that last word on that matter, except that one of our new writers, Tali Rosenblatt-Cohen, a Manhattan mom of three, did such a good job explaining her own parental satisfaction with the city that I happily steer you to her essay, “The Space We Need.”  I’m going to have my daughter, Elena, read it too. (We’ll see if she buys it.)

Thank you so much for your interest in New York Family Magazine!

My best wishes to you and your family in the year ahead,

ERIC MESSINGER

EDITOR

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