Every group of teenage friends usually has that one house with the “cool parents” where everyone can hang out. It’s usually a place where there isn’t much judgment but plenty of snacks and a teen-friendly place to hang like a garage, living room or basement.There are two types of parents who don’t mind having teens over all the time. One type allows the kids to drink and party because, “you’re gonna do it anyway, might as well do it here.” The other kind likes having kids around so they can be sure they don’t get into that type of trouble. Jeremy Serrano, a Lutheran pastor in Northern California who has three children ages 12, 15 and 17, recently went viral on TikTok for explaining why parents should strive to “Be that house!” where kids hang out. @jeremypserrano Be that house! #parenting #parentsoftiktok #progressiveclergy "I was talking to another parent the other day and they asked me, 'Why do you always have teenagers over at your house?'" Serrano said on TikTok. "One of the things that we've worked really hard on is being the house that the teenage friends of my children want to hang out at."The Serrano house is a teenagers’ paradise. It’s stocked with snacks and has an ax-throwing target, basketball hoop and trampoline."My wife and I, we intentionally ask our children's friends what kind of food and drinks they like and then we make sure that we have those things on hand for them," he said in the video."It's just one of the best things that we've ever done," added Serrano. "Because we get to know our kids' friends and then we know that they're hanging out here."The house may be a place where kids can let loose, but there’s no illicit partying happening. "We have boundaries and don't allow that here," he told Today. "In fact, I'd lose credibility with my children by not providing boundaries."The TikTok post received a lot of positive comments from people who loved growing up in “that house.”"My mother law told me once… food, drinks, and activities will always be cheaper than lawyers, legal fees, and therapists," anmccoy74 wrote. "This was my house growing up and my mom said that when I went away to college she lost not just one son but more like 5 sons," Gridpod added."I've always said I want to be the house the kids go hang out at so I can be a trusted place for them but most importantly my kids tell me their lives," Addie Davis wrote.Serrano told Today that the teens are comfortable coming to him for advice because of the open environment he’s created. "I was really honored that my children pointed their friends to me—the first time it happened I was like, 'Whoa that is a big deal,'" he said. "My rule is, they can share our conversations with anyone they want, but I won't. If their parents ask if we've talked, I won't lie, but I'll point them back to their children."After his post went viral, the pastor posted a subsequent video where he shared some tips on how to create “that house.” @jeremypserrano Replying to @moeffinmary tip#1 be a non judgmental presence. #parenting #parentingtips "I think the number one way to be ‘that house’ is to be parents that provide a non-judgmental presence and non-judgmental listening to your kids' friends,” Serrano said.He added that it’s important to "really get to know their sides of things. To really try to understand how they're feeling in response to situations.” Serrano says parents shouldn’t think of what the teens are saying as “good or bad” but just to “be there and listen to them."In the end, having “that house” is all about creating a great environment for the entire family. "We get to be involved in our children's lives," he says. "And provide a safe space among chaos in the world."This article originally appeared on 1.4.23

Yes, yes, I know. Wordle, Wordle, Wordle. A few years ago, the world was thoroughly Wordle-ized. By now you're either a dedicated daily player or are trying your best to ignore the yellow and green boxes that flood your social media feed each day. As a self-professed word nerd, I'm a fan. Word games are my jam, and Wordle is just challenging enough to be fun without being too taxing. It's a light little exercise to get my brain moving over coffee in the morning and a fun little collective endeavor to share with my fellow humans. But we couldn't just remain satisfied with our sweet little Wordle game, right? Of course not. Why let a good thing be when we can drive ourselves batty with something else? Friends, allow me to introduce you to Quordle. You're either going to love me or hate me for this—I'm still not even sure how I feel about myself for being sucked into it. It's awesome and terrible and I can't stop playing. Quordle, you might guess from the name, means four Wordles. But you're guessing at all of them at the same time with a single word. You get nine tries total to correctly guess all four words.It's both glorious and torturous. You're welcome. And I'm sorry. Let me show you what it looks like.First of all, there are two modes of playing. There's the Daily Quordle, which is the same four words for everyone, one game per day, just like Wordle. But there's also Practice Quordle, which basically just means you can play as many times as you want. Dangerous. I'll show you a practice one so I don't spoil anything. Here's what it looks like when you start a practice round:As you can see, there are four "quadrants" where words get entered. The only thing that stinks is that you really can't see all of the rows at once. There are more blank rows for the bottom two words that you have to scroll to see, but it really isn't that big of a deal while you're playing. Whatever word you enter on each round gets put into all four quadrants. Then, just like in Wordle, the right letters in the wrong places turn yellow and the right letters in the right place turn green. Letters that aren't used remain gray. Here I am four guesses in (in two different images, since I had to scroll down to see the bottom two quadrants). As you can see, I guessed TONIC correctly for the top right word on the third guess and SLANT for the bottom left word on the fourth guess. And as you can see, the keyboard shows which quadrants contain the letters you've guessed, either in the wrong place (yellow) or the right place (green). The main goal is to get all four words in nine tries or less, but the lower any of the numbers, the better. I did quite well in this particular practice round, getting all four words in six total guesses. (In fact, this practice round was a bit of redemption after only getting three of the four words in the Daily Quordle today. I had two possible choices for my ninth guess and picked the wrong one. Argh.) Like Wordle, the Quordle interface is super simple; there are no ads or anything extraneous. Also like Wordle, Quordle was created by some guy (his name is Freddie Meyer) who had been playing Dordle (a two-word Wordle challenge) with some friends in January. Another guy in their group, David Mah, came up with Quordle and Meyer perfected it. Now it's got a million players. (Meyer says on the website that he has no plans to monetize Quordle. Maybe he'll end up selling it to The New York Times for seven figures like the Wordle guy did, and if he does? Hey, more power to him.) This is what humans do, right? Create cool things? Improve and innovate on what came before? Make our brains hurt and drive one another nuts in the best way? Yay, humanity. So, fellow word nerds, give Quordle a try and see what you think. Again, you're welcome and I'm sorry. This article originally appeared on 2.17.22

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