Parents, educators and storytellers came together on National Parents’ Day to talk about family connection, artificial intelligence, emotional wellbeing and the changing experience of childhood.
Khushnood Nabizada grew up in a rural village in Afghanistan with no electricity, no telephone, no television and no internet. The wider world reached his family through a radio and a few cassette tapes.
Today he is raising four children in the United States. Their world is tablets, YouTube, online games, group chats, social media and artificial intelligence.
“In one generation, my family went from radio to Roblox,” he said.
Nabizada is the founder of 3A1Z Stories, which officially launched on National Parents’ Day with a virtual conversation built around a question he has lived with for years: “How does a father who grew up without electricity raise children who are growing up with artificial intelligence?”
He still does not have a complete answer. Searching for one with other families is why the platform exists.
Moderator Dominick Margiotta guided the hourlong discussion with English professor and storyteller Lesley Gale, leadership expert Dr. Sabine Charles and education leader Courtney Weeks.
One calm place for families
Good information for parents exists, Nabizada said, but it is scattered, and not all of it can be trusted. “The news tells us what went wrong, but rarely what to do next,” he said.
3A1Z Stories is his answer: real stories from real parents, interviews with educators and specialists, practical guides and news that matters to families, explained without panic. Every piece can be read or listened to.
The name comes from his home. Three of his children have names beginning with A, and one begins with Z. Over time, 3A1Z came to stand for raising children from A to Z, through school, friendship, culture, identity, technology, safety and everything in between.
Four ideas guide the work: awareness of what is shaping a child’s world, affection that lets children speak without fear of being judged, agency for families to make their own decisions with reliable information, and zenith, helping each child reach their highest potential based on who they are, not on comparison.
Technology itself is not the enemy, he added, because families need balance, not fear. The platform begins in Richmond and Henrico County in Virginia, but its questions do not stop at the county line.
Parents do not have to be perfect
Nabizada recalled asking his children to put away their devices while his phone stayed in his hand.
“At some point, I admitted that the screen problem in my house was me,” he said. “I was asking my children to disconnect when I stayed connected.”
The admission was not easy, but it changed how he parents.
“This new world does not need perfect parents. It needs parents who pay attention and who are willing to change alongside their kids.”
Family stories build belonging
Gale, an English professor, mother, grandmother and storyteller based in Sacramento, California, made the case for a practice older than any app: telling family stories out loud.
She pointed to Emory University research by Marshall Duke and Robyn Fivush, who developed simple questions to ask at the dinner table or in the car. What do you remember about your fifth grade teacher? Did you ever break a bone? Children who grow up hearing these stories show a stronger sense of belonging, less anxiety, more resilience in hardship and often better performance in school. Hard stories count too, she said, because they teach compassion.
Gale also spoke about AI from inside her writing classroom. “Before you can write, you have to think,” she said. “If you plug a prompt into AI, you have missed that opportunity to strengthen your critical thinking.”
She helps every student find a distinct writing voice and can tell when a student hands that voice to AI. When students insist they are not good writers, she asks who told them that. The answer is usually a teacher. Let children write for fun, she urged, and let them read what they love, graphic novels included.
Children need emotionally safe places to speak
Charles, a mother, educator, author and founder of the TAPA Institute, said children are wrestling with the same things adults are: too much information, pressure to be perfect and a search for purpose.
No single approach fits every child, she said. Her own two children grew up in the same house with completely different personalities. When they were small, she invented Pass the Penguin, a game named for a toy her penguin-loving son treasured. (He once packed a backpack and lunch money for Antarctica.) Whoever held the penguin could say how they felt, and everyone else had to listen. The goal was not to solve problems but to give each child a safe moment to be heard.
Charles grew up with krik krak, a communal Haitian storytelling tradition, and after her father had a stroke she paid her children $50 to interview their grandparents and write the stories down.
Parents absorb alarming news, she warned, and that fear transfers to children. Her framework, Leadership MEQ, begins with self-awareness, where the platform’s first pillar begins too. There is no magic key, only trial and error.
“Build bridges with your children so that when they make mistakes, they can come back to you,” she said. “Our job is sometimes to listen, not advise.”
Parents and teachers want the same thing
Weeks, assistant director of the Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center at Southern Methodist University, has spent more than eight years as a teacher, instructional coach and academic in the United States and Mexico. On both sides of the border, she has watched childhood move indoors.
She grew up riding her bike between friends’ houses, unreachable until dinner, and would not allow that now. Children spend more time indoors than ever, and the instant rewards of scrolling and gaming, even on learning apps, make an ordinary classroom feel slow.
Her larger concern was the relationship between families and schools. With teachers leaving the profession in large numbers, an us-versus-them mentality has crept in on both sides.
“At the end of the day, we want the same thing,” Weeks said. “We want your kids to thrive. We want our kids to thrive.”
She has felt the urge, as a mother, to march in and confront a teacher. As a former teacher, she remembers the parents who did, without seeing the 20-to-1 ratio behind the door.
Empathy changes the conversation, she said. When a colleague’s child had a teacher lose his temper, Weeks suggested a different first question: not a list of complaints, but whether he had the support he needed to succeed, such as an instructional coach. Twenty other parents were lined up to complain that day. The one who asked how to help got a real conversation.
A beginning, not a finished achievement
In his closing remarks, Nabizada thanked the speakers, the moderator and everyone who gave part of a Sunday to attend. The panelists spoke from the home, the classroom and a lifetime of teaching and storytelling, yet one message ran through it all, he said. “Parents do not have to face these changes alone.”
The launch is a beginning, not a finished achievement, he added. 3A1Z Stories will keep listening to parents, caregivers, educators and specialists, publishing honest stories, explaining issues in plain language and building resources families can use.
Since it was National Parents’ Day, he left parents with one thought.
“You do not have to be perfect to be a good parent. You have to be present, willing to listen and willing to keep learning alongside your kids.”
3A1Z Stories began with four children in one home. The hope is that it becomes a trusted place for the stories and wisdom of many families.
Visit www.3a1z.com to read family stories and practical guides, or share an experience from your own home. You do not need to be an expert. Your experience is enough. Educators, specialists, schools, libraries and community groups are welcome too. As Nabizada told the audience, 3A1Z Stories is just getting started.
