In The Family Firm, Brown professor of economics and mom of two Emily Oster offers a classic business school framework for data-driven parents to think more deliberately about the key issues of the elementary years. Unlike the hourly challenges of infant parenting, the big questions in this age come up less frequently, but have longer-lasting consequences. Making these decisions is less about finding the specific answer and more about taking the right approach. Parents of this age are often still working in baby mode--under stress and on the fly. That is a classic management problem, and Oster takes a page from her time as a business school professor at the University of Chicago to show us that thoughtful business process can help smooth out tough family decisions.