Before your child even steps out the door every day, their emotional baseline for the day is already set — not by color-coded routines, but by how safe and connected they feel in your presence.

As a conscious parenting researcher, I’ve studied more than 200 kids, and I’m a mother myself. I’ve found that the happiest, most resilient kids are raised in homes where connection matters more than control, especially in the morning.

Parents who raise happy kids practice nine morning rituals to create emotional safety and support their children’s developing brain:

Before your child wakes up, take just 60 seconds to check in with yourself: Take a few deep breaths, a moment of stillness with your coffee, or a quick meditation.

Children learn how to be calm directly through our nervous systems. When you begin in a regulated state, you provide a sturdy emotional foundation for your child’s day.

Before asking about teeth-brushing or backpacks, create a moment of genuine connection, like eye contact, a warm smile, or physical touch. Your message should be: “You matter more than the morning rush.”

This brief emotional attunement regulates your child’s nervous system and sets the stage for cooperation and calm.

Integrate small rituals that slow the pace, like playing soft music during breakfast, sitting together without screens, or implementing a 30-second family huddle before heading out.

These micro-moments teach kids that calm is available even on busy mornings.

Even in the midst of spilled milk and mismatched socks, find opportunities for playfulness, like a silly voice, a 10-second dance party, or a shared inside joke.

Laughter reduces stress and reinforces that mistakes or morning mishaps don’t overpower emotional safety.

Before diving into the day’s logistics, pause to check in with how your child is feeling: “How’s your heart this morning?” or “What’s one thing you’re looking forward to today?”

These brief emotional check-ins build emotional literacy, which is one of the strongest predictors of lifelong resilience and happiness.

A morning hug, a forehead kiss, or a moment of snuggling releases oxytocin and increases emotional security.

Choose three specific moments in your morning routine where you’ll pause for intentional physical connection and affection, regardless of how rushed you feel. It’s one of the fastest, most effective ways to regulate a child’s nervous system.

Make mornings a device-free zone for both parents and children for at least the first 20 minutes of waking. No phones, tablets, or television.

This digital boundary creates space for natural conversation or even comfortable silence together.

Children live at a different pace than adults. That’s just their biology. I recommend adding five extra minutes to one morning transition and match your child’s pace.

When we slow our movements and expectations, we help regulate their nervous systems. What looks like “dawdling” is often a child’s natural rhythm: their brain processing the world at a developmentally appropriate speed.

Instead of rushing out with a quick “Let’s go,” pause for a real goodbye: eye contact, a hug, reassurance.

Then add a “connection bridge,” or something to look forward to later: “I can’t wait to hear about your science project tonight,” or “Let’s make pancakes tomorrow morning.”

Let go of the idea that every morning needs to be rushed, or that the day is in shambles because they didn’t finish their homework the night before. Focus on creating emotional safety. Even adopting one of these habits can help shift your child’s entire day and support healthier brain development.

Reem Raouda is a leading voice in conscious parenting and the creator of the BOUND and FOUNDATIONS journals, now offered together as her Holiday Emotional Safety Bundle. She is widely recognized for her expertise in children’s emotional well-being and for redefining what it means to raise emotionally healthy kids. Connect with her on Instagram.

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As Bob Schrader approached retirement, he wasn’t planning to take it easy.

For 37 years, Schrader worked as the assistant director of the center for agriculture at UMass Cooperative Extension, part of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Five years before he retired, he bought a Christmas tree farm.

“I had good experiences working on a farm when I was younger — much, much younger,” Schrader, 72, says.

Now, with the help of his son Jake, he owns and operates Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm, a 133-acre farm located in Hatfield, MA. 

The farm hadn’t been operational for nearly a decade and was “fairly overgrown” when Bob Schrader bought it in 2010 for $215,000.

“It wasn’t perfect at the time, but after looking for a while, I realized this was a pretty good deal,” he recalls.

Jake Schrader began working with his father on the farm after graduating from UMass Amherst with a bachelor’s degree in plant soil science.

“I’d like to think I’ve been with my father every step of the way, through the good times and the bad,” he says.

Now 39 and a co-owner of the farm, Jake Schrader works a day job as a public utility foreman at Berkshire Gas. He primarily works at the farm mornings, nights, weekends and on vacation days, he says.

For the majority of the year, “it’s pretty much just me and my son working part-time after work,” Bob Schrader says.

“I think we both have our roles,” Jake Schrader says. He takes on the majority of maintenance and equipment repairs, he says, while his father handles bookkeeping, accounting and business management.

“I don’t think he could do it without me, and I don’t think I could do it without him,” Jake Schrader says.

The planting cycle for Christmas trees takes about 11 years, according to Bob Schrader.

Each spring, he purchases around 6,000 fir seedlings, which are usually about five years old — “about the biggest that you can get, and still be able to plant them,” he says — for approximately $2 per tree.

He, Jake and a few helpers plant the seedlings in about two days using a tree planting machine.

It takes between seven and nine years of nurturing the trees — fertilizing them, applying herbicides, mowing nearby weeds, shearing the sides and shaping the tops — to get them ready for Christmas.  

After a section of mature trees are harvested, they begin clearing the area to replant, which can take another two to three years.

Few people understand how much ongoing work it takes to grow Christmas trees, Schrader says.

“On more than one occasion, when I’ve been selling trees, the person would say, ‘Boy, you really have a good deal. You plant the tree for like three or four bucks. You come back eight years later, and you sell it for $75. What could be bad about that?’”

“The truth is a long ways away from that,” he continues.

For Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm, Thanksgiving is the busiest time of year, Bob Schrader says.

The farm typically sells around 2,500 trees every year, and one-third of those sales take place over Thanksgiving weekend.

Visitors pay between $75 and $90 to choose and cut their own trees, with saws and wheelbarrows provided. The price for pre-cut trees varies based on height: 6-8 foot trees cost $75, and 8-9 foot trees cost $90.

Every tree needs to be “processed” before it can be sold, “meaning we shake them, we bale them, we trim the bottom, and we make sure it looks the way the person wants to have it look,” Schrader says.

About a dozen people, including friends, family and part-time employees, help the Schraders on the farm during peak weekends in November and December.

In addition to selling trees, Schrader says their goal is to create a “family experience” filled with Christmas wonder: the farm offers an outdoor firepit, horse-drawn wagon rides for $2 and free hot chocolate.

“It looks like you’re walking into like a Hallmark setting when you come to the farm,” Jake Schrader says.

Around the third weekend of November, Bob and Jake Schrader transform one of the farm’s outbuildings into a cozy gift shop that offers wreaths, tree stands, wood crafts, ornaments from local artisans and branded farm merchandise.

Approximately 5,000 people pass through the gift shop each year, according to Jake Schrader.

Those extra features don’t come cheap – it costs around $400 a day to hire the wagon and horses, for example – but “it’s part of what attracts people to the farm,” Bob Schrader says.

The farm’s Christmas festivities are part of a broader trend of agrotourism, according to Schrader.

In New England, “wholesale prices are not going to keep you in business on most things,” so he and other farmers have gotten creative in cultivating destination experiences, he says.

By mid-December, Christmas tree sales have slowed to a trickle, Bob Schrader says: “You do a huge amount of work for a season that lasts three to four weeks.”

Chestnut Mountain Christmas Tree Farm’s net income varies based on labor and equipment costs, Schrader says, but they typically end the year with between $50,000 and $100,000 in profit.

The farm is structured as an LLC, according to Bob Schrader, and neither he nor Jake take a salary from the farm’s revenue.

As another revenue stream, the Schraders also grow hay on 20 acres of the land. They sell about 5,000 bales of hay yearly, as well as around 25 gallons of maple syrup and some firewood.

Looking ahead, their main challenge will be “understanding and responding to the impacts of climate change,” Bob Schrader says.

“The impact of small changes in the climate, in terms of temperature and moisture, are huge, absolutely huge,” he continues.

Extreme weather events like drought and heavy rain put stress on the trees, which makes them more susceptible to disease.

This year, after a particularly rainy spring, the Schraders are grappling with an outbreak of a plant-damaging waterborne fungus called phytophthora.

“If it gets to the roots of the trees, the tree is going to be dead within about three months,” Schrader says, and the farm has already lost a few hundred young trees this year.

He is working with the University of Massachusetts and the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station to learn how to combat the fungus, and to prepare for future climate challenges.

For many reasons, farming is an uncertain endeavor, Jake Schrader says. He jokes that “guys who farm are the biggest gamblers in the world.”

Fifteen years in, he still feels new to the profession, but his dream is to one day retire from his day job and work full-time on the farm, he says.

Bob Schrader has a similar dream: that the farm will continue “to operate and prosper,” and that his son will one day take over.

“I’m 72 years old, so I feel fine, but you know, you don’t kid yourself that you’re going to live forever,” he says. “How many good years do you have to keep going the way you’re going?”

Jake Schrader says his father is both “a best friend and a great partner” on the farm.

“I couldn’t do it without my father,” he says. “I’m thankful that he is still in good health, and able to live out his retirement years to do what he’s wanted to do his whole life.”

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Chris Broomfield, 50, had been a carpenter contractor for decades when he decided he wanted to focus on building a future for his family.

“I realized that carpentry is a knowledge and experience-based. I couldn’t really hand that down to my kids,” Broomfield tells CNBC Make It. “So I needed to build something that at least would give them a head start on something to borrow against or something that creates additional income.”

In 2015, Broomfield and his wife bought a five-acre property in Remsen, New York, for $27,000. It was close to where Broomfield grew up and not too far from a property his brother owns nearby.

Shortly after closing on the land, Broomfield says he started commuting from his family’s home in Connecticut every weekend to work on an A-frame cabin he was building mostly by himself.

“I always knew it was going to be an Airbnb property. I knew I was going to put multiple cabins on it,” he says. “I chose this property because it was close to the lake. It was very wooded, and it had rolling hills. I saw its potential with multiple cabins.”

After three years, Broomfield finished building the one-bedroom, one-bathroom A-frame cabin for a total cost of about $90,000, he says.

He hired outside help to drill a well, an electrician to wire the cabin and somebody to hang the sheetrock.

Broomfield says one of the structure’s standout features was inspired by his wife: A motorized king bed that slides out into the woods, allowing guests to sleep under the stars. The A-frame also has a fully equipped kitchen, fireplace, fire pit, and multiple decks.

When the cabin was first listed on Airbnb, the going rate was $60 a night. Now, Broomfield uses dynamic prices, so the rate ranges between $380 and $700 a night.

In 2024, the A-frame cabin had a revenue of $119,337 and its estimated revenue for 2025 is $143,504, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

“The process was amazing for me. I loved being up here. I loved being able to build anything that I wanted to build,” Broomfield says. “Something that came from my mind and not a blueprint. The free rein was really enjoyable.”

Broomfield says building the A-frame was challenging because he was commuting 8 hours round-trip to work 12 hours over the weekends, all while still working as a full-time contractor.

When he opened A-frame cabin for rentals via Airbnb, it went viral. It’s one of Airbnb’s “most-wishlisted” rentals the state of New York. It’s also a guest-favorite listing and earned Broomfield the title of “superhost,” according to an Airbnb representative.

Broomfield then moved on to his next project on the property: a treehouse cabin.

Broomfield hired a team of people to help him build the treehouse. After 13 weeks, it was completed in November 2019 for a total cost of about $175,000.

“I wanted to get the treehouse done as quickly as possible, so I hired some help. I knew the model was there and it worked by doing the A-frame, renting it out. The response from the guests was overwhelming,” he says. “I didn’t want to miss the window of opportunity to continue this wave of guests and potential guests’ interest.”

What makes this cabin particularly special is that it sits 14 feet in the air. To reach it, renters must cross a suspension bridge on the property.

“I wanted to create something that would bring in young families.”

The Treehouse has two bedrooms, one bathroom, a private pond with a small dock, a covered porch, and a fire pit. The living room and primary bedroom also offer views of a waterfall.

In 2024, the treehouse cabin had a revenue of $151,966 and this year, Broomfield estimates that number will be $150,562.

The treehouse is one of the top 10% of homes on Airbnb based on ratings, reviews, and reliability, according to an Airbnb representative.

The treehouse cabin was an instant success, he says, and he was ready to get started on his next build.

In 2021, Broomfield completed the Birch Falls Spa Cabin, a studio with a king-sized bed, kitchenette and spa room for a total cost $160,000.

The spa room has an 18-foot-long indoor waterfall, a massage bed, and a soaker jet tub. The cabin also has a private deck with a fire pit, BBQ and picnic area.

In 2024, the Birch Falls Spa Cabin generated $120,227 in revenue, and Broomfield’s estimated 2025 revenue is $120,890.

Broomfield named his business Evergreen Cabins.

As of September 2025, the Evergreen Cabins have brought in $2.1 million since the very first property was listed for rent in 2018, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Broomfield says that monthly costs for operating Evergreen Cabins come in at $700 a month in utilities, $8,000 for operations costs, including payroll, and about $18,000 a year in property taxes.

He says that today he brings in about $400,000 a year with revenue from the rental properties. He retired from contracting in 2021.

Now, Broomfield’s day-to-day consists of overseeing his staff, designing new cabins, and developing future plans for the Evergreen Cabins.

Since retiring, Broomfield says it’s important for him to keep busy and keep building for his family.

“There’s always going to be something that is going to be pushing me to do the next thing. I can’t sit back and do nothing. My family is a huge part of my inspiration and my drive; eventually, they are going to be the ones owning this,” he says.

“The legacy of Evergreen is, I don’t really have a plan for it [but] I do know that it is going to inspire and help people. My kids are going to be a part of that.”

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Cat Goetze may be a tech founder, but she’s on a years’ long journey to reduce her reliance on devices.

Two years ago Goetze, who goes by CatGPT on social media, wanted to swap her smartphone for something more low-tech.

“I was kind of just sitting around [thinking] it’d be so cute if we still had landline phones and you could twirl the cord and talk with your friends,” she tells CNBC Make It. “That just felt nostalgic and chic to me.”

Looking into it, she didn’t realize getting a landline for her apartment would require getting a new number and paying for a phone line. So, the 20-something zillennial built her own version from a phone she thrifted: “I literally just hijacked a landline phone and made it Bluetooth compatible.”

The pink clamshell handset quickly became the most talked-about feature in her apartment. Whenever someone buzzed into her building’s security system, Goetze would let them in from her landline. She could also place outgoing calls from the set.

After two years with it, Goetze unveiled the phone to her online audience in July 2025 to see if anyone else thought it was a good idea.

Within hours, hundreds of people commented on the video within hours saying they needed the device. She set up an online shop to collect pre-orders thinking 15 to 20 people would place actual orders and she could make the devices by herself in her apartment.

Goetze’s project, Physical Phones, passed $120,000 in sales in its first three days, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. The business has sold over 3,000 units and made $280,000 in sales by the end of October.

“It literally felt like we had captured lightning in a bottle,” Goetze says.

Physical Phones currently has five styles of phones that range from $90 to $110. Goetze partnered with an electronics manufacturer to produce the phones, and the first batches are set to ship to customers starting in December.

Physical Phones connect to both iPhone and Android devices via Bluetooth and will ring when the smartphone receives a phone call, or an audio or video call from platforms like WhatsApp, FaceTime, Instagram and Snapchat; the audio of the call then routes to the Physical Phone.

Users can place outbound calls by dialing a phone number or pressing the star sign (*) to activate their smartphone’s voice assistant and instructing it to call a contact’s name.

Goetze says the success of her business aligns with a growing movement of people trying to reduce their screen times and reliance on smartphones.

She points to the Covid-19 pandemic as having a major impact on how people use their phones today. People were stuck at home and away from people, so they turned to apps like TikTok to fill the time and feel connected.

Now, as some consumers grow skeptical about tech companies’ hold on their attentions, and are getting tired of navigating AI and AI-generated content online, people are trying to course-correct, Goetze says.

“Our attention spans are shorter. We feel more anxious. We’re less present and unable to enjoy our lives. We’re going through a total loneliness epidemic,” she says. People are now “starting to put their foot down and realize, ’You know what, I actually don’t want this, and I’m going to go ahead and choose a different future.”

Goetze stops short of “demonizing” technology, however, explaining that it’s “what brings us sustainable forms of energy and vaccines and a bunch of really good things for for the world, but it’s like, OK, how do we live in harmony with it?”

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Despite slower job growth compared to the last decade, the U.S. economy is expected to add 5.2 million jobs from 2024 to 2034, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest employment projection report. Total employment is projected to grow by 3.1%.

Based on the report, the top-growing industry sectors for 2034 are health care and social assistance and professional, scientific and technical services, which have projected growth rates of 8.4% and 7.5%, respectively.

Within those sectors, the fastest-growing occupational groups are health-care support, which includes roles like nurse practitioner and physician assistant, and computer and mathematical roles, such as data scientist and information security analyst. These groups are expected to grow by 12.4% and 10.1%, respectively.

One of the main reasons that the health-care industry is expected to grow so rapidly is because the American population is aging, according to Emily Krutsch, branch chief at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“That’s really what’s driving that trend: the older population tends to need more of this type of care and services,” she says.

Computer and mathematical roles will become increasingly important with the rise of AI technology, according to Krutsch.

“We are expecting a boost in employment growth for occupations that would be involved in developing and testing and implementing these types of tools,” Krutsch says.

Relatedly, information security analyst roles are projected to grow significantly due to the “larger need to protect data and develop systems and tools to secure it,” she says.

Krutsch emphasizes that the growth rate for each job isn’t the only important data point to consider.

For example, wind turbine service technicians and solar photovoltaic installers are the two fastest-growing jobs, but both occupations combined will add under 20,000 jobs by 2034.

“Just because we’re talking about fast growth doesn’t necessarily translate to lots of jobs, because it could just be a very, very small occupation,” Krutsch says.

Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data, these are the fastest-growing occupations for 2034, as well as the expected increase in jobs by 2034 and the current median salary for each role.

1. Wind turbine service technicians

Growth rate: 50%

2024 median pay: $62,580 

Jobs added by 2034: 6,800

2. Solar photovoltaic installers

Growth rate: 42%

2024 median pay: $51,860

Jobs added by 2034: 12,000

3. Nurse practitioners

Growth rate: 40%

2024 median pay: $129,210

Jobs added by 2034: 128,400

4. Data scientists

Growth rate: 34%

2024 median pay: $112,590

Jobs added by 2034: 82,500

5. Information security analysts

Growth rate: 29%

2024 median pay: $124,910

Jobs added by 2034: 52,100

6. Medical and health services managers

Growth rate: 23%

2024 median pay: $117,960

Jobs added by 2034: 142,900

7. Physical therapist assistants

Growth rate: 22%

2024 median pay: $65,510

Jobs added by 2034: 24,500

8. Actuaries

Growth rate: 22%

2024 median pay: $125,770

Jobs added by 2034: 7,300

9. Operations research analysts

Growth rate: 21%

2024 median pay: $91,290

Jobs added by 2034: 24,100

10. Physician assistants

Growth rate: 20%

2024 median pay: $133,260

Jobs added by 2034: 33,200

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