The Messy Middle of Parenting

Hila Qu calls retention "the messy middle. It's actually a messy part of the entire funnel. It's over a very long period of time."

Starting parenting? There's a roadmap. Newborn books, sleep schedules, feeding guides. Having an adult child? Also relatively clear - mutual respect, adult conversations, letting go.

But the middle? Years 3 through 18? That's fifteen years of messy middle. The rules change constantly. What worked last month doesn't work now. They regress and progress unpredictably. You can't see clear milestones anymore.

"At any given moment, they can be retained or not," Hila says about users. Same with your kid's connection to you. Some days they're all in. Some days they're emotionally canceling their subscription to this family.

The messy middle doesn't have a playbook. It's too long, too variable, too dependent on a million factors you can't control. All you can do is stay present, keep adjusting, and remember that the middle is where the real relationship gets built.