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The first 1,000 days of life shape every day that follows.
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A beat by Irene Caselli
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Populism meets parenting
Childhood is political. The decisions about who has a child, when, and how go far beyond personal choices. Authoritarian and populist politicians the world over are despairing over falling birth rates. They are trying (and often succeeding) to set strict rules about conception and birth
Forever in the archive
Why you shouldn’t spank a child
A disturbing investigation by Brazil’s Agência Pública and online platform openDemocracy has uncovered that Brazil’s religious homeschooling groups, supported by ultraconservative U.S. associations, are giving parents instructions on how to spank their children while dodging the law. There are several ways to think about this
What happened when a friend saw me yell at my child
Last year, someone who was close to me and my family joined us for a week while we were in Italy. This was one of our usual trips where my partner and I combine work, seeing friends and family, and possibly squeezing in a few
The life-changing power of reading aloud
When I was pregnant with my son Lorenzo, I would often sit down and read aloud to my belly. I wouldn’t read just anything. My plan was to get him acquainted with my all-time favourite author who gave me my first experiences as an independent
What it’s like to flee a forest fire
One afternoon last year, I fled my home with my family as the hill above my home burned. I’d had time to pack only some laptops and hard discs (don’t ask me why), passports and a change of clothes for my son, Lorenzo, who was
The cost of the motherhood penalty
🚨 On 18 July, I am moderating a panel on why we should take children and carers into account when reporting on migration. It will feature Luis H. Zayas, chair of mental health and social policy, at UT Austin, U.S., as well as award-winning journalists
What does trauma really mean?
An image has been haunting me recently. It’s of children lined up in an airport in the United States about to be deported to Mexico and Central America. Of course, this has happened often in reality, but the image comes from Valeria Luiselli’s novel Lost
Criminalised for a miscarriage
**Warning: this piece handles miscarriage, pregnancy loss and abortion, and goes into some graphic details. If you’d still like to stay informed about the U.S. abortion ban, I recommend this piece in The New Yorker or this one on the dangers of abortion bans for other patients.
Why cooking matters
Meet Manal. She is one of the women I met in Lesbos, the Greek island that became a main transit destination for migrants trying to reach Europe via Turkey. Born in Syria, Manal has three children, the youngest of whom, Nina, was born in the
Do you share your childhood games with your children?
We journalists should never act as psychologists, especially when it comes to the topic of how to approach children. Yet being aware of what happens to them and how they can react to hardships should be an important part of our reporting. This is the
Why the books we read matter
A reminder: this coming Monday, 13 June, I am moderating a panel on the mental health of children and carers. I think a lot of readers here will be very interested in the event. It will feature child trauma psychologist Chandra Ghosh Ippen, as well
Forever in the archive:
What’s it like to give birth in a refugee camp
Aziza never imagined she would become a mother while living in a refugee camp. A civil engineer, she fled Afghanistan last year when the Taliban takeover became a threat to her family because her husband had worked for the US-led government. When they arrived on
The issue dividing feminists — and a country
After almost two decades away from Italy, I ended up moving back just after I found out I was pregnant in 2018. We lived in a stone house among olive trees in the Umbrian countryside, just off a beautiful Medieval borgo called Montecastello di Vibio. Even
Is a gender-neutral world science fiction?
I’ve just come back from a trip to Gethen – a cold place, with beautiful glaciers and a society of people that are devoid of sex and gender for most of the time. They are simply *people*, undefined by what they have between their legs
We don’t know how children actually see the world
Something terrible has happened to Baidui, my son Lorenzo’s imaginary friend. He was a child, but also an uncle. A boy but also an airline pilot, so tall he could touch the sky. But he wasn’t always the nicest person. When he got angry, he
Creating safe spaces for children during war
Show kids they are in a safe space, physically and emotionally. They need to chose games freely and have enough time to play, in their own time. They require minimal intervention and guidance from adults. They need opportunities to create, no matter what the result
Why every child should have access to *quality* daycare
A few weeks ago, a question caught me by surprise: what age is best to send your child to daycare? The question came from a parent during a live event where I was discussing my reporting on daycares in southern Italy. A couple of years
Why a child’s imagination is a superpower
Baidui is a child, but he’s also an uncle. He is a boy, but he’s also a mother. He is one and many at the same time. He lives in Thailand, but travels daily to Argentina, Italy and Greece. He goes to a daycare, but
Who gets to make decisions for a child?
Photo credit: Picturehouse Entertainment A child walks into a courtroom to sue his parents. When the judge asks him why, the boy answers: “Because I was born… I want them to stop having children.” This is a scene from the Lebanese film Capernaum, directed by
Off on a date on a working day
Dear reader, This week I had several plans for this newsletter. I wanted to reflect on climate anxiety, following the latest damning IPCC report. I planned to write a piece in praise of the work of midwives. I am also still processing an interview on
War has no borders
Dear reader, I am in Lesbos this week, the Greek island that became the symbol of migrants and refugees in 2015 when tens of thousands of people arrived after crossing the sea from Turkey. Many drowned in the Aegean Sea before making it to shore.
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