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The first 1,000 days of life shape every day that follows.
We need to know more about them.
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
The politics of the shocking U.S. formula shortage
An alert before I delve into today’s topic: on 13 June, I am moderating a panel on the mental health of children and carers, which I think would be of much interest to many of your readers. It will feature child trauma psychologist Chandra Ghosh
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
Forever in the archive:
What does war mean for children?
Jasminko Halilovic was four years old when the siege of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, started in 1992. His memories of the war are punctuated by the rare breaks from shelling when he would go out into the street to learn how to ride his bike.
When children feel like a burden
When do children become a burden rather than a joy? I’m not ready for the question that Nacho, my husband, asks me while he’s driving us from one errand to another. Lorenzo, our son, is with us today because of something Covid-related (is it the
Do we really want our children to be independent?
The week my son Lorenzo turned three he put his shoes on by himself, opened the front with a “Ciao”, and said he was going to catch the bus to daycare alone. That same day, he had woken up wanting to be held and played
The importance of learning how to be lazy
When we returned recently from our time with friends in Thailand, I was excited to take advantage of the time difference and jet lag to start my days at 6 a.m., as I had done for many months last year. Think of the possibilities! Writing
Why we should give every child the right to quality daycare
In Italy, there is a new plan to invest heavily into building new daycare centres as part of the NextGenerationEU recovery plan. Initially I was surprised to find so much push-back against these early education spaces, even from right-wing spaces such as senator Tiziana Drago, who
Three days stranded in an airport with a toddler
We went away to Thailand over the vacation to visit one of my best friends and her family. Lorenzo went to a daycare with elephants, but I will share more about that soon. We were on our way back to Athens, Greece, but a mighty
Not having children does not diminish us
Pope Francis recently created a big controversy by criticising couples who decide to have pets over children. “This denial of fatherhood or motherhood diminishes us, it takes away our humanity,” he said. “Civilisation becomes aged and without humanity, because it loses the richness of fatherhood
Let’s talk about sleep, baby
If you read my newsletter last week, you may remember that my intention for 2022 is to get enough sleep every day. Ten days into the new year, I am already sleep-deprived: I’m writing this after having slept only five hours, as I stayed up well
Three ways The First 1,000 Days plans to start 2022
This is a special edition of this newsletter that marks our first-year anniversary, so I’ll skip recommendations for this week. They will be back next week as usual. Since I was little, I always paid attention to the Neapolitan tradition that whatever you do on
How I see the first 1,000 days recognised globally
My home city of Naples, in southern Italy, is famous for its wild celebrations on New Year’s Eve. Like many places, at midnight the skies light up with thousands of fireworks — which have caused many injuries and deaths throughout the years. The streets also
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