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A surrogacy ban is not feminist

The Italian parliament made it illegal earlier this month for people to go abroad to have a baby via surrogacy. Giorgia Meloni, the country’s first-ever female prime minister, has been battling to get the bill passed since she came into office in 2022. For Meloni,

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Forever in the archive

Thou shalt not judge…

Another day, another internet mob. This time, it’s because of a baby at a Taylor Swift concert. At first glance, it’s just another cute photo that’s popped up in your feed. A baby, bathed in a soft purple glow, seems to be fast asleep. Her head

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How should media cover children in conflict?

It is a haunting image: a woman dressed in blue, her head covered, holding a child’s body covered in a white sheet. The photograph is by Palestinian photographer Mohammed Salem, who works with Reuters. It was taken on Oct. 17, 2023, and won the World

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Why women can have it all

“You can’t have it all.” That’s something I’ve heard over and over again. I can hear one of my best friends saying it to me, almost scoldingly, when we were in high school and I wanted to study yet another language, and swim, and travel,

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Who cares for the caregivers?

There are stories that keep me up at night, that I get obsessed with and scheme away until I find a way to go out there and report on them. One theme that has been very much on my mind is what happens when those

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Lice and life lessons

It is Sunday. We have just successfully pulled off a birthday celebration in the park for my son Lorenzo, who turned five. The sun shone during an otherwise rainy week, my sugar-free banana bread turned out moist and yummy, and the bottle of Prosecco I

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A war on children

Since October, I have been writing an essay about Gaza. About the children, the pregnant women, about how the world is failing thousands of children every day. None of my words make sense. I am stuck. Unlike in the past, where the urgency of writing

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So long 2023, year of burnout

About eight months ago, my physical exhaustion and mental deterioration had become so intense that I did something I’d never done before: I lied to an editor about why I couldn’t make a deadline. You know that kind of old-school excuse like “my cat died”?

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I’d love to meet you in person

León, my youngest son, has started walking. For weeks, he had been trying to do it. If you’ve never seen a baby learning to walk, I highly recommend you do. As Nacho, my partner, rightly pointed out in his own newsletter (which comes highly recommended!), there

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My breaking point

Recently I’ve been worried about fainting because of overwork and stress. Many people have told me to slow down, but I’ve never been one to slow down. In the face of stress and overwork, I stress more and work harder. But the body can only take

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Forever in the archive:

Who we become when we adult and settle down

I am telling Lorenzo a story, and León is paying attention too: it is about one of the ginger cats in the house we’re staying in. Her name is Luna, and in a previous life, several years ago, she was my kitten. We are in

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The art of fragments

I am craving a normal office day. A day when you get out of the house, leave everything and everyone behind, get immersed in your work, and emerge on the other side having done your best to finish what you said you would do. Instead,

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Should you vacation without your kids?

I am taking a break from the newsletter next week because I will be seeing family in Argentina for the first time in three years! See you on April 20! There is a story that my mother has repeated so many times that it is

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No country for young children

Italy’s population is declining rapidly. The country is far from unique — the same issue is being faced by many others, including Japan, South Korea and Spain. Every year, the latest data is accompanied by alarmist headlines announcing the end of Italy. Elon Musk even

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Caregivers receive bad advice on bedsharing

This newsletter touches on SIDS. If you have been affected by it, you may want to skip this newsletter and head to this page instead. It is the elephant in the room in many conversations I have with mothers who breastfeed: how do you sleep when

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Gaining a child, losing myself

It was past midnight when I got a message from a friend: “I hope you’re sleeping.” I was not. Between 9 p.m. and midnight, I had held León on my lap as I tried to finish up some work, hoping he would finally fall asleep.

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Finally parents can say screw being tidy

You may have seen the headline: tidying up guru Marie Kondo has announced that she has “kind of given up on tidying”. “Marie Kondo’s life is messier now — and she’s fine with it” titled The Washington Post piece that ran the scoop. Other newspapers spoke of

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