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
We started reading your articles around November 2019 when I was just pregnant with our first and feeling incredibly overwhelmed with the task ahead of us - your articles really helped in feeling OK with not always knowing what to do, and knowing that we were not the only ones!
I never reply to a general newsletter email! But yours was/is very special and too difficult to not respond to. You write in such a unique way which feels very personal and genuine, this I wanted to let you know. I am so looking forward to reading more of your writings. It is very intriguing for me as a mother and especially as a mother raising my daughter in a foreign context.
I am so grateful for Irene Caselli's work in The First 1,000 Days. Not only has it made me a better parent, I feel a deeper sense of empathy for myself and others as I better understand where we're all coming from.
We started reading your articles around November 2019 when I was just pregnant with our first and feeling incredibly overwhelmed with the task ahead of us - your articles really helped in feeling OK with not always knowing what to do, and knowing that we were not the only ones!
I never reply to a general newsletter email! But yours was/is very special and too difficult to not respond to. You write in such a unique way which feels very personal and genuine, this I wanted to let you know. I am so looking forward to reading more of your writings. It is very intriguing for me as a mother and especially as a mother raising my daughter in a foreign context.
I am so grateful for Irene Caselli's work in The First 1,000 Days. Not only has it made me a better parent, I feel a deeper sense of empathy for myself and others as I better understand where we're all coming from.
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
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
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
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
The last time I drove was in the very early stages of my pregnancy. We were house-sitting in a stone house in the French Alps. Nacho, my partner, had gone to Russia to report on the World Cup. I had to get into town for
We don’t remember when we were born — let alone the circumstances and the scene that day. They’re not really stories we sit around a fire or kitchen table listening to, especially if the experience itself was negative: if the person giving birth had negative
Above our home in the south of Athens, Greece, Lorenzo often sees dragons. That’s what he thinks aeroplanes are, as we’ve been reading Anita and The Dragons. The book is no fantasy yarn, but is actually about migration: Anita, a little girl from the Dominican Republic,
This is Marianna Liakou, a Greek kindergarten teacher I learned about thanks to the work of journalist Nikolia Apostolou, who is a member of this community, and who spoke to us for this week’s edition over email. A disclaimer: Nikolia’s work was possible thanks to
Before we get into this week’s story, an important announcement! If you leave a comment below a story, you can now receive notifications if someone replies or the conversation continues. A few of you had pointed out how impractical it was not to receive notifications.
It’s been six years since the Brazilian government declared a national public health emergency for Zika — a mosquito-borne virus that attacks the developing brain and that can lead to severe health problems in children born to mothers who contracted the infection. At the time,
This week’s post is long, so I’m skipping recommendations. They’ll be back next week! The image is a still of a scene from the series Sex Education. Source: Netflix Dear reader, I had different plans for this week’s newsletter but I got a bad cold
*Warning: This newsletter touches on the subject of miscarriage. If you find the topic triggering, maybe skip reading this edition, and check out this book that I highly recommend. This week is also Pregnancy and Baby Loss Awareness Week, and you can find more resources there.
A few weeks ago I wrote a newsletter about why we should stop referring to children’s meltdowns as tantrums. Michael, a reader, inspired me when he wrote to say that the word tantrum had negative connotations and stigmatised children. Thanks to the help of Andrea
When people congratulate me and my partner Nacho on our son’s linguistic achievements, we usually shake off the compliment and joke that there is little merit in them. Don’t get me wrong: it’s astounding for someone like me who grew up as a monolingual to
This autumn has greeted me with a sunny day in Trento, northern Italy. A beautiful day — but it can’t fool you. A chilly wind catches you in the shade, a clear reminder of winter just around the corner. There is a large crowd of
We’re on the road. We left Greece a couple of weeks ago for the first time in over a year to travel to Italy overland to see my parents and meet my brother’s daughter, Ines, who was born five months ago. Those 14 months in
I am writing this at 6am. For most of my life, this was an ungodly hour, a time I would spend awake only if I carried on through the night or if I had picked one of those cheap flights with a low-cost airline. I
As an Afghan born and raised in a loving, large family in Iran, Fatimah always expected to become a mother one day. So when she found out she was pregnant, she was overjoyed. At the same time, she also felt the need to change her
The news have been scary and sad around us. For a week, the air here in the outskirts of Athens was awful, with terrible wildfires only 40 km away from where I live. The climate report left me anxious as we experienced an awful heat
The other night I dreamt that I was in a dark garage and I was trying to slowly get a car out of a complicated parking spot. I don’t like driving, but I’ll tell you about that some other time. Back in my dream, I
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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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
Forever in the archive
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
The novel anxiety of driving with children in tow
The last time I drove was in the very early stages of my pregnancy. We were house-sitting in a stone house in the French Alps. Nacho, my partner, had gone to Russia to report on the World Cup. I had to get into town for
Humanising childbirth: less silence about the violence
We don’t remember when we were born — let alone the circumstances and the scene that day. They’re not really stories we sit around a fire or kitchen table listening to, especially if the experience itself was negative: if the person giving birth had negative
Dragons in the sky: children’s books tackling tough topics
Above our home in the south of Athens, Greece, Lorenzo often sees dragons. That’s what he thinks aeroplanes are, as we’ve been reading Anita and The Dragons. The book is no fantasy yarn, but is actually about migration: Anita, a little girl from the Dominican Republic,
In Greece, migrant children have the right to go to school
This is Marianna Liakou, a Greek kindergarten teacher I learned about thanks to the work of journalist Nikolia Apostolou, who is a member of this community, and who spoke to us for this week’s edition over email. A disclaimer: Nikolia’s work was possible thanks to
How to change how we talk to children
Before we get into this week’s story, an important announcement! If you leave a comment below a story, you can now receive notifications if someone replies or the conversation continues. A few of you had pointed out how impractical it was not to receive notifications.
‘Zika babies’ — and the stories that should not fall off our radar
It’s been six years since the Brazilian government declared a national public health emergency for Zika — a mosquito-borne virus that attacks the developing brain and that can lead to severe health problems in children born to mothers who contracted the infection. At the time,
Forever in the archive:
14 things I wish I knew about sex before I started having it
This week’s post is long, so I’m skipping recommendations. They’ll be back next week! The image is a still of a scene from the series Sex Education. Source: Netflix Dear reader, I had different plans for this week’s newsletter but I got a bad cold
This week I turn 40 – and I mark a loss
*Warning: This newsletter touches on the subject of miscarriage. If you find the topic triggering, maybe skip reading this edition, and check out this book that I highly recommend. This week is also Pregnancy and Baby Loss Awareness Week, and you can find more resources there.
Is not using the word tantrum enough?
A few weeks ago I wrote a newsletter about why we should stop referring to children’s meltdowns as tantrums. Michael, a reader, inspired me when he wrote to say that the word tantrum had negative connotations and stigmatised children. Thanks to the help of Andrea
You don’t need to praise my child’s multilingualism
When people congratulate me and my partner Nacho on our son’s linguistic achievements, we usually shake off the compliment and joke that there is little merit in them. Don’t get me wrong: it’s astounding for someone like me who grew up as a monolingual to
I am gathering the sun
This autumn has greeted me with a sunny day in Trento, northern Italy. A beautiful day — but it can’t fool you. A chilly wind catches you in the shade, a clear reminder of winter just around the corner. There is a large crowd of
What my child is teaching me about travelling
We’re on the road. We left Greece a couple of weeks ago for the first time in over a year to travel to Italy overland to see my parents and meet my brother’s daughter, Ines, who was born five months ago. Those 14 months in
In praise of the 6am wake-up call
I am writing this at 6am. For most of my life, this was an ungodly hour, a time I would spend awake only if I carried on through the night or if I had picked one of those cheap flights with a low-cost airline. I
A healthy start for an Afghan migrant baby
As an Afghan born and raised in a loving, large family in Iran, Fatimah always expected to become a mother one day. So when she found out she was pregnant, she was overjoyed. At the same time, she also felt the need to change her
These are my favourite stories from this year
The news have been scary and sad around us. For a week, the air here in the outskirts of Athens was awful, with terrible wildfires only 40 km away from where I live. The climate report left me anxious as we experienced an awful heat
Slowing down – and a preview of the stories I’m working on
The other night I dreamt that I was in a dark garage and I was trying to slowly get a car out of a complicated parking spot. I don’t like driving, but I’ll tell you about that some other time. Back in my dream, I
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