During Passover, Jewish families gather at their tables to retell a story passed down for thousands of years, recounting the Exodus, the biblical story of the Israelites' liberation from slavery in Egypt.
Fionnuala May has lived on Mountjoy Square in Dublin's north inner city for 43 years. That puts her out of step with most Irish people. As a nation, wedded to our cars, we've fallen out of the habit of living in towns, says the president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) and county architect for Fingal.
Between selling our home in Connecticut, finding a place to live in Spain, and figuring out where our sons would enroll in school, I deprioritized my new social life. I assumed we'd naturally meet people once we got here, and we eventually did. But those first few months were lonely. We arrived in August, a month before my sons' school year started, and many locals were still away on summer trips.
The board, which had echoes of Ireland's notorious Magdalene laundries, was overseen by Carmen Polo, the wife of the dictator Gen Francisco Franco. Originally founded in 1902 to stamp out sex work, in 1941, two years after the end of the Spanish civil war, its role was extended to clamp down on female behaviour that deviated from norms laid down by the Catholic church.
I'm a single mum of one and I'm really struggling with the general cost of living and the cost of childcare. A friend of mine who lives in London is an SB (sugar baby). She meets older sugar daddies online and they give her really generous gifts.
Dating to the 1st-2nd century A.D., the bronzes are about 20 inches long and mounted to rectangular bases. They capture the little girls in dynamic movement, frozen in the act of propelling themselves forward, their fingers splayed wide on each side of the partridges just about to catch them. The craftsmanship is superior, every detail on the toddlers and partridges realistically depicted with fine materials. The eyes are inlaid with white stones and one of the girls still has her metal irises.
When the waiter sets the candle on the table between us, I know what's coming next. He gives us the look. I've grown used to it in just a few days here in Spain. It's a look edged with apprehension; there's always a flicker of uncertainty, followed by the decision to leap headfirst into an assumption.
Parents who shove tablets or phones in their kids' faces. Kids nowadays need to learn how to entertain themselves and regulate their emotions rather than mindlessly scroll at 2 years old. I personally think parents who do this are taking the lazy way out and are just allowing the tablet to parent for them; there is no discussion or creativity taking place. When I was a kid, I always had books, coloring books, sudoku, crosswords, and word searches with me everywhere I went as entertainment, and I think these options are a better alternative.
I've lived in Spain for over a decade. I'm always excited to go "home" to visit family and friends in the San Francisco Bay Area, and spend time in a place that is so familiar. I usually visit once a year. My first week back, I'm reminiscing, and my brain is buzzing thinking about how I can move back and what my life would look like. Yet, by the third or fourth week - if I stay that long - reality settles in.
Nicole Chi Amen, a Costa Rican woman of Chinese descent, has always been on the outside looking in. The opening scene of her moving debut feature replicates this predicament visually: her face pressed against a metal barricade, she looks through a hole in the opaque facade with interest. The camera is observing, too, and the sight of a house being torn down gradually comes into view. This was once the home of her maternal grandmother, a Guangdong native.
Humans have a predisposition to experience a drop in alertness and vigilance around midday, between six and eight hours after waking up. In fact, the word siesta comes from the Latin sexta, which in Ancient Rome referred to the sixth hour of the day from dawn; a time reserved for rest and relaxation. There are many markers we measure in the laboratory which indicate that this period is present, even without having eaten lunch, he states.
Now, Gary, repeat after me: Quiero una margarita, por favor, my Spanish tutor instructs. I cringe at the butchered Spanglish my estuary accent produces. Like Del Boy Trotter ordering a cocktail: Key yeah row oon margari'a, pour far four. It's 2023, I'm 41, living in Argentina and battling the frustration and disempowerment of learning a new language at this age, longing for my elastic 11-year-old brain over this husked-out mush.
I wouldn't have to answer to anyone or for anything. Not requests for snacks or one more backrub. I wouldn't have to sit rigid, wondering if one of my three kids was creeping out of a bed that wasn't theirs. Or defend my parenting style while my oldest yelled about how life wasn't fair and we must all really hate him,
There's an analogy I've heard many times that may be helpful here: If there are a few poison M&Ms in a bag of 30, should you feel safe eating it? What's three out of 30, right? Is it likely that James or someone else will do something inappropriate? No, but is it impossible? Also no.
Growing up, Melissa Shultz sometimes felt like she had two fathers. One version of her dad, she told me, was playful and quick to laugh. He was a compelling storyteller who helped shape her career as a writer, and he gave great bear hugs. He often bought her small gifts: a pink "princess" phone when she was a teen, toys for her sons when she became a mom.
It's late. I want to go to bed, but instead I'm picking up popsicle sticks and wrappers. I was always taught to leave the place better than I found it. I'm not expecting anyone to fold laundry or scrub floors. But I do expect the mess made during the evening to be taken care of, especially when my kids have been asleep for over two hours.
For many children, sharing is emotionally loaded. We like to think it is a simple skill that we can teach our children sometime in their preschool years. And it can be. But it can also be a real challenge, especially when a child has little opportunity to practise the skill.
Parents hold a key that grants access to areas of their child's life that no one else can enter a foundational intimacy. However, more and more people are choosing to sever that bond and throw the key away. It's difficult to quantify how many children have decided to stop speaking to their parents, although some studies point to a steady increase in recent years.
"My kids are so invested in their children it's beautiful! They use gentle parenting techniques, even with challenging personalities; provide them with healthy outlets and nurture their friends as well. They're 100% better than I was - but I had to do it alone with five children. I'd choose my kid's parenting over mine, every time!" - Anne W.
When I told people I was taking more than eight months of parental leave, the main reactions I got were: What are you going to do with all that time? and won't you get bored? These questions came from every direction including health professionals involved in my wife's pregnancy and the arrival of our second child. More than halfway through my leave, I've been reflecting on what good parental leave looks like:
I was never grounded. I never got my phone taken away. My parents really never yelled at me, and I feel like they had a pretty controversial parenting style, but it's also the exact way that I would raise my kids if I were to have them. I was allowed to do whatever I wanted to do. I was allowed to go to parties. I was allowed to drink. I told my mom before I smoked weed for the first time.
