Vladimir Putin wants to turn large families into the traditional Russian family. But while only 5% of households are made up of a father, a mother, and three or more children, almost 40% of families are single-parent and, in the vast majority of cases, matriarchal. Katia and Anya – fictitious names to preserve their anonymity –, a mother and daughter aged 45 and 11 respectively, are an example of this archetypal model in a society historically marked by high male mortality, the central role of women in care, and, after the fall of the USSR, by high divorce rates.

Mari Pau Huguet (Estopanyà, 1963) is known for a professional life dedicated to Televisió de Catalunya. There she began her career and very likely it is also there where she will end it. But few know that she spent her entire childhood in the La Bordeta neighbourhood of Lleida. These were the sixties and seventies of the last century, when everything still happened in the street. “It was like living in a village, we didn't have a television and we spent the day playing outside the house,” recalls the journalist. These were times when she socialised with both boys and girls in all sorts of popular games, “like rope skipping, the handkerchief game and strong horse...”, she remembers.

She studied journalism but soon continued with anthropology studies that have taken her to Australia, where she has obtained her doctorate, and where she lives and works. Anna Molas (Barcelona, 1991) has turned her doctoral thesis on egg donation in Spain into a book, Taming Egg Donors: The Egg Donation Reproductive Market in Spain (Palgrave, 2025), which raises many questions and calls for rethinking one of the most frequent assisted reproduction techniques. The first time she encountered egg donation was over ten years ago when an advertisement to be an egg donor appeared on a job search portal. "On the one hand, I got angry – I was looking for a job, why was this coming to me? – and, on the other hand, it also generated many questions for me. That lit the fuse".

In 1999, coinciding with the total solar eclipse visible in a small strip of the United Kingdom – the first in over seventy years – the Morgan family gathered in St. Davids, in the Welsh county of Pembrokeshire. Among those present were some elderly relatives who remembered the 1927 eclipse. "But, as often happens in the United Kingdom, the clouds prevented us from seeing the spectacle. Nevertheless, the most vivid memory is not of the missed eclipse, but of the family reunion".

It was during the pandemic that Núria Casas installed the TikTok app and dared to make videos caricaturing different types of mothers, teachers, or comparisons about how school was a few years ago and how it is now. A direct and realistic format that has connected enormously with the public and has become her current job as a content creator.

Teo's weekends are usually spent among parks, slides, and trains. At almost two years old, any outing is an adventure, especially if it includes a visit to a train station. Neus Modoro and Kiyofumi Kurata try to make the most of their free days to spend time as a family, whether playing in one of Tokyo's many green spaces, visiting a zoo or museum, or occasionally taking a trip to Osaka to see his paternal grandparents. Theirs is an apparently ordinary family life, but marked by a reality that combines languages, references, and customs from two ends of Eurasia.

Many know the incredible story of overcoming of the Lleida pilot Isidre Esteve who, after becoming paraplegic from a motorcycle accident in 2007, it was transformed into a regular competitor in car rally raids, especially at the Dakar. But few know that his childhood in his native Oliana (in the Alt Urgell region) was crucial in forging a personality based on effort and respect for teachers and parents.

His own experience has led Hatim Azahri Akhnous, 28, to dedicate his life to transforming the reality of the most vulnerable people. A higher technician in social integration and a student of social work at the UB, in 2019 he founded the association Joves Units del Poble-Sec with the aim of generating real opportunities for young people in the neighborhood at risk of exclusion. Since last year he has been a trustee of Equitat.org (formerly Fundació Bofill) and this year he has been awarded the Princess of Girona Prize in the Social category and has participated in the VI meeting of Lafede Changing education to change the world.

Parents and mothers arrive at summer with an invisible backpack full of expectations. We want to make the most of each day, create unforgettable memories, make up for the time we haven't had during the school year, and ensure that our children will be super happy. But expectations often come with pressure. Social media, moreover, increase this anxiety when we see perfect families smiling in front of a sunset, relaxed and tanned parents, and siblings sharing the same shovel without arguing. And when we see others' photographs, we possibly have the feeling that only we are improvising.

There is no doubt that summer is a time for rest and disconnection. The heat does not help with work, and studying while friends are at the pool is a more than complicated challenge, especially when there are no retakes in September. But if there are suspended (not achieved) subjects in the report cards and you want to start the course better than you finished it, many families consider combining the necessary rest and disconnection with this "catching up". How many hours should be dedicated each day? A private tutor or should we let them do it freely? Should other summer activities be given up? We talk to the managers of L’Acadèmia, a study center in Mollerussa that accompanies students all year round but which also has its doors open in the summer for all those families who find themselves in similar situations.

We want to recommend a range of activities for the coming days, such as the community life that is reviving in the Barcelona neighborhood of Vallcarca, summer activities at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) or discovering the interior of the monument to Columbus, among others.

“The beaches, which should be a place of tranquility, have been transformed into a space where you have to keep an eye on mobile phones and try to guess if a person is using it to look at Instagram or if they are actually taking photos or videos of your children,” explains Laura Ferrer, a specialist in conscious and emotional sexual education for children, youth, and adults. The widespread presence of mobile phones, cameras, and social networks has changed the way many families experience children's swimming in public spaces like the beach. What a few decades ago could be experienced with more naturalness – small naked children playing in the sand or entering and leaving the water – today coexists with a new concern: what if someone photographs or records the child without permission? And where could that image end up? Ferrer's practice is increasingly receiving families who have suffered or are suffering unpleasant situations on the beach and who live in fear of the non-consensual dissemination of images of their children. “It’s not paranoia, it’s real, it’s happening and it’s very sad. We are moving to ensuring that our privacy is not stolen from the sand,” warns Ferrer. According to the therapist, these concerns have reached her from families she works with from various parts of Catalonia, Galicia, and northern Spain. Children's privacy, more exposed

Although there is no comparable data to measure the extent to which this habit has changed, many families and professionals perceive a change in the way childhood is lived in public spaces. “A daily photograph that may seem innocent at first glance – for example, at the beach, in a bikini or swimsuit – can end up being reused with artificial intelligence tools or circulating in criminal environments for the exchange of child sexual abuse images,” warns Irene Montiel, professor of Law and Political Science at the Open University of Catalonia and researcher at the VICRIM group. The current regulations on data protection do not establish specific regulations for spaces such as beaches or swimming pools, but rather apply the general framework on the right to one's own image, privacy, and data protection. There are situations in which a person may appear incidentally in a photograph taken in a public space, but the general principle is that the capture and, above all, the dissemination of identifiable images require special caution, even more so when minors are involved. “In the case of minors, it would not be permitted to photograph them, as the aim is precisely to protect their image and privacy. Since these are public spaces, we must be aware that people may appear in our photographs at any time, but the general principle is that no one should be able to take a photo of someone else without authorization,” explains Francisco Pérez Bes, deputy of the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD). In the case of minors under fourteen years of age, if a photo is to be taken of them, authorization must always be given by parents or legal guardians.More eyes: when it's no longer just the mobile phone recording

But the challenge, adds Pérez Bes, is no longer just mobile phones. “There are increasingly more devices with a conventional appearance that can be used for recording. For example, smart sunglasses that incorporate photographic and video cameras. This threatens our right to privacy and makes it increasingly difficult to identify whether we are being recorded or not,” he warns. For Ferrer, the debate should not fall solely on families, but also on how we protect shared spaces. “Perhaps we will have to start implementing mobile-free beaches, as is already done in some nightclubs, to regain freedom and avoid digital exposure,” he suggests. The line between protecting and scaring

Faced with this situation, many families opt to put swimsuits or some piece of clothing on children. “Families cover them with sun protection clothing, using it as a shield so they are not so exposed to a sexualizing gaze. But, of course, the internal moral dilemma as parents is there: ‘I want my son to be able to go naked, calm and relaxed, but at the same time I am teaching him that his body is not to be shown’,” reflects Ferrer. For his part, Montiel considers that measures must be taken and the most vulnerable protected by setting limits if necessary: “Thirty years ago it was not common to see so many mobile phones or electronic devices and we did not feel so exposed. Now, anyone can take a photo or record a video without you noticing. We have to have a little more awareness and set limits, we should not fall into collective panic, but we must transmit values of care and respect for our own body”.Ferrer recommends looking for less crowded beaches and quiet spaces and, if nudism aligns with family values, opting for contexts where this practice is lived more naturally. Precisely, recent information on nudism in Catalonia suggests that the naturist collective perceives a reduction in the practice and links it, among other factors, to shame and fear of exposure on social media. "Any public space can be a risk context, considering that there are people looking for this type of images. It's not about living in fear but about being aware of it," explains Montiel, also a professor in the criminology degree at the UOC.

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It's almost a classic in the family imagination: sooner or later we end up heading to the famous Parisian park to experience a few days of pure fantasy. The excitement in the children's eyes when they see the big castle or hug their favorite character is an image that remains etched in the retina forever, and that is undeniable. It's one of those places you have to go to once in your life. However, once the dream is fulfilled, parents also know the fine print of the experience well: budgets that require financial engineering, hours of queuing that test the limits of our patience, and the feeling of being in a constant traffic jam of people and strollers.

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Eugènia Broggi (Barcelona 1974) founded L’Altra Editorial in 2014 and in just over ten years it has become a benchmark for Catalan literature.

Grew up in the center of Eixample, in Barcelona. “There have always been a lot of tourists, a lot of people coming and going. And I do remember shops, a shoe store, a farm... but soon everything ended up being absorbed by gentrification and there was really little neighborhood life”.

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I didn't have it easy when, at eighteen, I dropped out of university to study dramatic art at the Institut del Teatre. My father opposed it and tried to make me change my mind, but I carried on regardless. Over the years, he ended up accepting it. At home, we have always tried to pass on to them that the most important thing is to do things out of vocation. We have never told them what they should study, nor have we tried to guide them towards a specific profession. And what path have they been taking?

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Living with a teenager during the holidays is a great balancing act. Families want to make the most of their time together after an intense school year full of responsibilities, but teenagers need just the opposite: more freedom, fewer schedules, and to feel they can decide about their time. Understanding this apparent contradiction is, probably, the best way to experience a summer with fewer conflicts and more complicity.For adolescents, holidays represent much more than not having class. They are weeks to recover sleep hours after months of academic demands, to free themselves from schedules, reduce stress and dedicate time to what becomes fundamental at this stage: friends. The peer group occupies a central place in identity construction, and sharing experiences with them is part of the natural process of growing up. This does not mean that the family loses importance, but rather that the adolescent needs distance and intimacy to discover who they are.

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Historically, the arrival of summer has been associated with the search for seasonal work by thousands of young people who, upon finishing their academic year, want to have their own income. The motivations are very diverse: to go on a trip with friends, to get a driving license, to indulge themselves, to save up to survive the next school year, or to partially or fully fund their studies.

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The other day my son asked me if I knew that in some parts of the world people ate dogs and what I thought about it. It is very interesting when they ask you these kinds of questions because they confront you with yourself, with your beliefs. And what did you reply to him?

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Most children stop using daytime diapers between the ages of two and four, although nighttime training can be more difficult and may not be completed until around five or six years of age. For Alejandra Pérez, supervisor of pediatrics and neonatology at Sant Pau Campus Salut Barcelona, it is key to understand that sphincter control is not a habit learned through repetition, "but rather a maturational milestone acquired when the child's body is physiologically, cognitively, and emotionally ready." Neurologically, Pérez continues, "it involves a transition from an involuntary reflex action (where the bladder empties automatically) to a voluntary and conscious act under cortical control." Forcing this process prematurely, therefore, "is ineffective and can generate frustration, anxiety, and unnecessary conflicts, as each child has their own pace of nervous system maturation."

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When summer arrives, it seems like we all have to do something extraordinary. Social media fills up with paradisiacal beaches, family trips, activities, unique experiences, and calendars so full that they even need a break.

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