A former colleague told me not long ago that she was surprised when she heard I had a daughter because she'd never seen me as "a reproductive man." I laughed. It didn't seem like an insult, but rather a description. And, in fact, that possibility had always been there. The idea of ​​having children amused me, but until recently it was an abstract and distant concept.

Telling a bedtime story, making up a tale if the child throws a tantrum at mealtimes, or entertaining them by explaining all sorts of interesting facts when they're in a waiting room, a restaurant, or at the bus stop. Some parents still do these things, but others prefer to give their children a mobile phone or tablet to keep them entertained. When screens take center stage, certain habits that allow family members to connect and spend quality time together—such as reading—are lost.

If he worked full-time, Mirko would have to work seven and a half hours, but he's been working five and a half for the last six years. During this time, he's taken a reduced work schedule to balance work and raising his three children with his wife. They also have two children, one each, from previous relationships. So, in total, there are days or weeks when they have five children. They've lived in Barcelona for over twenty-five years, but they don't have extended family; he's German and she's from Venezuela, and therefore they've had to be very organized over the years.

"They spend all day in their rooms and aren't interested in doing things with us," laments Pedro, the father of two teenage boys, ages 13 and 15. Both he and his partner, Marta, are getting used to this new stage. "Adolescence has such a bad reputation that you get a little scared, but it's not that bad," admits the mother, although she acknowledges that they are still adjusting.

We read in the ARA an article, quite surprising, by The Economist which is titled "Why are more and more families preferring girls over boys?" Gosh, you. And it explains cases of couples who cry when they're told it's "a boy" and that the networks are full of a pathology (it's not new, but it's been given a name) called "gender disappointment" and they show "the sadness of not having a little girl." I was going to say that we deserve extinction, but it's not necessary. We're close at hand.

There are three stages of adolescence: early, around age 11; middle, between ages 13 and 16; and late, between ages 16 and 18. These intervals are approximate.

"Is this news?" is the question we often see in comments on tabloid and pop culture news. These platforms serve not only to keep up with the latest gossip, but also to talk about love, friendship, and breakups.

Some children refer to their parents by their first names, and move away from the traditional mother either dad. Although it may seem strange, it often has a simple explanation: the child has heard it said. "When this happens, it's because parents use their first name; they don't refer to the person by the role they play, but by their given name, and so the child learns that they should address them that way," explains Sylvie Pérez, psychologist and associate professor at the UOC's Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences. Generally, within families, parents identify themselves by the role they play with their children and address themselves thus: "Let's go see the Pope" or "Ask Mom."

You must have been very small, but you were already talking like a little man, perched on the wooden chair, stirring the plate and asking us if that piece of meat would grow back, the suckling pig.

Children observe, retain, and reproduce. They look up to close adult models (their father, mother) and copy their behavior, incorporating it, making it their own. The health psychologist Silvia Noguer, director of the Nexus Institute in Sabadell and associate professor at the UAB, reminds us that imitation is not exclusively a human resource: "Children imitate us because it's the way most animal species learn. It's how we learn. We imitate the models that most resemble us."

I still smile today when I remember the first time my son said to me, "You know, Mom? I have a girlfriend. Her name is Juliet, and she's older than me." He was four then, and Juliet was, in fact, a year older, and they both went to the same class. Preserving the memories of children's first experiences and discoveries serves to frame the initiation rituals of children as emblems that guarantee an immediate smile. They seem like sweet treats of tenderness that will never be tasted, but can be savored through the most nostalgic memory.

The success of Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, creators ofAdolescence–the series of the moment–, has been bursting the bubbles of the generational and gender filter by transferring the cultureincelFrom the screens of teenagers locked in their rooms to a commonplace frequented by adults like Netflix. The series chronicles how the sinister influence of toxic masculinity floods and expands into digital environments. It comes at an opportune time, now that there's no shortage of moral panics about social media. Its virtueAdolescence It's a shock, but the challenge after watching it is to avoid falling into a reactive, prohibitionist, and short-sighted mode. How can we take advantage of the buzz the series has generated to better support our teens?

"My son was angry because I didn't want to buy him a toy, and all of a sudden, he said, 'You're stupid.' I froze and ended up losing my temper," explains Silvia, the mother of an eight-year-old boy. Situations like the one this mother experienced a few days ago are "increasingly common," notes Sylvie Pérez, a professor at the UOC's Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences. "It's normal for children to get angry, show rage or frustration, but they should never resort to insults," she says. The reason this behavior is increasingly common, according to the expert, is that "we've stopped treating each other well." There's a general—specific—lack of respect that leads us to attack people instead of the facts or situations we don't like.

US President Donald Trump has announced on several occasions that he intends to sign an executive order to begin the process of eliminating the Department of Education. This action is part of the strategy led by Elon Musk to reduce bureaucracy and federal public administration, and which considers public servants "parasites" of the state. This situation has created a feeling of uncertainty, fear and enormous instability among workers. Many of them have already been fired with a simple email notifying them overnight that they do not need to return to work.

Before becoming the father of my first child, I had a number of issues related to fatherhood that, whether due to prejudice or lack of information, I was very clear that I would not allow. No cell phones or tablets (especially when we go to restaurants), I would wear earrings, the animals would be called by their name (nothing wow neither miaves) either I wouldn't kiss them on the mouth. And this is the last point I want to talk about here.

Anna Gual's son was four years old when he had to be operated on for carnots and tonsils at the Hospital Universitari de Terrassa. It was November 3, 2023. Gual entered the operating room lobby with the little boy in her arms. There, they both witnessed the sedation – intranasally – of a crying girl and then she was taken inside. One, two, three, four, five minutes. It was her turn. Pre-anesthesia medication is administered with the aim of reducing the anxiety of patients in pediatric operations. Unfortunately, and unlike that girl, the sedation did not have the desired effect on Gual's son: "He was so nervous that he kept crying." Two nurses then took him away: "They had to tear me from my arms to take him to the operating room; it was traumatic," she laments.