Motherhood is full of agony, but its songs are deemed “nice”
I’d always shied away from writing sentimental songs about having babies for fear of seeming too soppy.
ByChildren
Against child stardom
As another former teen idol’s story ends in tragedy, we must ask: should we let children become famous?
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Britain’s exam delusion
Assessment has eclipsed learning in an education system that fails students and worsens inequality.
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Elon Musk wants us to have more children
Is demography the new front line of the culture wars?
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Generation Not Yet
A quietly incendiary new book reveals why millennials, paralysed by doubt, are struggling to make the leap into parenthood.
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Why I feel like a literary Gareth Southgate
Also this week: My part in the great IT outage, and trying to impress Keir Starmer.
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Is there a progressive argument for pro-natalism?
The demographer Paul Morland on why we should have more children.
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The cheering sounds of childhood
Innocent, childlike play is one of the great delights of life. We should try to keep in touch with it.
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The government’s 11th-hour ban on puberty blockers
The emergency legislation will expire in September.
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What the left and right get wrong about the politics of family
Marriage, children and what constitutes the good life have become America’s most divisive culture war.
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Are girls “growing up too fast” online?
Viral videos of pre-teens documenting their skincare regimes and “love lives” have sparked a moral panic.
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The crisis on England’s maternity wards is worse than I imagined
A new parliamentary report reveals that thousands of women across the country suffer through traumatic births.
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Hilary Cass: “Do I regret doing it? Absolutely not”
The Cass Review author on facing her critics, and how children’s gender identity services failed to “pause for thought”.
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Teresa Thornhill: “The system keeps some children safe, but fails others”
The former child protection lawyer on how overstretched social services endanger families.
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Katharine Birbalsingh’s prayer ban is a victory for tolerance
The Michaela School head teacher is right: secular measures prevent, rather than inflame, religious prejudice.
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The Cass Review into children’s gender care should shame us all
Why was the prescription of puberty blockers to distressed children allowed to continue for so long?
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The child entertainment reckoning
From family vlogging to kids TV, former child performers are speaking out about toxic workplaces, exploitation and abuse.
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We must nourish children’s sense of wonder
Nothing is more character-forming than enthusiasm for the natural world, and the openness and attentiveness it fosters.
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The Nordic parenting myth
Scandinavians are not better parents – but their politicians, unlike Britain’s, understand that childcare is a social good.
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Inside the collapse of the Tavistock Centre
Why the world’s largest gender clinic for children is closing.
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