Magazine

A tired mom holding a toddler and a newborn baby in a messy living room

How the Peppa Pig New Baby Episode Saved My Sanity With Two Kids

I was sitting squarely on the cold bathroom tile, staring cross-eyed at two pink lines on a plastic stick, while my two-year-old was actively trying to flush my best Mac contour brush down the toilet. He paused his plumbing experiment,...

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A stressed British father staring in horror at a television remote control

Why searching for the cast of baby reindeer will ruin your evening

It was 5:17 AM on a Tuesday, an hour that shouldn't legally exist, and my living room looked like a crime scene involving a half-eaten box of oat biscuits and an aggressively smeared syringe of sticky, strawberry-flavoured Calpol. Florence, the...

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Toddler banging on the keys of a dark wood baby grand piano in a messy living room

The Reality of Fitting a Baby Grand Piano in a House with Toddlers

I'm currently on my hands and knees in the lounge, holding one end of a metal tape measure while Maya, who's two, tries to eat the other end. Her twin sister, Lily, is repeatedly smashing a wooden spoon against the...

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Tired British dad looking at a baby monitor while holding a cold coffee

Baby Got Back: Surviving Sleep Paranoia and Toddler Defiance

My mother-in-law cornered me in the kitchen on day three of fatherhood to firmly insist that babies must sleep on their fronts, otherwise they'll choke on their own spit-up and perish before dawn. The NHS health visitor, who arrived three...

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A toddler wearing bright pink baby crocs standing on a sunny London pavement

The Truth About Baby Crocs: A Tale of Sweaty Feet and Tears

There's a very specific sound a toddler makes right before gravity wins. It's a sharp intake of breath, followed immediately by the distinctive, hollow thwack of foam rubber failing to grip damp pavement on a slight incline. It was a...

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A toddler in an organic cotton bodysuit looking at a baby chick in a plastic brooder tub.

Surviving Backyard Baby Chicks When You Already Have A Toddler

We were standing in the middle of a farm supply store somewhere in the Illinois suburbs when my husband decided we needed to teach our two-year-old about food sustainability. He was holding a cardboard box that vibrated with high-pitched chirps,...

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Toddler aggressively dragging a realistic baby doll by the ankle

Why that hyper-realistic baby doll is a terrible idea for your kid

Listen. I was standing in my friend Maya's kitchen last Tuesday when she proudly unboxed a four-hundred-dollar reborn silicone infant for her two-year-old. The thing had hand-painted translucent veins, micro-rooted eyelashes, and the exact dead weight of a sleeping newborn....

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A toddler sitting on a rug dressing a soft body doll in an organic cotton bodysuit

Dear past me: The ugly truth about the bitty baby

Dear Priya of six months ago. You're currently sitting on the floor of the Target toy aisle while Maya has a full code blue meltdown over a generic plastic doll with terrifying eyelashes. You're rubbing your temples, staring at the...

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Toddler playing with soft building blocks on the floor

A letter to myself before I pressed play on that movie

Dear Priya from six months ago. Listen. Put down the television remote and step away from the streaming menu. I know it's eight in the evening, your toddler has been screaming about steering wheels since naptime, and you're operating on...

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