children

“Regarding reading ability, there is no safe age for children to start using mobile phones”

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Most millennials we don’t understand that children today have mobile phones since primary school. In my case, for example, I had my first cell phone in high school. A brick inherited from my sister. The point is that times change and it is logical that children begin to interact much earlier with technological devices. However, there is a lot of controversy regarding the ideal age for them to start doing it. Some experts believe that it is good for them to start early, while many others point out that it can be harmful. For example, there is a lot of talk about the effects it can have on the reading ability of the little ones. And they don’t just talk about reading without syllables. The main handicap seems to be in reading comprehension. They read, but they don’t understand the content. Neither age nor mobile phone use at school matters. In a recent studycarried out by UCLA psychologists, analyzed the effect of having a mobile phone on the reading ability of primary school children. 106 third and sixth grade children participated in the study. This, in the United States, is exactly equivalent to the third and sixth grades of primary school in Spain. All children had to take a reading comprehension test and answer a survey about mobile phone ownership. That is, they not only had to say if they have one, but also talk a little about their habits with him. It is important to emphasize that there were not only children of different ages. Culturally and linguistically different participants were also included. With all this, it was seen that children who have a mobile phone obtained worse results in reading tests. This effect was maintained in both third and sixth grade students and it did not matter whether they carried their phone with them at school or if they had left it at home. The language in which they normally spoke with their family did not matter either. From all this it is concluded that the problem is the possession of a mobile phone. Not the distractions that may be caused by school or the child’s age. There is no ideal age to start using a mobile phone, at least when it comes to reading. That is precisely what one of the authors of the study, Patricia Greenfield, said. in statements collected by Phys. The only exception. In the study there was one exception, referring to children from non-English-speaking families. In those cases, for those who had a cell phone, their reading skills were better when they used games on the phone and they had been texting with other children for a long time. It is an exception that, in reality, fits with other studiesin which it is pointed out that the problem is not in using the mobile phone, but in the use made of it. Using it to watch TikTok challenge videos is not the same as using it to use educational games. The same thing happens with television or tablets, for example. More than the ability to read as such, reading comprehension is affected. Beyond reading. In reality, reading is not the only quality that is affected by premature use of mobile phones. For example, there are studies that suggest that it can affect mental and physical health, increasing the risk of phenomena such as insomnia or obesity. In these cases, reference is made to age. In fact, in a study published in 2025negative effects inversely proportional to age were pointed out. And we’re not talking about very young children. In 12-year-old students with a mobile phone, a 60% increase in the risk of poor sleep and a 40% increase in the risk of obesity was seen compared to those who did not have this device. Observational studies. It is important to highlight that a good part of these studies are observational. For example, in the case of reading tests, a statistically significant correlation was found between having a mobile phone and obtaining worse results in reading tests. However, it cannot be proven that the problem is actually with the phone. As they say, Correlation does not imply causation. It could be more of a coincidence. In any case, there are many studies that indicate that screens are not the best allies in those stages in which the mind begins to develop. Of course we are more influenced by technology than we were 20 years ago. Perhaps it is not necessary to wait for a brick inherited in high school, but it is not the best idea in the world to give a mobile phone to a 6-year-old child. Images | Magnificent In Xataka | In 2007, Spain forced men to take longer sick leave to care for their children. Fertility then fell.

Parents’ brains also change when they have children

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There is a lot of talk about brain of women when they have children. As soon as pregnancy begins, the brain begins to experience those changes that, over time, turn them into supermommies capable of distinguish your child’s crying among many more. They even react more strongly to their babies’ cries than to their partners’ cries. These supermommies develop an incredible ability to detect if their little one needs them in the middle of the night and can compartmentalize their tasks so that there is always room for parenting. The brain changes a lot, of course. But parents’ brains change too. Obviously, there are no hormonal changes due to any pregnancy, but your brain adapts to attend to that new life that comes into the world. For that reason, there are no excuses. Fathers are as biologically capable as mothers to care for their children’s needs. If a parent does not know the name of the pediatrician or where the diapers are kept, it may be because they did not want to learn. Reconfiguration of gray matter in the brain of parents This 2026, a study was published in which the brains of 25 new parents were analyzed using functional magnetic resonance imaging at weeks 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 24 after birth. Thus, it was observed that in the first six weeks the gray matter volume in areas like the insula, the hippocampus, and the occipital, frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes. The loss of gray matter may sound like they were becoming dumber, but nothing could be further from the truth. They were rewiring his brain. Therefore, after those first six weeks the process stabilized, to begin to become an increase in gray matter levels from week 12, especially in the frontal cortex and the cerebellum. Basically, it is believed that neuronal pruning was taking place. Brain connections that are not useful are eliminated to invest more energy in reinforcing those that will be essential in that new life. It is a process that occurs to all people throughout life. adolescencebut that can occur in specific situations such as parenthood. In fact, a big change was also seen in the brain connections of the parents. For example, the amygdaladirectly involved with emotional processing, greatly strengthened its connections with other regions of the brain. All these data are added to those of another previous study, 2014in which an increase in gray matter volume was observed in brain regions involved in motivation and reward. Basically, the motivation of parents to take care of their children was being enhanced. This is something that has made us grow as a species evolutionarily. Reward systems make us feel good about situations that are good for us, like having sex or eating chocolate. Sex helps us perpetuate the species and chocolate gives us a lot of energy. Taking care of children is also beneficial for us, although sometimes it can be very tiring, so motivation through reward systems is essential. Curiously, all these reconfigurations in the brain they are more intense in parents who are more involved in caring for their children. Come on, the brain can be trained to be a good father. The more you practice, the simpler the care becomes. The parents most involved in parenting are the ones who experience the most changes It’s also a question of hormones Hormonal changes are more intuitive in women, as they are often associated with pregnancy. However, in men there are also changes in their hormone levels once they become parents. In fact, has been observed that in the first years of their children’s lives their levels of testosteronewhile oxytocin levels increase. This, far from being bad or stealing one’s virility, as some may venture to think, is essential to developing patience and attachment to one’s children. There is only one but It should be noted that, generally, these studies are carried out with few participants and, furthermore, only with parents who are involved in parenting to a greater or lesser extent. The absent parentsthose who believe that by putting in the sperm they have done enough, do not volunteer to know how their brain changes with parenthood. Luckily, there are more and more parents who do get properly involved, but those who don’t continue to exist. That is the main handicap of these investigations. Anyway, it is clear that the brain changes and can be trained, so surely even they could become super daddies if they wanted to. Or simply in parents. It is not necessary to be a superhero or a superheroine. It is enough to get involved in equal care. The brain is more than prepared, you just have to start using it. Images | Magnificent In Xataka | In Spain it is much more likely to encounter a pet than a child. Six times more likely, specifically

France becomes the first European country to ban networks for children under 15 years of age. September will be the litmus test

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For years, opening an account on a social network has been as simple as writing an email, choosing a password and declaring a date of birth. In France, this routine is scheduled to change on September 1 for those under 15 years of age. The ban has already passed Parliamentbut turning it into something that works will require answering much more difficult questions: how to verify the age of users, what information they will be asked to prove it, and what will happen with services that do not only serve to publish photos or videos. That’s where the real test begins. An overwhelming majority. The decision was supported this Tuesday by the two French chambers: 243 senators voted in favor and only 2 againstwhile the National Assembly approved the text by 279 votes to 81. Emmanuel Macron, one of its main promoters, celebrated that France has become the first European country to approve a ban of this scope. The deployment is divided into two periods: new accounts will be banned from September 1 and the restriction will apply to existing ones from January 2027. Of course, the calendar may still be conditioned by the Constitutional Council. A ban without a closed list. The text does not list the affected platforms one by one, but refers to the European definitions of “online platform” and “online social networking service.” TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat appear as the clearest cases, but the border becomes less evident in YouTube, WhatsApp, Reddit or Roblox, where social functions coexist with other uses. As explained by representative Laure Millerin some cases the control will only reach certain tools. Digital encyclopedias and educational or scientific directories are expressly excluded. Platforms will take over. The text does not provide for fines or other sanctions for minors or their parents. The responsibility will fall on the companies, which must verify the age of their users, prevent new registrations that violate the limit and close the affected accounts when the transitional period ends. The Minister of Digital Affairs, Anne Le Hénanff, maintains that The deadline is realistic because verification tools already exist and others continue to be developed. September will be the litmus test. The date leaves the platforms just a few weeks of summer to convert the legal obligation into controls that work from the beginning of the course. The difficulty lies not only in detecting minors, but also in verifying that the rest of the users exceed the limit without creating a process that is impossible to manage. During the debate, several parliamentarians questioned that a system of this complexity could be operational so quickly and warned of possible ways to avoid it, taking the case of Australia as an example. Privacy is also at stake. Checking whether a person has turned 15 should not necessarily require them to reveal their entire identity. One of the alternatives proposed by the sector consists in transferring the verification to the phone itself, instead of requesting documents separately in each application. The approach seeks to reduce the circulation of personal information between different services, although the sources do not detail how it would work or what data each actor would keep. France must prevent access by minors without turning the solution into a new source of sensitive data. Spain prepares its own ban. Pedro Sánchez announced on February 3, 2026 that his Government would promote the prohibition of access to social networks for those under 16 years of age and would require effective age verification systems. The Executive explained earlier this month that had presented amendments to incorporate the measure into the Organic Law Project for the protection of minors in digital environments. At the time of writing this article, the initiative is still in the Congressional Justice Commission, in the report phase. Approving the text was just the beginning. France has been the first European country to bring such a ban to parliamentary approval, after Australia led the way on a global scale. Spain is in a different phase and its proposal can still change during processing, but the underlying problem is shared: transforming a minimum age into an effective control that is proportionate to privacy. Images | Pixabay | Mohamed Jamil Latrach In Xataka | The EU has hit AliExpress with a record fine. And make it clear that the next one could be even bigger.

“children don’t play anymore”

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Before Amazon carts and unboxing videos existed, many childhoods were built glued to glass. On any given Saturday, the children would gather in front of the window of the toy store, with their noses leaving mist on the moon, absorbed in that Scalextric track, the Nancy with a new dress or the plastic castle that might arrive in Epiphany. Light bulb lights, catalog folded in the pocket and the look of trying to memorize details that will later have to be explained to the parents. Or write it in the letter. For decades, the Malaga dream board (not the tablao) had its own name: entering Juguetes Carrión was almost a rite of passage for many families. Mid-April 2026 They lowered the blinds of their last store. “Children no longer play, the sector is no longer profitable,” the manager of the firm wieldsArturo García Carrión. As you can see from your websitethere is no longer sale to the public. From olives to toys. The most amazing thing about this story begins at the beginning: The story is not born as a toy store. In 1953, Francisco Carrión Ruiz, creator of Aceitunas Carrión, bought a store on Compañía Street. He calls it Almacenes Carrión. Sells clothing, perfumery, haberdashery. And also toys. I know it well because in my town, Quintanar de la Orden, there was an enclave of Aceites Carrión that fed several families for a lifetime. Because wow, they did well. Toys became the nerve center of the business. During the 80s they opened stores in Mártires, Alarcón Luján, Santa Lucía and Mármoles. The main warehouse was established on Bodegueros Street, parallel to the El Gallo artery, in the Ronda Exterior industrial estate. Many Malaga residents remember this warehouse full of boxes. The second generation, with María Dolores Carrión Martín, turned the company into a chain. In the 90s it had almost 30 stores spread throughout Andalusia, including in shopping centers, where every December they dressed up with their Christmas trees. 25 stores and a legendary brand. Don Dino, the brand that brings together other independent associates, was added to the parent toy brand and ended up spreading throughout Spain. A decade ago, the family business had 25 of its own stores and up to 45 franchises under the Don Dino banner. In practice, the network covered a good part of eastern Andalusia, with its own premises in Malaga, Granada and Jaén. A little over two months ago, the map was already much smaller: only the three stores on Nueva, Juan Sebastián Elcano and Motril streets remained. Also the Bodegueros warehouse, which was already focused on digital conversion, serving web orders and functioning as an outlet. The requiem began with the store on Velázquez Avenue, then followed by the Teatinos store, and so on until the third generation decided that there was no way to balance the numbers. “We have tried every way possible,” they said. “Children don’t play anymore”. “We cannot continue losing money, it is not profitable,” García Carrión said a few months ago. Consumption habits have changed: more time with screens, less time with physical toys—inheritance and direct influence from those themselves. parental consumption habits—. And fierce competition comes from everywhere. From hypermarkets, which sell toys on a large scale to platforms like Temu and AliExpress that will even continue to make noise despite the new tariffs, that “Shein rate” of 3 euros plus VAT for each B2C distance sale sent outside the EU, which already applies to all imports of purchases less than or equal to 150 euros. High street stores are suffering the perfect storm because, with minimal margins, increasing rents and fixed costs that cannot be cut without emptying the store, there is no choice but to go elsewhere, how it happened to Tobarix. And those of us who compare prices with our mobile phone also have no arguments to go downtown. Except when we remember that humane treatment and professional selection and recommendation will always be worth more than the price of the product we want to give as a gift. The map that shrinks non-stop. The closure of Carrión is just another example of the death of an entire sector. Or in retreat, at least: between 2019 and 2023, Spain went from 1,340 specialist stores to 1,160. There are 180 fewer toy stores in four years. The figure has continued to declinelike the country’s birth rates. Iconic chains like Imaginarium, the brand that served as a gateway for my children, have fallen. It closed after 32 years in operation. Poly Toys also disappeared. Juguettos was the one who bought its brands and nine of its stores, and is already working on a restructuring to close the year with about 200 operational stores. At the end of 2025 there was talk of 44 associates, 700 people on staff and the objective of reaching 100 million in 2026after its alliance with Eurekakids. Of course, although toys continue to be the heart of the business, they are by no means exclusive. Which ones remain? Juguettos and Toy Planet concentrate half of the specialized toy stores left in Spain. Behind them are networks such as Don Dino – with its headquarters in Carballo (A Coruña) and link in Aldaya (Valencia) -, Drim or Juguetilandia. They all fight in a market that is weakening little by little. The death of the sale of video games in physical box It will also hit the ankles of this chair that is the showcase shops. Lego summarizes it with a fact as simple as that, in Spain, its “number one retail partner” is Amazon, which grows 25% annually. The global online channel grew by 30% and the store channel decreased by an equivalent figure. Given this lack of options, not only a few meters of shelves disappear, those spaces where creatures touch, try and order without going through an app are also lost. In weeks Málaga has been left without two mythical ones such as Carrión and Confitería Aparicio de … Read more

Peru has taken to naming its children after soccer stars. Now he has more than 500 new Haalands

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Whatever happens Sunday at MetLife Stadiumone thing is certain: the 2026 World Cup will end, its players will become international football history and FIFA will begin the countdown to the 2030 tournament. What will last much (much) longer is the mark that the 2026 World Cup has left in the official census of Peru. There the officials have met with a curious phenomenon: Hundreds of parents are calling their babies “Haaland” in a nod to the Norwegian striker, one of the most viral of the competition. In reality there is little surprising about it. What has happened? Norway’s World Cup dream disappeared on saturdaywhen they were defeated 2-1 by England, that does not mean, however, that the Nordic team welcomes one of the most iconic players of the World Cup: Erling Braut Haaland. His exploits in the field, his Viking appearance (Scandinavian blonde, almost two meters tall) and some other viral video retouched with AI They have turned it into a mass phenomenon in recent weeks. And that has left its mark on Civil Registry of the Republic of Peru. Trace, in what sense? In a quite forceful one. According to the data provided by the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (Reniec) and disseminated by local media such as Peruvian News Agency (Andean), hundreds of people who bear the name of Haaland now live in the country. To be more precise, the Reniec includes 560 people who include Haaland in their name. Most are limited to the last name, but there are 91 people who have been registered as Erling Haaland. To make matters worse, there are four named Erling Braut Haaland, exactly like the Manchester City player. Why’s that? Good question. Difficult answer. Reniec does not specify when this ‘boom’ of babies who have become walking tributes to Haaland occurred, but it is not unreasonable to think that the trigger was the FIFA Cup. In fact, the registry has shared the information just now, coinciding with the World Cup and (above all) the viral success of the Norwegian forward. In any case, Haaland is not the only ball star who is leaving his mark on Reniec. To be honest, it’s not even the most popular. Are there more cases? Yes. Euro News remember that the Civil Registry already has 3,402 Peruvians named Messi, including the almost 300 who are directly and officially called Lionel Messi. They are a good handful, but they come to nothing when compared to the 33,809 that Neymar shows on his card, which makes him the most popular first name of football resonances. There are almost 1,200 ‘Cristianos Ronaldos’ and the list goes on and on with many other references to stars. Which footballers succeed? The most famous, regardless of their nationality. The Peruvian News Agency precise that the Peruvian registry includes 1,502 people named Griezmann, 1,241 who respond to the name Yamal, 319 baptized in a nod to Salah, 238 to Mbappé and 175 to Pedri. If you dig a little deeper we still find dozens of Neuer, Bellingham, Lewandowski, Rashford, Harry Kane, Rodrigo de Paul or Luka Modric. Also some Vinícius Junior, Lukaku, Kai Havertz, Dibu, Dembelé, Courtois or Michael Olise. After all, the history of football is not only written in the big stadiums… it also has its echo in the civil registry offices. Images | Gustavo Leighton (Unsplash), Wikipedia and Deb Dowd (Unsplash) In Xataka | Spain’s stadiums want to arrive on time for the 2030 World Cup. The problem is who pays for it

that parents stop kidnapping their own children

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Anastasiya Minkova returned from a trip and found the house empty: her husband had left with his two year old son. In many countries the scene could immediately trigger an investigation for parental abduction. In Japan, for decades, it could become the game that decided who would keep the child. Japan knocks down a perverse advantage. Until last April, the Japanese system established that, after divorce, only one of the parents could retain legal authority over the children. The courts tended to favor the person who lived with the child and had assumed the role of primary caregiver during the process. That created an incentive hard to ignore: Taking the child before initiating the divorce could put the other parent in a position that was practically impossible to overcome. Lawyers advising the “abduction”. The logic of the system converted a behavior considered parental abduction in other countries into a tolerated family strategy de facto. According to the lawyer Masanori Tanabewho leaves the home with the children begins to appear before the court as their usual caregiver, decisively strengthening their position. John Gomez, founder of Kizuna Child-Parent Reunionsums it up still cruder: Some family lawyers directly advised their clients to take the children because the matter was treated as a civil dispute, not as a crime. The courts were late. time played in favor of the parent who had taken the child. By the time a court heard the case months later, the child may have been living in a new home for a long period of time, attending another school, and maintaining limited or no contact with the parent left behind. Breaking this situation could be interpreted as an alteration of the stability of the minor, which ended up consolidating precisely the advantage obtained through his transfer. Reform and shared parental authority. Now Japan has modified its Civil Code to allow the so-called kyodo shinken, a regime in which both parents can retain legal capacity over important decisions after divorce. The Ministry of Justice hopes that the change force parents to think about the interest of the minor and to maintain adequate participation in his or her upbringing. Furthermore, unilaterally taking the child and refusing to cooperate may be taken into account against anyone who aspires to obtain their legal authority. Sharing decisions is not sharing children. The reform, in addition, has a decisive limitation: kyodo shinken is more accurately translated as shared parental authority, not necessarily shared custody or cohabitation. Both parents could intervene in issues such as education or medical care without there being a mandatory distribution of the time they spend with the child. Lawyer Masami Kittaka warns on CNN that the new system also does not guarantee that old cases are reviewed or that estranged parents automatically regain lost contact. The problem of foreign parents. Yes, because language barriers, lack of information and insufficient legal representation make many foreigners react when the situation is already consolidated. Examples like Emily Sato’swho said that she returned home and found that her husband had taken her daughter, removed much of the furniture, and removed her from the list of people authorized to pick her up from school. When the case came to court, exclusive cohabitation with the father was already discussed as a stable environment that should be preserved. Separations that last longer than childhood. Jeffery Morehouse wears 16 years without seeing his sontransferred from the United States to Japan when he was six and a half years old despite the fact that he had primary custody. He obtained Japanese court rulings validating his US order, but claims he never got them effectively executed. His last farewell was Father’s Day 2010and since then he avoids family celebrations and places where other children can remind him of how old his son was when he disappeared from his life. Protection against abuse. Shared parental authority also cannot applied indiscriminately. Some associations fear that it will force people who have suffered domestic violence to remain linked to their aggressor, although the reform allows contact to be restricted in cases of mistreatment or child abuse. The challenge will be to differentiate situations of legitimate protection from those in which one of the parents uses the child to gain advantage in a conflictive breakup. Japan still has not eliminated the incentive. There is no doubt, the reform represents a historic break with a model that favored exclusive custody and could turn a flight into a judicial advantage. However, experts they point out that the same problem will continue to exist as long as there are no clear consequences for whoever takes the minor, guarantees of contact and mechanisms capable of executing court decisions. Japan has finally recognized that allowing a parent to disappear with their own child was part of the problembut now he must show that changing the law can also give children back the relationship they lost. Image | Chris Rimmer, Jenny Webber In Xataka | Japan no longer knows what to do to make Japanese people have children. So he’s putting free daycare all over the country In Xataka | Japan’s problem is not that it is stopping having babies at a record speed. It’s just that he did it 17 years earlier than he should have.

“45 minutes of family sports support the health of parents and children”

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Yes take out time to exercise It is complicated in the world we live in, doing it with children is sometimes practically an impossible mission. On the other hand, children themselves sometimes do not reach the recommended physical activity times, either due to an excess of non-active extracurricular activities, not having access to outdoor places to play or due to abuse of certain sedentary leisure activities, such as games with video consoles. Given that parents and children, each in their own way, have the same problems, two scientists from Nottingham Trent University, Scarlett Fountain and Karah Dring, had an idea: what if they designed a plan so that families could play sports together? In their case, they opted for rugby games in pairs, but other options could be useful. They found that, as they imagined, practicing exercise as a family provides benefits for both physical and mental health. And the best thing is that it is not necessary to completely change the daily routines of children and adults, since in just 45 minutes you can see the results. Surveys that say it all. The authors of this research They began their study with a survey in which 25 families participated. Both adults and children had to answer a series of questions about their physical activity routines and the reasons why they consider that, if true, they do not practice enough sport. Adults agreed to mention problems such as the high price of organized activities or the lack of free time. There were also some who complained about not having local sports and leisure facilities nearby. The children, for their part, reported that seeing their parents staying active encourages them to exercise more. In fact, it is something that also happened the other way around. Both parents and children inspire each other to stay active. The solution seemed clear. 45 minutes of rugby. After analyzing the results of the surveys, Fountain and Dring They decided to design a family physical activity program. It would be free, accessible and quick, to solve all the problems they observed in the responses of the participating parents, although not all of them signed up. Only 16 families participated in the program. They chose rugby as a couple, as it is fun, adaptable and, unlike rugby typical team rugbyno contact. The 45-minute sessions included warm-ups, skills practice and small games. Before and after, both parents and children had to solve a series of cognitive tests on a computer. In addition, blood samples were taken from the adults. These results were compared with another 45-minute rest session, which would serve as a control. Good for physical and mental health. Both children and adults improved cognitive test scores after exercising as a family. For example, children performed better on a working memory task right after exercise. For their part, parents showed improvements in information processing. These improvements were maintained for at least 45 minutes. Regarding physical health, it was seen that, after lunch, adults had the same blood glucose levels as after rest, but less insulin. This means that they needed less amount of the hormone to regulate the levels of sugar consumed. His cells responded very well to insulin, they showed no resistance. Family exercise is beneficial for physical and mental health From school to work. As the authors of the study explained in an article for The Conversationa third of adults do not reach the recommended levels of physical activity. They don’t clarify where, but it is possibly in the United Kingdom. Even so, it is something that can be totally extrapolated to other parts of the world. On the other hand, only 4 out of 5 children between 11 and 17 years old do 60 minutes of exercise a day. Less than an hour of physical activity each day is very little for a child. The consequences for physical health are very clear, but sometimes we do not take into account how this influences cognitive performance at work, school, or simply in everyday life. For this reason, they believe that much more emphasis should be placed on providing families with opportunities to exercise together. If it is not possible separately, the solution, clearly, is to exercise as a team. Images | Magnificent In Xataka | In the fever to train strength, the gym has faced competition: more and more people train on the street

We believed that pets were replacing children. One study suggests just the opposite

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The first time I saw a dog in a stroller It was in a shopping center. It passed me like any child’s stroller: wheels, hood, a small package inside. I looked twice because it seemed too small for a baby, and it wasn’t. Inside there was a dog. I remember well that he was a french bulldog and her name was Chanel. Over time, the scene stopped seeming exceptional to me. I started seeing dog strollers in downtown neighborhoods, parks or even on public transportation. An image that has become a symbol of something deeper: the feeling that, in aging societies, pets are occupying a place that children once had. But what if that reading was incomplete, or outright wrong? What if, far from replacing children, pets were playing another role in family life? An academic study questioned a widely held belief a few months ago. To begin with, the numbers help to understand why suspicion has established itself in the public debate. In Spain, according to the Spanish Network for the Identification of Pet Animals (REIAC)in 2023 there were more than ten million dogs registered compared to less than two million children between 0 and 4 years old. A difference so wide that it invites, almost automatically, to think about a change within homes. The scenes that come from outside reinforce that impression. South Korea has crossed a symbolic threshold: More strollers are sold for dogs than for babies. It is not an exaggeration, it is the statistical reflection of a country in demographic emergency. The trend has caught on so much that even faith has adapted. In Japanese temples such as Ichigaya Kamegaoka, the ancient ritual of Shichi-Go-San —previously exclusive for children— has filled with snouts and straps. In the absence of infants, sanctuaries bless pets to prevent their liturgies from being left without protagonists. Against this backdrop, political and moral interpretations have proliferated. In 2022, Pope Francis described as “selfish” to those who prefer to have animals rather than children. In South Korea, then Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo He even stated that young people They “love their dogs” instead of starting families. A resounding diagnosis that, until now, had relied more on cultural symbols and perceptions than on contrasted data. Disassembling the narratio But the idea that pets replace children received a serious corrective from academic research. The study Cats, Dogs, and Babiesled by researchers Kuan-Ming Chen and Ming-Jen Lin from National Taiwan University, analyzed for more than a decade the behavior of millions of homes. The research concluded that people who adopt a dog are up to 33% more likely to have a child later than those who do not. Far from displacing paternity, the animal seems to act as a preliminary step. This is what the authors call the “practice child effect”. As Chen and Lin explainmany couples use the experience of caring for a dog to evaluate their willingness to take on responsibilities: routines, expenses, and emotional bonds. If the experience is positive, it increases confidence to take the next step towards human parenthood. However, there is no change in sight. Neither the Taiwanese study nor the experts who analyze the demographic winter maintain that the increase in pets will translate, by itself, into a rebound in birth rates. The academic work itself warns that this is a country-specific analysis and that patterns may vary depending on the cultural, economic and social context. Furthermore, it is not yet a peer-reviewed article to verify the data either. The cart as a metaphor The study does not propose pets as response to demographic declinebut as a clue about how care decisions are postponed today in a context of economic and vital uncertainty. This reading fits with what sociologists and demographers point out in Spain. As reflected in the analysis of my colleague in Xatakathe drop in the birth rate responds to widely documented structural factors: job insecurity, rising housing costs, difficulties in conciliation, delay in emancipation and increasingly later motherhood. In this scenario, pets do not displace children; They occupy the space left by a postponed vital project. For this reason, the image of the dog in a stroller summarizes this ambiguity well. As Dr. Jerry Klein explainschief veterinarian of the American Kennel Club, these strollers can have a practical function in certain cases: “They offer elderly dogs, dogs with arthritis or mobility problems a way to enjoy the outdoors without straining themselves.” Veterinary platforms such as Dialvet either ToeGrips They agree that they can help protect paws from hot asphalt or help small dogs who cannot keep up with long walks. However, other experts urge caution. Carlos Carrasco, from DOS Training, warns in La Voz de Galicia that “a dog is not a child with hair” and that carrying a healthy animal in a stroller can be a “humiliation” that denaturalizes it. Along the same lines, ethologist Isabel Jiménez, director of La Manada de Iris, points out in IM Veterinaria that excessive humanization “nullifies the dog as a species and makes it emotionally ill.” a study published in Animals (MDPI) reinforces this idea, warning that anthropomorphism can generate anxiety and stress in the animal by not respecting its basic biological needs, such as smelling and walking. Finally, the rise of pets does not alone explain the demographic winter, but it does reveal how forms of affection and responsibility are reconfigured in societies where having children has become more complex. The Taiwanese study does not offer miracle solutionsbut there is a clear warning: facing pets and children as if they were exclusive options oversimplifies a much more nuanced reality. Perhaps, when we see a dog in a stroller, we are not looking at the symbol of renunciation, but rather at the reflection of a generation that postpones irreversible decisions while looking for possible forms of care. Before blaming the puppies, it might be worth looking at the system surrounding those who are hesitant to become parents. Image | Unsplash Xataka | As Japan runs out … Read more

Do not leave everything as an inheritance to your children

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Bill Gates has been one of the 10 richest people in the world for decades. However, recently the Gates fortune has fallen several places on the list of millionaires, according to Forbes. That fall in the estimation of his fortune It is not because the founder of Microsoft has made a mistake in his latest investments, but because of a plan that he has been executing for more than two decades. Donate 99% of your fortune through the foundation which he created with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates. This foundation has already donated 100 billion dollars. Your fortune will not be your legacy. That of Bill Gates is only one of the best-known cases of billionaires who have made the decision to do not leave the fortune who have amassed their children throughout their lives. He veteran investor Warren Buffett, Mark ZuckerbergMick Jagger, Lauren Powell Jobs and the singer Sting have also declared their refusal to leave his empire as an inheritance to their children. In one recent interview for the BBC on the occasion of the presentation of his latest book Source Code: My Beginningsthe millionaire recognized that he was not going to leave his fortune as an inheritance. Despite leaving them only a small percentage of his fortune, now estimated at about $103.9 billion, the millionaire assures that your children will not be poor. “They won’t be,” Gates said. “In absolute terms, they will do well, but in percentage terms it is not a gigantic number.” Indeed, 1% of something doesn’t seem like a big deal, but 1% of 103.9 billion is 1.03 billion dollars. A not inconsiderable inheritance. 100 billion dollars. According to what the millionaire told the BBC, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was facing the 25th anniversary of its founding, reaching a round figure: 110.9 billion dollars. donated to projects philanthropists from around the world. “We have donated more than 100 billion,” Gates noted, “but I still have more to give.” Currently, the millionaire’s donations to the foundation that bears his name exceed 63.9 billion. The remaining 40,000 million have come from periodic donations from third parties, such as those of his friend Warren Buffett, who every year allocates several billion dollars to the foundation. What the Gates Foundation declares. According to the latest data made public By the Gates Foundation, as of the fourth quarter of 2025, the foundation had donated $90 billion and had a trust capital of $110.9 billion. Of those $90 billion that the Gates Foundation claimed to have donated from its creation until 20235, $63.9 billion had come from Gates’ coffers. Buffett’s contribution since he began collaborating with the Gates Foundation in 2006 has been $47.9 billion. From these figures, and in the absence of the Foundation publishing its 2026 accounts, it is clear that, in reality, Bill Gates would have barely contributed 500 million more to his foundation during the last year, while his fortune has remained stable during the last year. The responsibility of wealth. The founder of Microsoft claimed in his interview to have been greatly influenced by the philanthropy that his parents had exercised throughout his childhood. His mother often told him that “with wealth comes the responsibility of giving it away.” Bill Gates, inspired by his parents and by Philosophy of Chuck Feeneydecided to join forces with Warren Buffett to found the initiative The Giving Pledgein which several dozen millionaires have committed to donate at least 50% of his fortune to philanthropic purposes. Names like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, MacKenzie Scott or, the last to sign his commitment, Sam Altman, form part of this select club who believes that getting rich must be accompanied by a commitment to society that has allowed them to achieve it. A version of this article was published in February 2025. In Xataka | Lawyers and notaries agree: “When making a will it is wise to leave specific assets to each child and the home to only one” Image | Flikr (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office)

Pediatricians agree on new food fads for children: “It can cause nutritional deficiencies”

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There are many diets that we find on social networks in recent years that advocate be really restrictive with certain foods and nutrients that demonize. The problem is that these restrictive diets designed for adults with the aim of making them look healthier are causing nutritional deficiencies in children, as pediatricians themselves already point out. The alert. The Spanish Association of Primary Care Pediatrics (AEPap) has been clear in its latest report pointing out that ‘nutritional fads’ have made a strong impact on children’s nutrition and can cause “nutritional deficiencies.” And the culprit is the adoption of restrictive diets such as prolonged fasting or the exclusion of gluten without receiving advice from specialists. But these diets are not limited to adults who want to lose weight or improve their health, but are generally applied to all members of the household. And this is explained by Dr. Marta Castell, pediatrician at the Campanar Health Center in Valencia, who point to the following: More and more families come to consultation with a proactive interest in the healthiest eating pattern, but also with great confusion between scientific evidence and fads such as 2-exclusion diets or ‘superfoods’ without clinical evidence. The enormous amount of information they receive becomes massive and often contradictory. The problem of extrapolating it. Restricting food groups without clinical justification has a very high physiological cost during the growth stages that the little ones in the house are experiencing. This is why pediatricians warn that the withdrawal of essential nutrients without a prior diagnosis of intolerance such as lactose or celiac disease is dangerous. And this practice can interrupt the caloric intake and essential micronutrients for the child’s body and especially for correct physical and brain development. The recommendations. Here the medical institutions they point because one should avoid diagnosing alleged eating pathologies at home, and apply a restriction without the advice of a specialist doctor. But in addition, one should avoid applying nutritional advice aimed at adults to minors that is disseminated by content creators without scientific endorsement on social networks. One of the clearest pieces of advice that the Vithas Medimar Hospital points to in its web is that “the best prevention against obesity and malnutrition is to recover a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, fish, nuts and seeds, and free of ultra-processed foods.” Veganism. The scientific debate does not criminalize dietary choices such as veganism, but requires absolute rigor in its pediatric approach. Something important to highlight is that a child can be perfectly healthy following a diet without animal consumption, but this “does not consist only of raw fruits and vegetables,” explains pediatrician and neonatologist Miriam Martínez Biarge, who describes poorly planned diets as “reckless.” From the clinical point of view, the Spanish Society of Out-of-hospital Pediatrics and Primary Care warns that in the vegan population there is a high risk of vitamin B12 deficiency. This deficit can have “serious neurological consequences,” being a particularly critical risk in infants breastfed by mothers who do not take supplementation. For this reason, clinical guidelines recommend the possible supplementation of vitamin B12 in the event that foods fortified with it are not consumed. Images | Helena Lopes In Xataka | Being vegan makes you biologically younger, but not for the reason you think: the hidden key to calorie restriction

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