Be parents

I'm not a big fan of celebrating "Mother's Day", "Father's Day" or, like today, "Grandparents Day". I think, although of course I can be wrong, that you have to love them and acknowledge their love and work always, and not on specific dates.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused many families to lose their purchasing power and become considered vulnerable. No one doubts that they need help aimed at protecting children as well.

With the arrival of the summer holidays, it is not surprising that the arguments between siblings multiply and even rise in level. Spending more time shared - especially between the four walls of a house - increases the risk of conflict in the same proportion, to which must be added the pandemic fatigue and the tension accumulated after the school year lived.

Adolescence is a stage full of many changes and challenges for everyone, and for this reason, it is important that as parents we do the same to reach this age by having a close bond with our children, to support and accompany them in the best possible way.

A little over a month ago we advanced: only 105,141 babies were born in the first four months of this year in our country, 6% less than in the same period last year. They were the latest data provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which confirms the downward trend for five years and that has accelerated due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many people find it appropriate to have a say in the parenting of others and the decisions of other parents. It is strange, but it is reality. Parents of a child are questioned for having only one, while large families are criticized for having more than two or three, to name a few examples.

Today, paternity and maternity leave last 16 weeks, a time that is still short and that various organizations have been asking to extend for a long time. Well, it seems that progress could be made along the way, because today the Minister of Social Rights and the 2030 agenda, Ione Belarra, has announced in an interview on RTVE that the future Family Diversity Law, which is expected to come into force next year, will include the increase in paternity and maternity leave to six months.

It is no secret to any parent that the pandemic has changed our lives, and has multiplied the work involved in parenting. The confinement and closures of nurseries and schools led us to such a rapid reorganization of our routines that in many homes we had to sacrifice working hours in favor of childcare. What a new study carried out by the Center for Global Development has shown is that this work was taken over mostly by women and that, although to a different extent taking into account the income level of the countries, this occurred all over the world.