Dear community,
Here’s wishing you a good start to the week!
Based on our most recent poll (thanks to all who voted), we’re officially changing our delivery day to Mondays and our cadence to weekly.
But not to worry — we’ll alternate heavier with lighter content so you don’t feel overwhelmed. Today’s newsletter is an example of a lighter column.
Last week was apparently the Week of the Young Child. (Here we are with ours.)
If you have your own young children, you’d be forgiven for not noticing — and even for feeling like children and families are especially forgotten at this moment.
After the Fall and Winter we’ve had, with infection after infection ripping through young households, repeatedly disrupting childcare routines, work, and sleep — to American children being more likely to die by gun than by any other cause, with rates rising — to the passage of several policies that neglect or harm children and families — not to mention the day-to-day grind — many parents and caregivers I know are feeling depleted and overwhelmingly under-supported.
So today, I want to ask you:
What is the single place that you’ve spent time that you feel most prioritizes child and family well-being?
Where you felt that family well-being was deeply baked into systems and the very fabric of society — not as an afterthought or on the margins — but where children, caregivers, and families were specifically catered to. And how did this structural support for families translate to being better able to be a caregiver and take care of your own needs — and even better health and well-being for everyone involved?
Post your answers here:
I’ll answer this prompt by sharing a series of photos for today’s Where in the world? column.
For those new here, Where in the world? is where we share original photos or videos from somewhere in the world — to unite us across borders — and open them up to your guesses as to where they were taken.
In addition to featuring today’s new prompt for guesses from you, we reveal the answer to the last column’s mystery location.
Where in the world?
The most family-friendly place I’ve seen
The photos below were taken at an airport that was our stopover between India and the US (surprise, surprise: neither of these two locations are the answer to today’s puzzle). Despite us spending only ~16 hours there, we were struck by how centrally family well-being was situated in almost every space and structure. Even though this was a brief encounter, this airport was the single most child- and family-friendly place I’ve been.
For me, the contraption below took the cake. Any toddler parent will intimately know the misery of having to use the bathroom yourself while handling a flailing toddler on your lap in a small bathroom — frequently giving rise to chronic lower back pain.
Enter this elegant and remarkably simple solution — present in every single bathroom we encountered at the airport (men’s and women’s — a contrast to the US, where changing tables as an example are only sporadically present in public facilities, but when present, they are almost always found in women’s, but not men’s bathrooms):
There were rooms called “nurseries” separate from bathrooms that were peaceful, well appointed, and clean. They were decked out with:
Formula/milk and baby food heating elements
Changing tables
Toddler seats (same as in bathrooms — see above)
Lounging areas
Private, very comfortable nursing/pumping areas (below)
These really fun strollers were available everywhere (and in two designs):
Handicapped signs identified those who needed extra help as including anyone traveling with a young child — entitling families to use larger restrooms or additional supports like free transport carts as needed.
What are your thoughts on what it means to cater to and center young families in this way — and potential impacts on child and family well-being? In thinking about the place that you’d nominate for your personal best experience around family-centeredness, how did the systems in place help you feel more capable or empowered in this realm?
And where in the world do you think these photos were taken?
Our reveal:
Last time, we featured a street music scene from a market in Tunis, Tunisia, taken in the winter of 2017. Watching this back takes me right back there and makes me want to break out some moves. (Substack doesn’t allow us to share videos directly in newsletters — hence the link; also sharing the audio clip and a still photo below).
Where in the world is our community?
How diverse is our community here are Ask Dr Devika B? So far, we are in 30 countries and 42 US states. Help us grow by recommending us to a friend who would benefit from our content!
Wishing you light,
Dr Devika Bhushan
Any place in Scandinavia! They offer ample paid leave to both parents. Everywhere we traveled we saw families and strollers. They have spots on the trams just for them. There are grooves in the stairs at the stations to account for strollers. We brought our daughter when she was 6 mos old, and the waiter was happy to entertain her with coasters on a weeknight!