Scarlett Johansson has a counterintuitive take on one of the most exhausting challenges facing working parents today: stop pretending balance is achievable. The 41-year-old actress, speaking on CBS Sunday Morning, made a candid case that the very act of letting go of the myth is where real progress begins.

“I think actually admitting that there is no work-life balance is the first step to kind of getting there in a way because it’s just not possible,” Johansson told CBS Sunday Morning. The quote landed because it named something millions of working parents feel but rarely say out loud.

Why This Admission Matters More Than Any Productivity Hack

For years, the cultural conversation around working parenthood has centered on optimization: better schedules, smarter routines, more efficient childcare arrangements. Johansson’s framing flips that entirely. Rather than offering a system, she’s naming the emotional reality of the work-life juggle that so many high-achieving parents quietly carry. The relief in her words isn’t about giving up; it’s about releasing the pressure of an impossible standard.

That pressure is well-documented. A Psychology Today contributor, a father and mental health professional, described the moment his young son’s two-word reaction to yet another early departure cracked open a denial he hadn’t realized he was living in. He recounted bending down to hug his son goodbye and hearing the boy look up and say, “Why?” followed by “Again?”, a response that, as the writer put it, felt like being “shot in the heart.” The exchange forced him to confront that his travel schedule was quietly eroding family time, and that he had known it for a while without acting on it.

The Guilt That Comes From Every Direction

What makes work-life balance so psychologically complicated for parents isn’t just the time crunch; it’s the guilt that attaches itself to every choice, including the ones that feel good. A Forbes contributor who returned to work after maternity leave described a disorienting experience: she felt no guilt on her first day back, only energy and relief. Then another working mother expressed surprise at her ease, and suddenly the guilt arrived, not from leaving her child, but from not feeling bad about it. As she wrote in Forbes, “I felt guilty, for not feeling guilty, which just created a new layer of” mom guilt she hadn’t anticipated. Her account captures how social pressure shapes parental guilt in ways that have nothing to do with actual parenting choices.

This layered guilt, the kind that arrives secondhand through comparison and social expectation, is part of what makes Johansson’s public honesty so valuable. When a high-profile working mother says the system is broken rather than suggesting she has cracked the code, it gives other parents permission to stop measuring themselves against an unachievable standard.

What Experts Say About Finding Your Own Version Of Balance

The Psychology Today contributor, writing from both personal and professional experience, offered a framework that aligns closely with Johansson’s thinking: awareness before action. His advice centers on asking yourself whether what you are actually doing matches what you want to be doing, and then making even small adjustments toward that goal. After his son’s pointed question prompted a reckoning, he gradually reduced travel, restructured his schedule, and protected time for himself. The lesson he drew for other parents was direct: don’t wait for a wake-up call to start making changes.

The Canadian Department of National Defence has also addressed the challenge of parenting alongside demanding careers, recognizing that the tension between professional obligations and family life is not a personal failing but a structural reality that requires institutional acknowledgment as much as individual coping strategies.

The Forbes contributor’s experience also points to a practical dimension that often gets overlooked in the balance conversation: childcare infrastructure. She described months of scrambling through nanny transitions and daycare waitlists, a logistical grind that added enormous stress on top of the emotional weight of returning to work. For many parents, the balance problem isn’t just about mindset; it’s about a system that doesn’t adequately support working families.

It’s Important To Acknowledge The Struggle

Johansson’s comment stands out because it sounds less like a celebrity confession and more like something a therapist might say. The cultural expectation that working parents, and working mothers especially, should be able to “have it all” without visible strain has caused real harm. When someone with Johansson’s platform says the quiet part out loud, it shifts the conversation from personal failure to shared reality. That shift, small as it sounds, is where change tends to start.

If Johansson’s CBS Sunday Morning moment sparks a broader reckoning with what we actually ask of working parents, the most useful follow-up won’t be a listicle of balance tips. It will be a harder look at why so many parents feel they have to choose, and what it would take to make that choice less brutal.

A little planning is all it takes to turn summer from a source of parental dread into a season your whole family will remember. Whether your days are packed with outdoor exploration or as simple as an afternoon in the kitchen, the key is having a direction, however small, for each day.

That’s the core message from parenting writers and family educators heading into summer 2026: stop waiting for the perfect itinerary and start with what you have. As Scary Mommy put it in a recent guide on reducing summer scheduling anxiety, “Summer is overwhelming, but it’s easy to have a fulfilling one with your kids, just make a plan for each day. Even if that plan is ‘bake brownies.'”

The pressure parents feel to fill every summer hour with enriching, Instagram-worthy activities is real, but experts and family bloggers alike argue that the bar is much lower than most parents think.

\What children actually need is engagement, not extravagance. Hands-on play, time outdoors, and creative projects consistently rank among the most developmentally valuable ways for kids to spend time away from school.

Start With A Bucket List, Not A Schedule

One of the most practical approaches to summer planning is the bucket list format. Rather than locking your family into a rigid daily schedule, a bucket list gives kids something to look forward to and gives parents flexibility. You can pull from the list on a rainy Tuesday or a spontaneous Saturday afternoon, without the pressure of a fixed plan.

KidKraft’s ultimate summer bucket list for kids takes this approach, offering families a curated collection of seasonal activities to work through at their own pace. The bucket list format works especially well for families with children across different age groups, since kids can check off items independently or together, depending on the activity.

When building your own list, think in categories rather than individual activities. A few ideas to get you started:

• Nature and outdoors: Go fishing at a nearby lake, plant a butterfly garden, take a hike on a local trail, or visit a u-pick farm for berries or sunflowers.
• Creative projects: Try plein air painting outdoors, make a seashell windchime, build with LEGOs, or set up a dedicated art zone at home.
• Science and learning: Grow sunflowers and measure their height weekly, visit a local museum or science center, or challenge your kids to learn basic vocabulary in a new language.
• Nighttime fun: Stargaze in the backyard, tell stories around a fire pit, or set up an outdoor movie night with a projector and blankets.
• Kitchen adventures: Cook with seasonal ingredients, try a new recipe together, or let kids take the lead on a simple baking project.

The Treehouse Schoolhouse blog, which published a comprehensive roundup of screen-free summer activity ideas for families, makes the case clearly: “Beyond simply reducing screen time, engaging in unplugged activities fosters crucial developmental skills, strengthens family bonds, and creates lasting memories.” The blog offers more than 100 ideas organized by category, along with a free printable Summer Activity Checklist parents can use to track what they’ve done and what’s still on the list.

The Case For Screen-Free Summer Days

Screens aren’t going away, and most families aren’t aiming for a completely device-free summer. But carving out intentional screen-free time, even a few hours each day, gives children space to develop skills they simply can’t build in front of a tablet.

Creative problem-solving, physical coordination, social negotiation during play, and the ability to tolerate boredom long enough to invent something new are all byproducts of unstructured, unplugged time.

Nature-based activities are particularly effective at drawing kids away from screens. Bird watching with a field guide, keeping a nature journal, or starting a container herb garden on the patio all give children a sense of ownership and curiosity that keeps them engaged without any digital prompting.

For families who enjoy getting out of the backyard, hiking with kids is one of the most accessible and rewarding ways to spend a summer morning.

How To Keep Kids Engaged On Low-Key Days

Not every summer day calls for a big outing. Some of the most memorable moments happen at home, on a slow afternoon when the original plan fell through. Having a “rainy day” or “low-energy day” list alongside your main bucket list means you’re never caught scrambling.

Think puzzles, letter-writing to a pen pal or grandparent, listening to a story podcast, or doing an artist study where kids learn about a painter’s style and then try to replicate it.

Reading is another anchor activity that works on any kind of day. Setting aside even 20 minutes for a child to write in a journal or to read aloud together from a chapter book builds literacy skills while also creating a quiet, connective ritual that kids often look back on fondly.

For screen-free entertainment that still feels special, audio story players designed for young children can bridge the gap between passive screen time and active imaginative play.

Summer is one of the few stretches of the year when families actually have time to be together without the pressure of school schedules and homework.

The activities themselves matter less than the intention behind them. A child who spends a summer afternoon baking with a parent, building a fort in the backyard, or watching clouds from a blanket on the grass is getting something screens simply cannot replicate: presence.

The goal isn’t a perfect summer. It’s a connected one.

Teachers don’t get enough respect. They do a hard job, on which all of society relies, and for their efforts, they are underpaid, overworked, and treated with disrespect and derision.

That said, they also see our kids only for a limited period of time and through a pretty specific lens. Their job is to teach our kids a specific subject; parents’ job is the whole kid, and sometimes those goals clash.

In this case, a math teacher is sharing emails from parents who she feels are acting entitled and unreasonable. By her description, the parents think she’s being unreasonable for asking the kids to do homework.

Math Teacher Shares Parent Emails On TikTok

This teacher, who goes by kai.mer on TikTok, went viral after she shared some of the messages parents have sent her about their kids’ homework assignments. Note that she’s sharing stories from when she was a 7th-grade math teacher, and in other videos says she now works in higher education. It’s not entirely clear whether she’s sharing from memory and notes, or still has the documents and is reading them directly.

“Last night my child had an emotional breakdown because they got frustrated with the homework. You have assigned way too much homework.”

She adds that this was after COVID, that many students lacked 3rd- and 4th-grade math skills, and that the homework was intended to bring them up to date so they could learn the 7th-grade work.

Another email she shared said:

“The math problems on the homework do not align with the state standards for 7th-grade. I will not be putting my child in distress for content they do not need to know. My child willl not be doing this assignment.”

The teacher adds that this parent made her life difficult all year but doesn’t share any details about the homework questions.

Another email:

“My child had soccer practice until 8pm and was too tired to complete the homework. Please excuse them from this assignment.”

In this case, the teacher says that she would have preferred the parent to ask for an extra day, and that an extension would have worked out better than simply refusing to do the work.

You can see her video below.

The Responses Are Somewhat Divided (But Less Than You May Think)

A few commenters did call out the teacher for some of these emails.

For instance, there was some shock at the idea that she would make students skip lunch. (She later added that they ate lunch while doing the work, and weren’t actually kept from eating.)

Several also chimed in, noting studies that suggest homework has some negative effects on kids, too. Some pointed out that after 8 hours in school, kids need their evenings to be a break, to relax, spend time with their family, and engage in physical activity.

However, the majority supported the teacher, some going to extremes.

For instance, one prominent opinion was that everybody is traumatized by math homework, and that this is a unifying experience that’s important for kids to have. Another described her own experience of taking dance classes during her school years, which resulted in staying up until 1am doing homework, then getting up early to do it again, implying that if she could handle that, all kids should be able to juggle their extracurriculars and homework without complaint.

Still, there were plenty of moderates who believed that it’s reasonable to assign homework when called for (such as extra practice to catch up in math) and also reasonable to be understanding of kids’ struggles.

The Bigger Picture & The Bigger Problem

Teachers have a hard job, as mentioned before. Parents do, too. And we all tend to look back with rose-tinted nostalgia glasses, but maybe we can remember that being a kid isn’t always easy, either.

Teacher social media accounts, which highlight the hard parts of being a teacher, are pretty popular, and for good reason. Between teachers, content focused on topics like the many ways class is disrupted, or the many things elementary students wanted to tattle about, or this week’s homework excuses, is very relatable.

To those outside the profession, it’s humorous, and some aspects are still relatable. (Parents will definitely recognize their kid in the tattling stories, for instance.)

The responses tell a story, too, though. People are angry at parents. People are angry at kids. People think (perpetually) that the generation(s) after their own are hopeless, lazy, and wrong. Parents blame teachers. Teachers blame parents. The general public blames either or both, and rages instead of working to make things better.

Maybe a more productive response would be for us all to watch these videos and decide that parents, kids, families, and teachers all need more support, rather than more condemnation and ire.

Jamie Chung is leaning hard into offline living when it comes to her twin boys, and the actress is part of a much larger cultural shift reshaping how families think about childhood in 2026.

Chung, who shares her sons, born in October 2021, with husband Bryan Greenberg, told People magazine she is fully on board with the analog movement as a guiding philosophy for raising her kids.

The timing could not be more resonant. Across the country, parents are deliberately pulling back from the constant hum of screens, streaming queues, and digital noise, choosing instead to prioritize tactile, offline experiences for their children.

What was once a fringe lifestyle choice has become one of the most talked-about parenting trends heading into the second half of 2026, with families swapping apps for board games, endless streaming for VHS movie nights, and smartphones for landlines or even simple tin can phones.

What The Analog Movement Actually Means For Families

For most parents, going analog is not about rejecting every piece of technology or retreating into nostalgia. It is about something more intentional: creating space for the kinds of experiences, free play, boredom, real conversation, physical problem solving, that screens tend to crowd out.

Speaking to Nashville Parent, Nicole Dreiske, a media educator and author of The Upside of Digital Devices, put it plainly. “Parents don’t need to eliminate screens entirely, but they benefit from intentionally balancing digital engagement with real-life, tactile experiences that support creativity, connection, and resilience — what many families today are rediscovering as analog living.”

The practical applications range from small to sweeping. Some families designate screen free zones in bedrooms or at the dinner table. Others commit to one or two evenings a week where puzzles, drawing, or shared reading replace devices entirely.

The 2025 surge in popularity of the Tin Can phone, a kid friendly device designed to mimic the feel of an old landline, became a cultural flashpoint, signaling just how hungry parents are for simpler forms of connection.

Why Limits Are The Point

Child development experts argue that the analog push is really about something deeper than screen time numbers: it is about teaching children to tolerate edges, endings, and discomfort.

Dr. Becky Kennedy, author of the bestselling Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be, frames the appeal of offline life in terms of natural stopping points.

“Kids become mentally strong when they learn to move through hard moments with support — not when those moments are erased, avoided, or handled for them,” Kennedy told Nashville Parent.

The logic is straightforward. Digital environments are engineered to be endless — one more scroll, one more level, one more autoplay video.

Analog activities, by contrast, have built-in conclusions. A puzzle gets finished. A board game produces a winner. A chapter ends.

Those natural boundaries, experts say, quietly build emotional regulation, frustration tolerance, and confidence in children who are otherwise growing up in a world designed to never stop.

The Data Complicates The Story

Here is where the picture gets more nuanced. Even as the analog movement gains momentum, new research suggests that technology, when thoughtfully shared between partners, can actually make parents more present, not less.

Nanit’s Second Annual State of Modern Parenthood Report, based on a survey of more than 1,600 parents of newborns, infants, and toddlers, found that communication between partners improved for close to half of respondents when they used shared parenting tools.

More than 56 percent say they share real-time data, sleep patterns, developmental milestones, giving both caregivers equal access to the same information.

That shared visibility, the report argues, chips away at the “primary parent” dynamic, where one partner becomes the default keeper of all child related knowledge while the other is left guessing.

About 60 percent of dads in the survey said parenting technology helps them share responsibilities more equally, and nearly 70 percent of moms said real-time access allows them to step back and trust their partner more.

Anushka Salinas, CEO of Nanit, framed the finding as a challenge to the idea that unplugging is always the answer. “If we want better outcomes for children, we have to start by supporting the people raising them,” Salinas said in the company’s press release.

“Technology should reduce stress, not add to it. When parents can see the same information and share the mental load, partnership strengthens and families thrive.”

The Analog Approach In Context

Chung’s embrace of analog parenting fits squarely within this broader cultural moment. Her twin boys are now four years old — precisely the age range when screen habits begin to solidify and when developmental experts say offline play matters most for building creativity and social skills.

Chung spoke to People about her parenting philosophy and her enthusiasm for raising her sons with an analog sensibility, making her one of the more prominent celebrity voices to publicly align with the trend in 2026.

What makes the analog conversation in 2026 different from earlier screen time debates is the tone. This is not a panic driven moral crusade against technology. It is a quieter, more deliberate recalibration with parents asking what kind of childhood they actually want to build, and making small, repeatable choices to get there.

The research from Nanit adds an important layer: the goal is not to throw out every device, but to be intentional about which technologies serve the family and which ones simply add noise.

Chung’s public embrace of the analog movement gives that conversation a recognizable face, and for parents of toddlers and young children especially, her story is a useful reminder that the choices made in these early years tend to echo for a long time.

An animated retelling of one of opera’s most beloved stories is making its debut at Cannes this year, and its target audience is not the usual festival crowd.

Director Sébastien Laudenbach has crafted Viva Carmen, a reimagining of Bizet’s iconic opera built specifically for children, positioning the film as a genuine gateway into a centuries old art form that many families find intimidating.

Opera has long struggled to find younger audiences, and the gap between the grandeur of a live performance and a child’s everyday entertainment diet can feel enormous. Viva Carmen takes direct aim at that gap.

According to Hollywood Reporter’s Cannes coverage of the film, Laudenbach set out with a deliberately open ended creative philosophy, embracing the idea that incompleteness and imperfection are not obstacles but teachers, and that children, in particular, have much to gain from encountering stories that do not wrap up neatly.

It is a bold artistic stance for a children’s film, and one that sets Viva Carmen apart from the typical animated fare aimed at young viewers.

Bizet’s Carmen is a natural choice for this kind of adaptation. The opera features a fierce, independent female lead, sweeping melodies that lodge themselves in memory almost immediately, and a dramatic storyline full of passion and consequence.

The “Toreador Song” and the “Habanera” are among the most recognizable pieces in all of classical music, giving children an immediate foothold before the story even begins.

What Makes Opera Click for Children

The challenge of bringing opera to young audiences is not new, and educators and parents have been developing strategies for years. One of the most effective approaches treats opera not as a formal cultural obligation but as pure storytelling set to extraordinary music.

As one reviewer noted when examining Carolyn Sloan’s children’s opera guide, opera introduced as storytelling through song taps into two things children already love: being told stories and singing along. When those two instincts are engaged together, the art form stops feeling foreign and starts feeling natural.

That same principle applies to animated adaptations like Viva Carmen. Animation gives directors a visual language children already trust, and pairing it with operatic music removes the barrier of sitting still in a formal concert hall.

The result is an experience that can plant seeds of genuine appreciation long before a child ever sets foot in an opera house.

How Parents Can Build On The Film At Home

For families inspired by Viva Carmen, the momentum does not have to stop when the credits roll. Parents who have successfully introduced their children to opera emphasize that repeated, casual exposure matters far more than a single formal outing.

Playing opera recordings during everyday activities, encouraging children to move and dance to the music, and watching filmed productions together before attending a live performance all help build familiarity and enthusiasm.

One parent writing about practical strategies for taking children to live opera performances on Parent.com described taking her own children to several live opera performances and noted that a single operatic production contains so many diverse elements, high musical drama, grand sets, costumes, strong emotions, and excitement, that there is guaranteed to be something of interest for everyone in the family.

The key, she notes, is preparation, learning the storyline in advance, listening to recordings, and choosing the right production for a first experience. Mozart’s The Magic Flute, with its fairy tale plot and memorable characters, is widely recommended as an ideal starting point for young first timers.

Matinee performances tend to work better for children than evening shows, both because the atmosphere is less formal and because the timing does not conflict with bedtime routines.

Arriving early, bringing opera glasses, and giving children permission to react physically to the music all contribute to a positive first experience.

Books And Resources That Prepare Young Opera Fans

Beyond films and live performances, a growing library of children’s resources makes opera accessible at home. Carolyn Sloan’s Welcome to the Opera has earned particular praise for its interactive design, combining illustrated storytelling with audio samples and a layout organized so that children can follow along without getting lost.

The book is recommended for ages 9 and older but works well when read aloud to younger children by a parent or music teacher. Its approach, using relatable characters to guide young readers through an actual opera performance, mirrors exactly what Laudenbach appears to be attempting on screen with Viva Carmen.

What Viva Carmen represents is bigger than one animated film. It signals a growing recognition among artists and educators that children are not a lesser audience, they are a different one, with their own needs and their own remarkable capacity for emotional and artistic engagement.

When a director of Laudenbach’s caliber brings that conviction to a Cannes premiere, it sends a message to the broader entertainment industry: stories built for children can carry genuine artistic weight. For parents looking to raise culturally curious kids, that is genuinely good news.

As Viva Carmen moves from Cannes into wider distribution, it may well become the entry point that a generation of young opera fans looks back on as the moment the art form first made sense to them.

Kylie Jenner has gone public with a frightening chapter of her pregnancy with son Aire, disclosing that a serious complication at just 12 weeks left her unable to walk and ultimately required her to be placed on bed rest.

The reality star and beauty entrepreneur shared with People that she woke up one morning during her second pregnancy and simply could not get out of bed, describing the sensation as her son “falling out” of her, a graphic and deeply personal detail that underscores just how alarming the experience was.

Jenner’s disclosure is notable not just for its candor but for the timing. Twelve weeks marks the end of the first trimester, a point when many expectant mothers begin to feel more secure about their pregnancy.

For Jenner, that milestone brought the opposite: a sudden physical crisis that her doctors responded to by prescribing bed rest.

While Jenner has not publicly named the specific diagnosis behind her complication, the symptom she described, a feeling of the baby descending, is consistent with cervical changes, one of the most common reasons physicians restrict a pregnant patient’s activity.

What Bed Rest Actually Means

If you have never been prescribed bed rest, the term can sound straightforward. In practice, it covers a wide spectrum of restrictions.

According to clinical guidance on the range of bed rest prescriptions, there are at least three distinct levels: full bed rest, which confines a patient to bed except for bathroom use; partial bed rest, which allows limited time on your feet for essential tasks; and scheduled resting, which asks a patient to build dedicated rest periods into each day.

Hospital admission is sometimes required when medical monitoring is ongoing or when a complication such as premature rupture of membranes places both mother and baby at risk of infection.

Among the pregnancy conditions most likely to prompt a bed rest prescription are high blood pressure disorders such as preeclampsia, vaginal bleeding tied to placenta previa or placental abruption, premature labor, and cervical changes such as incompetent cervix.

As Miracle Babies notes in its guidance for families navigating this experience, “Bed rest can be critical to furthering your pregnancy and it is very important to understand exactly what your medical practitioner has prescribed for you.”

The Medical Debate Around Bed Rest

Here is where the picture gets more complicated. Despite its long history as a standard recommendation, bed rest has come under significant scrutiny in recent years. Research questioning whether limiting physical activity during pregnancy actually improves birth outcomes has led major medical institutions to reassess the practice, with findings pointing to real risks including the formation of blood clots and measurable deterioration of both muscle and bone strength.

For this reason, most pregnancy care providers no longer recommend bed rest as a routine treatment and many now prefer the term “activity restriction” — a more targeted approach that reduces specific activities rather than eliminating movement altogether.

That nuance matters for anyone who receives a similar prescription. Asking your provider exactly what is and is not permitted, whether you can walk short distances, climb stairs, or continue working from home, can make a significant difference in both your physical health and your mental wellbeing during what is already a stressful period.

The Emotional Weight Of Being Sidelined

Beyond the physical dimension, bed rest carries a real psychological toll. For a public figure like Jenner, who built a global brand on constant visibility and output, being forced to stop everything at 12 weeks would have been a jarring shift.

For everyday parents, the challenges are no less real: managing other children, navigating financial strain from leaving work early, and coping with the anxiety of an uncertain pregnancy outcome.

NEOwell, a perinatal health resource, acknowledges that being placed on bed rest can arrive without warning and leave expectant mothers feeling limited or anxious.

The organization recommends building structure into each day, through reading, meditation, video calls with friends and family, online communities for pregnant women, and even light creative projects like journaling or crafting, as a way to maintain a sense of agency when so much feels out of your control.

Staying hydrated, eating well, and practicing gentle breathing exercises (with your doctor’s approval) can also help your body and mind weather the weeks ahead.

Why Jenner’s Candor Matters For Other Parents

Pregnancy complications are far more common than public conversation tends to reflect. Conditions requiring activity restriction affect a meaningful portion of pregnancies, yet the experience is rarely discussed openly, particularly by celebrities, who often present curated, complication free narratives of their journeys to parenthood.

Jenner’s willingness to describe a moment of genuine physical vulnerability, one that left her unable to walk and frightened about her son’s safety, gives other parents permission to acknowledge their own difficult experiences without shame.

Aire, Jenner’s son with rapper Travis Scott, was born in February 2022. He is her second child; her daughter Stormi was born in 2018. The fact that Jenner is sharing these details now, years after the pregnancy, suggests she has processed enough of the experience to speak about it with clarity, and perhaps with the hope that her story reaches someone currently in the middle of their own frightening pregnancy chapter.

Jenner’s story is a reminder that pregnancy complications do not discriminate by wealth, fame, or access to the best medical care. If you or someone you love receives a bed rest prescription, the most important first step is asking your provider exactly what type of restriction is being recommended and why.

The medical community’s evolving understanding of bed rest means that a conversation, not just compliance, is the right response.

And if the emotional weight of the experience becomes too heavy, reaching out to a mental health professional who specializes in perinatal care is not a sign of weakness. It is exactly the kind of support that helps families come through these moments intact.

Autistic kids (and adults) often have very specific diets, with short lists of “safe foods” and extreme discomfort with trying anything outside that list.

Autistic individuals also often have chronic problems with their digestive systems, including stomach pain and acid reflux.

A new study examined the relationship between the two phenomena, and researchers believe that the dietary restrictions are a causal factor in altered gut bacteria, which in turn cause not only digestive discomforts, but also inflammatory responses that may drive some of the other traits associated with autism, including anxiety and repetitive behaviors.

Confirming this and carrying out further research has the potential to make life a little more comfortable for autistic kids (and adults).

The Microbiome Of The Gut

Everyperson’s body is full of microbiotic organisms that work to keep digestion and other functions in order. Upsetting this balance can cause gastric problems (bloating, constipation, etc), weight fluctuations, food cravings, and even alter the function of neurotransmitters and disrupt serotonin production!

Studies on the association between autism and gut microbiome have been carried out for at least a few decades, but the more that researchers dig in, the more they’re making the connection.

This latest study examines the causal link between autistic dietary restrictions or limitations and gut microbiome.

To be clear, this doesn’t suggest that restricted eating “causes” autism, or that kids (or adults) can be “cured” of autism by altering the gut microbiome, nor does it even remotely suggest that forcing a different dietary standard on autistic kids is a good or healthy idea!

However, solidifying the link could lead to alternative methods of bringing the gut biome back to a more typical balance could potentially reduce some of the stomach upset and inflammation that make certain symptoms of autism more uncomfortable and severe.

The Dietary Link

Autistic people can have a difficult time with eating. A variety of factors contribute to this, which can include underdeveloped oral muscles, the sensory sensations attached to certain foods, or the sensory aspects of being required to sit at a table and join in the group activity of a family meal, according to Child Mind. The digestive struggles many autistic kids have are also a factor.

Unfortunately, the digestive struggles can be a cyclic problem, because in turn, the limited diet can make them more severe.

A new study published in Nutrients found that the gut microbiota of autistic children can be altered through the dosage of probiotics, and through a rotational or elimination diet. More specifically, these interventions changed microbiota that affect inflammation and barrier functions in the digestive system.

“Dietary interventions combined with probiotics appear to be associated with microbiota modulation and a tendency toward improvement in markers of intestinal inflammation and barrier function.”

What’s The Relevance Of This Inflammation & Microbiota?

Autistic people are more likely to have digestive difficulties, including stomach pains, diarrhea, and constipation, among other symptoms. However, we also know that these symptoms, as well as digestive system inflammation, and, specifically, a gut biome that’s out of balance, have effects on mental health.

For instance a review published in Cureus last year notes a bidirectional link between gut microbiota and mental health.

It covers some of the ways that gut microbiota and inflammation affect the immune system, which in turn has effects on neurotransmitters, increasing the symptoms of depression and anxiety, and how intestinal permeability (those barrier functions we were discussing above, commonly called “leaky gut”) can result in harmful substances entering the bloodstream, which in turn affects the neuroimmune system and increases symptoms of depression.

A separate study, published in Molecular Autism in 2024, more directly addresses the links between gastrointestinal issues and certain traits common in autistic people.

“GI issues interact with other conditions and may worsen sleep problems and increase rates of self-injurious and aggressive behaviours, particularly among non-verbal autistic children. Higher rates of internalising symptoms, including anxiety and social withdrawal, which present at elevated rates in the autistic population, have a bidirectional relationship with GI problems such as constipation, diarrhoea, nausea, and stomach pain.”

So, Are Probiotic Meds & Diet Changes The Cure For Autism?

No. Autism is a neurotype and is predominantly caused by genetic differences. You cannot make your autistic child stop being autistic.

Instead, it’s possible that research can lead to some interventions that make some of the traits or symptoms associated with autism, the ones that are inconvenient, uncomfortable, or even painful for your child, less so.

If research continues to support these findings, it’s possible that conscious choices to change the gut biome could reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in some people, and, potentially, some of the sensory sensitivities and social discomforts of autism.

Should I Change My Kid’s Diet, Then?

Major dietary changes should only be done with guidance from your child’s doctor.

Forcing your child to eat foods he does not like will not cure his autism, or ‘fix’ his gut biome. This study involved close monitoring of children’s gut microbiome during the dietary changes.

If your child is not getting the nutrients he needs from his diet, then introducing foods that will help provide them is always a good idea, but, especially for autistic children, this must be done with sensitivity and understanding, not forced or pushed.

Forcing your autistic child to eat foods that are outside his comfort zone can cause new problems. Encouraging your autistic child to try new foods is great, but remember that your child is likely not just “being picky.” They are reacting to sensory and other messages from their bodies, and being forced to ignore them can be upsetting and even traumatic.

What Should Parents Do?

If you are worried about your child’s diet and/or gut microbiome, talk to your pediatrician about changes that may be needed, and how to handle them gently.

Monitor your child for gastrointestinal symptoms, like frequent stomachaches, acid reflux, constipation, and other discomforts, and speak to your pediatrician about any needs in this area.

Remember that your child may not speak up about these, and that autistic kids can often ‘mask’ pain and discomfort, or may not even be consciously aware of them.

That means these symptoms may show up as behavior, instead of as “Mom? My tummy hurts.” (This is especially true for kids who have had chronic stomach pains downplayed or ignored, but can apply to any kid.)

In the meantime, parents can keep an eye on this space for any updates from gut microbiome and autism research. As research continues, developments may make new options available.

For now, there is no proven probiotic or dietary treatment for mental health conditions or physically uncomfortable symptoms of autism, but the research suggests that there could be some soothing in the future.

“If I jumped down from here, would I break my legs?”

That’s the kind of question I seem to get more and more from my middle-aged child. He is curious about what his body is capable of. I try my hardest to give him opportunities to test out his abilities. 

More often than not, I hear myself saying something along the lines of, “Stop”, “What might happen if you do that?” and “Is that a safe choice?” He tells me I am too cautious. 

So, where is the balance when our kids want to take risks and we (unfortunately!) know too much about the possibility of harmful consequences?

Modern Parenting Expectations

I think about my childhood as a time when I took a lot of risks. It was the 80s!

Staying out until (or after!) dark. Riding bikes everywhere. No ability to communicate with parents, other than an agreement to be home at a certain time.

Fast forward to now. The changing world, safety concerns, and cultural shifts have begun to emphasize parenting practices that include more supervision, safety lessons, and injury prevention.

Don’t get me wrong: these are all good parenting practices. Many of them developed from necessity out of a lack of supervision and support in our childhood. 

But I learned so many lessons from the various risks I took in my youth. I can’t help but ask myself: Could protecting children from all risks interfere with their healthy development?

What Is Risky Play

When I say “risky play”, I am not referring to activities that would actually be harmful to kids. I am thinking about exciting activities that provide a challenge, a thrill, some uncertainty, and age-appropriate risk-taking. 

Typical “risky play” may look like rough-housing, riding a bike, exploring independently, skateboarding, using tools (hammers and child-safe knives included!), high-speed physical play, navigating through nature, climbing structures, and jumping off high points. 

We may notice some children organically being drawn to these activities, which makes sense! It’s the primary way a child learns about their body and the world. Let’s look at all the ways this type of play can support our kids’ development.

Risky Play Encourages Healthy Development

Research shows that risky play helps kids build confidence, resilience, motor skills, independence, emotional regulation, executive functioning, and risk assessment abilities (Beaulieu et al. 2024). Important developmental milestones are supported by risky play.

Risky Play Builds Confidence

A child who can control and manage their body in physically challenging situations is a kid who develops the belief, “I can do hard things.”

Talk about a confidence boost. Climbing, running, jumping, exploring, and overcoming physical barriers are among the most important physical AND psychological life lessons (Bauer et al. 2025).

Children who are confident in their body’s ability to engage in challenges, also can become an encouraging leader. You might see this child tell others, “You can do it!” Because they learned they could do it too.

Risky Play Builds Risk Assessment

Learning risk assessment comes down to the general understanding, “As safe as necessary, but not as safe as possible”. Determining the difference between a “risk” and a “hazard” is part of this assessment strategy. 

We can help kids distinguish between a risk (a challenge a child can assess or manage) and a hazard (a hidden danger beyond a child’s ability to recognize). Pointing out differences between risks and hazards to our children is a good first step to developing risk assessment. 

For example, you might point out that jumping off a structure onto a concrete surface would be more of a “safety hazard” and explain why. We can then determine that jumping onto grass or a softer surface would be a “reasonable risk”. 

Helping children use critical thinking skills and make their own risk assessments is the goal.

Risky Play Build Physical Strength

Along with confidence, the most obvious way risky play benefits children’s development is through increased physical strength. Motor skill development, or the development of the body’s major muscle groups and joints, occurs only through physical challenge. 

As highlighted by the American Academy of Pediatrics, balance, coordination, and spatial awareness are all important aspects of child development. Children will learn these skills by engaging with the world, but these skills will develop at a faster pace when they engage in reasonably risky play.

Risky Play Builds Executive Functioning

Executive functioning refers to the skills you use to manage everyday tasks such as making plans, solving problems, and adapting to new situations. This mental skill develops through age 25, but most foundational skills are built in childhood.

Risky play allows children to begin thinking ahead, understand the consequences of their behavior, make decisions, and adapt to circumstances.

Risky Play Improves Mental Health and Emotional Regulation

A child not exposed to uncertainty will not develop the ever-important experience of tolerating stress and tension. Risky play helps support a child in exploring this emotional task safely. 

For example, a child may feel anxiety about trying a new physical activity. Once completed, they gain tolerance to anxiety towards new experiences. They may even want to experiment more with new activities, given their increased ability to regulate challenging sensations. 

The 2021 “Risky Play Research Report” conducted by Becky Gates Children’s Center at Texas A&M University has confirmed these findings. In research, they found that emotional regulation improves with rough-and-tumble play.

Shifting Expectations of Safety

The benefits of risky play cannot be denied, but how can we prevent serious injury to our children? While we do not want our children to get hurt, research has demonstrated that serious injuries are rare in age-appropriate environments (Beaulieu et al. 2024).

We can begin to normalize more minor injuries, such as minor scrapes or bruises that occur with everyday activities.

Learning New Responses

Next, we need to slow down our reaction to a potentially risky situation. I have found the following “template” helpful in maintaining safety awareness without hindering my child’s opportunities to experiment. 

• Pause (easier said than done, but an important first step!)
• Assess the environment (risks vs. hazards)
• Watch the child problem solve for 15 seconds before stepping in

This allows us to slow down and build our own tolerance for our children’s anxiety when they try new things!

Support Age-Appropriate Independence

Allowing children to explore independent tasks can be a gentle segway into incorporating more “risky play” into their lives. For example, a child may want to walk ahead of us, explore on their own, play outside with neighborhood children, and problem-solve on their own. 

We can gradually help children develop independence. This allows parents an opportunity to discuss risk vs. hazard with children. This can also help parents build confidence that their children can manage challenges on their own!

Risky Play Prepares Children For Life Challenges

Modern parenting emphasizes the removal of discomfort and risk for children. However, research has clearly demonstrated that risky play supports multiple aspects of physical, emotional, and cognitive development in childhood.

When children have the opportunity to take risks, challenge themselves, and tolerate uncertainty, they are not just playing but also building confidence and preparing for life’s challenges.

A peer-reviewed study and a new supplement brand are exposing a decades-long gap in the science behind prenatal nutrition

The prenatal vitamin sitting on your nightstand was almost certainly formulated according to dietary guidelines based on research that largely excluded pregnant women. A peer-reviewed analysis and a growing consumer movement are now forcing a serious reckoning with that gap.

The supplement brand Needed has entered the market, arguing that standard prenatal formulas were never properly validated for the people who take them. The brand highlights the striking fact that only about 5% of the studies informing nutrition guidelines include pregnant women, a figure that has alarmed researchers and expectant parents alike.

That number reflects a systemic problem in how nutrition science has historically treated pregnancy as an afterthought rather than a distinct physiological state requiring dedicated study.

What The Peer-Reviewed Evidence Actually Shows

The academic case behind this concern is detailed. Researchers screened 704 studies drawn from Dietary Reference Intake reports covering 23 micronutrients and found that women were excluded from nearly a quarter of those studies, and pregnant or lactating people appeared in only 17% of the reviewed research.

Across all studies in which women participated, they accounted for roughly 29% of the combined sample size. The analysis was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in October 2021.

The problem is not just about raw numbers. The most rigorous study designs — controlled feeding trials and stable isotope studies, the methods that carry the most weight when setting guidelines — showed the strongest tendency toward all-male participant pools. That means the highest quality evidence underpinning nutrient recommendations is also the evidence least likely to reflect what happens inside a pregnant body.

The researchers drew a pointed parallel to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that less than 2% of all registered COVID-19 trials included pregnant people, even for treatments using medications or micronutrients with well-established safety profiles. The authors argued that pregnant people should be protected through research rather than from research, and called urgently upon funders and researchers to address fundamental gaps in knowledge with high-quality studies.

The Framework Behind Every Prenatal Supplement

To understand why this matters for the supplement in your medicine cabinet, it helps to know how nutrient guidelines get made.

The Dietary Reference Intakes, or DRIs, are the foundational framework used across the United States and Canada to set recommended nutrient levels.

Governments rely on them to shape food policy, and the private sector uses them to formulate dietary supplements, including prenatal vitamins.

According to a PubMed-indexed history of the DRI framework, the system was conceptualized in 1994, with the first reports issued between 1997 and 2004 by expert panels under the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine.

The DRIs have shaped national nutrition policies that touch on dietary guidance, food labeling, food assistance programs, and military nutrition standards.

Yet the same historical account carries a sobering warning: no updates to specific DRI values are currently planned. Its authors wrote in Advances in Nutrition that “despite the long and challenging road that led to the current DRIs, it must not finish in a dead end,” stressing that monetary resources and political will are crucial to maintaining and continuously updating the guidelines.

Without both, the research gap affecting pregnant women could persist for another generation.

Race And Ethnicity Data Compound The Problem

The 2021 peer-reviewed study added another layer of concern beyond sex representation. Across the 704 studies examined, race and ethnicity data went unreported in more than 90% of cases.

The DRIs are intended for use across the general population of the United States and Canada and are widely adopted globally for public health programming.

If the underlying research drew almost exclusively from populations that were both male and racially unspecified, the guidelines carry compounded blind spots for women of color and people in lower and middle-income countries.

The biological case for studying pregnant people specifically is not abstract. Pregnancy triggers profound physiological changes that alter how the body absorbs, distributes, metabolizes, and excretes nutrients.

A supplement dose calibrated for a non-pregnant adult, let alone a male adult, may behave very differently in a pregnant body.

Researchers have also pointed to emerging evidence that maternal nutritional status during pregnancy has lifelong consequences for fetal health and the child’s future well-being, raising the stakes for getting the science right.

For expectant parents navigating supplement choices today, understanding what goes into the best over-the-counter prenatal vitamins is more important than ever.

Questions worth asking include: Who was studied when this formula was developed? Does the brand cite research conducted in pregnant populations? Is the dosing based on DRI values derived from pregnant participants, or extrapolated from other groups?

A Consumer Brand Steps Into A Scientific Void

The emergence of Needed reflects a broader shift in how pregnant women and their caregivers are approaching supplement decisions. Awareness is growing that a “prenatal” label does not automatically mean the formula was validated in pregnant populations.

The brand has built its identity around the argument that standard prenatal vitamins were effectively formulated using data that did not account for the distinct nutritional needs of pregnancy, and it is not alone in making that case.

Academic researchers, bioethicists, and public health advocates have been raising the same alarm for years.

The story of prenatal vitamins and the research gap behind them is ultimately a story about whose bodies science has historically treated as the default.

Pregnant women were excluded from foundational nutrition research not because the science demanded it, but because of assumptions about risk and logistical convenience that researchers and ethicists are now actively challenging.

The fact that a consumer brand is filling a gap that federal guidelines have not yet addressed says something important about the pace of institutional change and how much work remains before the science of pregnancy nutrition fully catches up with the people living it.

Do you remember what recess was like when you were a kid? Maybe it meant going outside, spending time with friends, or jumping into a pickup soccer game before heading back to class.” But in many schools today, recess is becoming increasingly rare.

The AAP just released new guidelines for recess, and they’re an eye-opening reminder for parents and educators alike.

New Guidelines For Recess 

The new AAP guidelines focus on two key issues: time for recess and access to it.

The guidelines recommend that all students in grades K–12 have at least 20 minutes of recess during the school day. They also emphasize that recess should never be withheld as punishment for behavior issues.

The guidelines also note that in middle and high school, recess often shifts into unstructured social time spent on devices rather than active play.

The AAP encourages schools to prioritize movement, outdoor time, and play, even for older students. Older students still benefit from recess that includes physical activity, time outdoors, and opportunities to relax or socialize away from screens.

The Benefits Of Recess Are Real

We know from experience that recess plays a crucial role in children’s development. It’s not just about the physical activity, although the physical benefits are important.

With childhood obesity rates rising and physical fitness declining, recess matters now more than ever. Children need enough time for physical play—to run, climb, jump, and move their bodies during the school day.

Recess Helps Kids Build Social Skills

 In addition to its physical benefits, recess supports children’s social and emotional development. During recess, children practice emotional regulation, cooperation, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.

Younger children may still need adult support as they learn to navigate conflicts with peers. As children mature, they benefit from more independence and more opportunities to interact meaningfully with classmates and friends.

Children Need A Mental Break

What’s often overlooked when schools reduce recess to make room for more instructional time is that they may be unintentionally limiting students’ ability to learn effectively. 

The AAP describes recess as a form of ‘wakeful rest’—a break from focused cognitive activity. This allows children’s brains to reset and to consolidate the information they’ve learned.

This matters because without periods of wakeful rest, children may struggle to retain and apply what they learn.

As the AAP document points out, recess can provide an offline brain break, so their brains can really make sense of the information they’re learning.

Research supports this, showing that breaks from cognitive demands improve attention, information processing, and long-term memory.

Recess Needs To Be Unstructured

Another important point that the AAP guidelines highlight is that recess is different from physical education (PE). During PE, there’s a guided curriculum that helps kids focus on a sport or specific activity.

In contrast, recess needs to be unstructured and provide kids the freedom and autonomy to play as they want (within safety guidelines, of course). Children benefit from this kind of open-ended play because it encourages creativity, problem-solving, and self-regulation.

The AAP makes an important distinction: recess should not become another version of PE.

As parents, it’s helpful to read these new AAP guidelines because they’re about more than just recess. It’s about the value of play in general during childhood.

If your school is reducing recess, this would be an important resource to advocate for your child’s need for movement, play, and social connection during the school day.