Latest news with #genitori
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Italian parents seek therapy over ‘nightmare' long school holidays
Stressed Italian parents are turning to psychiatrists to help them deal with the country's 'nightmare' long school holidays. Italian state schools broke up on Friday for the usual three-month break, with groups of jubilant children gathering for the tradition of squirting each other with water pistols and tipping bags of flour over each other's heads. For their parents, however, worry is setting in as to how to entertain their offspring until schools resume in September. As more Italian grandparents keep working into their 70s, the traditional option of conscripting nonna e nonno is disappearing. Along with Malta and Latvia, Italy's school summer holidays are the longest in Europe and have long been a source of angst for working mothers and fathers. The number of parents who seek psychiatric help between June and August increases by up to 40 per cent, according to the Order of Psychologists of Lombardy. Common complaints include anxiety, irritability and a sense of inadequacy, according to Mara Compagnoni, a psychologist. 'Holidays are meant to be an opportunity for the family to connect but the myth of the perfect holiday and the impossibility of satisfying the needs of children, work and partners often generates stress and frustration,' she told TGCom24, an Italian news website. The annual struggle to secure childcare is a logistical, financial and even psychological challenge. Among working mothers, 63 per cent say they feel 'exhausted' during the summer holidays because of the strain of juggling work and family. 'For parents, summer is a nightmare,' said Francesco Fiore, one of the founders of an irreverent blog called Mamma di Merda [Sh---y Mummy], which explores parenting issues. The ordeal begins months before, as parents turn to spreadsheets in an effort to work out how they are going to have their children cared for while they are at work, she said. The summer holidays are officially 13 to 14 weeks, but can be even longer. Ms Fiore explained: 'When they reopen in September, schools are often disorganised. Staff have not been appointed and they often start in a partial way. Often it is not until late September that they get going properly. 'Society is changing profoundly – a lot of grandparents now work until they are 70, or they are not willing to do childcare, or they don't live nearby. 'Families who have grandparents who do not work are very fortunate.' Many more Italian women now work compared to the past, when their mothers and grandmothers were resigned – if not content – to look after the kids all summer while their husbands went to work. The situation has also been worsened by inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, which has meant that babysitting and summer camps, in either public or private facilities, are ever more expensive. Around 72 per cent of families have to make big financial sacrifices to pay for childcare and summer camps, according to Altroconsumo, a consumer rights organisation, and Censis, a polling firm. Some couples are compelled to go on holiday separately – dad will take the children off for a couple of weeks, then it is mum's turn, so that together they can cover a three or four-week block with their annual leave. Others resign themselves to having their kids glued to screens for most of the day while they work from home. Last year, Italian mothers launched a campaign to reduce the length of the school holidays, saying they were fed up with entertaining their children for three months each summer. An online petition to have school terms lengthened and summer holidays reduced attracted more than 70,000 signatures. 'Don't trust all those idyllic photos you see on Instagram,' the newspaper La Repubblica commented. 'Summer is a nightmare for hundreds of thousands of Italian families.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
08-06-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Italian parents seek therapy over ‘nightmare' long school holidays
Stressed Italian parents are turning to psychiatrists to help them deal with the country's 'nightmare' long school holidays. Italian state schools broke up on Friday for the usual three-month break, with groups of jubilant children gathering for the tradition of squirting each other with water pistols and tipping bags of flour over each other's heads. For their parents, however, worry is setting in as to how to entertain their offspring until schools resume in September. As more Italian grandparents keep working into their 70s, the traditional option of conscripting nonna e nonno is disappearing. Along with Malta and Latvia, Italy's school summer holidays are the longest in Europe and have long been a source of angst for working mothers and fathers. The number of parents who seek psychiatric help between June and August increases by up to 40 per cent, according to the Order of Psychologists of Lombardy. Common complaints include anxiety, irritability and a sense of inadequacy, according to Mara Compagnoni, a psychologist. 'Holidays are meant to be an opportunity for the family to connect but the myth of the perfect holiday and the impossibility of satisfying the needs of children, work and partners often generates stress and frustration,' she told TGCom24, an Italian news website. The annual struggle to secure childcare is a logistical, financial and even psychological challenge. Among working mothers, 63 per cent say they feel 'exhausted' during the summer holidays because of the strain of juggling work and family. 'For parents, summer is a nightmare,' said Francesco Fiore, one of the founders of an irreverent blog called Mamma di Merda [Sh---y Mummy], which explores parenting issues. The ordeal begins months before, as parents turn to spreadsheets in an effort to work out how they are going to have their children cared for while they are at work, she said. The summer holidays are officially 13 to 14 weeks, but can be even longer. Ms Fiore explained: 'When they reopen in September, schools are often disorganised. Staff have not been appointed and they often start in a partial way. Often it is not until late September that they get going properly. 'Society is changing profoundly – a lot of grandparents now work until they are 70, or they are not willing to do childcare, or they don't live nearby. 'Families who have grandparents who do not work are very fortunate.' Many more Italian women now work compared to the past, when their mothers and grandmothers were resigned – if not content – to look after the kids all summer while their husbands went to work. The situation has also been worsened by inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, which has meant that babysitting and summer camps, in either public or private facilities, are ever more expensive. Big financial sacrifices Around 72 per cent of families have to make big financial sacrifices to pay for childcare and summer camps, according to Altroconsumo, a consumer rights organisation, and Censis, a polling firm. Some couples are compelled to go on holiday separately – dad will take the children off for a couple of weeks, then it is mum's turn, so that together they can cover a three or four-week block with their annual leave. Others resign themselves to having their kids glued to screens for most of the day while they work from home. Last year, Italian mothers launched a campaign to reduce the length of the school holidays, saying they were fed up with entertaining their children for three months each summer. An online petition to have school terms lengthened and summer holidays reduced attracted more than 70,000 signatures.
Associated Press
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Italy's court says 2 mothers can register as parents on birth certificates
ROME (AP) — Italy's Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that two women can register as parents of a child on a birth certificate, saying recognition of parental rights cannot be restricted to the biological mother in families with same-sex parents. Advocates for LGBTQ+ rejoiced at the ruling, while the association Pro Life and Family denounced it as sending thousands of children born to same-sex parents into 'an existential joke.' The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for city registers to deprive children born to same sex-parents of recognition by both the biological mother and the woman who consented to the medically assisted pregnancy and assumed parental responsibilities. In recent years, some city registrars had begun to record only the name of the biological mother on birth certificates, and not the name of her partner. In order to have legal rights and responsibility over the child, the non-biological mother then had to 'adopt' the child. A 2004 law had provided for such limited parental recognition. But thanks to an Interior Ministry circular in 2023, the restrictions were being enforced anew as part of the policy of the far-right-led government of Premier Giorgia Meloni to crack down on surrogacy and promote traditional family values. The ruling does not address the legality of medically assisted procreation: Italy has strong restrictions on IVF and has had a ban on surrogacy since 2004. Last year Italy expanded the ban to criminalize Italians who go abroad to have children through surrogacy.
