Let's get the party started!
maybe this title is overkill. maybe? maybe.
Hello hello! Welcome to NewKid, I am excited to have you here! 💕
In this newsletter, we will be exploring the singular choices we make as parents, in 2025. You can expect to hear from me every week or so from now on, either sharing my latest podcast episode or else my wanders and learnings, just like I am doing today. Bear with me as I get started and ask candid questions -about AI especially. I am hungrily curious to hear from other thoughtful parents so if you feel like it, let’s get discussions started in the comments, notes or more 🎙️!
OK so what happened since you last read me? A few things 🌱
tl;dr
“better done that perfect” x “just do it, girl” : my mantra the past three weeks to get started with this podcast
I feel GREAT doing all this: alive, energised, optimistic ⚡️
all by myself
I got my hands on some basic equipment to get started ; I didn’t do a ton of benchmark tbh, I had warned myself not to fall in the trap of “the perfect setup”. I trusted a podcast friend for the wired headphones, my geek buddy Max for the mic, and well, amazon reviews for an adaptor USB-C to HDMI VGA. All this for under 150€.
I have set up my recording space - basically moving the furniture around to get the best natural light possible ; and curated a fancy background, of course
et voilà ✨ lol I sat down with podcast friends to learn from their initial mistakes and get an idea of how to be up to speed quickly with new tools - thank you
and !I benchmarked recording & editing tools, mainly Descript and Riverside. I ended up using Descript for it’s a video editor first, while Riverside is primarily a high quality video recording tool, but I digress ; if you wanna dig into the why, ask me :). Anyways, I am blown away by the countless editing features you can play with, even just minutes after getting started, but the most impressive one is certainly to be able to cut your video… from deleting its transcript text! This is nuts.
I scribbled my favorite questions, again and again and again ; what do I wanna learn from parents? what do I wanna dig into? the hardest’s clearly been cutting through the pile, to have a sense of linearity ; but well, f*** it I know these are just conversation starters!
I upgraded my note taking skills. If you’re like me, this is what reading a book and taking notes look like:
or worse, this:
so I started exploring voice notes with Tana ; although not extremely easy to grasp at first, their voice to text feature, wether English or French, is quite remarkable! Might worth the $10/mth. I’ll tell y’a.
and well, probably the most important of all : I recorded my first two episodes 💥 it was fun ! (and serious, too). I am so grateful to these friends for opening up on their parenting journey! I’ll be sharing the first one with you in no time!
mom stuff
#1. them negotiating to watch a cartoon > me negotiating to watch it in english (which they practice at school) or portuguese (which they are familiar with but don’t really understand anymore)
Mom, I have an idea! When we’re in France we watch movies in french, when we’re in another country, we watch it the country’s language - OK maman? And since we’re in France, well…
Kids 1 - Mom 0
#2. riding back home ; the eldest one’s asking
- Mom, how many years before I am 13?
- 7
- do you have a phone when you’re 13?
Duh.
#3. them negotiating to watch a cartoon (bis) > me trying to introduce the idea of an animal documentary instead (?)
I don’t like documentaries, I don’t understand anything; whereas The Creature Cases [a Netflix show for kids], you see, we keep learning new things.
Which I must admit they do. They know species - and their singularities - that I’ve never heard about. Like the common snapping turtle that can razor-bite pretty bad if felt threatened
no time? good. read this.
believe me, I will ONLY share things I’d enthusiastically read, listen or watch again
📚 [book] The Learning Game from Ana Lorena Fabrega (see
) is killing it. She’s opposing the Game of School (learning to fit) with the Learning Game (learning to learn). It is an optimistic, practical, action-oriented book, with many intelligent content you can refer to (my booklist doubled with Ana’s reco!) and practice with your kids. Ana was a teacher for a decade, and later joined Synthesis as their Chief Evangelist.about Synthesis, my understanding
Synthesis started as an experimental school for the children of SpaceX’s employees, around the question: How can we best prepare our children for the unknown of tomorrow? What should they really be learning in school?
Synthesis’s special curriculum is now available to all. They provide “the world’s first superhuman AI math tutor” (kids aged 5 to 11) as well as problems-solving reality-based games that kids (aged 8 to 14) play in teams, thus practicing decision-making, critical thinking and collaboration. That’s the pitch!
🍿 [series] Adolescence. Everyone’s been obsessively talking about this series. It moved me. It moved us. Every single episode is insanely intense. I kept thinking about
‘s book: BoyMom, that somehow moved me too, as a mom of two (privileged, white) boys. The “what do we do now” for me lies around deep, true, vulnerable, available connection with children, ALL THE TIME. For a thoughtful deep-dive into the series, I recommend📰 [article]
’s post:“Discussion is to adolescents what cuddles are to infants; necessary for brain development”
📰 [article] … and with a dad angle,
and his guest Dan Cullen-ShuteWill’s resume:
📹 [30” video] {french-speaking-AI-noob, this is for ya} I watched this to better understand how ChatGPT works. You know that already, but ChatGPT’s job is to give you the most plausible answer based on its training, which is very different from truth. The video’s not so recent but it doesn’t matter much, it’s about the mechanics of it; so I enjoyed coming back to the basics. And this guy’s just the best at popularising complex topics. Thanks
!📰 [article] I read a brilliant piece from
about the decreasing space for autonomy in our children’s education over the past centuryput it simply:
_children public autonomy started decreasing in the 80s (we went from encouraging independence and competence to guarding and monitoring them) to the point parents start wondering if they’re even allowed to let them kid walk alone
_children autonomy at home in some way increased BUT for what seems like very basic actions like eating, time to bed or what to wear
_the expectation that children contribute to home economics decreased ; not a surprise but we could be asking ourselves what roles that plays in our children’s sense of initiative and confidence?
_messages regarding children’s responsibility became increasingly mixed ; aka confusing “here’s how to be responsible <> I will keep my expectations low anyway” (so basically showing you you’re not that responsible)
🎤🎟️ [one-man show] Michael Hirsch’s one-man show Peau Fine is a pure gem, an hour of introspection about “la joie de vivre” as he became a dad ; it is fun, vulnerable, smart, and well documented, you’ll learn a ton about the topic. Like, the three ways to deal with a problem (solve it | don’t give a fuck | blame yourself or others) or that there’s not 1 but 19 different smiles on our faces! If you’re a french-speaking person living in France, catch him on his tour - you will LOVE it! Also, he and his wife are a badass, adorable couple!
I think that’s it for today!
Until next time ✨
Mathilde
Let’s go long life !
This was a rad read. Thank you Mathilde! I've got some things to add to the queue of "this is to become culturally competent here in France"... to watch with E.