#childhood

#childhood

I was five years old when I had my first encounter with a black bear. In the spring of 1990, my father, a wildlife biologist, brought home an orphaned three-month-old cub in a cardboard box. The cub's mother, having burrowed beneath the roots of an old tree, had been killed in the den by a logging excavator, but the cub, weighing barely more than a bag of apples, survived. Forestry workers caught the young bear and dropped it off at the Fish and Wildlife office in Peace River, Alberta, where my dad worked, and he called my mom with the news.

My father was a petroleum geologist. A lot of my childhood, he was gone, away on oil rigs in the Powder River Basin and remote parts of Wyoming, living in man camps long before cellphones. We had to wait days to talk to him. When he went into the nearest town to shower, he'd find a payphone and call us. I was always breathless with news.

February 2026 issue.When I was a child I was terrifiedof the space between One and Zero vast as the ages before my birthstrait as my death-late at night I heard my parents arguinglovingly in their locked room, the angora cat coming homewith a sparrow in her mouth, and the raindrops on the shinglescounting themselves-how to sleep, how to cross the empty placebetween the name "sparrow" and that limp thing crying,adamant, creating me with its cry

Born in Willesden, north-west London, in 1964, Paterson Joseph is an actor and writer. A graduate of Lamda, he worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company before moving into TV and film, with roles including Alan Johnson in Peep Show and Keaty in The Beach. He published his award-winning debut novel, The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho, in 2022. His children's book, Ten Children Who Changed the World, is out now.

Farm work is part of our lives as a family 365 days a year - we need the kids to help out, but are they missing out on some part of their childhood? I say no Am I wrong to expect my kids to help with milking on Christmas Day? This is the question I was left pondering when I told some friends about our Christmas Day routine. I wasn't quite expecting the gasp of horror.

I didn't realize it was weird that my family never locked the front door, even at night, until friends looked at me like I was out of my mind.

Twenty-five or so years ago, one day after school I went to visit my dad at his office. We didn't have a computer at home at the time so whenever I was around his, I would beg him to let me use it to play with MS Paint. I was probably around 7 or 8, and my go-to artwork was a portrait of my him made with the spray tool - perfect to recreate his short, spiky hair and stubble -

It's possible, maybe probable, that the harrowing events of her life helped the Oscar winner become such a great actress I was at school with Brenda Fricker - we were in the same class at Loreto, St Stephen's Green - and I remember her as a sweet-natured young girl with a halo of golden curls. She was, in my recollection, favoured by the nuns as she always won prizes at feiseanna, and shone at drama and elocution.

I don't know if it's because I'm constantly comparing current times to living in the Upside Down or what, but there's just something about Stranger Things Season 5 that feels... symbolic. Bigger than the show itself. And the behind-the-scenes teaser trailer that just dropped hits on that feeling in a way that'll honestly make you super sentimental. "There's something magical about childhood," Matt Duffer says at the start of the featurette, as clips from early seasons of the show play.

"I wrote what I thought was five chapters," says actor Jay Ellis, star of Insecure and Running Point, on the tentative first draft of his memoir, Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)?: Adventures in Boyhood, firstpublished in July 2024 and now available in paperback. "Now, after writing a book, I know it was at best half a chapter," he adds, laughing.

I must admit, dear reader, that I wasn't always a fan of change -not even a little. I wouldn't say I entered this world naturally inclined toward new or unfamiliar things. Like many children, I found comfort in routine-the joy that comes from ordinary moments repeating themselves. Whether we realize it or not, repetition builds a mental framework that quietly defines our comfort zones.

In the summer of 1998, the filmmaker Darren Aronofsky could be found spray-painting stencils of the pi symbol all over his native Manhattan - a bit of guerrilla marketing for his feature debut, π (or Pi).

Many millennials reflect on their school days without the easy access to water that children have today, leading to questions about their hydration levels during childhood.

Playgrounds are not peripheral spaces of leisure; they are political constructs shaped by specific ideologies about what childhood is and how it should unfold.

Camp Homeward Bound has provided refuge to thousands of homeless children over the past four decades, offering a unique summer experience free from their daily struggles.

Bill Watterson captured the private derangement of the average 6-year-old boy, creating an imaginative world filled with monsters, adventures, and absurdities that resonate deeply with readers.

Being self-employed is all I knew. At the time this photo was taken, I was doing my GCSE retakes and about to start my A-levels. I may have failed some exams, but I don't remember being that stressed about it.

The crowd exploded with applause and cheering when Anthony invited Paul Paddick up to the mic. Of course you probably know him better as Captain Feathersword, and we have to admit - it feels almost illegal to see him out of costume.

Helen wrote a batch script at age seven that accidentally racked up a $2,000 phone bill for her local library. Her early coding journey began with overcoming learning difficulties.

The designers wanted to create a bridge between the past and the present, awakening those joyful sensations with the simple act of sitting.

"Any sound was noise: the burr of the TV from next door, the ticking of a clock in another room. When one layer of sound reduced its volume, another rose from beneath it, each intrusive and underscored by my own unending thoughts."

Sir David Jason reflected on his experiences growing up in North Finchley, emphasizing how playing the fool became a way to overcome shyness and bullying.

"My parents were going through a very nasty divorce. Dungeon Rampage was there for me. Every time they would fight, I would go into another room and I would play."