That was the advice of the day

...

the g- like, you know, that's what the experts at the, uh, United States Department of Labor were saying.

Um, and you know, the government and your family were often the ones dishing out The advice around how to parent, right? You were, uh, talking to your, to your family members, or the government was literally putting out a book around parenting.

And that's kind of what people relied on until this book comes out in 1946 that takes a completely different approach.

And the book was The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, uh, by Dr. Benjamin Spock, who was a pediatrician at the time, and he offers sort of this parenting advice that was so radical at the time.

Really centers children's feelings, how to protect their feelings, how to be responsive to those feelings, how to be nurturing as a parent, how to follow your own instincts as a parent.

Mm-hmm

And, and now there's this digital online baby industrial complex that's making it even nightmarish, right?

You know, and, and it's really intense.

I, I th-- I started writing this story because I've experienced it, uh, uh, when I had my son a couple years ago.

And then me and my, my editor, who was also-- has a little, a little daughter, we were sort of realizing that we had gone through the same thing, seen the onslaught of ads, scrolled our phones at 2:00 in the morning with the fussy baby, trying to-

I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

[upbeat music]

And now there's this digital online baby industrial complex that's making it even nightmarish, right? Yeah.

And it's really intense.

I started writing this story because I've experienced it when I had my son a couple years ago, and then me and my editor, who also has a little daughter, we were sort of realizing that we had gone through the same thing, seen the onslaught of ads, scrolled our phones at two in the morning with the fussy baby trying to figure out, did I buy the wrong thing? And then when we started talking to other moms, it felt like a lot of us had the same experience.

I mean, they can tell you when your due date is for crying out loud.

They can figure it out.

And I mean, we are volunteering that information, right? You're putting it into a due date calendar online and spitting out a date.

And now that information is sold and we know that it's sold.

We know these companies are selling it.

Did these parents talk to you at all about the toll that this has taken not only on themselves but on their children?

Absolutely.

I mean, I think there's been well-documented research on the impact this is all having on kids.

I spoke to one mother.

She's been here since she was five years old.

And I can't imagine her situation.

I've been in the United States since I was five years old.

Are you seeing resources kind of shifting into sort of this procedural area and helping people to get their status together?

Very, um, you know, uh, uh, emotional and, and there are so many stories like his out there, right, Yubeli?

So many.

I, I-- After, you know, our, our...

After we read the, the allegations, I started to come up with a list of, of women in the farm worker movement that we wanted to hear from.

And one of the first ones that I was able to speak to was Mónica Ramírez.

She's the founder of Justice for Migrant Women, and really her life's work is not just about, uh, justice for, for farm workers and, and rights for them, but specifically talking about sexual assault and sexual abuse of, of, uh, migrant women.

And so the way that she described it to me was the community has been shaken to its foundation.

Uh, what's the place of women as a group or however you wanna characterize that among farm workers today?

You talked to a few Etsy sellers while reporting this piece, but I want you to tell us about Kelly Abernethy, who sells jewelry on Etsy, and what tariffs have meant specifically for her business.

So Kelly's story really struck me.

She is a person who five years ago, um, had experienced a lot of grief.

She lost two babies to miscarriage and sort of started her business from that.

She wanted to make some commemorative jewelry and thought, "Hey, why don't I put this..." She never made jewelry before, but she's like, "Why don't I put this on Etsy, see if somebody else wants it?" And it turned into her full-time business.

The thing that was interesting about Kelly's story is she tries to source the majority of her products in the United States.

But there is one item, the rose gold in that signature necklace that she makes, that she cannot find in the US so she gets it from China.

Why do you think Etsy sellers are more exposed to tariffs right now than other small businesses?