This month we’re turning to our archives for international stories of parents and children. Tales of widowed fathers, ambivalent couples, vengeful mothers, and more reveal both the specific and universal challenges of raising children in complex times. Argentine sensation Samanta Schweblin finds an unexpected solution to an unplanned event. Iranian Kader Abdollah’s stoic father faces a parent’s worst fear. In two looks at fathers and daughters, Finland’s Shimo Suntila tracks a day in the life of a man and his two endlessly imaginative little girls, and Belgium’s Lize Spit watches an abandoned husband search for a cure for his toddler’s illness. Teresa Solana’s elderly widow cuts off her abusive son-in-law; Martha Batiz finds raising septuplets is not exactly seventh heaven. Charlotte-Arrisoa Rafenomanjato’s impoverished Malagasy widower struggles with his son’s innocent ambition. In Tibet under Mao, Pema Bhum’s disgraced party members are redeemed by their politically savvy infant. Syria’s Zaher Omareen relays history in a coded bedtime story. And in Brazil, Cristovão Tezza’s new father realizes his life truly never will be the same.