Footnotes 25.09.25
Thoughts on my new parent 'lifestyle', plus: How I'm using my phone less at home / A perfect Cyclades beach / Supplements for focus + More
In case you missed my last email: To align with my podcast and salon series of the same name, this Substack is now Deep Read with Phoebe Lovatt. You can find more info on that here.
Also: If you’re in London, I’m hosting a Q&A with Nick Foster, futurist and author of ‘Could, Should, Might, Don’t: How We Think About the Future’ at Second Home in Spitalfields next Wednesday, October 1st. Tickets are free and available here.
Sharing ‘lifestyle recommendations’ as the mother of an 18-month-old feels almost absurd. When I’m not chasing my toddler down the street (she finds my desperate pleas not to run into traffic absolutely hilarious), I’m either working or tending to my tired body and messy home. I rarely shop for myself anymore - the baby is the only person who gets new clothes around here! - and I only leave the house after dark for work events or the odd dinner with friends. We travel sometimes (see below), but it’s nothing compared to the peripatetic existence my partner and I once led. That’s my “lifestyle” these days, and god knows I’m not trying to make an aesthetic brand out of it. The momfluencer community will survive without me.
I continue to crave beauty and pleasure and adventure in the ways I used to, but I’m still figuring out how they fit into a life where booking a last-minute trip, or even making casual dinner plans, is no longer a possibility. I’m deeply grateful that I was free to squeeze the juice out of my twenties and early thirties, and I’m equally grateful that I can now raise my baby in relative peace. My current life isn’t devoid of beauty, but the beautiful moments are quieter and more private. I have no desire to turn them into content either way.
I say all this to give context for what I post here, because sometimes I see parents ‘sharing’ their glamorous, immaculate, well-travelled lives online, and I want to laugh and scream at the same time. If you have an army of helpers and/or a trust fund, I guess life with small children can be like that? But that’s not my reality and I’d never want to give a false impression otherwise (I’m sure someone’s reading this and thinking: Calm down, Phoebe, no-one thought your life was glam anyway).
OK, that’s enough caveating! Onto the Footnotes…
This month:
The home decor purchase that has helped me cut down on my home phone use, especially when my daughter is in sight (I am determined that she won’t grow up to be a phone fiend like her mother, while also knowing that today’s iPhone will be the technological equivalent of a Filofax by the time she reaches her teens).
A quietly fabulous London restaurant where I enjoyed a rare (5.30pm lol) dinner with a friend.
At the beginning of summer, we went to the Cyclades in Greece for a holiday, and it was great (esp. if you’re travelling with a toddler but equally glorious if not!) –mostly on account of one delightful and affordable hotel, and one truly incredible beach.
My favourite luxury beauty launch of the year.
The supplements rotation I’m taking to maintain focus in the day and ease my newly-developed insomnia (fun!) at night.