How Much Should We Share With Our Kids?
What Fresh Hell: Parenting, Relationships, and Making Life Better, with Two Funny MomsShow Notes
When is it useful for our kids to hear about our own life experiences—including situations caused by our own bad decision-making?
When does it become oversharing, or get too personal or inappropriate?
We discuss how to know how much to tell our kids, and how to have useful difficult conversations, including:
our own past choices around drinking, drugs, and sexual activity
the family secrets that may be part of our history
traumatic and difficult experiences: how do you get across what's important without giving a child information too heavy for them to hold?
divorce and family conflict: how not to recruit kids into taking sides of adult disagreements
serious illness of a parent, grandparent, or another loved one
Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode:
Our Fresh Take with Dr. Mary Martin
Lori Michas for Grown and Flown: How Much of Your Past Should You Share With Your Teen?
iMom Blog: How Much of Your Past Should You Share With Your Kids?
Lynne Meredith Golodner for MetroParent: Should Parents Tell Kids About Their Past?
Claire McCarthy for Harvard Medical School Blog: How to talk to children about the serious illness of a loved one
What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables.
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