Episodios

  • DEEP DIVE: Amber Briggle on Supporting Trans Kids

    DEEP DIVE: Amber Briggle on Supporting Trans Kids
    Jun 9 2025
    This episode was originally recorded in 2022. For more about the Briggle family, watch the 2024 New Yorker short documentary "Love to the Max." Amber Briggle and her family live in Texas. Amber is the mom of two kids, Max and Lulu, and on her website "Love To The Max," Amber shares the family's real stories and experiences as a trans-inclusive family. Amber describes herself as "just a mom," but the events of the last few years have made her a powerful advocate for the rights of kids and families like her own. She was a founding member (and former national co-chair) of the ⁠“Parents for Transgender Equality Council”⁠, part of the Human Rights Campaign. Amber currently serves as the “Equal Opportunity Issue” Chair for the ⁠League of Women Voters of Texas⁠. In this moving and illuminating episode, Amber talks about her experience parenting her transgender son and the breadth of emotions and experiences that come with it. In this episode, Amber, Amy, and Margaret discuss: Amber's son Max's transition journey The best ways to support trans kids The anti-trans legislation currently in effect and under consideration in the U.S. NOTE: Since we recorded this episode, a lawyer for the state of Texas confirmed that the ⁠child abuse investigation into the Briggle family has been lifted.⁠ Here's where you can find Amber: Her website: ⁠https://lovetothemax.net/⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠: /amberbriggle ⁠Twitter⁠: @mrsbriggle We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/⁠⁠ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, inclusive, inclusivity , transgender, trans kids, transgender kids, support for trans kids, trans rights Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Más Menos
    40 m
  • Fresh Take: Melinda Wenner Moyer on "Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times"

    Fresh Take: Melinda Wenner Moyer on "Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times"
    Jun 6 2025
    How do we raise compassionate and well-adjusted kids when their anxiety is at an all-time high, and so is ours? Melinda Wenner Moyer, author of the new book HELLO CRUEL WORLD, discusses actionable and easy-to-implement steps we can take to prepare our children for the realities of today's complicated world while acknowledging our own uncertainty. Melinda Wenner Moyer is an award-winning contributing editor at Scientific American, a regular contributor to The New York Times, and a former faculty member at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Melinda, Amy, and Margaret discuss: the issues affecting today's kids that parents didn't grow up dealing with, like social media, climate change, and political polarization how to prepare more than you protect, listen more than you lecture, and comfort more than you chide the power of narrating our own actions out loud to our kids socializing both boys and girls about when it's okay to rest Here's where you can find Melinda: www.melindawennermoyer.com @Lindy2350 on X @melindawmoyer on IG @melindawennermoyer on FB Buy HELLO CRUEL WORLD: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9780593719367 We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/⁠⁠⁠⁠ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Más Menos
    46 m
  • Creating Systems That Work

    Creating Systems That Work
    Jun 4 2025
    Can better systems make running our households easier? There's only so much work a whiteboard can do, but in this episode, Margaret and Amy discuss how they have set up effective systems to manage their kids' lives, their homes, and their work. Amy and Margaret discuss: Creating a central source of "parenting truth" The importance of touching base regularly with your parenting partner The need for self-compassion and flexibility in managing the demands of motherhood Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Marika Lindholm for Harvard Business Review: Creative Strategies from Single Parents on Juggling Work and Family Kate Hayes for Central Mass Mom: How I Stay Organized as a Working Mom Our episode "Solo Parenting Seasons and How to Get Through Them" We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/⁠⁠⁠ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Más Menos
    51 m
  • DEEP DIVE: Can We Be More Inclusive Parents?

    DEEP DIVE: Can We Be More Inclusive Parents?
    Jun 2 2025
    Can we become more inclusive as parents? Inclusivity has great benefits for everyone involved. We loved this explanation from Bright Horizons: "Too often, inclusiveness is described as something we should do to benefit others. Being inclusive is more than a moral obligation—although this alone is enough reason to practice it. When we are inclusive we aren’t divided. Instead, our world becomes enlarged. We gain relationships and experiences that enrich us. We recognize that we are all different, and that those differences bring joy to living." In this episode, we talk about how to get "wider" (more intentionally inclusive) in our family lives and in our communities and how to bring our kids into that conversation. Here are links to some writing on topic (plus our own episodes) that we refer to in this episode: Melissa Hart for Parents: ⁠5 Ways to Help Children Be More Inclusive of Other Kids⁠ Bright Horizons: ⁠Raising An Inclusive Child⁠ ⁠welcomingschools.org⁠ ⁠www.diversebooks.org ⁠Fresh Take: Judith Warner⁠ ⁠Talking With Our Kids About Race: Deborah Porter⁠ ⁠Fresh Take: Ellen Kahn ⁠ ⁠Fresh Take: Radha Agrawal⁠ We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/⁠ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, inclusive, inclusivity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Más Menos
    41 m
  • Fresh Take: Loryn Brantz on Finding Joy in Parenting Through Poetry

    Fresh Take: Loryn Brantz on Finding Joy in Parenting Through Poetry
    May 30 2025
    How can we find time to be creative as busy moms of young kids? Loryn Brantz, author of the new poetry collection POEMS OF PARENTING, discusses how her creative practice informs her parenting and vice versa. Loryn is the creator of the bestselling Feminist Baby board book series and has worked as a director and illustrator for Sesame Street and Ms. Rachel. Margaret and Loryn discuss: Loryn’s creative journey from Sesame Street to Buzzfeed to publishing twelve books How motherhood and exhaustion birthed her viral poetry collection on Instagram The power of mindfulness and meditation for overwhelmed moms Why Loryn believes kids' media should stay focused on kids Insights on the balance between nurturing children and preserving creativity Here's where you can find Loryn: Instagram: @lorynbrantz https://www.lorynbrantz.com/ Buy POEMS OF PARENTING: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9780063426436 We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/⁠⁠⁠ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Más Menos
    37 m
  • Traveling as a Family

    Traveling as a Family
    May 28 2025
    We asked our listeners what advice they have for harmonious family traveling. Here are our favorite tips they shared, plus a few of our own, from how early to get to the airport to hitting the top kid-friendly site in Paris! Amy and Margaret discuss: How to communicate effectively with your spouse before traveling Useful packing tips - here's the carry-on bag Amy loves Vacation scheduling advice How to include kids in planning vacations We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/⁠⁠ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, emotional labor, cognitive labor, summer camps, summer camps for kids, camps for kids, kids camps, kids summer activities, summer activities for kids, summer travel, summer vacation, summer, travel with kids, travel tips, tips for traveling with kids, vacation with kids, vacation tips Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Más Menos
    49 m
  • DEEP DIVE: Do We Need to Lower Our Standards?

    DEEP DIVE: Do We Need to Lower Our Standards?
    May 26 2025
    This Deep Dive series is all about why motherhood is so gosh darn hard. Turns out there are sociopolitical forces at play that make motherhood way harder than it needs to be. Listen to the full playlist on Spotify. When we explain to our partners and families that we need them to pitch in around the house, we sometimes hear back that the real problem is our too-high standards. That if we actually think "doing the laundry" means FOLDING the laundry, instead of leaving it in the dryer, that that is just too high a bar. Eve Rodsky, author of FAIR PLAY, suggests that partners establish a "minimum standard of care" for household duties. But how does that get set? And is that really all it takes? In this episode, Amy and Margaret discuss: How to use "community standards" to determine minimum standards of care The tired old idea that women have impossible standards Why it might be your system that's the problem and not your partner Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Sheila Wray Gregoire for Bare Marriage: EMOTIONAL LABOR SERIES: HOW DO WE DECIDE WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE? Listen to our Fresh Take with Eve Rodsky Eve Rodsky's FAIR PLAY: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9780525541943 Leslie Goldman for The Cut: The Marriages Hanging On by a $19 Deck of Cards Buy Lyz Lenz's book THIS AMERICAN EX-WIFE: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9780593241127 We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, household equity, household equality, gender household equality, gender household equity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Más Menos
    47 m
  • Fresh Take: Gretchen Rubin on Life's Simple Truths

    Fresh Take: Gretchen Rubin on Life's Simple Truths
    May 23 2025
    If we impart the life lessons we've learned to our children, does that mean they won't make the same mistakes? Gretchen Rubin, author of the new book SECRETS OF ADULTHOOD, discusses how aphorisms provide us with a particular kind of wisdom that stays with us, often forever. Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential observers of happiness and human nature. She’s the author of many NYT-bestselling books. Gretchen and Amy discuss: Why Gretchen chose the aphorism format for her book Why Gretchen prefers the term "open door" to "empty nester" Particular aphorisms that ring especially true for Amy and Gretchen What Gretchen hopes people will get out of the book What the fluency heuristic is—and how rhymes can win parenting battles How brief sayings can provoke deep reflection and even disagreement The surprising dangers of “productive” procrastination Why the opposite of a profound truth can also be true How everyday routines and mini-quests (like collecting globes or visiting museums) can increase happiness Here's where you can find Gretchen: 👉 Buy Secrets of Adulthood: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9780593800737 🌐 Visit Gretchen’s website: GretchenRubin.com 🧪 Follow Gretchen on IG @gretchenrubin 📩 Sign up for her newsletter: Five Things Making Me Happy 🎧 Listen to the Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/⁠⁠⁠⁠ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, happiness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Más Menos
    37 m
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup