Two and a half weeks after dropping her daughter off at college, psychologist Dr. Sheryl Ziegler joins Whitney to talk about the messy, unfiltered reality of watching a kid leave the nest — including the fight at breakfast, the tissues in her purse, and the psychological reason her daughter picked their last morning together to be completely impossible.

In this episode, we get into:

• "Soiling the nest": the psychological term for why sweet kids suddenly turn prickly right before a big transition (and why it's protective, not personal)
• Why the 18-year-old version of pushing you away looks so different from the 14-year-old version — and what both are really doing
• Why parents of neurodivergent kids may have an advantage when the teen years hit
• "Future tripping": Dr. Sheryl's term for the anticipatory anxiety that steals parents' present moments, and how to catch yourself doing it
• A simple gut-check for deciding which social accounts, sidelines conversations, and parenting rabbit holes to walk away from

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Mentioned in this episode:

New Book! Raising Body-Confident Kids

You want your kids to love their bodies. You're still trying to do both. My new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids, helps you do both. Releases Sept 1, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: https://www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books

In this candid, unscripted episode, Dr. Whitney reminds parents that there's no such thing as "winning" back-to-school season. Drawing on a genuinely chaotic 24 hours in her own life — a burst water pipe during a kitchen remodel, a big corporate consulting meeting, an anxious child struggling at school, and a stomach-medication mishap — she walks through what it actually looks like to choose "good enough" over perfection, and why that choice makes her a better parent, not a worse one.

Mentioned in this episode:

Introducing The New Book: Raising Body-Confident Kids! Ever said something about your own body in front of your kids and instantly regretted it? Wondered if you can even comment on your kid's appearance without doing damage? Googled whether intuitive eating actually works when your child seems to live on Oreos? Dr. Whitney's new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids: A Balanced Approach to Breaking the Cycle of Body Shame and Diet Culture, is for you. Pulled from the questions she hears most in her pediatric practice and on this podcast, it skips the all-or-nothing advice and walks parents through where their own body image baggage comes from, how to talk to kids about food and movement without the shame spiral, and how to hold the line when social media, coaches, and well-meaning grandparents push back — plus 30 real activities to put it into practice with your family. 📖 Raising Body-Confident Kids is available now wherever books are sold or at www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books

Every great sports team has a culture. Every great company has one too. So why don't we ever talk about our families that way? This week, Dr. Whitney sits down with siblings Nancy Shapiro and Steven Shapiro — combined, 68 years in public education as a middle school counselor and a high school teacher/program director — who co-founded Our Family Culture after watching, year after year, which kids thrived under pressure and which ones got swept up by achievement culture, social media, and influencers competing for their attention. Hint: their method relies on the same principle The Ritz Carlton uses every single day.

Learn more.

Mentioned in this episode:

New Book! Raising Body-Confident Kids

You want your kids to love their bodies. You're still trying to do both. My new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids, helps you do both. Releases Sept 1, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: https://www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books