How Much Should We Share With Our Kids?
How much should we share with our kids about our past mistakes and current struggles? We discuss how to know what's age-appropriate, what to leave out, and how to make sure you're keeping their best interests at heart.
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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