Good Inside with Dr. Becky - Bonus - A Game-Changing Strategy for Better Relationships

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

Today on the podcast, we're releasing an episode of A Slight Change of Plans with Maya Shankar where Dr. Becky joins Maya to talk about how shifting to a mindset that children are “good inside” can improve parent-child relationships and make for long-lasting behavior change. Dr. Becky explains why her approach can help us navigate all kinds of relationships in our adult lives—with our co-workers, friends, and family members—thanks to simple practices like the "most generous interpretation."To listen to a Slight Change of Plans visit http://podcasts.pushkin.fm/slight-change-of-plansUpcoming DFK Workshop on June 5th @ 12pm EST: https://bit.ly/3wCYrBHJoin Good Inside Membership: https://bit.ly/3y8G3RmFollow Dr. Becky on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drbeckyatgoodinsideSign up for our weekly email, Good Insider: https://www.goodinside.com/newsletterOrder Dr. Becky's book, Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be, at goodinside.com/book or wherever you order your books.For a full transcript of the episode, go to goodinside.com/podcastTo listen to Dr. Becky's TED Talk on repair visit https://www.ted.com/talks/becky_kennedy_the_single_most_important_parenting_strategy 

So I had the pleasure of meeting Maya Shankar at TED. That's right, we are both TED speakers in 2023. We are both nervous. And somehow we came upon each other and said, wait, I think I recognize you. And we just struck up a conversation. Maya is the best. She's one of those people that has so many things at once. She's brilliant, she's thoughtful, she's reflective, she's so warm and so generous, she's a cheerleader,

she's a thought leader, and she is the host of A Slight Change of Plans, which was named best show of the year by Apple in 2021. Her show features intensely honest conversations with people whose lives have been upended by a big change, like illness, loss, disaster, heartbreak. And this season, the show is focused on parenthood. And we all know that that is an ultimate big change in our life. I was invited to talk to Maya for this series on parenthood, and I want to share the episode with you today, right here. After listening, please know you can follow a slight change of plans

wherever you listen to podcasts to hear Maya's other conversations. I recommend the one with Brené Brown about her evolving relationship with parenting, the one with Professor Alison Gopnik on the science of how babies learn and what that can teach us about creativity, and other stories from other parents. I just know you're going to love Maya's show as much as I do. You can find a slight change of plans wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, big exciting announcement. We are giving the Good Inside Potty program away for free. That's right. Get our two steps for potty success. That includes a potty workshop

and a potty reference guide because I know parents need something to reference in, well, the messy moments that sometimes accompany the potty process. Now you might be wondering, why is this free? What's the catch? There's no catch. I feel so confident that our potty program will take the stress out

of this milestone for you and your kid and it will actually give you and your kid feelings of empowerment and confidence and I want every single family to go through this milestone with that type of positivity. To unlock the Good Inside free potty program, follow the link in show notes and enter your email. I can't wait to hear your success stories. I wanna talk about a group of kids that I'm particularly passionate about.

Why? Because I think these kids are some of the most misunderstood kids in the world. I see these kids as deeply feeling kids and the world tends to see these kids as deeply feeling kids and the world tends to see these kids as oppositional, defiant kids. What are the kids I'm talking about? They're the ones who have explosive meltdowns.

They're the ones who tend to yell, I hate you, go away when you know they actually need your help. They're the ones who will trip and fall and then blame you, even though you were not around them at the time. These kids are misunderstood because they're seen for their difficult behaviors instead of for their underlying core struggles. And because of this difference, I really went to work a while ago and created a completely

different approach for these kids. An approach that parents tell me leads to the first time they've ever understood their kid and then the first time they've ever seen productive change in their home. I want to make sure you know about my upcoming live deeply feeling kid workshop. You're going to get an approach that makes you say, oh my goodness, this is my kid, and then you're gonna get a set of strategies that actually work. First things first, follow the link in show notes to see if your child is a DFK and see exactly how we can help. All of it is available within membership at goodinside.com. I can't wait to

connect with you inside. The only true strategy we ever have with our kids is our relationship with them. Our kids will all get to an age, and it's all sooner than we think, where they're basically like, wait, I'm big now. You literally can't put me in a timeout, and I literally don't give two shits about your stickers. Seriously, that's what they're going to say. And so the only thing between us is the quality of our relationship. Dr. Becky Kennedy is a clinical psychologist known for her parenting advice.

And her core message is this. When we punish kids for their behavior, they may internalize the feeling that they're bad inside and can't change. Behavior is not identity. Like there's a good kid, a in pain kid, probably a smart kid, a freaking funny kid, underneath these really difficult behaviors. And I think when you start seeing that, you intervene totally differently in a way that feels better to the kid and the parent and honestly, in a way that also is just much more

effective for behavior change. On today's episode, Dr. Becky helps us rethink parenting for the benefit of both kids and adults. I'm Maya Shankar, and this is A Slight Change of Plans, a show about who we are and who we become in the face of a big change. Becky is the founder of Good Inside, a company that helps parents navigate the often challenging experience of raising kids. Good Inside is also her recommended parenting strategy. She says parents should start with the assumption that their kids are good at their core. This might sound like a philosophical point, but Becky says it's actually a radical shift

in mindset that can change how parents react when their kids misbehave. What I love about Becky's approach is how you can apply it to all kinds of relationships. I'm not a parent, but I found myself thinking through these strategies in the context of my relationships with my coworkers and as an aunt to my nephews and nieces. Okay, now onto my conversation with Becky. I'd love to rewind the clock to this one day back in 2014. You were a therapist for parents struggling with kids who were

misbehaving, screaming, hitting, name calling, you name it. Tell me more, Becky, about what you had been taught to recommend to these parents and then how things shifted for you on that one day. Yeah, so I was seeing parents who had come to me for hitting, like their hit kid was in a hitting stage, and also not listening, and all these things. And I was teaching the parents how to give a timeout. The program I was trained in, which was very esteemed,

it was kind of like the one to go to around us, it was really all about timeouts, punishments, consequences, sticker charts, praising. So I was teaching them how to give a timeout. But as I was talking, I had this very uncomfortable feeling in my body. That's the only way I can describe it. Like my heart was kind of racing. It was loud enough in my body that I kind of had to slow down and be like, what is going on? And probably for the past couple of months at that point, I'd started becoming a little skeptical about this approach,

unlike the months before, because I was like, this is so weird. Everything I know helps adults change their lives. It's kind of theoretically at odds with everything I'm telling parents to do with kids. I don't know, I can't like, just didn't make sense to me that that would be like that. But I was like, I don't know, keep going, keep going. And this day, the skepticism just reached a breaking point.

I just said to them, I'm sorry, this is super awkward. I actually don't believe anything I'm telling you right now. And I'll never forget their look. They were like, WTF. You came highly recommended to us. Like, you don't believe what you're telling us? Well, like, do you believe something else? And I remember being like, I know there's a different way.

I just, I don't know what that is yet, but I still kind of right now feel like this isn't it. And I don't know, it's kind of like all I've got right now. And maybe we can meet in a couple of weeks. And they were like, yeah like, just give us our money back. Like, I'm not, we're not coming back here. You know, I don't blame them. I'd be like, yeah, I don't think so. Like, this is the weirdest session. But in that moment, I was just like, this isn't it. And it just, it kind of like flew out of me. There was something that I read about your experience that day, which really struck me, which is that you noticed that you empathized with these misbehaving kids quite a lot. Like, you liked them.

Yeah. I feel like the kids with the worst behavior are the kids in the most pain. You know, you're talking about like a four-year-old or a seven-year-old who's kind of like trying to wave a flag the best way they can, which is like, well, I know I can get people's attention from hitting or something, and I'm so out of control control and I feel like they're desperate calls for help. So I think I have a lot of empathy with like, oh, this is a kid who's in so much need and they're in so much pain. And then they tend to get the opposite of what they're in a very unsophisticated way asking for.

And so after that session, I was just like, wait, I don't think I believe in timeouts, but why? Like, what if we just strip back every assumption that we have, what are we left with? So here's one assumption. If you don't punish a kid's behavior, you're basically telling them that the behavior is okay. Parents say this all the time.

Why? Like, if I yelled at my husband and he was like, whoa, that's not okay. And also, you must be upset. Let's get to the bottom of this. Do I think he's approving of my behavior? Like, no, that's absurd. So another assumption we often have is our kids are kind of deliberately doing things to piss us off or they could do better and they're not. Mm-hmm. I don't buy it. I just don't buy it. My kid doing something in the moment isn't about them giving me a hard time.

It's probably about them having a hard time. Massive difference. And so I feel like I was left with one single truth. And the only truth I was left with is kids are good inside. Inherently they come into the world good inside. And if that was the only thing I thought about first and now I've kind of taken away all the floors of this other building and that's my only foundation, what is a brand new building I would create from that foundation? is a brand new building I would create from that foundation. Yeah.

So there's many pragmatic benefits, Becky, to taking this approach and shifting your philosophy around the nature of your kids. And to me, the most important one is that when we assume kids are good inside and we are able to separate their behaviors from their identity, it allows us to be curious about why they're engaging in

bad behavior rather than simply trying to shape the behavior or even worse, accepting it as fixed. So, can you talk a little bit more about that curiosity? Yes. So, everyone listening to this, if you put your hands out in front of you and you look at just one hand, and we'll say about your kid, but it could be about an adult or anyone. Let's say it's my son. Like, this is who my son is. I'm looking just one hand and we'll say about your kid, but it could be about an adult or anyone. Let's say it's my son.

Like, this is who my son is. I'm looking at one hand. This is his identity. And then you put your other hand further away so there's space and you look at that hand and you say, this is my son's latest bad behavior. It might be he hit or he said, I hate you or he lied to your face. Okay. And then you look at the first hand and you're like, this is who he is.

And the other hand is this is what he did. And it's really important to keep those hands separate because what we tend to do is let's say we'll take something super triggering for a parent. Like I just said to my kid, did you just knock down your sister's tower? By the way, I just saw him with my own eyes knock down his sister's tower. And he just looks at me like, no. Okay. So let's say he just lied literally to my face. So that's something he did. It is so easy and you'll hear it for the hands to collapse. And all of a sudden that behavior becomes your kid or your kid becomes that behavior. And when we do that, we have no curiosity because we're really only curious when there's a gap. We're curious because we're like, I don't understand this. Why is that?

And now we can ask a very important question. Why would my good kid, and I'm looking at my identity hand, to me it's my right, and then I'll switch to my left, lie to my face? Right? And then watch how easy it is for them to come together. Oh, because he doesn't respect me and he just like thinks he can get away with it. And then I'd say to a parent, and my mom is, wow, wow, that was so fast.

Like there's no gap anymore. Let's just move those hands away. Okay, that's one interpretation. It's not a useful interpretation. There's no more curiosity. So once you have that gap, why would my good kid lie to my face? Well, what I usually say if I don't know is I'll say to myself,

why would I lie to someone's face, even if it was someone I really loved and respected? What would happen? I'll say my husband. I love my husband. I respect my husband so much. So why would I lie to my husband? What about you, Maya? Why would you lie to their face of someone you even really do respect? Because I didn't want to hurt their feelings. Yeah, I don't want to hurt their feelings. I was insecure about the fact that I had made a big mistake and I feel really embarrassed about it. And I love that one. It's so interesting. People think when kids that say lie to their face, and they'll also say they don't respect me, they'll also say, and I've said this about my kids too, we're like, well, because they're sociopath. I call that the fast forwarder.

We just like create a whole persona for our kids forever based on a behavior. Well, they're just a sociopath. They have no empathy. The reason kids lie and the reasons adults lie often is actually because they feel so guilty about the thing they did that they can no longer separate that bad behavior from their identity. So if lying to someone's face is so bad and lying or pushing down someone's tower even, if pushing down the tower is so bad that I then feel like a horrible, unlovable person, I will lie to anyone's face all day just so I don't have to face the reality of what

I did. Understanding my kid's behavior does not mean I'm approving of my kid's behavior. But if we're curious about, let's say, lying about pushing down a tower, now we can actually get to the core of it. Now we can say, okay, so what would my kid need in that moment to actually manage how guilty they feel

and to know I'm a safe person to tell bad things to? Ooh, now all of a sudden, I'm gonna make short-term and long-term change. And this, I mean, this does lead to one of the second benefits of the good inside approach. It prevents shame in kids, and it gives them the feeling of being empowered with a good self that they can then improve.

So tell me a bit more about that and what we do when we make kids feel like they're actually bad kids. There's a phrase I think about a lot in the psychology literature, which is, I am as I am seen. And I think this really relates to kids' development, meaning if as a parent you think of yourself as a child's mirror, then you are reflecting to them who they are. And kids take in the reflection and form how they think about themselves and their self-concept.

This is one of my biggest problems with how common it is to just send kids away when they're struggling or punish them or just see them as their behavior. We are trying to promote, quote, good behavior by reinforcing their bad identity. Like again, just from a logic perspective, I'm like, why would that work? I'm telling my kid they're a bad kid and expecting them to be good. And so, so many parents will say in the midst of a tantrum, they'll carry them out of a room because they're just struggling to stay calm, bring them to their room, not to put them there, to sit with them there. And they'll say, you're a good kid having a hard time. And so many parents will say, when they're like,

when I said that for the first time, it felt powerful to me. I watched something happen for my kid. I watched it. Because when they feel like they're a good person having a hard time, now all of a sudden, they're in the mindset of, oh, yeah, so what could I do? What's possible to have less of a hard time? One of the things I tend to say in sessions to parents is I'd say, look, there's a lot of stuff going on and I promise you I'm actually going to help you shift it. But I just want to start by saying, I like your kid. I like your kid. And, Maya, it's so interesting. I feel like 80% of the time, one of the parents would cry.

I feel like I'm going to cry right now. Yeah. And I think it was probably the first time, maybe, they had heard someone, especially quote a professional, say that. The teachers always, and I don't mean to throw teachers under the bus. Teachers are doing, everyone's doing the best we can in these impossible situations, but they would

have had teachers who are like, your kid's the troublemaker, your kid's getting suspended, or they saw a clinician who worked a different way who'd give them some label, like your kid is oppositional defiant disorder. And you're like, wow, like that's not a nice term for my child, okay. And starting with like, I really like your kid. And by the way, the behaviors, no, no, no, totally not okay, we're going to fix it. like I really like your kid and by the way the behaviors no no totally not okay We're gonna fix it, but I really like your kid really was this manifestation of Behavior is not identity like there's a good kid in pain kid probably a smart kid a freaking funny kid really really motivated driven kid underneath these really difficult behaviors.

And I think when you start in seeing that, you intervene totally differently in a way that feels better to the kid and the parent. And honestly, in a way that also is just much more effective for behavior change. Yeah. I mean, it's really interesting because when you think about little kids, right, their prefrontal cortices are not developed. They have a really hard time with self-control. You could subscribe to the Pavlovian model of things here, which is, okay, you do a bad thing and there's a

punishment and so the kid does less of the bad thing. But why is it that you think that that's not the right way for us to engage with kids? So let's say, maybe I'm mad that my mom said I can't have a sleepover came out as I hate you and my mom says, go to your room. And by the way, no dessert or no iPhone, whatever it is for a week. Okay. So you're like, okay, so they get a punishment. Won't they learn not to do that? To me, what a kid really is encoding in their body is when I feel mad, that leads to problems in my relationship. and I don't get the things I want. So I will push away mad. Mad is bad. Okay, that is not a long-term strategy to manage mad because we can't get rid of mad. And so if mad,

by the time I'm 25, has learned zero skills, literally, I now have the same amount of skills to manage anger as I did when I was born, like zero. I have developed a system to try to push it away. Okay, you know what happens when you push away anger? You are literally building the pressure in your body, getting ready for a moment where it's going to explode out of you. The feelings always win. They explode out of our body. They explode or they're internalized with deep shame. Or they're internalized deep shame with chronic health problems we know people have. Right? I mean, so many things that repressed or suppressed or pushed away feelings lead to.

Now, I want to show the opposite because I think people really misunderstand this and I've never considered good inside to be quote gentle parenting, but people kind of put us in that category. So they'll say, oh, so it's just okay that my kid says I hate you. Like here's what an intervention from good inside would not look like or sound like. Oh, sweetie, you have such big feelings.

You really wanna sleep over, let that anger out. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Here's what I'm talking about as like a sturdy intervention. Hey, you're really upset that you can't have a sleepover. I get it. I also know there's another way you can say that to me. And I care about your being disappointed. And I'd love to talk that out with you. And we can do that when we both take a couple deep breaths and use other language.

Like I'm actually teaching my kid it's okay to be mad. Kids can never learn to regulate feelings we don't allow them to have. The only true strategy we ever have with our kids is our relationship with them. Our kids will all get to an age and it's all sooner than we think where they're basically like wait, I'm big now. Like you literally can't put me in a timeout and I literally don't give two shits about your stickers. Like seriously, that's what they're going to say. quality of our relationship is how connected we are. And I just don't know anyone who looks back on their childhood and is like, when my parents sent me to my room, it was so productive.

I was just like Googling how to express my anger in a healthy way. And I was kind of sitting in my bed being like, it is really true. My parent is helping me reflect. No, you know what you're doing? You're thinking about how misunderstood you are. You are thinking about how mad you are. You are thinking about how mad you are

that your iPad was just taken away, which literally stops you from thinking about the behavior in the first place. You have righteous indignation. It is so counterproductive in reality. It just feels good to a parent because you get to vomit your frustration onto your kid momentarily, and you have the illusion of having an impact

because in the moment, they look upset by your consequence. And on that point, I think it's valuable to share that you don't see the good inside principles simply applying to children. It applies to parents. And this is so important because how many friends of mine are crippled by guilt, are so frustrated that they aren't the parent they wish they were going to be, who get annoyed

every time they find themselves yelling because they committed to themselves not to yell. And so talk to me a bit more about how we can avoid shame spirals and all sorts of other counterproductive things that parents do when they're all just trying their best. Yes. It is the exact same thing the approach does for parents, right? I mean, it's such a bigger picture conversation, but like we are in a messed up system as parents. We are not set up for success. Like, we are not given training for this. And no, parenting does not come natural. And for women, no, there's not some quote, maternal instinct. That is a concept someone else made up to make us feel bad about ourselves and keep us small. Preach, girl, preach.

It really is. I love it. F that. Yes. F that. And, you know, I often think that good insight is like a language parents are learning. And really the language of parenting we all speak naturally is the language we were parented in, simply. And if I told you, hey, I was brought up speaking English and I really want to bring up my kids in Mandarin, I think you

would tell me, wow, okay, like, first of all, that's amazing. That's going to be challenging. It's definitely possible. But I'm pretty sure you would also say to me, in my most high-stress moments with my kids, I'd probably revert to English. I just would, right? And that doesn't mean my Mandarin isn't coming along. It doesn't mean all is lost and I messed up my kids forever and now they'll never know Mandarin. We say this to ourselves all the time. Like, I'm trying to connect to my kids and I yelled at them and I called them a spoiled brat and I Messed them up forever. No, like that was a high stress moment. You Reverted, right? I forgot who said this to me. I'm gonna say it to you because it's so powerful I have to get it right kind of like in a high stress moments. We don't rise to the occasion

We fall to the level of our training And that doesn't mean you're a horrible person. Let's take away that shame. Let's stay connected to yourself. That whole idea of behavior versus identity. That's how I calm myself down after I yell at my kids. I say, Becky, I'm a good parent who is having a hard time. I am not defined by my latest behavior. I'm good inside.

I'm good inside. And then you know what I do next, because yes, that's my responsibility, is I go back to skills. What skills do I need? Do I have to pay attention to my exhaustion sooner? Because if I don't, guess what? It explodes as anger toward my kid. You know what, I actually haven't worked out this week

or really seen my friends. And those are ways I take care of my non-caregiving parts of myself. And so I know I need to do that so I don't get to my breaking point as soon. And it's really that same system applied to ourselves. After the break, Becky shares strategies for putting these ideas into practice.

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to this. I need to put this into practice though. Great. Tell me about this concept of the most generous interpretation. So first off, you're listening to this and this is a new idea and you're still listening and I mean this in the bottom most generous interpretation. So first off, you're listening to this and this is a new idea and you're still listening. And I mean, this is the bottom of my heart. I hope you give yourself credit for the bravery it takes

to consider something new. It's such a brave thing. And you obviously know this better than anyone. To even consider taking a different path is so vulnerable because we're faced with like, oh, did I do it wrong? Did I mess up my kit forever? My answer is no to both questions. And by the way, if you take a different path,

you'll be like me. There'll still be moments you hear yourself saying, go to your room. No iPad for a week. And I'm like, why did I say that? I just I don't want to say that. Why did I say that? We all say these things.

No one is perfect. Definitely not me. I do think, like you said, this concept of MGI, most generous interpretation, is such a concrete way to start thinking in a different way. So really, the simple exercise is everybody right now think about a behavior in your kid or it could be your partner or your colleague or your mother-in-law, whoever it is, that feels like a bad behavior and it's kind of something that gets under your skin.

So maybe I'll say for my daughter, it's screaming at me when she could just say, I didn't like that, right? Screaming or- Or a colleague of mine who interrupts me in meetings when I'm mid-sentence. Perfect. Perfect example. My colleague is always interrupting me. And then just ask yourself this question.

Irony, I just interrupted you, sorry. To make that point, whoops. So I would say, what is my most generous interpretation of Maya's interrupting me, right? But what is my most generous interpretation of, and then fill in the blank. What is my most generous interpretation of my daughter continuing to jump on the couch after I said, please stop jumping on the couch.

What is my most generous interpretation of my daughter lying to my face? What is my most generous interpretation of why my partner came home after 6 p.m. when we had talked about my partner coming home at 5.30 p.m.? And to be clear, when you come up with the most generous interpretation, the action you take next isn't

saying to the other person, it's fine that you did that. No. What a most generous interpretation lens does for you is it always helps you see that there is a good person under a bad behavior. And what it really does is it helps you think, like, well, what was going on for that person? Like, what else could have been their positive intent, even if it wasn't acted out in their behavior? And what it does is it also helps you intervene

from a place of groundedness and of seeing the other person as a teammate. Me and Maya are on a team against interrupting. Me and my husband are on a team against poor communication around what time he was gonna be home from work. Me and my daughter are actually on the same team against this hitting problem, because the truth is, she doesn't wanna be doing it either,

and that changes everything. You talk in your book about one of the most important tools for parents being the concept of repair. So tell me more about rupture and repair and how owning this as a parent can actually improve things. So rupture is really any moment in a relationship where you feel disconnected. A rupture is me yelling at my kid, what's wrong with you? Or me calling them, you know, a name. I cannot believe you freaked out

in that toy store. You are such a spoiled brat. A rupture can also be my kid wanting to talk to me about something and me invalidating it or rushing past him, really upset about not making the soccer team. Oh, you're so dramatic. It's not a big deal, you made the basketball team, that could be a rupture too. So it's really like a break in your connection with someone. And a repair is the process of going back to that moment of disconnection, taking responsibility for your part in that event, helping the other person understand it in a different way. And I think also stating what you would do differently the next time.

Events in and of themselves are not what have a negative impact on kids. And so actually this understanding is huge. So an event like I just screamed my head off at my kids. Now, is that an amazing event for a kid? Of course not, it's not a great event. But that event isn't having the impact on your kids that you think it is.

What has an impact on a kid and their development is how an event gets processed for them. It's actually more about what happens after the event. There's two things that can happen. An event is followed by a loneliness and nobody ever talks to me about it and no one ever mentions it again. So after an overwhelming event,

I guess I'm just a five-year-old trying to process this on my own. There's that, or there's the same event. And then after at some point, I have a loving, safe, trusted adult who connects with me and helps me understand that event and gives me more coherence about the event and helps me regulate my feelings through that process.

Same event, two totally different ways of processing it and two completely different outcomes. And the difference is actually all about the relationship we have with someone after the event. Yeah, you have a great quote, which is that, repair gives a not great chapter a different ending and allows for a different lesson to be learned. In this case, the not great chapter

was yelling at your kid. Yes. So a repair for yelling at my son might sound like, hey, earlier today I screamed at you in the kitchen and I'm sorry. And I think I was just having a really hard time. I was stressed and that came out as a yell. It wasn't your fault.

And I'm working on managing my own frustration. So even when I'm frustrated, it doesn't come out in a yell. And if that all seems too complicated, just saying to a kid, I'm sorry I yelled, that wasn't your fault. I love you, is like shorthand. And I'm happy to double click on it wasn't your fault because I know it's like kind of a complicated thing because- Yeah, because you're like, of a complicated thing because you're like it is kind of your fault. It is your dinner all over the room and you know me for whatever. Yeah. So how do you get there?

Here's here's how I get there. I was having some set of feelings that were bigger than my ability to regulate those feelings that has to do with the event in front of me, but honestly, this is the hard truth, my regulation skills and patterns predated my son's existence. They're in my body. How able am I in general to deal with frustration?

How able am I to keep myself regulated and grounded when I'm upset? How able am I to communicate with someone when I'm frustrated with them in a way that's still respectful, those things have to do with me. He didn't, quote, make me yell. An event happened between us. I felt frustrated.

And at the point the frustration started in my body, it's kind of my own skills that relate to how I handle it. The more we teach our kids that we're blaming them for our lack of coping skills or inability to access them in the moment, that creates a whole set of not so great patterns intergenerationally that I actually don't think anyone actually wants to pass on to their kids. Plus, one last thing, it is the most disempowering thing to me, like when parents say, but if my kid didn't complain about dinner, I wouldn't yell. Look, I know yelling doesn't feel great to you.

It doesn't feel great to anyone. So you're saying that you're willing to like depend on your four-year-old changing what they say for you to behave in a way that's in line with your values. Like I'm not willing to make that bet. My self-esteem is way too important to me to leave it dependent on my kid. So I think that's another perspective on it. Yeah.

And there's an irony because there's actually just parallel processes happening that are very similar to one another, which is the kid's disappointed with the meal and can't manage the big emotions, so they throw their dinner plate and food everywhere. The mom or dad can't handle the behaviors of the kid, and then they can't regulate themselves. And so maybe we can bridge the empathy gap just a little bit

if we realize the inherent psychological similarities between what both parent and child are managing in that moment. That's right. So if our kid's dysregulated emotion is just met with our dysregulated emotion, then what they're building in their body in terms of their circuits and patterns of learning of how the world works is my emotion that was too big for me gets layered on top of my parents' emotion that was too big for them.

Guess what? I'm actually making it harder for my kid to learn how to regulate their own emotions because of that association. What do you say to parents who are afraid that it's just too late for them to implement your approach? So they're thinking, look, this all sounds great, but my kid is 24, and so I'm pretty sure that I missed the window.

It is never too late. It is never too late. Is it going to take effort to reestablish a connection with your 24-year-old? 100%, just like it would take effort to reestablish a connection with your 24 year old? 100%. Just like it would take effort to learn a new language. But ironically, the belief that it's too late is the single biggest thing that stops us from change. And then I would say like, what is one thing? What is one thing you can do? And to me, when we're trying to establish a closer relationship

with our kids or anyone, repair is often like the best starting point. If you just imagine your own parent calling you, like, hey, like I've been thinking a lot about our relationship and the way I did things and I just, I know there were a lot of things that felt really bad to you and I just, I know there were a lot of things that felt really bad to you. And I get that. And you were right to feel that way. And I care about you. And I know we can't do a complete 180 right now, but I'm willing to listen. And I want to do things differently.

I just don't know one adult who's like, yeah, it's too late. That would do nothing. I know plenty of adults who would say, I don't know, I might still have my guard up and that wouldn't change everything. And I'd say, good. Now, one conversation shouldn't change everything, but it might change one thing

or it might change some things. And I think if we know that it would have that impact on us, well, our kids are younger than us and they're even more open as a result. And I think that's a great starting point. I think I just have a reflection, which is just with all of these tools and all of these techniques,

parenting is just so fricking hard. And I'm curious if you're willing to share, like when you maybe imagine parenthood and what it was gonna be like, and then you experience the reality. What have you found to be the most surprising, hard component of being a parent? Yeah. I think on some level, unconsciously, we think our kids are going to heal us. And the truth is our kids trigger us. Like they trigger us all the time. And so in that way, I think what I was unprepared for, and I think most people are unprepared

for is like, parenting is just an exercise in like self-development if we're willing to take it on. Our kids trigger us, which really mean, oh, they bring up a lot of unresolved, unprocessed things in us. And am I willing to look in and say, okay, like, can I use those and grow? Because obviously, it'll help me grow as a parent. Ironically, it'll actually help me grow more as a person, because these things always kind of lived within me, but they just weren't triggered as often. You know, I had my first kid and he just temperamentally was like an kind of easier kid. I didn't realize that I had tantrums, but looking back, like he really was pretty easy. And I did

all these parenting things and it's not like he said, thank you, mommy, you know, but he did kind of like do well when I did them. And I remember I'd have these parents in my private practice who'd be like, I'm doing the thing you're telling me, but my kid, they yell or it's not changing. And in the back of my head, I'd be like, you're probably not doing it right. You know? But then I'd be like, I wouldn't say that to their face. And then I had my second kid and I was like,

oh my goodness. Like I thought I had this down a little bit and all those things those parents were saying to me in my practice, that's happening now. Yeah. Like, oh, my goodness. My second, I feel like it's a lot more effort on my part to show up the way she would need. And also, therefore, yeah, like, we have more

rupture moments for sure because of also what she triggers in me. Yeah. What you're sharing with me, Becky, is really profound because I think, we think of parenting as the phase in life where we've accumulated all of this wisdom, and now it's time to impart that wisdom on these little people, right? And I think what you're teaching me in this moment is actually what kids do is they hold up a mirror to you,

and actually it's self-learning. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. You know, I always think about the prologue from Far From the Tree, which is this amazing book by Andrew Solomon. And I think his first line is, there's no such thing as reproduction. And I think that says a lot about parenting. We use this word, reproduction, as if we reproduce.

And he says, a child is an act of production. You produce, and what he says is parenting is being forever cast into a relationship with a stranger. And it's so dark, but it's so true. And he's like, people don't say it that way because no one would have kids. They'd be like, I don't know who this stranger is. I don't know if I want to live with this kid my whole life. That's kind of what it is.

And you know, I think that brings up so much for us. Like, you learn way more about yourself than you will ever teach your child. Um, and that's, that's tiring. And I think, again, it's just very different than, like, the societal view and expectations of parenting. I feel like it's so important to, like, say it how it really is, because hopefully there'll be generations who have kids at some point and can just say, I knew it would be hard. Hey, thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed my conversation with Dr. Becky, I recommend checking out last week's episode

with developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik. We talk about how children are the best learners we know of in the universe, and what they can teach us about creativity and being more open to taking risks. And join me next week when I talk with someone who honestly I'm kind of obsessed with, Suleika Jawad. She's the author of the bestselling memoir,

Between Two Kingdoms, and she shares her story of being diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia in her early 20s. We talk about the isolation of illness and recovery, why she hates the trope of the hero's journey in cancer stories, and the solace in finding creativity and community throughout it all. You won't want to miss this one.

I'll see you next week. A Slight Change of Plans is created, written, and executive produced by me, Maya Shankar. The Slight Change family includes our showrunner, Tyler Green, our senior editor, Kate Parkinson-Morgan, our senior producer, Trisha Bobita, and our engineer, Erica Huang. Luis Guerra wrote our delightful theme song and Ginger Smith helped arrange the vocals. A Slight Change of Plans is a production of Pushkin Industries, so a big thanks to everyone

there. And of course, a very special thanks to Jimmy Lee. You can follow a slight change of plans on Instagram at Dr. Maya Shankar. See you next week! Like if I was going out to dinner with my husband and he was like, get on your shoes by the time I count to three or you don't get dessert tonight. And if I said, I'm not getting my shoes, I just don't know one person who'd say, Becky, like, I think you have a listening problem. Like, I think they'd be like, Becky, I think you have a husband problem. Like, what is that guy's deal? Becky Peltz, The New York Times

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