Is Your Kid an Asshole or Just a Kid? With Melinda Wenner Moyer

Ever feel like gentle parenting only works for gentle children—and yours were born throwing punches? Same. That’s why this week, I sat down with science journalist and parenting sanity-saver ⁠Melinda Wenner Moyer⁠, author of ⁠How to Raise Kids Who Aren’t Assholes⁠ and the new book ⁠Hello, Cruel World: How to Parent with Hope in an Era of Anxiety and Doom⁠.

We’re diving deep into the hard stuff: screen time panic, why discipline doesn’t mean dictatorship, and how to build actual resilience (hint: let your kid be bored). Melinda brings research, realism, and a refreshing amount of empathy to the parenting chaos. We also unpack why most parenting influencers should probably be legally required to disclose their lack of qualifications—and why your 8-year-old flipping you off at school pickup doesn’t mean you’ve failed.

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