Advertise on podcast: The In-Between Years with Dr. Sheryl

Michaeleen Doucleff is a science journalist. Which only partly explains why, a few years ago, she packed up her four-year-old and moved in with a Maya family in the Yucatan, an Inuit family in the Arctic, and a group of Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania. She wanted to know why kids in those cultures grow up more capable, less anxious - and honestly, easier to live with - than ours. T She wrote a NYT bestselling book about the experience, and what she learned, called Hunt, Gather, Parent. The book mostly addresses the parenting of toddlers and young children, so Dr. Sheryl wanted to ask Dr. Doucleff whether and how any of this holds up when your kid is seventeen, driving your car, and rolling their eyes at you from across the kitchen? They get into why an eye roll might be a better sign than you think. Why kids are wired to want to help long before we start assigning them chores. What actually happens to a kid's motivation the second you say "good job." And the difference between raising a kid who does the dishes and raising one who feels like a real, needed part of the family, at any age. * Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Yoto: Get 15% off your order with the code DRSHERYL15 at YotoPlay.com. New customers only, ends October 31, offer valid on select products only. Terms apply.Frida: Shop Frida for Kids at Walmart and Amazon todayGood Inside’s Dr. Becky and Dr. Sheryl have a new show on YouTube - Teens & Screens, a bi-weekly video series helping parents navigate today's biggest technology questions. Watch the first episode on youtube.com/@goodinside. Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gretchen Rubin has done this twice: watched one daughter leave for college, and now she's doing it again with her younger one, no sibling left behind to soften the landing. The happiness researcher and #1 New York Times bestselling author joins Dr. Sheryl to make her case for retiring "empty nest" in favor of a phrase she's convinced changes what parents actually do next: open door. They get into what predicts a hard transition, why growth is the real engine of happiness, the line between a friendly acquaintance and an actual friend, and the one piece of advice Gretchen keeps coming back to: come back to yourself. If your house is about to get quieter, or already has, this one's for you. Looking for more support in the in-between years of parenting? Good Inside Teen gives you practical tools, scripts, and expert guidance for the moments that can feel most overwhelming with tweens and teens.  Thank you to Frida for making this episode possible! Shop Frida for Kids at Walmart and Amazon today. Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gloria Steinem died this month at 92. Just a few weeks before she did, she sat down at home with Dr. Becky and repeated something she’s been saying for fifty years: we've raised our daughters to be more like sons, but not our sons to be more like daughters. Dr. Sheryl was also in Gloria’s living room that night, and she introduces this rare conversation about what it means for the boys and girls we're raising right now. * Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Yoto: Get 15% off your order with the code DRSHERYL15 at YotoPlay.com. New customers only, ends October 31, offer valid on select products only. Terms apply.Frida: Shop Frida for Kids at Walmart and Amazon today Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Somewhere around 12 or 13, most kids make a quiet decision about themselves: that they're likable, or too much, that they belong, or that they're better off not needing anyone. It usually happens over something small, like a friend who stopped texting back. Psychologist Dr. Marisa Franco, author of Worth (and Platonic), sits down with Dr. Sheryl to talk about what's actually happening in that decision and what it takes to undo it. Dr. Franco breaks down the real difference between self-esteem and self-worth: one kind of high self-esteem pushes shame away and gets defensive the moment it surfaces, the other lets it in. Only one of them, her research suggests, actually predicts good relationships. They get into why telling a kid "you're so great" can backfire (it can feel like being armored up for a harder fall), why unprocessed memories don't just record the past, they predict the future, and what to do instead: slow down, get curious, and let your kid feel witnessed instead of fixed. Dr. Franco also talks about her own therapy, why she now calls herself "secure-ish," and the phrase Dr. Sheryl coins mid-conversation that sums up the whole episode: confess to yourself first. * Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Yoto: Get 15% off your order with the code DRSHERYL15 at YotoPlay.com. New customers only, ends October 31, offer valid on select products only. Terms apply.Frida: Shop Frida for Kids at Walmart and Amazon todayGood Inside’s Dr. Becky and Dr. Sheryl have a new show on YouTube - Teens & Screens, a bi-weekly video series helping parents navigate today's biggest technology questions. Watch on youtube.com/@goodinside. Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Somewhere around 11, your kid stops playing “the floor is lava” with you. A lot of parents quietly stop trying to connect that way and never start again. Dr. Kim Van Dusen isn't buying it. She's spent almost 25 years studying play, she's a licensed marriage and family therapist and registered play therapist, and she just wrote a book called Parenting Through Play. She's also a mom to a 12-year-old and a 9-year-old, so she's living the tween years right now, right alongside everyone listening. In this conversation, Dr. Kim and Dr. Sheryl talk through what play actually looks like once your kid is too old for dolls and too self-conscious for a dance party. Kim explains why her daughter has a code emoji (a donut, specifically) that means "come get me, something's wrong," and why gamifying chores works better than any lecture. There's a story about a family chore race that gets done in 30 minutes flat, no bribe, no reward, just a timer and a little competition. The idea underneath all of it: play isn't a reward you dole out after the hard stuff is done. Put it first, and the power struggles start to disappear. If your "easy" kid has gone quiet on you, or your house has stopped feeling playful and you're not sure how it happened, this one's for you. * Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Yoto: Get 15% off your order with the code DRSHERYL15 at YotoPlay.com. New customers only, ends October 31, offer valid on select products only. Terms apply. Girl Scouts: If you have a daughter in kindergarten through 12th grade, visit girlscouts.org to learn more Frida: Shop Frida for Kids at Walmart and Amazon today Good Inside’s Dr. Becky and Dr. Sheryl have a new show on YouTube - Teens & Screens, a bi-weekly video series helping parents navigate today's biggest technology questions. Watch the series on youtube.com/@goodinside. Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Puberty is starting earlier—and for many parents, it’s arriving before they or their kids feel ready. In this episode, Dr. Becky sits down with Dr. Sheryl to unpack why puberty today looks so different for our kids than it did for us—and what caregivers can do to support them through it. Together, they explore the emotional and physical shifts that are arriving sooner than expected, the impact of today’s culture on tweens, and practical tools for navigating this new stage with connection, clarity, and compassion.   Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Yoto: Get 15% off your order with the code DRSHERYL15 at YotoPlay.com. New customers only, ends October 31, offer valid on select products only. Terms apply. Girl Scouts: If you have a daughter in kindergarten through 12th grade, visit girlscouts.org to learn more Frida: Shop Frida for Kids at Walmart and Amazon today Good Inside’s Dr. Becky and Dr. Sheryl have a new show on YouTube - Teens & Screens, a bi-weekly video series helping parents navigate today's biggest technology questions. Watch on youtube.com/@goodinside. Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Two days before her daughter and oldest child leaves for college, Dr. Sheryl hits record and doesn't clean it up: the grief and the relief showing up in the same moment, the packing-list control spiral, the "boring on purpose" plan for the last 48 hours, and the line she's repeated to a thousand parents that suddenly means something different from the other side of the experience. If you're in your own version of this countdown — bins taped up, closet half empty, a text you're waiting on — this episode is for you. * Back to school brings big changes - new routines, new teachers, new challenges. Our Back To School program helps you prepare for day one, navigate tricky moments, and build your kid's resilience. Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Yoto: Get 15% off your order with the code DRSHERYL15 at YotoPlay.com. New customers only, ends October 31, offer valid on select products only. Terms apply. Girl Scouts: If you have a daughter in kindergarten through 12th grade, visit girlscouts.org to learn more Good Inside’s Dr. Becky and Dr. Sheryl have a new show on YouTube - Teens & Screens, a bi-weekly video series helping parents navigate today's biggest technology questions. Watch the first episode on youtube.com/@goodinside. Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Somewhere around 9 or 10, your kid starts watching their own body: how it looks, how it compares, whether it's keeping up. And most of us freeze, because nobody handed us a script for that moment. Dr. Sheryl sits down with pediatrician Dr. Whitney Casares, author of My One of a Kind Body and the new Raising Body Confident Kids, for a conversation every parent of a tween needs. They get specific: the exact three-step self-compassion script Whitney uses when her own daughter climbs in the car saying "I'm ugly, look at my skin." Why "you're so beautiful" is the wrong reflex. How diet culture went from Special K commercials to an algorithm that feeds your kid more of it every scroll, and how Whitney quietly resets that algorithm behind the scenes. What to say when a grandparent comments on your kid's body at the dinner table. And the smallest, most doable practice for parents carrying their own body baggage: slowing down for one minute. * Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Girl Scouts: If you have a daughter in kindergarten through 12th grade, visit girlscouts.org to learn more Frida: Shop Frida for Kids at Walmart and Amazon today Good Inside’s Dr. Becky and Dr. Sheryl have a new show on YouTube - Teens & Screens, a bi-weekly video series helping parents navigate today's biggest technology questions. Watch the first episode on youtube.com/@goodinside. Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Middle school strips away the training wheels. Elementary school's one teacher becomes six. The hand-holding disappears. For a kid with ADHD, that's when a lot of quiet fear starts, both theirs and their parents'. Sheryl sits down with Dr. Alex Reed, a clinical psychologist specializing in neurodevelopment, to talk about what ADHD actually looks like as kids move into the teen years, and why so many of them fall through the cracks. They get into the three ADHD subtypes, why hyperfocus (yes, the same kid who can't sit still for homework but plays video games for four hours straight) is actually a strength you can work with instead of against, and "body doubling," an evidence-based strategy that makes starting a hard task dramatically easier just by having someone do it alongside you. They also get into who gets missed: girls who mask their struggle by overachieving until they burn out, and kids of color who are far more likely to be disciplined for the same behavior their white peers get evaluated for. * Looking for more support in the in-between years of parenting? Good Inside Teen gives you practical tools, scripts, and expert guidance for the moments that can feel most overwhelming with tweens and teens. Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Girl Scouts: If you have a daughter in kindergarten through 12th grade, visit girlscouts.org to learn more Frida: Shop Frida for Kids at Walmart and Amazon today Good Inside’s Dr. Becky and Dr. Sheryl have a new show on YouTube - Teens & Screens, a bi-weekly video series helping parents navigate today's biggest technology questions. Watch the first episode on youtube.com/@goodinside. Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Phyllis Fagell has spent years inside a middle school as a counselor, and she's here to make the case that the silence, the friend-group churn, and the sudden need for privacy aren't warning signs. They're the work of growing up. Dr. Sheryl and Phyllis talk through why middle schoolers pull away from their parents (and why it's not rejection), the real numbers on how often friendships shift during these years, and the "superpowers," belonging, security, self-regulation, that actually predict resilience. Also: why the popular kids aren't as happy as you'd think. Looking for more support in the in-between years of parenting? Good Inside Teen gives you practical tools, scripts, and expert guidance for the moments that can feel most overwhelming with tweens and teens. * Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Girl Scouts: If you have a daughter in kindergarten through 12th grade, visit girlscouts.org to learn more Good Inside’s Dr. Becky and Dr. Sheryl have a new show on YouTube - Teens & Screens, a bi-weekly video series helping parents navigate today's biggest technology questions. Watch the first episode on youtube.com/@goodinside. Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your tween or teen is already using AI. For homework, for image generation, for drafting the text they're too nervous to send, and, more and more, for the human stuff: breakups, mental health, how to ask someone out, how to talk to you. Dr. Sheryl sits down with Dr. Dana Suskind, a pediatric surgeon, professor of surgery and pediatrics at the University of Chicago, and the author of "Human Raised," to make sense of what kids actually need from us as AI moves into the middle of their lives. Dana's take is refreshingly un-panicked: she's not anti-AI, and not pro-AI. She's pro-human. She implants technology for a living, she builds AI tools herself, and she's clear that the real risk is what we quietly stop practicing when everything gets easy. AI is frictionless. It never pushes back. But that messy, imperfect back-and-forth between a parent and a kid? As Dana puts it, that's not a bug in the system. It's the curriculum. Sheryl and Dana get into the questions parents are actually asking: why teens open up to chatbots more than to people, whether that's a problem or a relief, what her waiting room going silent taught her about where we're headed, and why "good enough" parenting is exactly what kids need. * Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Kt by Knix: Use the code GOODINSIDE for 15% off period underwear Girl Scouts: If you have a daughter in kindergarten through 12th grade, visit girlscouts.org to learn more Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A revisit from the Good Inside archives, hosted by Dr. Becky. As our kids grow up and pull away, it can feel like they’re breaking up with us. This week, Dr. Becky talks to a mom wondering why her son feels so distant as he begins middle school. He seems to have plenty of time to play video games and talk to his friends but she feels like she doesn’t know anything about his life anymore. Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Kt by Knix: Use the code GOODINSIDE for 15% off period underwear Girl Scouts: If you have a daughter in kindergarten through 12th grade, visit girlscouts.org to learn more Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Boys have body image issues too. They're just harder to spot. Dr. Kyle Ganson is a researcher at the University of Toronto who studies body image, eating disorders, and masculinity in boys and young men. He's also a dad. And yes, his six-year-old already flexes at him every morning. In this conversation, Dr. Sheryl and Dr. Kyle get into what's actually happening to boys in a culture built around gym influencers, supplement stacks, looks maxing, and bulking protocols — and why parents keep missing the warning signs. (Spoiler: it looks like discipline and it looks like health. That's the problem.) You'll hear about the 1-in-7 statistic that most parents have never encountered, what muscle dysmorphia actually is and how it shows up in teenage boys, why the "respectful curiosity" approach matters more than rules, and how Arnold Schwarzenegger was genuinely different from what your son is watching on YouTube right now. * Looking for more support in the in-between years of parenting? Good Inside Teen gives you practical tools, scripts, and expert guidance for the moments that can feel most overwhelming with tweens and teens. Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Kt by Knix: Use the code GOODINSIDE for 15% off period underwear Girl Scouts: If you have a daughter in kindergarten through 12th grade, visit girlscouts.org to learn more Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your kid seems fine. Easygoing, no meltdowns. But when you ask how they're doing — nothing. "Fine." "I don't know." A shrug. And then one day you notice something's off, and you spend weeks trying to figure out what. Sarah comes to Dr. Sheryl with exactly this. Her 10-year-old son is kind, resilient, good at everything — and totally unable to name what he's feeling. She's tried asking directly. She's tried asking sideways. She's modeled emotions, referenced Inside Out, sat on his bed and guessed out loud until something landed. And now, as his school closes and his whole world reshuffles, she can feel him shutting down again. In this conversation, Dr. Sheryl helps Sarah understand what's actually happening under the surface — why even-keeled kids often pay a silent price for their regulation, how puberty complicates the picture, and why trying to get them to talk isn't always the right first move. They talk through the "mixed feelings" shorthand, the power of asking about what your kid actually cares about (no agenda, no pivot to the real stuff), and — in one of the most specific pieces of advice you'll hear on this show — why getting your kid physically activated might open more doors than any question you could ask. * Looking for more support in the in-between years of parenting? Good Inside Teen gives you practical tools, scripts, and expert guidance for the moments that can feel most overwhelming with tweens and teens. Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Kt by Knix: Use the code GOODINSIDE for 15% off period underwear Girl Scouts: If you have a daughter in kindergarten through 12th grade, visit girlscouts.org to learn more   Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sarah Kate Ellis has spent more than a decade as President and CEO of GLAAD, the nation's largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization. She's a TIME 100 honoree. She's testified before Congress. She's had two audiences with Pope Francis. She's also a mom of two teenagers. In this conversation, Dr. Sheryl and Sarah Kate get into what parents actually need to know — not the policy, not the politics, but the real stuff. What does it mean when your kid starts watching shows with queer characters? What do you say when they come to you? What do you do when you already said the wrong thing? Sarah Kate's answer to almost all of it: love out loud, and leave room for exploration. Kids are watching everything — your reactions to the neighbor who just came out, the stranger at the store, the character in the movie. They're taking notes. You don't have to have the perfect words. You just have to stay close. Topics covered: Why kids test the waters before they ever come out to you — and what to do in those moments The terminology parents trip on (and what "queer" actually means) What to do when you've already had a bad reaction What trans kids actually need from their parents (Sarah Kate's left-handedness analogy is one of the best things in this episode) Whether to celebrate when your kid comes out — and how to do it right * Looking for more support in the in-between years of parenting? Good Inside Teen gives you practical tools, scripts, and expert guidance for the moments that can feel most overwhelming with tweens and teens. Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Kt by Knix: Use the code GOODINSIDE for 15% off period underwear Follow Dr. Sheryl on Instagram Learn more about Good Inside Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.