How young is too young to drive your kid three states away for a lacrosse tournament? Is it 5? (Yes, yes it is.) It's tempting to use sports to teach our kids valuable lessons, tire them out, and groom them for the Olympics. But sports for young kids are intrinsically valuable, even without structure, competition, or score keeping. And why would you want your kids to grow up to make millions of dollars a year playing baseball when they could be actors, anyway?

In this episode, Molly and Blaire discuss:

How sports both help and hurt young kids

How to instill a love of sports in kids, minus unhealthy competition mindsets

How to incorporate all kinds of fun activities into kids' schedules

Here are the links to some of the resources mentioned in the show:

Patty Onderko for parenting.com: "Toddler Sports"

Kelly Wallace for CNN: "How to make your kid hate sports without really trying"

Spooky Nook Sports: "How To Get Kids Interested In Sports - Best Sports For Kids"

Special thanks to this month's sponsors:

Auto Approve makes it easy for vehicle owners to find and compare their best available rates to help lower their monthly payment.To find out how much you could save, get your free quote at autoapprove.com/adalyst. 

Faherty offers high-quality, timeless clothing with modern design and functionality. Go to fahertybrand.com/LAUGHING and use code FRESH to snag 20% off!

Firstleaf is a no-brainer if you love finding and tasting new wines! Get 6 bottles of wine for just $29.95 (and free shipping!) at tryfirstleaf.com/TODDLER. 

Hiya is the allergen-free, pediatrician-approved, super-powered chewable vitamin that will get your kids the full-body nourishment they need. Go to hiyahealth.com/TODDLER and receive 50% off your first order. 

Peloton has workouts for seriously everyone– and the Peloton Bike+ is now $500 less, including free delivery and setup. Visit onepeloton.com to learn more.

Prose is the healthy hair regimen with your name all over it. Get 15% off your first order today! Go to prose.com/toddler.

Thrive Market offers healthy pantry essentials and sustainable meat, plus nontoxic cleaning and beauty products. Join Thrive Market today and get $80 in free groceries! Go to thrivemarket.com/laughing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes we wish we could just get away from it all. Is that wrong? We love our families! Even with that love in our hearts, it's tempting to yearn for a room of one's own with a solid, soundproof door. We asked our listeners what they would do with one entire week off, and for many of them it involved a lot of TV, snacks, and, in some cases, the cast of Queer Eye.

In this episode. Molly and Blaire discuss:

What the advent of the word "momcation" signals

Why moms are pressured to be perfect

What THEY would do with their own week off!

Here are the links to the articles we discuss in the episode:

TIME Magazine: "Moms: Your Fantasy About Running Away Is Totally Normal"

Caitlin Gibson for The Washington Post: "American mothers need a break. But is the ‘momcation’ a solution to their problems or a symptom?"

Special thanks to this month's sponsors:

Auto Approve makes it easy for vehicle owners to find and compare their best available rates to help lower their monthly payment.To find out how much you could save, get your free quote at autoapprove.com/adalyst. 

Faherty offers high-quality, timeless clothing with modern design and functionality. Go to fahertybrand.com/LAUGHING and use code FRESH to snag 20% off!

Firstleaf is a no-brainer if you love finding and tasting new wines! Get 6 bottles of wine for just $29.95 (and free shipping!) at tryfirstleaf.com/TODDLER. 

Hiya is the allergen-free, pediatrician-approved, super-powered chewable vitamin that will get your kids the full-body nourishment they need. Go to hiyahealth.com/TODDLER and receive 50% off your first order. 

Peloton has workouts for seriously everyone– and the Peloton Bike+ is now $500 less, including free delivery and setup. Visit onepeloton.com to learn more.

Prose is the healthy hair regimen with your name all over it. Get 15% off your first order today! Go to prose.com/toddler.

Thrive Market offers healthy pantry essentials and sustainable meat, plus nontoxic cleaning and beauty products. Join Thrive Market today and get $80 in free groceries! Go to thrivemarket.com/laughing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy Father's Day! This episode, Molly and Blaire talk to their respective dads, Dick and Chuck, about their experiences as fathers and everything they've learned along the way.

In this episode, Molly, Blaire, Dick, and Chuck discuss:

Differences in parenting across generations

What they would tell their past selves

Raising foster children

How to properly make gin and tonics

Special thanks to this month's sponsors:

Auto Approve makes it easy for vehicle owners to find and compare their best available rates to help lower their monthly payment.To find out how much you could save, get your free quote at autoapprove.com/adalyst. 

Faherty offers high-quality, timeless clothing with modern design and functionality. Go to fahertybrand.com/LAUGHING and use code FRESH to snag 20% off!

Firstleaf is a no-brainer if you love finding and tasting new wines! Get 6 bottles of wine for just $29.95 (and free shipping!) at tryfirstleaf.com/TODDLER. 

Hiya is the allergen-free, pediatrician-approved, super-powered chewable vitamin that will get your kids the full-body nourishment they need. Go to hiyahealth.com/TODDLER and receive 50% off your first order. 

Peloton has workouts for seriously everyone– and the Peloton Bike+ is now $500 less, including free delivery and setup. Visit onepeloton.com to learn more.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we see parents absolutely losing it at their children– and maybe even laying hands on them–are we obligated to act? Prevent Child Abuse America is clear that if you see something, you say something.

The harder part is knowing what it is we've seen. We don't always know whether we're witnessing a regrettable but isolated incident or something that’s part of a pattern. We want to make sure we're not making that child less safe by publicly calling the parent out. 

And knowing that actually making a phone call to enlist the police or CPS might trigger a series of events that can separate parent and child, we want to be “very confident,” as philosophy professor Kwame Appiah explains, “that such recourse is justified.” 

In this episode we discuss how we've handled these moments in our own lives– and going forward, how we'll discern when need to speak up, with the knowledge of how to defuse the situation rather than further inflame it.

If you feel a child is in real/imminent danger, please call 1-800-4-A-CHILD.

We discuss this article in this episode:

Christopher Mele for The New York Times: Should You Intervene When a Parent Harshly Disciplines a Child in Public?

Special thanks to this month's sponsors:

Auto Approve makes it easy for vehicle owners to find and compare their best available rates to help lower their monthly payment.To find out how much you could save, get your free quote at autoapprove.com/adalyst. 

Faherty offers high-quality, timeless clothing with modern design and functionality. Go to fahertybrand.com/LAUGHING and use code FRESH to snag 20% off!

Firstleaf is a no-brainer if you love finding and tasting new wines! Get 6 bottles of wine for just $29.95 (and free shipping!) at tryfirstleaf.com/TODDLER. 

Hiya is the allergen-free, pediatrician-approved, super-powered chewable vitamin that will get your kids the full-body nourishment they need. Go to hiyahealth.com/TODDLER and receive 50% off your first order. 

Peloton has workouts for seriously everyone– and the Peloton Bike+ is now $500 less, including free delivery and setup. Visit onepeloton.com to learn more.

Prose is the healthy hair regimen with your name all over it. Get 15% off your first order today! Go to prose.com/toddler.

Thrive Market offers healthy pantry essentials and sustainable meat, plus nontoxic cleaning and beauty products. Join Thrive Market today and get $80 in free groceries! Go to thrivemarket.com/laughing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The term “spirited child” was coined by parent educator Mary Sheedy Kurcinka when she was looking for information regarding her own strong-willed son and only found words like “difficult”and “high-strung.” She believed that framing her son’s personality positively would help her focus on his strengths. And there’s no question spirited children bring us tons of joy– while also being emotionally intense, demanding, and extra sensitive. 

In this episode we discuss

How to know if you have an officially “spirited” child

How best to support them (spoiler alert: advanced notice on transitions)

How we can learn lessons from our own spirited kids, like determination and curiosity 

Here are links to some writing on the topic that we discuss in this episode:

Cheryl Maguire for parent.com: 4 Traits I Learned From My Spirited Child

California Childcare Health Program, "Caring for the Spirited Child"

Mary Sheedy Kurcinka: Raising Your Spirited Child, Third Edition: A Guide for Parents Whose Child Is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic

Special thanks to this month's sponsors:

Auto Approve makes it easy for vehicle owners to find and compare their best available rates to help lower their monthly payment.To find out how much you could save, get your free quote at autoapprove.com/adalyst. 

Faherty offers high-quality, timeless clothing with modern design and functionality. Go to fahertybrand.com/LAUGHING and use code FRESH to snag 20% off!

Firstleaf is a no-brainer if you love finding and tasting new wines! Get 6 bottles of wine for just $29.95 (and free shipping!) at tryfirstleaf.com/TODDLER. 

Hiya is the allergen-free, pediatrician-approved, super-powered chewable vitamin that will get your kids the full-body nourishment they need. Go to hiyahealth.com/TODDLER and receive 50% off your first order. 

Peloton has workouts for seriously everyone– and the Peloton Bike+ is now $500 less, including free delivery and setup. Visit onepeloton.com to learn more.

Prose is the healthy hair regimen with your name all over it. Get 15% off your first order today! Go to prose.com/toddler.

Thrive Market offers healthy pantry essentials and sustainable meat, plus nontoxic cleaning and beauty products. Join Thrive Market today and get $80 in free groceries! Go to thrivemarket.com/laughing.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Britt Hawthorne is a mother, teacher, author, and anti-bias/antiracist facilitator. Britt partners with caregivers, educators, and families to raise the next generation of antiracist children. Her forthcoming book, Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide, which comes out June 7th, is for families ready to take action that'll bring change at home.

In this episode, Molly, Blaire, and Britt discuss:

How kids under the age of 6 perceive race

How to create racially diverse experiences for toddlers

Conversations we can have with our parenting partners

Here's where you can find Britt:

www.britthawthorne.com

@britthawthorne on IG 

@britthawthorne_ on Twitter 

@tashaxandra (Britt's coauthor) on IG 

Buy Britt's book, Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide

Special thanks to this month's sponsors:

Hiya Health gummies are non-GMO, vegan, dairy-free, allergy-free, gelatin-free, nut-free and basically free of all the stuff you don’t want. For 50% off your first order, go to HiyaHealth.com/TODDLER

With Auto Approve, vehicle owners can lower their monthly payment, get a better rate, or both. To find out how much you could save, get your free quote at autoapprove.com/adalyst

Prose is the healthy hair regimen with your name all over it. Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 15% off your first order today! Go to prose.com/toddler

With Thrive Market, you can shop everything from healthy pantry essentials and sustainable meat and seafood to nontoxic cleaning and beauty products - all delivered right to your door. Go to thrivemarket.com/laughing to get 40% off your first order AND a FREE gift worth over fifty dollars.

Peloton has workouts for every schedule, every goal, and every fitness level. The Peloton Bike+ is now $500 less, its best price yet! That includes FREE delivery and setup. Visit onepeloton.com to learn more.

Little Passports offers globally inspired, award-winning monthly subscription kits designed for curious kids to fuel their inner explorer. For listeners of the show, Little Passports is offering new customers 20% off when you go to littlepassports.com/purgatory

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beach days. Pool days. Soccer camp. River days. Creek days. (Pick your preferred body of water, is what we're saying.) Are you exhausted yet? When the lazy days of summer start, we may feel pressure to entertain our toddlers every day. But that's not possible, since we're mere mortals. Molly and Blaire share their ideas for staying active with your kids during the summer months without getting overwhelmed.

In this episode, Molly and Blaire discuss:

What to pack in your summertime Go Bag

Activity ideas for all types of weather

How to introduce some healthy boredom into the schedule

Here are links to the resources mentioned in the episode:

Robin Westen for Parents.com: "24 Cheap Summer Activities for Kids"

Crafty Kids at Home

busytoddler.com

Special thanks to this month's sponsors:

Hiya Health gummies are non-GMO, vegan, dairy-free, allergy-free, gelatin-free, nut-free and basically free of all the stuff you don’t want. For 50% off your first order, go to HiyaHealth.com/TODDLER

With Auto Approve, vehicle owners can lower their monthly payment, get a better rate, or both. To find out how much you could save, get your free quote at autoapprove.com/adalyst

Prose is the healthy hair regimen with your name all over it. Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 15% off your first order today! Go to prose.com/toddler

With Thrive Market, you can shop everything from healthy pantry essentials and sustainable meat and seafood to nontoxic cleaning and beauty products - all delivered right to your door. Go to thrivemarket.com/laughing to get 40% off your first order AND a FREE gift worth over fifty dollars.

Peloton has workouts for every schedule, every goal, and every fitness level. The Peloton Bike+ is now $500 less, its best price yet! That includes FREE delivery and setup. Visit onepeloton.com to learn more.

Little Passports offers globally inspired, award-winning monthly subscription kits designed for curious kids to fuel their inner explorer. For listeners of the show, Little Passports is offering new customers 20% off when you go to littlepassports.com/purgatory

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We asked those in our Facebook group how they maintain friendships with childless friends. The answers ranged from hilarious to heartbreaking. Keeping childless friends in our lives involves self-reflection, perspective taking, FaceTime, texting, and roller skating. Oh, and, unfortunately, "hard pants."

In this episode, Molly and Blaire discuss:

How maintaining friendships with childless friends is an act of self care

How to take on the perspective of childless friends

How to let go of and mourn friendships that have run their course

Here is the link to the article mentioned in the episode:

Rachel Bertsche for The New York Times: "Staying Close to Your Friends Without Kids"

Special thanks to this month's sponsors:

Hiya Health gummies are non-GMO, vegan, dairy-free, allergy-free, gelatin-free, nut-free and basically free of all the stuff you don’t want. For 50% off your first order, go to HiyaHealth.com/TODDLER

With Auto Approve, vehicle owners can lower their monthly payment, get a better rate, or both. To find out how much you could save, get your free quote at autoapprove.com/adalyst

Prose is the healthy hair regimen with your name all over it. Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 15% off your first order today! Go to prose.com/toddler

With Thrive Market, you can shop everything from healthy pantry essentials and sustainable meat and seafood to nontoxic cleaning and beauty products - all delivered right to your door. Go to thrivemarket.com/laughing to get 40% off your first order AND a FREE gift worth over fifty dollars.

Peloton has workouts for every schedule, every goal, and every fitness level. The Peloton Bike+ is now $500 less, its best price yet! That includes FREE delivery and setup. Visit onepeloton.com to learn more.

Little Passports offers globally inspired, award-winning monthly subscription kits designed for curious kids to fuel their inner explorer. For listeners of the show, Little Passports is offering new customers 20% off when you go to littlepassports.com/purgatory

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the most relaxing 24 hours of the year! What’s your one wish, moms? Breakfast in bed? Lunch in bed? Dinner in bed? Oh, all day in bed. That’s actually an excellent wish…

In this special Mother’s Day episode, Molly and Blaire interview their own mothers to find out what their mothers wished were different in their own time and how they view motherhood today.

In this episode, Molly’s and Blaire’s mothers, Lynn and Peggy, discuss:

What they wish they’d had when they were raising kids

Which is better—being a mom or a grandmom

How phones and social media have impacted parenting 

Special thanks to this month's sponsors:

Hiya Health gummies are non-GMO, vegan, dairy-free, allergy-free, gelatin-free, nut-free and basically free of all the stuff you don’t want. For 50% off your first order, go to HiyaHealth.com/TODDLER

With Auto Approve, vehicle owners can lower their monthly payment, get a better rate, or both. To find out how much you could save, get your free quote at autoapprove.com/adalyst

Prose is the healthy hair regimen with your name all over it. Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 15% off your first order today! Go to prose.com/toddler

With Thrive Market, you can shop everything from healthy pantry essentials and sustainable meat and seafood to nontoxic cleaning and beauty products - all delivered right to your door. Go to thrivemarket.com/laughing to get 40% off your first order AND a FREE gift worth over fifty dollars.

Peloton has workouts for every schedule, every goal, and every fitness level. The Peloton Bike+ is now $500 less, its best price yet! That includes FREE delivery and setup. Visit onepeloton.com to learn more.

Little Passports offers globally inspired, award-winning monthly subscription kits designed for curious kids to fuel their inner explorer. For listeners of the show, Little Passports is offering new customers 20% off when you go to littlepassports.com/purgatory

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a "Best Of" re-release in honor of Toddler Purgatory's 1st birthday! Thanks for coming on this amazing journey with us so far.

Kids are bananas. Some particularly so. But why are some kids seemingly born to scale the kitchen cabinets before they can walk? And are there are any future upsides to having been a “danger baby”? 

In this episode, Molly and Blaire discuss the many benefits of “free play,” the differences between danger and risk, how we can teach our little ones to be safely courageous, and what child development specialist Rebecca Weingarten calls “constructive failure.”

Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in this episode: 

Michele Borba for U.S. News: "9 Ways to Cultivate Courage in Kids"

Stacy Tornio for Today's Parent:

"Why our kids should take risks—sometimes even (slightly) dangerous ones"

Shakira’s song “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” https://youtu.be/pRpeEdMmmQ0

Special thanks to this month's sponsors:

Auto Approve makes vehicle refinancing easy and gets your more money for what matters most. Get your free quote at autoapprove.com/adalyst.

Firstleaf Wine Club delivers personalized wines you'll love right to your door. Join today and you'll get 6 bottles of wine for $29.95 and free shipping. Just go to tryfirstleaf.com/toddler

Hiya Health makes sugar-free gummy vitamins for kids. Go to hiyahealth.com/toddler to get 50% off your first order.

Peloton has thousands of workouts on their app for every goal, day, and mood! We're fans of the yoga, meditation, and dance cardio, but there's truly something for everyone. Learn more: onepeloton.com.

Plant People makes doctor-formulated, regenerative plant and mushroom supplements that unlock people's potential. Go to try.plantpeople.co/toddler to get 15% off your first order.

Prep Dish is the best way for busy people to get healthy meals on the table without stress. Subscribers receive an email every week with an organized grocery list and instructions for prepping meals ahead of time. Check out prepdish.com/laughing for a free 2-week trial.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices