Chelsea Handler doesn’t have kids. She also has three girls in her life who call her Dad, 11 nieces and nephews, and has taken parenting classes.
Dr. Becky asks what Chelsea can see about kids that parents can’t. Most of Chelsea's answer turns out to be about... the parents.
When a kid falls apart, a parent takes it as a verdict on themselves. Chelsea doesn’t have any reason to internalize that, and it changes how she responds. The clearest example is a teenager who backs a car into another car during a driving lesson and completely melts down, bracing for a punishment that never comes. And Chelsea gets to be the one who says: It's fine. You're fine. Everything's fine!
They get into: why consistency works better than rewards, what Chelsea’s parenting therapist told her about never meeting a kid at the anger they’re at, why trusting a kid is the thing that makes them trustworthy, boundaries (hers are terrible and she has no plans to fix them), and the one rule Chelsea would abolish in every house in America.
Chelsea Handler is on her "High & Mighty" tour through the end of the year, and she host's the advice podcast Dear Chelsea.
Heads up: some salty language, and Becky admits not all of it was Chelsea.
*
Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: