TDWS: Raising Teens in a Fractured World with Kerala Goodkin
On moms, raising kids we can't protect from the world--but trying our best anyways.
Substack Parenting Bestseller Kerala Goodkin joined me for Fine Feminist Hour to talk about something totally simple and easy: parenting teens and tweens in a toxic, fractured world.
Kerala brought a recently updated essay about the loss of control that hits when your kids’ social lives start eclipsing your carefully curated world, called What No One Tells You About Parenting an Adolescent.
We covered a lot of ground: the compliance-rewarded childhoods we inherited and the daughters we’re trying to raise differently; the loneliness of parenting adolescents, especially solo; and Kerala’s counterintuitive take that she feels more solution-oriented now than when she started writing — less grappling, more acting. Her definition of success for her kids: find your community, be kind, be empathetic. No pressure on career, marriage, or children.
The hour closed on something heavier — Kerala navigating what it means to be a white mom raising a biracial Black daughter who’s already being read as far older than 14, code-switching with her relay team, and fielding flak from peers about her friend group. A lot to hold.
Thank you Dr. Amber Hull, The Bathrobe Guy (Robes) 🥋, Polly Walker Blakemore, LeftieProf, Under the Golden Boot, and many others for tuning in, and special thanks to Karen Marie Shelton and Yanni Hamburger for moderating the chats on Substack and YouTube with such grace.
Dana DuBois
The memoirist
Dana DuBois is a memoirist and Gen X word nerd based in the Pacific Northwest. She founded I Write Out Loud, her Substack publication, where she writes across a range of subjects; parenting, music and pop culture, relationships, and feminism are her favorites. She co-hosts The Daily Whatever Show. Em dashes, Oxford commas, and well-placed semicolons make her heart happy. All stories by Dana
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