Transcript
Dr. Becky (0:02)
What happens when you want to do things differently than how you were raised? And yet the people who raised you are intimately involved in your life and.
Host (0:12)
In the raising of your children.
Parent (0:16)
We have done good work from the beginning setting boundaries with the grandparents, saying what's important to us, picking our battles, planting our flag where we felt we needed to, and letting other things slide when we could. But now it's much more about a narrative. It's much more ideological. It's much more about like an overall approach to how we raise kids and the stories we tell about them. And that feels a lot trickier to me to figure out how to set the boundaries or how to have those conversations.
Host (0:55)
Hi, so nice to meet you. So nice to be talking today. Why don't we begin? Just tell me a little bit about you and what's on your mind. Hi.
Parent (1:03)
So thank you for doing this. I have two young kids. One is almost 4, one is 10 months. They're both girls for now, as far as we know. And the thing that is on my mind is that I am very fortunate. My partner and I are very fortunate that we have the proverbial village that everyone says they want, which is family, which is mostly my partner's family, extended family. We live in a neighborhood very close to them. And we're also really committed to this idea of re parenting. And what I'm finding, at least I won't speak for him, but what I'm finding is that if you are lucky enough to have the village and you're also committed to reparenting, inevitably some of the behaviors or patterns or ways of operating around children that you're trying to reparent from will appear in that village. And so I am wondering, how can we continue to foster these really important relationships, benefit from the support that is real and important, and also not let some behaviors that I think are harmful impact our kids. And the added dimension of this that is challenging is that of course this isn't my family of origin I'm talking about, it's his.
Host (2:42)
Yes. There's like a trifecta, the village re parenting in laws.
Parent (2:48)
Yes.
Host (2:50)
The ultimate, you know, kind of adult trifecta. But really you're actually raising something that I haven't considered until you illuminated it in that way. We want the village. We want that mother in law or my dad involved or the great aunt. It's so amazing to have many people. So you really don't feel alone. And with all those people around, more often we a little bit kind of inherit. How do they think about gender roles and boundaries and feelings and behavior. And if I know I want to do certain things, many things, one or two things differently, then I am then clashing with those people in my village more often than if I didn't have such ongoing support. Is that kind of where you're at?
