"How G’s Surviving Her Baby Leaving"

We Can Do Hard Things – September 30, 2025
Hosts: Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle, Catherine, Diana

Overview

This episode centers around Glennon Doyle (sometimes called “G”) processing the seismic life change of her daughter Tish leaving home for college. Joined by Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle, Catherine, and Diana, the Pod Squad dive deep into the emotional labyrinth of launching a child into adulthood. With humor, vulnerability, and striking self-awareness, the group explores parental grief, shifting family identities, solidarity in caregiving, and the bittersweet beauty of letting go.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Shrinking Parental Venn Diagram

• The hosts discuss how the overlap in what’s “shareable” about kids’ lives shrinks as they grow older.
  • Abby: “When they get to a certain age, you realize that they have their own story and they’re living their own life. And the Venn diagram of what is ours to share becomes smaller and smaller and smaller ...” (01:12)
  • Amanda: “That’s too true to say out loud.” (02:19)
  • They compare the public sharing of young children’s stories (which feels universal) to the privacy required as kids mature, noting the shift to protect their evolving identities.

2. The Dorm Room Goodbye: Sanitizing Wipes & Parental Helplessness

• Abby describes the emotional chaos of move-in day, fixating on small acts (like scrubbing the dorm room) that become symbols of parental care.
  • Abby: “We had nothing left but these sanitizing wipes to use to love our children.” (09:10)
• Reflection on seeing other parents doing the same, realizing this was a collective, ritualistic act of love and desperation.
  • Amanda: “It’s like we’re the walking grief. Like, we’re all walking this, like, grief path.” (11:39)

3. The Landslide Moment: Watching Your Child Move Forward

• Glennon is struck by watching Tish walk away under the trees, holding her guitar and bag—a moving symbol of stepping into her life.
  • Diana: “She was just walking into her life. And … the thing that kept playing in my mind was the line from Landslide … ‘I’m afraid of changing, because I’ve built my life around you.’” (13:53)
• The group reflects on how this moment feels like a small rehearsal for the ultimate letting go—facing mortality and the inevitability of parting.
  • Abby: “These moments where you watch your baby walk away and you cannot go with them is like a rehearsal. It’s like a dress rehearsal for the ultimate moment.” (15:57)

4. The Beauty and Terror of Letting Go

• They touch on themes of hope, trust, and agency, praising Tish for her self-awareness and intentional choices (like taking a gap year).
  • Abby: “She always kind of just knows what she needs and then she asks for it and does it regardless of what everyone else is doing.” (23:04)
  • Amanda: “Just the maturity level—like, my body was so much more relaxed than it would have been had she not taken the gap year.” (26:39)

5. Parental Grief is Real—And We Need to Name It

• The group discusses how this transition is both lucky and full of grief, echoing the loss after any major life change.
  • Catherine: “I think it’s odd that we don’t talk about this as the incredible grief that it is. A lucky grief, but a real [one].” (29:39)
• The importance of not “centering” parental feelings during the child’s moment, but also not minimizing the impact on parents.

6. Existential Questions and Empty Nest

• The hosts grapple with the void left behind:
  • Catherine: “When there isn’t something to love, to fixate on, to pour into, to fill, fill, fill … then you’re just left with your own emptiness, and you’ve gotta figure that shit out or take up pickleball or something.” (36:00)
• They also tackle marriage and sibling dynamics—how launching one child echoes through the whole system.

7. Parenting as a Roller Coaster—From Survival to Nostalgia

• Glennon recounts the relentless early years versus the whiplash of children growing up "in a blink."
  • Abby: “It feels like a roller coaster ... now we’re like in that part at the end ... and we’re just ... staring at each other just like, is this it? Did we do it? What do we do now?” (52:31)
• There’s a collective longing to “time travel” for one more day of young childhood, combined with the recognition that you cannot hold onto any moment forever.

8. Closing Moments: Generational Cycles and Letting Kids Go

• The episode closes with a recording from Tish herself, offering reassurance and gratitude, underlining the success of what the family built.
  • Tishy (video message): “Every time I think of you and think of home, I really don’t get sad anymore. Because I’m just reminded what I have to fall back on whenever I need to. And I think that means you did something right or everything right. Who knows?” (59:50)

Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• Sanitizing Wipes as Metaphor:
  “We had nothing left but these sanitizing wipes to use to love our children.”
  — Abby (09:10)
• Landslide Lyric:
  “The thing that kept playing in my mind was the line from Landslide ... ‘I’m afraid of changing, because I’ve built my life around you.’”
  — Diana (13:53)
• The Ache at the Center:
  “There’s, like, one thing that is the ache, and that is the idea that we’re all going to leave each other.”
  — Abby (15:57)
• On Parental Grief:
  “I think it’s odd that we don’t talk about this as the incredible grief that it is. A lucky grief, but a real [one].”
  — Catherine (29:39)
• Letting Go as Parental Success:
  “Where success is putting yourself out of that job and where the thing that is required is the letting go of the thing that you love more than anything.”
  — Abby (59:03)
• Tishy’s Reassurance:
  “Every time I think of you and think of home, I really don’t get sad anymore. Because I just am reminded what I have to fall back on whenever I need to. And I think that means you did something right or everything right.”
  — Tishy (59:50)

Notable Segment Timestamps

• Sanitizing Wipes & Grieving Parents: 07:01–11:39
• The ‘Landslide’ Moment and Musical Legacy: 13:53–15:15
• Existential Grief and the Universal Loss: 15:57–17:20
• Gap Year Wisdom and Intentional Independence: 24:51–26:41
• Naming Parental Grief & Identity Shift: 29:39–34:51
• Sibling Relationships and Family Dynamics: 41:09–42:56
• Time Travel and the Roller Coaster of Parenting: 50:21–52:49
• Goodbye Rituals & The Kissing Hand: 57:40–58:41
• Surprise Message from Tish: 59:50–60:33

Episode Tone

• Warm, raw, and compassionate: The hosts invite listeners into their complicated feelings with self-deprecating humor and open-hearted sharing.
• Clever, honest, at times poetic: The use of literary and song references (like “Landslide” and “Good Bones”) add depth while maintaining a conversational, accessible style.
• Solidarity and support: The episode reassures parents navigating big transitions that their feelings are normal and shared.

Summary Takeaway

This episode is a moving meditation on the pain and beauty of letting your child go. The conversation is layered with humor, grief, wisdom, and mutual support—a blueprint for confronting change and loss while holding onto hope and love. The hosts model honesty in the face of life’s turning points, reminding every listener that, indeed, “we can do hard things.”