Good Inside with Dr. Becky - Is It True? “Nobody Knows What They’re Doing”

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

You’ve probably said it—or heard it: “Nobody knows what they’re doing.” It’s meant to comfort us as parents. And sometimes it does. But… is it actually true? In this episode of our ongo...ing Is It True? series, Dr. Becky and Myleik Teele take a closer look at this belief—and what might be more helpful to hold onto instead. They explore: Why this idea can feel relieving… and also limiting The pressure to “prove” you’re a good parent in hard moments What it really looks like when a parent does know what they’re doing And the powerful role of curiosity—about your child and yourself Through real-life moments (public meltdowns, getting hit in a school line, vacation chaos), they show how parenting isn’t about having it all figured out—but about learning, adjusting, and building skills over time. Read Dr. Becky's follow up on the Good Inside Blog.  Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible:  - Ergobaby: Use the code DRBECKY20 for 20% off for support at every stage  - LMNT: Get a free 8-count sample pack with your purchase at drinklmnt.com/goodinside - Coterie: Get 20% off with the code GOODINSIDEBABY20  - Skylight: Get $30 off a 15-inch Skylight Calendar at myskylight.com/becky Good Inside is growing up! Listen to The In-Between Years with Dr. Sheryl, for parents of teens and tweens! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 There's a sentence parents say to each other, like it's a warm blanket. Nobody really knows what they're doing. And it's usually delivered with that kind of shrug. Or it's delivered over coffee or just kind of whispered in a group text after Hranton day. And without a doubt, it is meant to make parents feel better. And sometimes it definitely does. And sometimes it makes you look around and think, but maybe some people do. And that mom at pickup, when that parent is dealing with that tantrum, like, I like the way that
Starting point is 00:00:38 parent handled it. And this other parent who's telling me how they dealt with their kid lying, I don't know if I would have done that, but I kind of like that too. And then there's a bigger zoom out. If nobody knows what they're doing, with the job that probably impacts our own life and the world in the biggest way, I don't know. does that maybe mean something else if we're all just winging it? And can we think about that question without going to the extreme and the opposite?
Starting point is 00:01:09 The opposite extreme is, oh, someone has it all together and is always perfect. Is there anything in between that would be useful as a framework? Well, my leak is here again to help me unpack this because I think it's really important and I wanted to talk to her about it. I'm Dr. Becky and this is good inside. I'm glad you're here. My oldest just, we are at the cutest little pizza place by our house and I'm by myself. I have the stroller.
Starting point is 00:01:42 I have my tablet. I've got it. I've got everything I need screaming on the floor, through the tablet, on the ground. Through it? Through it. Through it. The audacity. Hanging out of the stroller.
Starting point is 00:01:59 I'm trying to order a pizza. everybody's staring at me, and I'm just like, W-T-F. Yeah. W-T-F. How did I get here? How did I get here? I mean, he's through this expensive thing that he supposedly likes. Right.
Starting point is 00:02:17 And he's on the floor, and he doesn't care. Yeah. And it was just, no matter what I seem to do, it wasn't ending. And just get real. Like, what feels natural in that moment? Like, what's going on in your head? Snatched the tablet because, excuse me. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:34 Next, it's like wanting to like put him back. And now I am on stage and other, everybody's staring at me. And it's like, okay, I have to show everyone that I'm not okay with this. I have to kind of prove it to all. I have to kind of let everybody know that, hey. In what way? Like we all get like a little. You know, like you, you know, it's like my, I'm huffing.
Starting point is 00:02:56 I'm like, you know, I'm frustrated. I'm moving things. You know, I'm picking everything up. excuse me, you know, I'm going to take him to the side and I still need to order pizza, you know, but I need to, like, have a moment with him so that everybody knows that, you know what, I got this. I'm taking this seriously. Yes, yes.
Starting point is 00:03:12 I'm not a pushover. I'm not. And, you know, I don't want this to happen again. So you end up getting home. You survived that moment. And I'm just thinking probably most natural is something, I don't know, something's wrong with my kid. Yes. Dad kid, disrespectful kid, spoiled kid, kid, ungrateful kid, kid, which are the words that come out?
Starting point is 00:03:29 All of them. You know, I just thought like, first things first, this is, this will never end for me. This is going to happen every time I try to go somewhere. I'm nervous that every time I take him out and he's not happy. And I thought I had all the things that would help this situation go well. This will happen for the rest of our lives. He's not going to be, he's not going to get very far because he's going to be doing this in school. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:03:59 And I just, I'm seeing out into the future. He's going to be unemployed. He's going to be living with me forever. This is what I'm thinking. Sorry about that. Sorry that that's happening. It's not. But, you know, we're all ready like,
Starting point is 00:04:10 all my friends are going to think I'm a horrible parent because my 23-year-old looks at me and you're like, I just. And it all started at the pizza place on the floor when I started there. That's where it started. And had I, had I done it right, then we wouldn't be here. But no one knows what they're doing. Right. Right.
Starting point is 00:04:27 As soon as I get out of my kid is going to be like, forever mode. Right. Or, well, nobody knows what they're doing mode. Right. I actually can be, and this is something I know you're, this muscle is strong for you. You can be curious. Yes.
Starting point is 00:04:41 Right? Which took time. Which took time. It was not something I feel like I could do easily because I was so busy trying to figure out what I did. You know, I'm always thinking like if something happens, like what did I do? It's like, did I not wake him up early enough? Did I give him the wrong food?
Starting point is 00:05:00 You know, did I go too far? You know, was it, you know, did he have the tablet too long? I'm thinking of all these other things that maybe I did versus getting curious and saying, like, huh, what's going on? Yeah, it is kind of. I'm either, blending myself or figuring out, you know, or maybe it's him. Right. It's not me. It's always someone's fault.
Starting point is 00:05:23 It's always someone's fault. Yeah. Yeah. I just want to come out and say this. nobody knows what they're doing all the time with parenting. Like, you know this about me. I think, like, when someone's like, parenting expert, Dr. Becky Kennedy, I'm like, stop calling me that.
Starting point is 00:05:35 And they're like, oh, do I get your name wrong? And I was like, I just hate the word expert. I really do, because I really do feel like I'm someone who loves to learn. Like, I love learning. I'm like, oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I find it exciting. And maybe it's a limited understanding, but I think experts are kind of at the end of their
Starting point is 00:05:52 learning journey. Like, they've reached the top of the mountain. Right. That feels very sad to me. Yeah. So I just want to say that if one myth or one idea is nobody knows what they're doing, yeah. I think actually what's equally untrue is somebody always knows what they're doing.
Starting point is 00:06:10 Yes. Nobody knows what they're doing all the time. Nobody. But there are times when people, you know they know what they're doing. It's like you've seen people, they're in the grocery store. There's someone with multiple children, someone's screaming. And it's just almost like they're kind of flawless. moving things around and there it's like paint me a picture of that like what's the moment i'm curious
Starting point is 00:06:31 about this and i'm not trying to say you up for a certain answer but i'm generally curious what you're going to say okay what's the moment in parenting and you can make up a person doesn't have to be real that you're like wow that chick that dude knows what they're doing like i'm impressed yes there there's a story i there's this time that my son went to this one camp and i was waiting behind a parent that a couple of the camp counselors came out to say, like to tell on her son. They were like, you know, and I'm just sitting there like, uh-oh, you know. So they came out and they, I was, you know, they came out.
Starting point is 00:07:06 They were like, Mom, we need to talk to you. He did this and he did that and on and on and on. And she, when I tell you, my girl was cool and calm, she said, okay. Okay, so then her son came out. I'm still waiting. And I'm like, oh, she's going to let him. Yeah, yeah. She's, and they're standing there waiting for her to come down on him. And she was just like, how was everything today? She, okay? She was like, great, good to see you. She, they stood there. Everybody watched. I get, so, and I kind of can hear her walking away on the stairs. I get my son and I see them in the, like, they're getting like a smoothie. And I'm like, I got to, I got to get the rest of this. I stand. We get in line.
Starting point is 00:07:52 she is not shaming her son. She didn't let those counselors knock her off her game. I was like, she, she's going to handle this. I could tell that she was going to handle it, but she didn't need to erupt in the moment, prove anything to them. And I was like, she's got it. I felt like she's got this handled.
Starting point is 00:08:15 And I was like, she knows what she's doing. Yeah. I'm in charge. I'm the boss. I got it. I don't need to do anything right now for you. Yep. I'm not proving my good parenting to you by being overzealous about something that I actually
Starting point is 00:08:33 don't even think would be helpful in the moment. Yes. And they kind of just like walked out. And then I could tell she, the way she was asking about his day was she was trying to get to it. Yeah. But even the way she was going about getting to it was like, you know, so they told me she never said that. She was just sort of like, so how was it today and what happened at, you know, swim?
Starting point is 00:08:54 And I was like, I, she's got it. Yeah. And I loved it. And not saying sorry to everyone else. And not saying sorry to everyone. Again, this publicness. Yes. Right?
Starting point is 00:09:04 And just sort of saying it to their child, sorry versus apologizing to everyone for having a child being a child. Yeah. That's exactly right. Yeah. You know, I think about a moment. I think one of my proudest moments, as a parent, okay? It was a while ago,
Starting point is 00:09:25 but the story is so visceral. I don't know why. Where my youngest, I knew totally ruined this puzzle that the four of us were working on. Me, my husband, my older two kids were working on a puzzle. My son was young at the time.
Starting point is 00:09:38 And we came back after a break and like half of the puzzle pieces that we put together were like gone. We don't have a dog, okay? Okay. I don't really believe in exactly in ghosts, right? So I was like, I know, I know what happened here. And I was like, hey, what did you do with puzzle pieces?
Starting point is 00:09:54 She's like, I don't know what you're talking about. Oh. And something in the moment, I don't know. I just was able to drop down into, I probably, he's a kid who fashions himself to be very capable. So for him to not be able to participate in something the four of us are doing is really painful. And my guess is ruining the puzzle probably. is trying to like ruin and erase that feeling. Right.
Starting point is 00:10:22 But my question to you is always, how do we get there? Yeah. Right? How do we get there? Because, I mean, I can think of my proudest moment, but I'm just, yeah, I know how often we, as parents have these times where it's like, you know, who knows how much this puzzle was or it was a gift from someone special. Totally.
Starting point is 00:10:42 And it's so hard to get there. How do we do it? Tell us. So if we can first. say, wait, there's something between, nobody knows what they're doing, and people know what they're doing all the time. I'm just going to try to live in between. Then probably the biggest thing to try to learn is decoding behavior. Okay. It's the, it's the, what we do when we see a kid's behavior is we assume we know everything about them. Right. Which makes sense because behavior is
Starting point is 00:11:11 observable. We see it. Right. Trying to understand the feeling underneath, the struggle underneath, the wish underneath, the fear underneath. Those things forget not being visible. There's no blood test for them. Right. You're not like, oh, you were actually scared. So you have to wonder. You have to kind of use this most generous interpretation.
Starting point is 00:11:34 And then you have to do something else because when you do that, for example, my son really struggles when he doesn't feel capable. He was struggling to feel left out. I kind of know that about him. It's not about saying after, oh, so. Everything's fine. Right. He, no. That's how he is. That's just how he is. Yeah. It's another one. Yeah. It is what it is. Right. That's, well, or that's just how they are. That's just how they are. Yeah. Right. Maybe it's kind of, right. I guess that and nobody really knows that they're doing all of this. It's really interesting. My visual of it is the same as expert. Even though it's almost sounds the opposite. Yes. A final dot. Yep. Experts know. Nobody knows that they're doing. It is what it is. So when I try to understand behavior for my kid, for another adult, for another kid, it's not about then putting the period there. Okay, well, that's how they got. No.
Starting point is 00:12:23 But I think my league, what's interesting to me is in so many other areas, even for children in their development, we implicitly get that we have to understand what's underneath to help a kid. So, for example, let's say you have a kid who's a tennis player and they keep hitting the ball into the net. That's not good for tennis, right? We know the ball is supposed to go over the net. Right. Okay. You could say over and over, stop hitting the ball into the net. Stop hitting the ball into the net. Because that's observable. And nobody wants that. Right. But a good coach probably says, I see the ball going into the net. I don't know why exactly. Let me, is it the grip? Is it their body position? And then you actually might, no, that's all fine. Oh, it's interesting. This kid feels so much pressure on themselves. They keep saying, I suck. I'm going to lose. So I love this idea. that when you see a problem on the surface, the behavior, that's valuable information. Okay. But it's just a clue.
Starting point is 00:13:26 It's not the whole thing. The whole thing for the tennis players and that the ball goes into the net, that is a clue to help me think as a coach, what's actually the problem? Okay. And then maybe as a coach, I'm like, it's the grip. I would never say, oh, it's the grip. Okay. No, okay.
Starting point is 00:13:43 Now I have to help them change the grip. Right. So my son, I think there is like a process. And the reason this is a practice is because we have to practice this law process. Multiple times. A day or at least when we lose it. We're like, I'm going to go back to it. It's a practice. It's a muscle. Yes. And that is a skill of trying to understand what's happening for humans underneath their behavior because we have to understand the true issue that's leading to the ball in the net or in my son's case, the stealing of the puzzle pieces or in your son's case, the throwing of the tablet. Okay. We have to understand those are problems, but they're actually just a symptom of the problem that I have to figure out. And when I get curious, I may say, okay, so my son likes to feel capable. Okay, so what can I do about it? And I'll tell you what I did, because that was a complicated one. For your son, okay, who knows? We were waiting and he wanted my attention. And maybe I say, because I start to get curious, I wasn't really good, I was kind of distracted,
Starting point is 00:14:46 I was on my phone, or maybe I'm saying, you know, when I go into a public space that's overwhelming, my kid gets overwhelmed. I'm probably just not going to let him have a tablet in his hand next time. So maybe that's something I start changing. Yes. Right? But it actually, we can't come up with a helpful intervention if we don't get curious about what's actually happening under behavior. I'm not going to be a good tennis coach. If I don't try to figure out why. my player is hitting the ball into the net. And if you saw me figuring that out, here's the other thing.
Starting point is 00:15:22 You would never say to me, Becky, like, you're a pretty permissive tennis coach. Like, just tell him, tell her it's not acceptable. Right. It's not acceptable to hit the ball into the net. Go to your room and come back to the court when you can hit the ball over the net or else you're permitting bad tennis behavior. Like, you would never, you would say, you look like a good coach. You look, yes.
Starting point is 00:15:46 Right? Yeah. And so I think that there's other things too. But the interesting thing is when we start to try to figure out what's really going on under behavior, we also start to apply that framework to ourselves. Parenting has made me a better person in so many ways across the board. But if I can be curious about my kid, I can be curious about myself. And I feel like I have so much more sort of like self-compassion because, I'm not just like, oh, I'm bad at that, you know, putting the period on, oh, I'm not good at this or
Starting point is 00:16:40 I'm bad at that. It's like, huh, why don't I do that? Or why do I maybe run late on this or avoid that versus just like, oh, I'm bad at replying to text or I'm, you know, it's like, huh. Or talking about yelling. Like if you yell at your kid, what's the level where your own curiosity, practicing the skill of curiosity, Because the easiest things, I'm a monster. I'm a monster. I yelled at my kid.
Starting point is 00:17:07 But if you practice curiosity, I'm curious, what does that sound like inside your brain? If I begin, I can tell, I now know when I'm going to yell. Tell me. When we go on vacation and it is the first seven minutes in that hotel room and the pools outside the bathing suits in the luggage, They are excited, but I can't find the room key. Where's my phone? And I need to unpack.
Starting point is 00:17:40 I'm like, don't you want to unpack? And they're like, no. I will, you know, I will, I will scream. And even this one time, I feel like I took my kids by myself because my partner, their dad takes, he's taking them twice on an airplane. And I was feeling like, you know what? I can do this. And so we're in the airport.
Starting point is 00:18:01 And I finally, we finally got to the hotel room and I go, I feel like I've been yelling at you guys all day. Yeah. And they go, not that bad, mom. You've been worse. But here's what I know about you. Because it goes back to this idea, nobody knows what they're doing. If nobody knows what they're doing, then every time I yell at my kid, I'm either on a monster or, well, it is what it is because nobody knows what they're doing. If you can practice the skill in between, nobody knows what they're doing.
Starting point is 00:18:31 doing. Oh my goodness. I just figured something out. Live. I love talking to you. Do you know what is remarkably similar about nobody knows what they're doing and some people have it all figured out? Both are completely anti-curiosity. If I know what I'm doing all the time, I'm never curious. And if nobody knows what they're doing. There's no need to be. I'm not curious. No. So actually there are two sides of the same coin because the coin actually has to do with the total lack of curiosity. Correct. What's in between is actually just, can I be curious, can I be curious about myself? Why am I yelling there? Because then if I can say, it's actually really triggering when my kids were young, they were like, I want to go to the pool.
Starting point is 00:19:08 I'm like, I want to unpack. Can't you wait? I took you on this nice vacation. Like, but if I can say, Becky, I'm going on vacation tomorrow. Let's get real. I'm probably going to have the urge to scream at my kid. Instead of some people have it figured out, which would tell me I'm a horrible mom, or nobody knows what they're doing, in which case I'm just going to yell them because I can't do anything differently anyway. I actually want to tell you what I do in vacation because you and I are similar. Hey, when we get to the room, like, and my kids were younger, I used to say, can we make a couple predictions? And we used to like make, it wasn't anything crazy. How many lamps are there going to be in our rooms? What colors the bed can be? I can't even tell you what would
Starting point is 00:19:48 happen. It was like a trick. They would have something exciting to do in the room instead of just saying, pool, pool, pool. While I kind of had, by the way, I'm not saying this was some 15-minute adventure. Right. But it could even be, I mean, you know, the demand to go to the pool when you get into the room is like a split second. Yeah. So giving you two minutes, and then we'd play around. Oh, okay, so you think there's going to be a green wall.
Starting point is 00:20:17 You think this. And it was almost like a little game. Oh, I was right. You were wrong. What's the next thing? And that idea only came up. Because I was able to be curious about what's really going on there? What do I need?
Starting point is 00:20:31 Yeah. Right? A little bit. We just came back from a trip. And what I did is I had them put their suits in their backpacks so that now you can struggle to get your clothes because they're still young. Like, struggle while they're struggling to get their clothes off and put them away and try to get their suit on, I can at least.
Starting point is 00:20:56 to get a breather and find my own suit and just like get my bearings before they're just like, mom, mom, open the suitcase, put my suit, put my swimsuit on. We got to go. And so now I was like, okay, I can slow this down some. And I didn't, I didn't yell this time. And, and, but I, but you worked to get there. I did. You did. You thought you were curious. You made, then you kind of translated that understanding into, oh, so I can do this differently. Yes. Because I understand this differently. Yes. And then I don't think it was a coincidence that you didn't yell that one time.
Starting point is 00:21:30 Right, because I'm like, but you know, when you're packing all the bags, you don't think about it. But this, it's like, I finally figured it out. I don't do well the first five. I don't do well the first five minutes in the hotel room. Right. Well, there's too much of a mismatch. Nobody does well when there's a mismatch between what you need and what your kid needs. Like, I think that's why sleep at night is so hard.
Starting point is 00:21:49 Our kids need five more minutes with us and we need no more minutes with them. Right. So no more minutes. It's just a gap. Yes. You know? And so when you're aware of that, then you can action a little bit and at least close the gap. A little bit.
Starting point is 00:22:05 A little. And it's just nothing, the trip's not like, oh, we went. And, you know, I'm not reporting back on my blog. Like, we took the kids on the trip and every moment was perfect. You know, it was just like, okay, I've done this enough to know where I start to scream. I'm going to do this. And then, you know, I find some other, there's something else that. But can I tell you something?
Starting point is 00:22:28 It earns you a sentence. I'm a parent who knows what I'm doing in the first couple minutes of checking into a hotel room. No, I mean it. Like, I am. It doesn't mean I'm not going to yell sometimes. Right. Those two things are independent sometimes. But I thought about it.
Starting point is 00:22:43 I kind of understand maybe what's going on. And I am now a parent who does know what I'm doing when I'm going to travel. I do know. how to handle a public meltdown. I do know, I'm not going to action every time, what to do if the teacher or counselor tells me something my kid did that was bad. Yes. Like you've earned those movement like gadgets. I feel like I've had a lot of practice. Yeah. I've had a lot of practice. I was thinking of my sort of proudest moment and because I told you about one of my words, but my proudest is it was like the day that you meet the teacher. And my son, at what time is it? I told him the time.
Starting point is 00:23:23 And I just didn't realize how many things he's clocking at all times. And so we get there. I apparently told him there wouldn't be a line. I didn't think there would be a line. We get there, there's a line. We stand in the line and there's, I mean, this is our spool. These are, these are, I'm going to be with these parents for a long time. I'm nervous.
Starting point is 00:23:41 And he yelled at me and was like, you said there wouldn't be a line. And he smacks me in the bath of my leg. Yeah. And everyone's looking. I'm like, I was sturdy because I have practice. And I just, you know what? I said, no, thank you. Do not do that.
Starting point is 00:24:06 And we just kind of like walked on our way. But it wasn't for any, it wasn't for everyone. It's not like, oh, so it's okay if he hits you. It is not okay if he hits me. It is not okay. But no big lecture. Was it? No, this is not the time for that.
Starting point is 00:24:20 This is not the time. And I know, I know, I know. him well enough to know that now, because I wrote about this in the community, of like, all the things that he expects. So I lied to him because he asked me because this was important to him, and I didn't, I just gave him an answer because, yeah, no, line, I don't know. Yeah, sure. I just gave him an answer because I, because it doesn't matter, you know. It didn't matter to me, but it mattered to him. And I wasn't, he didn't feel like I was honest. He didn't feel like I was honest. And he was upset.
Starting point is 00:24:55 It is not okay to hit me, but I don't need to handle all of this here because I do have some element of curiosity. And I'm like, in my mind, I was like, he asked me. And I glossed over the answer because I didn't think it mattered, but it mattered a lot to him. And you have such a deep understanding of your son. And like you say, he's a kid who clocks everything, who thinks about everything. So there's this term in psychology, violation of expectations, right? And violation of expectations is hard at any age. It's hard for me and you too. Yeah. If I wasn't here when you showed up today, like if I violated those expectations,
Starting point is 00:25:30 you'd be annoyed, right? But deeply feeling kids, they're always clocking things. So they have all these expectations, especially when they're younger, to try to feel in control of their world that we don't know. Or a simple question like, do you think there's going to be a line? You're like, I don't know, I'm like packing a water bottle, like sure, no, whatever. They're trying to form their worldview of something that makes them a little nervous. And then because they have so many things they clock, they have more expectations. And then they probably have when they're younger a few more violations. Which leads to those moments. But then what you did with all of that in that moment, and there's such a pattern here. First of all, you were so sturdy.
Starting point is 00:26:08 Like, I heard it in your voice. It wasn't like, stop hitting me. No. No. Say it again in the voice. You probably said it. I'm like, no, thank you. Right. You do not hit me. and that was it. And we kind of just going to walk to the line, you know, walk. That was it. Yeah. That was it. I find so much of my, again, we're kind of talking about the moments you end up feeling really proud.
Starting point is 00:26:33 Like, I did handle that well. I did know what to do are the hard moments. Yes. And so many of them involved doing so much less. Yes. In the moment. Right. Because you don't have to prove every single thing about your parenting or who you
Starting point is 00:26:49 to yourself, to your kid, or to the audience. Right, right. Like, I could, you know, I would have, all the other ways, like, pulling him out of line. We're not going inside right now. I'm going to take you back to the car, like all of these things. And I just remember, I mean, I wasn't expecting. When he was upset, I just didn't expect for him to hit me in public in front of other people. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:09 And wait, just can we, I just want to bring it home with this, because you told me something before we were recording that your son said something recently, expectation that now, probably because of how many times you've said it to him, he has started to say instead of getting upset. He has. He every, it's probably like 10 times a day. He's been saying, oh, I wasn't expecting that. You know, it's like, you'll hand him this glass of water and he'll be like, oh, I wasn't expecting that. What weren't you asked for water? What? Yeah. What were you expecting? But I just realized he has all of these expectations. And now that he's not exploding as much, much, he's able to say, oh, I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't expecting that. It's so like he'll
Starting point is 00:27:56 open the pizza box. He wasn't expecting that. But that would have been. Oh, you know, melt down. Melt down. Like the pepper. You can get half pepperoni. Yes. And on one piece of the plane, if they like plane, there's a tiny piece of pepperoni. Meanwhile, you're like, it doesn't matter. Don't have that one. You can have, but your people have a full blown meltdown. And it's interesting. It's such practice. We never get it perfect. But that is one of my favorite lines. Oh, you weren't expecting a line. You weren't expecting pepperoni. Yes. You weren't expecting the crunchy apple to be so crunchy. Like, we kind of have to say it a little bit like, I can't wait. I'm saying this. Right. But then you have this moment where your kid shows up to school the next year. And forget, now they think
Starting point is 00:28:36 there's going to be a line. But what they don't know is that, I don't know, there's a food display or there's music and they're a little overwhelmed. And they look at you. Instead of that, melt on the last year. And they'd just say, I wasn't expecting music. And I feel like in that moment, oh, I'm like, I know that that didn't happen naturally. That was years. Years. Yes. Of my practice, showing up 20% of the time, 50% of the time, maybe the best it gets is 70% of the time. And then all of a sudden, it shows up in your kid. It's, my mind was blown because he said it like maybe three times within like 15 minutes. And I was like, wow, wow. Okay, you're able to handle more. You now have some language.
Starting point is 00:29:22 I wasn't expecting that. And I don't even think I realized I had been saying it to him. Because I'm not saying it all the time. No. But I'm clearly saying it sometimes. And now he's able to just not explode because he's just like, like you said, I wasn't expecting the red apple to be red. Right, exactly.
Starting point is 00:29:40 And just to bring this arc, when we're willing to be curious about the things that are hard and learn how to show up in a way that is never perfect but feels better some of the time. We end up showing up and sharing language with our kid that you then, years later, hear them say to themselves, or I have heard my deeply feeling kid say to her brother when he was upset about something happening. You weren't expecting that. that's the worst. And I, you know, I'm barely at a loss for words. That is something. I'm like, oh, yes. It's just the best feeling. The best feeling. So we started with this question. Nobody really knows what they're doing. And I think we got to something really powerful.
Starting point is 00:30:32 And I think we have an update to it. And I'm going to hand it to my leak to give us that update. Yes. The update to nobody knows what they're doing is nobody knows what they're doing all of the time. Can we tack that on the back of nobody knows what they're doing? Let's hold ourselves accountable. Love that. The other thing I'm realizing, and I want to make sure to hold myself accountable to, is I never got to finish the story here about how I showed up for my son when he lied to my face about ruining our family puzzle. And so I'm going to write it up because it's a good story and I want to share it with you.
Starting point is 00:31:04 And it's going to be on the Good Inside blog. So you can just go to show notes to follow the link to see that part through. Now let's end the way we always do. Place your feet on the ground. And place a hand on your heart. And let's remind ourselves, even as we struggle on the outside, we remain good inside.
Starting point is 00:31:28 I'm excited to see you next week.

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