Friday Flames | 5.19.23
A weekly synopsis of what we figured out.
It’s Week 2! And you’re still here! This is cause for celebration.
It's been a quiet week news-wise, although the potential crumbling of the debt ceiling problem looms larger. On the home front, parents of high-school seniors (like us) are feeling the squeeze of nonstop, end-of-year activities—like this morning’s inscrutable Senior Sunrise Breakfast. Because what teenager sees any value in getting up an hour earlier during exams?
On Wednesday, we released our second podcast episode, with our first guest: therapist Dawn Friedman MSEd! Dawn sees a child's anxiety as a family issue that responds better to treatment when she focuses on the parents, and Dawn's wisdom and kindness over such a sensitive discussion is a true asset in her work.
New Platforms of the Week
Our second week has also seen a big increase in subscribers, and our podcast has landed on Spotify and Pocket Casts!
We feel more like a real podcast every day. Just wait until Apple gets back to us.
Topic of the Week
Every year, the end-of-school frenzy that starts with such excitement ends up making us feel like we’ve been run over by a cement mixer. How do you and your kids endure the crazy until School’s Out for the Summer? Which are your favorite and least favorite end-of-year activities? Hit us up in the comments.
Book Hack of the Week
If you’re starting to build your summer reading list, it’s ridiculously cool that you can borrow a book through the Libby app and send it to your Kindle. (Which can be convenient if your Kindle then somehow ends up in Airplane mode … )
Currently reading
Magda just started poet Maggie Smith's memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, about how her marriage fell apart as soon as one of her poems became famous. The writing is crushing and beautiful, and Smith feels a lot like all of us. (Check out this excerpt from The Cut.)
Two articles caught Doug’s eye this week:
From the New York Times magazine: How Do You Actually Help a Suicidal Teen?, by Maggie Jones. The article was well-timed after our talk with Dawn Friedman and reinforced much of what she said.
In the Washington Post: The graduation speech we should be giving to parents, by Mary Laura Philpott. The best way to mourn the Old is to pursue the New.
Currently watching
Magda is hooked on The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning on Peacock. (Doug does not share her enthusiasm.) This short series—based on the book of the same name—is about how to live more fully by purging your house of all the stuff your family won't know what to do with after you die.
The show is clever and charming, respectful and kind. And you have to love a show that devotes five minutes per episode to watching the Swedish hosts just sitting there drinking coffee.
Coming next week
On Wednesday, we’ll release our Episode 3 discussion with Jessica, a school board member who faces such strong opposition to her advocacy for gender-affirming care for students that she can’t reveal where she works—or even her last name!
Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
Magda and Doug
The over/under parenting discussion really hits home for me, even with 8th and 9th graders. My kids are often asking ME how to help their friends make decisions because their own parents aren't teaching them. It's hard to balance telling my kids to stay out of others relationships, reminding them that all parents parent differently, and helping the help their friends. (And I get Doug's confusion on what you called it. You could call our type of parenting either over OR under, depending on your POV).