This is Ask Lisa, a podcast to help people understand the psychology of parenting, now in the midst of a pandemic.

Psychologist Dr. Lisa DeMore, author of two New York Times best-selling parenting books, takes your questions.

And I'm co-host, Rina Ninan, a journalist and mom of two.

Some of what we talk about comes from raising children ourselves. Most of the time, I'll be getting

answers to your parenting questions. So send your questions to Ask Lisa at Dr.Lisademore.com.

In episode 12, we talk about what kids can learn from a tense election.

So I think we all feel it.

The tension that is somehow in the air that everyone feels with the election just a week away, Lisa.

Yeah. It feels like it's sort of permeating everything from friendships to, you know, family. I think everyone's on edge. And we got

this letter from this mom just absolutely perfectly sort of sums up where so many of us are.

It says, as we approach the upcoming presidential election, would you have

any suggestions, talking points and resources for how to talk with teens and young adults about

how to respectfully listen and talk to each other about difficult topics where people may

have differences of opinions? Our teens and young adults have been exposed to so much lately

with the state of our country. Between

COVID-19, Black Lives Matter and the political climate, they have a lot on their minds and hearts.

I'm thinking it would be helpful to have some tools for how to talk about these difficult topics,

both at the family dinner table and at school, either in the classroom with the presence of educators

or even just among their friends, what should they say?

Okay, that is a great letter and could not be more on point in terms of what parents are worrying about right now, you know, what we want to help our kids with right now.

Where do you take it? Because it's just everyone is so on edge right now, right?

It's pretty intense. So, you know, where I like to take it is to the research and to what we know from the

...