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.

Episode 16, how do you handle holidays in the pandemic?

I'm in charge of the mashed potatoes this holiday season,

so I have been Googling, talking through with it with everyone,

and it comes down to two things. Cream and lots of butter.

Yes, and lots of butter on top of the lots of butter. So what are you doing, Rena, for Thanksgiving?

What's this going to look like? So in Connecticut, no more than 10 people allowed. So it's just me

and the little pod family that I've been isolating with all year. The two of us are going to get together, the two families. So it's just me and the little pod family that I've been isolating with all year.

The two of us are going to get together, the two families. So it's only eight people. And we've

split up the duties, including somebody's doing the dishes. And that's how we're going to do it.

That sounds pretty good. Yeah. No, no, I'm actually really excited. I know that everybody would

rather be with their families, but I'm really looking forward to it.

We did Thanksgiving on October 25th. Oh, yeah, we sort of rallied. So my in-laws live nearby and my husband's brother and sister and their families live nearby.

And we typically host Thanksgiving at our house.

It's 12 people.

And I thought in Cleveland in November, you cannot count on the weather.

So everybody was able to rally and we did an outdoor Thanksgiving and set up tables outside one for each cohort. So people were with the

people they lived with. And the tables were far apart, actually easily more than 10 feet apart.

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