1KHO 602: There's No Such Thing as a Terrible Toddler | Devon Kuntzman, Transforming Toddlerhood

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Ginny Yurich

Parenting, Kids & Family

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this conversation, toddler expert Devon Kuntzman returns to reframe the years we’re told to dread as a season rich with firsts, wonder, and essential brain development. She explains why toddlerhood and the teen years are “parallel tracks,” and how learning the skills now—setting realistic expectations, scaffolding independence, and embracing the full spectrum of emotions—pays off for the long haul. Devon’s new book, Transforming Toddlerhood, distills real-life challenges into 45 fast, practical chapters with scripts, FAQs, and red flags, so you can flip straight to “tantrums,” “sharing,” “whining,” or “leaving the park” and get calm, actionable help. You’ll hear why less is more during meltdowns (create safety, ground yourself, uphold warm limits), how to handle the “broken granola bar” moments without panic or bribery, and why it’s not your job to make your child happy—it’s your job to help them feel seen, heard, and loved. We dig into playful transitions, outside-first playdates, roughhousing as a surprising path to self-regulation and consent, and the sneaky ways screens can reinforce the behaviors you’re trying to reduce. This is a hopeful, dignity-honoring guide for raising resilient kids—and growing right alongside them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You subscribe to music, TV, your gym, maybe even your weekly flowers, so why not your car?
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0:19.5	Experience exceptional driving without the hassle of ownership or leasing with Pivotal car subscription.
0:25.2	Subscribe to smarter driving.
0:26.9	Find out more at drivepivotal.com slash radio.
0:30.2	Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast.
0:32.4	My name is Jenny Aritch and the founder of 1,000 Hours Outside.
0:35.3	And Devin is back.
0:36.7	We are talking about toddlers.
0:55.5	And what is so amazing, Devin, is when I just read your book. It's called Transforming Toddlerhood, which is a phenomenal book. It is so comprehensive. It covers everything. It covers everything. And then you have people like, they submit their questions, all these questions you've gotten over the years. I'm like, oh, it's such a relatable question, relatable question.
0:55.7	And what's super interesting about it too, Devin, is that a lot of it reminded me of my teens.
1:01.5	You know, it's like this toddlerhood in teen stage, they have some similarities in terms of development.
1:06.8	So welcome back and huge congrats on this new book.
1:10.2	Thank you so much.
1:11.3	Yes, I can definitely say that the teen years are the second toddlerhood, right?
1:15.2	There's a lot of things that are absolutely parallel on these two different developmental periods.
1:20.5	Yeah, so learn them when they're toddlers and it will serve you well.
1:23.5	When they become teens, it's actually really helpful.
1:25.8	This is a comprehensive book. It came in the mail and I was like, Devin did an incredible job. It's like 400 pages. And it's not one that you have to sit down and read kids. You've got a toddler. They're running around. You're able to kind of pick and grab. There's overall concepts about brain development, how we do this developmentally appropriate parenting.
	...

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