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

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 98, my friend's kids are excluding my kid. What should I do?

You said something a while ago that kind of caught my attention. I wonder if there's something more there, that you choose not to be friends with your kids, friends, parents. So do you just have, like, why do you

have that rule? You just don't believe that best friends of your kids should interact,

like should be close with the other family. But the parents. You know, it's, it's one of those

things. Like mostly, Rina, being a psychologist is probably not very good for parenting. Right. You know, it's one of those things. Like, mostly, Rina, being a psychologist

is probably not very good for parenting, right? Like, mostly, it's probably better not to

have a parent who's a psychologist. I don't know about that. But occasionally, I think so. But

occasionally there are things where I'm like, oh, I have seen how this goes down or I have seen

how this can go wrong. And with that foresight, often, you know, drawn out of my own

clinical practice or whatever, I've been able to make certain choices. So like, for example,

we never let our kids take top, sorry, take technology in their rooms, you know, from the get-go.

I only knew that because of my work. Like, I, you know, a lot of families, you know, only discover that in retrospect.

And so this was one where I had seen it happen enough that the parents become friends with the kids' parents.

The parents of their own kids' friends.

And then the kids have a falling out or have a problem, and then it gets

really awkward.

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