Am I A Spoiled Brat?
Care and Feeding | Slate's parenting show
Slate Audio
4.4 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2019
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s episode, Rebecca, Jamilah and Dan answer listener questions from a mom that wants her mother to be more supportive an a worried grandma who is looking for the right way to have a tough conversation with a child. As usual, we share our triumphs and fails and offer up some recommendations. For Slate Plus, Rebecca shares how the big day of dropping her kid off at college went. Sign up for Slate Plus here.
Recommendations:
Dan recommends the comic series, Real Friends, by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham.
Jamilah recommends visiting your local pain management specialist if you’re experiencing some body ails.
Rebecca recommends the Netflix series Derry Girls. Fans of Derry Girls can check out Dan’s most read Slate article of the year, The Many Faces of Derry Girls’ Saoirse-Monica Jackson.
If you’re interested in the cousin rivalry at Market Basket that Rebecca mentioned in today’s triumph or fail, read the Slate article here.
Join us on Facebook and email us at momanddad@slate.com to tell us what you thought of today’s show and give us ideas for what we should talk about in future episodes. Got questions that you’d like us to answer? Call and leave us a message at 424-255-7833.
Podcast produced by Jess Jupiter.
Hosts Rebecca Lavoie, Jamilah Lemieux, and Dan Kois
Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains explicit language. |
| 0:05.6 | Hello and welcome to Mom and Dad are Fighting, Slate's Parenting podcast for Thursday, August 29th, the Am I a Spoiled Brat Edition? |
| 0:13.7 | I'm Dan Coise. I'm an editor at Slate, and I'm the author of How to Be a Family coming at you in 20 days. |
| 0:20.2 | I'm the dad of Harper, who is is 12 and Lyra, who is 14. |
| 0:23.9 | I'm Jamila Lemieux. I'm a writer and contributor to Slate's care and feeding parenting column |
| 0:28.6 | and cultural critic based in New York. And I am mom to Naima, who is six. I'm Rebecca LaVoy. |
| 0:34.8 | I'm a journalist and true crime podcaster in New Hampshire. And I am mom to Henry who is 18, Teddy who is 16, and my stepdaughter Lily, who is 19. |
| 0:44.3 | Hello, everyone. I'm so delighted to have all three of us together today. I'm just sorry that Naima can't join us. |
| 0:50.2 | Today on the show, we've got a question from a caller who feels that her mom isn't really doing her share on the grandma front, but she worries, am I a spoiled brat? Plus, we counsel a caller who's agonizing about how to explain to a child why her dad isn't in her life. Plus, triumphs and fails and recommendations. So let's start out with triumphs and fails. Rebecca, do you have a |
| 1:11.2 | triumph or a fail for us today? I've got a triumph. It's a really good one. Teddy got a job, |
| 1:18.7 | guys. Like a real after school job. He went in. He did the in-person interview. He's going Thursday to fill out his W-9 and all that |
| 1:29.8 | stuff. I could not be more excited. He got the job at a very, very beloved grocery store chain, |
| 1:38.6 | known for its incredible labor practices here in New England, and it happens to be the grocery |
| 1:42.7 | store that I shop at. |
| 1:49.0 | But yesterday, when I found out in it's Market Basket. |
| 1:52.8 | And if you want to know anything about Market Basket, there was an incredible news story around it a few years ago that had to do with feuding cousins and the entire staff of the store |
| 1:57.5 | of all the whole chain going on strike. |
| 1:59.4 | It's a very, like, beloved brand here in New England. Weird. Well, Rebecca, why are you telling these people where your son is going to be? Well, there's many market baskets. They don't necessarily need to know. Okay. Well, make up or pretend one and say that's the one he works at. But how am I going to go there and tip him directly if I don't know exactly where he works? You know, I don't think the kids at Market Basket are allowed to accept tips. They get paid really well, though. They start them at like $12 or $15 an hour or something like that. So anyway, he's really excited. I got this news yesterday at about the same time here at work. We found out that we were finalists for like a big journalism award. I swear to God I was more excited about the same time here at work, we found out that we were finalists for like a big |
| 2:34.8 | journalism award. I swear to God I was more excited about the grocery store job. |
| 2:41.5 | I was like, this is like the culmination of, you know, a lot of prodding and prompting. |
| 2:46.7 | And finally, I discussed it with my ex-husband, his dad last week. And I just was really straight |
| 2:54.0 | with him. And I was like, you know, I know that we both really want Teddy to do this. And in my experience, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Audio, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Audio and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.