Calorie-Counting Grandma
Care and Feeding | Slate's parenting show
Slate Audio
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 August 2020
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s episode: Dan, Jamilah, and Elizabeth debate how to deal with a calorie-counting grandmother whose obsession with body image may rub off on her grandkids. They also answer a question from a mom looking for tips for how to better handle her young child’s anxiety.
In Slate Plus: Shasha Léonard is here to hear your screams into the void. Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on MADAF each week, and no ads. Sign up now to listen and support our work.
Recommendations:
Elizabeth recommends spending time watching animals on Explore.org.
Jamilah recommends Okocat Unscented Natural Wood Clumping Cat Litter.
Dan recommends Go With the Flow by Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann.
Additional Recommendations:
Mom and Dad are Fighting: What to Expect When You’re Unexpectedly the First Lady
The Kids Are Asleep, the hilarious Slate Live show. Catch it via Slate’s Facebook or YouTube on Thursdays at 10:00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. PT.
Join us on Facebook and email us at momanddad@slate.com to ask us new questions, tell us what you thought of today’s show, and give us ideas about what we should talk about in future episodes.
Podcast produced by Rosemary Belson.
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. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello and welcome to Mom and Dad are Fighting. |
| 0:08.2 | Slate's Parenting Podcasts for Thursday, August 6th, the calorie counting grandma edition. |
| 0:13.6 | I'm Dan Coice. I'm a writer at slate.com. |
| 0:16.7 | I'm the author of the book How to Be a Family. |
| 0:18.0 | And I'm the dad of Lyra, who's 15, and Harper, who's 12. But only for a few days more, we live in Arlington, Virginia. Hi, I'm Jamila Lemieux, a writer, cultural critic, and contributor to Slate's parent-feeding parenting column, as well as the host of Slate's The Kids Are Sleep, evening chat show. I'm also mom to Naima, who is seven, and we live in |
| 0:39.7 | Los Angeles, California. I'm Elizabeth Newkamp. I write the homeschool and family travel blog Dutch |
| 0:45.0 | Dutch goose. I'm the mom to three littles, Henry 8, Oliver 6, and Teddy 3. And we live in Navar, |
| 0:51.7 | Florida. Today on the show, we've got a question about a grandma obsessed with body image. Plus, we're responding to a letter about a four-year-old's anxiety. And as always, we have triumphs and fails and recommendations. We're going to start with triumphs and fails this week. Jamila, what do you have for us this week? A triumph for a fail? Well, this week I have, once again, something that is in process. |
| 1:14.6 | I don't know whether to label it a try or a fail. |
| 1:18.0 | It feels like both. |
| 1:19.1 | My daughter is transferring schools. |
| 1:22.7 | She's going from a primarily black public school to a public school that is more racially diverse than any I attended at her age. |
| 1:33.7 | And there's a number of reasons that we've made this change. |
| 1:37.3 | And it has a lot to do with the quality of distance learning that is going to be available to her during this new normal or temporary |
| 1:47.2 | normal, hopefully, or whatever the school year will be. |
| 1:50.6 | It was a decision that was made with a lot of thought and care, and ultimately one that |
| 1:55.0 | was made with her input, and she is agreed, and she feels that this is going to be a new experience for her, |
| 2:03.1 | but it was the right choice to make for her at this time in history and she's going to be |
| 2:07.2 | attending her brother's school, I should note. But I'm grieving in a lot of ways. I went to a mixed race preschool and my parents, despite all their efforts to make sure that I was super clear on who I was and where I came from, saw some things that disturbed them a bit. |
| 2:29.7 | And I ended up going to black elementary schools. |
| 2:32.6 | And I was lucky enough to graduate from a high-performing |
... |
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.