Care & Feeding | Is My Kid Ready for Middle School? Am I?

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4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on Care & Feeding, Elizabeth and Lucy respond to a listener wondering how to help their child—and themselves—prepare for the leap to middle school. The hosts share practical tips and emotional insights on everything from shifting friendships to growing independence, academic pressure, and those moments when your once-chatty kid starts speaking in shrugs. They unpack how to build trust without hovering, how to guide without gripping too tight, and why middle school can feel like both a beginning and an ending for parents, too. Plus: Reflections on the emotional weight of parenting costs, and a conversation about how the world needs to make more room for kids just being kids. Join us on Facebook and email us at [email protected] 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. You can also call our phone line: (646) 357-9318. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get to hang out with us on the Plus Playground every week for a whole additional grab-bag of content — and you’ll get an ad-free experience across the network. And you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Care and Feeding. Sign up now at slate.com/careplus – or try it out on Apple Podcasts. Produced by Palace Shaw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:28.2	go to amazon.com.com.com. U.K. slash prime. Ready to launch your business? Get started with the
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0:39.0	with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your
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0:48.8	ups, online, in person and on the go. Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month
0:56.1	trial at Shopify.com slash setup. This episode may contain explicit language. Welcome to Karen
1:04.4	feeding, the show where we raise the next generation together. I'm Elizabeth Newkamp. I write the
1:08.9	family travel blog Dutch Dutch Dutch goose. I'm the mom to Henry
1:11.5	who's 13, Oliver who's 11, and Teddy who's 8. We live in Tokyo, Japan, but I'm currently traveling
1:17.1	with the kids, and we are in rural Korea. Damn, girl, you're far. I'm Lucy Lopez. I also host another
1:23.7	podcast, the Mamacita Rita. I'm mother to Amelia, who's 15, my kinsenera,
	...

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