The following podcast contains explicit language.

Welcome to Mom and Dad are Fighting.

Slate's parenting podcast for Thursday, April 5th, the fascist haircut edition.

I'm Gabriel Roth.

I'm an editor at Slate, and I'm the father of Eliza, who's seven,

and Leo, who is three and three quarters. I'm Rebecca Levoy. I'm a journalist and podcaster in New Hampshire, and I am mom to Henry, who is 16, Teddy, who is 15, and my stepdaughter, Lily, who is 17. And I'm Carvel Wallace, a writer and podcaster in Oakland, California, and I'm the father to Georgia who was 12 and Ezra who was 15.

Today on our show, we have am the father to Georgia who is 12 and Ezra who is 15.

Today on our show, we have a question from a mom who gets a lot of annoying inquiries about her daughter's heritage. And another who's worried that her son's preferred hairstyle will make

him look like a fascist. Plus, as always, we're going to have triumphs and fails. We'll have

recommendations. On Slate Plus, today we will we're going to have triumphs and fails. We'll have recommendations.

On Slate Plus, today we will be discussing the recent Easter holiday and what it means to us.

Probably not what it means to some.

First, let's do triumphs and fails.

Rebecca, triumph for fail.

I'm going to call a triumph this week. And I also want to say, you know, when your kids are as old as mine are, it's really hard to come on a show like this and call the triumphs mine anymore. I found myself really struggling with that because so much of what they do is really their decision.

You know what I'm talking about? But this one was sort of a combined one.

So I'm comfortable saying that I had a role in it at least, but ultimately it was my kids.

Henry was home last week from DC for his spring break.

He was home for a whole week.

And even though he's just 16, it was very much like he was home from college on a break. Like we rarely saw him. And when he did, he was either with friends or his girlfriend. Like he was in and out of the house a lot. You know, he drives. So he was just kind of like, you know, he would take off and do things almost every night. He didn't have school the next day, of course, so he could have a lot of freedom and he had a really great time. time, you know, we did spend some time together, but he was really busy with his friends. And that was all good. And on, I don't know, the third or so night he was home, Teddy was at his dad's last week, is staying at his dad's house. And I, Henry, we were having dinner with Henry and his girlfriend. and and i said to henry you know it would be really nice if you could carve out some time to spend with just your brother

when you're here and he goes and it broke my heart he goes mom um our relationship just isn't like that

and i was like oh and i thought to myself, I have two choices here.

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