Is My Kid Ready for Middle School? Am I?

Care and Feeding | Slate's parenting show

Slate Podcasts

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, Parenting

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

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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0:00.0	Oh, that's my prime delivery.
0:01.6	What, already?
0:02.7	Only one thing can match the buzz of Prime's fast delivery.
0:06.2	And that's the buzz of Prime's entertainment.
0:09.0	What are we watching?
0:09.7	Heads of state, that new action comedy with Idris Elber as the Prime Minister,
0:13.3	John Sina as the president, and Prianka Chopra Jonas,
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0:27.5	For more information, go to amazon.com.uk.U.K. slash prime.
0:30.2	Rated T for Teen. Each year, thousands of adults lose their shred.
0:35.2	It's an epidemic simply known as shred loss, but it doesn't have
0:38.4	to be this way because rekindling your shred is as easy as playing the new Tony Hawk's Pro
0:42.3	Skater 3 and 4. With new parks, cross-platform multiplayer, and sick new game modes, we can
0:49.9	put an end to shred loss everywhere. Let the new Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 and show the world that the shred's not dead. Get Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 available now. This episode may contain explicit language. Welcome to Karen Feeding, the show where we raise the next generation together. I'm Elizabeth Newkamp. I write the family travel blog Dutch Dutch goose. I'm the mom to
1:11.1	Henry who's 13, Oliver who's 11, and Teddy who's 8. We live in Tokyo, Japan, but I'm currently
1:16.6	traveling with the kids, and we are in rural Korea. Damn, girl, you're far. I'm Lucy Lopez.
1:22.5	I also host another podcast, The Mamasita Rita. I'm mother to Amelia, who's 15, my kinsenera,
1:29.4	and Avery, who's 12. We live in Miami. Well, Lizzie, today it's just us, and we're shaking
1:36.9	it up a little bit. We're going to start with our round of triumphs and fails. Then after that,
	...

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