The following podcast contains explicit language.

Welcome to Mom and Dad are Fighting, Slate's Parenting Podcasts for Thursday, January 24th, the This Job Sucks Edition.

I'm Gabriel Roth. I am the editorial director of Slate Podcasts, and I'm the father of Leo, who's four years old, and of Eliza, who is eight. My name is Carvel Wallace, and I am a writer and podcaster in Oakland, California, and I am the father to Georgia, who is 12, and Ezra who is 15. And I'm Alison Benedict. I'm Executive Editor of Slate, and I am the mom of Perry, who is 10 10, Sam who is eight, and Wally who's five.

Rebecca LaVoy is out this week. Today on our show, we've got a question about teenagers without parental supervision and we've got another about an 11-year-old who's having trouble with his writing. Plus, as always, we'll have Triumphs and Fails. We'll make recommendations. and on Slate Plus, we're going to take a third question.

This one is about P.

Let's start with Triumphs and fails. We'll make recommendations. And on Slate Plus, we're going to take a third question. This one is about P. Let's start with triumph and fails. Allison, welcome to the show. Good to have you back. Do you have a triumph or a fail for us? I have a triumph. Nice. My triumph is that I overcame the judgment of my parenting peers to take Sam, who just turned eight, to see Dear Evan Hanson for his birthday.

I don't know if you guys know the story of Dear Evan Hansen. It's a Broadway show, and it has some pretty adult themes. The story kind of focuses on a suicide, and then there's another suicide attempt. Sam's been listening to the music for about a year. He really loves it. He's been asking to go about six months ago. My husband, John and I, decided this is what we'd get him for his birthday. They're hard tickets to get. We're not really much of like a theater, musical theater family, but this was something he really cared about. So we were psyched. We knew he'd be really psyched to open the present.

And then as the time got closer, I mentioned this to a couple of people, friends and just like

parents at birthday parties, at like kid birthday parties. And I got a lot of like extreme side eye or like,

oh, interesting. Do you know what that shows about about? And I panicked. I started Googling,

like, how old, dear Evan Hanson, what age kid, dear Evan Hanson. Apparently, the appropriate age is

14 or like a very mature 14 year old. And so I worried and I talked to John and he told me to stop Googling and that Sam knew the story, which it's true. We talked to me, he knew the soundtrack, but also we had talked a lot about the story because he was curious. So we just decided to go for it anyway. He was definitely the youngest person in the theater when we went to

like buy t-shirts afterwards. They don't make kid t-shirts because kids don't really go see the

show. But he loved it. And I think he understood as much as he needed to understand and some other

stuff he probably didn't understand and I'm fine with that. I didn't remember. I had seen this already

with my mother. I didn't remember how I had seen this already with my mother.

I didn't remember how often they say fuck and that was like a pleasant surprise for him. Like he was pretty excited by that. And I feel like I feel pretty good about it. I mean, afterwards we asked him if he had questions and we were trying to like have a conversation about it and he didn't really. and it wasn't, none of it was a surprise to him.

I think I'll probably bring it up again

in like a quiet moment in a couple of days

and just make sure. about it and he didn't really and it wasn't none of it was a surprise to him i think i'll probably

bring it up again in like a quiet moment in a couple of days and just make sure like he's not

thinking about it or troubled by it but i'm going to call this one a triumph because i think it's

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