Parenting Teens: The Hard Truth No One Tells You (And the Shift That Actually Works)
After Bedtime with Big Little Feelings
Dear Media and Big Little Feelings
4.7 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare: hearing the words “I hate you” come out of your child’s mouth. The kid you’d do anything for now looks at you like you’re the enemy. But what if that moment wasn’t the end of your connection… but the beginning of something deeper?
In this powerful, eye-opening episode, Kristin sits down with pediatric psychologist and author Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart (Love the Teen You Have) to unpack what’s really going on when your kid lashes out, slams the door, rolls their eyes, or says things that cut deep. You’ll learn what’s happening in their brain during those heated moments, why your teen or tween pushes you away, and how to stay calm even when every nerve in your body wants to scream back.
Through raw honesty, relatable examples, and practical tools, this conversation is your roadmap for staying grounded in the chaos and connected through the storm. If you’ve ever walked away from an argument with your child thinking “Did I just ruin everything?” then this episode is for you.
You’ll walk away with:
- Concrete scripts for what to say in the heat of the moment
- A better understanding of your child’s emotional and brain development
- The #1 mistake parents make that pushes teens further away
- Tools to repair after a blowup and rebuild trust
- A reminder that you’re not alone, and you’re doing better than you think
Your kid doesn’t hate you. Their brain is under construction. And you? You’re exactly the parent they need. Tune in — this one could change everything.
This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast is a Dear Media production. |
| 0:03.8 | Welcome to After Bedtime, where the house is finally quiet, but the real noise begins. |
| 0:10.1 | The thoughts, the questions, the wondering if you're doing any of this right. |
| 0:14.2 | We're Kristen and Dina, child behavior experts, moms, and co-founders of big little feelings. |
| 0:20.1 | And we're not here to give you more pressure |
| 0:21.9 | or perfect parenting energy. Nope. We're here to tell the truth, the unfiltered, beautiful, |
| 0:27.4 | brutal truth about what it means to raise kids and re-raise ourselves in the process. |
| 0:33.0 | Because parenting isn't just about sleep schedules and snack hacks. It's about healing. It's about breaking |
| 0:38.4 | cycles. It's about becoming the kind of adult you want your kids to grow up to be. This is the |
| 0:43.8 | place where we say the quiet parts out loud. And we're so glad that you're here. I am so excited |
| 0:50.9 | for today's guest. She is someone whose face I see nearly every day and inspires me to not only be a better person, but a better parent and do it in a way that doesn't make me feel like shit. That's not easy to do on the internet, y'all, okay? Dr. Ann Louise Lockhart is a pediatric psychologist, parent coach, speaker, and |
| 1:13.8 | author. Having spent years feeling disconnected from her own mom during her teen years, she didn't |
| 1:19.8 | want parents and teens to experience the same thing. So she wrote a book to help parents |
| 1:24.7 | feel more connected with their teens. The book is titled, |
| 1:28.2 | Love the Teen You Have and is currently available for pre-order, which is very important for authors, |
| 1:32.9 | by the way, go out there and pre-order, pre-order, Dr. Anne Louise has been featured in the New York Times, |
| 1:39.2 | parents, Huff Post, and on the Today Show. Her dynamic, relatable style has made her a trusted voice for |
| 1:45.8 | parents nationwide and definitely me and my husband in our household. Dr. Anne Louise Lockhart, |
| 1:52.0 | welcome to After Bedtime. Thank you, Kristen. I'm so happy to be here. Oh, we're so happy to |
| 1:58.6 | have you here. I'm fan-girling a little bit, only in the sense of, it's almost like a musician or somebody that's made like a real impact on you, you know? It's crazy to see you in the flesh. |
| 2:11.8 | You're a real person. A real person. Okay. So you wrote a book on teens. |
| 2:19.7 | I'm so excited about this because I do feel like I'm entering the tween, just turned nine. |
... |
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