The following podcast contains explicit language.

Welcome to Mom and Dad are Fighting, Slate's Parenting Podcast for Thursday, February 22nd, the Professionalized Childhood Edition.

I'm Gabriel Roth. I'm an editor at Slate Magazine, and I am the father of Eliza, who is seven, and Leo, who is three and a half. I'm Rebecca Lavoie. I'm a journalist and podcaster in New Hampshire, and I am mom to Henry, who's 16, Teddy, who's 15, and a stepdaughter, Lily, who is 17. And I'm Carver Wallace, a writer and podcaster in Oakland, California, and I am father to Georgia who is 12, and Ezra, who is 14.

Today on our show, we have a question from a listener whose four-year-old son is mean, and another from a listener whose eight-year-old daughter is kind of boring and never wants to leave the house.

Plus, as always, we will have triumphs and fails.

We'll have recommendations.

On Slate Plus, we'll be talking to mom and dad are fighting host emeritus, Alison Benedict,

who will be sharing a story of a catastrophic Pinewood Derby catastrophe.

First up, though, it's time for triumphs and fails. Rebecca, triumph for fail.

I've got a triumph, but it's not mine. Full disclosure.

Are we allowed to do other people's triumphs now? Yeah, this week we are. This week we are.

Today, I'm doing Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Waterloo. One of the great triumphs.

I think when you hear it, you'll understand what I'm talking about.

I just want to say, you know, a big triumph, I think, to the parents of these teenage kids from Parkland and Florida, the parents who are letting their kids become activists in the wake of the shooting at their high school who are letting their kids,

use social media 24 hours a day, who are letting their kids be who they are, doing television

interviews, batting down nutty, crazy conspiracy theorists, getting out there, saying how they feel.

I really, you know, give a lot of credit to these parents. I think that it must be very, very tempting to, you know, bring your kid inside and never let them go outside ever again after something like this happens to them and after they experience this kind of trauma.

But really, these kids are extraordinary.

If you've been following them, I really encourage you to follow them on Twitter if you're on Twitter.

Just watching them handle themselves. They've just, they're extraordinary. And I give a lot of

credit to the parents and their triumph this week for just letting them be them and do what they're doing.

So I am giving away my triumph this week to those parents in Florida.

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