What to Say to Our Kids When Bad Things Happen

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Parenting, Kids & Family, Comedy

4.6 • 962 Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In light of the recent floods in Kerrville, Texas, Margaret and Amy discuss how we can talk to kids about scary, sad, or tragic events—especially when we don’t know what to say. Topics include: 🧠 How children process grief, tragedy, and fear at different ages 🛡️ The limits of “protecting” kids from the world—and when it's important 💬 Letting kids lead the conversation and avoiding over-explaining 😢 Why it’s okay for kids to see you upset—and how to model healthy emotion regulation 🎭 Understanding kids’ “weird” responses to trauma (jokes, play, denial) as coping 📺 The unintended impact of news media exposure on young children Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Free and confidential support is offered through resources like the Disaster Distress Helpline (1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746), which connects you to trained counselors 24/7. Here's Margaret's preferred donation site for Kerrville: https://cftexashillcountry.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=4201 Zachary Suri for the Texas Standard: "How to talk to your kids about the Hill Country floods" Lee Ann Rawlins Williams for The Conversation: "When disasters fall out of the public eye, survivors continue to suffer – a rehabilitation professional explains how sustained mental health support is critical to recovery" Danielle S. McLaughlin for the Huffington Post: “Having Difficult Conversations with Kids” PBS NOVA: What Next: Talking to children and finding a path to healing after the Newtown shooting tragedy. The poem "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith Our Fresh Take with Margaret's sister-in-law Christina Martin on How Children Learn Through Play We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, Kerrville, Kerrville flooding, Texas flooding, tragedy, news, Texas Hill Country Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The road stretches before you, but there's trouble ahead, stationary cars.
0:04.0	You're faced with the McDonald's side mission.
0:06.7	Do you, A, join the ever-growing cue, or B, take the next exit and treat yourself to a glorious Mackey's?
0:15.0	Detouring to McDonald's.
0:16.7	Start your side mission today.
0:20.0	Hi, everyone, It's Margaret.
0:21.7	This week we're talking about how to talk to our kids when we don't know what to say.
0:27.2	And in the course of this conversation, which starts by talking about the Curville floods,
0:32.0	we talk about a lot of events that we have been through, that have been in the news,
0:37.2	that might be very upsetting
0:38.7	for young kids, even older kids. And so this might be an episode that you don't want to
0:45.1	listen to with your kids in the room, although hopefully it has some helpful information
0:49.9	on how to deal with these issues. Thanks for listening.
0:56.0	Hello, everyone, and welcome to What Fresh Hell Laughing in the Face of Motherhood? This is Margaret.
1:01.2	This is Amy. Today, we're going to talk about what to say to our kids when we don't have a clue what the right thing is to say.
1:09.0	So this conversation, you probably heard in our pre-roll.
1:13.2	I was recently in Kerrville, Texas, my husband's hometown, for July 4th, when the devastating
1:18.7	floods hit that area. As we're recording this, they are continuing to search and doing recovery
1:25.7	efforts there. I had my kids with me. We were staying in an area
1:31.0	that was up in the hills. So we were very far removed from the floods themselves. But Curvil is not a
1:37.5	large town. It's probably 25,000 people. And like the area we were going to go for the fireworks
1:43.3	and everything was impacted by the floods,
	...

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