Why Are Some Kids Shy?

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

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Kids & Family, Comedy, Parenting

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why are some kids shy? Is there harm in giving a kid's personality that label? In this episode, we explore the differences between shyness, introversion, and behavioral inhibition, and why fear—not preference—is often at the heart of shy behavior. We also discuss when shyness becomes a concern, and when it’s time to seek extra support. Finally, we share practical strategies for helping shy or slow-to-warm-up kids feel safe without forcing them to change. Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Psychology Today: Shyness Dartmouth Health Children's Blog: The Difference Between Shy and Introvert APA Dictionary of Psychology: Behavioral Inhibition Healthychildren.org: Understanding Your Child's Temperament: Why It's Important Katherine Martinelli for Child Mind Institute: Helping Young Children Who Are Socially Anxious Arlin Cuncic for Verywell Mind: Differences Between Shyness and Social Anxiety Disorder Deborah Ko for Medium: Redefining Extraversion: How Cultural Differences Shape Our Understanding of Leadership APA on YouTube: Why are some kids shy? With Koraly Pérez-Edgar, PhD What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson. 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, invisible workload, default parent, shy children, why are some kids shy, behavioral inhibition, child temperament, introversion vs shyness, social anxiety in kids, slow to warm up child, parenting shy kids, anxious children, child social anxiety, labels and kids, supporting shy kids, child development psychology, fear-based behavior, parenting podcast shyness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.
0:04.8	Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand.
0:12.4	Marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time.
0:17.4	From startups to scaleups, online, in person, and on the go. Shopify is made for
0:22.8	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:32.2	Are we going home now? What fresh hell. Laughing in the face of motherhood. What is with this kid not enjoying
0:39.0	Disney World? With Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson. And I have a kid who we would have 25 hours
0:44.8	on Iceland. I figure they do it. A podcast that solves today's parenting dilemmas so you don't have to.
0:50.8	We annoy people with how we make a lot of noise and take a full of space and won't stop talking.
1:01.6	Hey, everybody. Welcome to What Fresh Hell Laughing in the Face of Motherhood. This is Amy. And this is Margaret.
1:07.0	And today we are talking about why are some kids shy? I love this topic. What's shy? Like I feel like more than one of my
1:15.2	kids in my day and age would be like a kid shy. Maybe it's something else entirely. Does it
1:20.3	matter? Does it something you're supposed to think about? I'm looking forward to learning more.
1:25.3	Yeah. I mean, I was definitely thinking we could have just called this episode,
1:29.4	why are some kids?
1:31.0	Because we're really talking about where do our kids come from?
1:37.3	Right.
1:37.4	How do they come out like this?
1:39.2	You know, this extroverted mom have a very introverted kid or, you know,
1:43.9	theatrical mom has a shy kid. Like,
1:45.7	how do these things happen? And the strongest answer is we have no idea. So we're not going to get
1:53.3	that answer. We like to solve things. We're not going to be solving like why do kids turn out
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.