Author: Wendy Mogel

On the treadmill at the gym one morning, I listened to an episode from a new podcast I’ve discovered called Armchair Expert, hosted by Dax Shepard (who’s married to actress Kristen Bell). 

This podcast featured Wendy Mogel, an author and child psychologist I’d never heard of before.

I found Wendy’s insights fascinating, especially because I have young kids and I know that one day they will be on their own (scary!)

The point that really stuck with me was this:

1. We (as parents) need to rid ourselves of the faulty logic  that we can spare ourselves—and our kids—of distress, disappointment, frustration, heartache, and longing.
   
   

Wendy describes these feelings as some of the richest human experiences and Dax goes on to point out that most great art arises from people who have experienced depression, a break up, a death in the family, etc.

So if you don’t let children deal with pain, rejection, loss while they are growing up, they won’t develop mechanisms to deal with these feelings when they eventually go on their own to experience life. And when they do leave the nest and realize that they are not the center of the universe, they are more likely to turn to opiates and other drugs, depending on how they want to feel at that moment (!), namely ‘up’ or ‘down.’

LET YOUR KIDS EXPERIENCE HEARTACHE, LONGING, AND DISAPPOINTMENT. 

This whole idea makes me want to systematically break one of my kids’ favorite toys each week to train them. Thanks Wendy. (Just kidding. Well, I may start throwing away Lego pieces. One a day. OK fine, just the ones I step on; the ones that really really hurt).

Another point Wendy made was that we need to develop the courage to be in uncomfortable situations – Something that inevitable happens when we travel and put ourselves in social situations.

Life is dread, dread, dread, joy. Repeat.

I liked it. A dose of the truth about life. Stuff that we all experience to some degree, which means that we are not alone.

Here is a link to Wendy's website: http://wendymogel.com/ and here are links to some of Wendy’s books.
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​Have a listen and let me know what you think :)

Eleni