Parenting Problems Aren’t Always What They Seem with Dawn Friedman – 407

About this episode

Dawn Friedman discusses the underlying issues behind common parenting struggles and the concept of 'judicious giving up'.

Today’s episode is the final one in the Mental Health Awareness Month podcast collaboration I organized with a few other parenting and mental health podcast hosts. We each chose one episode from our own show to share on the others’ podcasts throughout the month. This episode comes from Dawn Friedman’s podcast, Tell Me It Will Be Okay. Dawn has worked with kids and families for more than 30 years as a preschool teacher, clinical counselor, parent educator, and parent herself. Her work focuses mostly on supporting parents of anxious kids. In this episode, Dawn talks about something she calls “judicious giving up,” which is about stepping back from the urge to immediately fix a parenting problem and getting curious about what’s actually going on underneath it. Sometimes the bedtime struggle isn’t really about bedtime. The school refusal isn’t really about school. The behavior isn’t always the whole story. Dawn also talks about how parenting struggles can bring up our own fears, expectations, identities, and beliefs about who we think we’re supposed to be as parents. At the end of the episode, I share some of my own thoughts about nervous system patterns, emotional reactions, and why…

People in this episode

Host: Pam Howard

Guest: Dawn Friedman

Topics covered

• parenting
• mental health
• anxiety
• judicious giving up
• emotional reactions

Keywords

• parenting problems
• mental health
• anxious kids
• bedtime struggles
• school refusal

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tell Me It Will Be Okay, Less Drama More Mama

More episodes of Less Drama More Mama

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• When Your Kids Don’t Need You the Same Way Anymore with Leah Davidson – 405 · May 12, 2026 · 21 min
• Asking For What You Want – 404 · May 5, 2026 · 16 min
• How to Protect Your Kids Through Divorce with Erica Komisar – 403 · April 28, 2026 · 49 min