My son reminding me that sharing some of my struggles has helped him to avoid similar challenges. This is from our podcast Don’t Listen To Us out now. You can hear it wherever you find podcasts or watch it on our youtube channel. Link in bio. If you’d like to help us make this first season we’d be most grateful. We’ve been moved over the years by all the stories our followers have shared in their comments and we’d love to be in conversation with you. Share a question, problem, experience, triumph, absurdity, dilemma, regret or piece of bad advice you’ve gotten in the past. Or send an email or voice memo (2 minutes or less ideally) to askmandyandkathryn@gmail.com , or record at the LINK IN OUR BIO! Simply click on the button to record and make sure you aren’t too far from your (micro)phone. In addition to selecting recordings we’ll be in touch with some folks to be in conversation for the show. This will be a small percentage of contributors, but If you’re comfortable with that, make sure to leave us a way to reach you. Just a few notes: You don’t have to be funny or interesting or smart or charming or edgy. We are just excited to hear from you! If you are willing to share with us just know that whether we use it in the show or not we deeply appreciate you making the effort to connect. Here’s to trying something new, being in community with each other and making stuff with family and friends! See you on the other side! Kathryn, Mandy, Gideon, Debbie and Katrina (our stupendous producers) and Ryan and Marc (our wonderful engineer and editor) and Becky (dog) #DontListenToUs #MandyPatinkin #KathrynGrody #PodcastShorts #LoveAdvice @welterweight_sound @bellowsmedia @katrina.onstad

That was the most extraordinary conversation I felt I ever had with you. We were out front of our apartment in New York and we were walking and you were doing your work and we were kind of talking shop about work and you were asking me questions and then all of a sudden you just showed me your arms and you had your sleeves rolled up or you had a t-shirt on and you had goosebumps. You said, dad, look, see I got goosebumps all over my arms because you said, I just realized that I spent my life watching you do wonderful work and then you would beat yourself up thinking something wasn't perfect or right. And I just learned that that was insane and worthless and I couldn't understand why you did it. So I didn't do that for myself and I burst into tears because I finally realized that it had some worth that all of that self-torture I put myself through it had worth that it taught you never to do that. And even now when I retell it, I just am grateful that it had some value that it kept you from being stupid. Well, this is a thing in one way or another that I remind you of every 18 months or a couple of years because it's easy to forget. I think human beings are the stupidest creatures on the planet. I know. Getting dumber and dumber. But I think your ability to be emotionally open with your family and your children, even through struggling, even through anxieties and struggles allows those around you to take away those lessons. There's a lot of parents and a lot of men in particular who have that, who feel all those things but just keep it all bottled up. And you never get to see that as a kid and you never get to analyze, okay, what did that give my dad? What did it take away from him? And so, yeah, some of your biggest struggles in life have been my biggest benefits because I've gotten to watch what's helped you and what hasn't.