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What Fresh Hell: Parenting, Relationships, and Making Life Better, with Two Funny Moms

What Fresh Hell: Parenting, Relationships, and Making Life Better, with Two Funny Moms

Getting Our Kids to Help Around the House

What Fresh Hell: Parenting, Relationships, and Making Life Better, with Two Funny Moms · Apr 29, 2026 · 44:47

0:0044:47

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How do you get kids to help out—ever, at all—without default resistance that makes it feel like it's not worth the trouble of your having asked?

Kids *should* contribute to their families' lives without their parents resorting to nagging or threats. Kids in other cultures, we are told, participate willingly and fully. Why does this seem so hard for so many of us?

We discuss:


Whether "chores" framing is part of the problem

How gender roles shape the expectations of who's helping

Whether they have to like participating for it to matter

Why we seem to find this harder than our parents did


Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode:


Susan Newman for Psychology Today: Raising Baby Hunter-Gatherer Style


Jennifer Katzenstein for Johns Hopkins Medicine Wellness and Prevention blog: How to Get Your Kids to Do Chores


Reem Raouda for CNBC Make It: I’ve studied over 200 kids—parents who have an easy time getting their children to listen never use these 5 ‘toxic’ phrases


Amy Sutherland for the NYT: What Shamu Taught Me About a Healthy Marriage


Frank Bruni for the NYT: Tolstoy and Miss Daisy


Deborah Gilboa: GET THE BEHAVIOR YOU WANT...WITHOUT BEING THE PARENT YOU HATE!


Our Fresh Take with Michaeleen Doucleff, author of HUNT, GATHER, PARENT


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What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables.

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Episodes: What Fresh Hell: Parenting, Relationships, and Making Life Better, with Two Funny Moms

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