The Matt Walsh Show - June 27, 2026


The Internet’s Defense of Bad Parenting Is Insane


Episode Stats


Length

22 minutes

Words per minute

177.86

Word count

4,082

Sentence count

287

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

8

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

When did we stop teaching our kids life skills like table manners, table manners and how to use a fork and knife? And why are our kids getting so dumb that they can't even figure out how to brush their teeth?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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00:00:30.000 Well, recently I commented on a video of the super nanny. 1.00
00:00:33.360 Apparently that's what she's called.
00:00:35.060 I've never really heard of her, but she made a good point about the way parents today raise
00:00:39.240 their kids or fail to.
00:00:40.620 I guess we'll play the video.
00:00:41.640 Here it is.
00:00:42.020 I'm going to say something that might make you uncomfortable.
00:00:47.020 So sit tight.
00:00:48.840 We are slowly disabling our children.
00:00:52.360 And I don't say that lightly.
00:00:54.880 I say that because I work with families continuously every day.
00:01:00.000 and I'm seeing a pattern that's growing. Children who are capable but not being taught. We're
00:01:06.900 pushing children along on bikes instead of teaching them how to ride them. We're keeping
00:01:12.200 children in strollers who should be walking, climbing, building strength. We've got four-year-olds
00:01:18.060 still using dummies when that was only ever meant to be a short-term aid. Seven-year-olds who can't
00:01:25.440 brush their teeth properly without an electric toothbrush. Eight-year-olds who can't sit at
00:01:30.180 table and use a knife and fork. Nine-year-olds who don't basically understand bathroom hygiene.
00:01:35.880 And I find myself asking, when did we stop teaching these life skills? When? And before you
00:01:45.620 get defensive, I understand modern life is busy. I do. But this isn't about time. It's about
00:01:52.220 intention because every time we step in and do it for them or avoid teaching because it's slower
00:02:00.100 messier or inconvenient we take away an opportunity for them to become capable and children want to
00:02:08.460 feel capable so we go back to basics parents we teach the bike riding with support then without
00:02:16.980 we remove the dummy when it's no longer needed we show them how to brush their teeth properly
00:02:22.100 not rely on this electric tool. We sit at the table and we teach them how to eat
00:02:26.780 properly. We guide, we repeat, we expect. Not perfectly, consistently. Because independence
00:02:34.560 isn't something that just happens. It's taught parents. And if we don't teach it,
00:02:40.800 we can't be surprised when it's missing. So that's what she said. I commented on that.
00:02:47.800 I said she's right. Of course, mealtime is a big part of the problem. Lots of parents
00:02:50.860 negotiate with their children, allow them to not eat what was served or just serve them chicken
00:02:54.560 nuggets or mac and cheese for every meal. They don't teach table manners. They don't require
00:02:57.820 that their children ask to be excused before leaving the table. They let their kids use
00:03:01.620 electronics at the table, et cetera. Complete disaster. And plenty of comments responded to
00:03:07.440 that. Plenty disagreeing or in some cases agreeing. So we'll go through some of the comments.
00:03:13.660 Stephanie says, I'm Gen X. Nobody taught me these life skills. We had to figure this out ourselves.
00:03:19.520 are kids getting too dumb to do this? 1.00
00:03:23.520 Nobody taught you life skills. 1.00
00:03:25.980 This is totally a Gen X thing, by the way. 1.00
00:03:28.180 They love to brag about not being parented. 0.90
00:03:31.960 Gen Xers love this. 1.00
00:03:33.820 There's not a lot we can say about Gen Xers
00:03:35.440 or that needs to be said,
00:03:37.860 but this is one thing about Gen X.
00:03:39.380 They love to brag.
00:03:40.300 They love to brag about not having any real parenting
00:03:43.140 as if that's something to be proud of.
00:03:45.760 Well,
00:03:46.680 if
00:03:48.140 If nobody taught you life skills, which is really like the whole job of a parent, that's basically your entire gig.
00:03:57.040 And if no one did that, I can guess two things about you. 0.99
00:04:00.300 One is your parents sucked. 0.99
00:04:02.040 Two, you probably don't actually have those life skills to the degree that you think you do. 0.99
00:04:12.680 And this is something you hear a lot from people.
00:04:14.760 where they'll say, well, you know, that's how I was raised and I turned out fine. I was raised that
00:04:21.660 way. Look at me. I turned out fine. And then you look at them and it's like, yeah, but no, you
00:04:25.720 didn't. Actually, you didn't turn out fine. It's always the most dysfunctional people with lives
00:04:33.160 of pure misery, lives that you look at them and you're plunged into despair just by looking at
00:04:40.200 them. And they're always the ones that go, I turned out, hey, I turned out fine. No, you totally did
00:04:45.900 not turn out fine. You actually turned out really poorly. Apparently no one's told you this, but
00:04:51.860 because you didn't have a parent to tell you. Let's see. Dwayne Harris says, to say that we're
00:05:02.160 more busy than our ancestors is wrong. They got up at 4 a.m. and worked till the sun went down
00:05:06.760 outside and then did chores inside till midnight. They didn't waste time with social media and
00:05:11.360 chit chat and TV. And somehow they found time to raise not one, not two, but average of seven
00:05:15.900 children, uh, had to wipe their own ass, have manners and respect elders by six years old. 0.99
00:05:20.900 It's us. We're too consumed with ourselves. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Um, 1.00
00:05:28.020 I think you're absolutely right. So when parents today try to use the excuse of, um,
00:05:33.620 or people in general are always using as an excuse. Oh, I'm too busy. I'm too busy.
00:05:40.460 First of all, you're not nearly as busy as you think you are. And that goes for all of us,
00:05:44.660 myself included. We all think that we're really busy. Some of us are more busy than others.
00:05:50.540 But in reality, if you were to just log the amount of time you spend a week,
00:05:56.140 simply staring at a screen that you don't have to, I'm not talking about for work,
00:06:00.300 um you would see that just there alone you you got more than enough time to do anything you want
00:06:08.520 with your life and it's just being consumed and that's part of the thing with the screen is that
00:06:12.880 it eats up your time in a way that you don't feel this is one of the issues with it it's got this
00:06:19.360 lobotomizing effect when you're staring at a screen so it could eat up like you could be
00:06:23.960 looking at a screen for 52 minutes and it feels like it was five and that's one of the reasons
00:06:28.400 why people think they're way busier than they are. Um, you know, they get home from work,
00:06:34.400 whatever they put the kids to bed, then they get out their phone and their stare at it. And they
00:06:39.500 look up at the clock and it's like, Oh, it's already bedtime. And you see, I had no time
00:06:43.560 between putting the kids to bed and now I have to go to bed because I got to get work in the
00:06:47.380 morning. Well, no, actually you had like three and a half hours, but you just spent it just like
00:06:51.160 doing this with your phone the whole time, and that's why. Patrick says, ah, yes, let's raise
00:07:00.080 more subservient order followers and permission slip seekers. What could go wrong? Well, this is
00:07:07.020 the dumbest thing. This is the dumbest thing. Yes, you want to raise children to follow your 1.00
00:07:16.760 orders and in many cases seek permission. Like, of course, of course you want to raise your kids
00:07:24.540 that way. That's called being obedient, being disciplined, being humble. You think the problem
00:07:31.080 is that kids today are too humble and too obedient? Is that, Patrick, is that what you think?
00:07:38.760 You think the problem we have in society today is that kids are too obedient, too well-behaved,
00:07:46.760 Um, they, they are, they are too, too prone to deferring to adults.
00:07:54.960 You actually think that's our problem.
00:08:00.280 You know something else?
00:08:01.500 Just, just so you know, every great man of history that you can name, if you can name
00:08:06.760 any, which you probably can't literally all of them, every single one was a man who respected
00:08:14.440 hierarchy and respected people in positions of legitimate authority and definitely, definitely
00:08:22.760 respected the authority of a parent over a child. Every single one. So this thing of,
00:08:32.080 no one's in charge of me. I don't have to listen to anybody. No great man has ever had
00:08:40.640 that attitude. Sorry. Acknowledging that there are people in the world who know more than you,
00:08:47.840 acknowledging that there are people who have authority that you do not have,
00:08:51.500 acknowledging that you owe respect to your superiors, to your elders, all of that is
00:08:57.920 necessary for to be not just a great person, but to be a functional person in society.
00:09:04.420 One of the strangest things we've accepted in modern life is the idea that complete strangers
00:09:08.660 should know everything about us.
00:09:10.200 People get upset if their neighbor glances over the fence.
00:09:13.600 They put blinds on their windows.
00:09:15.200 They lock their front doors.
00:09:16.880 But somehow they're perfectly comfortable
00:09:18.280 with internet companies, advertisers, data brokers,
00:09:20.660 and who knows else,
00:09:21.740 tracking what they do online all day long.
00:09:24.860 Apparently privacy is sacred unless it happens on a screen.
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00:10:25.980 These parents say, like, my parents did this to me
00:10:28.740 and I hated it, so I'm not gonna do this to my child.
00:10:31.520 That tells me they're not mature enough
00:10:32.960 to have kids. My parents forced me to eat what they made. I hated it as a kid, but as an adult,
00:10:39.060 understand why. Yeah, I agree. You hear this from adults. They say, well, my parents made me do that
00:10:44.580 and I really didn't like it. So I'm not going to make my kids do it. Have you not grown up at all?
00:10:52.240 Like, yeah, you're supposed to go through the phase as a child where your parents are telling
00:10:55.640 you to do something and you really hate that you have to do it. And so you say to yourself,
00:11:00.320 well, when I'm a parent and I have kids, I'm never going to make them clean their room.
00:11:05.260 This is so unfair. Yeah. When you're like 12, you might have that view, but by the time you're 32,
00:11:14.720 you should have grown out. Now, when you're 32, you should have gone through the evolution where
00:11:20.860 you realize that, oh no, actually like, of course you should clean your room. I'm glad my parents
00:11:26.400 made me do that. When I have kids or with my kids now, I'm definitely going to make them do those
00:11:32.400 things. You should be at that point when you're in your twenties and thirties and you've got a lot
00:11:38.020 of like grown adults who still have the mentality of 12 year olds. Um, as a parent, if you are not
00:11:45.940 making your kids do things that they don't want to do, then you're a terrible parent
00:11:50.160 because most of the basic duties and responsibilities around the house are things
00:11:55.860 that your kid is not going to want to do, because who would? They're not going to want to clean
00:11:59.820 their room. They're not going to want to obey your rules. They're not going to want to,
00:12:03.940 um, you know, have to forego eating ice cream whenever they want and on and on and on. Like
00:12:11.420 all the things, all the basic duties and responsibilities they're not going to want
00:12:15.480 to do. And, uh, if you're, if you as a parent are not making your kids do those things,
00:12:20.140 then you just are failing in the most basic way as a parent.
00:12:25.380 I mean, my parents tried to make me eat, but I was picky.
00:12:28.080 They say you can't leave the table till you eat.
00:12:30.040 I say, okay, and not eat.
00:12:31.660 And then they'd get up for bed and they'd make me what I want 0.69
00:12:35.300 because they can't not feed their child.
00:12:39.360 I will die on this hill after six kids.
00:12:43.680 There's no such thing as a picky eater.
00:12:45.640 Okay, that is a skill issue as a parent.
00:12:48.280 I know parents get upset when I say this. It's true. There's no such thing as a picky eater.
00:12:54.640 Unless your kid legitimately has some kind of mental issue, I guess there can be cases like
00:13:00.660 that. But putting those aside, if you have a sort of normal, mentally healthy child,
00:13:06.180 picky eater is a skill issue. That's a parenting issue. We don't have picky eaters in our house.
00:13:13.460 How did that happen? Six kids, we don't have picky eaters. How did we do that? We just got
00:13:17.720 lucky? No, it's really simple. You eat what's put in front of you. And if you don't eat that,
00:13:26.220 then you won't eat anything. Okay. And you hear these parents who say, well, I try that and my,
00:13:31.920 and my kid will just refuse to eat. How long is your kid going to go on this hunger strike before
00:13:37.640 they just eat what's put in front of them? Because I guarantee you what you're doing is you're
00:13:41.720 telling them eat, eat that or nothing. And then they refuse. And then like an hour later, you
00:13:46.060 feel bad because they're hungry. And so you make them chicken nuggets. That's what's happening.
00:13:51.740 What you have to be willing to do if you really have like a, if the picky, and really, if you do
00:13:56.240 this at a young age, you won't get to the picky eater phase. If you do get to that phase, then
00:14:01.780 you're going to have to probably get to a point where, okay, you're not going to eat any dinner
00:14:07.400 tonight. You're going to go to bed and you're going to be hungry. It'll be, you're not going
00:14:11.140 to die. Like your kid's not going to starve to death. That's not going to happen. But like,
00:14:15.700 you might have to get them to a point where they're actually really hungry. And, uh, and,
00:14:21.440 and they're begging you for a snack or like they're, you know, for, for what they want to eat.
00:14:25.040 And you just say, no, sorry, I know you're hungry, but you're not, here's your meal. Like we're not,
00:14:30.460 we're not depriving you of food. It's right here. A delicious, gorgeous meal. Please eat it.
00:14:36.220 Um, but you might have to get to that point. So, uh, and we've had, you know, we've had,
00:14:46.960 look, we, we, we've, we've gone through this with our kids, with a few of them in particular,
00:14:50.420 where they, um, where they try, they try it, they test it and they, you know, they test,
00:14:57.900 they try out being a picky eater. And, uh, and so the rule is like, you're not getting up from
00:15:03.580 the table until you eat your food. And we've had a few kids a time or two that have said, okay,
00:15:09.940 well, I'm not going to, it's like, okay, well, then you're going to sit there. An hour and a
00:15:13.580 half later, they're still sitting at the table. Okay. But you're not getting up until you eat
00:15:17.860 that. You want to sit here for another five hours? That's on you. And eventually they'll eat.
00:15:25.660 Another comment says, this is half right. There is no call for kids to ask to be excused from
00:15:30.680 the table. Do you ask to be excused? Is the table a prison? Bad ideas lead to worse ones.
00:15:37.740 Now I'm a big believer in having kids ask to be excused. Do I ask to be excused from my own table?
00:15:43.000 No, because it's my table. Because it's my table in my house with my food that I bought.
00:15:50.080 And so no, I don't, who am I going to ask? No, ask, see the kids ask me because I'm in charge
00:15:56.700 and this is all the stuff that I provided for them. Who am I going to ask? I don't have anybody
00:16:02.780 to ask. I don't have to ask. I don't have to ask to be excused. I can do whatever I want as far as
00:16:08.800 that goes. I'm not my child. See, I'm in charge. The child's not. And so we're big believers in
00:16:16.480 that. The kid should ask to be excused from the table. Is the table a prison? No, but my house is
00:16:20.460 not a prison and yet they can't just walk outside and go wherever they want without asking me.
00:16:25.560 or asking their mom
00:16:27.520 it's not a prison
00:16:29.320 it's not a prison but they like
00:16:31.240 my six year old can't just 0.85
00:16:33.060 disappear wherever she wants without 1.00
00:16:35.580 getting any permission obviously
00:16:37.340 does that make it a prison no it just
00:16:39.520 means we are the parents
00:16:41.240 we are in charge
00:16:42.660 you have rules to follow
00:16:45.120 that we don't have to follow because
00:16:47.640 we're the authority figures
00:16:49.240 um
00:16:51.900 so
00:16:54.200 So, and, and, you know, we, we didn't, I think for a while we didn't do the whole, like, you have to ask to be excused.
00:17:02.840 And I think probably 10 years ago, I, I, I would have felt like, eh, it's a little, you know, I don't know.
00:17:08.060 It's, it, it's a little unnecessary.
00:17:10.060 As the kids have gotten older, I've really, that's when we started to instate this rule because, um, you know, when, when a dinner is prepared, uh, and efforts been put into preparing this dinner.
00:17:21.820 No, you're not just going to sit there at the table silently for five minutes and then just disappear. Like, no, it's, it's, it's ungrateful. It's, it's, this is a family time. We're sitting at the table together and you can't, as a child, decide to just put a kibosh on family time and walk away from the table, not even saying thank you for the meal or anything. We're not going to allow that.
00:17:44.060 So, yeah
00:17:46.560 Nobody should ever be forced to eat something against their will
00:17:49.620 It's cruel and creates bad eating habits
00:17:51.940 That is insane
00:17:53.580 Some of these people
00:17:56.000 Nobody should be forced to eat something against their will
00:18:01.200 Okay, what's the other option?
00:18:03.700 What is the other option?
00:18:06.260 So you're just going to let your kid decide what their own diet is
00:18:09.580 You're going to let your four-year-old
00:18:11.320 So your four-year-old is going to be his own nutritionist, his own dietician. You let your
00:18:18.060 four-year-old decide every meal for himself. That's insane. You're being a bad parent.
00:18:24.420 You're being a bad parent because you're refusing to do the job.
00:18:29.140 Being a parent is making these decisions for your family in many cases, making decisions that are
00:18:35.120 right for your kid that they will not make because they don't know what's right and healthy for them.
00:18:40.280 You do. You're the parent. So you feed them, hopefully, a nice meal that has like protein and maybe some vegetables and stuff like that because they need it for their growing bodies. They don't know that they need that. And so you have to force that on them.
00:18:58.780 um this is just basic parenting
00:19:03.980 completely insane and it doesn't create bad eating habits it does exactly the opposite
00:19:11.040 all of my kids have like you know for kids have really good eating habits
00:19:16.160 and they all just eat we make a meal and they eat it whatever it is we make a healthy meal
00:19:21.200 and they eat it that's about as good a eating habit as you can have and um that's all it takes
00:19:28.600 I finally, uh, scrappy little Texan says, I agree, but I haven't figured out the magic trick to keep my five and seven year old seated at the dinner table.
00:19:36.100 It drives us crazy.
00:19:38.220 Yeah.
00:19:38.620 Well, look, um, seven years old, this should not be a problem anymore.
00:19:44.900 Uh, you know, five is a little bit on the, like two, I mean, really, um, once your kid starts eating solid foods and they're sort of at the dinner table at that point.
00:19:58.600 from that age until about, you know, maybe like three and a half, four can be a little rough
00:20:04.460 and you just have to get through it. By seven years old, they should certainly be at a point
00:20:11.120 where, um, where they can sit at the table, you know, politely and basically still and eat the
00:20:19.240 food. And at seven years old, if you can't get them to sit down and eat dinner, um, they should,
00:20:24.720 they should have that skill by now at seven. I mean, seven is late in the game. So the trick,
00:20:29.360 which is not magic, is just consequence. And I think this is where parents flinch.
00:20:36.160 This is where parents very often flinch. And you're at the point, you're long since at the
00:20:42.500 point, in my opinion, where the consequences should be pretty severe for the seven-year-old.
00:20:47.860 And that's, but by severe, all I mean is something as simple as, if you don't sit still at the table
00:20:53.920 and eat in a civilized way.
00:20:58.820 If you're bouncing all over the place,
00:21:00.380 you're not sitting down,
00:21:01.220 you're trying to make it all about you.
00:21:02.580 This is family dinner time.
00:21:03.840 It's not about you.
00:21:05.140 You're going to sit down
00:21:06.080 and you're going to be civilized and polite.
00:21:08.580 And if you're not going to do that,
00:21:10.160 then we're going to send you to bed without dinner.
00:21:13.380 And you actually have to do it.
00:21:15.240 You know, it's basically all the old fashioned stuff
00:21:16.720 that like our parents and grandparents did.
00:21:19.240 That was actually right.
00:21:20.800 You should be doing that.
00:21:21.780 Sending your kid to bed without dinner
00:21:23.740 should be a thing that you do sometimes if you need to. And I'm telling you right now,
00:21:27.940 especially at seven, like that'll make, that'll make an impression. And we've had to do that a
00:21:33.020 few times with our kids for various reasons. And, uh, not very often, but we've had a few kids where,
00:21:37.740 you know, it's like six o'clock and you're going to bed, you know, you're bed without dinner. Do
00:21:45.040 that a few times, makes an impression. And, um, and that's what consequences should be. They have
00:21:50.300 to be something that is unpleasant for the child, not going to hurt the child, uh, not anything like
00:21:56.360 that. They're perfectly safe, but it will make an impression and it will be really on, you know,
00:22:00.940 uncomfortable for them and, and, uh, they're not going to enjoy it. And that's what you have to do.
00:22:07.140 So I think, I, I think with your seven-year-old, you could break him of this habit
00:22:10.760 in the span of 12 hours. Just want, try it tonight. Give him a couple of warnings. I'm sure
00:22:19.660 you've already given him a million warnings if he's seven. And, uh, but if he doesn't listen
00:22:24.180 to that, okay, you're going to bed. You're not going to eat, go to bed. Something tells me the
00:22:29.780 next day he's going to be seated at the dinner table very politely and he's going to eat what's
00:22:34.720 put in front of him. That's the way kids work. It's not that hard. I mean, it's, you know what?
00:22:40.080 It is hard. Being a parent is hard. I'll, I'll, I'll backtrack. It is hard. It is difficult,
00:22:44.960 but it's simple, especially with young kids. It's simple. It's not complicated. It's not
00:22:49.340 complicated, even if it is hard to do. So that's it. Okay. Bye.