It Doesn't Have to Be Awkward Dealing with Relationships, Consent, and Other Hard-to-Talk-About Stuff

So back to the title of the book, It Doesn't Have to be Awkward. Is it awkward to write about that and talk about that with him sitting right there and sort of say, I needed you and you weren't there?

Yeah, I am. Well, I've been working on a memoir for the past five years. So writing about my life is routine for me at this point. And ultimately, because we have open discourse, I've been very vocal about the fact that his workaholism did impact all three of our childhoods.

We were obviously provided with privileges that are incomparable for a lot of people in this country. And for that, I'm grateful. But ultimately, there was sort of this opening maw hole in which dad wasn't there.

He did show up for ice skating competitions. He did show up for football games. He was there for the big events. But the day to day was a little bit more mom's domain.

And she's doing what every daughter of an unavailable dad does. Thank God I wasn't abandoning. I didn't leave because that would have been then the preoccupation.

It's more about it was written this book was written for sort of well we say 14 to 20 year olds 14 and how helping them navigate relationships it really was originally about consent it's a primer on sex on relationships on crushes on bullying on teenage life

It's not about all this stuff so much although this does get out of the book that will be in the memoir

It doesn't have to be awkward is it awkward to write about that and talk about that with him sitting right there and sort of say yeah I needed you and you weren't there.

It's been great and listen this then this is forging those adult connections right and and again that's what our book ended up being about we really it's not about all this stuff so much although this does get out of the book that will be in the memoir

Ultimately the foundational idea of this book is that if you trust yourself have compassion for yourself and know your own boundaries then you can trust someone else offer them compassion and respect their boundaries

So before we get to the book, which I'm holding in my hands, I'll put it down for a moment.

It's something you should leave out on your coffee table if you have middle-aged teenagers.

It was originally about consent because back when we, before COVID, consent was something that heals the me too movement was a very, very important conversation and adolescents were very confused about it.

We realized as we wrote the book, it really is about how to navigate relationships generally.