EP: 030 |  Why Enabling Your Kid Feels Like Love (But Isn't) with Mike Koenigs

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Twenty-five years of marriage, and the hardest thing we ever did together wasn't staying in love. It was learning to stop rescuing our son. In this episode I sit down with my husband, Mike Koenigs, an entrepreneur and AI educator, and we get brutally honest about the years we were terrified our family was coming apart.

The thing I had to face is that I'd been a bad mom by over-enabling, and Mike walks through his concept of Relationship Velocity, the "hard absolutes" a skilled interventionist helped us build when things got scary, and his blunt take on how reaching for the easy fix, whether that's the phone or a pill too soon, can quietly become the habit.

Here's what Mike knows that most parents don't: the harder you make it for your kid in the short run, the better it goes for everyone over the long run, and a unified front between parents matters more than being right. You'll walk away knowing why boundaries don't always look kind but are the greatest gift you can give, and how to do the next right thing instead of carrying all of it yourself.

🌱 KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  • The phrase Mike uses for handing a screaming kid the phone, and why he says you're feeding something far more dangerous than a tantrum

  • "You can influence, you cannot control." The four words that change everything about parenting a teen

  • Relationship Velocity: the formula Mike swears is the only reason our 25-year marriage didn't snap under the pressure

  • Why a "unified front" meant our son could never once say "but Mom said" or "but Dad said"

  • Mike's blunt take on the phone and the pill, and how the easy fix quietly becomes the habit

  • The hard absolutes a professional interventionist gave us, and why they were black and white on purpose

  • The moment I admitted I'd been a bad mom by giving my kid too much of the easy way out

✨ Resources & Next Steps

✔️ Join the Bad Mom Community for more conversations like this here.

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Share this episode with a parent who is looking for a reset.

Connect with Mike:

✔️ Instagram

✔️ Website

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