Talking with my adult daughter about her school refusal as a teen

Posted on September 17, 2026 by margotmagowan

When my teen daughter refused to go to school, I was shocked and terrified. Most mornings, she refused to get out of bed. On the rare days when she agreed to get in the car, I’d drive her to school, drop her off right out front, watch her go inside the door, and I’d still hear from the school that she never showed up for class.

My husband and I yelled at her, we threatened her with all kinds of consequences. We grounded her, we took her phone away. We told her what would happen if she didn’t graduate high school: she’d never get a job, she’d be homeless. We started family therapy, but she wouldn’t show up for sessions. She wouldn’t show up for her orthodontist appointments or tutoring. I had two other kids who managed to make it to school every day. I couldn’t understand what was wrong.

My husband and I received letters that we were breaking the law in California by my daughter’s truancy and we could face consequences including criminal penalties. I’m guessing that law was created as an attempt to hold parents accountable for their children’s behavior, to prevent neglect but I can’t really see how that strategy would be effective. School refusal is deep, complicated behavior and trying to threaten parents into “fixing it” is as useless as me telling my daughter she was going to be homeless.

My family is pretty much the opposite of first-generation college students. We’re more like fourth-generation Ivy League. It never occurred to me that my daughter wouldn’t go to college, not to mention high school. The next years of our lives involved me looking deeply at, and questioning, my own views about what “success” is and what “safety” is. Have you heard that story about the two young fish who are swimming along and the older fish swims by them and says, “Hey boys, isn’t the water great today?” (always “boys” as told to me) and the young fish says to the other, “What’s water?”

So much of my family’s recovery—and it is our whole family as a system, not only my daughter—has been my husband and me, slowly, painfully, recognizing the water we swim in. I couldn’t see the system because I was so entrenched in it. My daughter is thriving now, but key to her health was me learning how to listen to her and not tell her what to do. Traditional school did not work for her. She got her GED and then community college and now she’s looking into how she wants, if she wants, to finish up. I’m following her lead.

Over the years, my daughter had access to all kinds of mental health treatment including wilderness therapy, residential therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, family therapy, hospital stays, psychiatry, and a seemingly endless rotation of medications. I realize how “privileged” we are that she had this kind of “support.” Other kids with the same behaviors—school refusal, drug use, stealing—with fewer resources would’ve ended up in the criminal justice system. But our family story can’t be simplified into criminal justice system bad, mental health system good. In many ways, my daughter’s treatment made things worse, got her sicker, and listening to so many experts, I lost touch with my own intuition.

The modality that transformed our family is Nonviolent Communication. My husband and I learned how to actually listen to my daughter. Nonviolent Communication teaches that feelings point to needs and all human behavior is motivated by an attempt to meet these needs. With an NVC lens, my daughter’s behaviors of school refusal, stealing, and drug abuse were adaptive strategies to meet needs including needs for safety, autonomy, mattering, and belonging. NVC teaches that most people get into conflict over strategies, not needs. When you get in touch with needs, it’s easier to access compassion for yourself and others, and to come up with new, creative, collaborative strategies to meet those needs. (I posted Kids Speak in Metaphor—Can Parents Listen for What Matters? with more detail about how I started to slowly learn listen to my daughter, and I’m still learning.)

In the video linked above that my daughter and I made yesterday, she says:

“I’m definitely very ADHD, so it was sort of an impossible, miserable, and physically painful task to be expected to be expected to sit and write for 8 hours a day. I never felt like I couldn’t keep up with school workwise but it was a totally miserable experience, and there were so many things in my mind that I would rather do or I thought would benefit me more.”

She also says:

“I didn’t really enjoy being a teenager that much or even like, a kid. I didn’t really like being told what to do and there’s like an inherent power imbalance with a parent and a child and I think that was just hard for me to deal with. I was just a very spirited child, very free-willed so I think I thrive a lot more as an adult, just in general, every aspect of it, having my own apartment, being able to decide what to do with time, not having to show up for school and sit down for 8 hours a day.”

One strategy that “worked” for my daughter was pursuing her GED. Another is online school. Underlying all of these strategies in my role is my priority to connect instead of fix. I can’t fix. With that stunning realization, again and again, over the years and still today, because I forget and then remember and then forget, comes so much grief, hope, humility, openness, clarity, creativity, growth, and joy.

If you want to learn more about NVC, go to my site, there are free resources including Feelings and Needs lists

The legacy of ‘almond moms:’ In new video, Lucy and I talk about how and why moms control what daughters eat and how they dress

Posted on May 2, 2026 by margotmagowan

On Reel Girl, I’ve been blogging for years about raising my kids as intuitive eaters so now we have archive of something I think is pretty rare: a record of what it was like to bring up daughters with no eating disorders. Now my kids are 22, 19, and 17. Check out this video as the latest exploration about often misguided (but not always) attempts to be “safe” and “successful” and “healthy” as a female living in a patriarchy.

Are mental health diagnoses for teens helpful, harmful, both? What about treatment?

Posted on April 24, 2026 by margotmagowan

Are mental health diagnoses at a young age illuminating, making way for clarity, effective medication, community, and treatment or pathologizing in a way that pigeonholes kids and keeps them stigmatized and stuck? My daughter and I talk about her “emergent borderline traits,” other diagnoses, and her healing journey on my new YouTube channel.

To learn more about our family’s story, subscribe to the channel to see future videos, and read an earlier Reel Girl post about the modality that transformed our family dynamic Kids Speak in Metaphor—Can Parents Learn How to Listen? You can also go to my site Listen2ConnectCoach.com, the About page and the Media page. To learn more about Nonviolent Communication specifically and download free Feelings and Needs lists, try the resources page.

Patriarchy encourages women to become mothers, then abandons them; patriarchy sets up mothers to fail, then blames them for the suffering it causes

Posted on April 16, 2026 by margotmagowan

In my email last week, I received brilliant words from Discovering the Inner Mother author Bethany Webster.

Bethany wrote:

“Patriarchy encourages women to become mothers, then abandons them.

Through isolation, overwork, lack of childcare, lack of parental leave, lack of healthcare, and through lack of real community support.”

I would add to this: lack of reproductive rights, the wage gap, and access to quality education. I could go on…

Bethany writes:

“Patriarchy sets mothers up to fail and then blames them for the suffering it created. All of this limits a mother’s capacity to show up in the ways she may have wanted to.”

So when I speak about the Mother Wound, many women get reactive and tell me:

“You’re just blaming mothers.”
“You’re putting even more on women.”

And I understand why it can feel that way.

But here is where I see it differently.

When we only position mothers as passive victims of the system, we unintentionally strip them of their power.

Mothers are not ONLY victims of patriarchy.
Mothers are ALSO participants within the system—and therefore have the capacity to interrupt it.

Mothers are extraordinarily powerful, precisely because they are formative.

And recognizing their formative role is not equivalent to blaming them.

It’s about responsibility in the truest sense: the ability to respond differently.

This critical nuance is the core of my work and is often misunderstood.

Not every woman is a mother. But every woman is a daughter.

And the work of healing begins there.

When a woman becomes more conscious of:

what she herself received and missed from her own mother
how she adapted to patriarchal norms in her own family
and what she now chooses to carry forward

She begins to break the cycle with her own children.

This is not about being hard on yourself or trying to be the perfect mother.

It’s about awareness, honesty, and a willingness to do what your own caregivers could not.

I’m not saying this is easy work.

The truth is, not everyone is ready for it.

But this is where change happens.”

I’ve had coaching from Bethany, and she’s been instrumental in helping me find my inner mother. I’ve also trained in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to learn the skills to emotionally regulate and show up with presence, curiosity, and compassion for myself, my partner and my kids. Basically, figuring out how can I be resourced enough to be as healthy a mom and person as possible while living in the patriarchy that degrades my values and doesn’t support my well-being.

Nonviolent Communication, created by clinical psychologist Marshall Rosenberg, teaches that all human behavior is motivated by an attempt to meet universal human needs. Feelings are clues pointing to those needs. NVC teaches how to to express these needs honestly while staying connected to the humanity of others, which basically means not creating “enemy images,” remembering that everyone has needs and everyone’s needs matter.

So, for example, say I go into my daughter’s room and it’s a mess. Maybe I’ve asked her to clean it, and instead I see her lying in her bed, looking at her phone.

How do I feel when I walk into this scene? Probably frustrated and irritated. My underlying needs could be: order, beauty, and maybe respect or consideration.

Before learning NVC, I might have yelled at my kid, something like: “What are you doing? Get up! Clean your room!” Maybe I would’ve added a threat: “If you don’t, you’re not going out.”

I might have gotten compliance from her. She may have rolled her eyes, gotten defensive, she may have yelled back. Most likely any motivation would come from fear about a consequence or from wanting to please me, a fear of disconnection, maybe a feeling of shame and a need for acceptance. It’s doubtful she would have met or recognized any intrinsic motivation, any desire to care for her space, what she wants and how to make that happen as far as the state of her room. And without being motivated in this deep way, the whole cycle is likely to repeat: my daughter dependent on me, yelling and threatening.

Now, if I find myself in this scenario, the first thing I do is offer myself compassion for the pain of my unmet needs. My needs matter, totally separate from hers.

When I see her messy room and my daughter in her bed, I might quietly say something like “Ouch,” and put my hand on my heart.

I do whatever I need to do to regulate—maybe I leave the room and come back minutes or hours later. Timing is everything. I love the phrase: “Strike when the iron is cold.” I rarely talk to my kids now if I’m activated. After I’ve soothed myself, I turn with curiosity in my imagination, to my daughter. Rather than thinking about what she’s saying no to, I wonder: What is she saying yes to? How might she be feeling—tired, overwhelmed? What needs might be alive in her—ease, comfort, rest?

When I’m in that “NVC consciousness,” if I still want to talk to her, I go ask her if she’s in a place to talk to me. I might go back in her room, sit next to her on her bed, and gently rub her head.

“Hey honey, how are you?”

“Tired.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. You’ve been busy.”

“Yes.”

“You just feel like resting.”

“I could sleep forever.”

“I get it. Is this an OK time to talk about your room?”

She sighs. “I guess.”

“When I see the clothes on the floor, I feel kind of annoyed and anxious. I got you those clothes, and I feel sad when I don’t see them not taken care of the way I wish they were. I’m also thinking about the washing machine—when the laundry piles up like this, it makes it hard for everyone else to get a turn to use it. Does that make sense?”

“Yes, I see that.”

“I’m wondering if you have any ideas about how to take care of your clothes in a way that works for everyone in the family?”

“Yeah, I could do a load later today.”

“That would be helpful, thank you. Any other ideas?”

“While I’m doing a load, I can clean my room.”

“That would be great. Thank you for thinking about this.”

“Sure, I like it when my room is clean. I get it.”

“I love you.”

My priority is connection with my kids—and my long-term goal is helping them feel safe and supported so they can learn how to emotionally regulate. Whether or not my daughter cleans her room is secondary.

Before I learned NVC, I was a “power-over” parent. I thought my job was to teach my three kids to be “good” and “successful” by obeying my wise and smart rules.

When my oldest daughter struggled with behavioral health challenges, everything changed. I realized I didn’t actually know what was best for her all the time. I realized she was a different person that me with her own feelings and needs. I know this may seem obvious, but somehow, I really thought, just like my reflex reaction to my youngest kid’s room, that I know best how and when everything in their life should be done.

When I learned NVC, I realized I’m not the ultimate authority on all things, the teller of truth, God, as patriarchy would have me believe in that there is always a power over another person or thing. With NVC, I learned how to actually listen to my kids, to meet them where they were instead of where I thought they should be.

So many of the rules and expectations I had internalized—compliance, obedience, rewards, external validation—were rooted in patriarchal values, not in fulfillment, joy, or creativity.

And just to avoid turning this into a binary: all three of my kids are actually more “successful” (I think all human are) when they are intrinsically motivated—when they are living authentically, recognizing their deeper needs, and making choices from that place.

That’s the kind of success I care about now.

To learn more about my daughter’s mental health challenges and NVC, read this post and go to Listen2ConnectCoach.com To download free NVC Feelings and Needs lists, go to https://listen2connectcoach.com/resources

When Naomi Watts’ face stopped fawning: ‘Tolerate my jowls.’

Posted on March 19, 2026 by margotmagowan

In a recent interview, when actress Naomi Watts said “Tolerate my jowls,” she made clear it’s not her job to surgically alter her face so you don’t feel uncomfortable. If her face stimulates pain for you, learn how to regulate. You feelings are not her problem. Naomi Watts is #unfawning.

What does #unfawning mean?

I’ve been posting a lot about Ingrid Clayton’s new book and how she prefers the term fawning to codependency or people-pleasing, because when we “connect to protect” it’s often not a conscious choice but a trauma response, a nervous system reaction. Psychologist Pete Walker describes fawning as “a response to threat by becoming more appealing to the threat.”

I was thinking about how when women are young— especially when they are white and a weight preferable to the patriarchy— their bodies, to some degree, can’t help but “fawn.” Their bodies fit so perfectly into the system that rewards female compliance.

I posted a Tik Tok video about how my face, as a 57 year old woman, like Naomi, is no longer fawning. Even if a woman decides to take a path different from my own or Naomi’s, her body, on some level, is going to rebel: 57 isn’t the same as 27.

So far, that shift to #unfawning, has been disorienting and confusing to some degree, all changes are like that, but it’s also been incredibly liberating. And that part of the story seems to be, too often left out. That erasure feels like more fawning.

I can’t recall ever being so clearly in a situation where my body simply, repeatedly says: “No, I won’t do it. I won’t conform to that standard, even though, I know you believe that would make your life easier and safer.”

And surprise, my life is easier and safer #unfawning. I don’t miss men catcalling me. Why was I supposed to miss that?

Even though my body is older and supposedly less strong—debatable, I no longer smoke a pack of Marlboro Reds or drink alcohol—I feel so much safer waking down the street, just being in the world feels calmer. I don’t miss the free drinks or free food that were never really free. My body knew that too.

I think maybe the scariest thing about getting older, is when you’re young and you keep getting warned in so many ways how horrible and terrifying it’s going to be. I think that fear is one of the most powerful factors to keep women control. What if getting older isn’t something to be afraid of? What if it is, in fact, joyful?

Dear Harvey Weinstein: some free advice for your second trial

Posted on March 15, 2026 by margotmagowan

Dear Harvey,

On the day after the 98th Academy Awards, to celebrate and honor your long and significant contribution to American cinema, I’m going to give you some free advice.

I’m not an attorney. I coach parents in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) but I actually think you could use a few pointers, and I’m here to help.

In spite of being accused of sexual harassment by more than 100 women, you’ve appealed your conviction and are up for a retrial in New York next month. I don’t want you to blow it, but I read a recent interview with you in The Hollywood Reporter, and I’m a bit concerned. I’m worried that it’ll be super clear to the jury that, in spite of years of incarceration, you still seem to lack the understanding that women are human beings with their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

In the interview, you’re quoted saying: “Paltrow made a big deal out of nothing.” You added: “She wanted to be part of the crowd.” Rose McGowan, Rosanna Arquette, and Angelina Jolie all “wanted to be victims. They wanted to be part of the club — they just exaggerated.”

I totally get your points. Being a victim is so fun, what woman wouldn’t crave that kind of attention? Before you came around, Gwyneth probably felt left out. Now she’s got a whole community of other women who’ve been harassed. Who provided that for her? You did!

Not only did you get Gwyneth access to an exclusive club, your interaction was pleasant. You said in the interview: “I walked out of a nice meeting with her and said, ‘How about a massage?’ And she just went, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ I got the message. I never put my hands on her… She told Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt came to me and said, ‘Don’t do anything like that with my girl.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry, Brad. I got it.’”

Again, Harvey, I hear you. You thought a massage would be a great way to finish the meeting. That makes so much sense. I’m guessing you felt angry, frustrated, and confused that Gwyneth went and complained to Brad? In Nonviolent Communication, we teach people to focus on what they’re feeling, identify the universal needs underneath those feelings, and learn how to express that honestly while staying connected to the humanity of others. I’m guessing your interaction with Gwyneth didn’t meet your needs for respect, comfort, and ease. Is that right?

Here’s the problem, Harvey: Even if you weren’t, in fact, hoping to harass, assault, or rape Gwyneth Paltrow, even if the events described by more than 100 other women had nothing to do with your intention, the impact of your actions still matters.

A concept I explore with clients is the difference between impact and intention. Please read this carefully, Harvey. I charge $225 a session, but today, you get a freebie.

Sometimes we might do something that, as far as we’re concerned, is completely innocuous, perhaps even well-intentioned. But here’s the rub: the receiver of our actions might nonetheless experience a significantly painful impact. That impact matters.

Many times, a person wants to be seen for his intention and has a hard time acknowledging or being with the impact of the receiver’s pain. That person will often say something like: “If you knew my intention, you wouldn’t be in pain.” Or “I meant yada-yada-yada, so you shouldn’t feel any pain.”

The pain of the impact can be marginally related to the intention of the actor. The pain can be connected to a larger, often repeated, experience.

Does that make sense, Harvey? As a woman living in a patriarchy, Gwyneth Paltrow — and Angelina, Rose, Rosanna, and those 100+ other women — like most females on planet Earth, have experienced being hit on by aggressive men and react to that trauma by fighting, fleeing, freezing, or fawning to stay safe.

When you and Gwyneth met, there was a power dynamic: you were an older man who ran a major Hollywood studio, and she was a young actress who wanted to build a career.

The challenge for you now, Harvey, is that you don’t seem mildly interested or remotely curious about what women experienced, in their own minds, hearts, and nervous systems when they heard you say: “How about a massage?”

In NVC coaching, when someone tells you about their pain, you practice listening to them with curiosity, compassion, and respect. You hear how your actions, regardless of your intention, might fit into a larger life pattern — in this case, you’d most likely be asked to consider how a system of sexism and misogyny, often enforced by violence, contributed to Gwyneth’s fear and anger when you suggested a massage. When you listen to another person’s story with this kind of care, you become open to learning, growing, and changing.

My concern for you and the April trial is that your recent statements suggest you don’t understand that another person can have a valid reaction separate and different from your own. My concern for you is that you have the emotional maturity of a sociopath.

In NVC, we teach that all human behavior is motivated by an attempt to meet needs. We’ve already made some guesses about your needs, but do you think you could imagine that other humans, besides you, and again, I know this is weird, but even women, also have their own feelings and needs?

Before your trail, do you think you could give another interview where you imply you really get this or maybe read a statement, here’s a draft:

“After my years of incarceration, I understand so much more about power dynamics and what it must be like for women to live in a patriarchy. And while I thought all of these actresses would enjoy me walking around naked and demanding sex, I now understand that was incredibly painful and scary for them. I realize my total failure to see that women are separate human beings. I’m so sorry for this lack of consciousness. I see how even #NotAllMen makes no sense because we all live in a patriarchy, we’re all influenced by it, and the best thing we can all do is try to listen and value the experience of women with respect, compassion, and curiosity.”

Something like that, Harvey.

Because if the jury hears the version you’re telling now, I’m afraid you may end up needing a lot more NVC training, and unfortunately, my schedule is pretty full helping women recover from men like you.

In NVC, there are 2 styles of communication symbolized by animal metaphors. The giraffe, more empathic, and the jackal, more critical. My jackal wrote this letter to Harvey. What do you think her feelings and needs are? Download free lists of NVC Feelings and Needs here. If you want to learn more about Nonviolent Communication or my parent coaching visit listen2connectcoach.com or follow me on Instagram @listen2connectcoach or on Tik Tok @reelgirl reviews.

‘The mother-daughter bond has been one of patriarchy’s most effective means of reproducing itself through generations’

Posted on March 14, 2026 by margotmagowan

—Bethany Webster, author of Discovering the Inner Mother

‘The mother-daughter bond has been one of patriarchy’s most effective means of reproducing itself through generations’ —Bethany Webster, author of Discovering the Inner Mother

What do you feel when you read that quote? What does it even mean?

I’m the mother of three daughters. I’ve also been coached by Bethany, and when I read her words, again and again, my needs to be seen, heard, understood, and to matter are met. Her analysis, in my experience, is so rarely articulated and so true.

The simplest way I can explain the significance of Bethany’s quote is through describing my eating disorder and recovery from it. When I was obsessed with counting calories (I grew up in the 80s) I had a lot of clarity on what was good and what was bad: cookies were bad, cottage cheese was good; Republicans were bad, Democrats were good; William Faulkner was a great writer, Jackie Collins was a bad writer. I was a teenager, the world was easily divided into binaries, I knew who I was and where I was going.

In my twenties, when I started to try to give up the bulimia, I tried so many modalities to stop the behavior. I went to private therapy, group therapy, nutritionists, 12-step programs, and nothing worked until I started to practice what today would be called intuitive eating. I got help from an organization called Beyond Hunger in Marin County that supported me to eat when I was hungry, eat whatever I wanted, and stop when I was full. To be clear, this was not an eat when-hungry-stop-when-full “diet.” Many times, as I was learning, I would finish a bag of chips when they stopped tasting good, just because I had the urge to keep crunching, but the difference was I became aware of when I was continuing on past my pleasure point. I was conscious of my choices and I learned to be self-compassionate.

But here’s the really weird thing that happened as I recovered from bulimia. Initially, I lost my orientation of right and wrong. I no longer connected with other women as easily as I had in the past. When I stopped criticizing my body, I got confused. When I stopped eating because it was lunch time or dinner time, and ate when I actually was hungry, I didn’t know how to schedule my day. When I was served a plate of food and I only wanted half of the portion or I wanted seconds, when I was in the mood for salad and not the steak that was served, when I ate because I actually wanted the food and not to protect someone’s feelings, a waiter I didn’t even know or a man who cooked for me, I felt a rush of guilt, shame, and fear.

For so many women, having an eating disorder, being sick, is easier than being healthy. Eating what I wanted, when I wanted felt so rebellious and strange. I felt like how I imagine those tigers do, like the one Glennon Doyle wrote about in her book Untamed, who was free of her cage and still couldn’t run. She was paralyzed,

I was 28 years old when I got better from bulimia and I was 34 when I had my first child. I thought I was ready. Not only had I recovered from a vicious eating disorder, I was sober. I was deeply in love with my smart, sweet boyfriend. I had a career that excited and fulfilled me, I produced talk radio programs, co-founded a non-profit that taught young women ethical leadership skills, I published commentary on politics and culture, and I advocated for women’s issues on national television. Who could be more ready for motherhood than me?

I raised all three of my daughters to be intuitive eaters which for me meant I never gave them rules about what to eat and when to eat it. I never made them finish a plate of food or rewarded “good” behavior with something like ice cream or told them not to “snack” before dinner. I filled the refrigerator and low cupboards with food that they could reach on their own. If they wanted ice cream for breakfast, they was fine with me.

This post is not about how in spite of my efforts, my daughters still grew up with disordered eating. All of them are “healthy” eaters. They eat what they want when they want, they’re adventurous with trying new kinds of food, they’re all “normal” weight.

But when my kids were little, the other moms had a really hard time with how my kids ate. When friends came over, often parents joined, and they were shocked and disapproving that my kids could eat candy whenever they wanted. I honestly believe that part of the reason these parents accepted my family’s intuitive eating, is because neither my kids or I were “overweight.” Once again, I learned, not having an eating disorder separated me from community and incited disapproval, judgement, and confusion.

In my own family, being a “healthy” eater (how I define healthy which is not controlling food, I’m not talking about eating your veggies) caused more conflict, upset, confusion, and judgement. When my kids were allowed to eat whatever they wanted and my nieces and nephews weren’t following the same “rules,” new flexibility and openness had to be reached and that path is never smooth. That journey to a different way of being and relating isn’t so so different from the readjustment sobriety can create in a family that connects and bonds at cocktail hour.

Moms want so much to keep our kids safe, and the way I was raising my daughters seemed dangerous, scary, and chaotic to so many parents. I get that because when I went through a new way of eating, that process could feel dangerous, scary, and chaotic.

Mothers pass on eating disorders, generation after generation, out of concern, love, and a desire to protect. As a woman, when you stop monitoring what you eat, when you let your own body determine what you want and when you want it, you are making a radical choice to trust yourself.

It turns out, at 34, I was not “ready” to be a mom, because no one is ever ready and there’s no perfect time. My oldest daughter never had food issues, but she struggled with behavioral challenges that I’ve written about before and what I learned from supporting her through recovery is that my insights about food didn’t go nearly far enough. It wasn’t just at the dinner table that I needed to follow the wisdom of my body, my intuition, my own unique path instead of the systems that rewarded compliance. As a woman, as a mom, as a mom of daughters, time and time again you’re confronted with a choice: Do I do what the “expert” tells me, the psychiatrist, the teacher, the lacrosse coach, the college adviser, or do I deeply listen to the needs of my daughter?

For example, it never once occurred to me, and I now I realize this lack of awareness was partly because I was born white and to a privileged family, that my daughter wouldn’t go to college. I may have been a Democrat, but I believed in all the rules and status and hierarchy of academia. While I wasn’t dependent on how much money or how much I weighed to determine my status and worth, I was still looking for external validation in my daughter’s grades and test scores. Those numbers told me if I was a good mom, if my daughter would be “safe” and “successful” in the world.

What I know now is that helping my daughters thrive in the world means prioritizing connection with them, listening to them, meeting their needs to be seen, heard, and to matter, not just in what they eat but in every aspect of their lives.

Listen to Laurelee Roarke’s podcast It’s Not About Food where I spoke about recovery and raising daughters free of disordered eating

If you want to learn more about Nonviolent Communication or my parent coaching visit listen2connectcoach.com or follow me on Instagram @listen2connectcoach

Celebrating the girls and women of Stranger Things

Posted on January 3, 2026 by margotmagowan

Finally, last night, my family watched the finale of Stranger Things. Those three days of waiting to see it after the show dropped December 31 felt pretty brutal; we basically had to avoid social media. But my kids grew up on this show—and they had their own New Year’s Eve plans and next night plans—so if I wanted us to see it together, I had to tolerate the delay.

It was totally worth it!

I made nachos. One thing I love about being a grown-up is I can make nachos, nothing else, and call that dinner. My husband made a fire. Walter, the dog, joined us, and while it poured rain outside, we settled in for two cozy hours together.

This final season was my favorite of them all. You know I rate shows based on the criteria of how females are represented, and Stranger Things just got better and better for its women and girl characters. The addition of Holly in a main role was so satisfying, we got to watch her grow from scared little sister to heroic leader. Not only that, Holly bonded with Max, and they worked together to save the world, a girl-girl partnership that is too often invisible from series created for kids.

Another female character to celebrate is Linda Hamilton’s Dr. Kay. I’ve idolized Hamilton since her Terminator days when she broke stereotypes playing Sarah Connor, not only the mother of the protagonist, John Connor, in that movie, but she was the mother of all humanity. Unlike most depictions of mothers back then, Hamilton’s matriarch was driven, focused, violent, and she had muscles. In Stranger Things, Hamilton is once again driven, focused, and violent, and her body breaks stereotypes because though she’s no longer buff, she’s old. Hamilton’s gloriously natural face gives the necessary depth and authenticity to her character. Part of me feels ridiculous writing that, because of course, the same gratitude isn’t standard or expected for older male actors with wrinkles, but my hope is Hamilton’s portrayal ushers in a new era for older actresses.

Another female who gets to shine in this last season is El’s sister, Kali. She’s strategic, kind, and seeing sisters work together is iconic.

Nancy also comes into her own this season, racing into battle, fully armed, so courageous she seemed to be playing tribute to Sarah Connor’s legacy.

Robin’s character also filled out this season. As always, Robin is witty and smart, providing a comic break but with an edge, and her lesbian romance continues to blossom. Though what happened to her girlfriend? Did I miss something? Tell me if you know where Vickie disappeared to.

Joyce Byers and Karen Wheeler are two fierce moms who know how to rescue, fight for, and love their kids. For these characters, being a mother in and of itself, is a superpower.

El, of course, is the bad-ass hero of the show.

Finally, my favorite character, Max, was pretty much the dominant character of this season, besides Will. Sadie Sink is one of the most talented young actresses today. I’m excited to follow her career, I predict great, stranger things.

Reel Girl rates Stranger Things Season 5 ***GGG*** TRIPLE G for most GIRLPOWER

Unfawning in 2026! Who’s with me?

Posted on January 1, 2026 by margotmagowan

You’ve heard of the trauma responses: fight, flight, and freeze, but have you heard of fawning? I’m obsessed with the new book: Fawning by Dr. Ingrid Clayton. Every person—but really, urgently, every woman—needs to read it.

Dr. Clayton quotes psychotherapist Pete Walker defining fawning as “a response to a threat by becoming more appealing to the threat.” In her book, she writes that fawning isn’t a gendered response, anyone can fawn, which I agree with, but Walker’s definition—becoming more appealing to the threat—seems to describe exactly how women are trained to be “safe” in a patriarchy. Dr. Clayton elaborates her definition throughout the book, but here it is in a nutshell: “Fawners mirror or merge with someone else’s desires or expectations to defuse conflict rather than confront it directly.”

I’ve actually read a lot about trauma, I read Pete Walker’s books years ago, and so I’d heard of fawning. But when I read Dr. Clayton’s in-depth analysis, I understood for the first time that fawning is not a conscious response, something you decide to do. Instead, your nervous system activates a fawning response. This understanding helped me be more aware and compassionate when I fawn, as opposed to getting angry at myself, or judging or shaming myself.

As a feminist, as someone who speaks out for causes she believes in, who debates Tucker Carlson on national TV, I may appear to be someone who doesn’t fawn. But now I see my endless arguing, debating, explaining, is in some ways, an attempt to win others over, to get them on my side, “to connect to protect,” as Dr. Clayton describes fawning.

That is not to say debate, arguing, explaining is wrong, it can be necessary and useful. But it’s also helpful to be aware of when and how I’m choosing to spend my precious time, energy, and brain cells.

But how I find Fawning most helpful and enlightening is in supporting me to be a cycle breaker as a mom of three daughters living in a capitalist patriarchy. The unpaid, unappreciated labor of being a mom, from endless scheduling to filling out forms to driving your kids everywhere, even just the energy and skill you need to value emotions and emotional regulation skills, in a society that doesn’t believe feelings matter, is kind of shocking. At least it was for me.

In her book Discovering the Inner Mother, Bethany Webster writes:

“I once saw a video on Facebook that was geared toward mothers who are feeling stressed, sleep deprived, and unappreciated. At the end it said, ‘Look into the eyes of your child and know that you matter.’ Line after line expounded upon how the mother is elevated in the eyes of the child, implying that should be enough to get you through. The entire point of the video was that a mother need only look into her children’s eyes for validation. I found it odd that it didn’t mention the support of friends, partners, or communities to help women through the tough times as mothers. It didn’t mention self-care. It didn’t help women see themselves as inherently valid and important.

At first glance, this can seem like a harmless video with the intention of honoring the ceaseless work mothers do. It was ‘liked’ by thousands of people. But I found the video disturbing for many reasons. For mothers, it perpetuates the illusion that the approval of one’s children should be compensation enough for the brutally unending, thankless, isolating work of motherhood in the modern world. And it sets up the child for bearing the emotional burden of a mother’s struggles and learning how to overfunction as an emotional caretaker. It sets up the child to feel that she “owes” her mother a version of herself to protect her from her pain…

Our culture, with its hostility toward women as expressed in diminishing access to reproductive healthcare, the wage gap, lack of ample maternity leave, and male violence against women as well as systemic barriers like institutional racism, all combine to isolate the mother and to coerce the child into carrying the burden of emotionally validating the mother in the absence of support from partners, adults, institutions, and society in general. This is a void that a child can never fill.”

Webster is describing how mothers and daughters are locked into a fawning trauma response that can continue for generations unless we forge a different path.

In some ways, when I had kids, I thought I was going to get a fan club! Part of me was surprised that healthy kids are usually not showering moms with love and gratitude.

Dr. Clayton writes: “Those of us with an overactive fawn response might unconsciously want our children to fawn. That is how we survived so it can feel like our children won’t be safe in the world without learning to appease, get quiet, and comply, all under the guise of respect. When our children don’t shapeshift for our benefit, we simply don’t have the skills to help because we haven’t learned regulation ourselves. It’s so important for parents to address their own fawning. By doing so, we take responsibility for our dysregulation and break the cycle of living in survival mode, teaching our children a different path forward.”

My New Year’s resolution for 2026 is to unfawn. Are you with me?

Kids Speak in Metaphor—Can Parents Listen for What Matters?

Posted on December 19, 2025 by margotmagowan

When my teenage daughter was in residential treatment for behavioral health challenges, she would tell her therapists about the time my husband kicked her out of his truck on the freeway.

That never happened.

The first time my husband and I heard her story, we were shocked and defensive. “How could she say something like that?” We asked the therapist. “Is she trying to hurt us?”

“Lying is a consistent problem for her,” the therapist told us. “We’ll confront her together in a family session. If she can’t be truthful, she won’t get better.”

Finally, all in one room, my husband and I demanded our daughter tell us why she made up negative stories about us. We restated what really happened: “When you yell at us, get physical in the car and threaten us, when you grab the steering wheel, or shove the car into park and your sisters are in the back seat, we cannot continue to drive. We’ll pull over and ask you to get out to calm down. We do that to keep everyone safe. We would never force you out on a freeway.”

Our daughter’s eyes glazed over, and she wouldn’t say anything or respond to us at all. My husband and I got more agitated, frustrated, and defensive. That session ended, like so many others, in radical disconnection.

Several therapists later, when we heard the same story yet again, I rolled my eyes. “I can’t go through this in another session, it’s a waste of time and money.”

“What about just listening to her?” said the therapist.

“What?” I said. “She’s lying.”

“But what was she feeling?” asked this therapist.

“What was she feeling when the thing that never happened happened?” I said, my body stiffening.

“We’re not going to enable her,” said my husband, reciting the counsel of so many experts. “She’s manipulating us.”

“Can you listen for the emotions underneath her story?” said the therapist. “Could that be the truth for her?”

I’m a writer, skilled in translating emotion into metaphor, and still hearing the therapist emphasize feelings beneath the narrative, my brain short-circuited. “You mean how would she feel if we had left her on the freeway?”

“Yes, can you picture that?”

I closed my eyes. I felt like I had to harness every brain cell in my head to even imagine my daughter abandoned on 101 North. “She would be terrified,” I said. “Totally alone.” When I spoke those words, I felt them. I finally experienced the empathy for my daughter that always eluded me when I pictured her on a tree-lined street.

In our next family session, when the freeway story came up, I blinked and saw her standing on the shoulder, cars whizzing by. “That must’ve been really scary,” I said.

“Yes, it was scary,” she said. She went on to talk about how lonely and sad she was, and how much shame she felt for acting out— this from a kid who would never tell me what she was feeling. And tragically, I spent so many years begging and ordering her to open up. Not long before that session, I’d written in a letter to her:

“Time and time again, we’ve asked you to be honest with us, to be specific about what is happening for you, what problems you face and how you work through them, but what we get is lies or half truths and you taking a victim role. We are not asking you to be perfect. What we need is for you to approach our talks with honesty, openness and authenticity, to feel the words that you’re saying.”

I was asking my daughter to choose to feel, as if that were a conscious decision she could make—and then I expected her to somehow summon the courage to share those painful, vulnerable feelings with me, her angry and frustrated mother.

In her new book, Fawning, Dr. Ingrid Clayton writes: “My brother once told his teachers in elementary school that our parents made him sleep outside at night, in the freezing cold. He said he curled up in an empty hot tub with nothing but the cover for a blanket. This is NOT what was happening in our house, but even as a kid, I remember thinking, that is genius. Because that loneliness, that fear, that neglect…was.”

When my daughter found her own ingenious way to share her internal world with me, I didn’t meet her with curiosity. I yelled at her for lying.

All these years later, I sound like I’m judging myself, and that isn’t my intention. I want to share how desperately I wanted to connect with my daughter, how much she wanted to connect with me, and how we repelled each other like magnets. Too many mental health experts and treatment centers push parents to create and hold firm boundaries in order to achieve behavior change, instead of showing us how to connect with our kids. Professionals handing down wisdom from mountaintops can’t guide us when they don’t know how to listen to us or our children.

Reading about the Reiner family tragedy, I was struck by a similar moment of clarity when the parents spoke about their son Nick’s history in treatment. In 2015, Rob Reiner told a reporter: “The program works for some people but it can’t work for everybody. When Nick would tell us that it wasn’t working for him, we wouldn’t listen. We were desperate, and because the people had diplomas on their wall, we listened to them when we should have been listening to our son.”

Michele Reiner added, “We were so influenced by these people. They would tell us he’s a liar and he’s trying to manipulate us. And we believed them.”

My husband and I didn’t have a magical, instantaneous metamorphosis the first time we heard my daughter’s feelings underneath her words. We were still scared, defensive, and confused as we all muddled our way through recovery. But what shifted dramatically that day was our orientation, our goal, our North Star. We no longer prioritized fact-checking, scanning words for accuracy, evaluating for objective truth, and deciding how much we agreed with everything said. Instead, slowly but committed, we turned towards the principles of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and began practicing empathic listening with each other. Developed by clinical psychologist Marshall Rosenberg, NVC centers on identifying feelings and the universal human needs beneath them. Rosenberg taught that conflict arises not from those needs, but from the strategies we use to try to meet them—and that when needs are heard, compassion becomes possible.

I have no doubt my family will spend a lifetime continuing to learn how to listen to each other, but all these years later, my daughter is happy, healthy, and though forever poetic, no longer depends on metaphor to risk expressing her truth.

If you’d like to learn more about NVC and my parent coaching visit my website. You can also find me on Instagram: @Listen2ConnectCoach and TikTok: @reelgirlreviews