Adolescence on Netflix: What's Truly Harming Our Kids

0:00 Everyone is watching adolescence on Netflix and spiraling about toxic masculinity, about Andrew Tate, and about the manosphere. But I'm over here thinking, what about the parenting? If we haven't met yet, hi, welcome to HiFam. I'm Avital. I'm the mother of five and I'm the founder of HiFam and the Higham Studio. I'm here on a mission to help you to build a strong family culture. And the studio is my online membership that opens only once a year. And if you're watching this while it's hot, then doors are still open. So check it out at h highfam.com/studio. There I can help you become the leader that you were meant to be to create a family culture you love and feel proud of and to really raise kids with resilience and mental toughness. If that's the type of thing that speaks to you and you're interested in some countercultural content, coaching, and community to help you create a family life that you absolutely love, then make sure to check it out right now. And if doors are closed, then get on the wait list and we'll let you know when we open next time. Today, I'm going to be reacting to Adolescence and to the reaction to Adolescence. So, spoiler alert, if you haven't seen the show yet, I might have some spoilers for you, but I highly recommend that you do watch it. And that leads me to point number one, which is that it is a masterful production. Listen, this show is really well created. It's well written. It's well acted. It's well shot. And the cinematography is just beautiful. In fact, every single episode, and there are four in this miniseries, is taken in one long shot.

1:38 In other words, there are no jump cuts. There's no editing, per se. And so that lends the show a very high level of realism. You really feel like time is advancing in a realistic manner, like conversations are taking up the appropriate amount of time that they would in real life. And it lends itself to this kind of documentary voyoristic feeling like you're a fly on the wall in this very dramatic scenario where a 13-year-old boy is being accused of murder and being arrested and going through these court proceedings for this crime. The writing, the acting, and the production are so good in fact that people actually forget that this is a drama, not a documentary. And that leads me to point number two, which is that this is not a documentary. And the issue of misogyny is not the root cause of teen trouble in the UK or in the Western world at large. But people are watching the show and for some reason mistaking it for a documentary and mistaking it for being somewhat typical of the UK average teen experience. Watch. At home we are watching adolescence with our children. I've got a 16-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl. It's a very very good uh uh uh uh documentary uh to watch or drama. um she this violence carried out by young men influenced by what they see online is a real um problem. It's ahorren um and we have to tackle it. Um we are putting in um specialist uh rape and sexual offenses teams in every police force doing work on the 999 calls. But this is also a matter of culture uh that I think it's important that across the whole house uh we tackle uh this uh emerging and growing problem.

3:24 So there we have the UK prime minister bringing up adolescence to the government making his own children watch it asking teachers across the country to show it to their pupils and treating it as a matter of documentary. He has actually made that slip up and he's not the only one. And that is an issue because when people in positions of authority like leaders of countries are seeing things like dramas and fictions as though they are the real issues, they're likely to miss the real issues and put too much attention on things that are fictionalized and sensationalized just because this is such good TV. But the narrative that misogyny is the root cause of teen violence in the UK is oversimplified and politically convenient, but not true.

4:09 The data actually shows that most boys do not follow Andrew Tate for example. It shows that they are lonely, that they are disconnected, that they are screen dependent, and that they are craving purpose and belonging. The bigger issue here is lack of identity, lack of male role models, and lack of strong family systems. So, I don't think it's misogyny that's ailing our teen boys. It's actually a crisis of meaning. This narrative that teen boys are more misogynistic than ever and that is the root cause of teen violence is taking over places like Tik Tok and X. They share ideas that boys today are becoming more violent, more hateful, more misogynistic. And so they think that shows like adolescence are just reflecting that reality. Teen boys today are not more misogynistic than in past generations. They're actually more open-minded on many gender issues. Take a listen. According to a 2023 Pew Research study, over 80% of teen boys support gender equality in leadership, education, and pay. Only 12% of boys reported regularly consuming content from controversial figures like Andrew Tate, and most don't take it seriously.

5:19 So, what actually is rising? Well, things like depression and anxiety in boys. CDC data shows 30% of teen boys now report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, up from 20% a decade ago. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among teen boys in the US. And these aren't hate crimes. These are cries for help. So what do boys say they need the most? Well, they need a sense of purpose, belonging, and respect. A large-scale 2022 UK study found that boys crave a role in the world, a challenge to rise to, and a father figure or guide. But when our leaders, our teachers, our parents are captivated by this fictional narrative that teen boys are likely to be violently misogynistic, then we are missing all of the types of support and system and family and father figures that they actually need, crave, and deserve. Take a look at this. Have you watched Adolescence yet? No. No, I haven't. I probably won't. It's a It's a film on Netflix, and most of my time right now is spent visiting the country.

6:24 It's a four It's a fourpart series on Netflix and everyone is talking about it. It is prompting conversations about toxic masculinity, smartphone use, um young men feeling that they're being um ignored, um the idea of misogyny being increased in school. Why would you not want to know what people are talking about? Well, I think that those are all important issues and those were issues that I've been talking about for a long time. But in the same way that I don't need to watch Casualty to know what's going on in the NHS. I don't need to watch a specific Netflix drama to understand what's going on. It's a fictional uh uh it's a fictional series.

7:01 It is not a documentary. What I've been talking about recently for instance is banning smartphones in schools. I've been going to schools all around the country. I was in EAM uh just yesterday talking to her teachers, talking to students and they talk about the problems that the difference between the difference this documentary has made compared to say a politician any politician leader of a party lead the prime minister going around talking in schools is this has made much more of an impact than any politician has in terms of oh wow look at that first of all she keeps referring to it as a documentary even though again it is not a documentary and second of all she's kind of proving Kem's point. She's saying that this fictional drama on Netflix has taken up so much more of our imaginations, has captivated us, has called us to action, has made much more of an impact on schools and on parents and on the prime minister than, you know, real work on trying to ban smartphones in schools, which is what we really need to do for our children.

7:57 Let's keep going terms of what people are talking about right now. So, it's really confusing that you don't want to know why, how this has made an impact, how parents are now saying we need to know more about smartphone use. I can read what people are saying about it. I look at research. This is something that I've been looking at for a long time. You would want to know one of the things that I'm more bothered by. A drama on Netflix is not straight from the horse's mouth. Kemi is actually going into schools, talking to parents, doing work on the ground. And I'm not taking any political side here, but in this conversation, it just seems bizarre to talk about a Netflix drama as though this was the real research. These are the real numbers. These are the real experiences that people are having. We wouldn't do it with any other drama. I hope like we're not looking at Grey's Anatomy and thinking that this is a reflection of the health system necessarily. It's a drama. It's fiction.

8:48 And usually we're able to differentiate. But something about the realism and the topic I think of adolescence has made people feel like this is actually happening in large numbers and is statistically viable to take it as research as documentary as instructive to our policies and to our parenting. Now I think part of that is true. We're going to get to the parenting piece in a minute. But part of that isn't true. Young men today are not misogynistic.

9:12 They're not violently misogynistic. Certainly not more than previous generations. That is not the epidemic that we are facing. That is not the big issue that we need to struggle with. Toxic masculinity is not what's ailing them and us. It is not what's leading to teens being disenfranchised, failing to launch, committing suicide, self harm, getting captured by bad ideologies that it's not because of misogyny that that is driving them forward. It is because of many other things beside I think the cell phones is a big part of it but not you know the manosphere by is the fact that just yesterday we had Labor telling us that they're not going to be investigating the rape gang scandal something which had happened all across the country that's real that's happening right now we're not talking about that we're talking about a fictional documentary we had thousands of if I may just finish we had thousands of victims female victims those are girls young women and some boys too I met the mother of a boy who killed himself after being a victim. I want to talk about that because that is real. And yes, I'm glad that the Netflix drama is something that people are talking about. But it is not the only thing. There are many other things that are going on. And my job as opposition as opposition leader is to hold the government to account, get them to hold a full national inquiry on what is one of the biggest scandals in offer.

10:25 So Kemy's referring to the rape victim scandal, the groomer gang scandal that has been going on for decades in the UK and that has not been addressed by the government. So the government is coming out saying everyone must watch this documentary that is in a documentary about the type of violence that almost doesn't occur at all but happy to ignore real life misogyny and real life rape crimes and murder and violence just because it's politically inconvenient because they don't like the identity of the people who are committing those crimes. And so we're all turning our attention on, you know, 13-year-old boys when that's really not where the issue lies. So, why do I still think that this is an incredible series and we should talk about it and should watch it? Well, let's move in to the more instructive part of this video where I share what I took away from it and how it strengthened my resolve in the work that I do with creating strong family culture. The truth is that in this series, we witness a story of a 13-year-old boy, and it's gut-wrenching and heartbreaking to see that he is so out of control, that he feels so helpless, so overwhelmed, so incapable, incompetent, unlovable, ugly, unattractive, and like he'll never make it with girls to the point that it leads him to this terrible act of violence.

11:38 But what I think is even more heartbreaking to watch and difficult to digest is to see how the parents process this fact when they finally come to terms with the idea that yes, he did indeed kill her. Watch. Never left his room. He come home, slam the door straight up the stairs on the computer. See the lights on at 1:00 in the morning and I'd knock and I'd say, "Jamie, come on, son. You've got school tomorrow." The lights will turn off. But he never said nothing. We couldn't do nothing about her. Okay, here's where, you know, as a fellow parent and as a parenting coach, while I have so much empathy for this fictional couple, I start to, you know, alarm bells start to go off in my mind. She's saying that she would knock on his door, you know, at 11:00, 12:00, 1:00 in the morning, and he would have been on his computer for hours. And what she had to say to him was, "Come on, son. You've got school in the morning." appealing to his logic, to his, you know, wisdom. And this is that modern-day parenting freedom. This assumption that children know what's best for them, that children are going to make the best decisions for themselves, that if we give them freedom, then, you know, we won't create a forbidden fruit and we won't make it even more attractive and they'll just, you know, naturally self-regulate and naturally re in their most base impulses. and that we as parents can't exercise authority and say, "No, you should be in bed at 8:00 p.m. as a 13-year-old. You've got to get up at, you know, 7:00 a.m. and you need your night's sleep." And that we shouldn't enforce those rules. And they say, the father said there was nothing we could have done about that, which is patently untrue, which is, you know, on its face clearly false. Clearly, there was something they could have done about that. I mean, they're the ones paying for the internet connection. They're the ones paying for the electricity bills.

13:26 They're the ones who bought the TV or the tablet or whatever he has. They are the ones in the house in the moment who could go and enforce boundaries and follow through and set expectations and be involved. They are the ones who are allowing it to happen and they think that they were helpless. They think that there was nothing they could do. They weren't helpless. They were passive. They knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or subconsciously turned a blind eye because it was more convenient for their 13-year-old to just be entertained in his room than to actually deal with him, to actually make sure that he's moving his body, he's getting out with friends, he's developing skills, help him with his, you know, worries and concerns and self-image and all of those things. It was easier to be passive, you know, like if it's out of sight, it's out of mind. He's in his room. I don't even have to think about it. So they could have set tech boundaries, right? They could have made sure that there was no TV in the bedroom, that there was no internet at night. They didn't have to buy him a tablet at all. They didn't have to let him have it without parental controls.

14:28 These are things that they absolutely could have done. Let's keep going. All kids are like that these days, aren't they? There's another excuse. All kids are like that these days, aren't they? Okay. And if all kids, you know, jump off a roof, does that make it okay? your child ended up being a murderer and your excuse is that all kids are like that these days. No, all parents are like that these days. All parents are allowing children to fall down these rabbit holes of addiction and of nihilism and of anxiety and of depression and of social isolation and of lacking in physical skills, in social skills and academic skills, in passion, in identity, in building a sense of belonging and purpose in this life. All parents are allowing children, well not all, but many parents are allowing children these days to fall into a crisis of meaning. And yeah, if all parents are like that these days, that doesn't excuse each and every one of us from making sure that we do our utmost that that doesn't happen to our child.

15:26 It may still happen cuz some things are beyond our control. But the idea of saying, "Well, everybody does it," is never a good excuse for doing something. You know, you don't know what they're watching in the room, love, could be watching porn or anything. Do you know what I mean? You don't know what they're watching in their room, love. They could be watching porn or anything. Do you know what I mean? Exactly. We know exactly what you mean. And that's exactly why I advocate for limiting screen times and for parental controls because children cannot be left to their own devices with this stuff. They cannot be just trusted to make wise decisions or to switch off when it's time to sleep or not to follow, you know, worrying and anxiety producing and uh dramatizing content. Yeah, he could be watching anything. And if you knew that, you should have been stepping in and making sure that he wasn't. Look at that fell that popped up on my phone going on about how to treat women and how men should be men and all that. Only looking for something for the gym when I you can't you can't keep an eye on them all the time, love. We just can't. That's a terrible temper, but so have you. All right, so here they're talking about the idea that yeah, you know, you can't keep an eye on it. It's everywhere. It will pop up. I was just looking for something for the gym and someone popped up with manosphere content, with misogynistic content. And the truth is that you can keep an eye on a 13-year-old and you should, right? He should have freedoms like, you know, moving around, doing chores, going to the supermarket to to help his parents with errands, meeting up with friends. He should get be getting more and more freedom to actually roam and to connect with others and to take on responsibilities and to use more dangerous things like knives or like fire, like cooking. taking on more responsibilities like chores or like helping out in the neighborhood or actually getting a job. You know, there is where we want to exercise more freedoms like in the free range kids style. But online, that's unfair to him.

17:12 He has no guardrails. He has no boundaries. He has no one looking out for him. He's spending hours and hours online and who knows where he's going and what he's getting up to and how it's affecting his developing brain, psyche, and emotional system. Now, I said in the beginning of this video that misogyny is actually not what's ailing young people. But yeah, if he's spending hours on porn, if he's spending hours on all sorts of content that's leading his brain into nihilism, into helplessness, into self harm, into weird ideologies, into dangerous ideologies, then of course that will absolutely affect him.

17:41 And that actually is endemic today. That actually is a problem that our teenagers are struggling with. For women, it's a lot or girls, it's a lot about self-image and social contagions of self harm and, you know, my brand and what I look like and what my aesthetic is and what my vibes are. And those can be cute and fun and superficial, or they can go really deep and dark and harmful. And for boys, it might be things like, you know, like the manosphere, which I think has some good sides to it and some bad sides to it. Or it could be uh other things like nihilism, like depression, like anxiety, like violence, like a sense that the world is doomed, that there's no point, that I don't matter, that I'm toxic just because I'm masculine, that I don't, you know, have any role model or any idea of how to aspire to greatness, right? How to become a hero, how to become a pillar of my community, how to become a great father and a great husband, right?

18:37 There's no inspiration for that. And that goes into what they're talking about now, which is his father as a role model. Why didn't that? No, but I do sometimes think we should have stopped it, seen it, and stopped it. We can't think like that. Okay, they can't think like that because the worst has already come to pass for them. But we can think like that. Yes, you do need to step in and stop it. Yes, you role modeling certain things does affect your children. If your children are growing up in an atmosphere of unchecked temper without repair, right, of people just acting on their worst impulses and not, you know, making changes, working hard to rein themselves in, to adapt, to grow, to evolve, to develop better skills, better communication or they are not or and or they are not engaging in proper repair, then yeah, that is going to be the role model. Children do as we do, not as we say. And so if he's growing up with a father that has an unchecked temper, uh then of course that does influence them. But then the other thing is true too that the mother says, "I sometimes think we should have stopped it." Yes, you should stop it.

19:43 That's why I always talk about a pattern interrupt that you must disrupt violent behavior. Children cannot get acclimated and used to uh the idea that they throw things, that they bite, that they scratch, that they hit, that they scream whenever they're angry. They need to be trained out of that. I don't care what you throw at it. Behavioralism, rewards and punishments, you know, throw the whole gentle parenting book out of the window and make sure they don't grow up to become continuously and, you know, recurringly and consistently violent.

20:12 You know, it's normal in 2-year-olds. It's even normal in five and sixyear-olds sometimes to have a violent episode. But if it's happening with a 10, 11, 13, 15, 16 year old, that becomes a real problem, a real issue for them in their social life, but also a real liability, a legal liability, a moral liability, a problem in their character development. And so, it is something that we actually have to stop and interrupt and shape as children are growing up. You know, all kids sometimes hit their sibling, right? But there's a difference between a little bit of sibling quarrels or losing my temper and just throwing something across the room once in a while and it being a predictable, escalatory, consistent, and dysfunctional pattern that actually interrupts their ability to have meaningful friendships and relationships with their family. And that is something that parents need to step in and stop.

20:59 That is something that we need to shape. So, do I love gentle parenting and just talking things through and setting boundaries calmly? Sure, of course I do. But if that's not enough, if your child needs a firmer hand, if not physically, not literally, although sometimes, you know, you do have to actually restrain a child physically as well. But if your child needs a firmer boundary around, you know, violent behavior, then give them that boundary. Do not leave it up to chance. Do not just be like, well, there was nothing we could do. We couldn't really stop it, could we?

21:26 That's just how he is. That's just who he is. No, people are shapable and malleable and that is actually a parent's job is to coach and shape and you know work on the mindset, work on the behaviors, train better behaviors and be active. Don't just send him to his room and say well I hope for the best you know I hope the TV raises you. So you know of course these parents are in dire straits and in a terrible situation that no one should ever find themselves in uh god forbid. Um but their reflections and their thoughts are hitting at the heart of something that's very real for all of us parents. It's not our fault. We can't blame ourselves.

21:58 But we admitted them, didn't we? But when I was his age, my dad used to batter me. Sometimes he'd take the belt to me and he'd whack me and he'd whack me. And I promised myself, I said when I had my own kids, I'd never do that. And I didn't, did I? I just wanted to be better. Okay, this is a very painful and extreme and terrible example of what I talk about often, which is that just because we don't want to be authoritarian parents. He doesn't want to do what his father did to him to his son, he doesn't want to whack him with a belt, he doesn't want to scare him, he doesn't want to batter him, and that's good. He shouldn't be authoritarian, he shouldn't be violent, he shouldn't be scary, because those things are bad for children, and they're just plain wrong.

22:44 But what they've done instead is replace that with the other side, which is permissiveness. He didn't hit his children, and that's good. But he didn't provide them with expectations, with guidance, with standards, with rules, and with boundaries. His 13-year-old son is up at 1:00 in the morning on a TV in his bedroom by himself watching god knows what. And so, he has swung from authoritarian to permissiveness, which actually results in even worse results for children. I know some of you have trouble believing me on that, but check the research. It's true. None of us want to hit our children. We all agree, I think, in today's culture, that that is wrong and that that is bad. But what we also should be afraid of and even more afraid of is the result of being handsoff parents who don't provide boundaries and expectations because this isn't fiction. It's just a drama, but it's a good example of how that can lead to just as bad or even worse results.

23:37 So, I, you know, I think it's wonderful. I commend this father for not wanting to repeat his father's violence. Many of us feel that we don't want to repeat our parents authoritarian patterns. But the opposite is not any better. The idea is not to swing the pendulum all the way in the other direction. It's to find the equilibrium, the balance, the middle where you offer them high support like his parents didn't offer him, but also high expectations, right? And they have no expectations on their son. They have no rules or regulations and they have no follow through on their consequences.

24:08 Hey son, come on. It's school tomorrow at 1:00 a.m. You know, that shows me that there are zero boundaries on this child. He's a child. He's just a 13-year-old. And so, good for this father for not wanting to swing into authoritarian, but let's introduce him to authoritiveness where you are a leader, where you are setting boundaries, where you are shaping identity, where you are providing belonging and consistency and routines and follow through and a lot of love and support to go with that. But you're not just leaving them to the wolves to raise them because that's just as bad. bad and sometimes even worse. But am I? He's asking himself if he's doing better than his father. And the answer, you know, it has to be no, right? Because his father was terrible to him. He was violent to him. He battered him with a belt and that's awful. But he didn't grow up to be a murderer. Now, granted, there are other things that, you know, influence a child and how they're growing up. It's not all about parenting. Let's just focus on the parenting piece for a minute. He's not doing better than his father did. That's the sad, tragic, and frightening truth. I'm not better. You tried to be. You both did. You tried to be. I took him to footy, didn't I? Cuz I thought it' toughen him up. And then I took him boxing cuz I thought that would make a difference. But that lasted 10 minutes. I know. And then he used to draw downstairs. Remember? Yeah.

25:27 Remember he sat at the table, the kitchen table, and he draw pictures. And And he was good, was he? Yeah. He loved it. He was really good. He loved it. He was He was there for hours, wasn't he? and he stopped that and he wanted the computer. So we got him the computer. We got him the desk and everything and the keyboard, the headset and all that stuff. And then the business took off, didn't it? So you know I have to leave at 6. Not going to get back tonight. I'm so better. You were a good mom.

25:58 So this is gut-wrenching, but they're basically chronicling the things that they did to try to help him, you know, grow into a healthy, confident boy. We took him to football, but he was laughed at by the other dads because he wasn't good at it. I tried to take him boxing to give him some confidence and some of that masculine rough and tumble, but that wasn't something he connected to. But he was good at drawing, right? He loved drawing and it makes you wonder, you know, could they not have protected his creative identity rather than letting him just drop that? You know, he was a brilliant artist. Why did they let that drop? Why didn't they support it?

26:31 Why didn't they continue on with something that was giving him a sense of identity and confidence and skill? And then we see that the father gets busy. You know, he's busy at work. He's coming home late. But the mother admits that she was home earlier and she, you know, quote unquote has no excuse, but she didn't do any better. And that speaks to the family ritual. There are some things that we can do in a family that have outsized effects on our children's future. And actually having family dinners is one of them. sitting around the table together, connecting, you know, putting our phones away, just hearing how the day went gives our children a chance to bring up things, uh, to feel connected, to feel like they have some stability, to feel like they have a sense of belonging. It gives that primal comfort of breaking bread with the people who are close to you, of being part of a tribe. And now we don't have our extended tribe. We're not in our big villages. We're in our tiny little, you know, silos of very small nuclear families. And even that is breaking down when people are not sitting around the table and not getting those check-ins, not getting those real talks, not getting emotional regulation modeled for them by their parents.

27:35 Right? So, the relationships are not there. The rules are not even there. There's nothing. There's no container. There's just a physical house with people coming and going and doing whatever they want because the parents have this mindset, well, I'm not going to batter my kid. I'm not going to be the authoritarian parent like my kid. And so, I'm not going to offer any rules and now I'm busy at work. So, he wanted the computer. I got him the computer.

27:55 Right? It's that very hands-off approach that we see here. So, there's no investment in family culture, right? It's not just about school. It's not just about tech management and screen limitations. It's about shared values, stories, goals, creating an environment where he feels he's part of something. He's cherished. He's loved. There's people to talk to. There's conversations to be had. There's debates. There's interesting dialogue. You know, people take interest in him. It matters if he lives or dies. people actually care about him, right? And that's the kind of thing that they are not doing. You had a good mom. You had a good mom. Maybe I took my eye off the ball a little bit. But he was in his room, weren't he? You know, we thought he was safe, didn't we? Yeah. Didn't we think he was safe? What harm can he do in there? Thought we were doing the right thing. Was a good mom. He was. I am a good mom. You're a good dad. A great dad.

28:52 But we made them. My dad made me I made that. One more thing, and I know that this is a tough one to criticize because we all have the resources that we have and the options that we have. But in this series, we do see this kid's school. We see that Jaime goes to a very rough school, a school where the teachers are just barely hanging on. There's clearly high turnover in the staff. There's clearly a lot of violence that breaks out amongst the kids and the staff are unable to manage that. And what the school is really doing is just crowd management.

29:27 They're just barely managing the classrooms. But there's no sense of an inspiring culture of values of teaching the children something that could actually serve them in their life. And being in that environment all day and then coming home to a parent that is basically absent and a TV screen all evening is going to mess with a kid's head. It is going to put them in a place where they feel that they have no sense of belonging, no sense of strength. And if you take away the things that they're good at and that they love doing like drawing or they give up on those because they're not considered cool enough or masculine enough or whatever it might be, then it's not surprising that you have a child who's lost and who eventually turns to some really, you know, the worst choices that anyone could ever make. So these parents have not chosen this school intentionally.

30:16 And I know many parents don't even have a legal choice, don't have a financial choice. But we have to be honest about it that this is just the nearest choice and the cheapest choice or the free choice or the government choice. But you have to look at what type of culture and values a child is getting all day from their peers and even from their authority figures and teachers. If you don't know their friends, if you don't know their friends names, if you don't meet their parents, if you don't have family connections with your community, you know, if you don't know where he is at night, you know, then we can't really be surprised when he is so lost and confused. So before we blame the manosphere and misogyny and the podcasters and YouTube, we really need to look at what is happening or not happening inside the home. Are we modeling emotional regulation? Are we actually creating a family culture that would give someone a sense of meaning and purpose and values and identity? Are we limiting things that can cause real psychological damage like unlimited screen time? Are we actually building a relationship with our child? Are we making sure that they're in institutions and environments that are building them up rather than tearing them down? These are the types of things that we need to ask ourselves. Are we encouraging their strengths and their zones of genius and their skills? Those are the types of things that we need to create inside a strong family culture. So, if you want to build a family culture that protects your kids, that calls them higher, that gives them a sense of belonging, identity, and purpose, make sure to join me inside of the Higham Studio. I am in the trenches with you. I'm just as worried and anxious about our children's future as every other parent out there.

31:48 From AI to harmful ideologies to rising depression and anxiety, there are lots of things that we can get really worried about. But I would like us not to stay stuck in our fear and worry as parents. I would actually like to kick us into action to doing something about it. We have some really good data about what gives kids a sense of purpose, meaning resilience in their lives. And that's the type of data that I spend all day pouring over, digesting, and bringing to you in actionable projects inside the studio so that you can build family habits that build up incredible adults into the future. Meanwhile, leave me a comment below. Have you watched adolescence? What did you think of it?

32:23 What do you think of my take here? Do you agree? Do you disagree? I would love to hear your opinions below.