Good Inside with Dr. Becky · Good Inside

A Tween Parenting Shift for the AI Era (Introducing The In-Between Years)

March 17, 2026·17 min·1 clip

Dr. Cheryl Ziegler says the biggest parenting mistake around technology is parents pretending they know things they don't—while kids need them to model curiosity, not expertise.

Parents already carry so much. The question here is not simply whether a child should use this thing. It is how a parent can stay connected when the technology keeps changing faster than their confidence. The host starts with overwhelm. She treats the fear as real, then separates it from the conversation an eleven-year-old can actually handle. The first move is curiosity. Instead of opening with warnings, the parent asks what the child has heard and lets them explain what they know. That keeps the door open. It also lets the parent stop pretending to be an expert, because the host names the obvious: this is moving fast enough to make adults feel unsure. Honesty becomes part of authority. A parent can say they have used it for ordinary things, like recipes or room-design ideas, without making it sound magical or off-limits. Then the conversation gets a little wider. Usefulness, moderation, and guardrails can come before danger, so the child gets a map instead of a lecture. The warning stays age-sized. For an eleven-year-old, the example can stay simple: pictures can be changed, and that can hurt someone's feelings. Later talks can go deeper. Thirteen and fifteen will look different, because older kids bring bigger stories and need more specific guidance. This is not a scare talk. It is a way to keep talking: open enough that the child comes back, steady enough that the parent can add small truths as they go. The script stays small on purpose. It gives parents a way to say yes, wait, and let's think, without turning this thing into the enemy or the hero.

As heard by us

A calm, usable way for parents to start talking with tweens about AI.

AI joins the family conversation as another piece of tween and teen life, sitting beside phones, social media, changing friendships, dating, independence, and identity. Dr.

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Why you'd press play

You want an AI conversation with your tween that begins in curiosity, not panic.

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