How to reduce parental frustration [PODCAST]

If you like to listen - hit play. If you prefer to read, click the transcript button top right on the web version.In this episode, Greg Dickens and I discuss recent news on how a child’s exposure to interparental violence is linked to their risk of cancer in adulthood. We talk about the effects of early life sleep deprivation and sugar restriction on the risk of dementia, and then review a paper on the skills required for children to stay home alone. We then talk about frustration tolerance - what it is, why it’s important, and why we might try avoiding modelling frustration behaviours for children. Finally, we talk about how we try to set children up to not want sugar.For more information on how to reduce parental frustration, see this article: https://guenbradbury.substack.com/p/making-children-unfrustratable-part For more information on helping children to not want sugar, see this article: https://guenbradbury.substack.com/p/raising-children-who-dont-want-sugarMy veterinary degree taught me about mammalian body systems.My career in health research taught me about Western health and Western bodies.Spending 18 months living with my three children in remote African and South American communities taught me about human health and human bodies in other cultural environments.I share what I’ve learned about child physical health and development in bi-weekly articles and podcast episodes.Everything is free, but if you find my work useful and would like to show your support, you can now upgrade – completely optional, always appreciated.Topics covered* How does exposure to interparental violence affects a child’s later cancer risk?* How does early-life sleep deprivation affect a mouse’s risk of dementia?* How does sugar restriction in infancy affect later brain health?* Why should we raise children who aren’t easily frustrated?* How can we reduce our own frustration?* How much sugar do our own children eat?Recent episodesNotes“Long-term impact of childhood exposure to interparental physical violence on cancer risk in adulthood: a prospective cohort study” https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/20008066.2026.2708407“Effects of early adulthood chronic sleep disruption on late life cognition, brain pathology, and microglial reactivity in the PS19 mouse model of tauopathy” https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-63866-5“Association of Sugar Restriction in Utero Through Age 2 Years on Dementia Risk Later in Life” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42525901/“Home alone: aligning childhood supervision guidelines with child neurodevelopment” Full article here: https://academic.oup.com/pch/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/pch/pxag059/8732036 and commentary from the author here: https://theconversation.com/when-can-your-child-stay-home-alone-neuroscience-suggests-were-asking-the-wrong-question-288575 Get full access to Growing up WEIRD at guenbradbury.substack.com/subscribe