So your child comes to you and says "I'm Gay!" Now what? What's the next step for a parent? Perhaps to listen to the next God Show!

This is The God Show, a conversation about the human spirit with your host, Pat McMahon.

Okay, now I've got a personal question for all of you. Whether you've ever heard the show before or you are among our... unbelievably faithful listeners, maybe around 24 years now of The God Show, we're not counting, and nobody is being greeted, including our guest. That's the reason I asked you if you were paying attention now, because I want to know if you had kids. Are you glad? Huh? You can tell me You got regrets because of the way they behave? Oh, maybe it's only lately that they've been a problem. Why do you think that might be? Well, I'll tell you what, we have a few answers to some questions that you have in particular. My children are grown, so I have absolutely no problem. Oh, that's right, I have grandchildren. I'll be paying close attention. Brian Shade, Director of Therapy, Support, and Counseling at the Casa de Pazibien. Oh, didn't he pronounce that beautifully? It's part of the Franciscan Renewal Center where this program originates in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a founder of Integrated Mental Health Associates, which means you have a degree in... I

am actually a social worker by training.

And you are married to someone who has a degree.

Also a social worker by training. Did you study together? We did. We actually met at Arizona State. And do you have children? We do. We have three. How old are they? 19, 18, and 13. Boy, girl, boy.

That's one of the reasons why it is. All of those credits, as a counselor, as somebody who talks to people of all ages, including the ages of your kids, telling them what they think of you as a parent... and Ryan as a parent too. You counsel all ages, Ryan. This is your second visit to The God Show, and we invited you back because you speak regular folk talk.

I try.

Well, we don't always understand necessarily all of the things that skilled professional psychologists talk about. Is this an unusually difficult time to raise kids? Is it an unusually difficult time to be a kid?

Yes and no. What I try to help parents understand is that kids are not fundamentally different, but the environment in which we're raising them is. And so understanding the environment and also understanding how we've always sort of understood kids is the most important piece.

So when you were growing up and when my parents were growing up, they had some of the same questions?

They had a lot of the same questions. They had a lot of the same needs, too, right? They needed to know that they were loved and that they mattered, and they needed time for rest and time for play. One of the biggest issues that I think kids have today is that they can't just go home after a hard day at school because school follows them. What do you mean? In terms of social media, in terms of their friends, in terms of the technology, And so a lot of parents, I think, get really scared. And it's so different. And everything's terrible. And I don't think that's a great frame. Because terrified parents, I don't think, make great parents. But to understand, yeah, they need time separate from, for example, technology. They need time to be able to have unstructured play. They need to