Money Talks podcast: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Apparently, we define it differently.

The older Parker gets, the more I find myself paying attention to the little ways we interact — not the big moments, but the everyday ones.

When I send her a text and wonder if she’ll respond. When I hear her bedroom door open in the morning and hope the first thing she’ll say is, “Good morning, Daddy,” before disappearing into her iPad. When I wonder if she’ll ask me how my day was the same way I ask about hers.

None of those things are earth-shattering, but to me, they matter.

For a long time, I caught myself feeling disappointed in some of those moments. Then I had to ask myself a difficult question: Had I ever told Parker why those things mattered to me?

The answer was... no.

In my mind, those little gestures communicate connection. They say, “I see you. We’re sharing life together.” But Parker can’t be expected to know what’s in my head. She isn’t a mind reader. She’s a 12-year-old girl who’s learning how to navigate relationships, just like the rest of us.

That realization changed the way I think about this season of parenting. It reminded me that expectations without definitions almost always lead to frustration.

We assume the people we love know what we’re thinking, what we value and what we need, when, in reality, we’ve never taken the time to tell them.

That’s what Episode 26 is really about.

It’s about taking the time to define the values that shape our relationships. Because words like love, respect and fear mean different things to different people.

If we never explain what those words mean to us, we shouldn’t be surprised when the people we love fall short of expectations they never knew existed.

Click the play button below to listen now, or find the Money Talks podcast on Spotify. For your convenience, here is a timestamp for Episode 26:

🎙️ Episode 26 — Timestamps:

0:01: Backstage
0:22: The Money Talks jingle
0:37: The pink rug returns!
1:20: Parker wraps up her sixth grade year
3:05: Biggest lesson from sixth grade
4:17: Parker’s learning… WHAT???
6:12: Parker’s biggest area of improvement
7:28: Parker starts her summer with a visit to the Barack Obama Presidential Center
11:50: Who you calling a chicken, chicken?
14:19: What y’all reading?
19:05: R-E-S-P-E-C-T … Find out what it means to me
25:30: Defining love, respect and fear
27:20: Outro