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Amanda coached on the following:

1. (02:07) – My husband can be a very critical person. It is a family trait I feel as both his parents are the same way. He is not as bad, but I feel like as he has gotten older, the worse it is getting. I know without a doubt he loves me and he loves my children deeply, but his constant criticism is starting to take a tole on myself and my children. For example, my oldest son plays sports and when watching him in his games, he spends most of the time criticizing what he is doing wrong and yelling at him instead of celebrating what he did right. He knit picks at both our boys and can be very negative in general. He complains about a lot of things in general. This criticism tends to spill over into our sexual relationship with comments like you need to be like this or that, and you need to dress more sexy, etc. And if we go even one day without doing something intimate, he takes it out on the whole family with his bad mood the next day. I’m working on my own self esteem and trying to be more comfortable with myself and my sexuality. And I know I cannot control his thoughts or actions, I try to just be positive. But I’m struggling with how to be a supportive wife while also protecting my children. I don’t want to have to go mama bear on my husband, I know his intentions are just to help them get better or be better, but I don’t know what the best way is to approach it in order to not seem like I am “taking sides” in a way that he will handle it well.
2. (15:22) – How do I talk to my kids about sex and sexuality? I want them to have a better experience than I had.
3. (30:07) – My 17-year old son is bringing explicit music into our home despite me asking him not to.  How should I handle that?
4. (44:27) – My 2 year old spilled milk and I handled it well but my husband did not.  He says we should stop giving him cups that are open but I disagree.  I think developmentally he should be learning how to drink from a cup.  How can I talk to my husband about this?  Should I just do what he wants when he is around and do it the way I want when he’s not?