I asked Dr. Kathy a question that probably sounds simpler than it really is: Is it okay for our kids to feel sad? Our culture often treats sadness like a parenting failure. If a child comes home discouraged, disappointed, lonely, or hurt, we feel pressure to repair the mood before dinner. We offer advice, solve the problem, buy something, distract them, or remind them of everything they should be grateful for because we would much rather see them smiling. Dr. Kathy's answer was refreshingly uncomplicated: yes, sadness is real, and children shouldn't be taught to hide or quickly replace difficult feelings so Mom and Dad can feel better. A friend chooses a different lunch table, a teacher overlooks them, someone says something cruel, or an expectation falls apart, and sadness may be an entirely appropriate response. A caring adult's first responsibility is not necessarily to remove the feeling. Sometimes it is simply to become the kind of person who does not panic when the feeling shows up.

Meta recently announced new parental controls around AI character chatbots for teen accounts, allowing parents to block some or all of those interactions and see more about the kinds of topics their kids may be exploring with AI characters. On the surface, that is a safety conversation, and it should be. But what caught my attention was the deeper question beneath it: what happens when a child starts turning to an artificial “friend” for something they aren't getting from real people? Social media companies already understand that attention is valuable, and their business models reward keeping users engaged longer. If kids are insecure or socially disconnected, an AI character can offer something remarkably efficient: someone always available, who responds immediately, remembers what you told it, asks questions, and is designed to keep the conversation going. For a teenager who feels ignored or awkward around peers, that can feel more comfortable than trying again with a real person.

Dr. Kathy's definition of compassion gives us a much better parenting goal: compassion notices that someone is hurting and wants to help. It is not detached categorization or feeling sorry from a safe distance. Compassion moves toward the person and asks what love requires. That movement matters because saying, “Look how unfortunate that person's life is,” is different from asking, “Is there something I can do that would genuinely be useful?” One centers my judgment; the other centers the person's need. Christian compassion has an especially strong foundation because compassion is repeatedly associated with God's character and with Jesus' response to people. We are not teaching children a fashionable emotional skill. We are forming them to notice as Christ notices and to move toward people as He moves toward people.