Do you think of a threshold as a potential stumbling block or the place you stand before walking into something new or unknown?

This Butterfly Effect episode builds on Tuesday's conversation about the five back-to-school thresholds parents face, with a small practice to help you name yours out loud instead of carrying it silently into September.

In this episode, you'll learn how to:

• Name your threshold to someone you trust instead of carrying it alone
• Reach out to one teacher or administrator before a problem starts, not after
• Say your protective instinct out loud without apologizing for it

Press play for this week's word, tiny action, and one line worth stealing.

Hi, I’m Heather Hester, and I’m so glad you’re here!

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At the heart of my work is a deep commitment to compassion, authenticity, and transformative allyship, especially for those navigating the complexities of parenting LGBTQ kids. Through this podcast, speaking, my writing, and the spaces I create, I help people unlearn bias, embrace their full humanity, and grow their capacity for courageous, compassionate connection.

For parents, allies, and those pioneering a way to lead with love and kindness, I’m here with true, messy, and heart-warming stories, real tools, and grounding support to help you move from fear to fierce, informed action.

Whether you’re listening in, working with me directly, or quietly taking it all in, I see you. And I’m so glad you’re part of this journey.

More Human. More Kind. formerly Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen is a safe and supportive podcast in a heartfelt and empowering space where a mom and advocate offers practical guidance and education to parents and allies, fostering empathy, kindness, love, and strong boundaries while supporting LGBTQ teens and the diverse LGBTQ community—including gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, transgender, and queer individuals—through conversations about mental health, grief, gender identity, sexual orientation, human rights, social justice, parenting, parent support, and meaningful LGBTQ allyship and allyship in action.

In today's episode, you will learn specific actions that will make back to school so much easier for your kid and for you.

Welcome to More Human, More Kind, the podcast for parents of LGBTQ kids and anyone trying to stay human in a world that keeps hardening.

I'm Heather Hester.

And here we talk about fear, belonging, boundaries, courage, love, and what it means to protect what matters without losing yourself in the process.

Your child doesn't just need a parent who's informed.

They need a parent who is grounded and strong.

Let's take a breath and let's begin.

Welcome to More Human, More Kind.

I'm Heather Hester.

On Tuesday, we named five thresholds that parents cross every August.

Recloseting fears after an open summer.

Prepping the school on names and pronouns, your own anxiety, walking back into the system, safety, and the advocacy shift that comes with every grade transition, elementary to middle, middle to high and high school to college.

If you haven't listened to that episode yet, go back and start.

Start there, because this episode builds right on top of it.

So I said something on Tuesday that I want you to hear again.

The extra weight or dread that you feel every August is not you being overprotective.

It's an accurate read of a world that hasn't always been safe for your kid that's worth repeating and hearing again and sitting with, because so many of us carry a quiet guilt about how much we worry, how involved we are, how much mental real estate this takes up every single year.

So this week, I want you to practice naming your threshold or your thresholds out loud.

And again, it doesn't have to be.

They don't have to be.

From the list that I just gave, you could have your own very specific threshold.

Name it.

Name it out loud.

Write it on a piece of paper.

Say it to just yourself.

Say it to someone you trust instead of just carrying it silently.

So here is your butterfly effect, your actions for this week, and we'll start with the word of the week, which is threshold.

Threshold is not a wall or a finish line.

It's a place you stand right before you walk into something.

And you don't skip it by being prepared.

You just get to walk in or walk over the threshold with your eyes open with awareness instead of stumbling over it.

Your tiny action this week is this.

Before the week is out, reach out to one teacher, counselor, or administrator you've been meaning to contact, the one that's at the bottom of your list that you keep me moving from list to list every week.

Send the email or make the phone call before there's a problem, not after one.

Your micro rebellion is to say the mama bear or papa bear's instinct out loud without apologizing for it to one other person this week.

Let it be a fact about you, not a confession.

Own it.

And your one line to steal is this.

My involvement this year matches where my kid actually is, not where they were last year.

My involvement this year matches where my kid actually is, not where they were last year.

Say it to yourself before you decide how involved to be.

So I'm adding a new piece to the Butterfly Effect episodes because it just fits so beautifully.

Each week I'm going to read a new listener review.

I am so grateful when people take the time to share their thoughts about the show and I thought this would be a really fun way to give a shout out and to encourage others to do the same.

I think we get in our heads that doing reviews or giving reviews has to be this long, drawn out, two paragraphs thing.

And in a lot of cases it can be one or two sentences of just your thoughts on a show.

And I'm promising you whatever show you're listening to, it helps them grow and it helps them reach new listeners and new people that need to hear whatever they're offering.

So the one I am sharing today is from Nicole Grass from Undead Voice, who was an amazing guest a few months ago.

I encourage you to go back and listen to her episode.

It was in March, she said.

Thoughtful conversations that matter.

Five stars.

I really enjoyed being a part of this podcast.

More Human, More Kind creates such a welcoming space for honest conversations about gender identity and how we can better support one another.

Heather brings warmth and curiosity to every discussion and it's clear the intention is to help people grow in understanding and compassion.

Grateful to have been part of it and excited for more people to discover the show.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Nicole so much from the bottom of my heart.

I really, really did love it having you as a guest.

I loved our conversation and I love what you are doing in the world and I was so glad to be able to introduce Undead Voice to so many more people.

Reviews like this one are why I keep making this show, one of the reasons why I keep making a show.

So if you have 30 seconds, leaving one really, really does.

Like I said before, help, especially a niche show like this one, reach the parents who need to find it.

It genuinely does make my day and it helps to grow the show.

A new episode will be out on Tuesday.

Until then, keep choosing to be a little more human and a little.

Sam.