Parenting is tough. We do our best to raise our kids and hope we don’t leave them with years of therapy. TED is a non-profit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in conferences of short talks (generally 18 minutes or less). Those talks are shared through video online. Here is a parenting film festival from selected TED Talks.

Let’s Talk Parenting Taboos

Rufus Griscom and Alisa Volkman are the founders of Babble.com and the parents of three boys. When they found that the picture of parenting in magazines and books was so different from their actual experience. In this humorous talk, they share four parenting facts that parents never admit to and why they should.

How to Raise Successful Kids—Without Over-Parenting

Julie Lythcott-Haims, a speaker at last year’s National PTA convention and the former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford University, shares how her experiences with freshmen students caused her to rethink how she (and we) raise our children through high expectations and micromanaging. She explains with humor and passion how we can stop measuring our children’s success by their grades and achievements and take a better path.

5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do

Gever Tully, founder of the Tinkering School, shares five dangerous things you should let your kids do and why a little danger is good for both you and your kids.

Love, No Matter What

Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, shares some of what he learned from researching that book on how families deal with exceptional children—whether they be a prodigy, differently abled, or a criminal. When your child is distinctly different from you in a fundamental way, what is the line between unconditional love and unconditional acceptance?

Agile Programming—For Your Family

Bruce Feiler, author of The Secrets of Happy Families, shares an approach he discovered in researching his book that draws from the world of software development—agile development. Applying those principles to their family—with ideas flowing from the bottom-up, feedback and accountability are constant, and adaptability is encouraged—Mr. Feiler discovered a wonderful change in his family dynamics. Among the more surprising parts that worked is that kids pick their own punishments.

 

To Raise Brave Girls, Encourage Adventure

Caroline Paul, firefighter and author of The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure, tells how her experience as a female firefighter taught her about how we often inhibit bravery and encourage fear in raising girls and how to change that.

How Movies Teach Manhood

Colin Stokes shares his son’s and daughter’s different experiences with The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars, and how that got him thinking about what messages movies are teaching our boys about being a man.

Teach Girls Bravery, Not Perfection

Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, says we’re raising boys to be brave and girls to be perfect. She shares why it is important for young women to be comfortable with imperfection.

It’s Time for “The Talk”

Comedian Julia Sweeny shares a funny story of the unexpected “talk” she had with her 8-year-old daughter that started with a question about frog reproduction.