This week, we're joined by Adam Frankel. Adam is a former speechwriter for President Obama and the author of the memoir, "The Survivors: A Story of War, Inheritance, and Healing." The book looks at intergenerational trauma, family secrecy and Adam's process of healing. Adam also lends his support in giving advice to a father struggling with a classic in-laws dilemma.

You can find Adam on Twitter
and his book is now available wherever you get books.

This week's question:

Hey Man, 

My wife and I have two kids: a five year old boy and a 2 year old girl. My parents are pretty laissez faire and hands off as grandparents, but my wife’s parents are more intrusive. They often have opinions about our parenting, our children’s behavior and they’re quite vocal about it. They always compare what we’re doing to how they raised their own children, often with the implication being that they did it better. Sometimes they seem hurt if we reject their opinion/advice in favor of going our own way. Other times they’ll just vocally second guess us, “Are you really sure you want to do that?” We mostly just grit our teeth and bear it. My wife is more used to this from them and I don’t really want conflict with my in-laws. If I ignore them, it usually doesn’t escalate, but I’m seething on the inside. How should I be handling this?

Signed, 

Ditmas Park Dad