Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to We Knows Parenting. I'm Peter mcattarney.
Speaker 1: I'm Beth Noel. But we're in a good mood tonight.
Speaker 1: We're in a good mood tonight. Um, we're in a
Speaker 1: very good mood tonight. Um. You make it sounds so straight.
Speaker 1: I made it sound creepily sexy and it's not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you make it something there's like a you know anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're just we've two cool cats. Life's a little less
Speaker 1: stressful than it was yesterday, and who wants stress? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we have some announcements. Yeah, we're gonna plug some things.
Speaker 1: We're gonna plug something. So some of you, what's up
Speaker 1: big one? Yours a big one? Uh, those of you
Speaker 1: who follow me on social media? And I've already seen this,
Speaker 1: but I can finally talk about the fact that my
Speaker 1: pregnancy book is coming out February fourth. You wrote a
Speaker 1: book about pregnancy. I wrote a book from for new
Speaker 1: moms about pregnancy, childbirth, You're going to say, from memory
Speaker 1: and having a baby. And I co wrote it with
Speaker 1: my best friend Jackie Jackie and Ruise, and she did
Speaker 1: all the illustrations and we tried to make it. Can
Speaker 1: I talk I'm just chiming into interrupt and say that
Speaker 1: mumble things under so that my words become unintelligible and
Speaker 1: no one knows. Incredible. You should read it, okay. So
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to be finally promoting it. We've been
Speaker 1: working for a really long time and we were just
Speaker 1: trying to make the sort of like a funny, encouraging,
Speaker 1: yet informative book about what is actually in store for
Speaker 1: you when you're having a baby. So I apologize to
Speaker 1: everyone listening to this. You already probably have children, most
Speaker 1: of you, but if you know anyone who is expecting
Speaker 1: in the next few months. The book comes out February fourth,
Speaker 1: available for preorder. Um, I really like this is one
Speaker 1: of the few things in my life. I really feel
Speaker 1: good about the work I've put into it and the
Speaker 1: amount of research and energy and love. No, I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel this way about other things, but it's not
Speaker 1: all like often something comes along that you're just like, wow,
Speaker 1: that's really I really put a lot into that, I think,
Speaker 1: especially because Jackie and I started writing this book Proposal
Speaker 1: when Maven was like a month old, So this is
Speaker 1: this has been a labor of love for three years
Speaker 1: now and we've we've worked really hard to remember in
Speaker 1: graphic detail what it actually feels like to have a
Speaker 1: newborn and if we felt like when we got pregnant,
Speaker 1: the books out there we're kind of either fearmongerie and
Speaker 1: making you anxious, or they're kind of just like vaguely
Speaker 1: uplifting in sort of a cheesy mom way. It's just
Speaker 1: like they didn't didn't feel like there was pregnancy books
Speaker 1: out there that really spoke to real women and our
Speaker 1: frustrations with pregnancy and childbirth and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: But and I think the reason why is because when
Speaker 1: you're postpartum, you're way too fucking tired to write about
Speaker 1: this stuff. So I'm very proud that we wrote all
Speaker 1: of our sleepy notes down in our phones over the
Speaker 1: course of many years and finally made a book out
Speaker 1: of it, and some of you while you were while
Speaker 1: your thyroid was not working, and some of the while
Speaker 1: I didn't have a functional thyroid. So I'm proud of it,
Speaker 1: and I hope it makes someone else's pregnancy journey a
Speaker 1: little bit easier. Well, Beth, I'm very proud of you
Speaker 1: and the snippets that I've read sneakily through the drop
Speaker 1: box that you use that is owned by me. Um. Okay,
Speaker 1: I haven't read the whole book, but I have lord
Speaker 1: it over me that you can afford a drop box membership,
Speaker 1: that I am forced to sell some books and afford
Speaker 1: your own drop box, I will, Okay, I'm fine with that.
Speaker 1: My next book, you'll never know what it's about. You'll
Speaker 1: find out when the people find out. I shouldn't have
Speaker 1: challenged you. How many times must I learn that lesson?
Speaker 1: And I spent the last two days recording the audio book,
Speaker 1: or at least my half of the audio book, and
Speaker 1: so I can't believe my voice is functioning right now.
Speaker 1: You know something I think you may not have thought
Speaker 1: about yourself being The sentence is off to a rocky start. Um,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna power through is a voice over artists
Speaker 1: Voice over artists. Since doing this podcast, we've had many
Speaker 1: people talk about how soothing your I don't know if
Speaker 1: people are kidding me or not, but I've really in
Speaker 1: the recent months overcome a lot of imposter syndrome I
Speaker 1: have about how annoying my voice is. Because I said
Speaker 1: I didn't want to listen to my voice on this podcast,
Speaker 1: and someone wrote in about it to make me feel better.
Speaker 1: But like doing the book the audiobook, it felt like
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, I'm actually not anxious about this.
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of podcasts, and I feel like
Speaker 1: you've done You've done eighty episodes of a parenting podcast.
Speaker 1: You can do an audio book that you've pre written.
Speaker 1: It's just nice to feel slightly secure in something in
Speaker 1: your life where you're like, you know what, I can
Speaker 1: talk for a very long time. You know what, I
Speaker 1: know how to speak these words of mine. I love you,
Speaker 1: love you. Um, that's fantastic. Bravo to you reading it
Speaker 1: for for I haven't done yet. I look forward to
Speaker 1: seeing it. It's full colorful glory with all Jackie's illustrations
Speaker 1: printed and um, there's some really funny illustrations and infographics.
Speaker 1: That is the part of the dropbox that I went
Speaker 1: all the way through graphics. We make a little bit
Speaker 1: of fun of husbands and male partners. Um. So if
Speaker 1: you like this podcast. Oh but I didn't get to
Speaker 1: say the title because you kept interrupting me every single
Speaker 1: second because I woke up and Okay, so the title
Speaker 1: of the book is There's No Manual, Honest and Gory
Speaker 1: Wisdom about having a Baby by Beth Newel and Jackie
Speaker 1: and Ruise Um. And yeah, you can find it up
Speaker 1: on Amazon now and probably other places find it. Find it.
Speaker 1: But you had something you wanted to plug. Well, it's
Speaker 1: not as good as that. No, it's very exciting. If
Speaker 1: you ask my mom, your news is more exciting. So
Speaker 1: you are going to be on the Tonight Show. It's
Speaker 1: true and settled down, settled down. It's not a big deal.
Speaker 1: It's a small small things. You have a small appearance
Speaker 1: in a music video sketch right, yes, our dear friend
Speaker 1: Rachel when it's If you're a Story Parts podcast fan,
Speaker 1: you know Rachel. She's Rachel from the podcast um Rachel
Speaker 1: when also known as Rachel also known as Rachel, she
Speaker 1: plays Rachel Um also known as a writer on the
Speaker 1: Tonight Show. And she is incredibly good at doing like
Speaker 1: musical parodies and funny music videos and songs. And she
Speaker 1: is in a musical duo called Friends who Folk that
Speaker 1: really get that l in there, Friends who Folk Friend Folk.
Speaker 1: As an audiobook reader, I'm very familiar with enunciation. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, um, yes. If you're a fan of the
Speaker 1: Story Parts podcast and you love such hits as Cat
Speaker 1: Sit on You, or Hamster's work Day or all eight Unicorns.
Speaker 1: Rachel wrote all of those. Anyway, you probably haven't heard
Speaker 1: her that much these days in the podcast because she
Speaker 1: works for The Tonight Show, which Peter will be on
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving night. And unless they cut me, and then
Speaker 1: this will be regrettable that I said, it definitely be
Speaker 1: a less than three second shot of But I did
Speaker 1: just get a text saying they were giving me more
Speaker 1: money because my part now has a line, so big time.
Speaker 1: But this is where to celebrate. Rachel wrote a really funny,
Speaker 1: awesome thing that you should listen to. But anyway, I
Speaker 1: debated whether I should tell you because I knew you
Speaker 1: would tell your family and on Thanksgiving when we're all together,
Speaker 1: someone's gonna love it. You love it, I didn't. I
Speaker 1: love people telling me that they enjoyed something after the fact.
Speaker 1: But my family needs something to latch onto every holiday.
Speaker 1: Other wise they're just going to be arguing about cooking
Speaker 1: or something. So if you give them an excuse to say, oh,
Speaker 1: Mr Tonight Show every time you walk in the room,
Speaker 1: that is a preferable distraction. I don't say at the
Speaker 1: time at a family reunion where we were all, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know how many people, it seems like a
Speaker 1: million sometimes, all sitting around and someone's like, hey, Peter,
Speaker 1: you've got you've got an acting Because we were watching
Speaker 1: like my cousin's like high school like video project on
Speaker 1: YouTube or something, and then we were like, what else
Speaker 1: can we watch? Somebody hooked up the computer to the
Speaker 1: We watched your reel, which is very embarrassing for you.
Speaker 1: If you guys want to look it up, just google
Speaker 1: Peter Peter McNerney, real acting, real fun. I don't care
Speaker 1: if you do it. Look it up. Look it up.
Speaker 1: It's pretty good. But you Peter McNerney dot net, you
Speaker 1: were so uncomfortable, Well, how with your family be like hey,
Speaker 1: let's watch it and watch you watch it? Thankfully it
Speaker 1: got a lot of laughs. Yeah. It did really help
Speaker 1: me in the end because I was like, oh, there's
Speaker 1: a clip in there. They got no laughs. And that's
Speaker 1: the biz, you know, that's the big feedback. Incorporating feedback
Speaker 1: um all also plug story pirates. Right now, we just
Speaker 1: launched UM the Story Parots Creator Club. If you're a
Speaker 1: story Parts fan and you want to get some special
Speaker 1: insider treats, Lego, Story Parts Magazine, v I P tickets,
Speaker 1: t shirt, all the stuff. Go and check it out
Speaker 1: Story Prize Creator Club and also our third Story Parts book,
Speaker 1: which is called Um The Uh, The Case, the Crusaded,
Speaker 1: the Crystal Ground. This is what happens when you get
Speaker 1: plug happy, Peter, we don't have to pullock every single thing.
Speaker 1: We embarrassed, um that I don't know the aim of
Speaker 1: my own company's book. Oh my god, You're gonna get
Speaker 1: so much for this. I'm gonna I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: edit this out. Well, go to the story Pirates. Go
Speaker 1: to story pirates dot org and you can find out
Speaker 1: all sorts of information about story Pirates. Another podcast that
Speaker 1: is not this podcast, Um, The Quest for the Crystal Crown. Okay,
Speaker 1: I knew that. I've known this for a year. That
Speaker 1: book comes out a weekend. We we kind of okay, yes,
Speaker 1: so by best book first, Well, if we're gonna keep
Speaker 1: doing plugs, I'll also fit I'll also say February is
Speaker 1: a great time to think about buying The Reductors's card game.
Speaker 1: We'll be out. Do you guys know that Beth is
Speaker 1: the co founder and the creator and the CEO president
Speaker 1: of Well anyway, we made a card game called Play
Speaker 1: the Patriarchy and it's not really I don't think it's
Speaker 1: been announced yet, but it's coming out in mid to
Speaker 1: late February. And as someone who you know well does
Speaker 1: not enjoy games easily, I did my darndist to design
Speaker 1: gameplay that is not annoying to have to play when
Speaker 1: you're slightly drunk at a party. So you've asked my
Speaker 1: input on some things before. Are you mad that I didn't?
Speaker 1: Did you know that this game was even happening? But
Speaker 1: this is the one where I'm I'm surprised you asked
Speaker 1: my input on other things and not this. But when
Speaker 1: have I ever asked for your input on anything? You
Speaker 1: have me read scripts sometimes you don't like what I
Speaker 1: have to say. I mean, maybe it means you asked
Speaker 1: to see things that I'm working on. I am very
Speaker 1: excited whenever you But this is like the pluggiest episode.
Speaker 1: Never plug our stuff. We don't. We don't do a
Speaker 1: lot of plugging on this podcast. So honestly, you guys
Speaker 1: asked for it, and episode we've earned it. Check out
Speaker 1: O the stuff that doesn't you know? Okay, should we
Speaker 1: talk about our kids? I want to oh sound installation,
Speaker 1: blanket is falling off the wall in eight episodes. This
Speaker 1: has never happened. It used to have every episode. Should
Speaker 1: we pause and fix it? Are you good? Okay? Good?
Speaker 1: So bran Uh. We tried. We tried to go no,
Speaker 1: no more pull ups at bedtime, despite the fact that
Speaker 1: every morning he wakes up and the pull up is
Speaker 1: full to the brim of the pp and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I was like, let's go for it. Let's see what happens,
Speaker 1: because I've heard some people as soon as you take
Speaker 1: it off, you know, subconscious day, they can feel it's
Speaker 1: not on and they don't pee. So let's give it
Speaker 1: a whirl. So I bought a heavy duty mattress wrap
Speaker 1: plastic wrap so that if you pee in the bed
Speaker 1: it would be fine. And so he did. Of course
Speaker 1: the next morning, okay, great, well we'll try again. And
Speaker 1: we did a whole week um and every morning there
Speaker 1: was an unimaginable amount of urine. My favorite part is
Speaker 1: like two or three days and he woke up and
Speaker 1: he goes, I didn't pee, and then he was covered
Speaker 1: in pea. He was so excited, amazing. We all jump
Speaker 1: around and then I touched him, I like, all of
Speaker 1: your jammies are wet up to your neck. Your pajamas
Speaker 1: are wet. He's like, oh, um, I guess I peete
Speaker 1: a little bit, just all over myself. I mean, we
Speaker 1: kept a light, we were I'm very conscious of not
Speaker 1: making him feel ashamed. If anything. If there's one thing
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about with him, it's his ego. Um.
Speaker 1: So he we we washed the sheets every morning for
Speaker 1: a whole week. And then he finally obviously said I
Speaker 1: think I want to go back to my pull ups.
Speaker 1: I go, okay, that's fine, Yeah, we'll do that. But then,
Speaker 1: of course at this point you didn't have any pullups
Speaker 1: because he dramatically wanted to run down to the very
Speaker 1: last pull up and then say no more pull ups. Well,
Speaker 1: I gotta say he got on board with the plan.
Speaker 1: So when we did no pull up, he was positive
Speaker 1: about it. He goes, let's go for it, and he
Speaker 1: never freaked out. And we got him more and he
Speaker 1: was having to put it back on and then he
Speaker 1: peas to the brim and overflows the pull ups. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we got him a bigger size. So we got
Speaker 1: him some good nights. We got him some good nights,
Speaker 1: although I did hear a rumor that the Good Knights
Speaker 1: are not very absorbent. So then I got these what
Speaker 1: are they called, um their pads. Yeah, but they have
Speaker 1: a name like Docie or something like something weird, booster
Speaker 1: booster pads, Booster pads. They have a different name than that,
Speaker 1: that's not the brand, but they So they are these
Speaker 1: pads that go in the pull up or the Good
Speaker 1: Knights to give it more a little more soaking power,
Speaker 1: which is what our son is definitely in need of,
Speaker 1: because the second we went back to the pull ups,
Speaker 1: he was just so came through the pull ups all
Speaker 1: over the bed anyway. So weirdly, tonight we get we
Speaker 1: finally got the bigger size, and I'm like, all right, Britain.
Speaker 1: So we're putting on putting on one of these, and
Speaker 1: then he got real anxious. He goes, no, I want
Speaker 1: my old one, and I'm like, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: play this game, and so I put my foot down
Speaker 1: and he gets it escalates quickly. But I had already
Speaker 1: said no books in bed until you put this on.
Speaker 1: And and you came in like right after it escalated,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I can't back. I can't back down.
Speaker 1: And so there was a bit of a time where
Speaker 1: he was crying and freaking out and screaming, and I
Speaker 1: had to turn out the light and calm calming down,
Speaker 1: and then and then and then we'd calmed down, and
Speaker 1: I put in my lap and I held them and
Speaker 1: I was like, how do you feel right now? Because
Speaker 1: I feel angry? You know how you ask your kids
Speaker 1: how they feel and they don't actually engage in that conversation,
Speaker 1: but he did in a way never had goes I'm feeling.
Speaker 1: I think they've been talking about feelings a lot at school.
Speaker 1: I loved it that he gave me a very honest answer.
Speaker 1: One thing I appreciate in his classroom, which seems to
Speaker 1: me sort of a town wide like effort, is that
Speaker 1: they're focused a lot on um kids needing to move
Speaker 1: and fidget and like, you know, there's like the fidget
Speaker 1: spinners that people talk about, like so they like when
Speaker 1: I went. So I went in for his parent teacher
Speaker 1: conference last week, which we haven't fully talked about, but
Speaker 1: the teacher was saying, how like she can tell by
Speaker 1: the end of the day that he's like kind of
Speaker 1: needing to move because he'll be like crab walking along
Speaker 1: on the floor like he's like on his hands and feet,
Speaker 1: which I was like, oh, yeah, that's him. Um, but
Speaker 1: she kept like, she kept like prefacing it by being like,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a long day for all of us,
Speaker 1: and it makes sense that he's getting a little like,
Speaker 1: but they have a corner in the class room where
Speaker 1: kids can go to this basket for like sensory stuff
Speaker 1: and like play with the fidget spinner, do these things.
Speaker 1: And she said, he actually doesn't go over there very much,
Speaker 1: like I don't think that's his thing. He wants to
Speaker 1: be like rolling on the floor. Yeah, but um, I
Speaker 1: really appreciate that they're like monitoring that in a way
Speaker 1: that feels very empathetic to the children and their needs
Speaker 1: and not like they're angry at them for getting fidgety. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not a sit still. They have you know, what's
Speaker 1: their their mindful mindfulness our or not our but mindfulness
Speaker 1: this time Yeah, where it's it's not nap time, but
Speaker 1: you can you can meditate, you can. It's just a
Speaker 1: quiet sort of they have a whole hour. It's not
Speaker 1: an hour, it's mindful. Like that sounds insane for a
Speaker 1: five year old but mindful is in the name. He'll
Speaker 1: tell you all about it. Okay. Well, so I was
Speaker 1: asking her because she was she was like going through
Speaker 1: all the things, and I knew exactly what she was
Speaker 1: going to say because she was like, you know, here's
Speaker 1: his letters, and he's doing pretty good. And that's like
Speaker 1: developmentally at the right spot. And he's very smart and
Speaker 1: social and like he gets along well with everyone and
Speaker 1: he has a lot of friends. And she's like, but
Speaker 1: the thing is, he sometimes has trouble like focusing, like
Speaker 1: when we're all walking down the halls and he's kind
Speaker 1: of like that's safe. Yeah, And she's like, it's what
Speaker 1: my concern is, it's not safe. And I was like, no,
Speaker 1: I get it. This is like everyone's complained about him
Speaker 1: because he gets so excited to be around kids and
Speaker 1: other people, and he's like so distractable and like happy
Speaker 1: to be with everyone that he's not focusing on the
Speaker 1: stairs he's walking down or like, well, he told me
Speaker 1: that she told him that he's in charge of keeping
Speaker 1: everyone safe. Oh, he said that. He told me she
Speaker 1: told him, he's like, hey, will you keep these kids safe?
Speaker 1: And it's exactly when I'm directing a show and I
Speaker 1: have an actor who's backseat directing and taking focus. I
Speaker 1: will pull them aside at some point and go, hey,
Speaker 1: can you help me with this younger actor? I could
Speaker 1: just use your help. And you learned this because it
Speaker 1: was done to you when your BACKATRECT. This to me,
Speaker 1: and he'd give me a job because can you make
Speaker 1: sure everyone has different color shirts? On Captain? It's perfect
Speaker 1: for him because Brent is like when we saw him
Speaker 1: in his school performance last year. He's like the one
Speaker 1: who's like turning everyone on stage and being like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're going to like and he's like just giggling and
Speaker 1: wants to direct all the fun. Give him some responsibility. Yeah, anyway,
Speaker 1: I need to furnish my story in the bedroom. What
Speaker 1: happened with the pull up? So he said he was
Speaker 1: angry and I didn't explain why, and then he didn't
Speaker 1: want to put on the good night And then I
Speaker 1: had a stroke a genius. I have a full story
Speaker 1: parts model, which is just distract find be something, be
Speaker 1: more interesting than the problem. And I said, all right,
Speaker 1: here's the deal, and I got real serious. I go, Britt,
Speaker 1: this is my final offer. Are you listening? He's like
Speaker 1: you suddenly he's intrigued, like if you put on the
Speaker 1: good Night, and only if you put on the good Night,
Speaker 1: I will take another good Night and I will put
Speaker 1: it on my head. And then he looked at me
Speaker 1: and he tried not to smile. And I go, and
Speaker 1: I will go into mommy and Daddy's from where maybe
Speaker 1: and Mommy are, and I will dance in a circle
Speaker 1: while screaming I am daddy diaper head, and I will
Speaker 1: make fart noises. And I said, you better not be laughing,
Speaker 1: because this is what I'll do. And then he jumped
Speaker 1: out of bed and pulled off his jammies and his
Speaker 1: pull up and put on the good Night. And that's
Speaker 1: why I entered the room and said I was dandy
Speaker 1: diaper head, masterful. Did you piece that together when I
Speaker 1: was dancing? Yes? I did pretty good? Right, pretty good worked? Um,
Speaker 1: I am daddy taper pants. This next segment is called
Speaker 1: We Don't Knows. It's where we share a perplexing parenting moment.
Speaker 1: You know what I don't know. I don't knows what
Speaker 1: to do at a five year old birthday party where
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody, and I am allowed. So Brand
Speaker 1: went to his his good friend from school's birthday party.
Speaker 1: Was exciting to be invited by a friend of his
Speaker 1: that I never met, a friend of his who I
Speaker 1: have to say, I have to tell this story. Okay,
Speaker 1: So Bryn came home this week and he keeps quoting
Speaker 1: this kid from school, imitating him, and he goes, I'll
Speaker 1: follow him up back and I hit my face and
Speaker 1: he says it over and over again because apparently and
Speaker 1: last the circle, and then Mayven started copying him and
Speaker 1: saying it. He's just copying his friend at school. So
Speaker 1: obviously he has no context for what this means. And
Speaker 1: we don't know what it's from. We don't. Please tell
Speaker 1: us if anyone knows, but this is his friend from school.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I was really worried because he
Speaker 1: was doing kind of like a black voice, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't. I'm like worried about what these
Speaker 1: kids are quoting and what's happening, and like, and we
Speaker 1: don't know who these kids are because we don't always
Speaker 1: pick him up from school or see them. You were
Speaker 1: worried that our son was doing a culturally insensitive imitation
Speaker 1: of a thing he didn't understand, right, I was, I
Speaker 1: was like, what is he doing um. But then we
Speaker 1: found out that his friend is bi racial and half black,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I feel a little bit better
Speaker 1: knowing that he's just hanging out with a kid who's
Speaker 1: black and not like, who knows what he's quoting? I
Speaker 1: don't know, because but Britain doesn't know. I've asked him.
Speaker 1: I was like, is this from something? He's like, No,
Speaker 1: that's just what my friend says. But it's like his
Speaker 1: friends catchphrase. Well, his friend is actually obviously very funny,
Speaker 1: like Vernon is very engaged by whatever is happening. Well,
Speaker 1: he's a very nice kid and he's got a very
Speaker 1: nice family. And we went we and by we, I
Speaker 1: mean me and Brand went to this pottery place. Same.
Speaker 1: I had one of these birthdays when I was probably eight,
Speaker 1: where you go and they've got ceramic um things and
Speaker 1: you paint them and then they glaze and all that.
Speaker 1: Do you ever do that me for birthdays? Um? No,
Speaker 1: this is after my time? Did you do this for
Speaker 1: after your time? Where I grew up? This phenomenon is
Speaker 1: fairly recent. We didn't have this kind of thing. We
Speaker 1: had one grown up, but it was one of those
Speaker 1: when you're little you think it's the only one in
Speaker 1: the world where when I was growing up, I think
Speaker 1: we had on when my sister was little. It was
Speaker 1: called plaster fun Time. Plaster fun time, but it was
Speaker 1: It didn't plaster fun time right now. But my little
Speaker 1: sister five years younger than me, she would get invited
Speaker 1: there for birthday parties, but not me. I didn't, even
Speaker 1: though you would crush it. No, it just didn't exist
Speaker 1: when I was of birthday party age. I want to
Speaker 1: remember the one that I grew up near, because I
Speaker 1: because I want to. Anyway, we went to plaster pottery
Speaker 1: Alice fun Time. I don't remember what it's called. And
Speaker 1: I got there and I knew not a soult. And
Speaker 1: this is in many ways my worst nightmare, even even
Speaker 1: worse than your family watching my character reel at a
Speaker 1: family reunion. Um and I did a lot of standing
Speaker 1: in the corner, um, a lot of hovering over Brian,
Speaker 1: giving him far more advice than he wanted or needed.
Speaker 1: Um and I didn't. I didn't know how to engage
Speaker 1: with people. You were like, I gotta focus on this plaster.
Speaker 1: I'm like, have you thought about this combination of colors?
Speaker 1: He picked a penguin bank, a plaster piggy bank that
Speaker 1: was a penguin, and he put every every color there
Speaker 1: wasn't it. I just want to say I went to
Speaker 1: a kid's birthday party a week before this with both
Speaker 1: of our kids, and I think I did better than you. Yes,
Speaker 1: I wasn't the most social, but I did make an
Speaker 1: attempt to talk to people I don't know better. Some
Speaker 1: of them are more friendly than others. They got better
Speaker 1: over the night, but the beginning section where they're painting,
Speaker 1: everyone seemed to know somebody except for me. At one
Speaker 1: point birthday boys dad came over to me. It just
Speaker 1: goes like, hey, thanks so much for coming and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, thanks for having me. And then I
Speaker 1: was like, you know the funny thing, and then he
Speaker 1: was off to the next person. I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I missed my one shot. So Section one was painting
Speaker 1: a penguin. Section two, Part two that I do. You're
Speaker 1: dividing the party into sections. There were very clear there
Speaker 1: was a module party, Phase Phase one, Phase two, Session
Speaker 1: two dance party. They were go into the room, which
Speaker 1: is the big open room with with like shelves up
Speaker 1: to the ceiling with you know, unpainted ceramic figures, just
Speaker 1: asking for somebody to trip into the shelf and shatter
Speaker 1: all nine hundred of them, and they go, let's have
Speaker 1: a five year old dance party in this room. And
Speaker 1: they turn out all the lights and there's a bubble
Speaker 1: machine and there's music, and suddenly it is a dance
Speaker 1: party and the kids go crazy. You know who the
Speaker 1: one kid was who had no interest in dancing, My
Speaker 1: son Brian McNerney. So Brand and I sat on the
Speaker 1: side like two losers at the dance and I was
Speaker 1: like trying to get him to I get up and
Speaker 1: like dance a little bit, and he was embarrassed by me,
Speaker 1: and then the limbo stick came out and he was
Speaker 1: intrigued by that. He's so weird to me that you
Speaker 1: can't talk to people but you're totally fine dancing in
Speaker 1: front of them. Like well, I was texting with Lee
Speaker 1: from Story Parts early days of Story Fire two thousands.
Speaker 1: Name dropped Lee like five times in this episode. What
Speaker 1: can I say? He's my boss um And shocking how
Speaker 1: little I have mentioned him on this podcast until this point.
Speaker 1: But from two thousand six to two thousand nine at
Speaker 1: Story Pirates before you know, we did nine trillion birthday parties.
Speaker 1: Before we are expanded into way more schools and bigger things,
Speaker 1: and boy, I know what it's like to be child.
Speaker 1: It's birthday've already entertainment. They can be super fun and
Speaker 1: they can also be the worst experiences ever when no
Speaker 1: one's in charge, when there's no parents just telling their
Speaker 1: child to pay attention to somebody. But I've done so
Speaker 1: many of those that I was texting with Lee during
Speaker 1: it and he jokingly said, you'd be more comfortable, you know,
Speaker 1: performing for these kids. I'm like, yes, if somebody told me, hey,
Speaker 1: will you entertain these kids right now, I'd be infinitely
Speaker 1: more comfortable just taking control of the room and going,
Speaker 1: let's make up a story together. You want the teacher
Speaker 1: to make you the line leader? Yes? Why went? Why went?
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't this seventeen year old Ceramic Pottery Palace employee
Speaker 1: party leader just pass me the baton because I will
Speaker 1: organize this limbo line because none of these kids are
Speaker 1: doing the limbo right and no one seems to care.
Speaker 1: They're they're they're ducking forward to crawl under the bar,
Speaker 1: and everyone's acting like that's okay, like they're not all
Speaker 1: instantly out. But the thing is, if we were at
Speaker 1: a family party and I was like, hey, Peter, can
Speaker 1: you just like get everyone going and like get do
Speaker 1: this thing, like run a quick thing. You'd be like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do that. Wait? Wait, what what
Speaker 1: is this scenario? If I asked you to like manage
Speaker 1: a party in this way, and I was like, can
Speaker 1: you just like take the focus and tell everyone what
Speaker 1: to do? And are you kidding me? You would do
Speaker 1: that in a secondly, if you told me, hey, will
Speaker 1: you go take care of cousin Eddie, he's awkward and
Speaker 1: needs someone to talk to you about it, I was like,
Speaker 1: can you go lead the limbo? Oh? Hell yeah, I'd
Speaker 1: rather do that than do the limbo. Okay, well let's
Speaker 1: leave the limbo out of this limbo. It was so disappointing.
Speaker 1: One kid knew how the rules of limbo worked, didn't
Speaker 1: bother explaining it. Despite the I mean, these people were
Speaker 1: who had done they've done a million birthday parties. It
Speaker 1: was very efficient, it was very on time. They also
Speaker 1: knew that like, it's a losing battle to try to
Speaker 1: teach four and five year olds how to do the
Speaker 1: limbo properly. Instead of my mind, I'm like, you know, what,
Speaker 1: that's fine. The dance party ended after some limbo. There
Speaker 1: was a congo line. There was a freeze game that
Speaker 1: this one kid, Henry, would not follow the rules. You
Speaker 1: never froze crazy kid. Light up, crazy Kid, the light
Speaker 1: of shoes, and then we had Pizza turn the lights
Speaker 1: back on, put the screen up back in the other room.
Speaker 1: A pizza e Cake got a goodie bag, his ceramic
Speaker 1: thing was done. We went home two hours perfect. It
Speaker 1: was pretty good. I just literally didn't learn a single
Speaker 1: person's name. Now that our kids are older and we
Speaker 1: they're starting to catch on that other kids are getting
Speaker 1: birthday parties, we're gonna have to start trying. Where would
Speaker 1: you host a birthday party for a child? It's a
Speaker 1: good question. I know. I might go find one of
Speaker 1: those like bouncy places. Bouncy places, okay, yeah, you know
Speaker 1: one of those kid Jim's Discovery Zone esque. Yeah, someplace
Speaker 1: with a part. Now that I've been to one and
Speaker 1: I remember what they're like, I would do this place too. Honestly,
Speaker 1: this place that I just went place two hours. It's
Speaker 1: just like they do birthday parties, so they do it
Speaker 1: for you. I like the two hour cut off, Like
Speaker 1: I guess that's how most kids parties are. It's like
Speaker 1: in and out. But what am I talking about? I
Speaker 1: would do a story Prit's birthday party. I have something
Speaker 1: the plug Tallie just hit like twenty for this episode.
Speaker 1: So many plugs. I would just pay a bunch. Is
Speaker 1: there anything else we can plug while we're trike? Like
Speaker 1: Saturday's at the Magnet Theater nine o'clock reliably one of
Speaker 1: the best improv shows in the city, says The New
Speaker 1: York Times. I've literally plugged everything value Well, I can't
Speaker 1: wait to see the revenue roll in. Yeah. This next
Speaker 1: segment is called Listeners Want to Nose. It's where we
Speaker 1: share some questions and comments from you guys. Okay, so,
Speaker 1: just on the theme of this episode, which is shameless
Speaker 1: self promotion. This is an email that references references Reductress. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna read it. This is from Rebecca, Hi, Beth,
Speaker 1: and Peter. This one is really for Beth. I love
Speaker 1: this podcast, huge fan of Reductress. I have a thirteen
Speaker 1: month old and I just found out I'm pregnant with
Speaker 1: a new nugget thirteen months Wow. I just quickly I
Speaker 1: want to plug. If you're looking for holiday gifts. You
Speaker 1: can go to shop dot reductress dot com. We have
Speaker 1: a selection of sweatshirts, hats, crop tops, all very funny.
Speaker 1: Literally now, I'm like, what is there we haven't plugged
Speaker 1: that we could plug continue. I'm pregnant with a new nugget,
Speaker 1: just like just took out a positive pregnancy test a
Speaker 1: few days ago. So it's way too early to talk
Speaker 1: about this. WHOA, congratulations, but here I am kind of
Speaker 1: freaking out about my life choices. Um I just I
Speaker 1: just want to tell her quickly as she can pre order.
Speaker 1: There's no manual, honest and gory wisdom about having a baby. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you'll get the book before you get the baby.
Speaker 1: Your kids also will be about the same distances Vernon
Speaker 1: Maven maybe one month sooner. They're twenty months apart. Twenty
Speaker 1: months apart, these will be Um, oh no, what am
Speaker 1: I talking about? I can't do math. It will be
Speaker 1: two months apart. Okay, go ahead, really anyway, um uh
Speaker 1: kind of freaking out blah blah. I read that. Great,
Speaker 1: you're kind of freaking out about my life choices and
Speaker 1: how the funk we're going to afford this? And O MG,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a million months before I can enjoy
Speaker 1: a glass of wine. But also I'm excited for what
Speaker 1: this chaotic future holds. So as happens, I have found
Speaker 1: myself launching up my Baby Center pregnancy tracker app. It
Speaker 1: can be comforting just to keep track of the weeks
Speaker 1: and be able to say baby is the size of
Speaker 1: a blah blah blah, currently assessme to sessame seed. However,
Speaker 1: there's a problem with these apps, which is that they're
Speaker 1: terrible and patronizing, especially the second time around. I have
Speaker 1: no patience for diet tips quote ten foods to eat
Speaker 1: while pregnant can go funk itself, and a heteronormative platitudes.
Speaker 1: So where am I going with this? I certainly think
Speaker 1: the pregnancy the pregnant people of the world deserve a
Speaker 1: pregnancy tracker app that is woke, funny, sarcastic, real and inclusive.
Speaker 1: I am semi seriously asking you about if you would
Speaker 1: like to start a project like this or know someone
Speaker 1: who might the Reductor's pregnancy tracker. I just got so
Speaker 1: excited about this idea and I had to try reaching
Speaker 1: out alternately. Maybe something in this realm already exists. If
Speaker 1: you think it does, please direct it to me. That
Speaker 1: would actually be much easier. I will try to write
Speaker 1: a more podcast friendly question. Sometimes this was perfect. Um,
Speaker 1: I realized it's a bit far fetched and not what
Speaker 1: you're hoping to find in your inbox. You're wrong, we're
Speaker 1: hoping to find this. Anyway. You're doing a great job
Speaker 1: with parenting and generally kicking ass. Rebecca. It felt appropriate
Speaker 1: to read this given that we're plugging our things. I mean,
Speaker 1: the thing is, I just finished working on this book
Speaker 1: and I'm still what it feels like right now, I'm
Speaker 1: sort of at the pushing stage of delivering this book
Speaker 1: into the world, so I still feel pretty in it
Speaker 1: in terms of like looking forward to next projects. I
Speaker 1: also feel like, what's hard is you know, i have
Speaker 1: this podcast obviously about parenting, and then I've been working
Speaker 1: on this pregnancy book for three years or whatever. I
Speaker 1: feel like I don't think I can take on another
Speaker 1: parenting related didn't the Tracker app, he's the book. The
Speaker 1: Tracker app is the book. Yeah, I mean the book
Speaker 1: has some you know, it has it talks about various
Speaker 1: stages of pregnancy and stuff like that. I talked about
Speaker 1: the size it about the size of your baby. There
Speaker 1: is a very old Reductress article. I feel like that
Speaker 1: is sort of like, congratulations, your baby at six weeks
Speaker 1: is the size of a bed bug. And like we
Speaker 1: might have done more than one of those where we
Speaker 1: just had like gross like things, but it wasn't just
Speaker 1: not it didn't feel sustainable at the time as um
Speaker 1: uh a form of comedy to put out on the internet. Um, well,
Speaker 1: you've got one customer, Yeah, you do it. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be surprised if there's something out there similar to what
Speaker 1: she's looking for, not as good as mine would be,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I don't know. Um, all right, here's the
Speaker 1: here's another one that feels on theme for this episode,
Speaker 1: which I'm definitely going to call plugs. So we continue
Speaker 1: to get a lot of book recommendation emails, and I
Speaker 1: think we're going to have to do another episode where
Speaker 1: we do a bunch in a row. Well, it's something
Speaker 1: people probably want to know going into the holidays. It's true,
Speaker 1: we'll do it. We'll do next week. I was I
Speaker 1: was talking to people because we've had a lot of
Speaker 1: birthday parties likely to go to, and I do really
Speaker 1: feel good about gifting a book. Yeah, it makes you
Speaker 1: look cool, and well, I just feel like no. My
Speaker 1: friends were talking about this because something. They were arguing
Speaker 1: whether you could just show up to a party without
Speaker 1: a gift if you're like broke or you just are
Speaker 1: exhausted by a consumerism, and I was saying, like, you're
Speaker 1: the first reason you can. Well, I was like, that
Speaker 1: seems like a good idea. As a woman, I feel
Speaker 1: like I would be violently shamed for doing that, but
Speaker 1: I can understand the impulse. Um. But what I feel
Speaker 1: good about books is that there you could just throw
Speaker 1: them in the recycling bin, and we haven't, you know,
Speaker 1: I haven't given them a huge piece of plastic that
Speaker 1: they have to like throwing the trash or keep forever grudgingly. Um,
Speaker 1: So this comes from jen book, Rex, Hi, I've been
Speaker 1: meaning to send you this email for three weeks now.
Speaker 1: My boys are currently listening to Frozen two and screaming
Speaker 1: at each other, so it seems like the perfect chance. Anyway.
Speaker 1: I love the book, Rex, and had one thing to add.
Speaker 1: Whenever we read a children's book with princesses or really
Speaker 1: old fashioned stereotypical gender roles, I just pointed out, why
Speaker 1: does that princess have to sit around waiting for someone
Speaker 1: to rescue her, or why can't she do it herself?
Speaker 1: It's so boring. My seven year old now points out
Speaker 1: to me parts and books he's reading himself when genders
Speaker 1: are being represented unfairly. I love you guys, thanks for
Speaker 1: the great weekly podcast that always helps me get out
Speaker 1: for my run. I'm excited for Beth's book, and I
Speaker 1: just signed up for the story part It's Creator Club,
Speaker 1: so hopefully people Peter will be sending us a message soon. Cheers,
Speaker 1: jen What a well timed plug. Wow, thank you jen Um.
Speaker 1: That's great that I I have friends who talked about
Speaker 1: doing that, like just go reading, pointing things out when
Speaker 1: it bothers them in books, and explaining to kids how
Speaker 1: they don't like um that the female characters don't get
Speaker 1: to do anything. Yes, I try to oscillate between Ideally
Speaker 1: I want may Even, I mean both my kids, but
Speaker 1: I think about Mayven most when I see, you know,
Speaker 1: gender stereotypes in media. I feel like when Maven, I
Speaker 1: think she's a little too young to understand it, and
Speaker 1: I don't want to like, well, we watched snow White,
Speaker 1: and you know it's a very Spanking thirty nine or whatever,
Speaker 1: and snow White finds the Dwarfs house and no one's
Speaker 1: cleaned it, of course because there's not a woman in
Speaker 1: the house. And she's like, wow, I got to clean
Speaker 1: it up, and and she's beloved, but of course they
Speaker 1: all see her as their mother, but they also like
Speaker 1: sort of lust for her, and so she's this woman
Speaker 1: that's has to be more complex, that's what you're referring to.
Speaker 1: The you go and you know, her cleaning, and it's
Speaker 1: very clear she says something that's like don't they have
Speaker 1: a mother or I don't know what it was, and
Speaker 1: I saw maybe I was like, I don't want maybe
Speaker 1: to hear that, even you know, even in the car,
Speaker 1: you know. So that's the thirties when we were kids,
Speaker 1: you know, Beauty and the Beast. There's Gaston who's like,
Speaker 1: a woman should be married, that's what they're good for.
Speaker 1: And then all those women that love Gaston like he's
Speaker 1: and then she's she's like, I don't want that. And
Speaker 1: even that, I'm like, I don't want Maven to see
Speaker 1: that's a normal thing, even though they're rebelling against it.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to see the I wanted the
Speaker 1: majority of the media she sees, where just there's characters
Speaker 1: that are beyond that. I think what would be more
Speaker 1: important is if she saw her dad vacuuming. You don't
Speaker 1: don't act like a vacuum. I have vacuumed recently. Vacuum.
Speaker 1: We pay somebody to vacuum, Okay, but I also vacuum. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: She's My point is, I don't think like a one
Speaker 1: off movie viewing when a kid is like, what is
Speaker 1: this weird old movie? Like, they're not internalized that nearly
Speaker 1: as much as like the things that they consume every
Speaker 1: day or the way their parents behave around them. Sure,
Speaker 1: sure that that's the more, much more important thing that
Speaker 1: I do, because all of those things is cooked in
Speaker 1: and take her to school and have her cook meals
Speaker 1: with me, and do laundry and wipe her butt and
Speaker 1: wipe her butt and teacher how to wipe her own
Speaker 1: butt and do her pigtails and buy our Maxi pads
Speaker 1: and why, oh my god, oh god, I'm going to
Speaker 1: do that. And that's great, and that's awesome, But I
Speaker 1: just that's the first time I ever thought about that.
Speaker 1: That's a thing that's going to happen and it's great
Speaker 1: and I'll proudly do it. Um. But I think you're right,
Speaker 1: jen Um that I think it's going to come up
Speaker 1: and it is good to go. Hey, that's silly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think when Ven's a little bit older, I in
Speaker 1: it out more. And Bryn. I think Bryn is a
Speaker 1: good age to Yeah, Bryan, I could. He's not really
Speaker 1: watching that movie. He's not like, he's too busy watching
Speaker 1: too busy watching things where guys punch each other. Alright,
Speaker 1: let's email you right for this. Yeah, this comes to
Speaker 1: us from Susan potty training Help. Hello, Beth and Peter.
Speaker 1: I've written to you guys before about quote unquote keeping
Speaker 1: it sexy. Thanks for the advice, and now that the
Speaker 1: baby is now nine months and slightly less needy, we
Speaker 1: have a little bit more sexy time, but not much hot.
Speaker 1: You'll have to go back to that episode to know
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. I'm writing to you about my
Speaker 1: three year old daughter in our continued potty training battle.
Speaker 1: We have been trying off and on since she turned
Speaker 1: to She turned three in August, and we still we're
Speaker 1: still no closer to being potty trained. We've tried all
Speaker 1: the tricks she doesn't care about my bribes or rewards.
Speaker 1: She doesn't care about her friends, therefore that her friends
Speaker 1: use the potty. She doesn't want to be a big girl.
Speaker 1: I really do think she's ready, though she tells me
Speaker 1: to change her after she goes. With Christmas coming, we
Speaker 1: told her we had to send her diapers to Santa
Speaker 1: in order for him to come. We made a big
Speaker 1: deal of wrapping up the diapers and sending them to Santa.
Speaker 1: She picked out new one Dy's and quote unquote potty prizes.
Speaker 1: She was on board until the day actually came. Day one,
Speaker 1: she had two accidents. Day two one accident, and finally
Speaker 1: went on the potty who Day three held it all day.
Speaker 1: It was clearly uncomfortable, but despite sitting several times, never
Speaker 1: went till she we relented at eight pm and put
Speaker 1: a pull up on her. I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: I feel like a complete failure and also so angry,
Speaker 1: like just be in the fucking party. Excuse me. Oh.
Speaker 1: In the past, after a few bad days of trying,
Speaker 1: we would take a few weeks break, but I absolutely
Speaker 1: refuse to put a diaper on her. Ever again, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure where to go from here. I'm all out
Speaker 1: of ideas. Please help. Happy thanksgivings, Susan. Okay, so boy,
Speaker 1: we're getting over these colds people. I don't have a cold.
Speaker 1: I'm getting over this cold. Um. So it's not that
Speaker 1: I don't think you should try to potty train, but
Speaker 1: I do think sometimes some kids just aren't ready for
Speaker 1: certain transitions, and I feel like we overprescribe timelines so
Speaker 1: I can understand her. Like I think, if you, as
Speaker 1: a parent, are so sick of changing diapers that you're
Speaker 1: like losing your mind, then feel free to push it
Speaker 1: as hard as you want, I guess on a three
Speaker 1: year old, like you're the only one suffering. But I
Speaker 1: also think, like if it's not happening, you don't have
Speaker 1: to make yourself feel like a failure. You can take
Speaker 1: a few weeks off and try again, like you know what,
Speaker 1: Like I don't. Yeah, well it's there's one there's no
Speaker 1: right way, there's no right time. But also like you
Speaker 1: see to be at this point where like I'm not
Speaker 1: putting a diaper out you It's been more days since
Speaker 1: you sent this email, so I'm curious how it is now.
Speaker 1: But in our experience, you know, you you get ready
Speaker 1: for a week, I don't know, to get the job done.
Speaker 1: Both of our kids have been very different with this
Speaker 1: sort of thing. For example, our son is still peeing
Speaker 1: through his pull up every single night. While I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a different but he's he has been on a
Speaker 1: different timeline than Maven for a lot of things. Yes,
Speaker 1: he is a stubborn kid. He's set in his ways,
Speaker 1: and I just don't think change comes easy to him
Speaker 1: with certain things. Whereas like mavens a younger kid, she
Speaker 1: sees him pe and the potty every day. She jumped
Speaker 1: on board with it way more quickly. She because, yeah,
Speaker 1: the ball is in her court in that you know,
Speaker 1: desire drives learning, and she always wants to be in
Speaker 1: the game. She wants to be a big kid, and
Speaker 1: so it was her energy and desire to do this thing,
Speaker 1: whereas Brent had no reason to want to change. When
Speaker 1: you have a baby, the older kid regresses and you don't, like,
Speaker 1: I don't think you really know how long that regression
Speaker 1: is going to take, or how it's going to manifest,
Speaker 1: or you know what I mean. Like sometimes I think,
Speaker 1: especially when you have two little kids, like you just
Speaker 1: need to roll with the punches and do what you
Speaker 1: gotta do. And if anyone judges you for like letting
Speaker 1: your kids sleep in your bed or do whatever you
Speaker 1: have to do to get through the day, that's those
Speaker 1: people are not living in your reality. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure this person knows that
Speaker 1: it's not a horrible thing if their kid needs a
Speaker 1: diaper a little longer. You know, it's yeah, but it's
Speaker 1: also fine to be losing your ship because you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm not putting a diaper on you again, ride that
Speaker 1: if you're willing to deal with the accidents and everything,
Speaker 1: give it a week. But I do think like if
Speaker 1: you push too hard on something, you create a shame
Speaker 1: around the peeing and the diaper, and then you might
Speaker 1: create a bigger problem than you had in the first place.
Speaker 1: Whereas if you just like layoff for a week or more,
Speaker 1: they might come around to it, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 1: the thing I am excited about, not excited about it,
Speaker 1: that I'm feeling good about with Britain and all this
Speaker 1: is that we've kept it light. I'm like, hey, let's
Speaker 1: try this until tonight when you were arguing, arguing with
Speaker 1: them about the good nights. Just yeah, that was stupid.
Speaker 1: You're right, I probably foot down on that. But but
Speaker 1: but the like going back to the pull ups and
Speaker 1: whenever he wet his bed, I never like, I'm never
Speaker 1: going to show him my frustration in past during potty training.
Speaker 1: I definitely did at times, and I tried really hard
Speaker 1: to just when like an accident is happening, You're like, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: The more build up, the more exciting you try to
Speaker 1: make it, and the more whatever that can have the opposite. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't want to make it feel like it's like
Speaker 1: this huge enormous change, Like it's sort of it feels
Speaker 1: like an insurmountable obstacle if you're building it up too much. Um.
Speaker 1: But then again, all of those things sometimes work for
Speaker 1: different kids. That like we're counting down to the day
Speaker 1: is a great tactic for a certain kid. So you
Speaker 1: don't know. So yeah, I don't never beat yourself up
Speaker 1: for trying something that didn't work. It's not a bad
Speaker 1: idea to prepare them and be like, pretty soon we're
Speaker 1: going to have no more pull ups or no more
Speaker 1: diapers or whatever. It's not horrible. I'm just saying, if
Speaker 1: it's like we had a potty training attempt with Brand
Speaker 1: that was a total disaster when he was like too,
Speaker 1: when Maven was a month old or something. Ye, Maven
Speaker 1: was really little, and it was just a total disaster,
Speaker 1: and we gave up and we put it off, and
Speaker 1: I'm glad we did because I had to put quickly
Speaker 1: drop an infant baby, not drop, but placed, I like
Speaker 1: placed Maven on the floor to grab Brand to take
Speaker 1: him to the bathroom. She definitely wasn't a month well.
Speaker 1: She was so small that it's like she was a
Speaker 1: wrapped up baby. And I had literally at one point
Speaker 1: put her on the carpet so I could grab Brand
Speaker 1: and take him to the bathroom. Okay, And that was
Speaker 1: a daster and we gave up. So what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is that you should not feel bad about all the
Speaker 1: things you've tried they didn't work because you don't know,
Speaker 1: you don't know what kind of kid do you have. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it turns out you have a shitty kid like us.
Speaker 1: You just you know, chances are you got a shitty kid,
Speaker 1: because they're all they're all pretty shitty. No, I think
Speaker 1: that's like very normal. I just think when you look back,
Speaker 1: when you're going to look back on your life, and
Speaker 1: try to remember what you're your kid potty trained, whether
Speaker 1: it was two or three or whatever, You're not really
Speaker 1: going to remember, and it's it feels important in the
Speaker 1: moment because you're like, my kids friends are potty trained,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. Yeah, doesn't really matter. And I was like, boy,
Speaker 1: if you'd asked me this question three years ago, i'd
Speaker 1: haven't I'd have an answer, But it goes so quickly. Oh,
Speaker 1: you know what, just I'm sure we talked about it
Speaker 1: in some episode. I'm sure we talked about in some
Speaker 1: episode and this was one of them. And this has
Speaker 1: been another episode of We Knows Parenting. If you'd like
Speaker 1: to reach out, you can email us and We Knows
Speaker 1: Pod we knows Pot at gmail dot com. I just
Speaker 1: forgot the email address. I forgot the name of the book. Um.
Speaker 1: You can also my friends, you can send us a voicemail.
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