Power Outage

I really want to do for episode one? Not do it? Just take a week off in the middle of insanity. Yeah, it was a rough day we had. It was like we had a busy week. We had Easter, which is like the biggest thing that's happened here since we've been here, since we realized we were in a panda So like, yeah, for people who haven't been listening, we um our school was canceled, so we went to a vacation home in Massachusetts, where we now realized we apparently live forever in quarantine.

Which it's fine. It's just taken a lot of adjusting, so pretty good. So Easter UM came and the kids were on a sugar high for days like they were just they got so much chocolate and candy in one day, because honestly, what else are we going to do? Yeah, really just eat at all. I mean we did, like we didn't have some of it that we didn't put into their baskets. But anyway, they did that. And then the next morning was when they woke up and dragged a stool from the basement up to the This was real.

They've got a real teamwork going on. While we are asleep. They are lifting very large objects, a very tall, heavy stool, a bar stool up this basement stairs together. They helped each other to do this. And then they got a package of oreos from above the fridge and they ate the whole package first thing in the morning, all but one.

I threw one out in front of them to prove a point as bad it was to eat that many cookies in the morning, and they saw me throw it away, and they looked at me as if I'd just driven our car off a cliff, like are you insane? I'll say, Like, as much as they're constantly nuts, I do feel like quarantine has been a blessing in the sense that we're laying down the law a lot more and we're just like, I don't have anywhere to go, you want no TV for the rest of the weekend. Like we're just like

really laying it down lately. Brinceman sent to his room a lot, which I think is helping him. I think he believes it now because it's also a lot of times when we were home and you sort of do a halfhearted threat, like if you do this and you don't stick with it, you know, then your threats mean nothing. But I've been doing a lot of like keeping it calm. But I say, if you do that again, and you're going to your room, And he does it, and he goes to his room, and it's he's calmed down, and

he's he's like picking his battles more. Yeah, he's yeah, he's less likely to escalate. I also like we've gotten so used to sending him to his room now that like I there are certain circumstances where it like he would like just punch Maven or something, and I would be like, not even give him a warning, Like I was just like, go to your room now, And I was like, I'm amazed that we're at a point where he actually does that when I say it, um, and it was like I was like, I really feel like

we're gaining control over him. Um. Yeah, Well it's also I mean the thing about it is not just that he goes to his room, but I think we're also we're more serious about it and we're less emotional about it, and so he knows that it's time alone, as opposed do we're angry at you, right right right, just like this is what's happening. Don't go. You're gonna stay up there longer. And then he'll go and he'll stomp. But

they can stop and scream and there's no neighbors. Yeah, so anyway, Yeah, they can scream all they want that no one will know. Go ahead, scream, I'll scream. We've been screaming a lot. Yeah, there's been a lot of screaming here. Um. So then anyway, after we had the like three day sugar high or whatever, Tuesday, we Monday, No, it's Monday, Monday, right before we need to record a podcast, right after this OREO incident, the same day our power

goes out and during a very impressive wind rain storm. Yeah, so clearly like a branch or tree fell into a power line or something, and so we didn't have power for twenty four hours, um during which is full day. Yeah, slightly frustrating when you're in the middle of a pandemic and you're not supposed to be doing like extraneous food shopping and of um so com Peter died, phone died. Can't do any work. Yeah, it can't work. Giant tree splits in half, it falls in the yard. That's not

a big deal. You, I didn't say it was. It led to something very satisfying. Yeah, but you like you were like, oh, tree, this is my focus for the next twenty four hours. Tree, And I was like, hey, there's a lot going on, like we don't have power, and like you didn't. You were like, oh, this thing happens. So now everything's out the window. I can just go chop wood for Okay. First of all, I cleaned a tremendous number of sticks out of our yard, put them

into piles. I called the tree guy. Okay, like the sticks out of the art is also like not the most urgent. I'm just saying, just tell me what I needed to do that I didn't do. I'm just saying, like whenever anything slightly out of the routine happens, you use it. I reject where this this absolute statement is going. It feels like you use it as an excuse to just like throw all plants out the window. You're like, I'm not a dad anymore. I'm a tree chopper. I

don't have responsibilities. I'm just a man who chops fogs. Listen, I couldn't take my son to school. There's no internet, right, but like there still is, like childcare and cleaning and like things in the home that need to continue to happen. I don't know food preparation. I did all of these things. I don't know what you're talking about. I thoroughly rejected the idea that I'm not pulling my weight. Uh. If you want to pick a day where I did less,

you're probably right. I don't remember. But overall, no way, I don't think you're doing as much as you think. I don't think you realize if you wake up in the morning that I have done all the sweeping and dishes and stuff either before I went to better before you will. Oh, yes, I was sweeping every day. You do not sweep every day any Let's talk about literally have never seen you sweep because you're asleep. I know you did it once, but you do not sweep every day.

These floors were filthy when I said, honestly, you have no idea how much sleepy I did, because I literally do it right after you have gone to sleep or before you wake up in the morning. Sounds suspicious, really every day. I don't do it every day. That's a lie, but I do it that many many times. Anyway, let's we'll never know the truth because you start from a

place of lies. Fair Enough, I want to talk about chopping this tree because it has brought me a tremendous amount of joy despite whatever of whatever other duties I have or have not been keeping up on. I get that you love chopping. The would like and it makes me feel very manly and productive, and I get it. I'm just saying, it's like it's the equivalent of me going for a run, where it's like I'm checking in with the house and I would be like, hey, guys, I'm going for a run. I put the kids in

front of TV. You are just like, wood must be chopped. It's the most important thing in our lives. And I'm not going to tell anyone where I'm going or what's happening. I'll just be out with the wood. Are you accusing me of being the one who disappears without announcing what they're doing. I have to disappear because everyone is always on top of me. Okay, so so okay, that's a stated double standard. That's fine. But I didn't. I'm not like, oh, I disappeared for a while. By the way, I stopped

into a store where I might have caught coronavirus. I will, I'll tell you what I get back. Here's the thing. I have a cough today and I don't feel well, and the only thing I've been thinking is I better not have coronavirus because Beth is going to be mad at me for it. I will receive no sympathy for having this terrible illness. I don't know why you should. And so I'm like, I don't want to be sick

only for that reason, just just because I just okay. Like, it's like when you talked to Brandon, You're like, hey, Brin, if you're trying to hide it from me, it means you know you're doing something wrong. You know you're doing something wrong. I have not done anything wrong. You're you you You were out the other day after this after we lost power and he went to get your milk and half and half, which is fine, but you specifically didn't communicate with me that you're going to the store

because you're like afraid. Would you like to hear why? Because I got up early so I could take the trash to the dump and on the way back, I was like, oh, it's almost best time to go to work. I gotta get back. I don't have a lot of time, but we don't have any milk, and Beth really likes her half and half. So I stopped at the expensive grocery store to get one basket load and I got a bunch of things, and I was like, I was like, Beth is going to be so mad at the things

I didn't get. I don't have time. I might as well not go. And I almost didn't go, as I knew this is going to happen if you're at the store potentially contracting coronavirus. Is it would it kill you to call me and be like, I'm running in the store so that I can be like, Okay, here's two things that I've been really wanting and we only go to the store once every two years because we're like pioneers on the frontier. Can you please get your wife the one pioneers chap one? Can I have some fiber?

Like we got a fridge full of apples, which you're allergic to? I realized later. Anyway, I have needs, So I try to say, a hundred episodes is a real accomplishment. And uh, and I really love you. What wouldn't be letter with the episode if we didn't argue about something. It's sort of part of our thing. It's true, and we had two weeks. We've had two weeks of stuff too, not argue on the podcast about it? Does I do feel it? It's been two weeks and we haven't checked

in because we haven't recorded a podcast. Yeah, but we also haven't been checking in as much in general lately because life is such chaos. I will say, you know, despite all everything we just talked about, we are in. We are in to a really generally good routine where the boundaries are clear. We installed locks on the bedroom door. Yeah, I ordered new door knobs because I was like this.

Our bedroom, as I probably have complained, already, has two entrances, so it's all extra opportunities for people to like waltz into my space while I'm trying to work, which when you have little kids, it's like it's like five times an hour, so you never actually get like a full thought going before someone is just hanging on you and trying to get you to make the mapples and peanut butter. Anyway, and it's also very hard in the morning I do.

Bran is getting more and more school responsibilities, like his the things his teacher are standing is more of a full school day, and that's all my responsibility pretty much, and I do it. But it is very hard now to get the checklist done and engage Maven, and so I try really how to give Maven things to do, and then Bryn has to do all this stuff and then I turned my I turned my back, and Maven's gone, you have to give me even more of a project

like you have. Yeah, she needs like like you can literally just say like, oh, you should draw a zoo, and then she's like it just has to be something she cares about. Yeah, sometimes I'm I do it's very successful, and there's other times she doesn't. She knows that I'm

trying to do something and she rejects. She has has to be multiple times this week when I'm like, you're supposed to be with daddy now, and she goes daddy school is just for Brin that I heard that, and it really broke my heart because I was trying and I want to. I wanna just pay attention to her. But you can teach them both the same lesson and just give her an easier version. Oh, I do. That's

mostly what I do, and it's very successful. It's just the only time you're aware of aware of it is and she's gotten bored and slipped past me and she's like, you, I don't have a father. He's Brian's father, just just Brin's teacher. But now that there's locks on the door, I think I'm less stressed that she's going to slip

away from me. Yeah, it's I mean, I was. It's already been sort of a in a way, a good challenge of not having the locks, because we had to really emphasize to them that it's like mommy work time and you don't get to go in there. But I'm very glad we have the locks now. We did it in the right order. Yeah, So the locks are a backup system. Yeah, it's good. Although I realized now I I'm like, I need socks. I guess I have to

wait till one or I can break in. You need to like store up your errands to come in here. I did think about. I was like, that's probably exactly what Beth wants, which is I have to really think about if I actually need that thing. Yeah. Well that's the other thing is I'll tell you, over the last few weeks, I think that really puts me over the edge, and it really it makes it hard nut snap is like the kids will come in here five times an hour for three hours. I have like a half hour left.

I'm like finally, like I've snuck away some alone time or whatever, and I finally feel like peaceful for one second. And then you walk in like you've just finished something up and you're like, well, here's what's going on in my life. I just had this call and this person who said this and that, and I'm like, it's not that I don't care, it's just that I am going to scream if I don't get some time where no one is talking to me. Um um. So yeah, that's fair,

I will say. I get interrupted more than anybody. That's not true. It is true. It's just that Okay. First of all, we have a second floor of this house that the kids never go up to, that I can't go up to because I'm very allergic. Let me finished. Second of all, that's not true at all. I don't have a By the afternoon, all the rules go out the window, and I have to be in different places, and so I don't. I do feel one when I'm not complaining because I'm not like you, it doesn't bother

me as much. But I have you constantly get worked one while they're right in the same room as yet. But I know that's what I'm saying. But I have noticed, like after a few weeks, I do have these moments where I I don't know I'm simultaneously one. I realized I feel like I haven't been alone um in a way that when I'm at home, I have all this time. When I'm commuting, when i'm walking, I go for a walk to the train, I walk with that I'm on the train alone where I have this solitude, but it's

very active I'm moving. I have none of that here until I'm suddenly alone because I put the kids to bed, and you guys are on zoom calls or something, and then I feel intensely alone. And it has been a weird experience because I'm not I'm I've realized I'm pretty introverted in that, like I don't need people, but I've I don't know if I talked about this, but it's been two weeks, but I can't. A couple of nights I came up and you and Ali were on zoom

calls with a bunch of people, and I got so sad. Yeah, you told us that you're very affected by it. And then and the night you said it, my sister and I were both having zoom calls with like our friends from high school. So I was like, well, why don't you just set up a call with your friends from high school, which you then did, and then you got so excited and happy to talk to them. Well, there's we talked about this. So my my to my closest

friends high school. We're both named Peter. We had an zoom zoom chat, which was great to catch up, but we talked a little bit about this. The three of us like this Midwest mentality where we have a lot of guilt about making anything about us, which might seem crazy knowing me, because all I want is attention, but

there's so much guilt attached to it. And the idea that well, I'm going to reach out to my friends that I have not kept in super close contact with now that there's a pandemic feels bizarrely selfish, and I was like, well, it's not. They're not going to think it's genuinely think it's weird, genuine loaded selfish, and of course, like we all feel the same way right now, so of course people want to connect and it's fine, but I had a lot of anxiety about just asking my

friends to talk. I feel like high school friends is a good like a low bar for you to work up the courage to ask people to talk like. But it was also great. I have very interesting, smart, thoughtful friends. Uh who boy. And it was a moment where we're like we all had to put our kids to bed, and I was like, oh my god, we are such adults. When is a doctor and a lawyer and a that works for a bank and an actor, and like there are all of these things. Yes, they're they're like such professionals.

I thought you were talking to two for I was, I was, um he said a doctor lar bang was that works for a big actor? Okay anyway, um um anyway, Peter and Peter. Great to talk to you. Yeah, you were like I could feel like through the wall that you were like radiating joy. You were like so happy to talk to them. Um it was great. Well now I'm uncomfortable. No, it was just nice to see you like make the effort to see a social thing and it was like, see, I didn't. I didn't not believe you.

But my social life tends to be just the people I'm working with. I do things with people, I build things, I work with them, and those where most of my relationships are built around that. But I don't have that right now. So it is a weird thing to reach out to people just to just to be with them. Yeah. I find like there's something about quarantine where I am just so tired and have so little energy for like

social media and people right now. So like if I have like one or two Zoom calls a week, just like friends, and that's like that feels like all I can manage right now. It's just like too much. Yeah, I think there's been a lot, a lot of people have been doing sort of a little too much reaching out where like this is so great, we're all connecting. We have to do this every week. And then you quickly are like, oh, you know what, it was good

to catch up with this group. But I'm good for yeah, I think it also like again, just like depends a lot on whether you have like kids or roommates or what's going on right. My entire acting class from college, almost my characting class, had a zoom reunion and it was I was like, do I want to do that? I'd like all those people, but and I did it and it was wonderful, and I was like, oh my god, it is so cool to have this group of people together.

And there's this mediate little overreaction of like, we have to do this every week. My mind, I'm like, I don't think we're going to do that. Um. And it's okay, m um. If you're a me acic class and you're listening to this, I love you. Our kids just started screaming and now it's time for Do you knows who literally just farted on my lap? I would say because I was the only persons out of his lab. Mhmm. The powerful reason deduction has uh successfully identified the farter

Bryn McNerney, Welcome to the podcast. How are you doing at that's a little bad. You're doing a little bad. Can you tell us why you're doing a little bad? Because you had to call me? Did come here? Oh? I took you away from something fun you were doing. I was gonna watch TV, but you didn't have to say yes. But you did say yes, yeah, because I had to. What are you watching, Brian? Which episode? I

don't know what was happening in the episode? I don't know, So, Brian, what has happened since we've been staying here at this house? What are your most fun activities? Oh? That's wait? What did you say? What are your favorite things to do here at this house? Showing on the shrink, watch TV, joined some lemonade. That's what I'm doing right now. Those are good? Those are good options. You like my homemade lemonade Hibiscus day? Yeah? What do we have for dinner tonight?

You're sausage Campy sausagees Campy, a dish that we've invented since we've been living in this house. Yeah, it's pretty good brand. What do you miss from home? The couch the bedroom. Um, how about your friends? Yeah, Maven, what did you miss from home? And you know I missed the mush as my friend. Well, we're gonna let Maven says the toys. She said, the toys. Who do you miss the most of your friends? Brand Luca? Yeah, he's your best friend. He's like my best friend forever. Yeah?

What do um should we call him? Okay, well maybe we can. What did you say? He's brands BF. It's a secret and it's also not a secret secret, but it's not just it's what we call an open secret in the industry. Is that you and Lucas are best friends forever? Well you mean bff. Yeah, that's right, and that's what it really actually meant. What why is Lucas your best friend? Because he made me laugh a good reason and he has like all the bent and toys

and he lets me play with them. That's cool, right, Yeah, because we're not special too. They're not special to him, but they're special to you. No, No, they're they're not special to anybody. Brent, Will you tell us a joke? What did the baby corn sage of the mommy corn? What where's popcorn? Ha? Ha, that's a good one, Maven, can you tell a joke? Maven? What did you make today with me? I think she's going to say lemonade or plato because I don't know plato? Plato? And what

color is it green? I think? I mean it really is green? Right now? It really is green? All right? Brittany Mayvin, can we ask you? You know this podcast that Mommy and Daddy do? Do you know that this is the one hundredth episode? Wow, it's crazy. What do you know about this podcast? And is boring? Maven? What do you know about this podcasts? What do you think this podcast is about? Questions? Do you think there's a general topics? It's about questions and jokes? Said? I think

it's about story virus? Is this the story parts podcast? Brint? Well, now, because you know there's not lead Rachel or Meggan, You're right, there's missing some story parts. So do you know what this podcast is called? I don't know. You know that it's about parenting? Well? Well is it? It is? Sort of? It's sort of this it's sort of about you. Okay, what is this about a king? Um? Well, we've been doing this for two years now, and we talked about what it's like to raise two crazy kids. That's a

griss cough. Um, what do you what do you think about the fact that there's secretly been a podcast about you going on for two years. I think it's taking away my favorite things that they can do. Are you trying to say that you want to go watch TV? Well yeah, alright, Well let's first say goodbye to Maven. May be anything you want to say it everyone, you'll just say bye, okay, all right, goodbye, brand Say goodbye brand bye. All right, there he goes. Don't get tangled

in the cord. Oh gosh, she's tangled in the court. Don't fall down. Alright, goodbye, goodbye, mabn. Big hug for mommy, Big kiss for mommy, Big hug from Brin, and kiss for mommy. Or at least Brandon gave me a hug too. Maven could care less? Oh here comes maybe yeah one one, wow, thank you. Close the door behind you please. Well we did it very little. We taught our kids to close the door behind them. That's a real victory. And now it's time for we knows what they're working on, slash

watching slash doing This is about school and television. Well, you're just jamming those topics together. Yeah, just jamming them together screen We know screen time, he knows what they're learning. Um So, Brand had a zoom call with his teacher today, his first that I've been a part of, maybe his first. I did a zoom call a mom created independently, and I'm sure both of them were as okay, yeah, okay.

So because he his teacher asked who had done zoom before, and he was like, I have, And I was like, hot, does he know what zoom is? Um? But it was kind of a disaster. The teacher's Internet connection was not great, and it was just a lot of not muted kids. And this is my favorite, right. It was like this one kid that we know from our building, um nearby,

who's like really cute. He was like when he first was sitting there and all the parents had clearly dragged their kids, their kinder earners to be in front of the computer and do this, he was like, everyone's staring at me. I don't like it. It was like the keyest thing. Um B was initially very upset by the idea he did a zoom call earlier with this whole class. It was just a bunch of kids screaming at each other, and he was so shy and would Yeah, he was

pretty shy with us too. I had to let him sit in my lap so that he would participate, and then he got a little better. But then like I was trying to mute us because no one else was muted, and it's like, you know, likes to chaotic. But then he would get asked something and he would try to respond, and like he would be muted and they wouldn't hear him, and then I would like I meet him, but then like his teacher would be like, Brian, did you want to say something? And then this other girl in his

class name Bryn would start answering. It was just like such a disaster. Um, so yeah, now you know, it was like to go to school with uh for peters

of my well, it was wunny too. I think the teacher was just probably nervous about doing her first zoom that I mean, like I have, Um, my aunt is a teacher and it's hard for her and a lot of her like colleagues who are like boomers, who haven't had to do this kind of technology in their like careers and now they're just trying to adapt and it's already not an easy thing to lead a group of people on a video chat, but if you haven't been

doing it like at all, it's confusing. So like Brin's teacher was like, I just feel like she sort of like didn't like she I don't know, she her connection was bad, so she wasn't like hearing everything that's happening, and she didn't I don't know. She was like telling a story, but she didn't realize that. Like I think the pages were like completely blurred out for most the kids and it wasn't like centered on the screen, and

like it's just like very a new skill. Yeah, she's been learning a lot quickly, and I will um, she's been great. Her lesson plans have gotten a lot clearer, She's found online resources that are actually good. Yeah, it's just so funny watching people adapt to jobs that are not at all what their job description was, you know what I mean. Like, it's just I want to help her because I'm like, these are all this is all stuff I know how to do, this, all stuff I'm

good at. But I'm also like it's not my problem. I'm just the more she asks for things to actually be turned in, the more I'm like you're doing your job. But honestly, that's work for me. I just find I find the points where where is she going to see this? And then anything she's not going to see, I play it by ear. I'm like, what is important? Because also a lot of the stuff that Bryn now has to do on the checklist, some of them are great. He needs the reps other things. He's a head, and I'm like,

he doesn't need to practice counting. He doesn't need to practice what two numbers make ten. He's nailed this. But he loves the game, so he spends fifteen minutes a day doing math that he gets perfect because he just likes being right. I'm like, God, I wish we could

skip ahead on that. I mean, that's why when I'm working, when I'm doing like vaguely learning activities with them, Like today they wanted to pretend they were at school, and Bryn got this like pre K workbook that we have with like basic spelling stuff, and so him and Mayven we're like pretending to be at school, and so it was really easy stuff. But there's always ways you can throw them off and be like, but how do you

spell orange? And then they kind of like panic, and they try to like yes, based on what's on the page, and like they're figuring it out. I feel like it's like they're still learning, even though they're doing it in their own weird like cheater way, you know, Like it's just Brenda does not like to guess it's spelling. I made him write a thing where he couldn't ask for

help on spelling, and it was like I was torturing him. Yeah, it makes me understand why you don't normally teach three year olds to read, because Maven, it's like such a three year old reaction where she'll see something and she'll be like, it says tortoise, and I'm like, no, it says turtle. But I can understand why you would think that, and she's like, no, it says tortoise. Turtles have flippers, and like she just like digs and heels and like you're like, yeah, this is not like an age of

a person who is like willing to listen. Brenda, although compared to everything else, he was shockingly willing to be corrected when it came to reading. He was into it for some reason. She'll get better, She's like, I think she's actually learning a lot just through osmosis of being next to him. But as you don't say, she pays attention to a lot of Britain's school work. Yeah, she's starting to really like sound things out and stuff. She's not I get that she's like probably ahead of the curve,

but it knows all her letters, all her sounds. She does fight me on a lot of lies that she means. There is one online so Britain started doing this site called Lalilo. It's like phonics and reading and spelling, and it's by far the best site that the teacher has sent us Ah where she like says a word and he goes, here's a bunch of words which Ryan words rhyme with that word and then they just repackage it in a lot of ways and goes, here's the word

with part of it missing. Which letter is missing? And it's broken down. It's it's not just letters, it's like br or. It will be like br bro does the following word have bro? It's like toothbrush Ah, And I can see Brin really thinking and that's that's by far the best site. Yeah. Yeah, I can definitely tell Mayban and is starting to pick up on that stuff. Too. So you wanted to talk about a movie that we

watched with bread, did you not? Um? Yeah, I mean it's been a while now since we skipped a week, but we watched ET with the kids, which was surprisingly held their attention because they don't watch a lot of live action movies. Yeah, but I think they're one. They're older and too, they're very excited when all of us sit down together, yeah, to watch a movie. And I gotta say, we don't. I haven't done that in so long, when you sit down with a bunch of people and

watch a movie. And I realized that that's when it used to be one of my favorite things in the world, and it is again now that Brendan Mayvin can actually focus. It's nice. It's just that usually when they're watching something long form, I'm like, well, here's my chance to escape and do something I want to do, or clean up the whole house, you know. So, but it is nice when we do it, and ET was good. There's like a lot you don't remember about that movie if you

haven't seen it in many years. It's one of those things where I remembered almost every frame of it except for well two things. One I think we talked about this where we did not remember at all the very, very beginning of the movie. And I think so many movies of our childhood you never saw the beginning because it was just always on TV, and so when you flip the channels, it's so rare that it would be

the very beginning. And so the first twenty minutes of every movie from nine to two thousand, I feel like the very beginnings are highly neglected. I simultaneously remember every single frame of that movie. I feel like when we were growing up in movies, like they editing of these was harder before digital. So there's like the exposition of most not early nineties, late eighties movies would be like a montage, like just a musical montage of like cars driving,

this is the town. We're slowly bringing you to the location. Like it's just like a lot of slow set up. But it's so but the et does a good job of it. All those adults you never see their faces. You're welcome JJ Abrams for your entire career. You're welcome being the aesthetic of that movie. I was just trying to take a hard, hard stance at J. J Abrams, and I don't actually care that pepping off your creation e G. Yeah, yeah, I'm a e T. Didn't you

know you're married to Steven Spielberg. Oh, I see, I get it now. Anyway, anyway, anything else? No, I thought you're looking at something on your phone as like, yeah, my notes of what what happened. It's hard to keep track of what happened because I live in a blur.

We we live in a duck blur. These days, we have a um new fun parenting technique where we tell the kids that they look like a blur like Sonic the Hedgehog if they run fast enough around the house, and then we just send them outside to run around the house once or twice. This is the greatest thing about our lives compared to our normal lives, which is you say, hey, go run around the house. Is something we've never been able to say. Yeah, it's so great,

and they like so it's so funny. When we first told them to do it, and Brn was running past the house and they both think they're so fast, and Bryn kept smiling at me and my sister as he was running because he's so proud. But then he kept falling over because he wasn't watching where he's going, and they're both just so happy. They're like, I'm the fastest person. I think they just love their independence as it gets warmer. Well, she also got a new pair of sneakers, where she

said these are my going for a run sneaker. Um. Very cool. This next segment is called would you knows? Zori present each other with parenting hypotheticals. This one comes to us from Eric. Eric says, Hey, Beth and Peter, I feel like it's been a while since you have tackled day wacky would you know hypothetical, so I thought i'd throw one out there. You're right, Eric, it has been too long, Okay. So here it is. One day you're exploring your house in Massachusetts when you find an

old door you have never seen before. Did this happened to me yesterday? Go ahead, you go inside, and suddenly you are in a dark hallway. A spirit appears and offers you a choice. You can head back the way you came and your life continues as it is now, or you can head forward towards another door. Once you cross through it, you and the rest of the family will be transported back a hundred and fifty years to eighteen seventy, where you will have to live for six months.

The essentials of shelter, clothing, a job just for Peter, etcetera. It's eight seventy, that's fair will be provided. Once the six months are up, you will be transported back to April and it will be like the pandemic never happened, to be clear for everyone, and your current stay in Massachusetts will was just for spring break. Do you choose to live in the eighteen seventies to wipe away the pandemic?

If so, do you just keep your heads down and make on take on the standard rolls of breadwinner for Peter and running the house for best? Are you trying to entroduce some twenty century ideas into society? How do you raise the kids without modern conveniences? I hope you continue to stay healthy and safe in these crazy times. Wow this so at first, before you here in the twist of how it saves everyone from the pandemic, I was like very not psyched about going to this time period.

I don't like, they don't think I would farewell there. I don't think I would enjoy uh the amount of labor um. But so we I started watching on someone's recommendation this um show on Amazon Prime called Pioneer Quest, which is a document Canadian docu reality show of these people who have to live on like a western pioneer farm, and if you haven't seen the PBS shows of this ilk, I highly recommend um. I think it's like Colonial House

and Pioneer House or something like that. But anyway, it's really fun to watch, but it looks like a really horrible way to live, and I don't think I see now. I had a different reaction because you're the one. You'd just be chopping wood. That's your fantasy, and I have to like render dear fat into like three like for three days, so that it could be like the basis

of like a potato soup that we have. Like I'm just like I'm saying, like, it's just my answer was, before I heard the twist that it would save everybody, I was like, maybe I want to do this, and then I was like, gonna be a lot of work, So I would definitely do it. When to save the world, I guess I would probably do it to save the world.

And also like I would at the end of it that it's like sort of feels running a marathon where you'd be able to tell people you did it, and it's like seems like a good idea when you're planning it, like you're like, yeah, i'll have a baby, I can do labor um and then you to like live it is like hell on Earth. But then you're like, well it would be a disaster for well, well, well you know what I think we're thinking of the TV show because in this hypothetical he says that I have a job.

I know, but there's still we're probably like washing clothes by hand and ship like this. It's also what job we're in this area in the seventies, which means it's bad enough when you wander off for a few hours. Now when I have a dishwasher and a washing machine, can you imagine the like what that life is like? I do you know what would change what brinnan Maven would be on their own? Do you know what I mean? Like we would feed that, I would be like wash

this um, put them to work. We would feed them, but we would stop caring like what they're putting in their mouths. I don't know, because we also probably have to take them the church and it's like a four hour service and we have to keep them quiet somehow, or everyone thinks from the devil, going to church for four hours and doing nothing is probably a vacation. I feel like growing up in Massachusetts has given me a very sobering look at what early settler life was like.

I was like, I feel like it was constantly brought up in my education, like the realities of how bad things aren't. Like you're taking a field trip to like a little cabin and they're like, this was the richest man's house doing the same thing, but every summer going to checking out Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower Recreation and they'd be like, look, how crappy this boat is. It's beautiful. Everyone died except those who were unlucky enough to not.

I'm just saying I could barely be like a madman wife, let alone. Here's the thing. I think, once we got in there and found a routine, I think I would like it. You mean the routine where you go to work and I figure out everything else. Okay, you know when you like go to like a are you trying to what is my job? Because you can't tell me if we're pioneers. No, no one's having an easy time. Nobody gets a free ride. We're pioneers where we didn't say what state we're in, right while the door was

in Massachusetts. So I mean eighteen seventy, I just I still don't think in eighteen seventy is great anywhere by our living standards, by our current living excitors. I mean, just look at how we're handling quarantine. I Um, we're like, we need to make simple syrup for cocktails. Like we're not, like, we're not cut out for this kind of reality where you can't go to the liquor store on a whim. We would not be drinking liquor. We would be chopping

a lot more, would uh. Yeah. But again, locations like being in a being in Boston in eighteen seventy is wildly different, I know, but it depends a lot on your job. There's like one person who has a good in the whole country. Probably everyone else is just working their asses off, like eighty hours a week. And that person's name is rough and that's not who you are, buddy. Sorry, um somebody please google was Rutherford B. Hayes president in

eighteen seventy. He might have been, Um boy, the answer, Eric, this is a great question. We'll do it, Eric for the sake of the country, but we're not going to like it. I'm going to say that I might accidentally like it. Yeah, you probably would. You probably be like an old timey bank tellerant. You keep a pen pencil behind your ear all day. Would be such a nice handcrafted pencil that cost me half a month salary. You have little tiny spectacles that you love to put on

and off. They just clipped to the end of my nose. I've got a visor with my hat, but no no top of my hand, and I'm like, Peter, it's time to come home. I have eight children, and I'd be like, I can't hear you because you're miles away and we don't have a telephone. Um, I don't love it. That's

what I'm gonna say. I think that, um, it's possible, given the right circumstances, that I could love it, assuming we don't get sick and you get to continue to be a man yep, um, that we could be really satisfied. I think at the end of the six months there's a version of where we're like, well, we'll never do that again. But that again, we'll definitely never do that again even if we had the choice, but it would

be really satisfying. It would be really satisfying to end that experience and to have a whole new set of life skills. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I don't know if I would ever use any of them though, we don't know. Eric, You've got to be more specific. What is my job? What is my social situation? Oh

that I'm confident in my answer. Well, he did ask specifically, would you try to inject more twenty one century gender roles into society or just think so because it's just like a tiny dose of like my opinion would be they'd be like heresy, Like they would just like I

would get found out very quickly. Yeah, well it's I mean, it's a big difference between like sixteen seventy and no. But they still like if I was like, what do you think about if a woman could vote, they would be like, your wife needs to go to jail or the nut factory. Hello, Like let me put this woman in the like dump. You're right, I mean there were plenty of women saying women should vote in but yeah, they were. They were that times, like unquote angry feminists

who were like those guys are nuts. They were like getting beaten, like they weren't like like women. Like if women were like I don't like housework, I don't like managing the servants, they'd be like, let's just you know, sent her up state to like play sanatorium, sanatorium, Like just get her out of here. She's not right. There's something not right about her. So you would stick to your gender roles, I think. So I want to feel it out a little bit before I get myself like

who knows what? Um. The big question is what would Brennan Maven say to the people they meet. And we'd be like, great, we got the weird kids. They're like, do you play games on your phone? But what our kids would not blend in? Our kids are already in quarantine, just getting so weird, Like they're like, I mean they were already weird kids, but now it's just like seven weird. I hope everyone else's kids are getting weird. Uh, I hope that everyone's kids are getting a little bit weird,

a little bit weird. Try to keep uf um. Boy, gosh, you know what, it's a hundredth episode and I want to take uh the end of this episode two to say what I'm grateful for. You know what I'm grateful for, Beth what our listeners? Yes, me too. It's hard being a parent. And uh, you guys listen to us blab on and on and on. Thanks for listening to us blob on and all of you and argue you have all of your own arguments and all of your own victories and and uh defeats and joys and stresses and

uh we you're the best. And you're doing great even when you really suck it up, you're doing all right, especially now. We're all doing great. Are you kids alive? Great? You're doing great. Nailed it? Um um. You know who else I want to thank for a hundred episodes? Who? Mates of State? You don't know? We don't say it. We should say it every episode. Our theme song my

Mates of State. You got a watch on dated a live Instagram were just them and their three girls sang songs and one of them is like too and just so upset that everyone's ignoring her while the rest of them have just a beautiful blend of voices. Is so heartwarming. Check out Mates of State, the greatest band in the world, the greatest. I'm also thankful for check Bryant from Stuff you should know, a movie crush who is the reason we have this show. Yeah, thanks Chuck, thanks for helping

us put this out there and together. You know who else? I want to thank my husband Peter mcnurry. I just I was waiting to make sure. Yeah, link going through the mall and your Rolodex of husbands. I'd like to thank my wife, Beth Noel, who is the best wife I've ever had or could possibly want. Um. You drive me crazy, um and do you you make me better? Likewise,

this has been another episode of We Knows Parenting. If you would like to send us an email UM to tell us that you're worried about us because we didn't have an episode last week, you wouldn't be alone. We got a few of those this week, and I would like to thank that people that wrote in to say they were worried about us because we didn't release an episode.

Thanks for being worried about us, but we're fine. We're fine. Uh. You can email us and we knows pot at gmail dot com or give us a call at three four seven three eight four seven three. Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and we knows Pod and rate review, give us the rate and review. Subscribe, Subscribe by now. Check out Peter occasionally on Swear Parts Radio by Beth's book. There's no manual, it's still great and we'll see you for episode hundred one. Bye,