Unhinged Parenting Hacks That Actually Work – Ep. 358

Laura

Welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. This week, we have our weekly check-ins. We have our special segment, What The Hack, where we share some genius tips to get your kids to cooperate and to clean your playroom, and we close with our BFBs and BFNs for the week. Let's get started! Hello everyone and welcome to episode 358. Shanna, are you on the line? Yes, of course! Hello, hello! Hello, hello. I'm reaching you all the way across the San Fernando Valley and I'd love to find out what you've been up to this week.

Shanna

Well, this week I attempted to make my husband's life a little easier this Saturday and I'm gonna check in on that.

Laura

Well, that's very wifely of you.

Shanna

He woke up not feeling great, a little under the weather, a little blue, just kind of not, you know, one of those days. Nothing serious, just one of those days. Like, look at that. And I was like, all right, we've got a day ahead of us. We've got choir. I've got to go pick up some stuff that I bought at World Market and I arranged it so it's over by the choir. Like, I'll take the kids, we'll do this day, you stay here. and take it easy. Make your life easier. He's like, great. Lovely. What a gift. Such a gift. So I take the girls to choir, which is kind of a cross town. And after choir, I was like, girls, we need to stop by world market and pick up my order because, you know, I'm doing my backyard refresh and I got like a cool patio umbrella and a rug and a few things that I wanted to decorate the yard.

Laura

Yeah. Your track record is a little spotty with this because, you know, you thought you would just go check out this cute little puppy that's down in commerce or whatever it was. It is like, oh, and now we have Radley. Oh, we're just going to foster some kittens. Oh, now we've got kittens.

Shanna

But I immediately dismissed the thought because I was like, what are the chances that there would be any kind of dog we would like? I don't know. I'm a very specific type of dog person, you know? So I was just like, yeah, let's just go look at these animals. We go in, they have about eight animals. This rescue organization brought in some doggies that they had rescued. They're all small breed in little cages set around this area of the store. There's this really old little white poodle, very cute. There's a couple of twin pugs, well, maybe not, well, I guess twins. I don't know, siblings named Hansel and Gretel. So we're making our way around. And then we see Rocco, who is a little black and tan Pomeranian mix. Oh my gosh. I was like, oh, shit. I kind of almost didn't want the girls to come over and see him. Like I was maybe trying to kind of block his crate a little bit.

Laura

Oh yeah. Yeah. Kind of like Doberman style.

Shanna

Yes. It was so cute. So we're walking him around, patting him. And we're like, oh my God, Rocco and Radley. What a great like name combo.

Laura

I was going to say, like, when you said I think there's a target, I mean, you do not have all the targets mapped out in your brain. Like it's etched. I think like I'm going to be on my deathbed. I'll have forgotten everything else. I'll be like, oh, Sebastian never heard of them. Did which target on Colorado did you go to? Did you want to go to the East Pasadena target or the Eagle Rock target. There's, you know, there's three targets on Colorado. Oh, maybe there's four. I can't remember. My memory is not as good as it used to be.

Shanna

Oh my God. I know that that's the only information that's going to stick in our brain cells when we all have dementia and we're on our death bed. 100%.

Laura

Okay. But seriously, so there was no target. Mystery phantom target.

Shanna

It was a phantom target. I swear, it was like an oasis in the desert that was like this siren calling you to walk down the side, walk toward that direction. I swear. And then I'm like, oh my God, that is not a target. What even is that? And it was like, I don't know, the side of a TJ Maxx or something, and there was no even entrance. So I don't know. Some something. else was pulling us that way. But anyway, we didn't get our drinks. So you're thirsty, not just for water, but also for a new dog. Clearly, clearly. So we go home and you know, the girls are going on about Rocco and I'm picturing like Rocco and Radley being best buddies and like playing together. And you know, Steve's like, oh man, I don't know, like, what if like Rocco's not good with the cats and we don't, do we really need to do this? I'm like, I don't know.

Laura

Oh my gosh. You know, every day you get reminders that Steve loves you no matter what.

Shanna

Yeah, he is, he is. And if it does move forward, I feel better knowing that he's the one that took initiative to fill out the application and take those steps, you know, so I feel a little bit less like I'm pressuring him. Yeah. Like with Radley, it was like me and Elle almost conspiringly. Not really. We asked him and everything, but still he took the initiative. So I don't know, Laura, it's just, it's just always a whirlwind. Life is a whirlwind with kids and pets and What not? So yeah, that's my story for the week.

Laura

I'm taking notes because I really want another cat. I think cow, you know, my surviving cat is lonely. And yeah, I've said as much to Corey, but Corey makes some very good points that life is simpler with one cat and, uh, you know, there's less messes to clean up and it makes our life a little easier to like plan. But, you know, I'm like you, I just have like kitten fever, but I'm like, how can I make it seem like his idea? Like how?

Shanna

Yes, that's such a great idea, especially because Amy lives very close to you.

Laura

Yeah, we walk by her place all the time, so it would be a very easy pop-in situation. And I know he loves kittens. He pretends, but come on, he's a big softie.

Shanna

Yes, he is. Oh, I want this for you. I want this for you. Look, here's the thing. Simple is great. You know, complicated is amusing, fun, hilarious, full of joy, full of love. Or at least that's what I tell myself when I live in a tornado chaos.

Laura

Well, he got to keep us posted. I'm listening to the story. Like, is there any way Shanna has managed to keep getting a new dog from me until it was time to record? Because this has not been the case with your other animals. I know. You have texted me instantly with all the other animals.

Shanna

I know. I can't keep it in. I really, really can't keep it in. So yeah, nothing has happened yet, but I will definitely keep you posted.

Laura

OK.

Shanna

But what about you, Laura? What have you been up to this week?

Laura

Well, this week I wanted to check in on some changes to my children's extracurricular schedule. Well, actually just Augie's extracurricular schedule. So, as you know, for, I don't know, at least over a year now, he has been going to parkour class. Has it been a year? I think at least, yeah.

Shanna

Wow.

Laura

And, you know, he has loved it in the past. Like it's been a really fun thing for him to do. But we were getting to the point where he was having some trouble focusing and staying in class. And I know this is an issue you've dealt with before, right? Where like your kids have been like super into an activity and then a month or two goes by or even longer and then all of a sudden they're just not into it anymore. And you have to figure out how you're going to message the studio to tell them that you need to back out of your 12 month contract, right?

Shanna

It's almost like you know my personal history.

Laura

And so do our listeners. So I thought we were already over the hump with this with Parkour because Augie had gone through a little bit of a phase where he, it was almost like it was separation anxiety because we had Augie and Sebastian scheduled for classes back to back. And so like I would go with both kids and sit in the, you know, side with Sebastian while Augie did his class and then swap and Augie kept running out of class wanting to sit with us being jealous of what our Sebastian was doing. You know, it was like a whole thing. Right. So we refigured out the schedule so that Augie could go separately from Sebastian and they wouldn't have that issue. So that was going well for a while where they were going by themselves. But then we got an email from the parkour studio saying like, he's been doing super great. We'd like to raise him up to the next level.

Shanna

in the same class? Yes. Oh, fun.

Laura

And I was just like, this is so cool. Because he and this kid, I mean, you know, we used to get pictures sent home from preschool every day on the app. And there was like a year where every single picture was him and this kid, like every single they spent all their time together. Super cute, right? And this is the kid we actually originally learned about the Parkour Studio from.

Shanna

Okay.

Laura

But they had never been in class together before. So he's in the class and I thought, oh, this is so cool. Like they'll get to reconnect and it'll make Augie a little bit more like engaged, right? Sure. Well, the problem is they always put the class into two groups. They have like different courses that the kids run and then they like swap. And it's kind of based on ability level, like the kids who are still learning get like the slightly easier course and the kids who are more advanced go to the more advanced course.

Shanna

Are we talking, like, a six-year-old child here?

Laura

Yeah, they're the same age.

Laura

Okay. So this kid, I mean, this kid is very different temperamentally and just like from a physical activity point, it's Augie. And you know, they were buddies, but they were that similar. Like this kid way more focused. This kid like, Just different, right? Like I remember he was doing the monkey bars fully at like three and a half and we were always like, okay, cool. It's one of those kids where you have to really work hard to not like do the comparison thieving of joy with, right? Cause you're just like, oh, okay. So your kid can do that. And my kid does working on putting on his Velcro shoes still, you know?

Shanna

Well, one thing I have encountered having my kids in sports over the past few years is that truly some children just naturally have this like sporty physical ability. You know, it's just so obvious when you see some kids. And most kids are not like that. So I feel like it's one of those you really shouldn't compare because they're just off over on that. And then most everyone else is still working on their Velcro shoes, you know, totally.

Laura

But the problem is that this is his like buddy and he wants to be with him, but he can't keep up with his level of parkour. And so this has led to like meltdowns and refusals to participate. Corey's been the one taking him mostly and he's like, yep, another day with no participation in parkour because he wanted to hang out with his buddy. And I was just like, man, this is a problem, right?

Shanna

Is Aki's reaction more that he's frustrated that he's not as good as his friend or that he's just like, hey, why are you putting my friend over there? I want to hang with that guy.

Laura

Yeah, it's the latter. It's not that he is noticing a difference. It's that he wants to be with him. He wants to play with him, basically. And then he doesn't get why he can't. And also, you know, I figured maybe it was the after school thing that was probably part of the issue. He's tired. He's hungry, blah, blah, blah. Anyway. For whatever reason, it's not working out. And at this very same moment, Augie's current best friend Theo, who we've talked about on the show a bunch, his mom was telling me, oh, you know, we're taking Theo and his brother to jujitsu a lot these days. And it's right down the street from your house. So if you guys ever want to try it, they do like a free trial week. And I think Augie might really like it. And that tickled a memory in the back of my brain, which was from one of our listeners.

Shanna

That's so cute. Yeah.

Laura

And he had to borrow it from the studio because, you know, it was the trial week. But he fucking loved this ski. He was so excited by it. And this child paid attention and participated, like 10 out of 10, the entire class. Wow. And with a big old grin on his face the whole time. I mean, he freaking loved it. Sebastian. Not so much. Why?

Shanna

How is Sebastian different?

Laura

It's a little advanced for him. I mean, I think they allow four-year-olds to start, but that would be a really exceptional four-year-old to really be able to pay attention and follow through. The moves were pretty complicated. It required a lot of listening and following directions. And he was just like, eh, over it. So halfway through the class, he came out to me. He was like, I don't want to do it. I'm like, that is fine. That is fine. He's like, I want to do parkour. I was like, that's fine. You do parkour, Augie can do this. But yeah, so this is all a long way of saying that we have put parkour on pause for now, at least for Augie. And he is freaking obsessed with Jiu Jitsu. We went three times during that trial week and we're definitely signing up. And the nice thing is it's just on the street from our house and it's like unlimited classes.

Shanna

Oh, that's so cool. So even when his friend is not in the class also, he's good with it. Oh, cool.

Laura

Yes. I was worried about that because I thought, oh, you know, show up to the next class. Theo's not going to be there and he's going to be like, I don't want to do it. No, totally into it. I mean, and it requires a bit of like obedience, like a type of thing that we don't really do, you know, at home, we don't like make our children follow our orders and all that stuff. But like, you know, the coach, you got to follow his orders, right? Like you got to do what he says he and he's fine with it. I'm like, okay, I'll just not going to question it. So yeah, yeah, but it's really cool.

Shanna

That is so awesome. And it makes me want to look into it for Elle, because I remember when she did karate, her favorite part was the grappling portion of it, you know, kind of like, I don't know, fighting with the kids. That's not fighting, right? Grappling, I guess is the word. And I wonder if she might like something like that. I really want a teacher, though, that is not harsh. I don't mind like a teacher that shows discipline, but You know, our karate teacher was way too harsh. How is this Jiu Jitsu teacher?

Laura

Well, it turns out he's like a fourth grade teacher. Perfect. And he's really great. Like this is his side gig. And he's good. He's stern, but he's not harsh. Like he's not like, give me 10 push-ups if you don't listen. He repeats what he'll say. Hey, I said, touch the wall. You know, like I said, I said back to the wall. Hey, we're not lying down right now. We're sitting up. You know, like he's He's very authoritative, but he's not authoritarian, if you will, at least not in my experience.

Shanna

That makes such a difference. That's so exciting. I think maybe I'll look into it for Elle, and then maybe she and Augie can do some grappling next time we have.

Laura

You know they will.

Shanna

100%. Well, that's so fun. I'm glad that he found something that he's really enjoying. It makes such a difference to take your kids to activities they actually enjoy.

Laura

Yeah, imagine that. Imagine that. But that is my check-in for this week. Shall we move on to our special segment? Oh, yeah.

Shanna

We are back, and this week's special segment is What the Hack, where we share parenting tips and tricks that have made our lives easier or things we've come across that are on our to-do list to try out to make our lives easier that we want to share with you. Laura, you're up first, and I would love to know what is your first hack.

Laura

Okay, Shanna, have you seen that this is like a thing right now on social media, TikTok and Instagram mainly where it's like, Give me your most unhinged hacks for blank. I'm not talking about easy things. I'm talking about the most, like off the wall, blah, blah, blah. Have you seen these posts? No, no.

Shanna

My dog spa video algorithm has not fed me these videos yet, so tell me all.

Laura

Oh, it's always fascinating to me how we can all live on, like, different internets, you know? Because to me, I'm like, oh, of course, you've seen all these unhinged hacks posts. Well, this is good news for me at least, because that means I can tell you about these hacks I found. So this trend goes as follows. Like, this is the mom hacks one that I saw from someone named Mikayla Estrada on TikTok. It says, give me your most unhinged mom hacks. I'm not talking about letting them run around naked and unshamed in the backyard. I need the craziest hacks of the 21st century. So it's like every single one of these posts is kind of in this format. And then people leave their hacks in the comments. And of course, the algorithm helps you out because the comments with the most likes rise to the top, right? So I was going through these to see if there's anything I hadn't heard before.

Shanna

Right.

Laura

One creative lie I saw that I actually really liked was that, um, which I can never do because it's too late. But this woman named Becca said, I told my kids that Chucky has to invite you to go. So we can't just walk up in a Chucky cheese.

Shanna

Poor kid's gonna be like 18 years old, like Chuck E. Never, ever once invited me.

Laura

And then this next one from Ginger Slap, I think is like a nice bridge from a lie to like a real hack. Okay, so she said, I let my six year old film quote, videos for the internet, which I never post about how to do chores. He'll refuse to clean his room, but he'll totally film an hour long tutorial of how to clean his room.

Shanna

I need to do this because knowing my girls and their interest in videoing themselves for quote, YouTube, this would be great.

Laura

Yeah. I know that Augie would do this. I mean, just the other night, Augie was pretending to be a pilot. He had his pilot suit on. I mean, I say he was pretending to be a pilot. He was a pilot in his mind. He was a pilot, right? And so I was like, oh, this room is such a mess. If I have to come in here in the middle of the night, I'm going to trip and fall and break my neck. So I was like, we need to clean this room up. Crickets. I was like, boys, we need to clean this room up. It's like I didn't exist saying this. And then I was like, Augie, there's all these bombs on the floor. If we step on them, the whole room will blow up. Pilot, it's your mission to clear up these bombs. And he was like, yes, sir. And he just started picking them up. He picked up everything off the floor. He's like, I cleared all the bombs. I was like, cool. Wow. Thank you, soldier. I mean, it was like, what?

Shanna

Yeah. That's genius. Yeah. Well, you know, they say when you can make things fun and playful, it's a lot easier. You know, it's not always easy to do that or think of that as a parent.

Laura

Yes. So anyway, my my first hack is really this like videos for the internet thing. And also to go search like unhinged hacks on Instagram or TikTok or whatever social media. I think Threads has a bunch of them because there were some nuggets in there that I was like, oh, that's pretty clever. But cool. The videos from the internet was like chef's kiss genius.

Shanna

Yes, yes. Well, we should each try it with our kids and then we'll report back how it went.

Laura

Yes, we should. Okay, that was my first hack. Shanna, help me out. How can I make my parenting life easier?

Shanna

Okay, here's a bath time hack for you. Oftentimes when my kids take baths and they're playing with toys or, I don't know, bath crayons or anything really. The only ledge they have to set anything on is the bathtub ledge, right? Like the edge of the bathtub. And then like wet stuff, you know, it gets wet, water falls over the edge, the floor gets wet. It's not the most even surface. So like the crayons will roll off, things don't really set there. So I came across this hack where instead of having your kids use that edge of the bathtub, just get like a little tray for bath time to put in the tub. And then they have a flat surface where they can set all their stuff and serve their fake tea or whatever they're doing inside the bathtub. And there's one at Michael's right now. We actually use them for like Mealtime on the couch. Like sometimes they have breakfast on the couch, right?

Laura

So this would still be like above the surface of the water though. I'm having a hard time visualizing. Like at first I thought you weren't going to have floating like cafeteria trays around.

Shanna

Oh, no. Yeah. Something with legs that would go above the water. So yeah. So if your kids like really, really, really full tubs, I don't know. You might have to extend the legs with some chopsticks. I don't know. Yeah. So just depending on how deep your kid likes their bath, you know, I'm sure you can go to Daiso or the 99 cent store or Dollar Tree or something. They always sell things like this, like little shelves that you could put in your cabinets or just shelves for things or trays, stuff like that. And you could put that in the tub.

Laura

Smart. I haven't never thought about putting like a surface for them to set things on in the bath. But we have the same problem. We actually had to redo our entire floor in their bathroom because the like linoleum was peeling up. And it wasn't peeling up just because of them. It was probably a preexisting condition from when we bought the house. But like, you know, so now we're really sensitive about them spilling a ton of water over the side. Like, OK, this is a good one.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

Our issue right now is that every night they ask, is this a bath toy? Is this a bath toy? And we have to be like, no, yes, yes, no, whatever. I don't give a shit.

Shanna

All right. What's your next hack?

Laura

Okay, my friend Ali actually sent me this one on TikTok and it's like such a simple hack. But when I saw it, I was like, oh my God, where's this been my whole life? It's a hack for tying the ends of balloons after you've blown them up, which I don't know about you. Maybe you don't even do this because aren't you like mildly allergic to latex or more than mildly allergic to latex?

Shanna

Yeah, I am and I try to avoid balloons, but I've tied plenty of balloons in my life.

Laura

Yeah. And I kind of have loose joints. So when I do it, I swear I'm always on the verge of hyper extending my finger joints. It's kind of a hard thing to do, right? Like they're really tight after you've blown it all the way up. And I can't tell you the number of times I've like messed up and let a balloon fly all the way across the room because I didn't like get it tied in time. Alia sent me this video of a woman. She's sitting down between her knees. She has a plastic coat hanger. that has one of the round corners. It's not one that just ends. It's a tube that's continuous. So there's a U-shaped portion of smooth plastic at the corner. You know what I'm talking about?

Shanna

No. No. Let's see. How can I describe this better? It's not a regular hanger. It's a hanger, but one end is open.

Laura

It's a pretty typical hanger, but it's one that has a pant hanger part. You know what I mean? Like, so there's the top part where your shoulders of whatever you're wearing go on and then there's a bar on the bottom that goes across.

Shanna

So it looks like a triangle.

Laura

Yeah. Yeah. But it's continuous. It's not like there's rough edges. It's just one continuous plastic thing. You probably have them in your closet. Yes. Or maybe you don't because you're classy, but I do. Anyway, she had this between her legs and she had the balloon she had just blown up. And she used the very end of that plastic hanger to wrap the balloon nub around. And then she just slipped the knot through, like slipped the end through the middle and slipped it off. She didn't have to use her fingers. She didn't have like it was so seamless. I'm going to send you the video so maybe you can describe it better than I am doing right now.

Shanna

Alright, let me take a look because I'm having a hard time picturing this, not your fault, my friend, not your fault.

Laura

It's kind of a hard thing to describe, but I think maybe between the two of us will be able to explain it.

Shanna

Okay, let me see. Ah, I see, I see, I see. Okay, so... the corner of the hanger is pointed up and she wraps the piece of balloon around it. I thought you were saying she was wrapping it around one of the bars, right? And I couldn't figure out how that was creating space. But what she's doing, she's got the angle, the acute angle pointed up and she takes that piece of balloon and wraps it around the two bars, like wraps it around the entire pointed up angle so that there's some space in between and then pulls it up. I see. Listeners, if this is not making sense, you have to look at this video and we'll share the link because once you see it, you're like, oh my gosh, yes, of course. So much easier.

Laura

Yeah, it is so much easier. So basically the idea is the coat hanger acts as a spacer, right? And then you can just easily poke the end of the balloon through it and then just pops right off and saves your fingers. Yeah. So that's great. Yeah. But yeah, go watch the video. It's really clear. Thank you for watching the video. All right, that was my next hack. Shanna, you got another one for us?

Shanna

Okay. Almost every time we do this segment, I've got some new hack or tip or trick for helping get my kids ready in the morning and in the evenings, because as you know, it's always difficult to do so. So here's what I've been doing with them lately that's been fun and has been helping.

Laura

Please tell us, we always need these specific types of hacks.

Shanna

So what I've been doing is giving the girls challenges, but very specific. And I'm involving myself in the challenge. So here's an example. I'll say your first challenge. is to

Laura

Yeah. Absolutely. It's exhausting when you think about it too hard because the truth is basically every parenting hack can be poiled down to like making something a game, you know? Almost everything. Like I just said with Augie, like, oh, you need to pick up the bombs. It's like, OK, aye aye captain. It's like he's doing the exact same thing he would have been doing, but like we turned it into a fun game. And like that is so much of parenting. And I feel like my challenge is like mustering up the energy To be engaged in that sort of thing. I don't is it just me like am I just a curmudgeon who's like what can you just do it even if I don't turn into a fucking I know I hear you but that's why I really like this because I feel like it's mostly like.

Shanna

The challenges you do the thing and all I have to do is offer a guess. Yeah, I love that. I walk off in the other room and I'm doing whatever I'm doing. All I am really doing is coming up with whatever silly challenge it is.

Laura

And not just that, you have to be not there for it. Exactly. That's part of it. It's baked in. I can't look.

Shanna

I can't be involved.

Laura

Yeah, I'm going to use this for sure.

Shanna

One more example in the morning, I said, make sure your backpack is packed, hide it somewhere in the living room, and then I'll guess where. And then they're, oh, okay. They put their water in. I mean, these girls never get their backpacks ready. Get their backpack ready. Mama, do you know where it is? You know, while they're hiding it and getting ready, I'm off to whatever, doing what I need to do. And then I walk in, I'm like, oh, is it under the couch? Is it here? Is it there? And so it is a little bit more low stakes for the parents. So give it a try. See if your kids have fun with it.

Laura

Oh, I am. I'm going to give this a try today or tomorrow, I guess. Let's see.

Shanna

Sounds okay.

Laura

Amazing. All right. What's your next hack? Okay. On the theme of trying to get kids to do things they need to do but don't always want to do, I saw this great tip on TikTok. Everything's from TikTok. I don't know why I would even pretend it's not from TikTok. Uh, from an account called Kelsey, what else? Uh, and she has a bunch of great parenting content. I've been really liking her content. And this is an older one, but she has this video. It's really cute. She's like recording on one of those little, she's like all the way across the room from her camera, which is right in front of her kid who's playing. Her kid's probably like, I don't know, two and a half, maybe three. And, uh, she's using one of those remote mics and she's like whispering and she's like, look,

Shanna

Absolutely. I think Elle would still be into the shadow stomping thing. But I don't think I could get her attention with a toe kiss. I think she would 100% roll her eyes at me.

Laura

That's a fun one. I like that. It is. I'm going to try to use it even with Augie. I think Augie would still be into it.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

Sean, did you have another one for us?

Shanna

I do. Okay. Here is a hack for cleaning small toys, like lots of small toys. Oh, yeah. Legos, duplos, many, I don't know, many figs as the cool kids say. I'm going to be honest with you. I am not a person who really cleans toys, small toys, but I'm thinking if You are that kind of person. You want to keep your kids toys clean or if something happens to them, like, oh my gosh, what if like, I don't know, the dog pee's on them on accident or whatever. What a hassle to wash those. You can get a big mesh bag, like a big mesh, I don't know, laundry bag or something like that that zips at the top. Put all of them in there and then stick them in the bathtub with some soap. Let them soak, you know, clean them all at once. They don't go everywhere. And then you can pick up the bag and rinse them all clean and let them dry. And everything is altogether all contained.

Laura

Oh, that is really smart. I've heard like lingerie bag in the washing machine, but I've always been like, that's going to hurt my washing machine. You know, I can put all these plastic toys in my washing machine. So this is a better solution. I like it. Yeah. Yeah. And this is better than what I did after we had our construction. Like we did our Renault. We did the demo for our Renault.

Shanna

Yeah. All right.

Laura

Do you have one more hack for us? I do. I was thinking we should do our last ones after the break. Oh, all righty.

Shanna

We are back and Laura and I each have one more. What the heck to share with you. Laura, you are up first. What's your last mom hack?

Laura

Okay. This is one I figured out for myself. I stumbled upon this by myself. I don't know if it's earth shattering, but I definitely felt smart when this happened literally last night.

Shanna

Does it have the little dustpan brush with it too? Did you use that as well?

Laura

It does somewhere. I couldn't find it, but if I could have found that, I would have used it too because it's never been used for real cleaning. So I was like, this is perfect. I'll just use it for the Legos.

Shanna

That is genius. I love it. How many other toys did you like accidentally scoop up along with all those Legos or was it mostly Legos?

Laura

It was all Legos because I am trying to keep the Legos with the Legos. But what I do is like they're all spread out. So I pick out the other toys and then just leave what's left, which is the Legos. Got it. Yeah. So brilliant. I do love Legos, but they are they are like triples. They just multiply.

Shanna

My hack is one that my kids came up with. What?

Laura

Very cool.

Shanna

Yeah. So you had mentioned earlier the monkey bars, Augies. little friend doing monkey bars when he was three. My girls have always loved monkey bars when they come across them. They like doing them. So we got a few rings for the swing set in the backyard. I just hang them up and they can kind of like practice going across them. We also have a swing that's a bar that they can hold on to and go back and forth. But what happens sometimes is their hands get sweaty, they lose grip, they slip, you know? So they have discovered that their sidewalk chalk, like their big fat things of sidewalk chalk can improve their grip for these kinds of swing set toys. You know how like gymnasts have like that big like thing of chalk that they like wipe their hands on and dry them out and get grip. That's what my girls have done with Sidewalk Chalk. They rub their hands on it and get them all dry.

Laura

That's super smart. Did they already know about chalk being a thing or did they stumble upon this by themselves?

Shanna

I don't think they knew about chalk being a grip. I don't think they knew that gymnasts use it or anything like that. Maybe I mentioned something I really don't know how they figured this out. Yeah, it's a mystery.

Laura

That's so cool. I love that it's ingenuity, you know, using what we have around.

Shanna

Yeah, exactly.

Laura

I love it. Well, awesome. I have so many new ideas of things to do. I'm definitely going to be doing that guessing game in the mornings and I'll report back.

Shanna

Yes, definitely. And I'm going to be using that dustpan to clean up the toys.

Laura

You might as well.

Shanna

But yeah, that's it for this segment. Shall we move on to our BFPs and BFNs? Yes, we should.

Laura

So we close every episode with a Big Fat Positive or a big fat negative. And Shanna, you're up first. BFB or BFN?

Shanna

I have a BFB. Woohoo. As part of our backyard refresh, we recently got a fire table. You know, I didn't really want a fire pit. I don't want anything that burns like logs or anything. But I like these fire tables just to have a little ambiance, a little warmth on the patio. So that has been really nice to go out there like after the girls go to bed and sit and just relax and watch the fire. But as far as a family thing, it's been fun because we have been making s'mores out there on the patio. And that's just like a fun, sweet little family thing to do. We got marshmallow, poker, I don't know, roasting sticks at the skewers. Skewers, yeah, at the Dollar Tree or whatever. And so we just like, they've never roasted marshmallows over fire. I think maybe they did once at your house.

Laura

Yeah, Thanksgiving, right?

Shanna

Yes, it was Corey's idea. Yes. So they were a little scared. I think they still have some issues with fire and stuff. They're like, oh, I don't know. But they got used to it as the evening wore on, and they were very proud of how they melted their marshmallow and roasted it. It was just a fun family event. It was not a very expensive fire table, but it's been bringing us some value and joy.

Laura

You're reminding me that we need to get a propane tank for ours so we can use it again. Yes. It's just been collecting dust and black widows in the corner. No. Clean it off. We need to fix that up.

Shanna

Yeah, so fun. So fun. All right, but that's it. That's it for mine. What about you, Lori? Do you have a BFP or a BFN?

Laura

I also have a BFP. Yay. So my BFP is that I went out on a date with Corey, my husband. We've been doing that.

Shanna

Oh, your husband.

Laura

Not, not your neighbor down the street, Corey. No, no, not some other person named Corey. No, Corey and I went out on a date night. My mom was in town and she was like, I'll do bedtime. You guys go out, which was so sweet. And so instead of just going out to dinner, which is what we normally do, I was like, I don't do something different like I really wanted just do something other than just sit across from each other and like I mean I love talking to Corey and it's really nice to have a long time with him but you know we both work from home we see a lot of each other we do get to like eat food with each other a lot you know I was like Mix it up. And so I suggested we go to the barcade in Highland Park. That's what it's called. It's called barcade. It is what it sounds like is a bar full of arcade games.

Shanna

I love that. And I love that they give you the tokens. Oh, that visceral feeling of the tokens in your hand and going in. You don't get that nowadays with these like cards that you get at Chuck E. Cheese and Dave and Busters. How fun. I love that you guys did that. I love an activity date. It's just, it is, it's fun and like a fun way to bond and connect and do something different. That's great.

Laura

One thing I will say about it, we fully lied to the children. We did not tell them we did this.

Shanna

Yeah, no. Just hide those tokens from them. I can see, you'd be like, what this token?

Laura

I did notice though that they have family day at this barcade like every Sunday in the afternoon, so we might have to take the kids. Ooh, I might have to join you with the kids. That'd be fun. Yeah, yeah, it'd be really fun. But anyway, that is my BFB and that is it for the show.

Shanna

It is. Listeners, thank you so much for listening to our show. If you would like to support us, please do us a favor, share this episode with a friend or any episode that you like. Make sure that you're subscribed or follow us on whatever platform you listen to podcasts. And if you haven't had a chance yet, please do us a favor and leave us a review. Say a few things you love about the show and we might read it on an upcoming episode. If you have any hacks that you want to share with us or have any comments on what we shared, we would love to hear from you. Laura, where can everyone find us?

Laura

We are on all the social medias at BFP Podcast. We have a website, bigfatpositivepodcast.com. And if you want to send us an email, just send it to contact at bigfatpositivepodcast.com. And finally, if you want to join the coolest group of people on the internet, just search Facebook for Big Fat Positive Community. It's a private group, so you got a request to join and answer those two membership questions so we know you're not a robot. But once you do that, you'll be sent straight through to the amazing, wonderful, supportive, hilarious, wonderful conversations we're having in there.

Shanna

Our show is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko, and Steve Yager. Thanks so much for listening everyone, have a Big Fat Positive week! Bye! Bye!