Pancakes to Prizes: An Australian Father's Day Adventure

Father's Day in Australia came with a side of bacon, pancakes, and an unexpected win! Ever wondered what it's like to juggle a family breakfast, snag a door prize, and still manage to keep up with the latest gaming trends? This week on Dad Mode, we recount a fun and chaotic Father's Day celebration that included a giant metal cooler filled with every dad's dream (and some licorice nightmares). Join us for a hearty laugh as we share some dad wisdom and the joys of navigating holidays and family time while keeping our gaming passion alive.

From the hilarious differences in holiday schedules between countries to the bittersweet moments of parenting, we keep it real and relatable. Listen in as we talk about the typical behavior of kids on Father's Day, the unexpected joys of winning a raffle, and the endless stream of dad gifts. If you're a parent, a gamer, or just someone who appreciates the madness of modern life, this episode promises to entertain and maybe even offer a few nuggets of wisdom along the way. Tune in and join the conversation as we switch from human mode to full-on dad mode!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Stand by. Stand by, switching from human mode to dad mode, initializing sequence In 3, 2, 1. This is Dad Mode, the podcast where we navigate the chaotic realms of parenting, gaming, content creation, work and hell just life in general. We're diving into the challenges of raising kids in the digital age, from social media madness to navigating the gaming landscape. We're talking about it all, especially from a dad's perspective. Whether it's conquering the latest game, creating content that's more than just a hobby, or just trying to keep up with the ever-changing tech landscape, we're right there with you. We want to help you navigate this wild journey of parenthood and modern life, from balancing family time to managing your career and still squeezing in some gaming and content creation. It's all about fun, some dad wisdom and a whole lot of dad mode. Now your hosts Bearded, nova and more.

Speaker 2: 1:19

All right. So I know it's September October. I don't even know what the date is anymore. So I know it's september october. I don't know what the date is anymore, but you, you have holidays in australia that aren't like ours at the same time, and necessarily one particular. You just had father's day, right? Yes?

Speaker 3: 1:34

yes, so we went out for the family breakfast. So oddly we have mother's day. It's a similar day, but for some reason our father's day are a few months apart, go figure. Yeah, I don't. I don't get why that is. I'm sure there's a reason on the internet that doesn't make sense and it's got to do with corporations and money and greed or something. But but I had a nice day, a day for me. I guess you know this is probably part of the reason why we haven't been consistent with episodes the last few weeks, because we both had so much going on. Yes, personally, in different levels, you've had holidays, I've got Father's Day. It's been a mess. So we've done what we can where we can. But Father's Day was great. Went for breakfast Same place that we went to Mother's Day breakfast this year, which was Football Club. Lovely buffet breakfast.

Speaker 3: 2:27

I won the door prize very nice, yeah, yeah, I don't win stuff. So you know we're sitting there, I'm just happy having breakfast. I've been really over the moon that I've just get him a bacon maze and pancakes and you know everything like that. Got my nice latte to sit down, you know, and then they get over the pa. It's like, oh, the person who wins the morning nice latte to sit down, you know, and then they get over the pa. It's like, oh, the person who wins the morning fars day hamper is josh. I'm like what? So there's, you know, that's cool. Got this giant metal cooler. You know the. You know the tubs that people put ice in. It's like the.

Speaker 3: 2:58

A very hipster, not, it's not a. Yeah, got one of them and it had like some beer and chocolate and a scratch it. You know a lot of barbecue stuff. Not a lot of generic dad gifts, I guess is the best way to put it. I'm not a fan of. I'm not a fan of licorice, but they gave me a lot of licorice, like I know. I mean the black licorice, yeah, all types, all types of licorice, the assorted colored ones, the, the bullets the standard black one.

Speaker 3: 3:25

The only one licorice I really like is like your, your cherry, your red licorice. That was the only thing that wasn't in a bag a bag full of licorice from a licorice company not that and not the one that I actually really like, but they did have like a really nice block of rocky road, which was okay. I claim for myself, but it's still not so.

Speaker 2: 3:44

You know, yeah, I was still happy with it got home, so I imagine being father's day.

Speaker 3: 3:49

Your kids were all behaving and respectful all day long oh yeah, I saw him in the morning and never saw him for the rest of the day. It's typical father's day, mother's day here, what you know, to see him in the morning they're. They're out for the gift part. Give the gifts, have the, have the breakfast and then see you later, you later.

Speaker 2: 4:05

There's not much caring out of that Christmas time or whatever. Yeah, it's like Christmas. You've got to take your pictures immediately because they are just ghosts. Yes, as soon as the last gift is opened.

Speaker 3: 4:14

Wife got me. I was jealous because the wife was buying a new watch, because her watch was failing. And I've had the Pixel watch. I just didn't. I felt it too cumbersome. I guess the pickle watch and I was afraid of just because of how it is domed and round. Lovely watch, great watch. But I'm around construction a lot so I was concerned about breaking it so I'd never really worn it. Wife is getting a new watch and I saw the sale price. I'm like that is amazingly cheap. And then I was really excited. I'm like I should go buy one of these watches, just go out and buy. Didn't do it. I ran out of time, turns out. Luckily I didn't because the wife had brought me it that day. When she saw my excitement for the watch, she quickly organized the watch and went and picked it up the day before. But it's nice. Well it's, you know, can't see it on, obviously of audio metal gray Like a gunmetal gray. It's stainless steel, the whole thing's stainless steel. You know full standard size watch face running Android Wear OS.

Speaker 2: 5:13

Oh, it's a smart watch.

Speaker 3: 5:15

Yeah, it's a Fossil watch. Oh, the Fossil brand Shit. Apparently they're getting out of smart watches, so a couple of places had them on like clearance and I mean it's google os, so it's still gonna get support for ages. I'm not concerned with that, but it's nice like it's really. You know, it looks like a more mechanical standard timepiece.

Speaker 2: 5:36

I guess I have had a lot of people ask me that, like what I saw earlier when we're recording, I thought it was a standard one, but that's cool, that it's, yeah, smartwatch yeah, so I really like that.

Speaker 3: 5:45

But you know, got that and then they brought me one of those ear cleaners the ones where you can hook it up to your phone, the what you haven't seen them, the ear cleaners. They're like amazon. So you know you normally clean out ears with, like a lot of people use like a q-tip cut an earbud. You know you shouldn't use it because you can, apparently it's dangerous yeah, go figure, we've all done it.

Speaker 3: 6:06

Yeah. So instead they got me a visual ear spoon, it's called. It's on my desk, yeah, it's like, it's like a little like u-tip type thing, but in the end. But in the end I can turn it on. Should have turned on the button. Where's the button? There's the button. Got a little light on the end, okay, because there's a camera in there. So when you put it into your ear, you just look on your phone and you and you can actually see what you're doing in my ears actually surprised.

Speaker 3: 6:33

It's kind of cool. I've always kind of been interested in it but like I don't know about it, so the family has brought it for me going. I mentioned it a couple of times. We'll just get it for him off amazon. Yeah, surprisingly my ears are not like because I sit there and I'll clean my ear and I'm like I feel I don't know if it's you, you ever clean your ear and then you feel like there's something still in your ear and it's just an irritating sensation yes, like you actually push it yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 6:57

So that's what I felt like. So that's why I was always talking about this, like I fucking just wish I knew what I'm doing so I could see something. Got it, open it up. I'm like, oh yeah, cool, put it into my ear. My ear's pretty damn clear, it turns out. It's in my head, like I've just been making this up the whole time when I feel like I've got these filthy, packed ears and that's what this irritating feeling is. Every time I've looked, there's like nothing in there. I'm like, huh, huh, huh, let down, just let them.

Speaker 2: 7:24

I am a little crazy, yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:27

Okay, I've accepted that. So, but no, overall good day, but, as I said, we've both been busy and doing a lot.

Speaker 2: 7:35

I think I went to. Summer for me, so I'm going on vacations and stuff yeah, you'll end of summer.

Speaker 3: 7:41

We've just ended winter and went straight into summer in Australia. Like well, not actually. Oddly enough, the other day, when I sent you a message saying you know, first day of spring and it's in the hundreds, yes, like we went from the. I don't even know how to convert it. I need to convert it now because I'm horrible at the conversion of these two things. Fahrenheit Celsius God, let's bring that over there. Convert it now, because I'm horrible at the conversion of these two things. Fahrenheit celsius god, let's bring that over there. I don't need a game open. So we would have been. Let's see what 60 looks like 70 and that's 75. So we're about 75 degrees one day, and then from 75 we went to 105 overnight. Wow, and that was like that for like a couple of days and now it's settled. It's it's back down to probably like an at 90 or something like that. It's. It's a lot more comfortable we don't.

Speaker 2: 8:36

We don't get in the triple digits where I am very often like when we get to the 90s, people are passing out dead yeah you know, but that's what I mean. We deal with shit down to, like you know, negative five fahrenheit.

Speaker 3: 8:50

Yeah, no, no yeah, we have a wide range we, we don't go down to like negative five.

Speaker 3: 8:57

We probably get down to like maybe like a 30, where am would probably be the best. Yeah, but you know, the same day as I'm telling you, we're in the hundreds where I am down south, where they run PAX Australia, and that it snowed. It snowed, yeah. So like we're not talking, yeah, it does snow in some parts of Australia, but one of the capital cities it's snowing, and then the city that I am in it is burning, like it was a complete crazy to see that it's snowing. You know it's in the negatives. It's snowing at one end and at the opposite end it is like middle of summer temperature and it's only at the end of winter, that's so weird that's.

Speaker 3: 9:41

Australia for you. But you know, we've been just out of winter. I've already gone swimming twice we've already gone really yeah, yeah, father's day.

Speaker 3: 9:49

We ended up after the father's day breakfast, dropped all the kids home except for dakota. The wife and I went to the markets, so the shopping center mall, and then they had like a car show on and then there's markets close by. So we went. We always go to the markets, probably every fortnight, and go for a walk around, get a coffee, etc. Yeah, and while we're there, there's the public pool area type of thing, and felt the water. I'm like it's a hot day, it feels nice in the water, so then we're back there later that afternoon.

Speaker 2: 10:20

You know, first, first day of spring, we're already swimming, so it was, and we're getting ready to close up the pool for the year because, you know, winter is coming yeah yeah, we don't yeah right, that doesn't happen here.

Speaker 3: 10:32

Even even pools don't get emptied or anything like that in my state, because it doesn't. Nothing gets cold enough to wreck your pool, it's just right, you know. You just don't hop in it because it's cold, unless you got here to pool and then you're swimming it all year round. But yeah, so that we had a fair, we did the. We had a big fair yearly. All the major cities have their own fair and then smaller towns have their, had their smaller ones. But the, the royal show, as it's called here, that was one weekend we couldn't record because I had the, the royal show in town. I want to take the family to that did that.

Speaker 3: 11:05

That was, you know, spent too much money on alcohol there I don't, I don't know anything about doing that it was like you know it costs a lot of money to go to these fairs on the best of days, you with kids, you know with rides, and yeah, and bags and stuff, food, and we've done that, gone in there, parking, even parking, even parking. You know it's $50 or something just to park close by and walking around I was like you know, I've had some food. It's been great. That's really all I spent my money on. We get into more of the, not the concession stands, the stands where they're showcasing, like different manufacturers and people, that small breweries and small.

Speaker 3: 11:45

You know I make your beef jerky or something like that. These guys are there. I'm walking around like, would you like a taste, sir? I'm like, yes, so I'm there taking nips of gin and rum and liqueurs everywhere I can. It's basically drinking for free. Some places did charge it, but most were free, yeah, and then I got a little bit carried away with someone. I'm like, oh, this tastes nice, give me a bottle, give me a bottle, give me a bottle. And I think we ordered three or four bottles.

Speaker 2: 12:13

When you're buying off a small distillery, yeah, that's just expensive yeah, it is I don't, I don't make it in quantities to like get that good price break no, and and the rum that I brought, that was $100, this bottle of rum.

Speaker 3: 12:28

And I kind of ummed and ahed. I'm like, oh, that's not bad rum, it's pretty good. And the lady goes that's pre-production rum. He's only done one barrel. The moment he said one, the moment she said pre-production one barrel, and then she topped it up with I don't even have it here. So if you do want any, we'll send the order. You know, we'll write the order out, we'll send him a photo of the order he'll. He'll tap the barrel and then start pouring it. Take my money, take my money. I just don't know what it was. It's something about feeling limited edition. It wasn't even the best run I've ever had. It was just the sheer fact of this is the one barrel. This guy's gonna tap it just to get me a bottle hands on it.

Speaker 3: 13:09

You know like I'd like to just keep it I don't know, it's sitting in my cupboard at the moment, but yeah, you know, we got a few bottles of gin and expensive. I spent more money. That was the other thing. I took a photo of an aisle. I'll send it to you later. It was weird, I spent money on it. But of a what? Of my eye? Oh, an iris, an iris photo.

Speaker 3: 13:28

My wife and I got iris iris photos while we're there. It's when, basically, they get, you know, a dlss with like a macro lens, they put it right up next to your eye, ask you to open up your eye as much as you can take a photo there. You, there you go. So it's actually just your iris, your color, really, really zoomed in, because apparently eyes are like fingerprints. The iris is like fingerprints, no eyes, the same as that. I don't think I knew that. I didn't either, but, like I said, I'll show you, send this photo later. It's mind-blowing because mine has muscles in the eyes and it looks like a peacock in a way, like the little the eye, yeah, yeah that overly shaped, that you get in the peacock.

Speaker 3: 14:14

You got that all around my iris from the muscles in it. Well, my wife, she doesn't have anything like that. It actually looks like like a dirty water because she's brown eyes. It's very like a dirty water technique totally different textures.

Speaker 2: 14:26

It looks really so when she asks you, what about eyes look like don't?

Speaker 3: 14:30

don't say dirty water no, no, that says that. I always said she has beautiful eyes, but you know it. Just different textures, I guess the best way to put it. Like it's just weird seeing something so up close, in an angle that you've never seen before. That was a stupid amount of money to get that done, but you know they printed it on an A3 size, like it's a big print, like it's not small. Did you hang it?

Speaker 2: 14:58

up somewhere. I did.

Speaker 3: 15:00

I went and got like like a massive frame and put in a frame so it kind of looks. It looks like artwork, really like it's more artwork really, it's just your creepy eye it's really my creepy eye. It's watching us, it's watching, yeah. Yeah, that's some of the stuff I guess I've been up to lately.

Speaker 2: 15:18

It's a lot of family time it's now about to become fair season, where I am yeah right, that's always in like the early fall, so where we we got all that kind of stuff coming up. I imagine you know and we go, like you said, we go a lot for the food, like the fried everything.

Speaker 3: 15:38

You know a lot of food trucks at ours this year like way more food trucks and normally it's like you got you like you gaggle dogs yeah, a little bit of like deep fried chips, hot dogs, basic food, and like when I was younger, this fair you'd spend some insane money to get like subway or something normal. This year it was like a lot of food trucks all over the. You know I did spend a ton of money at dinner time but I didn't mind because wife came back with like a noodle part noodle dish and you know, mexican, asian, a bit of a bit of everything and I was like here you go, we'll just sample a bit of everything it was. It was good it was good.

Speaker 2: 16:20

So, speaking of food trucks, have we? We haven't recorded since I went to dc, right?

Speaker 3: 16:25

no, we haven't see, that was another, that was another week we couldn't record yeah, that was.

Speaker 2: 16:30

I have never seen so many food trucks in a city as I saw in washington dc. Really, they were everywhere, everywhere, and that was something I wasn't expecting to see in the nation's capital was just food trucks everywhere.

Speaker 3: 16:44

That's definitely not something I would expect to see.

Speaker 2: 16:46

No good food there were very few actual restaurants either, like in the down in the capital area, anyway, really food trucks everywhere. It was weird. It was good food. Yeah, it was okay. Okay, it was okay. The desserts were good, all right, you know, the food was okay, you know. But I will tell you that the city is amazing I yeah I don't know what I expected from it but it's your first time there, my first time there.

Speaker 2: 17:11

It wasn't what I expected, but it was beautiful to the point where my wife and I are both like I could live here, like I would move. You know different weather like early, but yeah yeah, kids enjoy yeah, man, there was so much walking you guys went by train we went by train and we didn't rent a car because we got a hotel that was supposedly like within walking distance.

Speaker 2: 17:35

And yeah, sure, walking distance, but everything was 20 minutes every single direction. You want to go to anything and, like the, the boys were just dying oh, the end of every day. I wasn't I? You know, I remember, like the day before we're gonna leave, they wanted to go get like so, this candy shop that we had to the day before. Actually, I can't take another step. Like you guys, go have fun. Like I can't, I can't do it. Oh, my god, it was so much walking.

Speaker 3: 18:03

You're like Bubba out of Forrest Gump I can't feel my legs.

Speaker 2: 18:08

They have scooters everywhere that you can rent, but you had to be like 16 and my boys aren't 16.

Speaker 3: 18:14

And then you can't double up, because then people get angry at you. If you double, you can't chuck kids. We just walked and did the man so you went to the museum and all that obviously wait, did you?

Speaker 2: 18:26

go to the video game museum.

Speaker 3: 18:29

Well, that's one of my things that if I'm ever over, there, apparently there's a video game museum me. There's a video game part inside the smith.

Speaker 2: 18:38

I missed that.

Speaker 3: 18:39

Yeah, I mean I don't know if it was a timed thing, but I'm pretty sure that's where that is, I did see in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

Speaker 2: 18:49

They had a life-size X-Wing which I was just like. That is so cool.

Speaker 3: 18:55

Yeah, the art of video games. It's inside the Smithsonian Art Museum. It's because they classify video games as art. There you go.

Speaker 1: 19:05

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 19:06

That's pretty cool. That's something I want to do.

Speaker 2: 19:08

The last thing I'll mention about that is the coolest museum that I saw was the Spy Museum. Yeah, they have the history of spy craft. It was so cool. They're talking about the kind of people they recruit. My wife's looking at me. She's like you missed your calling because they just described you. You know the kind of person they look for and honestly, I won't repeat it because it wasn't necessarily flattering. No, I do have. No, no, no, no, no, I know exactly what you're meaning.

Speaker 3: 19:31

I, I looked at that path myself before children. Now you bring that up and it was pointed to me that it would be an ideal view for me. Yep, because a lot of people see Spice, they see James Bond and blah, blah, blah and they go. Oh yeah, that's what it's all about. How it was pitched to me was they were looking for people with great attention to detail Yep, great observation skills, being able to notice small details that other people wouldn't, but at the same time be an everyday person. So ideally looking for people that could live overseas or go abroad, work in a construction site or work doing something very mundane, but being able to observe a lot of stuff. And I did look at that, I did start venturing at that path and then it turned out my two children, my ex, their mother, didn't like the idea of you know, if something was long-term, the government would pay for the move and move the whole family, and you'd live overseas for a period of time.

Speaker 3: 20:39

It sounded great, you'd explore the world while doing stuff like that. She didn't like that idea, so I never actually went through with it. But right I did. I did start filling in, you know, filling in everything for the government to look at me in a very deep and personal manner to decide whether it'd be worth. That's funny, yeah, but you mentioned that like yeah, I know exactly what you mean yeah, yeah a friend of the army when I was younger.

Speaker 2: 21:07

Oh really, but yeah, I wish I had. I'm probably too old to get started on that now, but yeah, it sounded pretty cool. I loved it. I was.

Speaker 3: 21:15

We were there for three hours yeah yeah, it was awesome it's good, it's building those moments with children. That gives them a lot, especially the age of your boys. They're still accepting to be around in your presence. Yep, for now, for now so, but now they haven't decided.

Speaker 3: 21:33

You know you're not cool enough to be around, but it is it is, it is, it is coming, and I can say that because I've got kids that are slightly older and we're in the transition page with some one we've passed.

Speaker 3: 21:46

And you know like, for example, we actually had to chat with one of our daughters the other week the oldest, because her friends are all getting their license. She won't have her license until next year because of how our school system works and ages, et cetera, but some of her friends are now getting a license and she mentioned that her and her friends are going to go somewhere to get something to eat after school. The other week my wife and I are like, yeah, no worries, wife's like all good, turned out we're. That was was like 30 minute drive away, so we just assumed it was something close by to where she normally hangs out. So we had to have the conversation of hey, if you're going to be going somewhere in a car like that, maybe you need to be a bit more detailed to say, hey, this is at such and such.

Speaker 3: 22:35

I said it's the same thing of you saying, oh, we're just going to mcdonald's but it's not any McDonald's nearby. It's a McDonald's an hour and a half way down the coast and you're at the beach. You know what I mean. It's a totally different conversation. You can't just say I'm going to McDonald's. You've got to kind of say I'm going to McDonald's here now, so we kind of have a better idea. And so we kind of have a better idea and it's more for their safety. Just so something happens. It was a rainy day, new driver car full of girls. I'm not saying women are bad drivers, I'm just saying a car full of distractions for an early driver in a wet at peak hour traffic. There's a lot as an experienced person and it was a lot of downpour at that time. Something for me going when I found out I'm like whoa Whoa, that was a lot of downpour at that time. Something for me going when I found out I'm like whoa whoa, that was a yeah, okay you guys are pushing it going there.

Speaker 2: 23:27

You know what I mean. Like I, yeah, it freaked me out as a parent afterwards. Yeah, there's a lot of crazy crap going on. My my oldest son just went to was like there's some kind of school event where they were going overnight to some camp. Yep, and it was, it's fine, cool, go, have fun. You have fun with your friends, whatever. Stay overnight. And it would have been less eventful if not. One week prior to that, we had a conversation with him about, you know, sex, yeah, and we started to tell him things oh, I already know about this and this and this and this and this. And we're just like, because we talked about this, last time.

Speaker 2: 23:58

You know that stuff already. And then so he's going to this, this overnight camp, and I'm like, oh, I don't know how I feel about that anymore.

Speaker 3: 24:05

I was like, dude, don't do anything to get yourself in trouble no, I think I think kids are way more timid now, you know, than they used to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was talking to a client of mine, a customer, and you know we're getting to the prom, the formal period with his kids, and you know he said they got. You know he wasn't working that day, he's helping getting his son ready for this and that they have photos beforehand. I'm like, oh, yeah, hopefully he doesn't have a big night because he's got football. Yeah, he's got football sunday. I'm like, oh, hopefully they don't have a big night party. And afterwards you know what I mean.

Speaker 3: 24:39

And he goes, yeah, kids ain't like that much anymore. I'm like, yeah, they're not really into it. He goes, yeah, he's had a beer and he's had a drink here and there as a late teenager, but not the Yahoo party type. You know, not to the same level that we would. Josh is what he said. I'm, you know, not to the same level that we would. Josh is what he said. I'm like, yeah, I would have been damn it like so much alcohol and yeah, kids, by 16.

Speaker 2: 25:05

I was, I was getting hammered every weekend yeah, but that's yeah.

Speaker 3: 25:08

My six-year-old does do that. She just that. I don't think they've ever done anything like that at all and and that's not me, that's not me trying to assume the best of it I genuinely feel like that's not something her and her friends are interested in. A lot of people, I feel, like the kids. These days, the teenagers have changed in a way where they're not as rebellious as such.

Speaker 2: 25:30

Well, that's good, it is good.

Speaker 3: 25:33

But it also makes me feel like a loser parent, like I've raised a bunch of losers so I don't want to try anything cool. That's funny, you know what I mean. Like, like, when I think about it, like I was wild child, I did this and that and these are my kids. Like this makes me look soft, like what. This does not look like something I would, you know. Right, I'm happy I don't.

Speaker 2: 25:51

I don't want that. I don't want it. Before like I get worried that my kids will do stuff that I did, but hearing that I'd be like they wouldn't even touch the stuff that I did yeah yeah, you know it's.

Speaker 3: 26:04

It's a weird thing. You don't know whether to be happy as yourself, as a parent, that you've created this child that's responsible and doing the right thing, and all that and then, at the same time, I feel like I've done something wrong in a sense of like, yeah, then they're boring, yeah, they're not trying, they're not trying things, they're not experienced things.

Speaker 3: 26:24

Like it's a weird. It's a weird feeling as a parent, like not knowing if you've done a great job or a bad job at it. Like I do say I've done a great job. I think my wife and I have done fantastic with the kids and they have wonderful manners and they do the right thing and the rest of it. But at the same time, I still feel in a sense like maybe they're impacting their own social life in a way that they're not experiencing life. Or or you know the things that created me to be who I am, or the same with you, the things that you've done and experienced through life to be who you are. Our kids are not experiencing those things.

Speaker 2: 26:58

So what type of person they're going to grow up to be, I guess, is the way I look at it right, like like I treasure every day of life, because there are so many times that I was younger that I should have died from some of the shit I did. I, I appreciate life every single day that I'm living. So, yeah, it's, it's. It's interesting, you know, related. We're talking about the kids and what they do. One weird thing and I only have two kids, right. So my oldest, who's going to be 13 in October, he is starting to get all buddy-buddy with me all the time. He wants to hang around with me all the time and he's cracking jokes with me and at my expense like I was one of his friends from school. Okay, I'm like, one hand, it's cool. On the other hand, it's like I'm still your dad and you're being disrespectful. Or like when I go to give you a punishment, he's like, oh, come on, I'm like I'm still your dad, like I'm not exactly I'm not your friend, but like I don't want to.

Speaker 3: 27:55

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I get you. I haven't really I didn't really get that, but I've seen that. I do know what you mean by that. It's like it seems cool, but maybe he's just trying to find where he is as a teenager in that next period in his life, like where, where does that sit? He's still trying to find himself as a teenager. So he's trying to work, gauge that around, the people that's around him he gets.

Speaker 2: 28:22

I think he's confused because even though he's 12, almost 13, he's an inch shorter than me, right? Yeah? So he thinks he's grown. And I'm like, bud, you're 12, 12 years old, right, I have, I have jackets older than you, yeah, you know, and but he thinks he's, he thinks he's grown and, and you know, he's just so anxious to grow up, so he's like trying, like well, I'm, I'm a man too.

Speaker 3: 28:46

I'm like you're a child, like yeah, I don't care how big you are I've got a child at the moment. She's been sick but she's always likes to be pretty timid, doesn't do much. You got to push her to to be that adventurous person to go out and see things or do things or be social with friends and, oddly enough, this week, when she's feeling better, she's been out every night for the last five nights. This is my, this is a 12 year old, but it's like every afternoon after school, oh, can I go to this friend's house? And it's like, yeah, that's fine, and then I'm just gonna stay here for dinner, they'll drop me off home. I'm like, okay, so that's happened like two, three nights in a row. And then, and then she comes home and she's like I'm staying at this friend's house tonight.

Speaker 3: 29:30

I was like, oh, okay, so she's gone and done that. But then before she left she goes oh, you guys need to pick me up in the morning because we had a dog trainer come by. I'll talk about it in a second. Dog trainer came by and she goes oh, yeah, after dog training, can you drop me off at this other friend's house? So she's just going friend hopping and I kind of went to my wife. I'm trying to work this out Like where does this come from? This isn't like her. This is way too much social social. This is like six months worth of social interaction packed into a week. What's going on here? Yeah, does she hate?

Speaker 3: 30:01

our food was one thing I'm like I just feel like she's scamming all her friends for food, are we? Oh? Is she trying to get out of her chores like I'm trying to work out? What is the hidden motive behind this right? Now yeah, there's an angle on this that I'm missing that's all you new parents.

Speaker 2: 30:17

Your kids are always up to something yeah, they're always up to something they're planning, they're conniving.

Speaker 3: 30:24

Yeah, oddly enough we had a dog trainer, so I didn't record yesterday, we had today and I spent a lot of money because I threw out all these time off and that I had a dog getting out of the yard constantly and running around and do we rehome? I can't reh, rehome. That's the baby's favorite dog, you know. It would devastate her if she wasn't here. Okay, we need to do something. Yeah, so I spent stupid money on a dog trainer to come by. Turns out it's for life. So it's kind of like I'll accept the money because I can have as many training sessions and support as I need for the rest of the dog's life.

Speaker 3: 30:55

She's come over and usually a 16-year-old doesn't pay any attention to anything. So we've made the kids get involved because it's like I'm spending this money on a dog. You guys need to know what the plan is because I don't want anyone wrecking this shit up for us afterwards. You know what I mean Not following through 16-year-old full-on tokus. I've never seen her so focused before in my life. Normally she's not focused that much she. She knows everything. She's doesn't need to hear anything. She was so focused through the whole thing, 12 year old out the window. She was, I don't even know, she knew what day it was, and while we were even at the table. To be honest, like it, it was different. It was different seeing children again differently, learning how things were. Just, she took me by opposite. I was really proud of how she paid attention and listened because I thought she was going to be the biggest problem for it, but instead she was great.

Speaker 2: 31:46

Why do you think she's paying attention, though I don't know.

Speaker 3: 31:50

The only thing I can think of is the lady said you can be the scribe, go get a pen and paper and take some notes, and she was taking notes. So maybe taking notes while listening kind of forced her to focus more on what was happening at the moment. Let's see, that's what I'm thinking. Is this how she is at school? Okay, this is a different side of her. I guess that my wife and I talked about last night Like, oh, this is different. It was nice seeing. Yeah, if that's her at school, that's good to know. That's she is putting in the effort, so that's cool yeah, yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 2: 32:26

My boys, they the older one. He doesn't take much of interest in anything, although I will say, late he's like lately he has switched, flipped a switch, like all of a sudden he's got a lot more responsible, okay, and like he'll help out around the house with some, sometimes without asking you, asking him or even asking for something. Just he's just doing stuff. Oh right, like I feel like you're banking this and you're gonna ask for something really big at some point, but I'm like where did this come from? It's weird. You know, maybe he's just getting more mature, I guess.

Speaker 3: 33:03

I mean, I like it, I'm not complaining about it, it's just strange they do say, kids tend to lose their brain, what their common sense for it, when they turn into teenagers. So who knows? It's really hard to keep track of what their, their mind frame is. So we had this dog thing, the 12-year-old. She had to get up to her stage because the lady got us. After doing a bit of theory and talking and bits and pieces, we'll do different exercises with the dogs for a little bit, just to think One of them she goes, the younger one, the lead goes, all right, I just want you to walk with the dog.

Speaker 3: 33:35

Keep her on her left side. I'm going to be saying left and right. Do you understand your left and rights? Yeah, walk straight. Lady says all right, now turn right. And she stopped and goes which way is right? That was the whole exercise. Was her confused about what was left and right? What's a u-turn? Now go back around, go the way you came? Just those little commands confused the crap out of her. So you're actually training your kid. I felt like I was getting trained yesterday, to be honest. Hold on a second before we finish with that. Yep, all right, come here, come on. All right, come on, come in for the end.

Speaker 2: 34:13

Oh, we have a special guest again.

Speaker 3: 34:15

Yeah, yeah, I can just hear this noise at my door.

Speaker 2: 34:17

Look at all the hair she has now again.

Speaker 3: 34:19

Yeah, yeah, I could just hear this noise at my door. Look at the hair she has now. Oh no, yeah, no, I could just hear this noise at the door in the background. I'm like is she sitting at the door just talking to me through the door like a? I'll go bring her in. Oh, thank you. Yeah, sorry, yes, we all learn a bit about dog training not her, though I actually did learn a thing about her. The reason why dogs are so gentle and kind to babies is because they see them as babies. They're not a threat to a dog.

Speaker 1: 34:45

You've been listening to Dad Mode. Our passion is navigating this wild journey of parenthood and modern life, from balancing family time to managing your career and still squeezing in some gaming and content creation. And no matter what the women say, they will never be able to pry the controller out of our cold dead hands. Anyway, we hope you enjoyed the show. If you did, find us on Twitter, tiktok and YouTube at DadModePodcast and we can be found on every podcast site at DadModePodcast. Y'all be cool. See you next time.