DadMode: Parenting, Gaming, Streaming, Life
"DadMode" is a podcast where two gaming-loving dads discuss everything from live streaming to fatherhood in a humorous and relatable way. Join Josh aka Moorph and Bearded Nova as they share gaming adventures and parenting anecdotes, offering a unique blend of entertainment and insight for fellow gamers with kids.
DadMode: Parenting, Gaming, Streaming, Life
Decoding Gen Z Slang and the Unseen Sacrifices of Parenting
Ever found yourself in the middle of a conversation with your kids, feeling like you've accidentally switched to a foreign language channel? That's how we felt when our 11 and 15-year-olds introduced us to the baffling world of Gen Z slang. We put on our best "dad mode" and tried to decode terms like "sigma," "beta," and "sus" with the help of our pint-sized linguists, leading to plenty of laughs and some truly unexpected discoveries. From wild adventures on Urban Dictionary to pondering the enigma of "Skibbity" and "phantom tax," this episode is a delightful romp through the quirky corners of youth culture. And just when you think you've wrapped your head around it all, we take a playful jab at understanding "riz"—the charisma that's got today's kids talking.
As our kids continue to grow, we reflect on the hidden sacrifices and thoughtful gestures that form the backbone of parenting. Sharing personal stories of midnight pickups and coffee-fueled mornings, we highlight how these small acts often go unnoticed until the teenage years roll around and appreciation starts to blossom. We also explore the surprising benefits of teaching financial responsibility and nurturing independence—like how buying their own belongings can turn messy kids into neat freaks. From donating clothes to maintaining a minimalist wardrobe, we chat about the evolving parent-child relationship and how it shapes their understanding of the world. It's a heartfelt mix of humor and insight, with a touch of nostalgia as we celebrate the joys and challenges of parenting.
Josh aka Bearded_Nova
I'm from Australia and am what you would call a father who games. I have 5 kids so not as much time to game as I used to. But I still game and stream when I can. So come join me on Twitch in chat as we chill out.
Business Inquiries: Bearded-n0va@aussiebb.com.au
Josh aka Moorph
I'm a US-based husband and father of two boys. I work full-time and have been a content creator since 2000. I'm a YouTube partner, Twitch and LiveSpace streamer who founded a content creation coaching company called Elev8d Media Group (elev8d.media). I'm a blogger, streamer, podcaster, and video-er(?).
Business Inquiries: josh@elev8d.media
Turning off normal human male mode. Switching to dad mode. Welcome in to dad mode With your hosts Bearded, Nova and Morph.
Speaker 2:So I have an idea. Fine, if you say no.
Speaker 3:I like how it is.
Speaker 2:This is a little bit lighter. Yeah, my kids are both. My kids are both Gen Z, 11 and 15. What if you've heard Gen Z?
Speaker 3:I don't understand anything. Our children say Gen L, the skiddy-ma-dink-a-dink-a-do shit that stuff.
Speaker 2:So what I thought would be funny? If I give you some terms, try to tell me done done.
Speaker 3:I am 100% down to this because I'm not gonna understand any of them.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to get you like. It's sad, like I'm right now the person looking at TikTok or Urban Dictionary kids are talking about and usually, if you go to Urban, I'm right now the person looking at TikTok or Urban Dictionary.
Speaker 3:Kids are talking about it and usually if you go to Urban Dictionary to look up a word, you know that word's coming in dirty. Yes, you're about to learn something about the anatomy that you didn't think was possible with the Urban Dictionary, and you're like, oh well, if I put in a swear word, sure, no, Anyone listening to this.
Speaker 2:Put your name into Urban Dictionary. And you're like, oh well, if I put it up in a square word, sure, no, Anyone listening to this? Put your name into Urban Dictionary. I guarantee your name will be back.
Speaker 3:While you're getting this list up, I am going to bring up our names. I do remember looking this up ages ago and I did think it was funny, though I do. Okay, an unknown creature that takes a humanoid form. This creature has the similar properties of that that would apply to batman, so this is going all right. In fact, it usually wears black, fights crime and has an incredible voice. Okay, some people even think that it may be deaf himself. This creature usually dwells on the planet Earth, and only one can be alive at one time. Well, we've just fucking broken the fourth wall there. Creatures are not only badass heroes, but they can also use immense powers of unimaginable destruction and can even go as far as control the space-time continuum, letting them skip across worlds dimensions with ease. This creature slightly only once, and recorded many times throughout history calls itself by one thing josh. That's. Yeah, you know. There's another one here that starts off. He is amazing, loyal, hot and caring.
Speaker 2:There you go yeah, I, you know what I like that one, I like that one. That's my favorite. All right, let me give you a.
Speaker 3:I'm not saying it actually. The next one was an awesomely hot guy with a huge, and that's it.
Speaker 2:All right, let's give you the words. All right. So I got a bunch. I don't know how far I'll go. Sigma, I think, sigma, sigma, these nuts.
Speaker 3:Is that what it's used? Good or cool? Okay, okay, beta, not cool there you go, I'm thinking like yeah, alpha's the cool thing.
Speaker 2:Like Alpha's, like the kind of thing, sigma, just I don't know. Alpha's like the, I don't know. It's not the same as Alpha Beta, you're not.
Speaker 3:Yeah, kids, these kids obviously haven't been playing games for that long, because everything's a beta, every game is a beta Alright, so this is my favorite one.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 3:I have no clue what this is. I thought kids were just singing.
Speaker 2:So Skibbity comes from, like a popular, popular YouTube series about a human-headed toilet that is at war with other human-headed toilets. What it means is someone says it's bad or crap. What is this show? It's called Skibbity Toilet. It's about toilets and human heads. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna be googling this out. Yeah, okay, this is the trash that your kids are okay. I can't wait for this one yep.
Speaker 2:All right, you wing company action, yeah, mewing. I haven't heard that one. You got a guess, though, shaving. Okay, there's a new one that Mike dropped on me. Yep, phantom tax. Phantom tax Phantom F-A-N-T-O-M-E-N-G.
Speaker 3:Like people, gotta pay you money for looking at you or something.
Speaker 2:No, it means feeling, yeah, when he first said it, I mean, what did you do? Phantom tax? Because that made sense in my head. Yeah, that kind of made sense. Yeah, what the hell is phantom?
Speaker 3:Well, apparently phantom is a comedy. Oh, he's got great morals for children, teaching them how to steal Great Good stuff. Here's a yeah sus, Okay, yeah sus Sus is something that's been used around in Australia for a very long time. You know, it's not right a bit off. Peculiar, Suspicious, yeah, suspicious, yeah, Suspect, as you would say.
Speaker 2:You're getting more sigma.
Speaker 3:No, sus is an Australian word. For quite a long time We've been using that, since I was a kid, that one.
Speaker 2:I thought this particular episode I'm going to all my friends, All right, especially Sigma, yeah Aura, is it like as in the proper aura around, people like the kids are getting fucking spiritual, like you.
Speaker 3:Basically, your aura, your aura is showing off cool stuff, something if you have negative aura, it means not cool.
Speaker 2:So okay, why they can't just say not cool?
Speaker 3:yeah, you suck. And to that I say sigma, these nuts, yeah there you go, here's another one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you hear this a lot, at least riz r-i-z yeah I've heard this one.
Speaker 3:It's like that's like cool, isn't it? This is cool.
Speaker 2:It's basically a stupid take off of charisma. Oh, he's got, he's got riz, okay, okay, yeah. Basically means like well, they'll use it in terms of like flirting You're good at flirting.
Speaker 3:Alright, I've got the Riz.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say that to my kids. It's just funny. He goes Dad, you have no Riz. You haven't been on a date since you met Mom. I'm like it's because I'm married I'm not supposed to go on dates, dude, yeah, but you have no Riz. I'm like I wish I had Riz. I right, obviously I had riz. I got your mom, no, exactly. And then I'm like I don't need riz anymore. Good, yeah, I'm retired. Here's another one that they say is jenna, but I forgot, wow, cap. No, I don't know that one cat means that you're lying like a hat. Oh, really, yeah. So if you say, hey, I just got a w, that's cap. Basically, I'm saying that's a little bit of bullshit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've never heard that one. I've never heard Cap. I was thinking like a hat for a second.
Speaker 2:Well, you would think I would think hat Like yeah, okay, they came up with Cap Rip, that's the clothes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very good, I got the drip. Yeah, I needed that one. Yeah, very good I got the drip. Yeah, I needed that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I needed that, I need drip. All right, delulu, I want to say delusional, so like crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep.
Speaker 3:Geez.
Speaker 2:Rather than saying delusional, they say Delulu. So good luck spelling that in school.
Speaker 3:I'm just putting it out here here. These kids over there sound like they're all gone Australian, they're just now. I've unlocked the code. Keep going to me. I think I got these words.
Speaker 2:Okay, boston, I'm back to square one. That's like begging. No, boston, the real something, okay, no, somebody gives, take it I would. The real something you know, somebody gives, take it I would. Oh, I think they're gonna give you I'll give you a four. Yeah, yeah, give me two more.
Speaker 3:Um, there's one is like you just did, like you ate a piece of cake like it tastes good.
Speaker 2:No, it means like you just killed that kid. You're awesome, I'd like that for breakfast, that presentation, you gave eight Pick. That Okay, okay. And what I want to?
Speaker 3:Oh, bop Bopping, Okay, bop Like great music or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it basically means that this shit's bopping. They use it with songs A lot like yeah, the new song by Olivia, this is bopping.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm thinking bopping yeah.
Speaker 2:Those words suck walls. It's freaking stupid. Those walls suck. Those words suck walls. It's freaking stupid. Those words suck they do.
Speaker 3:Most of them are horrible.
Speaker 2:They all suck, except for sauce I like sauce Riz is okay, it's short for charisma. Tallulah is also okay, because I know it's delusional. All the other ones make no sense.
Speaker 3:I do not know how they when they came up with that? No, no, I don't get any of that. It's like being a kid. Sorry, I was thinking about kids. Yeah, the kids as they've gotten older and they say stupid shit. They all say stupid shit. But the one thing that's occurred to me about children and it's similar to you, you're seeing it as you get older, I have a more appreciation to my mom than I did before, I guess so when the kids were younger. That's one thing, and I was talking to damn daniel the other day. You know what him saying it. I even mentioned it to him.
Speaker 3:When your kids get to a little bit like you're coming into it now, but your kids are getting that older teenager stage, you realize how much shit you do for your kids. And possibly, if your parents, your mom, dad, whoever you had around as you're growing up, did things for you in a way that it was like very selfless bits and pieces, I know you and I talked about running rampant as kids, you know, as teenagers, half the time we just, you know, did what we wanted and that's very true. But at the same time, like you know, last night I had to pick up our oldest from work. She worked till 1 30 at night, wow, and you know she started like five o'clock in the afternoon, went to 1 30. I stayed up till 130 and went and picked her up from work and then drove her home. You know, half the time when she's working at night it might finish at 10, 30, or 11. That's usually the latest she's ever worked.
Speaker 3:Most of the time that's me. Okay, I'll stay up later and I'll drive up there. Yeah, sometimes I've got things to do. Other times I do want to go to sleep, but I don't remember having to do that for my kids when they were younger. Like you know, they're at home. They're doing things. Now that they've gotten older, I'm starting to realize there must have been times throughout where my mom's had to go and drive me somewhere or do something for me. Well, she had no plan of doing that. That's an inconvenience for her. She's had to take time out of her day to do something For me. She's just done it.
Speaker 2:I remember when I I'm not a morning person, I miss more than she has work. She drove me to school 50 times because, yeah, I'm like, okay, cool, thanks, see you later, you know, but like I'm like that was a desperate as an adult.
Speaker 3:You realize that's what I'm meaning. Like at the time you're like, cool, she did it for me, whatever. And you still think, great, you know. Same with my kids. If I run them to school, say, I'll run you to school because you know. Same with the oldest she does a late shift Sometimes. I'll go, don't worry about getting up early, I'll drive you to school. It might only give her an extra 20 minutes or something. I'm not going that way, I'm not. I'm driving that way to be nice, to drop off, just to give her an extra 20 minutes, three hours or whatever.
Speaker 3:But did parents do a lot of things like that that I've never really noticed until the kids gotten older, where they're just a lot of small sacrifices and they're small, I'm not saying they're massive, you're not giving out kidney or a liver or something you know but you do a lot of things and you don't really get any. I don't think the children actually even understand that it's more than just. It's more than just a lift, you know. I mean it's more than just making lunch or more or cooking a dinner or something. Like you, I've started to dawn on it more, the things that parents do as my kids get older way more than I ever realized when they were younger. And you're changing nappies and, yeah, feeding, doing the normal bits and pieces, like I am with dakota right, yeah, that's nothing, that's normal. But then I'm realizing as older it's a whole different game but it's a whole new level of things you actually do from.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, so that 13 goes in five. Yeah, that's what they do, he starting to think now my eye went to McDonald's. Yeah, oh my god. So a week later I'm like, oh, no much to spend.
Speaker 3:Like he said that I said to you a while ago, we had starbucks getting built, you know, a couple hundred yards, maybe 300 yards from my front door, and and and 7-eleven later. There's a few things I'm like this is going to be great, and I was talking to my daughter and one of them and we were speaking at the job site. I was pointing out different things like that Building's going to be that, how cool is that going to be? And she's like yeah, starbucks. I'm like you don't got the money to buy a Starbucks every day, though, do you? Oh no, I'm like well, you know, the other day, when we went to the mall and you know, mom and I got a drink and then you guys came along and I gave you the card and you guys got a drink, she goes yeah, I'm like for the four of us to get a drink from Starbucks was $40. And her face was like what? I'm like, yeah, that's expensive.
Speaker 3:And I think they realize that when they start getting their own money and they start having to spend their own money on bits and pieces, how much their appreciation. But money changes a bit. They're not so demanding. I mean, some kids are. I think it's smart to teach your children to be smart with money to a degree. Here's another, here's another one. Yeah, this one, this one's fucking blowing my mind because it only happened the other day.
Speaker 3:Our oldest has always been a slob mess. Girls are actually really fucking messy. I think they're just big. I look at my wife and she's a clean freak. I'm used to that. But the children are extremely messy, way more messy than even the son is in his room. Night and day difference. He looks like he's a fucking you know he owns a cleaning business compared to them.
Speaker 3:And I walked into the doors room because I need to close the door, because I want to turn the air conditioning on and the her bed's made. Her bed has not been made in years and her bed's like pristine, made like a hotel and I'm looking at it going. I said to my wife later on. I said I went into to mad's room and her bed is made like what's going on there and she goes. She brought her own sheets. I'm like, okay, so apparently if they own, you know they brought the own thing with their own money they appreciate it more. So now she makes her bed like because she's been buying furniture like, buying bits and pieces for her own room and cleaning the bed sheets. Now she wants to make the bed and make it look really nice every day, because she's got pride in it, because she's brought it.
Speaker 3:I'm like you're telling me for years, if all I needed her to make her bed, all I had to do was make her buy her own sheet. And it's not like she went and spent. You know, I said I should buy from Timu or fucking Sheen or some of those places. No, she bought it from Kmart, which makes it no different, because the sheets that she had on there before that we supplied to her they also came from Kmart. So it's not like they've just gone up in quality. It's the same fucking quality. It's just one's come with her own money. Yeah, Any parent, you want your kids to make a bed. Make them buy their own sheets. Apparently, that's all you have to do to get them to make their own bed.
Speaker 2:It's basically buy their own linen, but I love how that goes and gets them she does. Hopefully it translates to oh, dad bought this thing.
Speaker 3:I'm going to gonna take care of you. I, I think that's what it is, and I said it to that. She came out of her room yesterday before I took it to that long shift and I said, oh yeah, her bed's made. And that, and you know, her mom made a comment. I made a comment.
Speaker 3:It's like you, do you appreciate it now? How do you feel when you walk into your room now after being away from it and it's all nice and clean, like your bed's made? Does it feel nicer? And she was saying no, but you could see it on her face with how she grinned and smiled and said no, that she understood what we'd been saying for years, like hey, if you just get into the habit of doing that, it will make yourself feel better in a way, or you're not going to feel one way or another. This might make you feel better. She's actually seeing the things that we've been saying for years. Now she's doing it, she's noticing it, and when we point it out, it's like I don't want to agree with you because you guys are right. But no, it's just, it was nice, it was. It was actually really nice to see that change. So I'm gonna make all the other children buy their own linen now buy their own clothes they do.
Speaker 3:They do now.
Speaker 3:The only issue is half the time our kids don't throw our clothes when they've lost the new clothes and then you're overloaded as we risk.
Speaker 3:We're big on lifeline, goodwill, salvation army, that type of stuff in in my household, so we're very much sure if you're growing out of something and you're, the clothes are still good. We we like to get the kids to go through their clothes every so often, take out all the things that they don't fit, put it into a nice bag and then I will take it to lifeline or the salvation arm, because I think there's lots of people that don't. As long as it's good, if it's a ruined piece of cloth, obviously we're not packing that, but if it's a good something, that's nothing wrong with it then we're donating it. So I had to make them do that recently because I realized there's been a lot of clothes going into their rooms but nothing coming out. So I've kind of said, hey, there's a limit to how much you can actually fit in your cupboard and your drawers and that. So maybe you just need to pull out all those things that are at the bottom that you're no longer touching and get rid of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we I have like a clothesline with my oldest son and I don't want. Yeah, I don't want to. Yeah, it helps save money.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it does, it does, it does. For me, there's no one that really takes anything in mind, but I don't buy anything either. I'll spend a whole lot of time not buying anything for ages, and then, all of a sudden, I might buy three shirts in a year in one go and it's like, wow, look at me stepping up this world. I think, yeah, I said a while ago I bought myself two pairs of Jordans the other day because they were at the Nike outlet cheap and I was like, oh cool, I can get two pairs for under $100. Yeah, ok, I'm taking them home and look at me, I've got fancy shoes. But, that being said, my AMXs that I had before buying the Jordans. I've had them for like five years and they're still perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with them. Like, I don't wear them enough to wear them out. So I was like why do I need to buy myself new things when I've got something that's perfectly fine as it is Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't see, I can't have it. I see something like Star Wars.
Speaker 3:That's yeah. T-shirts are my thing. If anything. I've got too many of it's t-shirts and it's just a lot of stuff that I'm like. I don't know how many shirts a 40 year old has with super mario on them, but I buy a lot of them. You know, if you look at my shirts, it's like five really good shirts for going out, like your college shirts, your button-up shirts. I got a couple of like them. And then it's star wars shirts, gaming shirts, brooklyn-nine shirts. They're all just.
Speaker 3:You know, we've got a shop here called JJ's. I don't know if it's over there, but they have lots of younger like. It's cheap clothing, it's good prints, they do like lots of good stuff, but a lot of their T-shirts now are like anime and Dragon Ball Z and a lot of cartoon prints and that. And my wife said do you want to go in there? I'm like no, because you've told me a number of times like I keep buying clothes for not someone my age, like I'm just going to walk out of there with clothes that I do not. You know you're going to disapprove in a way yep, there was a I'm gonna everybody.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna everybody uh more of it, oh yeah I do have a couple of shirts that are colored that I like and I wear them, and every day I obviously wear a colored shirt the you know majority of work. I do have some really nice colored shirts that I'm like this is my adult colored shirt that I actually wear a lot of yeah, but that being said, I've kind'm like this is my adult color shirt that I actually wear a lot of yeah, but that being said, I've kind of like found this soft ground of t-shirts, so like I brought some blinker one, a two shirts the other day cause I saw them cheap, I'm like that's me, that's my age, I can wear a blink way to share. And then people seem like oh, did you go? Like? No, I had children, but you know, that's what it looks like. It just looks like I just went to a recent, the recent to it.
Speaker 3:Sorry or like retro stuff, all right I think we can wrap that one up there, because it's 25 minutes.
Speaker 1:I'm on 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 dad mode podcast and we can be found on every podcast site at dad mode podcast. Y'all be cool. See you next time.
