Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Blow Bubbles at the King | Ep. 343

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Soren argues for giving Macklemore one more chance as Daniel recounts the strongly worded daycare letter that ended with his son perched on a throne while a teacher blew bubbles at the king. Along the way, they compare embarrassing phases, protective parenting, and the strange freedom of becoming the annoying parents.We want to thank Mint Mobile for supporting this episode. Make the switch at http://MINTMOBILE.com/QQFollow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

It's got a quick, quick question for you all right. I think you'll have a quick, quick question for you all right? It's the show. It's a quick question. joining us. You picked the perfect time. Soren, I got some, some parenthood questions and then we'll talk about movies, maybe. I'm not ready for that. I haven't even stretched or anything. Hold on. When I did a, you said you're back and I said, like, we never left. There's a, that's a McElmore song.

Okay. Called Glorious. Dan, I think I'm back on McElmore. Hey man, you can't do that. We all left, obviously. We left that arena because we were done with him. I don't know. My son listens to this. He's the one that turned me onto it.

And I was like, you know, this is kind of a bot. I like this song. I think it's pretty good. I do. I will say, if anyone is allowed to like Maclemore, I do think you have a pretty strong case because a lot of us, in the Obama years, when McLemore burst onto the scene for most of us, everything seemed fine. And thrift shop was like a real banger. The horns were great.

We all had a really good time. And then he was doing songs about saving gay marriage or something, whatever he was doing. We were all like, man, he's funny and he's correct. this is so good. And then we all, we all were like, this is, this is pretty embarrassing.

Not we all. Because a lot of people didn't like him to begin with. And when I told our boss at the time, crack.com editor, Chief Jack O'Brien, that I,

I, I think I, I can't remember if I told them that MacLamore was my favorite or that I thought, nobody, that I thought he had the best,

the best album of the year. That sounds more right. Yeah, that sounds like, used to do that. I think this movie is best album of the year, and Jack was like, I'm going to let that go. You're going to feel really bad about that. Like the present, the presions of Jack being like, this is, this is wrong.

You don't mean that, son. You don't mean that. It's so interesting. Jack always, he had his, it's unfair to even call his finger on the pulse because he could see two beats ahead. Like, he knew what was coming down the pipe. Yes. but yeah so for all of us we all of us were like

one love or whatever the fuck same love or whatever that song was called we were all like fuck yeah somebody's finally saying it I'm not gay yeah and I do think and like he just showed up on the pop charts

and so I liked him and then I stopped liking him like a lot of us you are the only person I know who was aware of him before the rest of us. He played at your college when he was just some interesting

guy. And I understand feeling like you're early to something and feeling like you have some kind of ownership over something and that nostalgia and association, you know, he can be one of your guys if you want. I'm not going to claim him.

That's good. It was, it's one of those, I mean, We're all, we've all fallen into this, right? I was a huge limp biscuit fan when I was in high school. I was like, yes, I'm going to listen to this. Every time I go snowboarding right before I'm out there, I'm going to listen to, give me something to break, and it's going to pump me up. And then over time, you realized that that was embarrassing.

Yeah. Nobody's free of this. We've all fallen into this trap at some point. McElmore was a big one. But then I stopped listening to his music because I was like, yeah, he's, And then, okay, I don't know why I stopped listening to his music. I stopped listening to his music, I think, only because of that one song. And we all realize, like, oh, this is weird.

This is a weird song. This is a weird point to, to a weird place to plant your flag. And I want to be an ally, but I may want to make it clear. I'm not one of those freaks. I think he also, yes, a song that the two things that he wanted to make clear was that he's okay with gay people. But also, he gets so much pussy. It's crazy. even in second grade.

His mom was like, you were such a fucking dog. That tank. But I think nationally, we started to turn on him when he, I believe he was winning some awards. I believe he was winning some important music awards.

And we were like, well, well, no. He can't actually be the best rapper in the world. I would never qualify him as this. like a real a lyrical genius or like an incredible rapper i think he and his what's his buddy's name like the it's not just macklemore we just call them macklemore yeah maclmore ben macklemore and ryan lewis so ryan lewis makes incredible beats that are so fun and and interesting and like you can just just jam to him um so i think his songs are really engaging and fun to just listen to

we gave up on him. It wasn't until my son was like, hey, can we listen to this in the car as he often does? And I don't know what it is. And then we listen to it. Or first of all, I spend five minutes looking for it because he knows one lyric from it. He's like, this song I heard.

And the best, best is in the lyrics. And I'm like, okay, that's all we're getting. Let's dive in. But we found this song. And I was like, we're listening to it. And I was like, found myself bobbing along to it. And I was like, you know what? Maybe we.

give McElmore another chance. It's okay if he just, if we just gave him the one chance. It's fine. Yeah. You know what the big problem was was rapping. I think that already it's a little embarrassing. There's like a real earnestness to his raps that is contextually as a white guy from Seattle doing this. It's just a little embarrassing.

And there's other people who are doing the same thing, but are kind of a way. that it's embarrassing and are addressing the elephant in the room. I would put I would put David Byrd in that category. You know who that is? Little Dickie.

Oh, yeah. I was I auto corrected that to David Byrne. But yeah, a little dicky. Yeah, David Byrne. His raps are tough to a little bit. As soon as you said it, I was like, yeah, I mean, if he rapped, I'm sure

he would do it in a self-aware way and I I see it. He has our song with rapping in it, but he's not doing the rapping. Very smart. To jam. Really good song. But no, I think that the that already there was like

it was a little embarrassing even from the beginning when I was just like this interesting rapper that I liked that even then I was like I can't talk about him. I don't like totally what he's doing. I just like listening. to. And listen, I'm, again, that's embarrassing, but it's not, you're all doing it. We've all

fallen into that trap. We're listening to music in our car that we wouldn't dare listen to on the subway or in front of other people. When I'm listening to Goodbye horses, I'm doing that on my own time because if I listen to it anywhere else, I'm a serial killer. Yeah. It was just a better time for me before I could afford serious radio, which has more. customizability to it. And before I had a car where you could hook up your phone to make whatever music you want, which had total customizability, when I was just driving around LA for 10 years with K-Rock and Jack FM and whatever other stations were out there, it's not my fault if McLemore comes on. And I listen to it. It's not my fault if blurred lines comes on. And I sing along to it and have a good time.

and I turn it up a little bit. It's not my fault. I'm just like I'm a victim like anybody else. I'm of the music that that is coming through on the radio. And I'm just like, I'm just riding the waves. Blurred Lines is a great example of that where you have this, just like this beat that you just, you're into. And you're like, yeah.

Oh, there's lyrics to this song too? Great. At some point I'm sure I'll get around to listen to those. And then the song becomes, deeply embarrassing and then you're like but I I enjoyed listening to that song because I like dancing to it. I like

driving around I would drive around and I would hope it came on do you guys have any idea what that's like just just no control just driving around I was like boy I hope they play one of my I hope they they're nice and they play one of my songs

today before I get to work oh I'm going to circle the block they're playing it I love to listen to this. Yeah, as a kid, I used to think about that all the time because terrestrial radio was all I had. And I would listen to music and call into radio stations. I was going to ask if you ever, because we would do that too. For some reason, when my parents weren't home as if it was like a crime, we're just like, oh, no one's home.

Let's call the radio station and see if they'll play. Ants Marching by Dave Matthews. And we would call and we're like, you play Dave Matthews, Ants Marching? And they'd be like, yeah, we'll play it next. We're like, oh, fuck, yeah! They're going to play it! I can't think of any more efficient system than this.

And they must, it must be all elementary schoolers calling all the time. Like, I would call and I would ask for ugly kid Joe's, I hate everything about you. I loved that song when I was a kid. And I would call, I don't know, probably every weekend. To be like, will you play it? And like, we just played it. I'm like, yeah, but I, that's when I realized that I wanted to listen to it again. Yeah.

Could you just play? We're not calling at like six, we're not calling the mainstream station at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday to be like, can you, uh, my heart hurts. Can you play some Bill Withers for me, please? Yeah. We're playing. We're asking for the songs they're already playing. I'm like, can you play jumper? And they're like, yeah, of course.

You're the 50th person who's called asking for jumper today. You're going to hear it six times today. I still do. Because my daughter takes baths to the radio. I have a radio in her bathroom. So she has some control over her music. We find the stations where they still do those dedications, which is this ancient art, but it's so fun to listen to,

where you're listening to the love station or whatever it is. And they're like, next up, we've got a dedication from Darnell to Tanya. Tanya, he loves you very much. He can't imagine his life without you, and he's so, so sorry. Here's Otis Redding. It's so great. It was so good listening to Delilah on the drive. You know, I can't stress this enough to our listeners that it's not, it's like Soren says,

it's not someone leaving a voice note dedication. It is a radio DJ reading it for them. It's like, hey, this is Delilah. and he, this song is from Marianne, who, Mrs. Jimmy, can't wait for him to come back from the war. Yeah. Okay. The best ones were like, you swung the door open just a little bit on a very complex situation and then shut it right away. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Jay would be like, this song is for Maria. Mark has been seeing you at work, and he just thought you might like this song. Then you're like, oh shit, Mark's a stock. I don't know. He knows that she's listening to the radio at work.

He's like, this is how I'm going to get her. What an honor it will be for her to hear her own name on the radio. Different time. Better time. Unclear. Hard to say. Hard to say. We'll never know.

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Hold on. Anoying parents. Have I ever been the annoying parent? Yeah. Yeah, it's school. That's, okay. This is, this is, we, we're, our ongoing battles with daycare, which, which, which happened getting better emotionally for everybody involved, but we're still, we, uh, like two weeks into this, because we see an app, we have an app that, like, they update pictures. Yeah.

And they do like, little, like, oh, he, he napped for this period of time. We gave him a bottle at this time, changed this diaper, like all the stuff that's going on. We see it on this app. And we're staring at this app all day. And there were a couple of things that were not to our liking in the app. And we wrote a strongly worded letter about all the things that we were dissatisfied with. Two weeks into this daycare experiment. Two weeks in, you're like, you've got to change some shit.

zero self-awareness of how like this is also the first two weeks that we have not had him in our arms every minute of the day. Like we just our brains, having a child destroys your brain. And we just went in with like, here's a list of things that are not up to our satisfaction

two weeks into this experiment. And they got back to us immediately and they got on the phone with us and they're like, we're going to fix this and that. And like, I have an action plan that I've given to all my teachers. And they're going to, you know, some of the stuff that we had, I think our complaints were well-founded and they've addressed them. And part of it was you guys have stopped uploading, like,

pictures of him throughout the day. And we worried when you don't do that. We think it's because he's sad and you don't want to take any pictures of him sad. and they were like, that is the reason. And we're like, well, fuck, this is the nightmare. And now they upload lots of pictures of him, very, very happy. They upload so many pictures with so many over-the-top captions. But like, here I am, playing with my favorite book, loving life, chilling like a big boy.

And they are so much more. explicit in the notes about what they're doing and how he's doing and what's going on. And they seem much more attentive. When I went to pick him up a few days after our letter and our meeting with the administrator, I walk in the room and he is set up in a U-shaped cushion that's got him perched like he's in a throne. And there is a teacher sitting in a chair two feet in front. front of him, blowing bubbles directly at him just for him. And there's another little girl on the floor crying. And I walk in thinking, you guys fucking hate us and you're doing this to kiss our

asses because we wrote the mean letter. I do not care. This is how I think my son should be treated. Blow bubbles at the king. Thank you very much. I talk shit as soon as I leave. I don't care. I do not care. As long as the king gets his bubbles. Now, one of your complaints was that they weren't sending pictures because he was crying. He was most likely crying and was crying at school. I have a couple questions. One of all, one is, is the adjustment going better now or is he still just like miserable there? It's going better now.

It's going better now for sure. Okay. What else did you complain about? I want to know your grapes before I know whether this is reasonable. So we pack, do I give all of the information? We pack three like normal bottles and we have a smaller bottle that is just for helping him sleep if he can't sleep. Because sometimes a little bit of, oh, just a little bit of milk will knock him right out. Yeah.

And it so happened that there was one day where first, first, first, first, they didn't, they fed him an hour after he was supposed to be fed, because we're pretty strict about like, this is, he needs to eat every three hours at this age, and he needs to have this much food because he's, he's growing. And they, they were, we're late by an hour, which we didn't love. And then there were no pictures of him throughout the day. And when I went to go, one of the, the people there was talking about how he was fussy, and have we considered gas sex and I was like yes we've considered gas X in fact we gave it to you you have it in his like bin of supplies and she goes really can we use it I go yes you can use it your staff used it last week

and you made notes of it and in the thing it's just shrugging like oh this is the first I've heard of it and I'm like great well that's fantastic communication and I was so flustered and annoyed about that I took all of our stuff home and when we got home we realized that uh They gave him at some point during the day when they said they gave him a full bottle. They made a mistake. They gave him the nightcap bottle. So this was a day where he was fed late in the morning and then at some point was not fed the full amount of food that he was supposed to have and was not given the medicine that we like him to have. And there's no good communication apparently amongst the teachers.

And this was after like a few days in a row where it seemed like you could pick him up and you can tell. it seemed like he'd been crying all day and not napping and just like his voice was hoarse from screaming too much all like really bad stuff I feel like are you satisfied that I'm not crazy soren I think the food stuff is is sturdier ground than us saying

there aren't enough pictures of him smiling I think you're totally fine hell yeah but you're also I'm a parent who has done all of this. We've done all of these things. I came into, my son was in a preschool. I came in to get him one day and I was looking for him and I didn't see him anywhere. And then I went into the bathroom and he was in there cleaning diarrhea out of his underwear.

And he was like, he's three. And I was like, we're gone. We're out of here. And felt like gave him a huge hug. And I was like, you don't have to deal with this kind of thing on your own. Like, it's okay. And then we went home and then I did the exact same thing on the parent app. I was just like, hey, who's helping?

Like, who's there for this? And I'll say that throughout elementary school, it's been a real give and take because it's public school. And there's a lot of kids. And you have to, I just have to eat some of this stuff. Some of the stuff is just not going to get fixed. Especially like with aftercare. Aftercare is just sort of this lawless place where everyone's small, my son will be like, can we have double stuffed Oreos?

And I'm like, I don't even, how do you even know what double stuffed Dorios are? It's like, I have them all the time at aftercare. I'm like, they're just plying you with fucking cookies and stuff. You're not supposed to be having that shit. And so you just kind of have to let that kind of stuff go. But every once in a while, there's something that becomes too big to ignore his last year in school. he it became clear that there just was like the teacher just seemed like the teacher just had a foot out the door like the teacher just decided this is too many kids they've asked me to do too much my load is too great I won't do any of it and so we were on it we were on that teacher quite a bit trying to figure out well how do we get to a situation where you feel like a manager at a job where you're like well how do we work together to make sure that this becomes an easier task or what can we take off your plate?

Right, I say things that I never say in real life when I drop them off. Just let me know how I want to set you up for success. So if you could just tell me what steps I can take to make this better for us, which is ultimately better for him, because we're all working in the same direction here. Right. And then I get in the car, I'm like, what the fuck was that? When you're in there and you're like, what can I take the lead on that would, yeah, that would make it free up some of your bandwidth?

with. You're saying shit like that. If my wife sending that to me, I'd be so furious if she was like, well, will you take the lead on the birthday party? I'd be like, can I take the lead? But yeah, you're doing all that. You get super professional all of a sudden and you're, and everybody knows what's going on. You're chastising this person because you don't think they're doing a good job. But you're wording it in such a way that's like, hey, how can I be of help so that we can get this solve for you? The thing that you're fucking up, how can we get it together that you're no longer fucking this up?

So anyway, I'm bad at this stuff. I do this stuff all the time. But only with the school. One of the other things that I have found is, and I'm sure you have to, is when you write these letters and you become the annoying parents, there is a target on your back now. And I talked to my wife about it. I was like, we can't, like, we're packing his stuff in the morning. And we're like, we cannot make any mistakes now.

We can't get them anything. We have to make sure they have the right bottles. And everything's labeled because we came at them, knives out. And like these super protective parents. So like we cannot screw up. It was like a day or so after the letter when Shay would go pick him up. And they had him in like an orange bib. And we never, we don't.

own any orange in the house so it was unfamiliar so she walks into the classroom and looks around and goes where is he and they were like holding him and like he's right here he's i'm feeding him and i was like honey you cannot we cannot we cannot we cannot give them an inch um i think even from birth you're set up to be in that scenario where you're willing to be an embarrassing person all of a sudden when you have kids because you go in with a birth plan Everyone encourages you to write a birth plan. Those birth plans, as soon as you show up when it's a printed out birth plan, the nurses are fucking pumped because now they got something to talk about. And they'll bring that over and they'll post it in their little section and they'll be like, she wants, bitch wants candles.

We have candles burning the whole time. She wants the room at 74 degrees. You're going to get on that. We have individual down to the degree controls for the rooms. Surely, right? Who's going to monitor that? So she wants these songs for the passive labor and these ones for the active labor. Oh, okay, cool.

Like, they are cackling at that stuff and you know it. You know it and you know going in. And so you're just like, well, this isn't about you. It's not even about me anymore. It's about this new person and they are the only one thing that matters. And so it primes you. And then you do it at schools. You do it like, I'll confront other parents.

If a parent is being, they've got a kid who is, who is treating my child poorly. And it's like an ongoing thing. Then I'm like, I'm going to go confront that parent. Like things that I would never dream of doing on my own behalf or my wife's behalf either. Like things are, I would just let slide. I'm not going to do that as a dad. I'm so scared of it because I have, I have no problem yelling at like, an institution, our school, or I would even yell at my doctor if it came down to it.

I probably wouldn't yell at my doctor. I'm just trying to think of other professionals that interact with the baby. But we're far away from him being old enough to, like, play and have friends and be influenced by other kids. But I'm so nervous about the future and confronting a parent about their kid, which is essentially confronting a parent about their parenting, which I'm just dreading. I'm hoping that there are only good parents, by which I mean,

parents who do things exactly the way that I do, and I don't have to deal with anyone who is different from me or from my wife or from my baby. I know it's not going to happen. I know we're going to get people who their kids curse or eat junk or they say words that we don't say or they, you know, whatever, they glorify guns or they do such and such a thing.

And I will have to have a conversation with some kids' parent about how like, hey, just, we don't really, we don't watch things with guns in my house or we don't play video games with XYZ. And no matter what it is and no matter who I talk to, I know they're not going to say,

that's a really good idea. I'm going to start implementing that too. No. It's going to be a confrontation that I'm simply not built for. Yeah. I'm trying to think, I mean, most of it you just eat. But some of it, you, if you find out your kid's been going to somebody else's house and all they're doing the entire time they're there is watching TV or playing video games, you're like, hey, I'm not cool with that. He's going to stop coming over if that's the kind of thing that you're going to be doing there. I really appreciate it if you guys find something more constructive to be doing with your time. And also, here's the thing. If you raise your child, this is very, I'm on very thin ice here. If you raise your child in such a way that they know what is expected of them,

regardless of whether they're in the house or outside of it, then they will respect those rules. God, I'm really, really, this is like, this is very dangerous territory, because that's not true of everybody. There's neurodivergent children. There's kids that just don't agree with this. I just have my, and I'm sure that I'll do some of this with my daughter. But my son, we've made it a clear place where you can be honest about anything.

You won't be in trouble. Like, you can tell us anything. We are your friends too. First and foremost, your parents. And we care about your safety and, like, your betterment. And so there are rules when he goes to other houses that he has to follow. And some of those rules are not fun. Like he wants to play the video games.

We're like, no, you're not, I mean, if you could, I guess it's okay for like an hour or something. But after that, you got to go do something else. And as far as I know, he's following those rules. But occasionally it'll come up where he goes to a sleepover and he was up till two. And they're just watching movies. So then I'm, I've got two people to talk to then, right? I'm like, I got to talk to my son. Be like, that's not what we do.

You need to, you need to step away from that situation. need to go find somewhere else to go to sleep. And then I got to go to the parent and be like, where were you? And they're like, well, we went to bed. The kids were just out there having a good time. And then I got to be like, I prefer that my son wasn't that this group of children had some sort of parental involvement during that time. And again, I go into my manager speak.

And I know myself in that situation, were I in your shoes? I'd be like, totally. It's late. you want to go to sleep. In the future, you can call me and I will come to your house. And I'll be with the children at night. And I'll stay and be there parental supervision. It's fine.

I'm not asking you to change your life. Just have me come. I'll do it. I'll be the only parent on the block. Yeah. So as a parent has been really the only, the first time in my life where I have not cared what other people think about me. And it's very freeing.

It's very freeing. Occasionally I'll check in on it afterwards. to be like, oh, that was, that probably didn't look good. Yeah. That probably wasn't great for that other person. And I'll think that I burned bridges. And I'm like, okay, well, then that's, it's a shame it went that way. But it's like nothing can be done about it now.

I need everyone, and I think they do. I hope everyone in my, in my whole life, understands that I'm different now. And that everything else from before doesn't count anymore. and there's only one thing that matters now. Yeah, there's one thing. Even your significant other. Like, you're like, you both understand the situation. You're like, oh, you know what?

I used to really, like, platonically love you. That's gone. I am in love with you. But boy, there was like, we would move around the house and I would scratch your neck. Or like, I would save some of that affection, that platonic. affection just for you. That's toast, man. God. It's all going to be business speak. No, there's never been more coworkers than new parents. That's the strongest work relationship. Hossil it through the office hallway to your different jobs and the different tests you've got to

take care of during the day. And occasionally, yeah, even with coworkers, like you get to have a moment of reprieve with them and you just catch up. But, That's not, it is like coworkers for a very long time. Yeah. Yeah, it's exciting. I know. There's a memory I have of myself as a kid. Older.

Middle school, probably. Going to my friend Chris's house, Chris had a pool. And I was so excited. It was like one of the first swimming days of the summer. And I get there. And his mom was like, you guys, swim in the pool. It's fine. I have to go.

I'm leaving now, but you guys can swim in the pool. And Chris is fine. Do you think you would be fine too? And I was like, no. I have to call my mom and tell her. Yeah. And because Chris is like, no one will know. Just say that you're fine to swim without parental supervision.

You can't drown in any pool. But like it's not, it's not a pool with a deep end or anything. I was like, yeah, I know, but. I know my mom wouldn't want me to, so I'm just going to call her and tell her the situation so she can tell me to come home, and that's what happened, and then I came home,

and I was so upset. And now that I have a kid, I'm like, how do I make a kid who's a big of fucking loser as I was? Right, right. That was such the right decision. How do I do that? Yeah.

You were, because you wanted your parents to respect you. Like, it was so important to you when you were young, that your parents, I don't want to tie it to love because I don't think it is. I think that you know that you were going to be loved unconditionally,

but you didn't want to let them down. Yeah. And so you were like, you, and how do you foster that with your own child? You're like, I want my child not to want to let me down. Well, so when I was young,

I had the same situation where I was, I was allowed to go anywhere without a parent. And in fact, my parents would call, even in high school, my parents would call and be like, is there going to be a parent there? And I'd be like, give us the number.

And I was like, you fucking got it. All right. And then they'd ask, is there going to be alcohol there? And I'd be like, I don't know. And I was so mad that they wouldn't just trust me in those circumstances. They're like, I'm going to, I've made good choices my whole life. I was rigidly assigned this task of being this person who is this respectful and honest. I'm going to be good there.

I would get bad about when I would come home from hanging out with people in high school and my mom would do that move where she gives me a hug and then like smells to see if she could smell alcohol on me and I would just be like, no, I wasn't drinking. I am losing friends every day because I'm not drinking. And then I come home to this missing. This distrust. I'm losing everywhere I go. I'm not even reaping the benefits of abstaining from alcohol with a mother's love and warmth. I'm still met with suspicions. I would leave. We'd have bonfires where I live. People, we wouldn't really have house parties except in the winter. But if you were going to, kids were all going to drink somewhere and they were going to party, which is where you fucking needed to be. If you weren't doing those things. We'd do bonfires.

out on somebody's property or something like that. And so I would go to these things and I know that I have a curfew and I'm not allowed to stay the night and everybody else is just going to, they've got sleeping bags and stuff and they're just going to stay there. But every time I'm leaving,

I'm on my way out and people I know are like, oh, Saurin's got to go home. Oh, Sorn, is it time for bed? And I've got to be like, yes. Yes, yes it is. And that's, thank you. we'll never have the same connection that you have with the other people here and that's got to be fine.

You guys have to promise me that you won't do kissing when I leave. Please just don't kiss each other. Please just don't do any kissing. It'll be super nice. What if next time we start the night with kissing? Oh, wow, such a good idea. It's still light out so we can see everyone and everything that's going on. And that way everyone can do it.

We don't smell like smoke yet. It would be perfect, honestly. We all just did our kissing in the field before we lit the fire. I'm suggesting it. Why is everyone looking at me like that? Yeah, I hated it. I hated the suspicion. But then, you know, I, you know what it was?

I felt that I didn't deserve it. Not because I was being so good. Because I did drink. I did. I would go to these things and I would drink or I would. I didn't do drugs, but I would like, you know, it was girls and it was drinking. And I was very interested in both of those things. And then I was never caught doing it.

So when I would go home and my mom would be like, did you drink? I'd be like, no. Why are you asking me that? I'm giving you no indication that I did. I worked out this night specifically so that you wouldn't be able to tell. I did all kinds of things. Why? So I felt that I had earned the trust only because of their ignorance.

And I'm mad that I wasn't getting it. But yeah, I think with, I'm hoping there's no turn with my son. My son is, you know, he's the best of us. He's such a great, great kid. And in ways where I'm often surprised by what a great kid he is. and I'm hoping that there's no Todd Moranovic turn in his future where he's just like

he leaves the house Todd Moranovic was Mitch Moranovich's son The quarterback who got really into meth when he went to college or something That's the guy Yeah hell yeah Well crack cocaine But yeah his dad invented the combine

His dad was like Apologies to the meth community He's gonna raise a quarterback from birth And started raising this boy with no The kid didn't even know McDonald's He existed and raised what was easily the best quarterback that has ever been through high school and period, because then he went to college and fucking lost his mind because all of a sudden he realized

there was a whole world out there that he hadn't been exposed to. I don't want there to be a switch for my son. So I'm trying to give him everything and show him everything, but also be like, we're not that type of people. You can see that type of people. We're not that type. We're this type. And hope that sticks.

my daughter is a little bit more defiant even already to the point where I'm like it's going to be tough man it's going to be really hard when she gets older because everything all the parenting advice that I give is always like just give them good structure and it's no problem give them a good structure good foundation make it so that they don't want to let you down

and they'll do they'll be good kids I just don't think that that's probably true of my next one well I mean bright side being that it doesn't sound like she is even in the running for a Todd Morenovic situation, if she is already aware of so much world just by strength of character

and boundlessness of curiosity. Just so willing to lie to me. I'm like, well, hold on. This whole thing's supposed to hinge on you being honest with me. How do we walk this back? How do I get back to a point where you could tell me anything, But also, you're going to tell me some things that are really going to make me mad. When a kid lies to you, do you say you're lying to me?

I know you're lying to me? No. Or do you, do you, do you? I don't know what you try to outsmart them another, like get the truth another way? Or do you just let them think they've successfully pulled on over on you? I've never let them think that they've successfully pulled one over because I don't want that positive reinforcement for them. Okay. I'm sure they have.

I'm sure that they're thin things that they said that were a lie, and then I never found out. But for the most part, I say, well, I mean, it's complicated because there's lots of different ways this can go. But depending on the circumstances, but there's like, I will do a, I will ask them, having already known the truth. My daughter, let's do like say, like she's got powdered sugar all over her face. And she's like, I didn't eat the donut. I think the cat ate it. And you're like, okay, you think the cat ate that whole donut? She's like, yeah.

I'm like, okay, I trust you. And you say that to them. And then you wait and see if they are going to react in a different way. And then you say, but I see evidence that you, that maybe it was you. And I want to know how that happened because I see some powder sugar around your mouth. And you know what? If you did eat it, that's okay. We can talk about that.

You're not in trouble or anything. And when you're trying to assure them that they're not in trouble every time, but that they could be if they lie, that's like my only recourse is to be like, it would really hurt me. It would make me feel really awful if you felt like comfortable lying to me. Like that kind of stuff is what I will throw at them. Guilt, basically.

Sure. But yeah, that's kind of how I handle it. My son did go through a lying phase for a little bit when he was real young, where he, man, he came to me once with, He was very into cones and reflectors and stuff. And he came to me once with a bike reflector. And he was like, look what I got.

And I was like, where did you get this from? He's like, I found it. I found it a few days ago. I'm like, okay. Did you take this off of a bike? And he's like, I don't remember. Nice. Nice.

then I didn't realize how deep the lie went until like I finally got him to come clean and I was like if he took it off a bike you got to just tell me he finally revealed that he did it had it supposed to have a backing that helped it stay on the bike and was more identifiable and had hidden it over by in the back of our yard like he'd gone and hidden this thing knowing full well that like he had to cover his tracks and that I was very worried about that I was like oh man I don't have to come clean I took this reflector off of bike. After I put a stick in the spokes of this guy who was riding it,

he flipped over, covered him with some branches, took the reflector. He's in the back. He's in your trunk. He's in your trunk. It's not going to come back to you. It's not going to come back. I was careful. Like, you raised me to be. I was careful. What I say

is that you really love to see your child cry and confess to you. Like they couldn't hold it in. That telltale heart couldn't, like, they just couldn't deal with the beating anymore. And they're like, I have to tell you something is the vibe that you're getting from them. Right.

Oh, it feels so good. It feels so good to watch them and confess a thing because it burdens them. At this point, it's like a unidirectional form of love because I float through the world. And I, I can lie to anyone, to everyone, because I'm, I'm 40. I've seen too much now that I did, like, I understand. the power of lying. But a child being like, I'm incapable of lying to you.

It's like, wow. How novel. This is great. Let's preserve this forever. Don't stop doing this. Yeah, it's really nice now. I'm sure it won't be in the future. I'm sure everything, every piece of advice that I give,

I'm going to be burned by later. But, yeah, if you, honestly, I know that they're going to be, you know what I think about is Friday night lights. The situation where Matt Saracen and the coach's daughter have gone off to some fuck cabin and like they're going to try sex for the first time because they're there for the weekend alone and they decide they're not ready like they like they're both like forcing themselves into it and then finally they have a conversation and they're like we're not I don't want to do this yet and they don't do it and I'm like that's I want to raise a kid like

how do I get there how do I get to a kid who is in situations where they're the bad decisions are there for them for the taking and they are still making good decisions. See, now when I think about Friday Night Lights, and I think of myself as coach Chandler, Coach, no, Kyle Chandler, coach Taylor, Coach Taylor, Coach Taylor. Coach Taylor is his real name. Right, Kyle Chandler, Coach and Tammy Taylor, got it. Coach who can reach every kid, even Big Tim Riggins, he can reach him, all these people, and all the other parents of kids.

he's got that like gravitas and then he meets uh michael b jordan vince howard's dad and his coach taylor stuff just doesn't work all of his like i'm raising good boys and uh i'm the coach and that means something in this texas town it doesn't mean shit to vince's dad and that's i i worry about every parent i meet being vince's dad who was just like you are you are nothing to me and i don't I don't respect the way you are raising kids and like get out of my fucking face. Yeah. It chills me. It's scary.

We meet Vince's dad in that show. And all he's thinking about is like, how am I going to make money off this kid? How is this going to, how are we going to like cheat the system or like get some. How do I wet my beak? Yeah. Let me get a taste of this for these scholarship money. And I'm just watching the show and thinking like, He is upsetting the ecosystem that coach Taylor is delicately building.

I guess we got to kill him. I guess Landry's got to kill again because I can't think of any other way out of this. Landry, I know you're back in your funny phase, and that was fun for us. Right. But we're going to have a bad season again. It's important that we have a bad season so we can purge this poison from the well. I know that there are those parents at my kid's school. Because there's going to be those parents everywhere.

And we occasionally run into them a little bit. But you also try to create enough of a foundation for your child that your child isn't like, I want to hang out with that person. Occasionally, that's the really popular kid. And then they're very, they have to be torn, right? Because they're like, well, it's not just that I don't want to hang out with that person. If I don't hang out with them, I lose access to all these other people who I do like. And so that's a really dangerous, precarious situation that we have not really found ourselves in just yet. But I know it's like around the corner.

I think for the most part, though, you can avoid that. It's not like you're not the coach of a team where you have to deal with that child over and over again. For the most part, you can kind of negotiate around those families. You don't really have to spend time with them. My sister-in-law is an administrator at a school. and she's made it very clear that when a kid is having some behavioral issues at the school, it's not like the parents come in and you're just, they're shocked and they're appalled and they're like, we'll do much better.

And they seem like really good parents. That has never once happened in her whole career. If there's a kid having behavioral problems, as soon as you bring those parents in, you've got to kind of emotionally prepare for a meeting with some people who are a little bit rough around the edges. Oh, something to look forward to. All right. Thanks for chatting this out, soren. That's the podcast.

Yeah. I'm out of steam. Dan, you're a better person than me. Guys, sit down to a compliment couch for just a second. No one on the show. Come on. Come on. I'm trying to get back to work.

When I talk about my son being the best of us, I want him to be like you. Oh, that's too much. It's too much. You're a great person. You're part of what drew me to you when we first started working at our jobs together. or next to one another. You don't want me talk about why I was romantically interested in you?

Well, I think I mean, our podcast has been going for a couple of seasons now and sometimes with shows it hurts when you make the subtext text. I think we let that stay as the thing that sort of bubbles under the surface of every episode.

All right. Well, you're a good heart, Guy. Hey, man. Thanks, everybody for listening to the show. this has been quick question with Sorin and Daniel you already knew that

if you want more of this show can't get enough of it we've got a Patreon that you can subscribe to and there's more shows behind that wall if you like the theme song that's by me Rex

you can find their music anywhere you stream music if you want to watch video version of this podcast you can find that on YouTube if you're not already watching it there and if you like the way

this podcast is cut together you like the cut of its jib that's McKenzie Mizzle and she's got a podcast of her own that you can listen to called Don't Make It Worse. Thank you, everybody, and goodbye. Bye. Two best friends and comedy writers.

If there's an answer, they're going to find it. I think you'll have a great time here. I think you'll have a great time here.