The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - Dealing With Loss: Casey Major-Bunce (Major Mum Hacks)

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

TRIGGER WARNING: On this episode of The Phonebox Podcast Casey Major-Bunce (aka Major Mum Hacks) chats about some difficult issues she experienced with loss growing up as a teenager. She chats candidly about death, suicide, bullying and how she overcame this to become the amazing woman she is today.Go and follow Casey over on instagram here or subscribe to her YouTube channel here.For more of me follow @brummymummyof2 on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok and follow the @phoneboxpodcast account on Instagram for polls and nostalgic fun.If you have any guest suggestions, topics you would like me to cover email [e-mail] and be sure to tag so I can see where you are listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. Of the Phone Box podcast, my name's Emma Conway. How the devil are you? Hope you are well. It's a bit chilly in Birmingham, but the sun is out, which is amazing. Go and follow me on Birmingham Move 2 and direct message me my gosh that's a mouthful and he's put my teeth in direct message me over there um about what the weather's like where you live because I am obsessed and also don't forget the phone box podcast every week does fun polls about 80s 90s and noughties life and talking about noughties life we've got a young'un on the podcast today a today a younger when she said how what year she was 14 I gasped one of the youngest people ever Casey

welcome to the phone box podcast hi yeah thank you for having me repping the noughties life right Casey tell us where we can find you on social media. So I am Casey Major Bunce and my handle is Major Mum Hacks. And that's the same as on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, across the board, Major Mum Hacks. What kind of stuff do you do? Mum hacks.

So I do like mum hacks, tips and tricks, ways to save money, to make like mum life easier. I know people are going to be like, mums, what about dads but obviously I do have a few dads following me but I am a mum audience talk about a lot of women things sort of a lot of my stories and I am for the mums I'm not gonna lie you know and I have

so many sort of like single mums follow me as well and just yeah I've got a really really good community so I've been really really nice i'll leave links in the description and every week if you ever have any you know listen to some of the podcasting they sang guys there's always links in the description to wherever you can find them so do go and check casey out now casey break the news to all my audience when were you 14 so are in 2004 oh no tiny okay i am going to um I am going to guess that you're not going to get the answer to this question right. I don't even know. Okay, what do you think was the biggest number one in 2004? I am going to give you a point if you get any one in the top four right okay 2004 what what so what any number one

any number one um in the top the list of top tens um oh god 2004 that would be oh uh where is the love black eyed peas no that would you know what that was a good song though that was really good so the number one was do you know it's christmas okay band-aid 20 okay fair play could you could be i can't remember any what is alistair griffin bring it on my lover's prayer oh god i don't know no boogie pimps. Somebody to... No, that ain't it. I'm going to start something like Britney. I'm Britney. I don't know. Okay, Franz Ferdinand, Take Me Out.

We know that. Take me out. And then Tupac, So Confused. I don't know any of these. Is Emma reading from the wrong list? Possibly, but I don't know any of these Is Emma reading From the wrong list Possibly But I don't know Any of those songs

No because I'm thinking Because when you're saying that I'm thinking sort of like It would have been like Black Eyed Peas It would have been like Big Bro You know this is big bro bro

Taking over the show Taking over the show Or there was A bit of Asher as well Boogie Pimps Somebody to love I need to I need to listen to it Stop the podcast now everybody And go and listen. Boogie Pimps, Somebody to Love. I need to, I need to listen to it.

Stop the podcast now, everybody, and go and listen to Boogie Pimps, Somebody to Love. The American one makes a bit more sense. There's Yeah with Usher,

Toxic Britney Spears. Yeah. Oh, there's a Britney here. Britney. Lose My Breath by Destiny's Child. How does that go?

Oh no, I was going to sing Charlie's Day. It's not that, I'm over, I'm going to'm gonna get cancer they're gonna be like have you heard her sing literally

you saying that about me singing I literally went to a show before and me and my like nan and that she's quite funny in that but she is like proper old school she does just say how it is and we was at a show and it was like my cousin singing and she kept like she just I kept singing she's like be quiet be quiet and it really I was like nan and then I thought you know

what I had a couple of drinks and I thought right now and I started singing over my brother because I got really drunk and then she and then it's like a running thing now and she went you can't sing so every time I sing now me and my brother always go you can't sing brother cousin you need to be nan i can sing and i'm on a podcast doing it that's it i've been singing nan top films of 2004 i want you to guess one of them and i'll read the top four so top films of 2004 uh oh my god oh my god well it definitely wouldn't have been like titanic or anything Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It definitely wouldn't have been Titanic or anything like that. Would you like a clue?

Yeah, go on. Small people, big feet. Oh, small people, big feet. I'm thinking... Is that a clue? I was like something my daughter would give me when she'd do an ice fight. Small people, big feet. It's in the room. It's in the room. It's in the room.

Oh, God. People at home will be shouting, small people, big feet. That's a flipping good clue. And a ring. Small people, big feet and a ring. Ain't The Ring that scary movie, is it? Oh, Lord of the Rings. Yeah, she got there in the end, yeah.

Oh, my God, I love that film. Yeah, Lord of the Rings. And then it's in number two it? Oh, Lord of the Rings! Yeah, she got there in the end. Oh my God, I love that film. Yeah, Lord of the Rings. And then number two is also Lord of the Rings. Was there two parts, maybe? No, Harry Potter's not in the top four. Number three was A Long Pain Polly. Have you ever seen that with Jennifer Aniston? Yeah, really loved that, actually.

And number four, The Butterfly Effect. Another great film. Oh, yes, that was really actually good. Yeah,, The Butterfly Effect. Another great film. Oh, yes. That was really, actually good. Yeah, that's with... Yeah, really good. Ashton Kutcher. Ashton Kutcher. That was a great film.

So there we go. I don't know any of the songs, and I've also not seen Lord of the Rings. Oh, what? What the hell was I doing in 2004? You're going to have to go back and watch them now, because they're really, really good. Because I wasn't listening to music.

I wasn't watching films. So God knows what I was doing. Okay, so you were're 14 and where did you grow up portsmouth portsmouth what did you have on your wall what was your bedroom like do you know what i actually had like wallpaper flowery wallpaper which i'd had from when i was like three up until about 14. And then I didn't really care, to be honest. And then I had like these girls come around and sleep one time. That wasn't actually really my friends, but they were from another school. And they came around and slept all night. All they were doing is laughing at this flowery wallpaper.

So when they left, I got my mum to change it and do it pink. What a cowbags. Yeah, they were really, my mum mom said they're never sleeping again they really wasn't kind and i was like okay sleeping again what cowbags from the other school from another school they weren't nice they was not nice at all were you allowed posters on your pink walls yeah so i had like a1 bit of blue do you know what i mean you know adam rickett you know it's like when he gets in the shower i hold again when i breathe again oh that one um yeah so I did me add him on the war old Adam Rickett so who was your um crush was Adam Rickett your number one crush or did you like somebody else

I think it was probably blue and it would have been the one with the curtains hey you're a Canadian podcast listener and that makes you important to us blue and it would have been the one with the curtains. Hey, you're a Canadian podcast listener and that makes you important to us. We'd like to know more about you, what you think of this podcast and the other podcasts you'd like to hear. So we put together a super brief survey we'd like you to fill out, complete it and we'll give you a chance to win one of three $100 Amazon gift cards. That way, we can say thanks for your opinion. Just go to mypodcastsurvey.ca and have your say. That's mypodcastsurvey.ca.

With the Fizz loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan. You know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. I'm going to say Duncan.

Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Now, generally, I ask if they knocked on the door now, would you heart flutter? But Duncan, I don't think will knock on your door now. No, he wouldn would not sure he likes the ladies no i don't think he does does it should we go with adam rickett should we go with adam ritty i don't know he really wouldn't he was a coronation street no okay no to adam rickett who would knock on your door and get you excited from that period of history oh god a small person with big feet yeah the little gnomes yeah frodo frodo um he could clean around because he was so small he could clean around like the little

you know what i'll be honest no one no one i'll be honest no I can't think of a single person. No. No, okay. Never fancied Usher or anything like that. Brilliant singer. Now, God, I used to listen to his songs all the time, like over boys that didn't fancy me. But, like, oh, they didn't want me.

But, yeah, no. No one. So you liked Usher. What other kind of music did you like did you like any girl bands or oh Spice now they could knock my door right now and I'd have a lovely cup of tea with them or one oh yeah Spice Girls massive Spice Girls absolutely loved it mum used to do like all my hair like in these like honestly just like had all these little buns all over my head people used to sound like a space alien but I didn't care um me and my mom went to see spice

girls and everything like that absolutely yeah who's your favorite member oh obviously baby spice i was literally oh for my um hen no we did it we did it so we had all the girls we all dressed up as spice girls only one baby spice me obviously and then my brother slash cousin kyle he dressed up as ginger spice proper done the heels the thing did you explain brother slash cousin right so okay very very long but I'm going to give you the really short version of it I'm excited he um me and him are like women like are mega close and but he had a sister um and we were literally three weeks between us me and Elizabeth we were the only daughters of the family me and her we were literally like twin yeah twin sisters we always dress the same always got the same thing she died when she was 13 oh no he was the only brother she had so as soon as she died even though

me and carl were always close i immediately that was it grabbed him you're mine do you know what i mean so even though biologically he is my cousin he's not he's my brother he's my favorite brother i've got another two but he's my favorite and we are so close and like we do everything together well he's actually coming to work for me um full time and we're gonna like film content and things that act together and he's just gonna come and help me because like mentally having him with me will just make a massive difference and it's something we've always wanted to do so it's a weird thing for him like he never ever had another sister after Elizabeth so and like we were always really close always went on holidays together and things like that so and after she sort of died obviously you can imagine it was just awful for the whole family

especially Kyle um so yeah we just made sure that we kept like that together and he's been everything. My maid of honor, he's pen night, you know, we, we literally do everything together. My daughter, my daughters call him auntie Kyle.

So does my 13 year old son. Cause that's what he is. He's auntie Kyle. It's what, it's what my eldest son named him. It was literally, he's just auntie Kyle. And we was like,

okay, we like that. So it's like you're built in bestie as well, isn it it's amazing he's my brother he's my cousin he's my best friend yeah i'm sorry about your cousin i suppose at 14 there might have been quite a difficult time for you yeah that's what i was actually thinking about that as a benchmark like she was alive then at that song but she wasn't alive then because i couldn't think that one that must have been really hard yeah it was really difficult like she had meningitis and we ended up going to like the hospital with her so we were with her for three days when she was on life support and it was absolutely traumatizing

especially like even like for me as a 13 year old like when my eldest son turned 13 on his birthday obviously he never saw me but on his birthday I literally had a breakdown I literally just cried and cried and my husband was like what is the matter I said it's just a triggering age because I I kept looking at him thinking she died that's like you going now but that's also the same time that I watched someone die yeah how like so it's like for me it's both it's sort of both of it so I found it really triggering sort of like when he turned 13 and things and it was absolutely horrendous to the point you know like for the whole family my mum and dad took me up there

they were with us the whole time but they got to the point even where they were like we've got to go home now because this is too much like obviously they had my little brother at home as well and they didn't want to be there anymore because obviously it was their niece we were all so close you know but I refused to go home so I was literally at one point in a hospital for 24 hours pretty much on my own walking around at three o'clock in the morning I remember going down to the cafe and it's been pitch black and just sitting there like yeah oh my god but I was only 13 it's like I imagine looking at looking at your son turning 13 as well when you're 13 you feel kind of grown

up but as an adult looking at a 13 year old they're babies still yeah my 13 year old still looks like a baby I can't imagine her but when you're 13 you don't feel like a baby you don't feel like that yeah you can't imagine them going at that age that's what I always sort of think because it took me years to sort of like think of her from a different like it sort of evolved the griefs evolved over all these years I looked at her like an equal for many years and then now I'm older I look at it from a mum point of view and even though I do still like not see her but I mean I see her as my equal because we were so close we grew up together we did everything together your whole childhood like

gone in like a flash but yeah it is it is a really sort of difficult one and it's sort of it's something I think that's made me like the person I am I would have never been this person I am now you know I was sort of going through school I was getting bullied yeah really nasty like people girls boys everything just absolutely horrendous I was such like a little shy girl worried about everything and it got to the point you know where like obviously that happened to her she died and I I got leery like anyone you know I got leery but not not in a nasty way like I always say that because like I remember I was speaking to like anyone you know I got leery but not not in a nasty way like I always say that because like I remember I was speaking to like my managers before and that about it and I was like

if there was anything bad to come back at me like about me there'd only be ever two things that could come out like on me which would be me having two fights at school both were sticking up for people getting bullied. And one because this girl, she literally found her brother hanging. And the older girls thought it was hilarious to keep asking her exactly what it was like when you found your brother. Which is just horrendous. And I warned them. I warned them several times.

Leave her alone. The girl, the girl love her heart was did have mental problems because who would it find her brother like that awful yeah and you know and it did end up in a in a in a fight a bit of a scuffle yeah and there was someone else that lost her nan and she was getting really bullied there's things that kind of triggered you around losing somebody lost and losing things I can't stand bullies I've never been a bully I've always I've always stuck up for people sort of like who have been outsiders because I have been an outsider and I have been through I've been you know I've been through loss I've seen things and I think when you've seen things and you've you know you've been through that like even I lost her when I was like like I said 13 and then my uncle died when I

was 15 and then when I was 17 I found my nan dead 13. And then my uncle died when I was 15. And then when I was 17, I found my nan dead. Oh my gosh. You know what I mean? And then my great nan, who we were really close to, she only lived next door,

but one time she died in that same week. So one, I found my nan dead on the Monday. And then on the Friday, my other nan died. Yeah. So there's a lot of, I feel like bad,

bad going. Do you want to come on a podcast about being a teenager? And you're like, well, actually it was just quite bad. No, to be honest, it wasn't a great time I'm so sorry you had such loss but it's such a um it's so positive that you got your brother cousin and you built investing and also like you've built this kind of amazing career where you're out there trying to help

other mums as you said like single mums you need a bit of extra help like a little guardian angel so that's you should be very very proud you're kind of yeah you know very positive person okay so school you got in a few scuffles got a few scuffles did you enjoy school overall or were you glad when it was over and you were out of there? Glad when I hated it. Absolutely hate it. I've got really bad dyslexia. Yeah. So writing, reading for me was never my strong point.

It never got really picked up until I was a lot older, sort of roundabout. I think I was sort of like in year six. But then I still didn't, you know, I still didn't know where the capital letters went, where the four stops, where the, you know, exclamation marks and that type of thing. I just just really struggled in school of learning so it wasn't that I didn't try I did try but it's the fact that I just couldn't do it and sometimes you if you can't do something and then people sort of teachers give up on you not all teachers but some then you sort of you sort of think well I'll just be the class clown and I'll have a laugh do you know I mean i'll sort of laugh my way through it because if you know it's the only way to deal with it sometimes and like i said i had a lot of going on in the background as well so i just think it was

a bit of a yeah yeah it was a fun time well i had a good laugh with my friends you know um and that it's so funny now because i'm like to my kids come on you've got to be good in school you've got to try now i was really good in school was your mom yes they shouldn't listen to this podcast then they know but i always say the fact that like i like i'm really i've been really blessed like my children all seem quite quite well academically none of them seem dyslexic so yeah i always say to them you know you're really really lucky that you can read you're really really lucky oh you know I'd love to be able to like don't get me wrong I've taught myself since I left school I can read books I've read Harry Potter I've read Lord of the Rings Twilight um you name it you name them once Twilight I've read it but

so I've taught myself but um yeah no but it's you know, you know, they're good. They're good kids. So that's the main thing. Did you end up going to college or were you like, I'm out of here and I'm just doing a job? Yep. I did floristry. Nice. So yeah, really good. So when I was back in school, the agreement was my dad's brilliant.

Dad's very intelligent and just an amazing man. And he went in school and the agreement was if I agreed to come in four days a week, they'd let me have one day off a week and let me go and do floristry at shop from year nine so that was the agreement to get my attendance up I would come four days a week school and as long as I did that I'd get to go off one day a week on a Wednesday and I'd get to do my floristry and that's what I did so from yeah from year nine I did that left school worked in there worked in um doing uh Wilkinsons for a while worked in Wilkinsons Wilco yeah that's a Wilco stacking shelves I'm sure it was was it not maybe it was and maybe I missed oh i missed well maybe it wasn't maybe it was such a good shot i got sacked what did you do do you want do you want the story yeah yeah i do it's the best story ever

this is the scoop okay right are you ready you're gonna love this right it's like someone covers a movie sketch right so my manager was an arsehole proper proper tour jobs worth and then um he's just he's massive sorry but he was a dick anyway so um always going on about stacking the shelves stacking faster la la la and then um i literally one day stacking the shelves stacking shades i'm a young girl i'm going to college i'm also trying to earn money working. I'm going out with my friends. Not coming in until God knows. I used to start the morning shift from like 4 to 8.

So that's 4 a.m. to 8. I'd go in there half cut sometimes. Of course you would. You're a young girl. Anyway, so I got in there. Stacking shelves. One day, I fell asleep stacking the shelves. I woke up. Shit.

Stacked the shelves quick. Absolutely fine. Two weeks later, it's gone past. I've, like, obviously done it again. And literally, I'll never forget. I'm like that. And I've woke up for, oh, my God. And literally, and, like, oh, it's just a nightmare.

And I had so much to do. I'm running around. I've got to put all these shampoo bottles on there. I'm literally having, like, a meltdown. But I thought thought it's fine job was done at the end got my bag things like that Casey Casey Major can you please come to the um manager's office and I'm like oh and I'm saying to like this girl what's he want now yeah all right so I've gone up there he's like hello I'm like hi he's like um just to let you know we're gonna let you go and I went what he went you're fired and I went why what when I haven't even done anything and he went he said you have and he went watch this

he's got the tv the cctv and he's pressed play that's's not the best. He's fast forwarded it an hour and a half. I am there with this bottle in my hand and I went, I'm just going to go now. An hour and a half of a four hour shift.

Get your head down, Ted. I'll take it from here. was like yeah i'll go straight there yeah i could believe it honestly but it was something out of a and at the time i couldn't see the funny side i was sort of like i've just been sacked from my job and things like you know but now i look back what it's just is i wish that i could have that on camera to show my kids like yeah come look what mum did just an hour and a half film. But that was it. I didn't even move.

I was like, that's gone. It was just fast forwarding it and I thought, will this ever end? And then after you see me go like, I'm like, is that, I said,

is that on a fast play? It's like, no, no, that is your speed. You were going because you had to make your time up. Oh my,

the stuff that you do when you're younger like is a wild isn't it when i think back to like part-time jobs and stuff that are this that you would go on a night you'd go to an all-nighter and then you'd be popping up hanging up t-shirts in next and you just block yeah i know i know have you ever seen that meme where the girl's screaming she's gotta go and work in Tesco's or something. She says she hasn't slept and she's like, how's that?

And I think, I know. We know that feeling. We've done it. We've done it. Okay, so during this time of sometimes having a fight at school and falling asleep in Wilco's,

did you have some fashion faux pas? Was there any outfits that you wore that you were like, I will never wear something like that again? Oh, do you know what? There was a really, there was a a really like there's this beautiful pink Barbie dress and it was beautiful it was silk yeah but every time I bent over everything came out at the back probably one of them and there's and all these heels with it as well and there's pictures of me on Facebook everyone's going to try to add me as a friend now there's pictures on Facebook of me just like laying on floors with it because I just kept falling over these heels were like this big

and I just yeah I fell over about 15 times in one night because it had been cheap heels wouldn't we weren't buying like expensive sturdy heels they were the cheapest they were the kind of heels did you ever have high heels where the metal would poke through the bottom yeah all the time and I still keep them um yeah definitely no yeah probably that was bad that was bad that was bad I used to love like the pineapple tracksuits back in the day like you said like these lovely tracksuits used to be like pineapple and your mum had bought you it and it'd be like the best thing ever and top shop pumps and them types of stuff but yeah no definitely not yeah no definitely that pink dress it's yeah

haunts me even now is there anything you'd wear then that you'd wear now oh I had a really really really nice like black duffer coat and it was and it was gold inside and I had this nice hood and I'd love I wish I'd kept it like sometimes you know you look back on clothes and you think why should I get rid of that i mean i wouldn't have been able to fit in one single thing but maybe my daughter might have i wouldn't know i can't even fit my wedding dress god knows i wouldn't have been able to fit in stuff i wore when i was 18 i would be able to get my finger in it just like right as a walking down the street okay can we talk first snogs I feel like you you will have a good story about first snogs do you know what with them all I haven't really I think my

first snog would have been around my nan and granddad and with a boy called Thomas and I was around about nine so it's a bit of a hussy actually I know um and yeah and it was like it was like my nan and granddad's like best friend's grandson you know what I mean and like yeah I kissed him and then I see him around about seven years later I was mortified how were you he didn't even want to kiss me in the beginning no I was quite a bit pushy you know yeah go on yeah yeah yeah and he didn't really want to do it I'll sort of I'll sort of kissed him do you know I mean he you know to be fair he didn't actually give me any confirmation that he did want to kiss me so bless his heart he's probably gonna write a book on it um but yeah

yeah definitely yeah it definitely was him. But honestly, when I see him a few years later and he was sort of like, and then he was all like nice with me. I thought Betty was glad you kissed me, wasn't you? In the end. Betty was glad, wasn't she? But I was mortified. I just wanted to like, yeah, yeah.

And then was that from nine on, was that just a snog fest? Or did you have a bit of a break? No, definitely really, really, really wasn't. Really, really wasn't. No, definitely. No, I sort of like, I thought it was a bit of a big deal. I don't think I had another kiss until I was probably, I don't know, about 14. Yeah, was that a classic school disco or?

Yeah, no, probably just night out. Just like a few friends and things like that. I wasn't like, you know that I wasn't like you know I wasn't like one of the the girls you know you have like the girls you have like my best mate who's like the girl and she's like beautiful hair she was stunning really like tiny every boy loved her apart from the one boy she absolutely was obsessed with and he just didn't like her but everyone else loved her and then there was me the fat friend that was very much like oh my god you know that type of thing I'm sure it wasn't like that it very much was no it honestly it was it was but I was okay with that

because I was never one to get all the boys and I'm quite happy about that because I honestly did end up with like, I think my husband's a stud muffin. I really do. He's absolutely amazing. Is he on your Instagram? I need to go and have a look. Not really. Oh, yeah, he probably is actually. There is actually.

There's an anniversary wedding one actually up there. Oh, I'm going to do a deep dive on that. But he is really, really tall. He's like muscular. And he's just, do you know what? He's just a prince charm. He's letting me have a pink's just a prince charm he's a no he's he's letting me have a pink kitchen is he that's what i'm saying so he's like a keeper so

are you gonna get a pink smeg yeah probably yeah nice i love it love it but yeah no so it's all pink so yeah no i'm i'm happy that the fact that i wasn't that type of girl and i didn't get a lot of attention you've got your prince charmming in the end, didn't you? I really, really did. And he's the best out of the bunch. What do you think was one of your successes during your school time? Oh, gosh. Or being a teenager in general, what do you think kind of was one of the positive things that came out of it?

I'll answer anything else apart from that. I don't know probably doing my floristry probably getting that I've filled a past with creditations okay um so that was like yeah that was really good but no that's probably about it really yeah well I mean you you survived a pretty traumatic yeah I'm still teenage times yeah so that's like something really positive is I mean you you survived a pretty traumatic yeah I'm still teenage times so that's like something really positive is if there anything you look back on think or wish I hadn't done that um probably about about bringing the mood down I did like I did try to commit suicide twice when I was younger so probably that I mean it's not a highlight is it that to be honest no it's not it's not sort of like something when I sort younger so probably that I mean it's not a highlight is it that to be

honest no it's not it's not sort of like something when I sort of say right I'd really like this job I've committed suicide twice and I didn't succeed um I'm still here though um that that for me yeah that's probably something that probably you know I don't I wouldn't say I do regret it of course I do but at the same time I think you learn from that but apart from that I don't say I do regret it. Of course I do. But at the same time, I think you learn from that. But apart from that, I don't really have any regrets. Apart from that, I don't have any regrets. I think that doing things actually makes the person you are messing up and things like that. And the one thing, hand on my heart, that I can say for 100%

is I've never been nasty, been cruel never never actually I've never actually done like a nasty nasty thing where I think like god if I shouldn't have done it that really yeah that really upset that person and that person didn't deserve that never ever felt like that I never will because I would never do that you know so for me I think that's like the most important thing and I don't regret anything apart from that yeah and those things were like personal to you you weren't hurting anybody else were you no no I did but not not intentionally I didn't do it to hurt I did it because I was in pain myself and I just thought it was best but and then you learn from that as you get older and I just think you learn from that once you've recovered from that type of thing you can actually know the world

is better with me in it and without me so I mean all the people you're helping on a daily basis with your your hacks and stuff it's yeah brilliant isn't it really yeah it really is okay I imagine in 2004 there was a bit of like social media or you had phones at least, did you? Yes, yes, I did have a phone. Did you have MySpace and stuff? No, oh, I had MSN, but on the computer. It was very much MSN, listening to Usher, do you know what I mean? Boys Not Texting You Back, webcam, that type of thing, you know?

So what was MSN? Was MSN like, we've had Sydney come on and talk about MySpace. Was MSN like kind of... So it was just like Facebook Messenger, but on the computer. Yeah, and you'd be able to, like, put all these, like, mental emojis and things like that. Could strangers message you, or was it just your friends? No, just usually your friends.

You used to have something called Habbo, I think it was, which was, like, a little thing that you'd have, like, a little avatar that you'd just go around chatting to your friends. Very weird. And then you'd get all weirdos on that um people start trying to bloody groom you and things like that but no because you used to speak to anyone wouldn't you back then it would be like hello yeah he loves me he's only 12 himself it's like really yeah there was no internet safety or really wasn't in them. It's not like now where I'm just like, can't speak to anybody on anything about anything, you know.

How do you know it's your friend? And they're like, because they literally spoke to me. Could be AI. But it's their face in their house. No, it's made up. Yeah, this is it. It could be a clone. How do you know?

You sort of go over the top, don't you now? I'm the same. So are you glad that you grew up in a time with minimal social media or do you wish you were growing up now with a lot of social media? No, I think I'm happy the way it was. Like less social media. I think it would have been really damaging actually for me to even see even things like on social media the bullying and things that had been really really bad like none of my kids are on social media yeah none of them and how are you going to cope with that when they're older you just can't is it going to be like limits or you're just going to be like that's you're not allowed on it definitely going to be

limits like I said like when they get married I might think about it I might be like right okay you can post that just yeah just gotta cut his grapes up just gotta cut his grapes up do a speech in a minute but just gotta cut his grapes and then you're allowed to post one photo to Facebook but you have to turn the comments off exactly for your honeymoon you can do that but that is it yeah comments off yeah and hide and only let friends and family sit and just the back of your head yeah yeah put like an emoji over his face but no I have said the fact that I think that he can maybe have like Instagram maybe when

he's like 15 yeah my little girl I mean she's not little she's 13 she's not bothered about Instagram at all she hasn't even slightly asked for it I don't know if maybe that's like a an older person's thing yeah maybe I've sort of said if he does do it he's got to change his name he can't have major bunts at the end he just physically he can't because there will just be people that will just quite happily look for him and sort of troll him because obviously he's mine do you know what i mean so that sort of worries me so i've sort of said you'd have to have like a really like weird name that only your friends would know you know you have to do him like a funny profile photo he's got ginger ale after change his air brown yeah yeah yeah or put like a cat up or something yeah yeah yeah yeah it's it's um it's a funny thing isn't it because you want

your kids to be part of something but you're also a little bit scared of them being part of something but but my girl she's not that bothered about social media and I don't she's not really that interested I'm not sure her friends are really I don't know if that might change no and I think you've just got to be careful what you put on like obviously I I do put my children on sometimes you look through my page it's very much just me um I will be occasionally but I always make sure that every I'm quite thoughtful when I do I'll sort of think right if they look back at this in 10 years how would they feel and they're absolutely fine about it I feel that they'd be absolutely fine and like my eldest obviously he can pretty much commit now to what he wants to do and what

he doesn't do you know I mean he's 13 he'll be 14 this year you know and he likes it like girls come up to him and say oh my god is your mum made your mum hacks and he's like yeah i picked him up the other day i was like who's them girls you were talking to he's like no one i went go on who he went they just said oh is your mum made your mum hacks and i was like yeah and they were like waving hi babe come out i'll make you something i'll hack something up babe i just hacked something up you know me um but yeah no it is literally yeah it's crazy and all his mates get up on the on the phone they like google my name now and it comes up like internet personality like yeah this she does this she does this and all his friends like oh look there's aaron when he was three yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah. But he actually loves it.

And it's quite funny because when my Instagram started growing, he was like, I don't want to be on the thing. I don't want to be you doing this. I don't want people stopping us in the street. And now when someone stops on the street, he's like, yeah, yeah, this is my mum. Yeah, you made your mum happy.

Oh, lovely. Yeah, it's nice. So he actually quite likes it. He's like, do you want me in the selfie or just her? Oh, you just want me. Okay, go away, mum. You know, so he's very much like that now oh that's nice okay so if you could go back in time and say something to casey then

what would you say oh um oh god it's a hard one i bet everyone else is like really like positive party vibes no yeah no no no no no we've had people come on who were seriously bullied we had people come on who um were really worried about their their body issues and stuff so you are not like not being a teenager is a really hard time in life and it's not all fun no it's not a nice trainers it can be you know it's nice it's not. And nice trainers. It can be, you know, it's nice. It's kind of nice and interesting to see a different side. I think for me, I would say the fact that you're going to feel better when you're older. You're not going to feel, you're going to understand eventually like who you are and why you do what you do. And you're going to be happy.

So I wouldn't worry about what you're going through now everything will sort itself out eventually because I think for me when I was young I used to think that I was like never going to be happy I was never I was never sort of going to understand who I was and sort of like just I never thought I was going to find anyone that got me or you know I just I thought I suppose I thought I would always sort of suffer with like mental illness which I do don't get me wrong but it's to like a different degree now yeah I'm sort of got an understanding I'm on top of it I know who I am I accept who I am and like yeah I think definitely I would sort of just tell myself that

everything's going to work out okay like can you hear that vibrating? I can, is it your building work? I'm literally like yeah and not even joking like my chair's going you're doing this lovely motivational speech and in the background she's like I just want to thank you for coming on and being so vulnerable and being so open

and honest and like fun I'm going to tell my husband the story about you falling asleep in wilco's wilkinson's whatever it's called so don't um forget to go and check casey out on all the social media where she is i'll leave a link in the description and guys thanks so much for listening to another episode of the phone box podcast i will be back and please go and leave a little review um five stars we only really want five stars around these parts so if you if you don't want to leave five stars just please don't leave anything yeah go away right guys i will see you next week for another episode thanks so much for coming on casey see you later bye

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