The Gag is… Podcast
The GAG is" is a powerful podcast that takes you on a journey through the life of a remarkable black woman who defied the odds. Charli Shanta became a teen mom and a widow by 21. Now in her mid 30’s life has been unpredictable, she’s faced unimaginable adversity yet she's never given up. Join Charli as she shares her inspiring story, offering a message of resilience and hope even if it isn’t always perfect. Discover that even in the darkest times there are better days ahead. Laughter can always follow tears.
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The Gag is… Podcast
Kids, Camps, and Climbing Utility Bills: A Parent's Summer Reality
Summer brings unique challenges for parents as they navigate planning activities, managing increased expenses, and keeping kids constructively occupied during the break. From sports commitments that don't pause for summer to the mysterious phenomenon of children who suddenly develop insatiable appetites the moment school ends, this episode tackles the realities of summer parenting with humor and practical advice.
• Summer sports programs can provide structure but require significant time and energy from parents
• Summer camps offer engagement but require early registration (February/March) and budget planning with costs ranging dramatically
• Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCAs often provide affordable summer programming with scholarships available
• Teen employment opportunities (available from age 14 in many areas) teach valuable life and communication skills
• Many counties offer special career and leadership programs for teens paying $10-15 hourly
• Free or low-cost academic enrichment programs can prevent "summer slide" in critical subjects like reading and math
• Children's increased appetite during summer often stems from boredom rather than actual hunger
• Setting clear expectations about meals and snacks helps manage the summer food budget
• Utility bills may increase unexpectedly—review statements carefully and challenge questionable charges
• Document meter readings and be prepared to advocate when utility companies estimate rather than read meters
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Hey guys, welcome back to the Gag Is Pod. I am your girl, charli Shante. Thank you for joining me on another episode. If you're listening to this, then it's a new episode and that means it's Friday, or you know, sometimes y'all don't always listen on a Friday. Whatever day you're listening, thank you for being here and let's go ahead and get this thing jumped off. But before we do that, make sure that you're liking and subscribing. I see y'all listening, but I don't see y'all downloading, and the downloads is where it counts for me. So I would appreciate if, instead of just listening, you download it and make sure you subscribe so that whenever there's a new episode that comes out, you're one of the first to know. Because, guess what? When it comes out, it's going to automatically be on whatever podcast app you're listening on, and you ain't got to do nothing extra. All you got to do is just go in there and hit play. Make sure you're following us on IG, at TheGagIsPot and YouTube as well. And, yeah, go ahead and grab your drink, grab your snack or whatever it is that you grab, and turn this up in a car if you listen in the car. And let's go ahead and get started.
Speaker 1:I cannot believe that school is getting ready. How did we get here? I feel like school just started and I feel like I was just doing an episode about back to school, which was my biggest episode last year. So I'm definitely definitely going to have to put some time and some logistics into that episode, because y'all really, really love that episode. So I gotta make sure that I start planning that out now, um, and getting everything together for that. That way I can put it out early, that way y'all can listen to it and then you know, um, just be ahead of the game a little bit so y'all can see how Charlie do things in her house. But I cannot believe that school is getting ready to be over, like OMG, how do we get here?
Speaker 1:I have a child who is going to be a sophomore in high school and he does dual enrollment. So he's kind of still in his freshman year of college because they take classes slowly. And he does dual enrollment, so he's kind of still in his freshman year of college because they take classes slowly, like he doesn't take a full load. So I say he in his second semester of his freshman year of college. Well, he's going into it and I am just, I don't know. I don't know. I have all the feels and then some. So you know there's a little bit more, a few more days left of school. You know some testing and everything going on, so we're not quite there yet, but yeah.
Speaker 1:So today we're going to talk about you know it's summertime, like what do we do over the summer? Summer expectations, you know feed these kids. You know electricity, water bill, all the bills, all the feels. That's what we're going to talk about today, because I know y'all going to relate. I know y'all going to relate and you know I'm going to hit the nail on the head.
Speaker 1:I had to think for a second. I was like, well, how does that saying go hit the nail on the head? Okay, so the first thing I want to talk about is what are we doing when we get out of school? Because I'm gonna say that food for last, because that's that could actually be a whole episode in itself. But you know, I just throw it in this one.
Speaker 1:But what are you going to do? Are you going to do vacations? Are the kids going to do some school enrichment? Are they going to go to camp? Are they going to do programs? So let's just talk about some ideas. So everybody's going to be different.
Speaker 1:This is not a one size fits all. I hate when y'all be at me about that's not everybody. I ain't saying it was for everybody. This is just the stuff that I do. You can like it, you can love it, you can pass it along. You could just not do none of that. You just continue to be a hater. Whatever, it don't matter to me. Thank you for the listen, but a lot of times you know, kids have sports and they do stuff like that.
Speaker 1:I this year for our summer. Our summer is a little more relaxed this summer because, if you remember, new faces coming off of an injury and so he's been in, he's been rehabbing and physical therapy for the past five months. It's finally coming, going to come to an end next month so he can be back. Actually, in a couple of weeks he's going to be competing back for the first time. We didn't think that he was going to get to compete this summer. Well, he's not going to go to the big junior Olympics, he's not going to go to that but we were unsure if we was going to get the chance to compete at any of like the local meets or anything like that. But I'm happy that he's going to get to do one this summer just to kind of see where he's at. I know he's not going to be 100% when he gets out there. I know he's not going to have his good best time, but he told me he's ready to get back out there. The coach has approved it, so we're going to do that.
Speaker 1:So his summer is going to be basically doing swim and doing his sport and kind of like building his endurance up and, you know, getting things tailored and getting things together for um, for the season to start in August. Um, it, it. It kind of takes. It takes up a lot of time, but not a lot of bad time. Where he swims at I love, love, love. Where he swims at the club that he swims for, because their schedule is very flexible. They have morning practice and they have afternoon practice. The level that he's on, he's only required to do one. So we can either do morning or we're going to do afternoon and we're going to do a mixture of that. And then, when he doesn't do that he does, he goes to the gym for what we in the swim world is called dry land but the regular world is called working out. So we go to the gym and me and him we do some of that kind of stuff and then he does have a trainer at the gym kind of help him get a little bit stronger. So you know that, so he can kind of get faster and have better endurance.
Speaker 1:And I know a lot of parents during the summer this is like their break from sports. And then you do have some sports, especially kids that play football, and I'm not sure, I'm not real sure what other sports practice over the summer. I know swim does they start in like July, I think, cheer and different stuff like that. So you know sports, some people don't get a summer. Families don't get a summer because of sports, which is okay, you know, because they're doing something. The kids are not sitting idle. I strongly, strongly, this is just me, don't at me, don't come for me. I just don't like it when kids sit idle over to someone. So if they're doing something, you know I'm good, I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1:Now this year New Face is old enough to work, so he did apply for a job. I'm so proud of my baby so he's like I can do sports and work at the same time and I was like, all right, cool, you know, but I'm not pressuring him to do anything else because he is doing his sport, so I'm not going to be like, well, you got to go do this, you got to do that, I do, well'll get to that in um in the next segment, but that's pretty much all that he's going to do. So shout out to all the year-round parents that that do sports year-round, like we goaded for real because we tired, we tired, but to see the look and the smile on our kids faces like I wouldn't trade, like new faces. Look for the world. It'd be hot out there because it's swim Y'all. They got bleaches, but it's outside, it ain't air conditioned. And even when they swim in the places that's inside, it ain't air conditioned because the water can't get cold, and then you had a chlorine fumes. So ain't no cool rest and relaxation in swim. It's hot, it's hot as hell. So water, just plenty of water, but that's for another time.
Speaker 1:The second thing that you can do with your kids during the summer is and this is for older kids, I'll just go ahead and kind of tie it into the both. They have summer camps for kids and what I've learned is you, when it comes to these summer camps, you got to it's May. You got to start jumping on these summer camps in like February, march timeframe because they fill up so freaking fast. And then you also got to save for them because they are so expensive, like in addition to swim, like I wanted to put New Face in like a camp by where I work and I was like, oh my God, this is what he wants to major in in college and they have like a college course thing or whatever. I think it would be good for him, y'all for 10 days. Was it 10 days For him to go for 10 days? I want to say it was like $2,900. For 10 days. I can't justify that cost.
Speaker 1:Now, when it comes to summer camps, I always keep a budget. I always have a budget in mind. I'm not going to spend over X amount of dollars, especially the time and the cost. It got to make sense because this camp costs $2,900. It don't include food, it's not all day, they don't include transportation. No, I mean, there's not to say that the person that's teaching it shouldn't be compensated, but if you have, if they're going for 10 days and the max is 25 kids at $2,900, that's a lot of money Like you trying to pay these people like a year salary in like a month, like that's not, that's not no. So you know you got to start looking at these summer camps early.
Speaker 1:And then also, one of the biggest um things you do like there's the boys and girls club. I'm not sure how big they are now because I haven't been since I was a kid. New Face has never been, so I'm not even sure how they even operate. But I know when I was growing up the Boys and Girls Club used to be lit during the summer. Me and my brothers, we used to walk to the Boys and Girls Club and it used to be lit. Walk to the Boys and Girls Club, it used to be lit. So just check your local area, see what the Boys and Girls Club has to offer.
Speaker 1:Another alternative will be the YMCA. I know in most areas there is a YMCA. You can go look at that. They have plenty of programs. I'm starting to see swim programs pop up at these different places to try to combat childhood drowning and teach swim safety schools. So Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA are two good options for, if for, and I believe that they're pretty low cost compared to some of the other camps that I see. I feel like the Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA are pretty low cost depending on your financial situation. I know they do offer scholarships and different stuff like that for your child to attend If you need a little assistance with sending your child to a summer camp while you work.
Speaker 1:And now for my older kids where I live I'm not sure if it's like this across the whole United States or, however, at 14, kids can work at certain places I know, like grocery stores. They can work as baggers and different stuff like that. The hours may be limited but they are still able to work. This is a good option if you want your child to get like some good real world experience over the summer. Just show them like how to be out and you know how to effectively communicate with people outside of their normal realm of people that they see the people that they see at normal realm of people, that they see the people that they see at school, the people that they see at sports or have you. It gives them an opportunity to interact with different people on a different level. It also is an opportunity to showcase that they're able to work, be effective not leadership, but to just kind of start establishing their self out there.
Speaker 1:Where I live in Hillsborough County, florida, there are programs. Now, I don't the programs that I'm speaking on are specific to where I live. You will definitely have to check out where you live to see what kind of programs they offer. But I know in the county I live in I got a flyer a few weeks back but they have career opportunities for kids that are between 14 to 21, and it's only 21. If your child has a developmental delay they're autistic or something like that they give them the ability to still work and make money. I've seen a couple of programs. They had like a leadership program where the kids would make like $300 a week or something like that and it runs for like six weeks. So you know, put a little bit of money in their pocket. Over the summer they have the opportunity to go and be like a lifeguard or something, learn CPR training skills. They have the opportunity to go and help facilitate at a youth camp that's put on by the city and make some money like that. They do also, from what I've seen, have other programs that are a little bit more intense for those that are like 16 to 18.
Speaker 1:You can work with the city, working in like an administrative building, learning administrative skills, or they have like classes for like welding or learning computers or just different stuff like that. I think I've seen something where you can go work at a community center with aging population services. You can make like 12 bucks an hour doing that. There are a lot of different opportunities out there. Unfortunately, these opportunities get missed very often because we like to. We like stuff brought to us. Like if you don't put it in my face, I don't sometimes you have to go look for this stuff.
Speaker 1:And one thing that I like here is when your child is enrolled in school here, if you sign up for email notifications, they'll send you flyers through your email and it advertises this stuff. You know. You just have to take like three, four minutes out your day when you get the email and just kind of look through, because there are a lot of programs. They do have income-based programs. So if you see that your child wants to attend this or you think that would be beneficial, look at those newsletters because it gives you so much information and a lot of time I always go back at the end of the summer and look at how many of those scholarships were underutilized because people did not use them, because either they didn't know about them or they registered too late or whatever the case may be. You just got to do just a little bit of research, just a little bit of red legwork.
Speaker 1:It can be very rewarding for you, your children. It's the opportunity for them to make friends, for them to branch out and, like I said, get to know people. That's outside of their network. One thing they do do here I think they still do, I have to check into it but during the summer, like, all the kids get student IDs and they're able to ride the city bus for free, and riding the city bus like they can go to the mall, and riding a city bus, like they can go to the mall. It has a, they have a hub right where, like if you live where I live, then you can go, catch the bus and go to the hub and, you know, take it around town and stuff like that, as long as you have your student ID. And then, like a certain period, like when school starts to pick back up and stuff, you know they may change a little fee. It might be 25 cent or something like that, or you can get like a little unlimited punch card for the summer, um, and different things as such, but there's so much out there. People just have to, kind of, like I said, you kind of got to do the legwork and I know for the littles, for like I think it's five and under or something like that, we have the zoo here, they have programs, bush gardens, there's programs where you can go and the kids can learn about the animals and they could just have different types of fun. And last but certainly, I got to watch my time.
Speaker 1:Lastly, but certainly not least, academically, kids lose so much of their knowledge over the summer. I forget the I forget the term that they use, for my kids lose a little, you know, playing a little bit too many video games. They lose a little bit of knowledge over the summer. I think it's called like summer gap, summer lapse or something like that. They lose a little bit of that over the summer, you know, and no fault of their own, you know, it's just. You know you don't use it, you lose it.
Speaker 1:There are many, many programs out there, parents. There are so many programs out there If your child was struggling during the school year. There are reading programs. There are math programs out there that are free and if they are not free, they have scholarships available, they have funding available or they're very low cost, like $10, $15. There are programs out there, from what I've seen, from pre-K to eighth grade, to help with math and reading, which are the two subjects that kids struggle in the most, which are the two subjects that kids struggle in the most. Parents, I beg of you, please, if your child is struggling or has struggled, please utilize these programs. They are amazing programs. They can help your child succeed. You can take the summer and help them to bridge the gap and give them a leg up for the next school year.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, as parents, we don't intervene in our children's education until it becomes a problem and they're already behind. I know during the summer you've ripped and ran for 10 months getting these babies to school, getting them, picking them up from school. I do know you're tired, but I'm never too tired for my child's education and if I got to take four weeks out the summer to make sure that my child goes to get the help that they need so that they can be successful going forward. I'm going to do it. Am I going to complain? Probably, but I know I'm going to complain more if I go talk to my child's teacher during the school year and find out that my child is behind and my child is struggling in real time. He he's good in math, but he's not. He's not behind, but he could use a little extra work.
Speaker 1:And so me and him talked about it already, we already talked about you know, there are many, many things online that you can utilize, many little mini stuff like self-paced kind of things, um, that you can do, and you know, kind of like an introduction and stuff like that. I mean we got to give our kids the best chance, the best fighting chance, regardless, because we want our kids to succeed, and sometimes it's an inconvenience, but we have to do it to allow our children to succeed. And last, I think I said this already, last but not least, I think I said it like already, but I'm gonna say it again Cause, last but not least, we finna talk about what we finna do. Lord, I just, it just infuriates me when I get ready to talk about we're going to talk about these kids and this food. Okay, we're going to talk about it because it seemed like on the last day of school, these kids summer stomach come on and I'll be like oh my God, you are not that hungry. Because here's my say, this is my mind frame how, now, them 10 months you was in school, you wasn't this hungry. So how, all of a sudden, you just hungry.
Speaker 1:So my rationale is I don't change how I grocery shop for the summer compared to the rest of the year. Because why? Because kids at home all day and they bored and they gonna eat. They be like oh we got gummy bears, oh, I'm gonna go get some gummy. Oh, we got beef jerky, so I'm gonna get some. Oh, we got juice box, oh, I'm gonna go get that.
Speaker 1:You can't eat what you ain't. You can don't see, you can't eat what we ain't got. So, yes, we got the three meals breakfast, lunch and dinner and then you can either have a morning snack or afternoon snack. You're not getting no. Breakfast snack, lunch snack, dinner potential snack. We're not, finna, do that. You're not that hungry. What was you fasting during the school year and now you're trying to make it up during the summer? No, we're not, finna, do that. We're going to keep this same food going. No, you're not that hungry, you hungry. Drink some water. Because guess what Water hunger can be? Dehydration. Okay, so drink some water, see if it kill your hunger. You're not that hungry. Okay, I promise you you're not that hungry. Okay, I promise you you're not that hungry.
Speaker 1:Then they get picky. I'll be like, well, if you're hungry, eat a peanut butter. Jelly, say, I want a peanut butter, just well, you ain't hungry. Then you, you won't like can we go to zaxby's? Can we go to mcdonald's? No, because if you're hungry, you're gonna eat some sensible food, you know. No, we can't go to zaxby's or mcdonald's, but there's some uncrustables in here. We got grape, because if you're hungry, you're going to eat some sensible food. No, no, we can't go to Zaxby's or McDonald's, but there's some Uncrustables in here. We got grape and we got strawberry. Like, yeah, mm-hmm, you're not that hungry.
Speaker 1:I don't know what to tell you. Drink some water, gatorade. I don't know what to tell you Because I ain't finna go, I ain't finna. Buy no extra so that you can eat it up tomorrow. Not finna, do that homie, not finna, do that. And to close this thing out, I actually have a. You cannot make this up and parents, this is for you.
Speaker 1:Now, most of the time I don't get paper bills right. Send me an electric bill, I mean, email it to me, you know what I'm saying. Give me a paperless billing. And so most of my bills are pretty constant. My light bill run pretty much the same, my water bill run the same. So a couple months ago I get my water bill and I was like damn, my water bill high. Now my water bill run about $60, $65. That's about average.
Speaker 1:I got my water bill a couple months ago and it was $140. I was like damn. And I was like, ok, I ain't think nothing of it, because I have a pool and I was putting water back in the pool and I left it on overnight. So it was running for about six, seven good hours. So I said you know what I said, this is my fault because I left the water running. So you know it's a fluke. And then I was like, but dang, when you filled up the pool and you left it running for 17 hours, your bill was $140. And that's when you filled up the pool. If you left the pool, something ain't right. I was just like I'm going to pay anyway. I ain't finna argue.
Speaker 1:I got my bill the next month. Then I was like, okay, do I have a leak? I was like hopefully I don't have no leak. Then the next month my bill was real low $54. I was like real low, like $54. And I was like, oh, okay, cool, like we back to where we need to be Cool, cool, cool.
Speaker 1:So the other day I guess, my bill, my bill $140. And I was like ain't no way. I was like ain't no way that this bill is this high, like this is crazy. So I called the water company. I said ma'am. I said I ain't got no leaks. I ain't filling up no pool. Ain't nobody stealing my water. Ma'am, y'all got to come out here.
Speaker 1:I said because I don't think y'all are reading the meters. And I said I would hate to go back through my camera 30 days on my camera to verify that y'all read the meter. I said ma'am. I said there's no way they're reading the meter, absolutely no way they're reading the meter. I said because I said you can go back in the entire time I lived in this house that I've never used this much water and she's like well, I don't know, and just nasty. So she was like we'll send somebody out. So they sent somebody out here early this week. I said okay. So then I got the little tag and I was looking at it and I said okay. I said, well, this is, this seemed like positive news.
Speaker 1:So I called the lady and I got a very nice letter. She was like well, this is what this means. And she said well, this is an erroneous bill man, I'm already aware of that. And I said I can tell you that they didn't come check the meter. I said I have cameras and she's like you know. And I said well, how do we?
Speaker 1:So, long story short, they didn't read the meter. Didn't take Stevie Wonder to see that. So what happens was? She told me how to read the meter and then how they get the number that they get to. Well, she told me how to read the meter and then how they get the number that they get to. And she said, you know, based on because they give you the current reading from the day when they came out. She said, well, based on this. She said you know you're going to fall within your normal range, so whatever. So say, for instance, it's a 15. Right, in the next month they come out and read it, they say, okay, that's gonna give me a normal bill, so say it's at 30. Now they don't come out. And then the next time they come out and read it it's a 65. Well, that 30 to 6, that 65 minus 30 is how much water I've used, but for two months instead of one month because they didn't read the meter, which is going to generate a higher bill.
Speaker 1:And I said well, ma'am, how do we prevent this? And she was like well, you can go out there and read the meter. And I said well, why I got to do all that? That's your job. And I said it sucks that y'all are dishonest. I said because what if I was on a fixed income? So I don't mind paying the bill because I use the water, but you're pretty much making me every other month, you're making me pay double my bill, which is not okay. And I said that's fine, ma'am. I said because I have cameras. And I said I'll start going out there taking a picture of the meter myself and um, and keeping track, like that. And I said so, please understand that I'm filing a complaint. I said because this is dishonest.
Speaker 1:And so what I do this morning? I go across the street and talk to my neighbor. He said I was wondering why my water bill was real high. I said go ahead and call him. I said they didn't come out and read the meters. He was like thank you. And I was like because that's not right, that that's very dishonest.
Speaker 1:So my takeaway from that is, even if you have your bills on automatic draft because the water bill is on automatic draft um, check your bill. And the only reason why I unfolded it and looked at it because when I looked at how much was due, it was, it was crazy. And when I tell you it's four people in my house we have three bathrooms, we wash clothes, we clean, we bathe, so you know it ain't like we're not using water, we using water. And and I told him, I was like because he said it's just him and his wife. And he said they water bill was like almost two hundred dollars. And I was like that's crazy. He said they water bill was like almost $200. And I was like that's crazy. So, um, check out bills. That's my takeaway. Um, check y'all bills. And yeah, start holding these people accountable, because now y'all like y'all, y'all crazy. So, but but that joke will be riding around here early in the morning four, four, 35 o'clock in the morning trying to see who using a sprinkler system on a day that ain't supposed to, but you can't get out and check the meter.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, got something for you, cause every month I'm be down there calling show is all right, so let's go ahead and get up out of here. Please remember. If you're not already, please make sure you are following and subscribing. Um, make sure you go. Whatever platform that you're not already. Please make sure you are following and subscribing. Make sure you go whatever platform that you're listening to this on. Make sure you go on the top right-hand corner. Hit that plus sign or that check mark or whatever it is, so that you can get every new episode when it is released. Make sure you are following us on IG, at TheGagIsPod and YouTube as well at TheGagIsPod, and if you are interested in doing any business or want to be a guest on the show or have an idea, please hit us at thegaggispod, at gmailcom. I am your girl, charlee Chante. This is the gaggispod. Bye, guys.
