The Real Mom Hub

Episode 37: Dads Are Rad (and we're so grateful for them)

Cally and Emily O'Leary

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Ready for some dad appreciation with a side of chaos? We're debriefing on the dads closest to us - from the intentional parenting that shaped us into strong women to the hilariously unhinged adventures that became our family legends. If you've ever wondered how and if dads influence the partners we choose or need a good laugh about gender roles in modern parenting, this one's for you. Fair warning: involves controlled burns & illegal moonshine purchases.

Main Topics & Discussion

The Ripple Effect: Why Good Dads are Crucial

What happens when you grow up with an exceptional dad? We unpack something we call "automatic standards" - those invisible relationship guidelines we didn't even know we had until we started dating. 

Here's a plot twist: neither of us actually married men who are super similar to our dad. But so far, the O'Leary sisters have yet to date a fishhole. So what's the real secret sauce behind avoiding dating walking 'red flags'? You'll have to listen to get our theory. 

Navigating Fatherhood in Modern Marriages

Okay, let's talk about a hot topic popping up in most millennial & Gen Z marriages: the mental load. We grew up watching our mom assume the mental load while Dad had sole responsibility of bread winning. They were an incredible team, but, from where we sat, pretty much stayed in their respective lanes. Fast forward to our own marriages where we expect equal partnership in running a household.

Women are fighting for equal opportunity & recognition in the public sphere & are asking men to step up in the private sphere. But millennial men haven't had the multi-generational training in household management that most women aren't even aware we've received. It's a big gap we're asking them to bridge & we're grateful to the dads intent on delivering.

Mark O'Leary: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

What do you get when you mix an adventurous dad with questionable (or decidedly zero) forethought? The kind of childhood memories that make our old man larger than life & still cause us to bust a gut.

We're talking about the time our dad decided burning the entire lawn was easier than raking leaves. Or when a simple skiing lesson turned into being manhandled onto a chairlift with zero preparation. And don't even get

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Host & Show Info

Hosted by: Cally & Emily O’Leary

About the Hosts: We’re real moms and real sisters. We may look and sound alike, but our motherhood journeys are uniquely ours. We all do Motherhood differently, and thank goodness for that. Let’s learn and grow together.

Podcast Website: https://therealmomhub.com/

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Hi. Hello.

(...)

How are you?(...) I'm great. My kid's sleeping right now. You're dressed like The Rock. Life is good. Okay, it's

a black t-shirt. I don't know what to tell you.

I wear-- She has a gold chain over the black t-shirt. It's under-- It was over when we started.

I just never take this off. It's just my normal every day. Oh my God.

(...)

It's from Grandma. It makes me feel closer. I don't look like The Rock.

(...)

All right, what are you loving about motherhood? Wait, before. Let's tell people what we're going to be talking about.

Oh, sure.

We're going to be talking about dads today.

because dads are rad. They are.

We have so many to celebrate.

We have so many good dads to celebrate, which is amazing.(...) Also, I think increasingly about single moms. Oh, man.

Are you kidding me? A single dad? How do you do this? I know. It's incredible, actually. It blows my mind.

Thanks

for being you. Thanks for being

Before we dive into it, what are you loving about parenting this week?

(...) This is really funny, but it makes a big difference. Nora just turned two and we flipped her car seat to be front facing.

(...)

Let me tell you, it is a game changer. Not only does she look so flipping cute. She just is really cute. She's just really cute, but her little self, like in air quotes, big girl car seat. It's the same car seat just flipped around. She just says just. She looks extra small and she's so cute.

Love it.

Love it. How about you?

(...)

We've been baking a lot.(...) He just loves getting the big stuff sold out and just dumping things in. He's gotten really good at whisking inside the bowl most of the time. Oh, wow. He's so into eggs. Yes. He can now get into the fridge by himself and actually access every single one of the shelves because he's good at climbing, which is horrifying. If you don't get to him in time, he's already in the top shelf and his favorite thing to do. He's done this in the morning sometimes. He'll just show up at my bedside with an egg, like a rye.

(...)

He's obsessed with getting eggs to crack.(...) It's so heavy. If you don't catch him in time, he will also get out a bowl and crack the egg in the bowl.

That's so cute.

He's obsessed with food like his mama. Good. Yes, he should be.(...) He's also going to know how to cook by the time he's three.

(...) Yes, incredible.

Yes, here we are. Good work. Thank you.

(...)

What's hard? What's hard about mothering this week?

(...)

It's been really rainy.(...) Again, kind of a lame answer, but when you're stuck inside, very different world. Love the summer. We have a fenced-in backyard. Love to just let them out with the dog.

Just know that they're outside getting so dirty and it's fine.

Yes, how about you?

My little mama heart, for listeners, no, I'm a fresh mom. My kid's 22 months will be too shortly. Haven't been in the game that long.

My mama heart just got totally shattered last week.

We had a road trip and we're staying at a hotel in St. Louis. We went out to the pool one day.(...) At the pool, there were these two little kids. I'm going to be honest, they were just pretty bratty. It was maybe like a four-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy. They had a mountain of toys,(...) screens, all of the bad processed snacks, and a caretaker who I think was their grandma, who I did not appreciate the way that she was speaking to these children.(...)

this is all apparent within the first 30 seconds. Kieran is just so obsessed with small people. He just loves small people. They had a ball and he just wanted to go play with the ball. He was so excited. He was like, "Ball, ball, mama, ball, ball, mama." I was like, "Oh, you know, that's the kid's toys.(...) They're playing with it." My grandma was like, "Oh, share, guys. He can play with it." I'm like, "Okay."

(...)

The kids are just deadpan. I don't think I saw him smile once.

(...)

Kieran's playing with the ball. He's so excited to play with this ball. He's even more excited to show the girl the ball.(...) He just goes up to her and he's offering it to her like a little gift. Like a little baby bird.

She just deadpan and just frowned at him and just took the ball.

How sad for everybody because what happened that those kids aren't charmed? By

and Kieran had no-- He was just like, "Okay." Then just kept going up to her and just slowly waving. Like slowly waving. Oh, my gosh. That's really when my heart broke.

Yeah, it was-- I had to leave.

Kieran was just so sweet and curious the whole time. I'm just like, "Baby boy."

(...)

Yeah, and now that it makes the situation any easier but a great start to those learning moments of teaching him that people will be like that and he can still

loving and happy. He still has good attachment.

For the rest of my life, right?

(...)

Mean people at every phase in life.

(...) Charlie's obsessed right now with the idea of bad guys. He was sure there weren't bad guys in Wisconsin.

(...)

That's been his thing this week. But my mother are not bad guys in Wisconsin.

Not in Wisconsin, Charlie. No.

(...) They really are.(...) They really are.

(...)

We're driving today and he goes,

there bad guys in the woods?" That one was at least easier. Honestly, not usually. The woods are pretty safe.

Yeah, generally. Depending on the woods, but any woods you take him to.

I'm trying to just teach him life skills. I finally had to explain that's why you can't go in the front by yourself. Because yes, there are bad guys. They're not generally here, but they could be. That's why I need to be there. He'd step he needs to learn.(...) I'm glad it's with me and not somebody else, but still jarring to have that conversation. Yeah.

(...)

So much uncomfortable growth as a mother. You can't stop, but also give me more. What is this? I'm not sure.

Anyways, we're talking about dad's.

Can we just say, "Thank God we're not in the heartache alone?" Yes.

You know what? Sometimes when I have problems with fishholes as an adult,

(...)

here in medical, official kids, it happens.

(...)

It happens. I kind of often call my dad about it.

Because he's very good at boundaries.

He's very good at clearly adding clarity to a situation,

(...)

talking about the boundaries,

love and compassion, cut and dry. And like, was it your problem?

Because if it's your problem, you should fix it. Oh, yeah. I'm not going to whine at my dad. That's just not. And if it's not your problem,

walk away and stop whining at me. Like, remove yourself from the situation. I even remember with bad teachers growing up, you're like, "Well, did you do your work? Did you do such and such and such?" Yes. Okay. Well,

still need to pass the class. Yeah. You'll have great teachers in college. You're fine. Move on.(...) Yeah. I love it.

this first part, as you might be able to tell, might be a bit of an ode to Mark O'Leary, our father.

It could be. We're going to see. But either way, we're going to talk about our dad.

Lots of gratitude there. We're going to talk about our husbands,

(...)

the new dads on the block.

come along. Learn some things.

(...)

Judge us. Laugh a little.

Well, I think we're just going to acknowledge right off the bat like we had an amazing dad. Yeah. And that has also affected, I think, greatly the men that we have married. Yeah. And so hopefully this is going to be, A, just like us celebrating good men, because I think we need more of that. Absolutely. We need more of celebrating good women, good moms, good dads.

(...)

Do we all just need to party a little more? I think we do. So we're going to start with that.

And also just acknowledging, like, hopefully there's some takeaway. Because I love reading a novel about a really good mom. You know, or I love reading a novel about an amazing grandma and being like, I want to be like that. Yeah. So hopefully you can see that. So hopefully it can be just a feel good.

Here's some takeaways kind of episode.

Love it.

OK, let's start in coming in hot here. Our dad.

He's got four kids. They are all female. He has four daughters, which that concept terrifies me as I am a woman. And that is terrifying to me

have really. Really. Yeah, he's phenomenal.

But and many will say, thank God. Can you imagine if he had sons, the house would have been burnt. I don't know. No, somebody wouldn't have survived. So we do damage.

(...) Yeah, it would have been. Yeah. So, you know,

the universe unfolds as it should.

But OK, so the four of us have all dated actively.

(...)

Three of us are married and

have yet to date official. Any one of us, we have yet to date

man who treated us poorly or was just generally a degenerate or delinquent in any way.

(...) Yeah. And the really shocking thing is we were talking about that is I wouldn't say that three of us are married out of the four. I wouldn't say that any three of us have married people who are a lot like our dad.

Yeah, that's true. Because some people will say, yeah, you marry your dad. I'm like, I don't know.

Right.

obviously, there's some like core thing that we were attracted to because we were raised with it.

That must have just like been a guideline.

Well, we had automatic standards that I don't think we even could have defined. I still can't. Yeah. But I have a certain standard for how I expect a man to treat me. And that comes from the way he treated us growing up, but also the way he treated mom the way they modeled marriage for us.

(...)

So for me, if that standards not being met, even I think I'm thinking back to previous situations,

even if I couldn't put it into words, I couldn't really put it my finger on it. If it made me feel a certain way.

He's out. I'm done.

Mm

And there's just some sense of like great familial loyalty. Yeah, like even, you know, within like our husbands, like the sons in laws for sure have their own little thing going with each other like they're in this. Yeah. Yeah. We are married to a leery women. Yeah. We're going to survive this together.

(...)

So shout out to Mark.

Shout out to all the girl dads also.

(...)

How are you treating your wives? Are they the queens of your good? Because your daughters are watching.

(...)

Really,

So we had a really charmed existence. Obviously we also have problems like we've had our fair share of temper tantrums and arguments with our dad. We've had our fair share of problems that we've worked through. Like this is not a picture perfect life because no one has that. Right.(...) However, overall, just so grateful and so much value that we still hold in our life from this passed on to us from our dad.

what's really interesting to me is that

think for both of our parents, I have this level of

quite reverence, but a little bit just so much appreciation for their intentionality and their parenting and how they did things. I aspire to a lot of the things they gave us in their parenting. However,

my expectations for my day to day with Kyle are pretty different.

Mm-hmm.

And that makes sense. I mean, I feel the same way, but also expectations for us are different.

(...)

Right. So expectations for them have to be different, right?

Which is a gift because we keep progressing as women. I love that societal norms are shifting and that there are more ways than ever to be a woman in this world, which means the same.

There have to be more ways to be a man.

True for men. Yes. And it's a little messy figuring that out. It's a little messy to be in flux, which is really what I think we are in terms of gender roles and in terms of how the traditional family structure looks and works in 2025.

(...)

interesting holding both, right? Like what I loved or what I didn't for my childhood and my expectations for my husband and my current parenting journey. It's kind of a difficult thing to put together for me sometimes.

(...) Can you give a little like what are some of those differences? Do you think because I bet people will resonate?

(...) Sure. So growing up super traditional family structure traditional within the last probably like five decades, I would say so dad was a primary breadwinner. Mom actually homeschooled us, but also was

CEO of the household, right? So she was doing all the grocery shopping. She was doing most of the cooking dad could sometimes, but it was usually on the weekends and it was kind of rare otherwise and

doing all the cleaning. The mental load was fully on her from where I sit.(...) We talked about the mental load today.

That was just moms and I don't I don't recall there ever being any conversation that we were aware of surrounding divvying that up or sharing that mental load.

The only one that I remember is I was always shocked that mom did the taxes.

(...)

I was like,(...) this is so bad. I'm so sorry, mom. I was like, wait, you know how to manage the money. I was shocked. Are you serious? I am not kidding you when I learned like when I like saw her with like Turbo Tax and everything. I was like, wait, you know how to do all this.(...) How I'm not kidding you. Not weird. Yeah, very weird thing like middle school funny.

Mm-hmm.

I just didn't ever think of her in that role because that's not what we saw. We saw her as the caregiver, which had nothing to do with money besides like making sure we were under our budget in the grocery store. She also literally taught us math.

Yeah, it didn't really seem like money to me. Like if Pedro has five apples and whatever is to

give it a week. How many times would you watch dad purchase something versus mom? I agree point again.

Who knows who knows that was the only like what gender roles are messy for me right now. That's so well, dad was the money maker.

He was making all the money. He was in charge of bringing in the money for the family.

So I think that's why it was weird to me. I was like dad's going to bring it all in, but then like mom's going to do all the stuff with it.

It isn't really interesting like disjointed. There's got to be so much trust between the two of you to execute that well.

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(...)

Yeah. Okay. That was the

biggest way that it looked different. And for me as a woman and also Kyle and I have been together for a decade. And for most of the time, we've both been working similar hours for similar dollars.

(...)

And

in our smaller apartment, I did always have the mental load for the household,(...) which was fine when it was just the two of us because he just wasn't raised to think about those things and he didn't care to.

Mm-hmm.

But I firmly believe in sharing that now. And like we've been partners in equal and everything else.(...) Why would this not be part of your world? Like I need a little more from you once we've had a kid. It's just it's different.

Mm-hmm.

and that's I think that's the honestly one of the trickiest thing is the mental load because honestly, it's nice to be able to share but also we are really I think doing some work trying to figure out how that looks and I'm hoping it'll be easier for our children. But I don't think it's going to be easier for us because we're just frustrated then if we're not sharing the mental load versus before it was like well, you're just not you know, that's how it works like in the generation before us.

I do this this is your right. This is my sphere.

Right and now it's a lot of gray area and there's so much buzz about it. And then I feel like I'm always thinking about it and I'm mad when it's not happening. And it's a tricky thing and I think it is figuring out. I also think it's

talking a lot about how it's difficult for women. I think it's really difficult for men because most women were raised to think about these things to track these things to have these expectations if

you take as in be able to like manage a home manage a home

manage your social schedule manage

in terms of the future and all of the needs that fit into that all of the many layers like the project managing piece

been bred into us since

mean it probably started when we were seven and mom have taught us how to clean a bathroom.

(...)

Kyle's never taught how to clean a bathroom would clean anything.

We were expected at such a young age. Yeah to be cleaning the kitchen to be cleaning a back to be vacuuming. Yeah, I mean, I'm just so efficient because I've been doing it forever. Yeah, so I want all my kids to have that.

Yes boys included. Yeah,

but I just really do think that it's not fair

expect them to change overnight. It's also not fair for them

not do the work. So if we focus on the fairness, it's already a non-starter if you're in a living relationship.

But I just want to give the dads who are out there trying a lot of credit because I don't think it was expected of them when they were 10. I don't think people told them this is going to be part of their role. I just don't think it was on generations before us. I don't think it was on their radar for boys most of the time.

and the

same thing goes with parenting.(...) Like how many people have told my husband you are such a hands-on dad, you know, like well.

He does change diapers. I mean, he's a great dad, but it's just so funny that that's new.

(...)

Well for the from the external world, Kevin's getting all these kudos of like, oh, you're such a hands-on dad. And when he comes home to you, you're like, I mean, thanks for parenting.

Exactly.

(...)

Which is also probably a bit dysphoric for him because he is getting all of that acclimation from other people. And then I'm like, duh, you know, it's yeah, again, it's hard and I'm glad we're doing the work.

but I'm grateful for our dad and for his dad that taught him a lot of what he knows and used with us. And I'm really grateful for our husbands being invested in their fatherhood. And I will acknowledge it's hard.

Let's

talk about.

Some childhood moments where Marco Larry just really show really shown.

Yep. Yeah. Okay. All right. Ready? Yeah. How about the time that mom was at summer camp? Okay. Like ran. Yeah. And he didn't want to rake the lawn. But for some reason, make your lawn for some reason, he cared about the leaves being on the lawn. And I don't know if they don't know. Yeah. And he never cared. But for some reason in this specific situation,

he wanted to get rid of the leaves. I don't know if there was like a bad tree like you. Whatever. Okay. So instead of breaking the lawn, we burned it like we did a controlled burn of the lawn. Were we in the country at this point? Yeah, we were in the Woodstock house. And then mom came home like the entire lawn is burned. He just burned their lawn. WTF because also like the worst part is then like anytime we went to play outside, we're just like tracking. You don't remember this? No, it's coming back.

Like the forward-thinking non-existent. Any mom is like, I know what happens to my house that I'm in charge of keeping clean.

(...)

When my kids are in the mud or ash outside for extended periods. I also know what happens to my mental health. If I can't shoot my kids out the door to go have fun. I'm like, what if I

want to open the window?

(...)

It's so bad.

(...)

And like I'm sure we clean the house because every time mom left for this camp, like we had to have the house clean when she came back. Dad was great about that. That is unhinged. But I'm sure like seeing a burnt lawn, you don't even care if the house is clean.

And like we were pros at controlled burns. So he could take four elementary-age kids and safely burn the lawn. So like kudos to him.

(...)

Oh my God. Yeah, you know what? He's done. So to be clear,

(...)

you know, no, I'm not going to give our listeners any context. Our dad just, yeah, yeah. Okay. I want to just fondly reminisce on the time dad taught me how to ski.

(...)

I think I was downhill. We're talking downhill skiing.

Yeah, I was maybe like nine-ish. Oh, you were old.

Okay. He was eight.

Old enough to like know that this was dumb.

(...) Well, okay. No. So leading up to that, it was just dad. Dad just took me.

he left mom with you or something.

(...)

And so

all week has been prepping me. Okay. So there's this thing called the bunny Hill. It's a little smaller. It'll be more gentle.

(...)

And so you're going to, you're going to get there. You're going to get your skis and dad's going to take you to the bunny Hill. You know, she's telling me about like the magic rope to pull and I'm like, great, I can't. Okay. I'm prepped. I'm ready. We get there. Dad jams some skis on my feet and just like belly. Halt like just shoves me on his arm or younger football carries me and then immediately just like skate skis us to

the chairlift.

Yeah. No, you didn't be funny. He'll straight to the chairlift. And so he like bodily hauls me under the chair with me. No warning. I have no idea what's going on. He's literally just like manhandling me wrestling me onto this chairlift. I don't know how my skis stayed on,

I'm sitting there and I'm like, wait, this is not what I just got. This is not what we talked about. I'm like dad. What are we doing? This is not the magic rope. What mom told me about the bunny Hill. Where's the bunny Hill? We haven't gone to I haven't stood on these skis in snow yet. Like you jammed them on my feet and then what are we doing? He's like, well, there's no such thing as a bunny Hill. And I was like, mom told

me also were you at the point of the chairlift where you were going over the bunny Hill?

So that came next. He had just told me there was no such thing as a bunny Hill. And I looked down and I see the small fry going up the magic rope on this like vaguely sloped like slight incline. I see the bunny Hill and I'm like dad, dad that we missed the bunny. Oh, that's the oh, sorry honey. No, this is exactly where we're supposed to be. We can do the top of the mountain. He holds me off this chair.

(...)

Puts me at the top of the Hill.

Points my skis straight like French fry French fry style parallel

straight down the Hill puts himself behind me and puts one ski on either side of my skis and then we start going on the Hill.

But you know gravity being in effect because we're on land.

(...)

He's a lot heavier than I am. So he literally just plows me down. And I'm like just left behind and

(...) Oh my gosh. And I'm like, what do I do now? I can't stand up. I've never stood in the snow with skis on. Oh my well, honey, you're gonna have to crawl literally.

This is the top. Well, I literally can hear that. Yeah, you're gonna have to crawl.

I don't know how to get to you.

Yeah.

Yeah. So he tries this a couple more times, which is still confusing to me before saying well, you know, this isn't really worked out the way I thought it would. So we're gonna have to get down to the Hill somehow. I guess you're on your own. And he like stayed that like he didn't just leave me, but it was a mess. It was messy.

Yeah,

Okay, here's one again in Woodstock.

dad shooting squirrels out of the living room window off of the bird feeder because he's a big bird guy and the squirrels were eating the bird food and like just shooting them out the window wasn't enough.(...) But once you kill an animal, you obviously like have to use it. That's the responsible thing to do. So then squirrel stew for dinner.

I have a layer to add to this story.

Oh, no, is there more?

Yeah.

Oh, no.

So the squirrel bird feeder, this bird feeder was right outside the living room window and that's on the first floor.(...) This this bird feeder that the squirrels keep invading.

Mm-hmm.

Dad and his friend Mark two marks.

(...)

Start shooting at the squirrels from upstairs on the second story. They had just put in brand new windows in this upstairs window.(...) There this upstairs area. They were refinishing the whole upstairs.(...) And so dad's got the gun cocked out that window and I don't remember which market was it was our dad or the other Mark.

(...)

One of them shootings. I got it right in my sights. Why is the squirrel going down because they're shooting and shooting the squirrels not going anywhere and we know that the guns firing because I was up there with them. I'm like, this is a disaster.

(...)

And I don't know. I don't know. Try again. Try again. Like they're just egging each other on the can't figure out what's going on.(...) They had somehow gotten the gun like lodged on the window casing and had shot out this like the ceiling part of the window instead of the squirrel. Like they were the sites were correct. But the actual barrel of the gun was blocked by the thing that's supposed to keep the water away from your window.

And like, can we be clear dad is intense about gun safety. Like if we ever go shooting with him, I mean, it's borderline scary. Like I don't want to blink wrong.

He's super. Yeah. Yeah. He's very respectful of guns.

(...)

Yeah. So that's the layer that happened before they actually started shooting the squirrels to make squirrels do. This is so redneck.

Yeah. Okay. Here's another one. Rude a bag of pancakes.

(...)

Oh,

(...)

like why why I still remember why would you ever try? Well, he thought they were going to be like like potato pancakes. They were so bad. They were so bad.

Better taste as a kid.(...) Yeah, he makes really good pancakes. Like why is one thing? Yeah, there's been some good like it was kind of like a Sunday thing for like dad would often on the weekend make like a pancake or waffle breakfast phenomenal.

(...)

Oh, here's another redneck one.

(...)

Dad hits deer all the time when he's driving like just really much.

Not able to see years.

Yeah, I think ever since the ice or tree like he got whatever that lasek whatever on his eyes. I don't think he's had a deer sense. Anyways, I never like those to think he's blind basically and he's driving it and it was always at night. He'd hit a deer. So we just moved in to like the newest house we'd ever lived in. It's like in a subdivision. I mean it is like suburban like really funny not usually our style.(...) We'd been there like what three days think it was winter and dad hits a deer. So as he does, of course, we have to eat the animal that he killed brings it home. But like there's nowhere to string it up and it's cold like it's really cold.(...) So we strings it up in the garage of this new home that we moved into. Bleeds it out in the garage. Nikki has buckets underneath but of course it's all over and we had a friend visiting and she like brought him a glass of wine. So we just have a picture of dad butchering this thing in our garage holding a glass of wine.

She also brought a really nice charcuterie situation like so much nice cheese and like cured meats and it's a really classy affair with the carcass and yeah.

You can't make this shit up fish up

fish. Oh, I have another one. It's rolling now. Oh you go. Okay. We're in the Smoky Mountains on one of our family vacations. Yeah, I think you will remember this better. He decides he needs some legit moonshine and so we're going to have to buy this moonshine.

Okay, can we also okay, so I was in college for this trip and I remember walking in he's like I need some moonshine. I need some legit like kill Billy moonshine. I'm like, okay, so so we're walking into like bars and like establishments around Nashville probably. Oh, yeah, it was it was an area where I'm sure they were used to got the sense that they were used to visitors.

Well, and he really was trying to suss it out because there was a lot of like touristy moonshine spot, right? He didn't want to buy it

from a cash register. Right. He wanted it off of like the bag of pickup truck. Yeah. She's like no, where do I get the legit stuff and they're like that's illegal. We don't do that.(...) So after the fifth, you know establishment that was like, what are you talking about? We don't do that.

I was like, okay, well, why don't we just pull over to the store that has a bunch of mushroom tie-dye in the windows. That seems promising. It seems like way better than like

(...)

Yeah. Yeah.(...) Okay back to you. Yeah.

(...) I actually only remember the mushroom store and being like because I was in high school like whoa.

(...)

But then who did he end up buying it off of?

Well, she goes,(...) let me call my buddy Ewok. Ewok.(...) Yeah. So this guy I think was my height which is about five feet

(...)

red hair.

(...)

I guess he was on TV. He's on like some reality TV show like taking people through the mountains hunting for ginseng like he was a character. So but sure as fish he had a pickup truck because we like we she called him. He's like, oh yeah sure whatever.

(...)

We go out to this kind of remote location. Like yeah, I think mom was getting pretty nervous. Yeah, we were sure enough is a pickup truck super friendly guy like he was a hoot and a half.(...) Full of jars full of moonshine.

put a Jolly Rancher in each one. So there were some like neon jars. Wah.

(...) Yeah, it was really on on brand with the mushroom.

I think I mean really I think dad got what he wanted. You know, I think that was exactly the experience. He was looking for on his family vacation with four children.

Oh, yeah wholesome. That is what we are.

(...)

I will say also I was on a camping trip with dad once(...) and I was in high school and at this point I had started buying my own underwear. Oh, yeah, it was all thongs pretty much and we had to stop and do laundry because I'd been at camp for two weeks when he picked me up with no laundry and the dryer on that laundromat(...) was broken.

(...)

And I don't I think I like went to the bathroom or something. I left for a minute.

And that was when it was discovered. There was no way to dry my clothing. Yeah, and I came back to him just like silently hanging my undergarments on a public fence.

(...)

And I'm sure he was horrified.(...) Okay, but I will let you know that anything

well because this is why that was not the first time that he had had to deal with your thongs because I was there the first time he did he was doing laundry which actually was not his age. I think mom was gone. Mom was gone. He was doing laundry and the best part is he was on the phone with his brother Sean and literally I could hear from the other room. Hang on a minute Sean. What the hell?

(...)

What is this?

(...)

I mean I think like floss words like that were thrown around but checks out. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, what are you gonna do like choose your battles? I suppose.

(...)

Oh Mark. Thank you for the laughs.

(...)

There's so many more. I feel there are we could just go in but oh man, pretty good.

thanks to all the dads out there.

Yeah, we see you you're vital. We appreciate you so much. Thanks for everything you do.

Love you. I love you. Bye.

(...)