January 5, 2021 • 64 mins
Alex Aiono has mentioned his spectacular parents on just about every episode of this podcast - and now they're here to prove him right! Alex is joined by Martin + Heather Aiono to talk about bringing up Alex and his sisters, how to make the tough decisions in life, what it's like to get engaged after just two weeks together, and what happens when you ask your kids how many spankings they should get. They even answer listeners' burning questions, and give advice on how to keep your new years' resolutions - and become a person who learns and grows, year after year. So download this episode and buckle up!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Alex, and I have the coolest parents
in the whole world. No, no, alright, it will be
alright forever, No, al right, will be all right for ever.
(00:24):
All right, y'all. So I'm actually here with my family
and Utah for the holidays. I am very, very fortunate,
as I mentioned in the Christmas episode, that I do
get to spend the holidays with my family, and I
thought this would be the perfect time for me to
actually do the episode that I've really really been wanting
to do since I started this podcast. I want to
introduce you to my parents, but actually, like just me
(00:45):
tell you about them before you actually meet them. I
was the only boy, so I didn't have to ever
fight for like my dad's attention, or I never had
to like fight for tickets to the basketball game or
the football game. Um. But I got to just hang
out with my sisters, and I got to really get
into much with the beauty that is femininity and the
beauty that is women, and I got to be a
(01:06):
real true mama's boy. And and my sisters taught me
how to talk to girls and how to dress and
and uh and it was really a great setup. And
and if you know me at all, You'll know that
I always say that it's my favorite thing about my
life is my family and my parents, including that. Um So,
I thought it would be an incredible idea to have
my parents on here and to talk about what it
(01:28):
was like being their kid, and talk about what is
like having them as parents, and then talking about, you know,
what life is like now that I am twenty four
years old and I as much as I'm still a
mama's boy and I'm still the best son in the world.
How like they also happened to be like my best
friends in the whole world. So it got me thinking,
if you could ask your parents anything, what would you
(01:50):
ask them? What's up? Y'all? It's alex I. Oh no,
this is my podcast. Let's get into it where we
really talk about everything, and we don't We talk about
everything regardless of who's in the room, including my old
mom and dad. We're gonna have a great time today.
I'm gonna paint the picture for you. So I'm at
my parents house. We have Mila and Sydney and Taylor
(02:12):
and Halle and the outside trying their best to not
make noise, but with a one year old that's pretty tough.
So if you hear anything coming from outside, that's what
it is. But also here in this room, I've got
my two favorite people on earth, and I'm going to
introduce you to them now. First up, she is not
only the best mom in the world, but she's also
the best customer support agent at Purple Mattresses. She makes
(02:36):
an incredible chocolate cake, and she's most likely gonna cry
during this episode. My mom, Heather, I own, Oh what's up? Mom?
Thanks first setting me up? And she's crying. And Uh,
the man that she's been with for the last twenty
nine years, twenty eight years, twenty nine years, thirty years.
(02:56):
More than that, he is my best friend. He is
my number one fan. And um, he taught me how
to gamble and I won some money last time I
was in Vegas thanks to that teaching. Uh, my dad,
Martin Ion, know what's up? Dad? How are you all right? Son?
Good to be here, and I'm glad that you had
a successful weekend this weekend Vegas. So we have some
(03:19):
We have three interesting topics to talk about. First one
is New Year. Knew you in quotes again? Uh that
we're gonna be talking about the big important questions. And lastly,
we have an A m A which is asked Me anything,
or in this case it's an A M P A,
ask my parents anything. I went on Instagram and ask
you guys to give us some questions that you've always
maybe wanted to ask your parents or things that you
(03:40):
were scared to ask your parents. And my parents are
going to do the heavy lifting for all of us,
which is great. But before we get into that, I
have a question that I ask all of my guests,
and that question is what are you doing this week
to improve yourself? I will start this week. I've been
really focusing on this something my therapist and I talked
about a lot, because I think he says I have
(04:01):
anticipatory anxiety and what I what comes with that is
I always focus on what's next, or what's coming or
or the future. And one of the biggest things that
I've been working on, especially this week leading up to
the holidays, and usually for me, there's twenty million things
to do on my holiday's list, and I want to
make sure I get every single one of them done. Um,
but the biggest thing that I've been focusing on is
(04:22):
doing what's right in front of me. Doing the first
like what's like the next thing only and not focusing
on what comes after that. So that's how I've been
trying to improve my life this week. But now that
you guys have an example, Mom, do you have something
I do, it kind of goes a little bit along
with yours. I was stressed with this week, starting with
trying to get Christmas perfect. You know, it's like my
(04:44):
favorite holiday. I want to make sure everyone is equal
and fair. We have the right amount of presents. Yeah,
you definitely, you always my mom. Make sure that you
always have like everybody has the same amount of presents,
like nobody has one more one lass. But it's also
fed into me my sisters like death. If she ever
does mess up and one of us gets one more,
(05:06):
one less than she never hears the end of it.
So true. So with everything being as it is this year,
I had to let go is what I had to
do this week and realize it couldn't be exactly how
I wanted it to be, like with gifts, and just
focus on being present. I actually have for the first time.
(05:27):
I have everything wrapped. I have our ball game that
we play every year. It is like in the closet
ready to go. I'm usually making that ball Christmas Eve
at midnight. It's already so I can be present since
everyone is now here in Utah with us. I like it.
And that was my That was my when I had
a few weeks ago, as I got my Christmas shopping
done super early. Dad, what you got? Um? Mine is
(05:50):
kind of similar to mom. I really want to be
present and appreciate all four of my kids and my
amazing son in law, and especially my grand baby. And
so I just want to sit back and absorb, take
it all in and enjoy the company and and the
spirit of each of them. Nice. That's those are Those
(06:11):
are good ones to have, and they're great ways for
us to get straight into it because as much as
we try and do things every week to make ourselves better,
we are coming to the ultimate day of of doing
things to be better, which is New Year's Day. Everybody's
got resolutions, and we're here now talking about New Year.
New you just to kind of we'll we'll break the ice,
(06:32):
will get comfortable, and then we can get into some
more juicy parents stuff. UM, so let's do it. A
lot of people have advice about New Year's resolutions. Um,
some people don't like the New Years resolutions. Recently, actually
haven't really been into Year's resolutions because I feel like
the way that I used to do them, which was
like every day I'm working out starting today, and I
realized that I would just totally fall off the wagon
(06:53):
by the second week of February or even the second
week of January or what about you guys? Are you
guys resolutions people? Um, I've never been one like write
it down, keep track of it that way. I definitely
make goals in my head of things that I want
to do, but I try to give myself some grace
(07:13):
in if I if I fail, even if it's quickly
on in the year, and just also know that it's
okay to reassess and restart. I like that dad. I
used to Mom knows there was a place in Hawaii
that I'd like to be um New Year's Eve too
and write down my goals for that year. But at
(07:35):
that time, I think I was looking more for structure
in my life. These days, I think starting uh fifty
two times a year is a lot easier on me,
and so I feel like I could start all over
each week starting quick. With some wisdom there Martin, I
feel like sometimes for New Years, at least for me,
I'll spend half of the time thinking about the year
(07:55):
that just happened, and then I'll spend the other half
of the time thinking, Okay, what do I want to
do this year? What's coming up this year? Um? But
this year, I feel like it's pretty it's pretty easy
for me to want to just think about what's next
and trying to figure out what's coming up after this.
But that being said, what do you think is the
most important thing that you guys learned in a year
like this that was super weird and super dividing, and
(08:15):
a lot of bad stuff happened, and it definitely wasn't
the year that any of us were expecting it to be. Um,
I think it, just like I said before, kind of
to let go, let go of those preconceived things you
think have to happen, and you have to let go
because we weren't in control. There were so many things
that normally were in control of that we actually weren't
(08:36):
in control of this year, and we had to let
go and try to find the happiness in the joy
and what we did have control in, and also to
keep it simple life was super simple for most of
the year. That being said, there were some very hard
times and sad times when we couldn't be together, but
we would just make the best of it. When we
(08:57):
one of us was down, I feel like we tried
to all the rest pick up and pick up the
pieces and just try to stay positive and keep it simple.
I agree. I agree. It's a very different year, but
you can look at it as the glass half empty
or that glass half full. We uh, your parents, We've
(09:17):
got to spend a lot more time this year together
than we ever have probably in our whole marriage, and
that's because of a lot of the circumstances this year.
Well look at that. You guys are the first people
have been on the show that aren't like this year sucked,
including me. So all right, Well, now that we have
broken that ice, let's get into parenting. It's what we
(09:39):
have that connects us to You guys are my parents.
So um, I feel like there's so many things that
I've thought of in my own childhood into my young
adulthood of like, oh, I want to make sure I
do that when I have a kid, or like I
want to make sure that I treat my kid like this,
or my kid always feels like this when you guys
are growing up, Like, what were your thoughts about that?
Was there anything specific? And we'll start with you, dad,
(10:00):
that like that made you go like, oh man, when
I become a dad, I definitely want to be this,
or like I definitely want to teach my kids this. Yeah.
As a matter of fact, when I was dating your mom,
we decided we dated for two weeks and decided to
get married. Oh yeah, we didn't even get to that
part yet. There's a long we're gonna go. We're gonna
crack into that in just a sect, but go continue on.
(10:22):
In that two weeks, one of the things she shared
with me was that she'd never gotten a spanking from
her parents, and that blew me away. Um, you know,
being from a Polynesian background when I grew up, my
my dad lad with the iron hand, and so I
couldn't understand it when she told me, and I thought
(10:43):
she was joking. But as we spoke a lot more
in depth about it, I made it a goal. I
said to myself, I want to be a parent that
doesn't punish his children physically, and I want to lead
my family without the eye in hand, I can proudly
say other than two times, which both I deserved it.
(11:04):
One I pete on my sisters and two I choked
my sisters with my bare hands. Just just hallie, just hallie.
That was true. You did, you did a good job.
So congratulations on that, Mom. Do you have anything specific?
I think I just wanted to have. I grew up
with great parents who I knew loved me. But I
think one it's a it was a generational thing. Is
(11:26):
I wanted to be able to communicate because I felt
like there was a lot of times and still as
a struggle in my family to always have open and
honest communication because I feel like that's the only way
to truly be happy and to truly love each other,
and especially love each other unconditional, which is so important
(11:49):
to me in capitalizing on on that communication, son, I
think the most important thing you mentioned the two times
that you were spanked, but more importantly was the communication
and how it played out, because, for instance, the very
first time was when you peet on your sisters because
they wouldn't let you play with them, and we can
(12:09):
all agree that was probably a pretty valid reason to
be on them. Yes, and uh, but not the right
to take um. However, I knew how you were feeling.
But if you remember, we gathered as a family and
had a family meeting. We had a full family. It
was a full situation, and we discussed what had taken
(12:31):
place and and uh, what you had done, and we
also discussed what you thought would be the right amount
of spankings. Uh, these are bare butt spankings. And by
the way, I want you to know the seriousness of
this spanking. You got to choose, and I don't know why. Yeah,
at three years old, for some reason, you chose the
(12:52):
number four. And I remember my heart dropping and going, well,
that's a lot, okay, he said, four kids, and and
I chose four spanking had known I was a weirdo
of back then. I was like giving four of them.
Your sisters were all crying after the first everybody's crying.
First crying, I'm crying, girls crying. Dad's crying. Yeah, that's tears.
(13:16):
Hit my ass, my bare ass, and it hurt a
little bit more, staying a little more, didn't it, gave
it a little gave it a little stinger. And then
the second time was very very similar, very similar. After
choking Hallie and I thought she had stolen I thought
she had stolen my candy. And I think that's a
pretty valid punishment for the accusation of stealing. And I
think we had warned him once, like a really good warnings.
(13:39):
What do you mean? But that also, if you recall,
took a lot of communicating and explaining to you why
it was happening. Once again, you got to choose, and um,
luckily you didn't choose four. You just chose three. Learned
my last and the fourth one is when the tear
was on my ass and it hurt. The good news
(14:01):
is that both of you guys's goals that you had
have come true because we are all great at communicating,
all all six of us. I guess all eight of
us now including Mela is very good at communicating when
she wants stuff. But I want to go back a
little bit because you talked about, and I'm so used
to it that that that's how you and mom met
and how you guys got married. But when people here
(14:21):
that after two weeks of dating you decided you're going
to get married, uh, most people's jaws just dropped to
the floor. So we need to hear a little bit
more about how that all went down. The first night
we went out, we kissed, and the next fourteen days
there wasn't a day that went by it we didn't
see each other. And on the fourteenth day, right around there,
(14:45):
we were on our way to the gym, it was
like six third in the morning, and uh, I asked
you how seriously you felt about us? And you paused
and thought about it, and then you said, I'm seriously
enough that if you were to ask me married now,
I'd say yes, and that's it. And I said, well,
it's own, let's get married. That is true. I was
(15:10):
nineteen um and wasn't looking to get married by any means.
But when it's right and it's the time, it's the time,
you know it. We were married almost a year from
that date. That is the exact reason why I told
so many women that I loved them, because my parents
had that as the preface of what it is to
get married. So Uh, any girls who are hurt from
(15:34):
the fact that I told them I loved them and
then probably broke up with them within that year, I
want you to know. That's why don't blame me, blame
my parents. It's their fault. And then you guys. You
guys got married, So how do you before we get
into the parenting stuff, how do you guys feel what
is the secret to having a successful and happy marriage? Man,
(15:56):
that was such a loaded question, that pretty loaded. I
would say, once again, communication. You know, we've definitely had
a lot of bumps along the road and in our
thirty years. But a couple of things that come to
mind for me. Um A term that Dad introduced to
me was brutal honesty, and it's not always fun, but
(16:21):
it's definitely successful in a relationship. So I would say
brutal honesty, communication, and forgiveness and fight for what you want.
Definitely fight for what you want. And we were just
talking about it, as we talk about it quite often,
(16:41):
how grateful we feel that we've had such an amazing
life so far, and how much we love our family
and our children and to watch them grow, to watch
them find happiness. And after thirty years, I can honestly
say that I love your other more than I loved
her the day I married her. No, it's really it's
(17:04):
real though, it is true. I feel exactly the same.
We talked about it often. That makes me very very
happy to hear so I think the reason why a
lot of people listen to this podcast and the reason
why I wanted people to hear this conversation was because
a lot of people grow and learn over time, and
especially younger people are growing and learning over time. And
(17:25):
I don't think that that's necessarily something in my conversations
with plenty of older people and and including both of you,
including old friends and Sandy and Mickey uh saying that
that's like the most important thing is that you continue growing,
you continue learning, And I think that that's something that
plays into, um, what you both had mentioned of like,
you know, communicating and fighting for what you really want.
(17:47):
And I think those are the foundations of things that
that should not ever stop happening. UM, So what are
ways that you guys continue learning on your own and
also together? I would say, you know, I would learn
a lot actually watching you guys, watching the kids and
listening and you guys open my mind to things that
(18:08):
are very current and ways of thinking that we weren't raised,
but we keep it, keep an open mind, and UM,
love growing in that way and love just learning all
the time watching other people, and I think talking about
it too. You know, once again, like I think old
school says, you know, you don't talk about your issues,
(18:31):
you don't talk about what you've been through, but you're
what you're feeling. And I think now it's so important
that you just have to not hold anything in and
just communicate, open up. I think another great thing that
your mom's taught me is the difference between reacting and responding.
(18:52):
Such a big difference. And I'd say I was a
pretty reactive young man, you know, early in her marriage,
and she's she's taught me how to respond to things
rather than react right right, and and that's I think
those are nice things to to not only have with
each other in a marriage, but also, uh, the reason
why you're here on this podcast is because it's also
(19:14):
good things to have, like as a parent. So what
was it like raising us? Most importantly me, Well, I
have a scene and Dad always kind of rolls his
eyes a little bit, and I've altered it over the
years because I always just say, oh, I have I
have perfect kids, and Dad would roll his eyes. No
one is perfect, we know that, but my scene is
(19:34):
I have four perfect in my eyes children. So I think,
you know, initially when we first had Taylor and we
were so young, we really wanted it to be like, Okay,
obviously it's she's going to change our lives, but we
don't want it to change it in things that we
enjoy doing. We wanted you all to be included in
our lives and what we do. UM, and I think
(19:57):
that was like a big thing with us. You know,
obviously there were times and places where it wasn't appropriate
to bring four little kids to certain events, but as
long as it was appropriate, you guys were there with us,
and we just went appropriate included you in our lives
so you could, you know, experience the things that we
loved that you guys were there with us. I'm looking
(20:18):
at that picture behind you of Mom and the four
of you, and I remember, um, that years right around
two thousand, wasn't it? Wasn't it two thousand and UM?
I can recall that we hadn't even purchased our first
home yet. Um. We did later that year, but looking
at that picture, I reflect back and think, man, we
(20:42):
had it all back then. We It wasn't about getting
the new house or building the new house or any
other material things. It was just having our family together
and being happy. That's nice, that's super tight. I mean,
I think that that's something that I wanted to ask you,
dad about, because you mentioned like back then when we
(21:03):
didn't own a house or we didn't have this, we
didn't have that before we kind of had all grown
up and I got to live the super luxurious life
that I did as a child. Then, thank you, thank you.
Um But but but in seriousness, our household was pretty traditional,
I guess I'll say in the sense that mom, once
(21:26):
we were all as as we were all home and
growing up as children, you stayed home for the most part.
You worked a little bit for the airlines throughout. But Dad,
you worked a pretty grueling schedule of work to put
food on the table. Plus you know so much more
than that. Um So my next question is for you, Dad,
which is how did you balance working your ass off
(21:46):
and providing and doing so much for the family on
the work like away from us, I don't never think
about you being like less of a good dad because
you're always gone. Like I know, there's a lot of
kids who are like I don't even know. I never
had a relationship with my dad. I always had a
great relationship with you. I think all of us did.
But you also still were working five six days a week,
you know, big, big, double digit hours. That's a good question.
(22:08):
I think I think you've inherited it as well, the
belief and playing hard and working hard. We always had
activities as a family and fun things to do, but
we also had our quiet time as a family where
we would just spend quality time and not have to
use an activity to get out and go together. Um.
(22:30):
A lot of it is through trial and error too,
and time management. I look back, and I might have
a different point of view. I might, you know, be
thinking I wish I had spent more time, or I
wish I hadn't missed out. You know, many times I
did miss out on the activities that you and your
sisters were doing or that you participated in just due
(22:52):
to work. But I always fought included because Mom was
great with the video camera and I was still able
to feel like I was there. Yeah, I mean, and
I think we all felt the same, at least on
my end, at least, I've felt we never missed a step.
It was always like I can't remember how many times
would come and visit you at work and you'd let
me drive the golf card around to the houses and
(23:13):
all of those things. So I think that it was
more so a how did you do that type of
question more than a how do you feel about that?
But you watched us go through things that you might
have either already been through or you've already experienced, but
we had to learn the lessons for ourselves. You saw us,
you know, when in stride, and you saw us being
(23:35):
stressed about everything from homework to girls or or boys
or everything kind of under the sun. And you guys
are being parents. And I feel like sometimes while you
might have known the answers, or you might have known
exactly what we needed to do or what we didn't
need to worry about. Um, you might have been your
tongue so that we could experience those things for ourselves.
(23:55):
But are there anything specifically that you wish you could
have told us? You know that maybe in your mind
you were like, man, you guys are you're giving way
too much energy to this this stress or this worry.
I would definitely say like relationships for sure, you know,
as you guys got older, I mean that was the
hardest like to see, you know, to even kind of
(24:17):
feel I never wanted to be the parent who was
like I told you so, or you shouldn't be friends
with this person or that person. But you know, we
definitely have our instincts, and when I felt like maybe
someone wasn't good for you or one of your sister's,
kind of bite my tongue and let you write it out.
(24:38):
And then but at the same time, when that person
hurt you, which in my mother heart I felt was
going to happen, I wish, like, man, I should have
said something, but I just didn't want to be that
in your face. Mother told you so. I mean, because
you do have to. You know, life is trial and
error and you have to do that. And unfortunately, yeah,
as a mom, as a parent and mom or dad,
(25:00):
it's very hard to watch that when we know what
the outcome is going to be. But it's definitely important.
I think that we allowed you to do that. Yeah,
we wanted to make sure that you experienced it for
yourself and that we weren't interrupting your experience because of
our views. And I think that's probably one of the
(25:21):
most challenging things about being a parent, because you have
to be patient. We've had many many conversations you know
that we didn't share with you or your sisters as
you were going through a lot of these experiences that
we really just had to keep to ourselves and watch
from the sidelines. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a
lot that goes into being a parent. I have never
even been a parent, and I know that there's a
(25:42):
lot that goes into being a parent. But I think
even more than the things that you guys had to
go through with us, which were normal, like dating and
what you just mentioned in the conversations you have behind
closed doors, you guys were parents to a very unique situation,
which was me, don't go anywhere, I want to take
this to the next step up or I guess the
next piece of our conversation kick the sisters out, because
(26:04):
you guys also were very You guys were parents to
a very unique situation, which was me wanting to pursue dreams,
really chase after things. And if you've for the listeners,
if you've ever heard any interview of mine where I
reference what it was like being, you know, growing up,
and what I attribute success to, the biggest thing was
(26:24):
having a family that believed in me, having a family
that supported me. And we moved to Los Angeles from Arizona,
UM So I want to go back and kind of
relive that through your guys eyes, because I know even
in my own experience that there were a lot of people,
um even today that would never do what you guys did.
I think most parents will believe in their kid and
(26:45):
buy them a guitar if they want to learn how
to play guitar, or maybe they'll give buy them some
singing lessons or or help them do you know one
or two simple things that don't really alter their own lifestyle.
But you guys actually were open to completely uprooting out
of Arizona in moving to Los Angeles. So, in one
giant loaded question, what drove you to do that? And
(27:07):
what gave you the confidence that it was not a
wild pipe dream? Not a wild pipe dream? Son, it
was a wild pipe dream. I guess it was a
wild pipe dream. We just we you know, it was
very unorthodox, a very unorthodox move that we did. But
you know, you mentioned like some parents will get their
(27:30):
kids and guitar, you know, just to suffice them because
they want to learn how to play guitar. You were
that and so much more because not only did you
want a guitar, you want a piano and you wanted
to sing, and you would soar, and if I was
checking off the boxes, you would sore in in those areas,
(27:50):
and so we knew you were serious. Um, we know
that it's not common for your children to know what
their dream is. However, your three sisters, we look at
them in the same space as we look at you.
They just haven't told us exactly what they want to do.
You just happened to know that when you were young.
Did it warrant such an unorthodox move? No, not necessarily,
(28:11):
but at that time when we moved, uh, this timing
seemed to be right. It was quite a bit of
a sacrifice, as you know, moving from a seven thousand
square foot home to a little apartment, but it was
location and we were on the beach. We were in California,
where your mom and I both grew up and wanted
to We yearned to get back, but we didn't expect
(28:35):
to be on the beach. And if it was just
a small apartment, we'll take it. And you know, it
taught us also to go back to more of a
minimalist type of lifestyle because we had so much stuff.
And at that time, right before moving, you too to California.
I thought stuff was important at that time as a
(28:57):
growing father and becoming more and more successful. If I
were to do it again, I wouldn't concentrate so much
on stuff and really concentrate on your sister's needs and
your needs. You know, when we first decided to move
to l a Um, it wasn't just overnight. Obviously, it
was watching you. You had been asking it. We knew
(29:18):
you wanted to do it. We'd kind of thought, oh,
maybe he'll pursue it later in life. And and the
more we saw this talent and you grow, and we
kind of, you know, let you go out to l
a kind of test the waters. And of course all
parents think their kids are great, and like I said,
I have four perfect in my eyes kids. And I
(29:39):
believed you had talent. Dad believed you had talent. But
on top of the talent, we saw the drive you had,
and the work ethic and the desire and but first
and foremost on top of that is how happy it
made you. And I would think that if anyone were
to ask my kids, what did your mom want the
(30:00):
most for you? I would hope that you guys would say,
she wants us to be happy. And I think that's
that was the biggest driver. I remember someone saying to me, oh,
you want to take your son to l A to
make a buck off of him? And I was so
offended because I thought, first of all, how dare you?
But anyways, I thought, no, you know what, look at him,
(30:21):
look at how happy? Well, I think I remember who
that was that to you. I got a little black book.
I'm not gonnae I got Arizona, little black book of
people who I've gotta who I'm really gonna send Christmas
cards to when I when it's all said and done.
But yeah, I think it just was the happiness, and
it was for us. Like Dad said, you know, we
had had this stuff, We had had this, that and
(30:42):
the other, and it was that isn't what brings happiness.
It's finding your passion, finding your joy, loving fully and
um being there for one another, watching your sisters support
you and sacrifice for you in the move. To me,
I'm that all we all grew closer, our hearts grew
bigger for each other. And you know, I do it again,
(31:06):
do it again and again. Mom and I were just
talking the other week about how we both talked so
much about building the perfect home, and that perfect home.
When we did build home, you all had your own rooms,
and you all we had a big intercom system, and
we remember calling you guys for dinner on the intercom,
like in your separate rooms, and we realized that wasn't
(31:29):
the life we wanted. We wanted to be closer, and
you know, moving to California that put us closer. As
you know, we didn't have much furniture, and love sex
became our our furniture, but it also became our kitchen.
So I think when I look at that whole move
(31:50):
in general, and I look at it, I try and
look at it objectively, and when it comes to if
we were to take it not by we're just calling
it as it is. If it comes to that as
like an investment, like you invested in my dream by
moving me to Los Angeles, I think it's safe to
say for me that like it was a good investment,
(32:12):
like obviously outside of what your goal was, Mom of
saying like me being happy that happened, Dad, if we
even based it off of stuff and like experience and
getting to do it like I've been so lucky in
my career so far too to sign to a major
label and release songs and have gold records and write
songs for big artists and all these things. But I
think more importantly than that for me was that, like
(32:34):
you had mentioned, we went from having our own space
to being forced to not have our own space and
create now what was actually who we were as family,
which was all being together, so that it kind of
laid the foundation that now that we're again apart, I
think at that time really um set a foundation of
who we were going to be as all as adults
(32:57):
now all as family, and it's really made us you know,
who we are now, which is like just a bunch
of friends. I think that also just happened to be
family you mentioned before we go into this last segment
and then go into the A M. A. Dad you
had mentioned and Mom you had mentioned it as well,
kind of referencing raising each of us. So how did
you navigate raising how do you navigate being a parent
(33:21):
to four completely unique people? Definitely for unique people, Yep,
we definitely have that. UM. I think it is just
kind of giving everybody their own opportunity. Like Dad said,
obviously you're dream your passion of what you wanted to
(33:42):
do for the rest of your life came early, and
I think sometimes I could have also been hard for
your sisters because they're like, we don't know what we
want to do. And I don't want to say you
weren't normal, and like your son, your brother is not normal.
You guys are normal. But at the same time, it's
you know, most ten twelve year olds don't know exactly.
(34:03):
I mean they might by the time you're twelve, you've
gone through ten different occupations that you would like to be.
So it was just navigating, listening to everybody, providing opportunities
for them as well, and being sensitive to each of
their needs. And when I say sensitive, you almost have
to guess ahead of time um on each of your
(34:26):
kids and be proactive to their needs and what you
might think of their needs. And you're not always right,
but I think the effort. You know, I M Taylor's
your oldest sister. I try to be sensitive to Taylor's
needs um as much as I am yours and your needs.
And you don't even need me, you know, these days,
(34:49):
yet you're still our son, and we still feel like
we have to be here for you no matter what.
We know that your life isn't perfect. But each of
your sisters. You know, You're youngest sister is twenty two,
and you guys might think we spoil her the most,
and we probably do. But um, with parenting all four
of you, by time you get to the end, which
(35:12):
is your youngest sister, you kind of want to just
say yeah so much right, Like you learn it's kind
of like that commercial where it's like first baby and
you're like not letting it touch the ground, and then
it's like third baby and you're just like, I don't know,
given whatever you needs. Like it's just really at this
point whatever I don't know. I I mean knocking knocking
on real wood right now, Um that I don't have
(35:34):
to be a parent anytime soon, because it really is
a journey. But I think this weird idea that I've
always had of like I feel like when you're when
you're really young, you just think like your parents are invincible,
they're not even human. They're just like these amazing, perfect superheroes.
And then as you get older in a good way
but also just in a very human way, you find out,
(35:54):
oh they're people. I'm in person, Like we're all people
and everybody's a person. I want to ask you guys
about that whole situation, because I feel like, what were
your guys is I guess emotions as we all became
older and we all became old enough to see you
more as as friends. UM, I don't remember, like actually
(36:16):
like a point where it switched, but I do remember.
I remember hearing people say, oh, my mom's my best friend,
or my daughter's my best friend, my son's my best friend.
And I didn't really grasp that concept until maybe just
a couple of years ago, where I, like you just said,
(36:36):
if I had to choose who I could be with
you know, or who I want to be with the most,
or who I want to talk to, who I want
to see, it's true. It is it is the aid
of us that are in this house right now. And
I felt that way for a while, where I just
genuinely obviously another important concept excuse me and parenting, I think,
(36:59):
is a difference between like and love. And of course
I've always loved you, I've I will always love you,
and but how life goes, there are times in life
where we might not like each other because of choices
we've made or differences we're having. Arguments that might come
up but I couldn't honestly remember the last time I've
(37:25):
thought to myself that I haven't liked one of you,
because I like you so much. We are all very unique,
were very different. We have different beliefs and um things
in our lives that we that are important to some
might not be the most important to others. But it
doesn't matter because we like each other so much. We
(37:45):
genuine love each other unconditional, and I, as a mom,
I couldn't. I couldn't have abous for anything else. At
sixteen minutes and ten seconds she started, There we go,
number of crying Number two I would have. UM. I
(38:07):
can honestly say I vouch for your mom. She's one
of the most loving people I know. But more importantly,
she has helped me co parents and taught me not
only to love, but she's taught me words like kindness
and tolerance and understanding and patients. And these are things
(38:29):
that have been passed down to your sisters and yourself
that you inherently get that you may not have to
pull them out to utilize them or understand them yet,
but they're inherently in you and your sisters. I don't
know what that feels like, but I do know that
(38:50):
I've been you know, I'm I'm so lucky that I
have parents who have been able to understand that that
that we all kind of grow And I think we
got really lucky that, like you said, we all like
each other just as much as we love each other now.
But the there's a lot of a lot of things
that you guys say, like in general, because most of
the time when I have guests on here, I can
(39:12):
be like, oh, I totally relate to that, but I
really don't. I have no relation to being being a parent,
and hopefully I don't have one. But maybe like in
ten years down the line, I'll be able to call
you and be like, hey, remember when you said that
thing on my podcast. I get it now here we are,
um ten years then they're old enough that they're not
just like little babies. So the flip to that then
(39:33):
is seeing your kid grow up. And I know that
you I I'd like to think that when you have
a child, you have like an idea of like, man,
my kid's never going to do this, or my my
kid is never gonna, you know, drink, or my kids
never gonna do that. And obviously I've referenced it a
lot in this podcast, how we were raised and uh,
(39:55):
and how that's really shaped who I am as a person,
And it's really shape to my personality, and it's really
shaped my beliefs and the and the faith that I
have and in and the the amount of important families
and all of these things. But just as much as
kids grow up and they find out that their parents
aren't superheroes, I think parents watch their kids grow up
(40:15):
and they find out that no matter how hard you
can steer your children in the right direction, which is
what I think you guys did, inevitably, there's still going
to be human beings, and they're still going to be adults,
and they're probably going to differ in some ways that
you had originally not planned for them to differ in.
Um So, I guess one of my last questions before
we get into this ask my parents anything, is how
(40:38):
do you navigate those feelings when your children start acting
in ways? And this is for any parents out there,
not even just our family. How do you navigate those
feelings when your kids aren't doing what you had hoped
or originally wished they would do. There are too many
answers for navigating your feelings. However, I think if you
know to love your children and can, then everything that
(41:03):
comes your way or their way is very Uh, you
can handle it. You can deal with it. Yeah. I
An actual example came to mind is I remember listening
your dad came home and he showed me, Um, your
gospel at twenty three songs. And I remember listening to
(41:24):
old a f and you know, to be completely honest
as a mom. If I didn't love, I don't love
hearing you say those words and UM, but I listened
to all the words. I listened to it several times.
And then I don't know if you remember this, but
I flew to l A, I'm sorry, and UM. We
(41:49):
talked about it. I told you how I felt. I
asked you if I could have done something better as
a parent to make your life better. And you explained
to me your whole feelings on writing it, and you
explained everything, and I was just at peace, and and
I knew that these were your words, these were your truth.
(42:09):
And as much as you know, maybe if you've made
or make choices that are different from maybe we would
have written on paper as what we outlined for your life.
The most important thing. I've said this to so many people,
that is that you have a heart of gold. You
(42:30):
are a good person. You even if it's not the
choices I would make, you're a good person and you
help and you have this amazing sense about you. So
it's like that to me, I'd rather you be there
and be happy than maybe, you know, being stifled and
not being your unique and true self. Yeah, your mom is.
(42:53):
She's always been very uh sensitive once again to each
of your needs, but a lot of them are in
this sense, was you know, her need to express to
you how um it was so different for her, such
a big change for her. I, on the other hand,
I believe in not blocking any of the artistic vibes
(43:16):
or creativity. And when I heard heard that, of course,
you know, the first thoughts are, man, Will Smith never
had to swear, you know, and it was just because
you had such a clean upbringing. I remember reading on
on your YouTube videos, you know, people saying how Chemey
doesn't cuss, Well, it's because people use profanity as a
(43:39):
descriptive words. We both grew up in the ld S faith,
and so you know, we were taught not to drink,
not to smoke, not to use profanity and and so
these are things that oh, you've seen us roll with,
you know, as your parents. But try me. They haven't
(44:01):
been that difficult. They haven't been that challenging. It's just
been different, right, And I think what you had mentioned
earlier is like it was how you two were raised,
and you were raised, I think it's also a much
different generation. Um, and then you come up and you
have your children, and it's it's impossible to track. And
this is something that I'm just completely assuming is you know,
(44:24):
it's impossible to track where the world's going to go.
So you can't raise your kids in the perfect way
to act the exact same way when the world isn't
gonna give that same environment that you guys were raised in.
And I think that that can be really, really hard,
because especially when it comes to religion, or when it
comes to faith, or when it comes to family values
or any of those things, it's hard to keep those
exact same family values when the world around you is
(44:47):
a complete one eighty. You know, it's it's it's it's
hard when the you know, when the F word at
your guys generation was used so sparingly that you would
genuinely be shocked when you hear the word and now
you walk outside and if you if you don't hear
it in a single conversation, you're more surprised that you
didn't hear those words. And so it's little things like
(45:09):
that that can be really really difficult for a parent,
at least in my opinion. Um. But at the same time,
I think, I think about so many ways that you
have You guys, as parents, have been amazing in letting
our different lives that we've led in our experiences that
we've come to independently as children, and then we come
(45:31):
back and we bring those to you. I think something
that's been really really awesome, especially you know, I'll even
say this last year with the election and everything, and
you saw so many trending videos of kids yelling at
their parents because the kids supported one side and the
parents supported another side, or you have like you know,
there's everybody always uses the term old heads, which is like,
you know, parents who are stuck in their ways, or
(45:52):
older people who are aren't willing to learn about the
new generation or what's going on. And I think one
thing that I will credit to you having such a strong,
open conversation relationship. I think at this point, both of
you guys know pretty much everything I've ever done in
in terms of the good, the bad, and the ugly
I've I've been comfortable enough to say, hey, do you
(46:14):
guys know that I did this? Or you've asked me
even like, hey have you guys, have you ever done this?
And we can have you know. On the flip side
of that, son, there's also when I say the flip side,
we were just talking about something that you've done that
has surprised us, some kind of took us back. But
on the other hand, you know, there's a saying you
learned from your children too, and you know, the first
(46:36):
thing that comes to mind is your support of lgbt Q.
Mom and I were raised that that was totally on
the other side of the fence, and and we didn't
know very many people who were gay or lesbian or
different that way. And but we what we did know
is that we taught you and your sisters to love people,
(46:58):
to love everyone, and not to judge. Those are the
two biggest things we've taught our children. And so when
we saw your support for that, we had to face
each other and say, that's what we taught them. We
taught we taught our kids to love and not be
judgmental and to accept. And so those old heads, I
totally get what you I know what you mean by that,
(47:21):
but that is also purely an example of how we've
learned from our kids, and we're never too old to learn.
I think also too, you just said something that made
me think of something, which is, like you said, the
lessons that you taught, you know, lessons that you taught
us that might manifest out in different ways than you
had originally taught them. You know, you said, love everybody,
and even though in your generation that might have just
(47:43):
meant make sure you give money to provide food for
the homeless of those who have least like it can
manifest into something completely different. I think of I think
of so many ways in which I could twist and
spin lessons that you've you guys have both taught me
into things that I do on our everyday basis. I
think of quality over quantity and everything in moderation. When
(48:05):
I think of the times that I decided to try drinking,
or the times that I that I smoked or or
would do this or that, and and and I think
that that's something also that you can't. Are we gonna
have to give him a third that you can't you know,
those are things that you can't you don't know, like, oh,
I actually taught him that. And and there's so many
(48:26):
lessons if any, if anything, all of the lessons that
I've applied to my life would be lessons that I
learned from me. Whether it's whether it's quality over quantity,
or you know, it's all about good food, good family,
and good music and things like that, all of these
lessons that we learned. Um and so I think as
we close out this segment and we get into this
A m A, it has been so cool getting to
(48:49):
feel and experience every season that is being your guys
son and getting to experience that. We went from a
stage where I and you'll hear in my podcast with
my sisters about out the time that I got caught
making out with Jamie Arrato and I had to come
home and I had we had the talk of you know,
being disappointed in me all of those little things, getting
(49:10):
spanked at, you know, at three years old for peeing
on my sisters and all that stuff too. Even now
being an adult and being able to like tell you
guys like, hey, guys, I tried this or I tried that.
Check this out. And and you, as incredible listeners and
learners as well as incredible teachers, get to provide this
open space that we can come home for Christmas. Whether
(49:32):
we all come from different walks of life that year,
we are all completely unified that year. Especially this year,
we've all been so isolated from each other that we
get to come back here and we feel so open
and loving. So I want to thank you both for
being the best parents that you guys are and providing
the environment that helped me at least and and and
I'll speak for the girls as well, and them as
(49:53):
well become who who we are and and get to
apply all that in our lives. Um, we're gonna take
a quick break, and when we come back, we have
the A M A which is asked me anything, or
also known as the A M P A, which is
asked my parents anything, don't go anywhere. Al Right, we
are back. This is let's get into it. I'm with
my parents and we've had like I feel like this
(50:14):
episode is definitely unique than more unique than the other ones.
I also realized like halfway through this episode that my
my own energy in this episode is different, and it's
because I'm talking to my parents. UM, so cheers to that. Mom, Dad,
how you is doing? We're doing great? Yes. So I
went on my Instagram and uh, and I asked all
(50:35):
of the fans to hit me up with questions that
they wish they could ask their parents, or questions that
they just want me to ask you about us. So
we're gonna start super easy and uh. And the first
question is how do you feel about my hair? Do
you like it long? Or do you want me to
cut it? I think you're a beautiful hair and it's
long and as sorry now, um, I don't know if
(50:57):
everyone knows, but we didn't cut Alex's hair to he
turned three, so he had long hair as a little
boy and I loved it and he had the curls
and I think it's beautiful long hair. I do love
his his face with the sides, like when his side
just to be super short. But I like it now
how you can pull it back and I see that. Um,
(51:19):
but I say, whatever makes you happy, you have good
long hair and lose the mustache. They definitely hate the mustache.
Facial hair. They do not like they do not like
the facial hair. But you know what, that's okay, that's
totally fine. Okay. So this question is from sid dot
(51:39):
lou how did they birth beautiful Sydney and then follow
up with a toad like you. Um, that's from my
sister and we're gonna we're not gonna take that question,
thank you very much. UM. Here's another question. Speaking of sisters,
here's a question, hallie ion know how are babies made? Oh? Wow?
Did we never tell her? No? Do you know what's
(52:00):
really funny? Did you know that you, at least with me.
You guys never had the talk with me. I thought
your dad, did I give that this was the talk.
This was the talk. And I don't know if you
remember this, Dad, but this was the talk that I do.
At this point, I was eighteen, I was dating a
certain person, um, and I think literally the conversation was like, hey, son,
I don't know what you're doing out there, but just
(52:20):
be safe, all right? And I was like, all right,
thanks dad. Wait wait wait, because I didn't think that
was the talk. I thought the talk was when you
were in seventh or eighth grade and you came home
and you told me something that happened with a young lady,
and I tried my very best to not be surprised,
but we did have a little talk about young ladies
(52:43):
at that time. I don't remember that. Um, this is
a fun question. How would you say your guy's parenting
style is different than your parents parenting style? We already
talked about the communication mom, we already talked about the
iron fist Dad, But like, what else do you feel
like it was really different in the way that you
guys decided to parent. Our parents came from such a
(53:06):
different era, and I think that we've just trusted each
other and talked about it, you know, the decisions we've
made as parents before, during, and after. But I definitely
would say that your mom and I put communication up
there first. Where I never really saw my parents communicate,
(53:28):
let alone be Um, they weren't outwardly loving and they
didn't show a lot of what an intimacy either, you know,
or so we never really saw romantic moments. But somehow
I grew up in a family of ten kids, so yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know, had to happen somehow. Yeah, But I just
(53:51):
think that parenting changes with eras Also, Yeah, I think
you definitely have to be flexible. I mean, because we
what we did is we took the good things from
our parents, and I think that's kind of what I
hope this for you all, is that you take the
good things that you had as your parents and you
enhance it and you make it even better. I'm not
(54:12):
going to say I am a better mom than my
mom was, but I hope that I took things traits
from her and then I just made it better for
your generation. And I hope that's what I hope for
you guys. I love that. I love that. So this
one's this one is a little bit more personal. When
was the first time that you guys were disappointed in me?
(54:34):
They're asking some really good one. I mean, which time? No,
I mean honestly, and we talked about it a lot.
Is the I just didn't know how to handle when
you peete on your sisters like that. To me, I
was I grew up with only sisters, so such a
boy thing to do, and I just was like, that's
(54:56):
why I just put its seriously grossed out where I
was laughing and I thought it was funny, but I
knew the seriousness of it, and I knew you know
that we had to approach it as parents, and uh,
but I don't think that was the first time I
was man, I just pointed me before that I was
like three years old. Are you going to be disappointed
(55:17):
with me? And three years old or younger? I know,
the first time I can think of that I was disappointed.
I had taken you to the Super Bowl and we
had the hookups to where we were able to go
and watch the Arizona Cardinals practice for the Super Bowl.
At that time, we were able to like go and
(55:38):
get signatures, and I wanted you to go get one
from Larry Fitzgerald, and for some reason you just froze
up and you you wouldn't go over and get it.
And I remember getting frustrated with you and saying, so
I go over there, and I almost had almost like
push you over there. So I don't know if that's
the disappointment as a word, but once you know, I
(55:59):
had pete on my sisters for it had been nine
years now since I pete on my sisters, So you
weren't disappointed. We have to point out the fact that
we can we just say it as it is now.
You were not disappointed when I Pete on my sisters.
I was not disappointed. It's a guy thing. I actually
totally remember that, and I remember just being I don't
even know what it was. I can't remember why I
(56:19):
didn't go up to Larry. But Larry, if you hear this,
I'm going to find you one day and take a
picture with you so that my dad can be proud
of me again. Next question, what are your best tips
for your children becoming independent slash becoming mature? Let them
try trial and error, giving them the opportunity talking about it,
(56:40):
giving advice if they if you feel like it's super
important for their safety or whatnot, or if it's asked for.
But I think just giving them the freedom for the
trial and error. I know this saying is used a lot,
but it was so tried and true, and that don't
be afraid to fail. It makes you tougher and you
(57:04):
learned from every failure. Don't be afraid to fail. Don't
be afraid to fail. I like that. This next question
it is uh, it's this one's an interesting one. What's
the hardest thing that you ever had to say to
us as kids? Son you're adopted, What was the hardest
(57:26):
thing I feel like to me if if I if
I can add my I would say the hardest thing
that I in my memory that you told us was
when we came we were driving home from the cruise
and you told us that that our dog Tate had
died while we were on our cruise. Yeah. UM, I
think death is a hard one. Um. You well, you
weren't born, your and your sisters were young when nana
(57:48):
um passed away. Um, we had Papa passed away and
we had passed away. Um. But death is hard and
even though it's part of life, that one really does
stand out when Tate when we got off the cruise
and we knew during the whole cruise because it happened
at the beginning of the cruise and the person, the
(58:09):
friend that was watching him for us, was able to
contact this earlier in the cruise, but we chose not
to tell you till after. Yeah. I think that's probably
the hardest in my memory would definitely be Tate when
when you guys let us know about that. But like
you mentioned, yeah, unfortunately there's gonna be hard conversations to have.
But let's let's dance over to some some more fun stuff.
(58:31):
How did you come up with all of our names.
So Taylor Taylor's name is Taylor Tamari and Taylor is
my mom's maiden name, and Tomari is dad's mom's maiden names,
so she got her grandma's maiden names. Nice Sydney is
Sydney Lee. Lee is my maiden name, so that was
her middle name, and Sydney it was actually Grammy's hairdresser.
(58:53):
We were going to possibly name her Samantha, but I
just don't love Samantha for her, and then it was
Grammy's hairdresser said Sydney. And her name is spelled s
I d any Y because I loved the name Sydney
and she was not named after Australia. And then you.
I before, when we had the two girls, I wanted
a girl named Alex and Dad didn't like that name
(59:16):
for a girl. So when you were born, actually when
we were dating, we both liked the name Ian for
a boy, and when you were born, you just were
not in Ian, and so I and ion O though,
that's that's I mean, you can't get a stronger name
than I and ion Oh. We had said that to
someone and they said E I E I O and
so kind of it sounds like. So anyways, when so
(59:40):
we're like, well, what about alex And then we started
going We said Martin. I love the name Martin, but
Dad didn't want that, and so I said, okay, well
how about Martin Alexander. You're not a junior but and
we'll call him Alex. And so that's how he came
up with your name. And then Hallie, right Hallie. I
wanted to name her Sloan because as I was at
(01:00:00):
an amusement park and there were four kids and their
their kids were Taylor, Sydney, Alex and Sloan no joke.
When I was pregnant with Hallie, and I was like,
I love that, and they're all kind of like unisex names,
and so I was like, okay, we'll do that. And
then where she was born and um, I said that name,
and Dad I could just see on his face he
did not like that name. And but while while I
(01:00:23):
was pregnant with Hallie, the second parent Trap came out
and one of the twins, played by Lindsay Lohan, her
name was Hallie. And I would watch the credits of
every movie I watched when I was pregnant with all
you guys to see the names, and her name was
Hallie h A L L I E. And that's where
she came from. I like it. I like it hall
(01:00:43):
Elizabeth Elizabeth in her middle name. Good names names for
some good kids. Um, well, listen, we have time for
I think one more question, and I want to make
it a juicy one. This person says, I'm a first
time parent. How do I stop feeling aulty for standing
up for my own parenting? For me, it goes back
(01:01:04):
to kind of what I did this week, and give
yourself the space, give yourself the grace and the space
to be the best you can be. I don't think
you ever need to apologize. I have a joke I
always say if I've done something like and I'll be like, oh,
mother of the Year, I won the award right there,
allowing myself knowing, Okay, probably wasn't the best parenting or
(01:01:26):
my shining is moment as a as a mom, but
allowing almost make a joke out of it, because all
I can say is I tried to be my best.
I've tried to improve. I've watched other people to to
get tips, read you know this, that and the other
to try to do the best. But you also have
to dig down deep get that instinct, that motherly, fatherly
(01:01:47):
instinct that is there I believe in anyone, and just
do your best and give yourself that space, but not
beat yourself up. That's exactly what I was gonna say.
Don't beat yourself up. Just put your best foot forward,
like Mom said, with your motherly or fatherly instincts, trust them,
and just try to do your best. Don't beat yourself up.
(01:02:09):
I would say. My takeaway is that and it's something
that you guys did. And I think from the beginning
of this episode you've identified that it's something you did,
which is um. You obviously had your goals for us.
You had what you wanted to be as parents, from
being communicative and leading with love and not necessarily and
iron fist. And as we grew up and we're adults
now and we're all everybody in this house except for Mila,
(01:02:30):
is now like a full blown adult with our own life.
You guys excelled in your understanding that you won't be that,
you won't be perfect. It won't be perfect, We won't
be perfect. Nothing is going to be perfect. But you guys,
you guys excelled in and doing your best and and
really as as cheesy as the line is forgetting the rest. Um.
(01:02:50):
But thank you both for taking some holiday time to
be on this podcast. We're getting paid for this, right,
so we'll figure stulf thing out after this. Um. But
right now this is Usually it's with people who are
promoting projects or anything. UM. But I think you guys
are just such clowns that let's tell everybody your Instagram
so that they can find you on Instagram. It's called
(01:03:12):
not so shameless promo. Mom, what's your Instagram handle? My
Instagram is has h e z as in zebra Iona
has Iona dad Uh It's Martin iona a i O
n oh and you know me alex Iono. Best part
about having a weird last name you do not have
to worry about having a h an interesting tag. Um.
(01:03:33):
But guys, thank you so much for coming on. Thank
you for listening to the podcast. Please make sure you
rate and subscribe. That is how we grow. I love you, guys.
I'm gonna go enjoy a bunch of cinnamon rolls and
Mom's chocolate cake. I'll see you guys later weeks. We
(01:03:54):
really want you to get the help you need. So
if you need help, please seek independent advice from a
competent healthcare or mental health professional. The views and opinions
expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast
author or individuals participating in the podcast, and do not
represent the opinions of iHeartMedia or its employees. This podcast
should not be used as medical advice, mental health advice, counseling,
or therapy. Listening to the podcast does not established doctor
(01:04:15):
patient relationship with hosts or guests of ALEXIONO, Let's Get
Into It or I Heeartmedia. No guarantee is given regarding
the accuracy of any statements or opinions made on this podcast. Well,
if that's a doozy
My name is Alex, and I have the coolest parents
in the whole world. No, no, alright, it will be
alright forever, No, al right, will be all right for ever.
(00:24):
All right, y'all. So I'm actually here with my family
and Utah for the holidays. I am very, very fortunate,
as I mentioned in the Christmas episode, that I do
get to spend the holidays with my family, and I
thought this would be the perfect time for me to
actually do the episode that I've really really been wanting
to do since I started this podcast. I want to
introduce you to my parents, but actually, like just me
(00:45):
tell you about them before you actually meet them. I
was the only boy, so I didn't have to ever
fight for like my dad's attention, or I never had
to like fight for tickets to the basketball game or
the football game. Um. But I got to just hang
out with my sisters, and I got to really get
into much with the beauty that is femininity and the
beauty that is women, and I got to be a
(01:06):
real true mama's boy. And and my sisters taught me
how to talk to girls and how to dress and
and uh and it was really a great setup. And
and if you know me at all, You'll know that
I always say that it's my favorite thing about my
life is my family and my parents, including that. Um So,
I thought it would be an incredible idea to have
my parents on here and to talk about what it
(01:28):
was like being their kid, and talk about what is
like having them as parents, and then talking about, you know,
what life is like now that I am twenty four
years old and I as much as I'm still a
mama's boy and I'm still the best son in the world.
How like they also happened to be like my best
friends in the whole world. So it got me thinking,
if you could ask your parents anything, what would you
(01:50):
ask them? What's up? Y'all? It's alex I. Oh no,
this is my podcast. Let's get into it where we
really talk about everything, and we don't We talk about
everything regardless of who's in the room, including my old
mom and dad. We're gonna have a great time today.
I'm gonna paint the picture for you. So I'm at
my parents house. We have Mila and Sydney and Taylor
(02:12):
and Halle and the outside trying their best to not
make noise, but with a one year old that's pretty tough.
So if you hear anything coming from outside, that's what
it is. But also here in this room, I've got
my two favorite people on earth, and I'm going to
introduce you to them now. First up, she is not
only the best mom in the world, but she's also
the best customer support agent at Purple Mattresses. She makes
(02:36):
an incredible chocolate cake, and she's most likely gonna cry
during this episode. My mom, Heather, I own, Oh what's up? Mom?
Thanks first setting me up? And she's crying. And Uh,
the man that she's been with for the last twenty
nine years, twenty eight years, twenty nine years, thirty years.
(02:56):
More than that, he is my best friend. He is
my number one fan. And um, he taught me how
to gamble and I won some money last time I
was in Vegas thanks to that teaching. Uh, my dad,
Martin Ion, know what's up? Dad? How are you all right? Son?
Good to be here, and I'm glad that you had
a successful weekend this weekend Vegas. So we have some
(03:19):
We have three interesting topics to talk about. First one
is New Year. Knew you in quotes again? Uh that
we're gonna be talking about the big important questions. And lastly,
we have an A m A which is asked Me anything,
or in this case it's an A M P A,
ask my parents anything. I went on Instagram and ask
you guys to give us some questions that you've always
maybe wanted to ask your parents or things that you
(03:40):
were scared to ask your parents. And my parents are
going to do the heavy lifting for all of us,
which is great. But before we get into that, I
have a question that I ask all of my guests,
and that question is what are you doing this week
to improve yourself? I will start this week. I've been
really focusing on this something my therapist and I talked
about a lot, because I think he says I have
(04:01):
anticipatory anxiety and what I what comes with that is
I always focus on what's next, or what's coming or
or the future. And one of the biggest things that
I've been working on, especially this week leading up to
the holidays, and usually for me, there's twenty million things
to do on my holiday's list, and I want to
make sure I get every single one of them done. Um,
but the biggest thing that I've been focusing on is
(04:22):
doing what's right in front of me. Doing the first
like what's like the next thing only and not focusing
on what comes after that. So that's how I've been
trying to improve my life this week. But now that
you guys have an example, Mom, do you have something
I do, it kind of goes a little bit along
with yours. I was stressed with this week, starting with
trying to get Christmas perfect. You know, it's like my
(04:44):
favorite holiday. I want to make sure everyone is equal
and fair. We have the right amount of presents. Yeah,
you definitely, you always my mom. Make sure that you
always have like everybody has the same amount of presents,
like nobody has one more one lass. But it's also
fed into me my sisters like death. If she ever
does mess up and one of us gets one more,
(05:06):
one less than she never hears the end of it.
So true. So with everything being as it is this year,
I had to let go is what I had to
do this week and realize it couldn't be exactly how
I wanted it to be, like with gifts, and just
focus on being present. I actually have for the first time.
(05:27):
I have everything wrapped. I have our ball game that
we play every year. It is like in the closet
ready to go. I'm usually making that ball Christmas Eve
at midnight. It's already so I can be present since
everyone is now here in Utah with us. I like it.
And that was my That was my when I had
a few weeks ago, as I got my Christmas shopping
done super early. Dad, what you got? Um? Mine is
(05:50):
kind of similar to mom. I really want to be
present and appreciate all four of my kids and my
amazing son in law, and especially my grand baby. And
so I just want to sit back and absorb, take
it all in and enjoy the company and and the
spirit of each of them. Nice. That's those are Those
(06:11):
are good ones to have, and they're great ways for
us to get straight into it because as much as
we try and do things every week to make ourselves better,
we are coming to the ultimate day of of doing
things to be better, which is New Year's Day. Everybody's
got resolutions, and we're here now talking about New Year.
New you just to kind of we'll we'll break the ice,
(06:32):
will get comfortable, and then we can get into some
more juicy parents stuff. UM, so let's do it. A
lot of people have advice about New Year's resolutions. Um,
some people don't like the New Years resolutions. Recently, actually
haven't really been into Year's resolutions because I feel like
the way that I used to do them, which was
like every day I'm working out starting today, and I
realized that I would just totally fall off the wagon
(06:53):
by the second week of February or even the second
week of January or what about you guys? Are you
guys resolutions people? Um, I've never been one like write
it down, keep track of it that way. I definitely
make goals in my head of things that I want
to do, but I try to give myself some grace
(07:13):
in if I if I fail, even if it's quickly
on in the year, and just also know that it's
okay to reassess and restart. I like that dad. I
used to Mom knows there was a place in Hawaii
that I'd like to be um New Year's Eve too
and write down my goals for that year. But at
(07:35):
that time, I think I was looking more for structure
in my life. These days, I think starting uh fifty
two times a year is a lot easier on me,
and so I feel like I could start all over
each week starting quick. With some wisdom there Martin, I
feel like sometimes for New Years, at least for me,
I'll spend half of the time thinking about the year
(07:55):
that just happened, and then I'll spend the other half
of the time thinking, Okay, what do I want to
do this year? What's coming up this year? Um? But
this year, I feel like it's pretty it's pretty easy
for me to want to just think about what's next
and trying to figure out what's coming up after this.
But that being said, what do you think is the
most important thing that you guys learned in a year
like this that was super weird and super dividing, and
(08:15):
a lot of bad stuff happened, and it definitely wasn't
the year that any of us were expecting it to be. Um,
I think it, just like I said before, kind of
to let go, let go of those preconceived things you
think have to happen, and you have to let go
because we weren't in control. There were so many things
that normally were in control of that we actually weren't
(08:36):
in control of this year, and we had to let
go and try to find the happiness in the joy
and what we did have control in, and also to
keep it simple life was super simple for most of
the year. That being said, there were some very hard
times and sad times when we couldn't be together, but
we would just make the best of it. When we
(08:57):
one of us was down, I feel like we tried
to all the rest pick up and pick up the
pieces and just try to stay positive and keep it simple.
I agree. I agree. It's a very different year, but
you can look at it as the glass half empty
or that glass half full. We uh, your parents, We've
(09:17):
got to spend a lot more time this year together
than we ever have probably in our whole marriage, and
that's because of a lot of the circumstances this year.
Well look at that. You guys are the first people
have been on the show that aren't like this year sucked,
including me. So all right, Well, now that we have
broken that ice, let's get into parenting. It's what we
(09:39):
have that connects us to You guys are my parents.
So um, I feel like there's so many things that
I've thought of in my own childhood into my young
adulthood of like, oh, I want to make sure I
do that when I have a kid, or like I
want to make sure that I treat my kid like this,
or my kid always feels like this when you guys
are growing up, Like, what were your thoughts about that?
Was there anything specific? And we'll start with you, dad,
(10:00):
that like that made you go like, oh man, when
I become a dad, I definitely want to be this,
or like I definitely want to teach my kids this. Yeah.
As a matter of fact, when I was dating your mom,
we decided we dated for two weeks and decided to
get married. Oh yeah, we didn't even get to that
part yet. There's a long we're gonna go. We're gonna
crack into that in just a sect, but go continue on.
(10:22):
In that two weeks, one of the things she shared
with me was that she'd never gotten a spanking from
her parents, and that blew me away. Um, you know,
being from a Polynesian background when I grew up, my
my dad lad with the iron hand, and so I
couldn't understand it when she told me, and I thought
(10:43):
she was joking. But as we spoke a lot more
in depth about it, I made it a goal. I
said to myself, I want to be a parent that
doesn't punish his children physically, and I want to lead
my family without the eye in hand, I can proudly
say other than two times, which both I deserved it.
(11:04):
One I pete on my sisters and two I choked
my sisters with my bare hands. Just just hallie, just hallie.
That was true. You did, you did a good job.
So congratulations on that, Mom. Do you have anything specific?
I think I just wanted to have. I grew up
with great parents who I knew loved me. But I
think one it's a it was a generational thing. Is
(11:26):
I wanted to be able to communicate because I felt
like there was a lot of times and still as
a struggle in my family to always have open and
honest communication because I feel like that's the only way
to truly be happy and to truly love each other,
and especially love each other unconditional, which is so important
(11:49):
to me in capitalizing on on that communication, son, I
think the most important thing you mentioned the two times
that you were spanked, but more importantly was the communication
and how it played out, because, for instance, the very
first time was when you peet on your sisters because
they wouldn't let you play with them, and we can
(12:09):
all agree that was probably a pretty valid reason to
be on them. Yes, and uh, but not the right
to take um. However, I knew how you were feeling.
But if you remember, we gathered as a family and
had a family meeting. We had a full family. It
was a full situation, and we discussed what had taken
(12:31):
place and and uh, what you had done, and we
also discussed what you thought would be the right amount
of spankings. Uh, these are bare butt spankings. And by
the way, I want you to know the seriousness of
this spanking. You got to choose, and I don't know why. Yeah,
at three years old, for some reason, you chose the
(12:52):
number four. And I remember my heart dropping and going, well,
that's a lot, okay, he said, four kids, and and
I chose four spanking had known I was a weirdo
of back then. I was like giving four of them.
Your sisters were all crying after the first everybody's crying.
First crying, I'm crying, girls crying. Dad's crying. Yeah, that's tears.
(13:16):
Hit my ass, my bare ass, and it hurt a
little bit more, staying a little more, didn't it, gave
it a little gave it a little stinger. And then
the second time was very very similar, very similar. After
choking Hallie and I thought she had stolen I thought
she had stolen my candy. And I think that's a
pretty valid punishment for the accusation of stealing. And I
think we had warned him once, like a really good warnings.
(13:39):
What do you mean? But that also, if you recall,
took a lot of communicating and explaining to you why
it was happening. Once again, you got to choose, and um,
luckily you didn't choose four. You just chose three. Learned
my last and the fourth one is when the tear
was on my ass and it hurt. The good news
(14:01):
is that both of you guys's goals that you had
have come true because we are all great at communicating,
all all six of us. I guess all eight of
us now including Mela is very good at communicating when
she wants stuff. But I want to go back a
little bit because you talked about, and I'm so used
to it that that that's how you and mom met
and how you guys got married. But when people here
(14:21):
that after two weeks of dating you decided you're going
to get married, uh, most people's jaws just dropped to
the floor. So we need to hear a little bit
more about how that all went down. The first night
we went out, we kissed, and the next fourteen days
there wasn't a day that went by it we didn't
see each other. And on the fourteenth day, right around there,
(14:45):
we were on our way to the gym, it was
like six third in the morning, and uh, I asked
you how seriously you felt about us? And you paused
and thought about it, and then you said, I'm seriously
enough that if you were to ask me married now,
I'd say yes, and that's it. And I said, well,
it's own, let's get married. That is true. I was
(15:10):
nineteen um and wasn't looking to get married by any means.
But when it's right and it's the time, it's the time,
you know it. We were married almost a year from
that date. That is the exact reason why I told
so many women that I loved them, because my parents
had that as the preface of what it is to
get married. So Uh, any girls who are hurt from
(15:34):
the fact that I told them I loved them and
then probably broke up with them within that year, I
want you to know. That's why don't blame me, blame
my parents. It's their fault. And then you guys. You
guys got married, So how do you before we get
into the parenting stuff, how do you guys feel what
is the secret to having a successful and happy marriage? Man,
(15:56):
that was such a loaded question, that pretty loaded. I
would say, once again, communication. You know, we've definitely had
a lot of bumps along the road and in our
thirty years. But a couple of things that come to
mind for me. Um A term that Dad introduced to
me was brutal honesty, and it's not always fun, but
(16:21):
it's definitely successful in a relationship. So I would say
brutal honesty, communication, and forgiveness and fight for what you want.
Definitely fight for what you want. And we were just
talking about it, as we talk about it quite often,
(16:41):
how grateful we feel that we've had such an amazing
life so far, and how much we love our family
and our children and to watch them grow, to watch
them find happiness. And after thirty years, I can honestly
say that I love your other more than I loved
her the day I married her. No, it's really it's
(17:04):
real though, it is true. I feel exactly the same.
We talked about it often. That makes me very very
happy to hear so I think the reason why a
lot of people listen to this podcast and the reason
why I wanted people to hear this conversation was because
a lot of people grow and learn over time, and
especially younger people are growing and learning over time. And
(17:25):
I don't think that that's necessarily something in my conversations
with plenty of older people and and including both of you,
including old friends and Sandy and Mickey uh saying that
that's like the most important thing is that you continue growing,
you continue learning, And I think that that's something that
plays into, um, what you both had mentioned of like,
you know, communicating and fighting for what you really want.
(17:47):
And I think those are the foundations of things that
that should not ever stop happening. UM, So what are
ways that you guys continue learning on your own and
also together? I would say, you know, I would learn
a lot actually watching you guys, watching the kids and
listening and you guys open my mind to things that
(18:08):
are very current and ways of thinking that we weren't raised,
but we keep it, keep an open mind, and UM,
love growing in that way and love just learning all
the time watching other people, and I think talking about
it too. You know, once again, like I think old
school says, you know, you don't talk about your issues,
(18:31):
you don't talk about what you've been through, but you're
what you're feeling. And I think now it's so important
that you just have to not hold anything in and
just communicate, open up. I think another great thing that
your mom's taught me is the difference between reacting and responding.
(18:52):
Such a big difference. And I'd say I was a
pretty reactive young man, you know, early in her marriage,
and she's she's taught me how to respond to things
rather than react right right, and and that's I think
those are nice things to to not only have with
each other in a marriage, but also, uh, the reason
why you're here on this podcast is because it's also
(19:14):
good things to have, like as a parent. So what
was it like raising us? Most importantly me, Well, I
have a scene and Dad always kind of rolls his
eyes a little bit, and I've altered it over the
years because I always just say, oh, I have I
have perfect kids, and Dad would roll his eyes. No
one is perfect, we know that, but my scene is
(19:34):
I have four perfect in my eyes children. So I think,
you know, initially when we first had Taylor and we
were so young, we really wanted it to be like, Okay,
obviously it's she's going to change our lives, but we
don't want it to change it in things that we
enjoy doing. We wanted you all to be included in
our lives and what we do. UM, and I think
(19:57):
that was like a big thing with us. You know,
obviously there were times and places where it wasn't appropriate
to bring four little kids to certain events, but as
long as it was appropriate, you guys were there with us,
and we just went appropriate included you in our lives
so you could, you know, experience the things that we
loved that you guys were there with us. I'm looking
(20:18):
at that picture behind you of Mom and the four
of you, and I remember, um, that years right around
two thousand, wasn't it? Wasn't it two thousand and UM?
I can recall that we hadn't even purchased our first
home yet. Um. We did later that year, but looking
at that picture, I reflect back and think, man, we
(20:42):
had it all back then. We It wasn't about getting
the new house or building the new house or any
other material things. It was just having our family together
and being happy. That's nice, that's super tight. I mean,
I think that that's something that I wanted to ask you,
dad about, because you mentioned like back then when we
(21:03):
didn't own a house or we didn't have this, we
didn't have that before we kind of had all grown
up and I got to live the super luxurious life
that I did as a child. Then, thank you, thank you.
Um But but but in seriousness, our household was pretty traditional,
I guess I'll say in the sense that mom, once
(21:26):
we were all as as we were all home and
growing up as children, you stayed home for the most part.
You worked a little bit for the airlines throughout. But Dad,
you worked a pretty grueling schedule of work to put
food on the table. Plus you know so much more
than that. Um So my next question is for you, Dad,
which is how did you balance working your ass off
(21:46):
and providing and doing so much for the family on
the work like away from us, I don't never think
about you being like less of a good dad because
you're always gone. Like I know, there's a lot of
kids who are like I don't even know. I never
had a relationship with my dad. I always had a
great relationship with you. I think all of us did.
But you also still were working five six days a week,
you know, big, big, double digit hours. That's a good question.
(22:08):
I think I think you've inherited it as well, the
belief and playing hard and working hard. We always had
activities as a family and fun things to do, but
we also had our quiet time as a family where
we would just spend quality time and not have to
use an activity to get out and go together. Um.
(22:30):
A lot of it is through trial and error too,
and time management. I look back, and I might have
a different point of view. I might, you know, be
thinking I wish I had spent more time, or I
wish I hadn't missed out. You know, many times I
did miss out on the activities that you and your
sisters were doing or that you participated in just due
(22:52):
to work. But I always fought included because Mom was
great with the video camera and I was still able
to feel like I was there. Yeah, I mean, and
I think we all felt the same, at least on
my end, at least, I've felt we never missed a step.
It was always like I can't remember how many times
would come and visit you at work and you'd let
me drive the golf card around to the houses and
(23:13):
all of those things. So I think that it was
more so a how did you do that type of
question more than a how do you feel about that?
But you watched us go through things that you might
have either already been through or you've already experienced, but
we had to learn the lessons for ourselves. You saw us,
you know, when in stride, and you saw us being
(23:35):
stressed about everything from homework to girls or or boys
or everything kind of under the sun. And you guys
are being parents. And I feel like sometimes while you
might have known the answers, or you might have known
exactly what we needed to do or what we didn't
need to worry about. Um, you might have been your
tongue so that we could experience those things for ourselves.
(23:55):
But are there anything specifically that you wish you could
have told us? You know that maybe in your mind
you were like, man, you guys are you're giving way
too much energy to this this stress or this worry.
I would definitely say like relationships for sure, you know,
as you guys got older, I mean that was the
hardest like to see, you know, to even kind of
(24:17):
feel I never wanted to be the parent who was
like I told you so, or you shouldn't be friends
with this person or that person. But you know, we
definitely have our instincts, and when I felt like maybe
someone wasn't good for you or one of your sister's,
kind of bite my tongue and let you write it out.
(24:38):
And then but at the same time, when that person
hurt you, which in my mother heart I felt was
going to happen, I wish, like, man, I should have
said something, but I just didn't want to be that
in your face. Mother told you so. I mean, because
you do have to. You know, life is trial and
error and you have to do that. And unfortunately, yeah,
as a mom, as a parent and mom or dad,
(25:00):
it's very hard to watch that when we know what
the outcome is going to be. But it's definitely important.
I think that we allowed you to do that. Yeah,
we wanted to make sure that you experienced it for
yourself and that we weren't interrupting your experience because of
our views. And I think that's probably one of the
(25:21):
most challenging things about being a parent, because you have
to be patient. We've had many many conversations you know
that we didn't share with you or your sisters as
you were going through a lot of these experiences that
we really just had to keep to ourselves and watch
from the sidelines. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a
lot that goes into being a parent. I have never
even been a parent, and I know that there's a
(25:42):
lot that goes into being a parent. But I think
even more than the things that you guys had to
go through with us, which were normal, like dating and
what you just mentioned in the conversations you have behind
closed doors, you guys were parents to a very unique situation,
which was me, don't go anywhere, I want to take
this to the next step up or I guess the
next piece of our conversation kick the sisters out, because
(26:04):
you guys also were very You guys were parents to
a very unique situation, which was me wanting to pursue dreams,
really chase after things. And if you've for the listeners,
if you've ever heard any interview of mine where I
reference what it was like being, you know, growing up,
and what I attribute success to, the biggest thing was
(26:24):
having a family that believed in me, having a family
that supported me. And we moved to Los Angeles from Arizona,
UM So I want to go back and kind of
relive that through your guys eyes, because I know even
in my own experience that there were a lot of people,
um even today that would never do what you guys did.
I think most parents will believe in their kid and
(26:45):
buy them a guitar if they want to learn how
to play guitar, or maybe they'll give buy them some
singing lessons or or help them do you know one
or two simple things that don't really alter their own lifestyle.
But you guys actually were open to completely uprooting out
of Arizona in moving to Los Angeles. So, in one
giant loaded question, what drove you to do that? And
(27:07):
what gave you the confidence that it was not a
wild pipe dream? Not a wild pipe dream? Son, it
was a wild pipe dream. I guess it was a
wild pipe dream. We just we you know, it was
very unorthodox, a very unorthodox move that we did. But
you know, you mentioned like some parents will get their
(27:30):
kids and guitar, you know, just to suffice them because
they want to learn how to play guitar. You were
that and so much more because not only did you
want a guitar, you want a piano and you wanted
to sing, and you would soar, and if I was
checking off the boxes, you would sore in in those areas,
(27:50):
and so we knew you were serious. Um, we know
that it's not common for your children to know what
their dream is. However, your three sisters, we look at
them in the same space as we look at you.
They just haven't told us exactly what they want to do.
You just happened to know that when you were young.
Did it warrant such an unorthodox move? No, not necessarily,
(28:11):
but at that time when we moved, uh, this timing
seemed to be right. It was quite a bit of
a sacrifice, as you know, moving from a seven thousand
square foot home to a little apartment, but it was
location and we were on the beach. We were in California,
where your mom and I both grew up and wanted
to We yearned to get back, but we didn't expect
(28:35):
to be on the beach. And if it was just
a small apartment, we'll take it. And you know, it
taught us also to go back to more of a
minimalist type of lifestyle because we had so much stuff.
And at that time, right before moving, you too to California.
I thought stuff was important at that time as a
(28:57):
growing father and becoming more and more successful. If I
were to do it again, I wouldn't concentrate so much
on stuff and really concentrate on your sister's needs and
your needs. You know, when we first decided to move
to l a Um, it wasn't just overnight. Obviously, it
was watching you. You had been asking it. We knew
(29:18):
you wanted to do it. We'd kind of thought, oh,
maybe he'll pursue it later in life. And and the
more we saw this talent and you grow, and we
kind of, you know, let you go out to l
a kind of test the waters. And of course all
parents think their kids are great, and like I said,
I have four perfect in my eyes kids. And I
(29:39):
believed you had talent. Dad believed you had talent. But
on top of the talent, we saw the drive you had,
and the work ethic and the desire and but first
and foremost on top of that is how happy it
made you. And I would think that if anyone were
to ask my kids, what did your mom want the
(30:00):
most for you? I would hope that you guys would say,
she wants us to be happy. And I think that's
that was the biggest driver. I remember someone saying to me, oh,
you want to take your son to l A to
make a buck off of him? And I was so
offended because I thought, first of all, how dare you?
But anyways, I thought, no, you know what, look at him,
(30:21):
look at how happy? Well, I think I remember who
that was that to you. I got a little black book.
I'm not gonnae I got Arizona, little black book of
people who I've gotta who I'm really gonna send Christmas
cards to when I when it's all said and done.
But yeah, I think it just was the happiness, and
it was for us. Like Dad said, you know, we
had had this stuff, We had had this, that and
(30:42):
the other, and it was that isn't what brings happiness.
It's finding your passion, finding your joy, loving fully and
um being there for one another, watching your sisters support
you and sacrifice for you in the move. To me,
I'm that all we all grew closer, our hearts grew
bigger for each other. And you know, I do it again,
(31:06):
do it again and again. Mom and I were just
talking the other week about how we both talked so
much about building the perfect home, and that perfect home.
When we did build home, you all had your own rooms,
and you all we had a big intercom system, and
we remember calling you guys for dinner on the intercom,
like in your separate rooms, and we realized that wasn't
(31:29):
the life we wanted. We wanted to be closer, and
you know, moving to California that put us closer. As
you know, we didn't have much furniture, and love sex
became our our furniture, but it also became our kitchen.
So I think when I look at that whole move
(31:50):
in general, and I look at it, I try and
look at it objectively, and when it comes to if
we were to take it not by we're just calling
it as it is. If it comes to that as
like an investment, like you invested in my dream by
moving me to Los Angeles, I think it's safe to
say for me that like it was a good investment,
(32:12):
like obviously outside of what your goal was, Mom of
saying like me being happy that happened, Dad, if we
even based it off of stuff and like experience and
getting to do it like I've been so lucky in
my career so far too to sign to a major
label and release songs and have gold records and write
songs for big artists and all these things. But I
think more importantly than that for me was that, like
(32:34):
you had mentioned, we went from having our own space
to being forced to not have our own space and
create now what was actually who we were as family,
which was all being together, so that it kind of
laid the foundation that now that we're again apart, I
think at that time really um set a foundation of
who we were going to be as all as adults
(32:57):
now all as family, and it's really made us you know,
who we are now, which is like just a bunch
of friends. I think that also just happened to be
family you mentioned before we go into this last segment
and then go into the A M. A. Dad you
had mentioned and Mom you had mentioned it as well,
kind of referencing raising each of us. So how did
you navigate raising how do you navigate being a parent
(33:21):
to four completely unique people? Definitely for unique people, Yep,
we definitely have that. UM. I think it is just
kind of giving everybody their own opportunity. Like Dad said,
obviously you're dream your passion of what you wanted to
(33:42):
do for the rest of your life came early, and
I think sometimes I could have also been hard for
your sisters because they're like, we don't know what we
want to do. And I don't want to say you
weren't normal, and like your son, your brother is not normal.
You guys are normal. But at the same time, it's
you know, most ten twelve year olds don't know exactly.
(34:03):
I mean they might by the time you're twelve, you've
gone through ten different occupations that you would like to be.
So it was just navigating, listening to everybody, providing opportunities
for them as well, and being sensitive to each of
their needs. And when I say sensitive, you almost have
to guess ahead of time um on each of your
(34:26):
kids and be proactive to their needs and what you
might think of their needs. And you're not always right,
but I think the effort. You know, I M Taylor's
your oldest sister. I try to be sensitive to Taylor's
needs um as much as I am yours and your needs.
And you don't even need me, you know, these days,
(34:49):
yet you're still our son, and we still feel like
we have to be here for you no matter what.
We know that your life isn't perfect. But each of
your sisters. You know, You're youngest sister is twenty two,
and you guys might think we spoil her the most,
and we probably do. But um, with parenting all four
of you, by time you get to the end, which
(35:12):
is your youngest sister, you kind of want to just
say yeah so much right, Like you learn it's kind
of like that commercial where it's like first baby and
you're like not letting it touch the ground, and then
it's like third baby and you're just like, I don't know,
given whatever you needs. Like it's just really at this
point whatever I don't know. I I mean knocking knocking
on real wood right now, Um that I don't have
(35:34):
to be a parent anytime soon, because it really is
a journey. But I think this weird idea that I've
always had of like I feel like when you're when
you're really young, you just think like your parents are invincible,
they're not even human. They're just like these amazing, perfect superheroes.
And then as you get older in a good way
but also just in a very human way, you find out,
(35:54):
oh they're people. I'm in person, Like we're all people
and everybody's a person. I want to ask you guys
about that whole situation, because I feel like, what were
your guys is I guess emotions as we all became
older and we all became old enough to see you
more as as friends. UM, I don't remember, like actually
(36:16):
like a point where it switched, but I do remember.
I remember hearing people say, oh, my mom's my best friend,
or my daughter's my best friend, my son's my best friend.
And I didn't really grasp that concept until maybe just
a couple of years ago, where I, like you just said,
(36:36):
if I had to choose who I could be with
you know, or who I want to be with the most,
or who I want to talk to, who I want
to see, it's true. It is it is the aid
of us that are in this house right now. And
I felt that way for a while, where I just
genuinely obviously another important concept excuse me and parenting, I think,
(36:59):
is a difference between like and love. And of course
I've always loved you, I've I will always love you,
and but how life goes, there are times in life
where we might not like each other because of choices
we've made or differences we're having. Arguments that might come
up but I couldn't honestly remember the last time I've
(37:25):
thought to myself that I haven't liked one of you,
because I like you so much. We are all very unique,
were very different. We have different beliefs and um things
in our lives that we that are important to some
might not be the most important to others. But it
doesn't matter because we like each other so much. We
(37:45):
genuine love each other unconditional, and I, as a mom,
I couldn't. I couldn't have abous for anything else. At
sixteen minutes and ten seconds she started, There we go,
number of crying Number two I would have. UM. I
(38:07):
can honestly say I vouch for your mom. She's one
of the most loving people I know. But more importantly,
she has helped me co parents and taught me not
only to love, but she's taught me words like kindness
and tolerance and understanding and patients. And these are things
(38:29):
that have been passed down to your sisters and yourself
that you inherently get that you may not have to
pull them out to utilize them or understand them yet,
but they're inherently in you and your sisters. I don't
know what that feels like, but I do know that
(38:50):
I've been you know, I'm I'm so lucky that I
have parents who have been able to understand that that
that we all kind of grow And I think we
got really lucky that, like you said, we all like
each other just as much as we love each other now.
But the there's a lot of a lot of things
that you guys say, like in general, because most of
the time when I have guests on here, I can
(39:12):
be like, oh, I totally relate to that, but I
really don't. I have no relation to being being a parent,
and hopefully I don't have one. But maybe like in
ten years down the line, I'll be able to call
you and be like, hey, remember when you said that
thing on my podcast. I get it now here we are,
um ten years then they're old enough that they're not
just like little babies. So the flip to that then
(39:33):
is seeing your kid grow up. And I know that
you I I'd like to think that when you have
a child, you have like an idea of like, man,
my kid's never going to do this, or my my
kid is never gonna, you know, drink, or my kids
never gonna do that. And obviously I've referenced it a
lot in this podcast, how we were raised and uh,
(39:55):
and how that's really shaped who I am as a person,
And it's really shape to my personality, and it's really
shaped my beliefs and the and the faith that I
have and in and the the amount of important families
and all of these things. But just as much as
kids grow up and they find out that their parents
aren't superheroes, I think parents watch their kids grow up
(40:15):
and they find out that no matter how hard you
can steer your children in the right direction, which is
what I think you guys did, inevitably, there's still going
to be human beings, and they're still going to be adults,
and they're probably going to differ in some ways that
you had originally not planned for them to differ in.
Um So, I guess one of my last questions before
we get into this ask my parents anything, is how
(40:38):
do you navigate those feelings when your children start acting
in ways? And this is for any parents out there,
not even just our family. How do you navigate those
feelings when your kids aren't doing what you had hoped
or originally wished they would do. There are too many
answers for navigating your feelings. However, I think if you
know to love your children and can, then everything that
(41:03):
comes your way or their way is very Uh, you
can handle it. You can deal with it. Yeah. I
An actual example came to mind is I remember listening
your dad came home and he showed me, Um, your
gospel at twenty three songs. And I remember listening to
(41:24):
old a f and you know, to be completely honest
as a mom. If I didn't love, I don't love
hearing you say those words and UM, but I listened
to all the words. I listened to it several times.
And then I don't know if you remember this, but
I flew to l A, I'm sorry, and UM. We
(41:49):
talked about it. I told you how I felt. I
asked you if I could have done something better as
a parent to make your life better. And you explained
to me your whole feelings on writing it, and you
explained everything, and I was just at peace, and and
I knew that these were your words, these were your truth.
(42:09):
And as much as you know, maybe if you've made
or make choices that are different from maybe we would
have written on paper as what we outlined for your life.
The most important thing. I've said this to so many people,
that is that you have a heart of gold. You
(42:30):
are a good person. You even if it's not the
choices I would make, you're a good person and you
help and you have this amazing sense about you. So
it's like that to me, I'd rather you be there
and be happy than maybe, you know, being stifled and
not being your unique and true self. Yeah, your mom is.
(42:53):
She's always been very uh sensitive once again to each
of your needs, but a lot of them are in
this sense, was you know, her need to express to
you how um it was so different for her, such
a big change for her. I, on the other hand,
I believe in not blocking any of the artistic vibes
(43:16):
or creativity. And when I heard heard that, of course,
you know, the first thoughts are, man, Will Smith never
had to swear, you know, and it was just because
you had such a clean upbringing. I remember reading on
on your YouTube videos, you know, people saying how Chemey
doesn't cuss, Well, it's because people use profanity as a
(43:39):
descriptive words. We both grew up in the ld S faith,
and so you know, we were taught not to drink,
not to smoke, not to use profanity and and so
these are things that oh, you've seen us roll with,
you know, as your parents. But try me. They haven't
(44:01):
been that difficult. They haven't been that challenging. It's just
been different, right, And I think what you had mentioned
earlier is like it was how you two were raised,
and you were raised, I think it's also a much
different generation. Um, and then you come up and you
have your children, and it's it's impossible to track. And
this is something that I'm just completely assuming is you know,
(44:24):
it's impossible to track where the world's going to go.
So you can't raise your kids in the perfect way
to act the exact same way when the world isn't
gonna give that same environment that you guys were raised in.
And I think that that can be really, really hard,
because especially when it comes to religion, or when it
comes to faith, or when it comes to family values
or any of those things, it's hard to keep those
exact same family values when the world around you is
(44:47):
a complete one eighty. You know, it's it's it's it's
hard when the you know, when the F word at
your guys generation was used so sparingly that you would
genuinely be shocked when you hear the word and now
you walk outside and if you if you don't hear
it in a single conversation, you're more surprised that you
didn't hear those words. And so it's little things like
(45:09):
that that can be really really difficult for a parent,
at least in my opinion. Um. But at the same time,
I think, I think about so many ways that you
have You guys, as parents, have been amazing in letting
our different lives that we've led in our experiences that
we've come to independently as children, and then we come
(45:31):
back and we bring those to you. I think something
that's been really really awesome, especially you know, I'll even
say this last year with the election and everything, and
you saw so many trending videos of kids yelling at
their parents because the kids supported one side and the
parents supported another side, or you have like you know,
there's everybody always uses the term old heads, which is like,
you know, parents who are stuck in their ways, or
(45:52):
older people who are aren't willing to learn about the
new generation or what's going on. And I think one
thing that I will credit to you having such a strong,
open conversation relationship. I think at this point, both of
you guys know pretty much everything I've ever done in
in terms of the good, the bad, and the ugly
I've I've been comfortable enough to say, hey, do you
(46:14):
guys know that I did this? Or you've asked me
even like, hey have you guys, have you ever done this?
And we can have you know. On the flip side
of that, son, there's also when I say the flip side,
we were just talking about something that you've done that
has surprised us, some kind of took us back. But
on the other hand, you know, there's a saying you
learned from your children too, and you know, the first
(46:36):
thing that comes to mind is your support of lgbt Q.
Mom and I were raised that that was totally on
the other side of the fence, and and we didn't
know very many people who were gay or lesbian or
different that way. And but we what we did know
is that we taught you and your sisters to love people,
(46:58):
to love everyone, and not to judge. Those are the
two biggest things we've taught our children. And so when
we saw your support for that, we had to face
each other and say, that's what we taught them. We
taught we taught our kids to love and not be
judgmental and to accept. And so those old heads, I
totally get what you I know what you mean by that,
(47:21):
but that is also purely an example of how we've
learned from our kids, and we're never too old to learn.
I think also too, you just said something that made
me think of something, which is, like you said, the
lessons that you taught, you know, lessons that you taught
us that might manifest out in different ways than you
had originally taught them. You know, you said, love everybody,
and even though in your generation that might have just
(47:43):
meant make sure you give money to provide food for
the homeless of those who have least like it can
manifest into something completely different. I think of I think
of so many ways in which I could twist and
spin lessons that you've you guys have both taught me
into things that I do on our everyday basis. I
think of quality over quantity and everything in moderation. When
(48:05):
I think of the times that I decided to try drinking,
or the times that I that I smoked or or
would do this or that, and and and I think
that that's something also that you can't. Are we gonna
have to give him a third that you can't you know,
those are things that you can't you don't know, like, oh,
I actually taught him that. And and there's so many
(48:26):
lessons if any, if anything, all of the lessons that
I've applied to my life would be lessons that I
learned from me. Whether it's whether it's quality over quantity,
or you know, it's all about good food, good family,
and good music and things like that, all of these
lessons that we learned. Um and so I think as
we close out this segment and we get into this
A m A, it has been so cool getting to
(48:49):
feel and experience every season that is being your guys
son and getting to experience that. We went from a
stage where I and you'll hear in my podcast with
my sisters about out the time that I got caught
making out with Jamie Arrato and I had to come
home and I had we had the talk of you know,
being disappointed in me all of those little things, getting
(49:10):
spanked at, you know, at three years old for peeing
on my sisters and all that stuff too. Even now
being an adult and being able to like tell you
guys like, hey, guys, I tried this or I tried that.
Check this out. And and you, as incredible listeners and
learners as well as incredible teachers, get to provide this
open space that we can come home for Christmas. Whether
(49:32):
we all come from different walks of life that year,
we are all completely unified that year. Especially this year,
we've all been so isolated from each other that we
get to come back here and we feel so open
and loving. So I want to thank you both for
being the best parents that you guys are and providing
the environment that helped me at least and and and
I'll speak for the girls as well, and them as
(49:53):
well become who who we are and and get to
apply all that in our lives. Um, we're gonna take
a quick break, and when we come back, we have
the A M A which is asked me anything, or
also known as the A M P A, which is
asked my parents anything, don't go anywhere. Al Right, we
are back. This is let's get into it. I'm with
my parents and we've had like I feel like this
(50:14):
episode is definitely unique than more unique than the other ones.
I also realized like halfway through this episode that my
my own energy in this episode is different, and it's
because I'm talking to my parents. UM, so cheers to that. Mom, Dad,
how you is doing? We're doing great? Yes. So I
went on my Instagram and uh, and I asked all
(50:35):
of the fans to hit me up with questions that
they wish they could ask their parents, or questions that
they just want me to ask you about us. So
we're gonna start super easy and uh. And the first
question is how do you feel about my hair? Do
you like it long? Or do you want me to
cut it? I think you're a beautiful hair and it's
long and as sorry now, um, I don't know if
(50:57):
everyone knows, but we didn't cut Alex's hair to he
turned three, so he had long hair as a little
boy and I loved it and he had the curls
and I think it's beautiful long hair. I do love
his his face with the sides, like when his side
just to be super short. But I like it now
how you can pull it back and I see that. Um,
(51:19):
but I say, whatever makes you happy, you have good
long hair and lose the mustache. They definitely hate the mustache.
Facial hair. They do not like they do not like
the facial hair. But you know what, that's okay, that's
totally fine. Okay. So this question is from sid dot
(51:39):
lou how did they birth beautiful Sydney and then follow
up with a toad like you. Um, that's from my
sister and we're gonna we're not gonna take that question,
thank you very much. UM. Here's another question. Speaking of sisters,
here's a question, hallie ion know how are babies made? Oh? Wow?
Did we never tell her? No? Do you know what's
(52:00):
really funny? Did you know that you, at least with me.
You guys never had the talk with me. I thought
your dad, did I give that this was the talk.
This was the talk. And I don't know if you
remember this, Dad, but this was the talk that I do.
At this point, I was eighteen, I was dating a
certain person, um, and I think literally the conversation was like, hey, son,
I don't know what you're doing out there, but just
(52:20):
be safe, all right? And I was like, all right,
thanks dad. Wait wait wait, because I didn't think that
was the talk. I thought the talk was when you
were in seventh or eighth grade and you came home
and you told me something that happened with a young lady,
and I tried my very best to not be surprised,
but we did have a little talk about young ladies
(52:43):
at that time. I don't remember that. Um, this is
a fun question. How would you say your guy's parenting
style is different than your parents parenting style? We already
talked about the communication mom, we already talked about the
iron fist Dad, But like, what else do you feel
like it was really different in the way that you
guys decided to parent. Our parents came from such a
(53:06):
different era, and I think that we've just trusted each
other and talked about it, you know, the decisions we've
made as parents before, during, and after. But I definitely
would say that your mom and I put communication up
there first. Where I never really saw my parents communicate,
(53:28):
let alone be Um, they weren't outwardly loving and they
didn't show a lot of what an intimacy either, you know,
or so we never really saw romantic moments. But somehow
I grew up in a family of ten kids, so yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know, had to happen somehow. Yeah, But I just
(53:51):
think that parenting changes with eras Also, Yeah, I think
you definitely have to be flexible. I mean, because we
what we did is we took the good things from
our parents, and I think that's kind of what I
hope this for you all, is that you take the
good things that you had as your parents and you
enhance it and you make it even better. I'm not
(54:12):
going to say I am a better mom than my
mom was, but I hope that I took things traits
from her and then I just made it better for
your generation. And I hope that's what I hope for
you guys. I love that. I love that. So this
one's this one is a little bit more personal. When
was the first time that you guys were disappointed in me?
(54:34):
They're asking some really good one. I mean, which time? No,
I mean honestly, and we talked about it a lot.
Is the I just didn't know how to handle when
you peete on your sisters like that. To me, I
was I grew up with only sisters, so such a
boy thing to do, and I just was like, that's
(54:56):
why I just put its seriously grossed out where I
was laughing and I thought it was funny, but I
knew the seriousness of it, and I knew you know
that we had to approach it as parents, and uh,
but I don't think that was the first time I
was man, I just pointed me before that I was
like three years old. Are you going to be disappointed
(55:17):
with me? And three years old or younger? I know,
the first time I can think of that I was disappointed.
I had taken you to the Super Bowl and we
had the hookups to where we were able to go
and watch the Arizona Cardinals practice for the Super Bowl.
At that time, we were able to like go and
(55:38):
get signatures, and I wanted you to go get one
from Larry Fitzgerald, and for some reason you just froze
up and you you wouldn't go over and get it.
And I remember getting frustrated with you and saying, so
I go over there, and I almost had almost like
push you over there. So I don't know if that's
the disappointment as a word, but once you know, I
(55:59):
had pete on my sisters for it had been nine
years now since I pete on my sisters, So you
weren't disappointed. We have to point out the fact that
we can we just say it as it is now.
You were not disappointed when I Pete on my sisters.
I was not disappointed. It's a guy thing. I actually
totally remember that, and I remember just being I don't
even know what it was. I can't remember why I
(56:19):
didn't go up to Larry. But Larry, if you hear this,
I'm going to find you one day and take a
picture with you so that my dad can be proud
of me again. Next question, what are your best tips
for your children becoming independent slash becoming mature? Let them
try trial and error, giving them the opportunity talking about it,
(56:40):
giving advice if they if you feel like it's super
important for their safety or whatnot, or if it's asked for.
But I think just giving them the freedom for the
trial and error. I know this saying is used a lot,
but it was so tried and true, and that don't
be afraid to fail. It makes you tougher and you
(57:04):
learned from every failure. Don't be afraid to fail. Don't
be afraid to fail. I like that. This next question
it is uh, it's this one's an interesting one. What's
the hardest thing that you ever had to say to
us as kids? Son you're adopted, What was the hardest
(57:26):
thing I feel like to me if if I if
I can add my I would say the hardest thing
that I in my memory that you told us was
when we came we were driving home from the cruise
and you told us that that our dog Tate had
died while we were on our cruise. Yeah. UM, I
think death is a hard one. Um. You well, you
weren't born, your and your sisters were young when nana
(57:48):
um passed away. Um, we had Papa passed away and
we had passed away. Um. But death is hard and
even though it's part of life, that one really does
stand out when Tate when we got off the cruise
and we knew during the whole cruise because it happened
at the beginning of the cruise and the person, the
(58:09):
friend that was watching him for us, was able to
contact this earlier in the cruise, but we chose not
to tell you till after. Yeah. I think that's probably
the hardest in my memory would definitely be Tate when
when you guys let us know about that. But like
you mentioned, yeah, unfortunately there's gonna be hard conversations to have.
But let's let's dance over to some some more fun stuff.
(58:31):
How did you come up with all of our names.
So Taylor Taylor's name is Taylor Tamari and Taylor is
my mom's maiden name, and Tomari is dad's mom's maiden names,
so she got her grandma's maiden names. Nice Sydney is
Sydney Lee. Lee is my maiden name, so that was
her middle name, and Sydney it was actually Grammy's hairdresser.
(58:53):
We were going to possibly name her Samantha, but I
just don't love Samantha for her, and then it was
Grammy's hairdresser said Sydney. And her name is spelled s
I d any Y because I loved the name Sydney
and she was not named after Australia. And then you.
I before, when we had the two girls, I wanted
a girl named Alex and Dad didn't like that name
(59:16):
for a girl. So when you were born, actually when
we were dating, we both liked the name Ian for
a boy, and when you were born, you just were
not in Ian, and so I and ion O though,
that's that's I mean, you can't get a stronger name
than I and ion Oh. We had said that to
someone and they said E I E I O and
so kind of it sounds like. So anyways, when so
(59:40):
we're like, well, what about alex And then we started
going We said Martin. I love the name Martin, but
Dad didn't want that, and so I said, okay, well
how about Martin Alexander. You're not a junior but and
we'll call him Alex. And so that's how he came
up with your name. And then Hallie, right Hallie. I
wanted to name her Sloan because as I was at
(01:00:00):
an amusement park and there were four kids and their
their kids were Taylor, Sydney, Alex and Sloan no joke.
When I was pregnant with Hallie, and I was like,
I love that, and they're all kind of like unisex names,
and so I was like, okay, we'll do that. And
then where she was born and um, I said that name,
and Dad I could just see on his face he
did not like that name. And but while while I
(01:00:23):
was pregnant with Hallie, the second parent Trap came out
and one of the twins, played by Lindsay Lohan, her
name was Hallie. And I would watch the credits of
every movie I watched when I was pregnant with all
you guys to see the names, and her name was
Hallie h A L L I E. And that's where
she came from. I like it. I like it hall
(01:00:43):
Elizabeth Elizabeth in her middle name. Good names names for
some good kids. Um, well, listen, we have time for
I think one more question, and I want to make
it a juicy one. This person says, I'm a first
time parent. How do I stop feeling aulty for standing
up for my own parenting? For me, it goes back
(01:01:04):
to kind of what I did this week, and give
yourself the space, give yourself the grace and the space
to be the best you can be. I don't think
you ever need to apologize. I have a joke I
always say if I've done something like and I'll be like, oh,
mother of the Year, I won the award right there,
allowing myself knowing, Okay, probably wasn't the best parenting or
(01:01:26):
my shining is moment as a as a mom, but
allowing almost make a joke out of it, because all
I can say is I tried to be my best.
I've tried to improve. I've watched other people to to
get tips, read you know this, that and the other
to try to do the best. But you also have
to dig down deep get that instinct, that motherly, fatherly
(01:01:47):
instinct that is there I believe in anyone, and just
do your best and give yourself that space, but not
beat yourself up. That's exactly what I was gonna say.
Don't beat yourself up. Just put your best foot forward,
like Mom said, with your motherly or fatherly instincts, trust them,
and just try to do your best. Don't beat yourself up.
(01:02:09):
I would say. My takeaway is that and it's something
that you guys did. And I think from the beginning
of this episode you've identified that it's something you did,
which is um. You obviously had your goals for us.
You had what you wanted to be as parents, from
being communicative and leading with love and not necessarily and
iron fist. And as we grew up and we're adults
now and we're all everybody in this house except for Mila,
(01:02:30):
is now like a full blown adult with our own life.
You guys excelled in your understanding that you won't be that,
you won't be perfect. It won't be perfect, We won't
be perfect. Nothing is going to be perfect. But you guys,
you guys excelled in and doing your best and and
really as as cheesy as the line is forgetting the rest. Um.
(01:02:50):
But thank you both for taking some holiday time to
be on this podcast. We're getting paid for this, right,
so we'll figure stulf thing out after this. Um. But
right now this is Usually it's with people who are
promoting projects or anything. UM. But I think you guys
are just such clowns that let's tell everybody your Instagram
so that they can find you on Instagram. It's called
(01:03:12):
not so shameless promo. Mom, what's your Instagram handle? My
Instagram is has h e z as in zebra Iona
has Iona dad Uh It's Martin iona a i O
n oh and you know me alex Iono. Best part
about having a weird last name you do not have
to worry about having a h an interesting tag. Um.
(01:03:33):
But guys, thank you so much for coming on. Thank
you for listening to the podcast. Please make sure you
rate and subscribe. That is how we grow. I love you, guys.
I'm gonna go enjoy a bunch of cinnamon rolls and
Mom's chocolate cake. I'll see you guys later weeks. We
(01:03:54):
really want you to get the help you need. So
if you need help, please seek independent advice from a
competent healthcare or mental health professional. The views and opinions
expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast
author or individuals participating in the podcast, and do not
represent the opinions of iHeartMedia or its employees. This podcast
should not be used as medical advice, mental health advice, counseling,
or therapy. Listening to the podcast does not established doctor
(01:04:15):
patient relationship with hosts or guests of ALEXIONO, Let's Get
Into It or I Heeartmedia. No guarantee is given regarding
the accuracy of any statements or opinions made on this podcast. Well,
if that's a doozy
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