July 29, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode, Mary Katharine Ham and Kelly Maher break down the week’s most pressing stories—from major trade developments and shifting housing market trends to the economic and political stakes ahead of the midterm elections. They analyze Trump’s foreign policy legacy, how the media frames his leadership, and growing tensions inside the Democratic Party. Plus, the duo dives into the viral “FAFO parenting” trend, sparking a candid discussion on discipline, consequences, and raising resilient kids. Normally is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey guys, we are back on the normally. So when
normalis it takes for when the news gets weird. Carol
is enjoying her vacation and for all of her various troops,
and we have with us Kelly Maher from the beautiful
state of Colorado, joining us once again to make sense
of some of the news.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
How's it going, kel making sense ish of some of
the news?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Ish. We do our best. We do what we try
to provide. I have just come from a seven hour
odyssey of dropping kids at camp and then driving back
with other kids from said camp. So I dropped two
bigs at camp, two littles came with me. Two littles
are now in bed so that I can do my work.
(00:47):
So we did it.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You did it. It sounds my lasting.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
And I guess my older kids are enjoying themselves. I
don't know. I won't hear from them. They said to me,
or one of them said to me as I left, bye, mom, love,
you have fun doing our chores while we're gone. And
I was like, this is what I paid good money for.
This is what I paid.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, little I like a little bit of SaaS. I
think that's good.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It's good This is what I get for making them
independent and helpful. Yeah, I have to pay the price
when they're gone. Okay, shall we talk about what's going
on in the news. Okay, we've got yet another trade
deal asident. Donald Trump announced Sunday that the US reached
a trade deal with the European Union following pivotal discussions
with European Commission President Ursula vander Lehren. How is that
(01:36):
her name? Days before the August tariff deadline, Trump said
the deal imposed of fifteen percent tariff on most European
goods to the US, including cars, some products, including aircrafts
and their components. Some chemicals and pharmaceuticals will not be
subject to tariffs, vonder Lean said in a briefing after
the agreement was announced. She also said that the new
(01:56):
fifteen percent tariff rate would not be added to any
tariffs already an effect this is on you know, this
is on the heels of the Japan deal, so substance
of the deals aside. It does appear that he's making
the deals right. And my position on the on the
terroriffs is that I don't love it. You know, I'm
(02:17):
not a huge fan of the way this is happening,
because I think it's unwise to put one hundred and
sixty five trade deals on one's plate when one is
doing many other things. However, Donald Trump really likes tariffs
and he really likes deal making, so like he's happy,
and he promised this, so here we are, but progress
(02:37):
better than not making deals. So I'm okay with that part.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I mean, you and I tend to both be fairly
free marketing type of people, right, and therefore our tariff
skeptical generally, I mean policy. However, he also Trump also
mentioned that he's the it's likely there's going to be
a fifteen to twenty percent world wide tariff just kind
(03:05):
of across the board. And if that's the baseline, that
everybody just basically charges everybody else, it all. I'm not
saying that it all comes out in the wash, but
it then does become just the and the ability for
businesses to anticipate the cost of doing business right, and
(03:27):
being able to anticipate the cost of doing business is
one of the core and most important underpinnings of capitalism
that we both love.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, pretty pretty important stuff. Some have noted that the
White House's fact sheet differs from the story that the
European Union is telling, So we'll see how that comes
out in the wash. I mean such as such as
the like danger of doing a lot of deals quite quickly.
(04:00):
Normally these things take a lot of time and many
people to be involved in them, And I would I
don't think that's a perfect system. I think it probably
took too long to make free trade deals in the past,
and as always with Donald Trump, the pendulum just woo swings.
But I would say that I was worried about what
(04:21):
the first six months of his presidency would look like
economically because of the announcement of Liberation Day and what
that would mean for international trade. That does not mean
there haven't been costs for small businesses, for people who
really have had hurdles thrown up in their way, people
who have had to change business plans on a dime,
even in large corporations because of these ever changing plans.
(04:45):
But as a larger picture, the effect has not been
what I thought it might be on the economy in
any sort of in a large negative way.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, I know I'm damning with faint praise, but like
I'm a skeptic, so that's where I out right.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Right I it's sometimes less bad than you thought it
was possibly going to be. It's just kind of it's
the thing that we've talked about over and over again.
It's like, maybe it's all just kind of fine. Right,
It's not always the best, but it's not this doom
and gloom that we keep being sold is coming down
(05:23):
the well, and.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
That a lot of us, perhaps even all the countries
who are dealing with Trump, are doing the same thing
we're doing, which is like, maybe it'll all come out
in the wash. Like that's sort of that's sort of
where everyone is in the way that they're dealing with this.
So he's got that going for him. I do think,
(05:45):
you know, gas prices look promising for him. Inflation has
ticked down, even though of course cost of living still
feels very tough on people. Egg prices way down because
that was a spec problem that was called caused by
a specific thing that has to some extent been relieved.
(06:06):
And here we are so.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Ands as moms of collectively six children, two of us.
I like, the access to cheap protein is very important
to people, and eggs is a huge way to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
My five year old eggs were killing me.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Man.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, well, I know you and I both do pretty
high protein, and we both consume a lot of eggs,
as do all of our children. And I mean my
five year old eats between six and eight eggs every day.
She has very I have very children all and I
have gigantic children, and when they are teenagers, I will be.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
You're gonna be broke. I'm gonna have to give you
a GoFundMe so you. Hewittt once asked me how many
eggs my family eats per week, and I was like,
I couldn't even tell you because my husband orders so
many of them from Costco that there's just an ever
supplied stack of them in there and like large industrial
(07:14):
straight from the farm cartons that are like expanded, and
so I couldn't tell you. I can't keep count point
being cheaper egs better for both of us. And we
are not just political junkies, but mom voters who people
should be interested in reaching. It's true.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, we don't buy the cartons. We buy the boxes.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Right, it's a palate, it's a talent X.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
It's true. One thing I talked to you about earlier today,
Mary Catherine, was an interesting article that came across my
Twitter and my texts today was about the housing market. Yeah,
and that's actually a different economic indicator that I'm paying
attention to right now.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
But the some of.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
These very large home homebuilders are hitting new and high
levels of having to incentivize people getting into new homes.
And you know me, I'm an economic nerd, right, And
so I was reading some of these indices, some of
(08:20):
these indicators that are coming out, and we're seeing new
inventory on the market at levels that we haven't seen
since two thousand and nine. And the last six times
that we have seen levels this high of new homes
that people aren't moving in one. Yeah, that are just
(08:44):
sitting on the shelf, if you will, but they're sitting
on their lots of land without families moving into them.
Five out of the last six times that we have
hit these levels, it has then been followed with a recession.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Yeah. So a good canary in the coal mine perhaps
for people to be paying attention to. And this is
something that I think is important for particularly for political
people who work on political campaigns, people who are into
politics who have partisan designs on who they would like
to win. You do want to be looking out for
(09:21):
things to be worried about. Right, you don't just go
like everything's peachy keen. You do need to watch out
for what the things are that could be the arguments
you need to be making a year from now, And
one of those arguments may be on a broader sort
of optimism about people investing in new properties, an issue
(09:43):
with interest rates. I think our family is a great
example of a family that if interest rates were lower,
we would probably look at upgrading to a larger house
because we are stacked like an aircraft carrier in here.
But we are just like, let the kids all be
in one, it's the main let them destroy the nursery together,
(10:04):
and that's good and healthy to something stent for building
it is, but for the economy, I'm sure like we're
the kind of family that people would we'd be the
perfect case that would be like, oh yeah, we'll upgrade
at this point, but we have chosen not to do
that at these rate levels. So I think that's something
that will be part of the landscape when it comes
(10:24):
to twenty twenty six. Okay, we're going to talk about
a little bit more about Trump's fortunes, what that means
for twenty twenty six. Some other warning signs when we
are back on normal. All right, we are back on normally,
and I want to play. It's become a little bit
of a tradition on normally to play Harry Anton, who
(10:45):
is the data guy over at CNN, and he's always
I like Harry Anton. I think he's smart. And one
thing I like about him is that he understands what's
newsworthy and what's newsworthy our results that the the audience
is not expecting but are nonetheless based in data. Okay.
(11:06):
That can be jarring for the audience, and it can
also be jarring for the people hosting the show at CNN,
where he's constantly giving them Trump numbers that make them go,
surely that can't be right, Harry, And he's like, it is,
and stop calling me Shirley. He's like every time, he's like,
well so, and you and I talked about this whole time.
(11:29):
Trump is a cat falling off a counter like somehow
things come together. He has a sort of savant nature
of finding the right place to be, and in this case,
this is foreign policy, and I think he's earned this one.
But it is funny to watch Harry Inton explain it
(11:49):
to CNN So let's do a minute of that clip
of Harry talking to CNN viewers.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, this one was a surprising one to me, given
everything that's going on in Russia, what happened in Iran,
what happened and in Gaza. But the bottom line is
Democrats in the American voters' minds cannot hacket. What are
we talking about? Party trusted more and foreign policy? Well,
the GOP holds an average six point leading the month
of July. Look at this. Fox News came out last
week plus three points four Republicans on foreign policy over
(12:15):
the Democrats. You think that number is not high enough
for you? How about the Wall Street Journal GOP plus
eight points when they match congressional Democrats up against congressional Republicans.
The bottom line is this, despite everything that's going on
in the world right now, Republicans are more trusted on
Democrats when it comes to foreign policy and the world
at large. How has this changed through How does this
(12:36):
compare to during the campaign. Yeah, again, this to me
was a surprising number. Since Donald Trump said he'd come
in and broke all these peace deals. And while he's
brokeered some, he hasn't obviously brokered one between Ukraine and Russia,
and obviously the situation in Gaza. But take a look
here trust More and foreign policy. You go back to
twenty twenty four, Trump had a six point advantage over
Kamala Harris. Again, look at the average right now. It
(12:58):
hasn't moved despite everything that's going on in the world.
You see Republicans plus six points here.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So I think there's a flaw in his reasoning, which
is despite everything that's going on in the world. And
I would say perhaps because of everything that's going on
in the world, such as bombing the crap out of
Iran's nuclear facilities, which most people are like, look at us,
that seems good, sensible, successful. I'm impressed his point is
(13:27):
well taken. That obviously there was not a peace deal
between Ukraine and Russia within twenty four hours, which I
believe is what Trump said he could pull off. I'm
not sure everyone actually expected that to happen. I think
Trump has been some of his rhetoric on Ukraine is
like a little squishy sometimes, but I also understand his
larger point, which is that you have to justify this
(13:49):
spending to the American people. And he's also again cat
falling off the counter, come up with this fantastic situation
where the European Union is paying for arms from US
to go to Ukraine because in spite of the fact
or because of it that he said in his first term,
(14:11):
NATO's got to do its part. NATO countries have to
pay their fair share. And then all of them were like, oh,
maybe we should, and then they did, and then they
paid for weapons Ukraine. So he's like, he's pulled off
a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yes, And their pathological inability to give him credit for
anything ever, just continues to erode people's confidence in mainstream media,
like because they see the things happening and then they're
told that it's not happening, and then they're like, I
(14:46):
don't believe you anymore.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I think he also there was a a pole result
result out the other day and I cannot remember which pole,
but it was, you know, Republicans had a ten point
lead on party that I trust to have a strong
vision for the country.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And I think some of this, some of the foreign
policy plus up or you know, credit he's getting is
not just from foreign policy, but the idea that he
is a leader, because he is inescapably leading right, like
you cannot help but understand his vision and hear his
vision on all of these issues and see him take
(15:28):
action on all these issues. And we had a comatose
president for four years, so I think people are like,
I feel like, even if he's like I don't totally
agree with him all the time, he's doing the thing
where you be a president.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah. And you know, harkening back to some of the
things that we were talking about in the first segment,
those of us that occupy a political space in what
people in the swamp consider to be flyover country, right,
like the biggest states, the rough spelt thing, but the
places where races are actually won and lost. The ramifications
(16:07):
for this for midterms are just going to be super
fascinating because we have a bunch of especially Democrats, who
are already trying to prepare themselves for the primary. And
the way that they're primary they're preparing themselves for the
primary that we're seeing here and in other big square
states is who can run to the left as far
(16:30):
as possible by talking about how much they hate Trump,
and they're going to have a really hard time running
back to the middle. Ye as soon as if these
numbers continue to hold right.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
And so it's also like you've tried this playbook so
many times? Yes, yes, so many times. Can we talk?
Actually this is like a little bit of a tangent,
But I want to note that The Atlantic a big
profile piece on Jasmine Crockett. Now, speaking of running to
(17:06):
the left, folks like you and I would be happy
to see the Democrats make Jasmine Crockett their spiritual leader,
which they seem to be sort of choosing to do.
Jasmin Crockett is a Texas congresswoman, I believe from the
Houston area. I looked up her district. Her district is
(17:27):
D plus thirty. Okay, D plus thirty. To give those
who are not political junkies an idea of what that means.
That's just like the proportion of Democrat voters.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Versus stefest of safe, like as.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Safe as you can get, you can say anything in
this district, she'll get reelected. Okay, Just to give you
an idea, like the roughly eighteen to twenty five toss
up house seats that will determine the House control in
twenty twenty six, the average number is like D plus
(18:04):
one or even so, right, just like a twenty nine
point delta.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
There, right right.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
So the point being this kind of congresswoman, although entertaining,
I'll give her, is not going to be reaching people
in swing districts and is largely probably going to repel
them in very serious ways. And I just want to note,
my friend Amber Duke read the full profile, which I
have not read yet. It's called a Democrat for the
(18:33):
Trump era. Jasmine Crockett is testing out the course style
of politics that the GOP has embraced. First of all,
hilarious that anyone thinks Democrats hadn't been course before. Now
you tried to put him in literal jail. But okay, fine, fine,
look what you made me do. Here's some facts from
(18:53):
the profile, just so you can get an idea of
how she's going to be reaching out. Number One, her
phone's locks is a headshot of herself. Number Two, she
thought she deserved to be the top Democrat on oversight
because she has the largest social media following. Number three,
she tried to shut down the profile after the reporter
(19:15):
called a number of her colleagues in the House. That
can't be good. So anyway, if Jasmine Crockett ends up
being a very noticeable national spokesperson for the Democratic Party
that could spell trouble for them that you know, might
not be outweighlable by the twenty twenty six wins, which
(19:38):
should blow as history with history as a guide against Republicans.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, mids midterms should not go well for Republicans. And
yet I mean, and the other thing is when you
start to think about and talk about who they have
kind of on their bench for president, it's not They're
kind of a headless entity right now.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah, I mean, this is part of the the somewhat
undercovered story of the Obama years is that he took
out so many state representatives who what otherwise might have
who otherwise might have been promising. So many governorships were
won by Republicans during those years and sort of sort
of thinned out their ranks. I also think an untold
(20:27):
part of the story with Democrats is that operationally running
campaigns and what was what's the chick's name who was
on Harris's campaign also Stephanie Cutter. Stephanie Cutter spoke about
this in a podcast in a post mortem podcast with
the pod Bros. I think about how a generation of
(20:52):
their operatives had not gotten the practice they needed. Guess why,
because Democrats didn't do operations in Yeah, and for most
of COVID. So all the young people who running those
campaigns should have learned those skills did not learn those
skills during those elections. Now it's not to say they
can't get some of that back, but thinning your ranks,
(21:15):
either with candidates or with operations, folks m not.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Great well and classically Democrats a lot of their like
field power, a lot of their organizational power has come
from unions, right. I as an operative myself, I used
to run up against union bosses and they will I
(21:39):
mean they are they are hard workers and their good organizer. Yeah,
that's that's the nature whole thing.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Trump has thrown such a wrench into what is their
organizational base of power just by being him and his
numbers with actual union members that it's just it's kind
of fascinating to watch. It's like it's like somebody threw
(22:10):
a like firecracker into the middle of an ant farm
and you're just watching them like run around in circles
and not.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Ye oh goodness. Let me give a few quick notes
of caution for people who are inclined to want Republicans
to win and just like looking forward this year is
the Virginia governor's race in November. Now that is always
seen as a bit of a tell, as is the
(22:36):
New Jersey governor's race. Those happen in this weird off
year fashion. Governor youngin Republican in Virginia is very very
very popular here like in the sixties approval rating. He
cannot run for another term because Virginia has a dumb
rule where they can't run for another term. He's just
limited to one. So generally Virginia governors will like jump
(22:59):
to Senate or you know this is, or become presidential
candidates or whatever. So his lieutenant governor wins. Some Earl Sears,
who is an African American woman, would be the first
African American woman governor if she won. She's a Marine,
she's got a very compelling personal story. She is running
as a Republican against al Abigail span Burger. Abigail Spanburger, Sorry,
(23:25):
this is a little bit of trivia, but you'll know
it is from the same district that saw Dave Bratt
take out Eric Canter back in the day. Okay, so
that's the district she was a representative from there. She's
a statewide known figure. She's a perfect example of a
Democrat who's pretty far left but can look and sound
(23:46):
quite normy mom type figure in Virginia because of all
the doje the doge of it all. There's a lot
of federal workers in Virginia. And I think this one
with a less compelling candidate than Youngkin because Youngkin was
like the perfect candidate for the perfect moment in a
(24:08):
pretty purple state. I think it is tough for Sears
to pull this off and their campaign and the Republican
Party seem to think so as well. They're doing a
shake up on her campaign this week for staffing because
they're lagging in fundraising and polling. So we'll see where
that one heads. Democrats could also overread that because Virginia
might be weird because it's so full of federal workers.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Virginia is weird. Yeah, yeah, that's true. I say this.
I say this as a non swamp creature that lives
in the big square states, like yeah, always weird.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, so that will play a part in this election
that will not be present in like house districts in
twenty twenty six. Nonetheless, let me also note in North Carolina,
the former governor Democrat Roy Cooper has decided to run
for government Senate there, and that's to replace some Tom
(25:04):
till Us. I know things. I've been on the road. Okay, guys, yes,
he's gonna run. That was pretty much the DEM's dream candidate.
So that will eliminate a lot of spending and problems
for them. Not not doable for Republicans, but it makes
it much more competitive.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Those are our cautionary notes and inspirational notes. We will
be back on normally with one more segment about FAFO parenting,
and we are back. Kelly, I gotta do a parenting
story with you. This one is in the Wall Street Journal,
and I think you know this is like old news
(25:41):
to us. Good goodbye gentle parenting, Hello fa FO parenting.
So f around and find out parenting. It's his parents
are ditching the softer approach to child rearing that has
dominated the culture and taking a harder line. Okay, And
it opens with this anecdote. I feel that I see
things in our future. Carla Dylan tried lots of ways
(26:02):
to discipline her rambunctious thirteen year old, including making him
write the same contrite sentence a hundred times. But when
he sprayed her with a water gun at a campground
after she asked him not to, she saw only one option.
She threw him in the pond, clothes and all. Some
of the best lessons in life for the hard ones,
she said. The Internet calls it fafo. It's a child
rearing style style that elevates consequences over the gentle parenting
(26:23):
methods that have helped shape gen Z. FAFO is based
on the idea that parents can ask and warn, but
if a child breaks the rules, mom and dad aren't
standing in the way of repercussions. Won't bring your raincoat,
walk home in the downpour, didn't feel like having lasagna
for dinner, Survive until breakfast. Left your toy on the
floor again, Go find it in the trash under the
lasagna you didn't eat. Yes, please let you Like, I
(26:48):
don't know, I don't know what to say, other than like,
I'm like Bruce Willison die Hard, Like welcome to the party, pal,
Like this is what we've been doing over here.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
This is how we've been parenting since we had kids.
It was interesting because, out of the two of us
you would have been I think likely the better of
the two of us boy mom, and I would have
predicted myself to be the girl mom. And yet you
led with three girls.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I got all those girls.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Yeah, and I have two boys, and I will say
fafo parenting is the only way to parent two boys.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
There's no.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Unless you just concede property destruction. You have to yeah,
stand up to them, yes, or you will get run over.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I think it was do you know the essays who
on Twitter goes by cartoons hate her? She was noting that, Like,
you know, if you if you want to talk through
each of your child's big feelings, that's fine if you
have one child. Once you have more than one kid,
the problem becomes that big feelings child is the one
(28:03):
who gets attention. The attention is the thing that children want.
So either you end up being unfair to your children
who don't have big feelings, or you turn all of
your children into big feelings children because what they're.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Doing incentivized for them.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
You are incentivizing the big feelings that hold up the
whole family, that keep you from doing things that keep
you on your knees in front of a toddler begging
with them to see reason when they are developmentally unable
to see reason. I put an example of our FAFO
parenting on X the other day, and I was like,
(28:42):
I wonder if I'll get called mommy, dearist or something.
But it's very simple, and this probably sounds like normal
stuff to most of our listeners, because our listeners are
pretty normal. I think gentle parenting can have some upsides,
Like I think there's things that you can do with
your kids that do help them connect and calm down
instead of just saying stop having this angry feeling. Right,
(29:04):
I get that, but with stuff like this, like our
kids know that we will not come to bring them
their lunches at school, and they don't have a cafeteria
where they go to school, so they have to take
their lunches if they don't remember them. What was happening
was that kindly teachers gentle tea shirts were giving them
(29:24):
like a piece of pizza or like something delicious, or
we were being called to the school, and so we said, okay,
we're not going to do that anymore. You have emergency
beef jerky in your backpack that doesn't go bad.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
It will be a great band name by the way,
emergency jerky, emergency beef jerkey. Yeah, the concert.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
When you forget your lunch, you don't tell anyone. Yeah,
you eat the jerky. Yeah, and then if you don't
love the jerky, which we know you don't, it will
incentivize you to remember your lunch, and as a result,
they don't forget their lunch is very often.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, that's how we do it. I have a new
policy that any legos that end up in the dryer
become mine.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Oh nice.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, so now we're incentivizing get their legos out of
their pockets because I just have a bucket full of legos.
I did realize that I should not have bought a
nice dryer until my kids are out of the house,
because I just basically have a multi thousand dollars rock
tumbler that's my entire dryer at this point. It's the
(30:30):
stupidest thing that I've ever spent, like depent money on,
and but like it is. I there are there are
many things I like about gentle parenting and talking through feeling.
I try very hard to do all of that. But
also we have the time space continuum is real, and
(30:53):
we just have a school on time and we just
have to accomplish things, and we need to be able
to go to the grocery store and eating.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And I think, as illustrated by our first segment, you
and I do think about economics and talk about economics
on the phone a lot, because what else what else
the mom friends do? And so one of the things
that I am focusing on as a parent is what
is the incentive structure in my house? And so a
friend the other day who has is just has one kid,
(31:26):
and she was talking about how she was whining and
she gave her this and that she's trying to figure
out how to, like, you know, to short circuit that
whine fest and the tantrum or whatever it is. And
I said, okay, hear me out. Tell her you can
have the thing when you are calm for three minutes. Yeah,
(31:48):
And thus you have told the child calm is what
gets the treat. Screaming is not what gets the treat.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, don't mind, I won't cry. Just say I would
like a muna please, right, or whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
And that's what my children used to call those little pouches.
That's what I was trying to think of.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Mine. Mine still always go for the apple sauce pouches
and yeah, so don't mind, don't cry to say I
would like this, but you have.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
To switch the incentive structure or else they will read
all day that screaming is what gets them what they want. Yes,
and then you get yourself in trouble. Okay, we're going
to close out, But I'm going to close out with this, Kelly,
because I have one boy, and I have noticed that
the number of head injuries is just like exponentially higher
than the girls. He We have ah an ottoman in
(32:41):
the middle of the room that's basically our coffee table,
so it's padded. This is strategic. We have two toddlers.
You know, they're going to be jumping all around, so
it's just like an upholstered ottoman giant coffee table. He
got a footstool and put it on top of the
coffee table and then climbed up on top of it.
And I was sitting there the whole time watching because
he's my fourth kid, and I was like, Okay, you
(33:03):
see how it goes. Perhaps the consequences will tell him
something about the section. And he's standing up there and
he's kind of like dancing a jig up on the
footstool on top of the padded ottoman his balance, and
then actually nothing bad happened to him on this occasion.
But what he said to me was, Mom, look at me.
(33:23):
I injcizing, I interizing. And I was like, you know what,
that's incorrect, but it's extremely correct that that's what you're doing.
It is so I will keep you posted on whether
he injurizes.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Him justizes himself. I will mine this week. I think
I told you this already was we were my younger
since filled all over all of his clothes, and he said, Mom,
I got it all over my clothes, every single clothe
and it reminded me. It reminded me of how many
(34:00):
stuff the English languages. I got it on every single cloe.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
I was like, oh no, we're gonna stop labbing at that.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Just see his little face too, Mom, it got on
all my clothes. Every single blow there sizing in your cloth,
my cloe. He is often only wearing one cloe.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Okay, oh my god, everybody, keep all your cloe on.
Oh thanks for joining us on normally normally airs Tuesdays
and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcast.
Get in touch with us at normally thepod at gmail
dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things get weird,
act normally
Hey guys, we are back on the normally. So when
normalis it takes for when the news gets weird. Carol
is enjoying her vacation and for all of her various troops,
and we have with us Kelly Maher from the beautiful
state of Colorado, joining us once again to make sense
of some of the news.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
How's it going, kel making sense ish of some of
the news?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Ish. We do our best. We do what we try
to provide. I have just come from a seven hour
odyssey of dropping kids at camp and then driving back
with other kids from said camp. So I dropped two
bigs at camp, two littles came with me. Two littles
are now in bed so that I can do my work.
(00:47):
So we did it.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
You did it. It sounds my lasting.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
And I guess my older kids are enjoying themselves. I
don't know. I won't hear from them. They said to me,
or one of them said to me as I left, bye, mom, love,
you have fun doing our chores while we're gone. And
I was like, this is what I paid good money for.
This is what I paid.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, little I like a little bit of SaaS. I
think that's good.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It's good This is what I get for making them
independent and helpful. Yeah, I have to pay the price
when they're gone. Okay, shall we talk about what's going
on in the news. Okay, we've got yet another trade
deal asident. Donald Trump announced Sunday that the US reached
a trade deal with the European Union following pivotal discussions
with European Commission President Ursula vander Lehren. How is that
(01:36):
her name? Days before the August tariff deadline, Trump said
the deal imposed of fifteen percent tariff on most European
goods to the US, including cars, some products, including aircrafts
and their components. Some chemicals and pharmaceuticals will not be
subject to tariffs, vonder Lean said in a briefing after
the agreement was announced. She also said that the new
(01:56):
fifteen percent tariff rate would not be added to any
tariffs already an effect this is on you know, this
is on the heels of the Japan deal, so substance
of the deals aside. It does appear that he's making
the deals right. And my position on the on the
terroriffs is that I don't love it. You know, I'm
(02:17):
not a huge fan of the way this is happening,
because I think it's unwise to put one hundred and
sixty five trade deals on one's plate when one is
doing many other things. However, Donald Trump really likes tariffs
and he really likes deal making, so like he's happy,
and he promised this, so here we are, but progress
(02:37):
better than not making deals. So I'm okay with that part.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I mean, you and I tend to both be fairly
free marketing type of people, right, and therefore our tariff
skeptical generally, I mean policy. However, he also Trump also
mentioned that he's the it's likely there's going to be
a fifteen to twenty percent world wide tariff just kind
(03:05):
of across the board. And if that's the baseline, that
everybody just basically charges everybody else, it all. I'm not
saying that it all comes out in the wash, but
it then does become just the and the ability for
businesses to anticipate the cost of doing business right, and
(03:27):
being able to anticipate the cost of doing business is
one of the core and most important underpinnings of capitalism
that we both love.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, pretty pretty important stuff. Some have noted that the
White House's fact sheet differs from the story that the
European Union is telling, So we'll see how that comes
out in the wash. I mean such as such as
the like danger of doing a lot of deals quite quickly.
(04:00):
Normally these things take a lot of time and many
people to be involved in them, And I would I
don't think that's a perfect system. I think it probably
took too long to make free trade deals in the past,
and as always with Donald Trump, the pendulum just woo swings.
But I would say that I was worried about what
(04:21):
the first six months of his presidency would look like
economically because of the announcement of Liberation Day and what
that would mean for international trade. That does not mean
there haven't been costs for small businesses, for people who
really have had hurdles thrown up in their way, people
who have had to change business plans on a dime,
even in large corporations because of these ever changing plans.
(04:45):
But as a larger picture, the effect has not been
what I thought it might be on the economy in
any sort of in a large negative way.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, I know I'm damning with faint praise, but like
I'm a skeptic, so that's where I out right.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Right I it's sometimes less bad than you thought it
was possibly going to be. It's just kind of it's
the thing that we've talked about over and over again.
It's like, maybe it's all just kind of fine. Right,
It's not always the best, but it's not this doom
and gloom that we keep being sold is coming down
(05:23):
the well, and.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
That a lot of us, perhaps even all the countries
who are dealing with Trump, are doing the same thing
we're doing, which is like, maybe it'll all come out
in the wash. Like that's sort of that's sort of
where everyone is in the way that they're dealing with this.
So he's got that going for him. I do think,
(05:45):
you know, gas prices look promising for him. Inflation has
ticked down, even though of course cost of living still
feels very tough on people. Egg prices way down because
that was a spec problem that was called caused by
a specific thing that has to some extent been relieved.
(06:06):
And here we are so.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Ands as moms of collectively six children, two of us.
I like, the access to cheap protein is very important
to people, and eggs is a huge way to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
My five year old eggs were killing me.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Man.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, well, I know you and I both do pretty
high protein, and we both consume a lot of eggs,
as do all of our children. And I mean my
five year old eats between six and eight eggs every day.
She has very I have very children all and I
have gigantic children, and when they are teenagers, I will be.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
You're gonna be broke. I'm gonna have to give you
a GoFundMe so you. Hewittt once asked me how many
eggs my family eats per week, and I was like,
I couldn't even tell you because my husband orders so
many of them from Costco that there's just an ever
supplied stack of them in there and like large industrial
(07:14):
straight from the farm cartons that are like expanded, and
so I couldn't tell you. I can't keep count point
being cheaper egs better for both of us. And we
are not just political junkies, but mom voters who people
should be interested in reaching. It's true.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, we don't buy the cartons. We buy the boxes.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Right, it's a palate, it's a talent X.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
It's true. One thing I talked to you about earlier today,
Mary Catherine, was an interesting article that came across my
Twitter and my texts today was about the housing market. Yeah,
and that's actually a different economic indicator that I'm paying
attention to right now.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
But the some of.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
These very large home homebuilders are hitting new and high
levels of having to incentivize people getting into new homes.
And you know me, I'm an economic nerd, right, And
so I was reading some of these indices, some of
(08:20):
these indicators that are coming out, and we're seeing new
inventory on the market at levels that we haven't seen
since two thousand and nine. And the last six times
that we have seen levels this high of new homes
that people aren't moving in one. Yeah, that are just
(08:44):
sitting on the shelf, if you will, but they're sitting
on their lots of land without families moving into them.
Five out of the last six times that we have
hit these levels, it has then been followed with a recession.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Yeah. So a good canary in the coal mine perhaps
for people to be paying attention to. And this is
something that I think is important for particularly for political
people who work on political campaigns, people who are into
politics who have partisan designs on who they would like
to win. You do want to be looking out for
(09:21):
things to be worried about. Right, you don't just go
like everything's peachy keen. You do need to watch out
for what the things are that could be the arguments
you need to be making a year from now, And
one of those arguments may be on a broader sort
of optimism about people investing in new properties, an issue
(09:43):
with interest rates. I think our family is a great
example of a family that if interest rates were lower,
we would probably look at upgrading to a larger house
because we are stacked like an aircraft carrier in here.
But we are just like, let the kids all be
in one, it's the main let them destroy the nursery together,
(10:04):
and that's good and healthy to something stent for building
it is, but for the economy, I'm sure like we're
the kind of family that people would we'd be the
perfect case that would be like, oh yeah, we'll upgrade
at this point, but we have chosen not to do
that at these rate levels. So I think that's something
that will be part of the landscape when it comes
(10:24):
to twenty twenty six. Okay, we're going to talk about
a little bit more about Trump's fortunes, what that means
for twenty twenty six. Some other warning signs when we
are back on normal. All right, we are back on normally,
and I want to play. It's become a little bit
of a tradition on normally to play Harry Anton, who
(10:45):
is the data guy over at CNN, and he's always
I like Harry Anton. I think he's smart. And one
thing I like about him is that he understands what's
newsworthy and what's newsworthy our results that the the audience
is not expecting but are nonetheless based in data. Okay.
(11:06):
That can be jarring for the audience, and it can
also be jarring for the people hosting the show at CNN,
where he's constantly giving them Trump numbers that make them go,
surely that can't be right, Harry, And he's like, it is,
and stop calling me Shirley. He's like every time, he's like,
well so, and you and I talked about this whole time.
(11:29):
Trump is a cat falling off a counter like somehow
things come together. He has a sort of savant nature
of finding the right place to be, and in this case,
this is foreign policy, and I think he's earned this one.
But it is funny to watch Harry Inton explain it
(11:49):
to CNN So let's do a minute of that clip
of Harry talking to CNN viewers.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Yeah, this one was a surprising one to me, given
everything that's going on in Russia, what happened in Iran,
what happened and in Gaza. But the bottom line is
Democrats in the American voters' minds cannot hacket. What are
we talking about? Party trusted more and foreign policy? Well,
the GOP holds an average six point leading the month
of July. Look at this. Fox News came out last
week plus three points four Republicans on foreign policy over
(12:15):
the Democrats. You think that number is not high enough
for you? How about the Wall Street Journal GOP plus
eight points when they match congressional Democrats up against congressional Republicans.
The bottom line is this, despite everything that's going on
in the world right now, Republicans are more trusted on
Democrats when it comes to foreign policy and the world
at large. How has this changed through How does this
(12:36):
compare to during the campaign. Yeah, again, this to me
was a surprising number. Since Donald Trump said he'd come
in and broke all these peace deals. And while he's
brokeered some, he hasn't obviously brokered one between Ukraine and Russia,
and obviously the situation in Gaza. But take a look
here trust More and foreign policy. You go back to
twenty twenty four, Trump had a six point advantage over
Kamala Harris. Again, look at the average right now. It
(12:58):
hasn't moved despite everything that's going on in the world.
You see Republicans plus six points here.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
So I think there's a flaw in his reasoning, which
is despite everything that's going on in the world. And
I would say perhaps because of everything that's going on
in the world, such as bombing the crap out of
Iran's nuclear facilities, which most people are like, look at us,
that seems good, sensible, successful. I'm impressed his point is
(13:27):
well taken. That obviously there was not a peace deal
between Ukraine and Russia within twenty four hours, which I
believe is what Trump said he could pull off. I'm
not sure everyone actually expected that to happen. I think
Trump has been some of his rhetoric on Ukraine is
like a little squishy sometimes, but I also understand his
larger point, which is that you have to justify this
(13:49):
spending to the American people. And he's also again cat
falling off the counter, come up with this fantastic situation
where the European Union is paying for arms from US
to go to Ukraine because in spite of the fact
or because of it that he said in his first term,
(14:11):
NATO's got to do its part. NATO countries have to
pay their fair share. And then all of them were like, oh,
maybe we should, and then they did, and then they
paid for weapons Ukraine. So he's like, he's pulled off
a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yes, And their pathological inability to give him credit for
anything ever, just continues to erode people's confidence in mainstream media,
like because they see the things happening and then they're
told that it's not happening, and then they're like, I
(14:46):
don't believe you anymore.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I think he also there was a a pole result
result out the other day and I cannot remember which pole,
but it was, you know, Republicans had a ten point
lead on party that I trust to have a strong
vision for the country.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And I think some of this, some of the foreign
policy plus up or you know, credit he's getting is
not just from foreign policy, but the idea that he
is a leader, because he is inescapably leading right, like
you cannot help but understand his vision and hear his
vision on all of these issues and see him take
(15:28):
action on all these issues. And we had a comatose
president for four years, so I think people are like,
I feel like, even if he's like I don't totally
agree with him all the time, he's doing the thing
where you be a president.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah. And you know, harkening back to some of the
things that we were talking about in the first segment,
those of us that occupy a political space in what
people in the swamp consider to be flyover country, right,
like the biggest states, the rough spelt thing, but the
places where races are actually won and lost. The ramifications
(16:07):
for this for midterms are just going to be super
fascinating because we have a bunch of especially Democrats, who
are already trying to prepare themselves for the primary. And
the way that they're primary they're preparing themselves for the
primary that we're seeing here and in other big square
states is who can run to the left as far
(16:30):
as possible by talking about how much they hate Trump,
and they're going to have a really hard time running
back to the middle. Ye as soon as if these
numbers continue to hold right.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
And so it's also like you've tried this playbook so
many times? Yes, yes, so many times. Can we talk?
Actually this is like a little bit of a tangent,
But I want to note that The Atlantic a big
profile piece on Jasmine Crockett. Now, speaking of running to
(17:06):
the left, folks like you and I would be happy
to see the Democrats make Jasmine Crockett their spiritual leader,
which they seem to be sort of choosing to do.
Jasmin Crockett is a Texas congresswoman, I believe from the
Houston area. I looked up her district. Her district is
(17:27):
D plus thirty. Okay, D plus thirty. To give those
who are not political junkies an idea of what that means.
That's just like the proportion of Democrat voters.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Versus stefest of safe, like as.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Safe as you can get, you can say anything in
this district, she'll get reelected. Okay, Just to give you
an idea, like the roughly eighteen to twenty five toss
up house seats that will determine the House control in
twenty twenty six, the average number is like D plus
(18:04):
one or even so, right, just like a twenty nine
point delta.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
There, right right.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
So the point being this kind of congresswoman, although entertaining,
I'll give her, is not going to be reaching people
in swing districts and is largely probably going to repel
them in very serious ways. And I just want to note,
my friend Amber Duke read the full profile, which I
have not read yet. It's called a Democrat for the
(18:33):
Trump era. Jasmine Crockett is testing out the course style
of politics that the GOP has embraced. First of all,
hilarious that anyone thinks Democrats hadn't been course before. Now
you tried to put him in literal jail. But okay, fine, fine,
look what you made me do. Here's some facts from
(18:53):
the profile, just so you can get an idea of
how she's going to be reaching out. Number One, her
phone's locks is a headshot of herself. Number Two, she
thought she deserved to be the top Democrat on oversight
because she has the largest social media following. Number three,
she tried to shut down the profile after the reporter
(19:15):
called a number of her colleagues in the House. That
can't be good. So anyway, if Jasmine Crockett ends up
being a very noticeable national spokesperson for the Democratic Party
that could spell trouble for them that you know, might
not be outweighlable by the twenty twenty six wins, which
(19:38):
should blow as history with history as a guide against Republicans.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, mids midterms should not go well for Republicans. And
yet I mean, and the other thing is when you
start to think about and talk about who they have
kind of on their bench for president, it's not They're
kind of a headless entity right now.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah, I mean, this is part of the the somewhat
undercovered story of the Obama years is that he took
out so many state representatives who what otherwise might have
who otherwise might have been promising. So many governorships were
won by Republicans during those years and sort of sort
of thinned out their ranks. I also think an untold
(20:27):
part of the story with Democrats is that operationally running
campaigns and what was what's the chick's name who was
on Harris's campaign also Stephanie Cutter. Stephanie Cutter spoke about
this in a podcast in a post mortem podcast with
the pod Bros. I think about how a generation of
(20:52):
their operatives had not gotten the practice they needed. Guess why,
because Democrats didn't do operations in Yeah, and for most
of COVID. So all the young people who running those
campaigns should have learned those skills did not learn those
skills during those elections. Now it's not to say they
can't get some of that back, but thinning your ranks,
(21:15):
either with candidates or with operations, folks m not.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Great well and classically Democrats a lot of their like
field power, a lot of their organizational power has come
from unions, right. I as an operative myself, I used
to run up against union bosses and they will I
(21:39):
mean they are they are hard workers and their good organizer. Yeah,
that's that's the nature whole thing.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Trump has thrown such a wrench into what is their
organizational base of power just by being him and his
numbers with actual union members that it's just it's kind
of fascinating to watch. It's like it's like somebody threw
(22:10):
a like firecracker into the middle of an ant farm
and you're just watching them like run around in circles
and not.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Ye oh goodness. Let me give a few quick notes
of caution for people who are inclined to want Republicans
to win and just like looking forward this year is
the Virginia governor's race in November. Now that is always
seen as a bit of a tell, as is the
(22:36):
New Jersey governor's race. Those happen in this weird off
year fashion. Governor youngin Republican in Virginia is very very
very popular here like in the sixties approval rating. He
cannot run for another term because Virginia has a dumb
rule where they can't run for another term. He's just
limited to one. So generally Virginia governors will like jump
(22:59):
to Senate or you know this is, or become presidential
candidates or whatever. So his lieutenant governor wins. Some Earl Sears,
who is an African American woman, would be the first
African American woman governor if she won. She's a Marine,
she's got a very compelling personal story. She is running
as a Republican against al Abigail span Burger. Abigail Spanburger, Sorry,
(23:25):
this is a little bit of trivia, but you'll know
it is from the same district that saw Dave Bratt
take out Eric Canter back in the day. Okay, so
that's the district she was a representative from there. She's
a statewide known figure. She's a perfect example of a
Democrat who's pretty far left but can look and sound
(23:46):
quite normy mom type figure in Virginia because of all
the doje the doge of it all. There's a lot
of federal workers in Virginia. And I think this one
with a less compelling candidate than Youngkin because Youngkin was
like the perfect candidate for the perfect moment in a
(24:08):
pretty purple state. I think it is tough for Sears
to pull this off and their campaign and the Republican
Party seem to think so as well. They're doing a
shake up on her campaign this week for staffing because
they're lagging in fundraising and polling. So we'll see where
that one heads. Democrats could also overread that because Virginia
might be weird because it's so full of federal workers.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Virginia is weird. Yeah, yeah, that's true. I say this.
I say this as a non swamp creature that lives
in the big square states, like yeah, always weird.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yeah, so that will play a part in this election
that will not be present in like house districts in
twenty twenty six. Nonetheless, let me also note in North Carolina,
the former governor Democrat Roy Cooper has decided to run
for government Senate there, and that's to replace some Tom
(25:04):
till Us. I know things. I've been on the road. Okay, guys, yes,
he's gonna run. That was pretty much the DEM's dream candidate.
So that will eliminate a lot of spending and problems
for them. Not not doable for Republicans, but it makes
it much more competitive.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Those are our cautionary notes and inspirational notes. We will
be back on normally with one more segment about FAFO parenting,
and we are back. Kelly, I gotta do a parenting
story with you. This one is in the Wall Street Journal,
and I think you know this is like old news
(25:41):
to us. Good goodbye gentle parenting, Hello fa FO parenting.
So f around and find out parenting. It's his parents
are ditching the softer approach to child rearing that has
dominated the culture and taking a harder line. Okay, And
it opens with this anecdote. I feel that I see
things in our future. Carla Dylan tried lots of ways
(26:02):
to discipline her rambunctious thirteen year old, including making him
write the same contrite sentence a hundred times. But when
he sprayed her with a water gun at a campground
after she asked him not to, she saw only one option.
She threw him in the pond, clothes and all. Some
of the best lessons in life for the hard ones,
she said. The Internet calls it fafo. It's a child
rearing style style that elevates consequences over the gentle parenting
(26:23):
methods that have helped shape gen Z. FAFO is based
on the idea that parents can ask and warn, but
if a child breaks the rules, mom and dad aren't
standing in the way of repercussions. Won't bring your raincoat,
walk home in the downpour, didn't feel like having lasagna
for dinner, Survive until breakfast. Left your toy on the
floor again, Go find it in the trash under the
lasagna you didn't eat. Yes, please let you Like, I
(26:48):
don't know, I don't know what to say, other than like,
I'm like Bruce Willison die Hard, Like welcome to the party, pal,
Like this is what we've been doing over here.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
This is how we've been parenting since we had kids.
It was interesting because, out of the two of us
you would have been I think likely the better of
the two of us boy mom, and I would have
predicted myself to be the girl mom. And yet you
led with three girls.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I got all those girls.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Yeah, and I have two boys, and I will say
fafo parenting is the only way to parent two boys.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
There's no.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Unless you just concede property destruction. You have to yeah,
stand up to them, yes, or you will get run over.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I think it was do you know the essays who
on Twitter goes by cartoons hate her? She was noting that, Like,
you know, if you if you want to talk through
each of your child's big feelings, that's fine if you
have one child. Once you have more than one kid,
the problem becomes that big feelings child is the one
(28:03):
who gets attention. The attention is the thing that children want.
So either you end up being unfair to your children
who don't have big feelings, or you turn all of
your children into big feelings children because what they're.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Doing incentivized for them.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
You are incentivizing the big feelings that hold up the
whole family, that keep you from doing things that keep
you on your knees in front of a toddler begging
with them to see reason when they are developmentally unable
to see reason. I put an example of our FAFO
parenting on X the other day, and I was like,
(28:42):
I wonder if I'll get called mommy, dearist or something.
But it's very simple, and this probably sounds like normal
stuff to most of our listeners, because our listeners are
pretty normal. I think gentle parenting can have some upsides,
Like I think there's things that you can do with
your kids that do help them connect and calm down
instead of just saying stop having this angry feeling. Right,
(29:04):
I get that, but with stuff like this, like our
kids know that we will not come to bring them
their lunches at school, and they don't have a cafeteria
where they go to school, so they have to take
their lunches if they don't remember them. What was happening
was that kindly teachers gentle tea shirts were giving them
(29:24):
like a piece of pizza or like something delicious, or
we were being called to the school, and so we said, okay,
we're not going to do that anymore. You have emergency
beef jerky in your backpack that doesn't go bad.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
It will be a great band name by the way,
emergency jerky, emergency beef jerkey. Yeah, the concert.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
When you forget your lunch, you don't tell anyone. Yeah,
you eat the jerky. Yeah, and then if you don't
love the jerky, which we know you don't, it will
incentivize you to remember your lunch, and as a result,
they don't forget their lunch is very often.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, that's how we do it. I have a new
policy that any legos that end up in the dryer
become mine.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Oh nice.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, so now we're incentivizing get their legos out of
their pockets because I just have a bucket full of legos.
I did realize that I should not have bought a
nice dryer until my kids are out of the house,
because I just basically have a multi thousand dollars rock
tumbler that's my entire dryer at this point. It's the
(30:30):
stupidest thing that I've ever spent, like depent money on,
and but like it is. I there are there are
many things I like about gentle parenting and talking through feeling.
I try very hard to do all of that. But
also we have the time space continuum is real, and
(30:53):
we just have a school on time and we just
have to accomplish things, and we need to be able
to go to the grocery store and eating.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And I think, as illustrated by our first segment, you
and I do think about economics and talk about economics
on the phone a lot, because what else what else
the mom friends do? And so one of the things
that I am focusing on as a parent is what
is the incentive structure in my house? And so a
friend the other day who has is just has one kid,
(31:26):
and she was talking about how she was whining and
she gave her this and that she's trying to figure
out how to, like, you know, to short circuit that
whine fest and the tantrum or whatever it is. And
I said, okay, hear me out. Tell her you can
have the thing when you are calm for three minutes. Yeah,
(31:48):
And thus you have told the child calm is what
gets the treat. Screaming is not what gets the treat.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, don't mind, I won't cry. Just say I would
like a muna please, right, or whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
And that's what my children used to call those little pouches.
That's what I was trying to think of.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Mine. Mine still always go for the apple sauce pouches
and yeah, so don't mind, don't cry to say I
would like this, but you have.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
To switch the incentive structure or else they will read
all day that screaming is what gets them what they want. Yes,
and then you get yourself in trouble. Okay, we're going
to close out, But I'm going to close out with this, Kelly,
because I have one boy, and I have noticed that
the number of head injuries is just like exponentially higher
than the girls. He We have ah an ottoman in
(32:41):
the middle of the room that's basically our coffee table,
so it's padded. This is strategic. We have two toddlers.
You know, they're going to be jumping all around, so
it's just like an upholstered ottoman giant coffee table. He
got a footstool and put it on top of the
coffee table and then climbed up on top of it.
And I was sitting there the whole time watching because
he's my fourth kid, and I was like, Okay, you
(33:03):
see how it goes. Perhaps the consequences will tell him
something about the section. And he's standing up there and
he's kind of like dancing a jig up on the
footstool on top of the padded ottoman his balance, and
then actually nothing bad happened to him on this occasion.
But what he said to me was, Mom, look at me.
(33:23):
I injcizing, I interizing. And I was like, you know what,
that's incorrect, but it's extremely correct that that's what you're doing.
It is so I will keep you posted on whether
he injurizes.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Him justizes himself. I will mine this week. I think
I told you this already was we were my younger
since filled all over all of his clothes, and he said, Mom,
I got it all over my clothes, every single clothe
and it reminded me. It reminded me of how many
(34:00):
stuff the English languages. I got it on every single cloe.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
I was like, oh no, we're gonna stop labbing at that.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Just see his little face too, Mom, it got on
all my clothes. Every single blow there sizing in your cloth,
my cloe. He is often only wearing one cloe.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Okay, oh my god, everybody, keep all your cloe on.
Oh thanks for joining us on normally normally airs Tuesdays
and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcast.
Get in touch with us at normally thepod at gmail
dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things get weird,
act normally
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
Hosts And Creators
Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
Show Links
WebsiteNewsletterPopular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.