DaD Ep 30: Back to Life, Back to...what exactly?!

Two dads of T1D daughters, on a podcast, trying to figure it all out.

This episode is a little rough around the edges, as the Dads wholly embraced live streaming and listener interaction. It was fun...but maybe it's something we do just every now and then?! Never the less, the gamut got run once more, as Alan and Mark considered what our 'new normal' (does anyone like that phrase?!) looks like?

School, sports, shopping, social interactions, all come under the microscope as well as many other topics courtesy of our wonderful listeners and our hosts' seemingly endless ability to be derailed by bright, shiny topics of any shape, size, or description!

Please do check out our wonderful Dads and Diabetes show sponsors...

Glucose Revival @ https://glucoserevival.com/
Dia-Be-Tees @ www.Dia-Be-Tee.com

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Tim, if you hear that,how about I start again? That ended

(00:35):
abruptly. I can actually I canactually fade it out. But hold on,
We're not done. We've got todo and that nothing that we say
dagment, that's not the volume medicaladvice is strictly from our view as two

(00:58):
dads telling the stories of our oned Also, just to remind people that
we want to maintain a perspective inthis podcast. Regardless of what Alan and
I or our families are dealing with, we understand that it doesn't amount to
a hillabeans compared to what our daughtersor anyone diagnosed with type one diabetes is
dealing with. So we just wantto maintain that perspective. All right,

(01:26):
are we a we? Yes?We are on And wasn't wasn't that so
professional? Watch out world? Man? Can you still hear the music?
M yeah, it's I think it'sjust I think it's just your voice going
around in my head perpetually. Iget that a lot. So how's it
going? So we get Welcome toDad's and Diabetes. Welcome Dad's Diabetes on

(01:53):
the podcast. Trying to figure thingsout, but happy Monday to Stephen true
it and he is right with allthe stuff we have. It's just h
yeah, it is Monday, butyou know what you were on here at
seven oh six. We made it. Yeah, just about just about him

(02:14):
happy. So what's going on?Is it's time back to back to school.
We're gonna what's our what all we'regonna talk about tonight. Yeah,
we're gonna So tonight is gonna beback to life, back to reality.
I'd have to pay for it now. Uh it's back here. Yeah,
yeah, copyright infringement, that'll be. I think that'd be strike two.

(02:37):
I don't know. I don't know. We got Chase band so really oh
yeah, yeah he went to Facebookjob for thirty days. I really did.
Yeah that shit small time famous upfor a minute. But uh yeah
so uh anywah, Yeah, wegotta watch that copyright stuff. We don't
get canceled. That's pretty popular.This is yeah, this is where we're

(03:01):
going to focus on. I guesskind of our new normal. We have
been emerging from our respective cocoons,blinking in the sunlight, trying to get
a sense of what this new worldlooks like. And obviously kids are going
back to school now, kids arestarting up with their sports again, I
think we're getting we're getting back outinto the world. I don't know to

(03:23):
what degree, and I don't knowto what degree is sensible, but I
guess that varies from state to stateand family to family, and certainly when
you have a family that's impacted bydiabetes at layas in a whole other additional
consideration. So yeah, I thoughtit might be fun Alan just to spend
the next minutes so just talking abouthow we how our families are kind of

(03:46):
dealing with this new normal and whatgoing back to school and everything else looks
like. So before we jump intothat, I sort of really cool picture
of one of your kiddos with ahuge stock and paper from school from her
school. Why don't you tell uswhat that was? Also on Facebook?
Right? Yes, yes, shegot um. Yeah she was able to

(04:11):
and high Una, you do it. She she's watching. I know how
to say my cow? Know thatone? Can we say my cow all
the time? My cows got outin the backyard? Oh, Una,
hold on to me. We appreciateyou listening to Yeah, thanks for listening.

(04:34):
Sun diagnosed type one six six yearsold. Hey, but thanks for
joining us. We appreciate that.Uh yeah, So uh thanks, spam
calls anyway, Um, we've gotquite a few people listening. So yeah,
back to school just depends on youknow, what's going on. You
know, we're at sports of takenoff. Really it's you know a lot

(04:57):
of things you're not we're not joiningin with the bump. Okay, okay,
I forgot where I was at.I was I I saw somebody from
China, and I'm thinking we're reachinga broad audience. For somebody on has
fourteen hundred followers, We're doing amazing. Um next thing, you know,
Spotify fifty million dollars. We can'thave any Chinese followers because we'll get shut

(05:17):
down. Man, we'll go theway at TikTok. So you just I
just went live. I just madethis live on for TikTok. Man,
we can trump fixs TikTok bro Um. There's a client of mine listening from
uttered Arkansas, Jean. Good tosee you. Man. He's a big
supporter of Small to Famous and he'sa big support of anything I do.

(05:40):
And he's just one of my favoriteclients. I love that guy. Uh
So, but yeah, man,Emily is gonna be expecting if you saw
the bump, you you can tellshe she's not dude. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, she's not gonna it's supposedto be first week in September.
That it's what's the that's the tenth. She's she's ready to pop. Yes,

(06:03):
not yet, it's not gonna happen. We're Um, Derek to my
son in law. He had bettoday. He's not a betting man,
but he who was hoping it wouldbe today. Today's Lexi's birthday. Um,
but right Emily is the oldest,and but usiness he might not be
away. Yeah, yes, Ihave three daughters or Emily, Lexey,

(06:23):
and and and Ston to remind himhow many kids he has? You do,
I'm I'm starting to uh, I'mstarting to feel uh Joe Biden's pain.
But anyway, let's move off that. Um, thanks, thanks,
Jane, I appreciate that. Yeah, they're and they're gonna call me Ace
stood a grandpa. They want usto pick cool names, so Leslie's gonna

(06:45):
be Sassy and I'm gonna be Ace, so kind of hip, you know,
two characters off the the Disney Channel, Ace and Sassy. Yeah we
sound like the cool cool parents whereyou go get drugs. But anyway,
yeah, that's what I meant.Yeah, and that's going to go on
a black market watch out? Isthis small time favorites or Dads and Diabetes

(07:09):
I started having withdrawals from uh SDF. Let's see I hate my son?
Has my son got his dex comafter two years of fighting insurance? What
a game changer. Good deal,Thomas. I appreciate your listening, buddy.
If you have any questions or anything, just feel free to drop me
in and we'll we'll see if wecan get to on them. But yeah,
so as just want to say Thomasas well, Thomas, if you

(07:32):
want to reach out to us offline, both our kids are on dext com.
See why I can reach out tous at Dads and Diabetes at gmail
dot com. Of course you canalways do comments on Facebook as well,
but if you want to have aone to one obviously we're not the authorities
on dexcom, but our kids havebeen using it now for a couple of
years. Yeah, be happy tohave those conversations if I will be of
help. Yeah, that's absolutely allright, good deal, great, Sorry,

(07:56):
yep, thanks thanks Gene. GoodCadiac runch is that Cadillac runch on
his avatar. I thought it wasCadillac's up in the desert. That's cool.
Sorry, sorry, has three rednecksin South Arkansas. That's the one
we posed for pictures. My eyes. Anyway, we're gonna get there eventually.

(08:20):
Family ready to pop. She wasdoing at school. What was that
school paperwork? All about? Bbshe? Uh? She graduated h with
her BBA and so she got herbusiness administration degree. Um, and very
happy for she. Of course you'reat twenty twenty. She didn't get to
walk, but we we all wentand had a big family outing for a

(08:41):
vacation. I mean, I'm sorryfor to celebrate that. To celebrate a
few things. Really, Lexi's birthdaytoday, Hunter's birthday, her husband.
His birthday was Friday, Friday,Saturday, Friday, Saturday, Friday.
I can't remember, sorry, Hunter, he's new. Uh yeah, no,

(09:03):
so it was his birthday, thenher birthday, then celebrating we haven't
really done anything with Emily and Derekwith Lucas celebrating. Uh, Derek getting
the job as pastor of the churchalready, and then Hunter got us got
hired as the associate pastor at aat a church over in Gary, Texas.

(09:24):
So so We're just one big celebrationand all went out as a family.
And Emily, though, looks likeshe's going like a weeba wobble.
It's I mean, I don't knowhow big Lucas is going to be.
I hope he's he he'll probably takeafter Derek. Derek's pretty tall athletic guy.
We're horrifically shortened unathletic, which umin a mental gymnastics or what we

(09:50):
do. So well, she looksgreat, she's a fantastic and I was
excited on Facebook, and uh yeah, gonna be an exciting time. Let's
let's uh, let's turn our attentionsthen to um to our new normal,
right, yeah, yeah, whatwe're preparing to do. So why don't
you let's just quickly talk about let'sstart with school, because that's the immovable

(10:13):
object, right, sports and everythingelse we're able to kind of ease back
into. And we'll talk some moreabout that as well about what our kids
are doing in terms of their kindof social and athletic commitments. But school
is the thing. So now givefolks context. Anyone who's maybe listening to
the show for the first time,or maybe hadn't heard the show where we
talked about our kids schooling experience previously. Our family lives in Austin, Texas.

(10:33):
Our kids go to UM, Iwould say, a mid size private
school, mid to small so greatdeal of autonomy, control over their own
campus. You know, able tomake decision makings outside a decision making outside
of a school district. Alan's kiddosgo to a small um to small town

(10:56):
school, right, but it's asmart HULD school right, part a small
independent school district. Okay, allright, okay, good deal. So
with you guys. So so itmight be my work, and again,
give folks a lot of context here. I travel all over the United States.
I work with schools and school districtsin my real life. And the

(11:16):
one thing that has been really crazyhere these last few weeks is seeing the
similarities but also the wide divergence inhow certain communities are dealing with the whole
back to school topic. Right,and in some school districts, communities are
very much on board. You alwayshave kind of your outliers, but but
generally there's a consensus about, Okay, this is what's best for our school

(11:37):
and for our children and for ourfamilies and whatever that may be where that's
one hundred percent online, whether that'slet's get back in the classrooms as quickly
as we can. And then wehave other communities where there's a significant divergence,
typically between the parent groups and theschool board, and it's getting kind
of ugly, and that's that's notvery pleasant. So I'm just curious.
Let's start with with your situation withAnna Alan. What has your school said

(12:01):
in terms of when they gonna return, how are they going to return,
and then how are your family dealingwith that? With whatever decided, Well,
we're going back on August twenty fourth, And know there's always apprehension.
The thing that is the apprehension aroundit is not necessarily about COVID necessarily,

(12:24):
I guess you would say, I'llfall onto the side of and scientifically correct
that. You know, we're beingkind of sheltered a little bit. And
I'm more afraid that she's going togo back to school and catch the flu
or more afraid that she's gonna catcha stomach virus, because everybody's been inside
and they haven't really been affecting anybodywith anything, and so kids are they

(12:45):
may not you know, they tellus that they may not spread anything with
COVID, but when you're talking aboutjust regular viruses, that will be a
big vector. So that does concernus some. And so I know our
school district has immediate plans for distancelearning and all that. Uh, it's
not necessarily an opt in opt outthing because we have were rural internet is

(13:07):
terrible broadband internet and so makes thisdistance dartling it a little bit more difficult.
So but for those whom when theyneed to, they have API packets
and they have a plan and theyhave a contingency plan at any time to
shut down if they need to.But we're returning back. H we felt
that we were going to return backand we felt strong about it when the

(13:28):
the Athletic Arkansas Athletic Association actually starteddeproving sports first before I got word that,
Zachal when when we were going togo back to school, So we
know we got we got approved forsports, which kind of dictated the fact
that we're different. Um, we'rerequired to wear the required to wear a
mask. I'm sure the teachers areall an administration and staff is required to

(13:50):
wear a mask. U the kidsdo not wear a mask at their desk
or when doing physical exercise. Ithink the biggest challenge with school, especially
with the small school, and thething that that did concern me about the
possibility of not going back to school. Um, especially in rural areas,
you have a lot of kids thatare on subsidized lunches and things, and

(14:11):
that it really is that. Um, it definitely is the true fact that
And probably with your travels you've seenit. They a lot of time schools
only meal they get. H It'ssad, but it's very true, especially
in rural areas. So it justmakes it really difficult. And um,
they so they will be wearing theywill be wearing masks, but just not

(14:33):
at their desk. Everything's socially distanced. Uh, in the hallways and things
of that nature. Some activities arerestricted. UM, I know that.
But really the cafeteria is probably wasthe biggest part of the plan. Fountain.
Well, no, they're actually goingto that right now. They're building
a ton of picnic tables and outoutdoor venues because it's interesting, nice and

(14:54):
the fall was I thought it waspretty a smart take on it. When
it's implement weather they eat inside ofthe gymnasium socially distant, Uh, they
will not have much time to eatthem, imus, I'm sure they will
be spread apart and thanks of thatnature, because really that's uh sports and
uh cafeteria probably the two most difficultthings. But okay, so I mean,

(15:18):
because we have a tendency, youand I when we we gotta get
on a trail, we got itright. So we're just gonna pull this
back for a second and just sayand By will By, will you me
me? You kind of rang meback? You're my chase, you rang
me in Jean and Morrison. Diddo the schools have nurses who are knowledgeable
about diabetes and the needs? Yes? Absolutely, uh well, speaking for

(15:41):
Taylor, they do because you know, Leslie is a is an Orion.
She's the backup nurse and she's actuallythe backup for She's telling me yesterday something
about the backup state for the stateof Arkansas for our school. So if
there's some kind of nursing implementation somethingother, I don't I don't know,
but anyway, yes, there isthere's somebody that has a speak to over

(16:03):
school, but has someone that schoolingnas one diabetes and they're very well.
All the schools are very um Ithink cordial and allowing the parents to do
what they need to do to getus at the end. To that point,
I would agree, we have anurse's hill on site, and Thomas,
yeah, absolutely. I think bothof our nurses, Anna's nurse at

(16:25):
her school and Ella's my daughters calledElla's nurse at her school, have access
to their Texcom readings, have aniPad or device on hand, so they,
just like us, can see what'sgoing on throughout the day and be
able to, you know, eitherrespond or to reach out us to us
and say, hey, are youseeing this number? What do you think
we should do? So, yeah, that certainly takes place. So um

(16:45):
to just summarize what you said then, so you're going back in person August
twenty first, excuse me, twentyfourth five days a week Faraday's week four
school eighty three far days a week. Yeah, America. Well, they
had thought about it, and againit could. It depends on the area.
There may be U and the westdistrict to district, and you see

(17:07):
that when you travel Arkansas. Eventhough we're a rural state, I'm sure
there's there's larger school districts that willnot do that. They'll probably do um
A staggered schedule, I believe,and if I'm wrong, so I can
correct me. For North Webster Parish, so in Louisiana if you know,
as you know that parish is soin North Webster Parish, which is eight

(17:27):
miles from my house. They Ibelieve they may be doing a staggered schedule.
I'm not sure. I know theywere going to UM but it really
just depends, I believe, onyour area if they're going to do full
ends. So yeah, yeah,entire school districts only three hundred people basically
for K through twelve. So well, I think it's more than just making

(17:49):
a decision for the campus. It'smaking a decision for the community. Until
your point, you know, youmay have kids who, um that is
that one square meal a day andthey're gonna eat. You know, they're
gonna they're going to snack at home, but they're not going to have maybe
a hot meal available to them atany other point during the day, and
you need you need to take thatinto consideration. Um. You know,
of course you've got parents who needto get back to work, You've got

(18:11):
the siblings in the mix. Imean, there's a lot of variables here.
But when you're looking at it throughthe lens of a parent with a
kid with T one D. You'realways looking at how to minimize the risks
you don't want you do, knowwhat I'm saying. Just get your kid
into school with a special colored shirtthat says, hey, I'm the one
one D kid. Everyone makes specialcompensation for me, right, because you
don't want your kid to feel weirdby it like that, But by the
same token, you've obviously you wantyou know, you're trying to be smart.

(18:33):
You're trying to make sure that youyou're smart, and your kids are
doing what they can to minimize thepotential of not just catching COVID, but
like you said, adan catching anything. I mean at any given point in
time. It's it's something they haveto be cognizant of. In our situation,
we so we're at the school we'rein. They are welcoming kids back

(18:56):
I think five days a week fromnext week at August to seventeenth, so
we get back a week earlier thanyou guys do. But they get also
gave the option for kids to umto come to start school online. So
and now providing what's really interesting isthat I'm not sure all schools have the

(19:17):
capacity or the technology or the capabilityto do this necessarily, but they're providing
um, you know, asynchronous accessof course, are getting access to resources
that other folks have access to atany given point during the day, but
also synchronous learning as well, whichmeans you will be learning at the same
time that everybody else is learning.There will be a camera in class that
enables you to see what the teacheris doing right on with the whiteboard and

(19:41):
the and the discussion and debate thatthe teacher is having with the other kids
in class, so that you thencan join in because there'll be a microphone
and everything else and speakers with theewhere the teacher is. So I think
the ability to provide that, youknow, I think the big one of
the biggest challenges we saw back inthe spring was that almost all of the
learning, and unless you had ahuman doing it over zoom or something,
almost all of the learning was asynchronous. That is to say, the kids

(20:04):
were given something and then they weretold to do it, and then it
was given back to the teacher,and then the teacher responded, and then
I went back to the kid andit wasn't there wasn't a live interaction,
it wasn't an ongoing instructional environment.It was I'm going to drop something on
you, You're going to drop itback to me, And it was just
kind of a game of tennis,almost, and you have the synchronous component
and you're engaging with something like youand I are now Alan. Obviously it

(20:27):
takes that elevates the whole concept.So absolutely, Yeah, the fact they're
able to do that, the factthey're investing in their technology to enable my
kids to be because it's both ourkids, it's my son and daughter both
to be accessing class remotely, atleast for the first quarter is awesome.

(20:47):
And that was something that parents gotto choose and we decided. We decided
it was the right thing for Ella. But we also kind of talked to
Ethan about it because he has somereservations about returning. But also we were
like, you know, I don'tknow that we want to send him to
school and have him pick up whoknows what and bring it home. I
mean, it kind of seems tobe that seems to be counterintuitive to the

(21:11):
whole reason we're keeping Alla home.Yeah, it's not even go to school
pick up something and bring it backfor us exactly. You know, the
mishmashes is kind of strange. Ithink that I don't think there's a problem
at all at either go to school, go back to school, or don't,
but not going to school at allbecause we're afraid it's it's going to

(21:33):
wind up causing issues. Now that'sjust my personal opinion, and I'm talking
about and the there's an element missing. There's a people who do homeschooling.
So if you look at like whatwhat Thomas said, both my kids are
both homeschool but doing it for twoyears, dodge bullet, you know,
those hats off to those people becauseit is incredibly difficult. We've been blessed.

(21:59):
We're really intelligent kids. They didall of their work, and I
think the plan in the way Arkansasdid it. You couldn't draw, you
couldn't d because we have such umvast errors of no internet service or cell
phone service. Uh. They hadto do paper API packets um and the
the just note no. And butthe participation was incredible, and and they

(22:22):
made it to where you could notlook, your grade couldn't be lowered,
it could only go up right andand so then it worked out. But
the thing that they really are missing, the social interaction. UM now not
saves anything wrong with homeschool kids becausethey have their own times where they get
together and they do those sorts ofthings. And also kids just in rural
areas who were kind of socially distancedin anyway, but they need that.

(22:47):
They I think Tag missus his friends. He does not miss school. He's
one of those kids. He couldtake it or leave it. And it's
to missus school a lot um.You know, it's um, but you
know, hats you know, welearned how valuable homeschooling is, how difficult
it is. It's not a it'snot a something that when someone decides to
homeschool, it's not because I'm toolazy to bring my skids to school.

(23:11):
Is not that that it is afull time job, and it tells you
how hard teaching is, so thatthey are definitely essential personnel. I thought
that from the get go, andyou know, so I just I don't
know exactly like you know, we'vebeen doing. It's like Taylor, we're
sort of ready for it. We'refortunate in the fact that we're socially distant

(23:33):
and we're small, but at thesame time they had been incorporating because back
when Emily was in school, they'vebeen incorporating distance learning. So they'd started
down that road of distance learning wherethey would have a teacher present who basically
basically facilitate the class, but theymay be listening to the professor at a

(23:55):
at a university. So a lotis that. A lot of that was
what we used to call college prepclasses. I don't think they call it
that now, but they would doin go and get college credits while they
were in school, and they learnedhow to interact with the with the instructor.
So a lot of your high schoolkids are already going to know how
to do that. So we're fortunateto be ahead of that. And and

(24:15):
in most cases, from what I'veseen, and you may see things differently
in your line of work that theyou know pre sixth grade, well,
I say, definitely, you know, fourth grade and under or whatnot,
they're probably gonna be pretty much ina live instruction most of the time.
Is any kid under age ten Ithink is what they said. So yeah,
yeah, so given that we're gonnahave at home, we haven't I

(24:41):
feel like, um, I feelI don't say there's less risk, but
I feel that there's less Maybe there'sless concern with our family than that perhaps
is with yours. You're obviously comfortablewith your decision, but I imagine there's
some degree still have anxiety about kindof going back into school. Is that
accurate? Is that kind of unsca feeling? And how are you managing

(25:03):
that there's still apprehension? Yeah,of course, um, you know,
you know, and Thomas talking abouthaving the debts com you know that without
the debts com and all of that, having that gives gives some comfort.
Um, you know, you stillhave to pay attention to it. It's
technologies, technology, garbage in andgarbage out. But the fact that the

(25:25):
that the school nurse tracks the number, we're tracking the number, um anniston,
can she can bolus, set tempbasils, do glucost tabs, do
all that stuff in class um andso the technology is is great. Um,
you know, but again, ourbiggest fear is not COVID nineteen.

(25:45):
The biggest fear is you know,upcoming flu season, but some of the
the same protocols you know for umcoronavirus, if we wash our hands socially
distant uh, you know, justfollow the protocol where the mask when and

(26:06):
when you can't socially distance. That'sgoing to cut down a lot of those
other other diseases that we typically wouldspread UM and you know, and she'll
so even though we feel apprehensive aboutthat, our biggest fear is not coronavirus
is catching up, just just anold stomach bug because as you know,
uh Aniston winds up in the era lot of times with the stomach bug

(26:29):
because they have to have to havethe fluids, you know. So that's
the only apprehension and nothing nothing else, you know, because it actually starts
feeling more We're feeling more normal now, you know the fact that we got
to go about to school or gettingback. Any parents who are listening who
perhaps knew it to diabetes um Island'sreferencing there in terms of addition, you

(26:51):
know, other bugs flu I thinkit's some pieces that you pick up.
I think the concern there is dehydrationand that can obviously lead to DKA as
well. And it's had an instancewhich he was in hospital with that and
it's not uncommon for that to happen. So whether it's COVID or something else,
that's you know that's the end game. That's what we're trying to avoid.
Right, It's like kids with DKAand ending up in a hospital stay
and obviously you're going to a hospitaland that's the whole other level of anxiety

(27:12):
as well. Yeah, yeah,that's right. I'm glad you said that,
because that just toit me when yousaid it is. Yeah, we
don't want to end up at thehospital for sure, Absolutely not. So
I want to move off to schoolhere in just a moment. One last
thing I do want to say,at least from our perspective, Obviously we
made the decision for Ela and Ethanto sit out for the first quarter.

(27:36):
I want to say we, Imean we obviously we're the adults in the
family, so ultimately the decision willbe ours, but we did this as
a collective. We kind of satdown with and said, hey, guys,
okay, you know, we hadthese conversations. Obviously, you've not
been in a bubble, you've beenliving in the COVID world or the last
four months, and you kind ofknow what's going on, and we have
conversations as a family, and there'sonly number of different ways to approach this.

(28:00):
What do you what do you guysthink, what are your thoughts?
You know, what's going on inyour head right now as it relates to
returning to school. And to yourpoint, Alan, you know, I
have a couple of kids who arepretty social and who missed their friends.
Ella in particular has a tight socialgroup, and all of those girls are
returning to school physically whereas she isn't, and that's really difficult. But that
being said, you know, theyhad some our kids had anxiety as well,

(28:25):
I mean not crippling anxiety, whereI feel like it was really troubling,
like gosh, you know, they'vethis has really thrown them for a
loop and they're never going to beThey're never going to want to step outside
the front door again. But itwas interesting to hear their take on things.
And I would summarize that by sayingthey they wanted to err on the

(28:45):
side of caution. They were like, you know, we just I don't
know, I don't know going backto school right now, dad, So
it's kind of interesting. Did Annaor Tag have any kind of perspective on
that or not so much? Yeah, I mean somewhat Aliston or not not
too scared about it. And kidsare sort of fearless, but they do.
They pick up the vibe from parentsa lot. So it's rocked.

(29:08):
It really, it rocked our world. And I couldn't imagine being a kid
because right now every day seems likea year to them. It's gotta seemed
like a it's gotta seemed like amillennial, millennium, a decade, whatever.
Sorry, but time just kind ofstood still, and it you could

(29:29):
notice. It took a while,but you're starting to notice and behavioral pattern
changes because I think, you know, we were built to be social.
The Bible says not good for manto be alans, and so it will
just being with your kids, whichwe love to do. They have to
have that social interaction with kids theirage so they can talk and play and

(29:52):
and and just you know, bekids. And it so she wasn't again,
she's not too worth. She's moreexcited than anything else. Tag could
stay home for the next fifteen yearsand he'd probably be just fine. But
we as parents notice it. Wenoticed some differences. And Tag actually was
a guest on Smalltown Famous last weekand he gave his thoughts and it really

(30:17):
surprised me how much they listened becausehe doesn't sit down and watch the news.
And he was asked by Chase thispoint blank, you know, how
do you feel about school and backgoing back to school? And he said,
well, um, I really thinkthat, you know, kids our
age aren't the real spreaders of thedisease, so I think that we'll be

(30:38):
fine. And so I'm not reallylooking at him like what, like where
did you get that? So theydo listen and they and they understand.
So I think the understand that thekids aren't ridden necessary to the spreaders.
But I think some people, somepeople do miss the point the fact that,
uh, it's that at the adultsthat work at the facility can give

(31:03):
it to each other. So Ibelieve that that, you know, so
with anxiety behind it's not my kidsgetting sick of with corona or anything like
that or COVID nineteen again it is, it's stomach bugs and viruses and things
like that. But they you know, so there, but there's some apprehension,
um probably for that, but theexcitement is overweighing it by far,

(31:26):
and Anderston is really just craving.And I don't I don't know, I
don't know why our internet's just droppedup anyway school. Yeah, just because
she's going into seventh grade and nowshe gets to play and she gets to
play basketball, right, she's notnot what we call peewee basketball, which
you do in elementary school. Theystarted the volleyball team. And the interesting

(31:49):
thing also with um uh, well, with being in such a small town,
a lot of the girls that sheplays something sports with, like softball,
Yeah, they're they're in her class, so she does she did get
to have some of that social interaction, but she wants she's ready to see
him at school. She misses herteachers too. Sure, Okay, well

(32:12):
that's why you know, that's partof the reason we do this show,
right, it's provide our perspectives ourkids kind of approaching this a little differently.
Again, I wouldn't say alas wroughtwith anxiety, but she wants to
ear on the side of caution andis eager to get back to school and
get back into her social circle.And you know that's that's because they're regular
kids. I mean, kids havedifferent takes on things. And it's what
and it's the it's the it's theparadigm of which we live. You live

(32:36):
in Austin, Texas, we livein Taylor, Arkansas, so populately.
I mean, how many people livein Austin now a million? I don't
are yeah getting on for Actually,if you're taking the bobs as well,
it's about two and we're at fivehundred people. So what we hear is
totally different. So to us,when we hear about somebody having COVID nineteen
that the test depositive, it's reallybig news and it spreads really big news.

(33:00):
The news. It's not the COVIDright, So the news is like
so because a lot of the unfortuneis still just happening on TV. It's
like watching a movie. It's likewatching a movie. That's a good point.
And so they can't there. Iwouldn't say that they take it and
um put craft a worldview around itlike Ella definitely would because she actually would

(33:23):
have to be careful where you guysgo, simply because you have so many
people. When you go to yourgrocery store, you know you're going to
the same grocery store. You're interactingwith the same people. The grocery store
is like, you're not shoulder toshoulder. You know, We're not going
to the same stores all the time, right, Some of that's going to

(33:44):
be going to hand up on wherewe are and what we need. And
we have a whole myriad of peopleright coming through the store, and the
stores are busy, and so yeah, our dynamic, just in just that
one small example, it's so verydifferent from yours. So anyway, you
touched upon sports there, and Iwant to I want to make sure we
address this a little bit, becauseagain, this is something that starting to
ramp up again now. And Idon't mean sports in school, although I

(34:05):
thought I was curious because I knowthat Ella's school they can have very limited
options for sports, at least atthe beginning of the school year. It
sounds like you guys are also goinga different route with that, which again
I think just speaks to the differentsituations that we find ourselves in. But
I'm actually talking about sports outside ofschool. So regular listens to the show
will know that Anna is a veryenthusiastic athlete. She's an outstanding softball player

(34:29):
and has dabbled into other sports aswell. Ella plays soccer competitively and has
done for several years. Plays littlevolleyball also, but I would say softball
is Anna's first love right now,and soccer is Ella's and certainly they're both
in competitive situations, are on teamswhere it's serious. So we're starting to

(34:50):
ramp up, and we have acouple of really interesting lot of things to
share with you in terms of howwe're kind of navigating this. But before
we go into Ella and her story, be curious to know how you all
are addressing softball. I know youjust came off the back of a tournament,
right, Usually your tournaments weekend long. So how is softball starting to
ramp up for you again? Andagain what kind of precautions are you taking
as it relates to Anna being siteone. Um? Nothing. I think

(35:15):
I spoke to this a little bitlast time that at first it really seemed
it seemed different. Um, youknow, the way the practices were being
handled, the way the just theprotocol on the field, the sanitization,
the way you could go to adugout. I mean they you had parents
had to wait in their car untilyour child actually played. It took about

(35:37):
two weeks and that stopped because somethingabout being out there made everybody forget and
the next thing you know, wewere we were just all out there and
we haven't heard any negative ramifications.But when we go to tournaments. It
really depends on the tournament. Theywill let you know, um if there
are protocols because some places, ifwe go to North Arkansas, we may

(36:01):
absolutely be required to wear a maskor retaining or stay in our car until
us time for your child to play. So different restrictions for different tournaments were
going. She's you know, Ithink I told you about she made an
Elite of softball team M and sonow you know we're gonna be traveling a
whole lot more to different tournaments.So I'm interested to see how they're going

(36:22):
to handle the protocols of those tournaments. But safety safety is definitely uh something
that that the that the sporting communityfor the children. They want to make
sure that the parents the kids arekept saving number one obviously, but definitely
that they don't bringing home to theparents. UM. And so I think

(36:42):
they've done a good job with someof the social distancing um And in some
places you go, you know,it's like anywhere else in America. Some
are some are taking a little bitmore seriously than others, but there's a
craving for normalcy. You talk aboutthe new normal, you know, I
struggle with that term. I guessevery day's new normal. But we just
want some form of normalcy where wego and enjoy game. And we're sitting

(37:06):
there yelling from the stands and clappingand doing things like that. Well that's
what people are getting to do.But but you'll notice they cluster. So
we're sitting on the beach bleachers,but we're but we're with our own little
group or where it got our chairs. But where they might be jammed up
side by side, now they're not. Maybe they're spread apart a little bit.
I think people are just using commonsense and it's really helped out and

(37:29):
done and served us well. UM, but you know, practices are being
broken up a little bit more.Uh. You know, there's less interaction
with the kids on the field.There's no coach interaction much when there is,
you know, approaching, you don'tapproaching umpire and things like that.
So I think everybody's just practicing socialdistancings. There's not a lot of mask

(37:50):
wearing. UM. There's hand sanitizereverywhere and you can see the routine of
UM going to the concession stands andimmediately you know they're wearing gloves and masks.
If you're serving food and the peopleare sanitizing their hands and then they're
going to restam washing, So peopleare practicing good hygiene and it's and it's
worked out really well. So wehaven't heard any any stories from any tournament

(38:15):
where people have become infected. AndI'm sure there are, um, but
it's just, you know it thegood outweighs the bad. Um, there's
not you know, all we cando is try to our best to stay
stay safe. But at some pointthat you know, the kids have to
feel like that this isn't going tolast forever. They sports are good for

(38:38):
children, um and it and itreally will help us as parents. Gets
just feel more normal. If you'vebeen in that world for any number of
years, you need that time outon the field watching them play. And
I and then I say I agreewith that. I mean, I agree
what you're talking about that in anutshet is mental well being. Yes,

(39:00):
that's it, particularly for the kids. I mean, really more about the
kids. This is their sport.I mean, I've got the parents to
be happy too, but this isreally about the kids. I had to
say before I really respond to whatyou just said, Alan Stephen Truett,
perhaps unintentionally great pun travel baseball hereis in full swing. I just got
that actually I was actually writing.Okay, I'll just show it, he

(39:24):
said us. Also, but howdo you help your child with feeling different
because of type one? My sonhas heart anxiety since diagnosed it to two
and a half years ago, andM, how old is your son,
Thomas? That's what anyone listening tothis in the form of a podcast,
Just to put this in context,because it's gonna sound a little bit different

(39:45):
to our usual shows. I'm notsure I still like this, but Alan
wants to try it, so wetake it for a test drive. We're
live on Facebook. Maybe we'll dothese every other show, but I don't
know. We're live on Facebook rightnow, which is why we're able to
interact with folks directly. And it'sobviously break in the show up a little
bit. And this is good.I mean, I like the dynamic,
but it might sound weird in podcastsformat later. So just so end of

(40:06):
listeners enjoying the podcast know what's goingon. Yeah, seven Thomas as seven
seven, Yeah, elm the anxietyand we'll we'll we'll cover that probably as
we when we talk again. Maybethat'd be a good thing for next time,
because now and then we'll be inschool. Yeah, we've never really
because our kids, I don't thinkwe've ever had a really high degree of
anxiety around the T one D right, So we never really addressed it.

(40:30):
But but we know that, youknow, it comes in lots of different
forms and different people respond to itdifferently. Yeah, I think that you
would. You would think that thegirls would have a little bit more,
um, maybe some anxiety or selfesteem issues or whatever on it. But
I know Leslie, just filling inas a nurse and just talking about other
parents, it seemed like some ofthe boys have a little bit more of

(40:52):
anxiety around it. Um, thegirls just accepted it. Seems like they
except for now. But you know, but I don't, I don't know.
I don't know. But at ageseven, you know the anxiety since
Big Nag knows two and a halfyears ago, you know, that might
be something we could talk about offline, just to see exactly what the feelings

(41:13):
are. Or maybe we could haveThomas on the show and we could talk
with him about it and see.I think I find this a good idea.
I have a couple of a coupleof suggestions around that. But I
think more than anxiety, i'd sayThomas, my mind's water maybe I know
to a certain extent as well,but Elli cently he has struggled more with
kind of die t one D fatigue. Right, just the whole just sucks.

(41:37):
Yeah, just kind of sick ofit, right, just you get
those peaks and troughs you get yougo for many many months or everything seems
kind of cool, and we'll hammingalong and then maybe we'll have I don't
know, two or three bad daysin a row, and then of course
the world comes crashing down and andwe all have to like suck it all
up and just carry on. Andso yeah, it's it's been more of
a fatigue piece and maybe an ongoinganxiety. But yeah, I don't know

(42:00):
if this is the first time you'relistening to us, Thomas, where I
don't know how many shows in weare now twenty of thirty shows or something,
so we have a bit of abad catalog. So um, you
know, i'd encourage you maybe togo back and take a couple of those
shows, and then the show descriptionsobviously gives you a sense what we're talking
about in each episode, So maybethere's some stuff in there that would be
helpful to you. But again,we're working to reach out to us on

(42:21):
email as well if you want tohave a cidebar conversation. Because we didn't
talk about that. Yeah, Iremember us talking about it at one point,
about social anxiety and things like,Yeah, I'm going to send out
love of Thomas. A few cansee that I sent your message there.
Just reach out to us that doesn'tRBS at gmail dot com, and we'll

(42:44):
be glad to talk with you aboutthat. Yeah, it's interesting where he
said there about he said about hisson's fear of early kids knowing it.
You know that he feels different,and I don't think Ella's situation manifests quite
the same way. But I kindof sort of know what Thomas is saying
there, so and I don't thinkI think it all comes at the under

(43:06):
the umbrella of just not wanting tobe seen to be different. Yeah,
right, particularly at me at seven, I could certainly see. But as
you start to approach the teen years, right in particular where our girls are
at, there's definitely a desire tobe a part of the click, be
a part of the crowd, andnot be seen as being kind of the
outside or weird or requiring a specialtreatment. You just don't want to be

(43:28):
that kid, solidly. See havingsgo hand in hand with that. So
back to the sports piece, Alan, So it sounds to me like folks
use the word people using common sense. My concerner that always is that common
sense is in commonplace. Unfortunately,there are too many people who pop down
their affoldable chair right next to yours, right because yeah, they can just

(43:51):
like you know, just bump youwith their elbow, or they're still in
line a concessions and they're right nextto you and they're not wearing a mask,
and you're like, you know,it's it's this suddenly hasn't We've got
to be smart here, right,We've just got to be smart. But
it sounds like you are at leastseeing you're seeing that to a pretty high
degree. In the events you've beento. You've seen people kind of making
in a concerted effort, not makinga big deal of it, but you're

(44:13):
seeing subtle changes. You're seeing people, like you said, people not approaching
the umpire and adults kind of stayingin their pods as is the new term.
Right. Yeah, So I'll tellyou with soccer, we it's been
challenging for all because she, likean actually just got an opportunity, coortunity
to kind of step up and playat another level. And she's not going

(44:34):
to be a travel team as well, and we're going to travel to Dallas
and Houston and San Antonio, butalso for the first time out of state,
so we're gonna be trailing to OklahomaCity and Tulsa. And we're not
the only parents to have pretty highconcern about that, you know. But
the reason being that all of Ella'sleague games now are double headers. This

(44:57):
is if you go to a tournament, you know it's going to be a
week ken pretty much, right,particularly if your kids playing on a good
team that's going to make it throughto the later rounds generally is but league
games are typically one shot affairs.You show up for your league game at
whenever two o'clock on a Saturday.They'll play the game. You go home.
Because the level she's at right now, they'll go somewhere, they'll play
Saturday, they'll stay overnight, they'llplay Sunday. Yeah, so now you

(45:21):
have this, you have this wholeconstruct of do I really want to go
from Austin, where things are alreadykind of crazy three hours to Houston,
where things are bats something else,I mean, off the charts, and
that being around being around parents who, again common sense maybe uncommon. And

(45:49):
and then go and stay in ahotel where, even though they're not allowing
congregations in hotels, you don't knowhow well those hotel rooms have been cleaned
to them. Maybe you go toa restaurant because we're gonna have a team
meal and a restaurant, all ofthe things we're trying to avoid doing right
here in Austin. Like, I'mnot traveling right now, and my company
had been really good about it,like we don't really want you actively traveling

(46:10):
unless you absolutely have to go seesomebody. We're cool with you being home
base. So I'm not traveling rightnow. I'm not in hotels right now,
We're not going to restaurants right now. And so because of soccer,
you know, we were basically beingbreaking all of those conventions and exposing all
to all of that additional risks.So it's been really challenging. And you

(46:31):
know, her new coach, he'sa fantastic coach, Like he really knows
the game. Well, but he'sa younger guy, and he's been a
little lazy affair about the whole thing. He's been maybe a little bit more
relaxed about things than we might like. And other parents, it's funny,
actually we haven't really voiced anything because, again to Thomas's point, we don't
want to be the outsiders, right, we don't want to be little ones

(46:52):
who were always speaking up. Andluckily other parents have kind of spoken up
and said things. And now he'sstarting to do things like when the girls
arrive at practice, ordinarily they throwtheir bags down almost in a heap,
right, And then when their breaksthroughout the practice to go get water,
they'd all walk over to the samehuddle of bags and pull out their water
bustles and stand around chit chatting whilethey're drinking water, all within arm's length
of one another. So now hesaid, you know, when you come

(47:14):
to practice, you set your bagdown. Your bag needs to be at
least six feet from the next bag, right, So when then we have
those water breaks, he knows thegirls are going to be separated automatically when
he brings him in together on ahuddle to give them instruction for a concerted
period of time he's pulling his maskon, right, he's not doing it.
If he's just kind of pulling himin for a quick ten second,
hey you go there, you gothere. But if you pause him in

(47:34):
and say, okay, guys,I want to talk to you through,
talk you through what we just did, he's putting his mask on. So
that's certainly improving. But it's interestingon the pod concept. You know,
our little group of girls are apod Ella's team or a POD and because
the club she's in has other girlswho kind of practice on the same field,
over the last couple of weeks,they've started bringing those age groups together

(47:58):
and it's kind of freaking us out, like, oh, this practice,
we're going to bring all three agegroups together, Like we don't know these
other girls or other families, andall of a sudden we're just kind of
throwing them in the mix. Andwe actually had an instance alan even within
our own pod, just a coupleof weeks ago, were one of the
girls got COVID. She was testedwas positive, so of course she was

(48:19):
in isolation. I think the isolationfor fourteen days and they actually are practices
when on hiatus for fourteen days.Their coaches like no practice, no one
you know, no one's going tocome to the fields and whatnot. So
so it's it's it's it's just somuch in the mix. There's just so
much to consider. And maybe thetheme of this, you know, we

(48:39):
thought the theme of this would bethe new Normal, perhaps with Thomas has
Holp. The theme of this episodeAlan is anxiety and Ada managy because because
I would say that underlying to allthis is our anxiety about not wanting to
have Ella miss out, not wantto have Ella four behind, not wanting
to have Ella be ostracized because youknow, like for in this last weekend,

(49:00):
we had our first preseason scrimmage.It was in Houston, which blows
my mind because I'm like, whenthey're A league games and we have to
go to Houston, we go toHouston. When you have preseason scrimmages,
don't go to Houston. Off wewent to Houston. We had a game
Saturday. This is what scrimmage gameSaturday and a game Sunday. So we

(49:22):
set to coach, we'll be thereSaturday. We're not going to stay over
Saturday night. If Sunday's game we'rean afternoon game. Maybe we'd be crazy
enough to go home the three hoursdrive back, the three hours to play
Sunday, to drive home through it. Maybe we would do that, but
the Sunday game was nine o'clock inthe morning, so I made it a
nonstarter. Yeah. So I alreadymissed out on a game this season again,

(49:45):
albeit a preseason scrimmage. But youknow that that layer of anxiety,
that concern, that not wanting tokid to miss out, but to balance
these things to get back to,like you were saying, Allen, something
akin to what we're used to.It's it's really challenging. Yeah. Sorry,
I just did an island. Now, I just did an island.
I went off like twenty minutes.Get no, that's okay, but you

(50:05):
know, and you need to getthat out. But because it's it's the
I can boil everything. You're downinto the fear of the numb. It's
fomo you're missing out right, becauseour kids do not. Our kids do
not have the same senses of anxietythat we have. Because if you think
about it, I mean, ifyou're talking to a five year old and
you tell a five year old like, man, today was a bad day,

(50:28):
and he's probably thinking, what what'sa bad day? What do you
think? Right, So they learnwhat a bad day is. So the
anxieties hours and it's the our lovefor the kids or sympathy for the kids,
it's us. I find myself romanticizingthe softball field when she goes out
there to play. I'm like,man, last year, you know this,

(50:51):
But when when it's going on,when the ball game is going on,
you forget. It's like a littlevacation. And also, I just
was gonna say one last thing abouttravel ball that because Arkansas was handling it
very different and we had very strictset of guidelines and then everybody said,
now we're just not going to doit. Then it's suddenly, you know,
we we see these spikes and stuffin the cases, but the everything

(51:14):
else is dropping. So they openedit up because it is not really happening.
Those aren't the vectors and what andthey've kind of isolated those down to
nursing homes and correctional facilities. Sothat's your main culprits. So I guess
what I'm what I'm trying to sayis I have I have been doing some
traveling. I started traveling for thebusiness again, traveled to Dallas. I

(51:38):
stayed in my first hotel there.That got me over to anxiety when I
looked at how hard these hotels aretrying to get people back, and how
what they did the protocols. Whenyou really experience the protocols of the hotels,
it's pretty amazing what they're having togo through and what they're trying to
do. So, you know,so that doesn't frighten me anymore. We

(52:00):
are saying variables in there the islandjust because you have won a good experience
in one hotel, well, yousaw being really thorough with changing practice.
I know where you're going, youknow. No, I mean, yeah,
I don't know. You love Motelsix, But I'm not a big
if they want to show if I'mhilding a wards Man Awards, but no,

(52:22):
you know no, obviously, Ithink that you have to be smart.
Just like when you look at therestaurant, not all restaurants with the
same You can look in and say, yeah, we're not going here.
No, it's the same way withhotels. You can tell when you walk
in and everything looks like it wasit's brand new. Everybody's wearing a mask,
their stand away. There's PLEXI glasseverywhere they've got they before you walk

(52:45):
in the door, they explained they'recleaning protocols that they will not clean your
room until you check out because theydo not want to risk their staff.
When they've got these protocols in place, it makes you feel a level of
comfort. Then you look. Sothat allowed us to feel more we're going
to Gulf Shorts. We went togolf shorts for vacation. What that allowed
us to feel a bit more comfortablefor travel, So we've booked a cabin
up in broke Bo, Oklahoma.And then when you look at the protocols

(53:08):
there, there's a I'm sure there'sjust national protocols on that people are best
practices that people are following. Butwe've become we have gotten over the anxiety
of traveling and traveling for ball.But one of the things that they're not
doing today tournaments. Before we askyou a quick question. When you travel
with a soft ball and you stayin a hotel, do you have to

(53:30):
stay in a team hotel or doyou get to choose where you stay?
Now we'll choose where we stay,so teams we don't have that luxury well,
and that's the thing that like you'resaying the coach is kind of kind
of going rogue a little bit becauseI say that his actual has changed a
lot recently because he's just had anew born. Okay, so that may
change that major things. Yeah,because it depends on your circumstances. But

(53:52):
the thing that I've noticed with anyof the coaching coaches, tournament directors,
any of that, they well,absolutely if you have a concern, to
address it. And they've always donethat with Aniston with two und right,
But they know that we're not goingto play on Sunday because we're gonna be
at church. The team that shetried out for. They know that and

(54:14):
they're fine with it. Um.You know, it's just they're trying to
play as much as they can andthey want everybody to feel as safe as
possible. If they say, hey, your kid can't make it, They've
got a list of girls that areready to play at any time, so
they just feel in if you don'tfeel comfortable about about where they're going,
they've got a list of girls thatare ready to play at any time.
So I thought that was really smarton the way that the coach did that.

(54:35):
He's got a list of players andthese other players have found other teams.
But there they'll call them from abig pool. So they got a
pool of girls to call from tofill the team. Um so, but
hey, we're getting at about fiftyseconds I'm sorry, twenty seconds away from
an hour. I do want togo ahead and US and us and unless
you have something that you want tobring up, I just want to be

(54:57):
pulling the sponsors wok quick and thankthem. Um let me bring what is
the sponsors? Yeah, for somereason, it's night showing. Can you

(55:20):
hear it? I cannot. Wehave awesome sponsors too. I was being
flippant. I was waiting to seewhat Allen came up with vibers ers with
JDRF receiving a donation for every shirtsold. We need a cure, but
until then, I want to havesome fun with our shirts and raise awareness.
At the same time, check outdiabetes dot com. That's da dash

(55:43):
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(56:06):
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(56:52):
to back to us again. Yeah, man, So what I wanted to
do is sticking and screaming into twentytwenty. Just go ahead and start.
Oh okay, well guys, it'sabout that time. Yeah, we'll wrap
it up. We'll wrap it upbecause we have been rambling for a while.
I think that's the downside of thisformat. I see you and I
just want to have a beer andjust ramble and just all night. Man.

(57:15):
That's I know, it's it's it'seasier to connect and you know,
and thanks, thank you very muchfor the Stephen for your participation, Thomas,
thanks for the shout outs for goodness, gration from China. Yeah,
Michael Carter from Magnolia, then Jeanand stuff. So any other questions just
give us a holler and uh wejust thank you very much for listening to

(57:37):
dads and diabetes. You want todo it all right? Do our little
outro? Sure? Yeah, Imean you've been listening to dads and diabetes.
Two dads and a bunch of otherpeople struggling and doing the best pe
possibly can do. Appreciate you listening. Guys. I'm Mark, I'm Alan.
We're out.