Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Happy Hour #24: SMNTY Takes a Vacation
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, this is any and Samantha and welcome to stuff
- 0:07Speaker 1: I've never told you production of iHeart Radio. It is
- 0:19Speaker 1: time for another happy hour, So cheers everyone, kid, drink
- 0:24Speaker 1: responsibly if you choose to do so. And today we're
- 0:28Speaker 1: gonna be talking about some friendship traditions and women and
- 0:33Speaker 1: vacation because a peek behind the curtain, listeners, Samantha and
- 0:38Speaker 1: I are trying to take one of these elusive vacations,
- 0:42Speaker 1: which means that we are still drinking a drink that
- 0:45Speaker 1: we had in a previous happy hour, the one we
- 0:49Speaker 1: did on Antille Tequila. So I am still drinking the
- 0:55Speaker 1: tequila sour, which is lovely and a delight and very
- 0:59Speaker 1: like I said in that episod, makes me feel like
- 1:01Speaker 1: I'm at the beach, so that's where I'm trying to go.
- 1:03Speaker 1: I feel ready, You're ready, Yes, And I am drinking
- 1:07Speaker 1: my Paloma, which is almost like candy liquid candy, so
- 1:12Speaker 1: it can be very dangerous but also seems very beach like.
- 1:15Speaker 1: So thank you to the Ferguson's and Intil Tequila for
- 1:19Speaker 1: sending us your a coconut lime tequila because it's delicious. Yes,
- 1:24Speaker 1: not a sponsor. We are currently not sponsored by anyone
- 1:26Speaker 1: we talked about, but they did send us product, so
- 1:28Speaker 1: that is very lovely and it is it tastes very lovely.
- 1:33Speaker 1: But yeah, we're trying to come on vacation, which I know.
- 1:39Speaker 1: I try to get some numbers on this because I
- 1:42Speaker 1: just feel like, especially in the United States, where work
- 1:47Speaker 1: and productivity is we've talked about before, is often tied
- 1:50Speaker 1: to morality, um and you're worth and workaholic is painted
- 1:54Speaker 1: as a good thing, that it's taking a vacation becomes
- 1:58Speaker 1: a point of stress and also is extremely difficult and
- 2:02Speaker 1: a lot of people don't do it here in the US.
- 2:06Speaker 1: And that's why, like, even though we are taking this
- 2:09Speaker 1: vacation and we have planned it in a way where
- 2:12Speaker 1: we're not doing too much on top of like our
- 2:16Speaker 1: regular duties, but it's still a thing where you have
- 2:18Speaker 1: to like work to go on vacation. So I was
- 2:21Speaker 1: trying to find some numbers about women and vacation and
- 2:24Speaker 1: whether or not there's any kind of gender difference between
- 2:27Speaker 1: men and women taking vacation, and I feel like I've
- 2:30Speaker 1: heard those stories before where women are less likely to
- 2:33Speaker 1: take vacation, more likely to take days where they take
- 2:37Speaker 1: care of other folks, but I couldn't. I couldn't find
- 2:41Speaker 1: any of this, So maybe I'll continue to look into it.
- 2:45Speaker 1: But I do feel like women have this pressure to overperform,
- 2:49Speaker 1: to not put anyone out, to make sure that no
- 2:52Speaker 1: one is going to have to do more for them
- 2:53Speaker 1: if they do go on vacation, and if you have
- 2:56Speaker 1: other responsibilities like kids on top of that, there's just
- 3:00Speaker 1: all of this stuff that turns what should be like
- 3:03Speaker 1: a time to relax into just this thing that becomes
- 3:11Speaker 1: another stressor and job that you have to to get
- 3:14Speaker 1: to to work through. I I have a belief. So
- 3:18Speaker 1: my family did not do vacations often. Uh, it used
- 3:21Speaker 1: to be every four years. It would be my mom,
- 3:24Speaker 1: my dad, my brother, and I and sometimes my older
- 3:27Speaker 1: siblings when they were around, but they moved out the
- 3:29Speaker 1: home pretty quickly when I was young, pretty early on.
- 3:34Speaker 1: But we would go to Tennessee to Dollywood and that
- 3:37Speaker 1: would be and we would only take like four days.
- 3:39Speaker 1: It was not a week. That was not a thing.
- 3:42Speaker 1: And I just remember, as fun as it was, it
- 3:45Speaker 1: was mainly just us all arguing and my mom losing
- 3:49Speaker 1: it and screaming at us and telling us not to
- 3:52Speaker 1: talk anymore, and then my dad giving us that face
- 3:55Speaker 1: that he's going to find a way to smack us,
- 3:58Speaker 1: and I'm gonna say smack as like know, like the
- 4:00Speaker 1: whole backseat swipe, trying to get us to stop arguing. Yeah,
- 4:06Speaker 1: you know, that's I think that's actually a great point, Samantha, because, um,
- 4:14Speaker 1: I when I was growing up, Um, when I was
- 4:18Speaker 1: like four or five, of course, had been exposed to
- 4:22Speaker 1: the commercials for Disney World, and I like went and
- 4:25Speaker 1: you know, went through with the commercial where the kid
- 4:28Speaker 1: would go into the parents bedroom at night and be like,
- 4:32Speaker 1: can we go to Disney World? And they would look
- 4:34Speaker 1: at each other and then say yes. That was not
- 4:36Speaker 1: my experience. My parents said never will we take you
- 4:39Speaker 1: to Disney World. That's why I joined Marching band, because
- 4:42Speaker 1: it's my only way to get there. But I've thought
- 4:44Speaker 1: about that a lot, especially in families where money is tight.
- 4:48Speaker 1: Disney World is expensive, and it's a lot of pressure
- 4:52Speaker 1: to make this thing a fun thing, and that in
- 4:56Speaker 1: turn makes it again a stressful thing, I think, especially
- 5:00Speaker 1: for in a lot of cases women, where we have
- 5:04Speaker 1: been socialized to put that pressure on us of making
- 5:08Speaker 1: everyone else happy, right, But it's just so much pressure, right,
- 5:14Speaker 1: and I think there's this whole argument and not it
- 5:16Speaker 1: was like a few years ago where viral the argument
- 5:19Speaker 1: of whether or not to allow adults to come without children,
- 5:26Speaker 1: if you remember that whole debacle, and the argument was
- 5:29Speaker 1: made that it's so miserable, especially with really young kids
- 5:33Speaker 1: when they don't even understand what's going on, who get
- 5:36Speaker 1: tired within an hour, especially in Florida heat, so if
- 5:39Speaker 1: you're going to Florida Disney World, and that it was
- 5:42Speaker 1: such a different experience for them to come as an adult,
- 5:45Speaker 1: to do exactly what they want without worrying about what
- 5:48Speaker 1: their kids are doing or how to make sure they're okay.
- 5:52Speaker 1: And honestly, for me as a social worker, when I
- 5:55Speaker 1: would go as a nanny, I was on the lookout
- 5:58Speaker 1: for any pedophile is trying to kidnap the kids like
- 6:01Speaker 1: that was another part of all of that, which is ridiculous.
- 6:05Speaker 1: I'm a little paranoid, But the differences that happened, and
- 6:09Speaker 1: especially for moms who are the ones that are packing
- 6:12Speaker 1: for the day trip, who are trying to figure out
- 6:14Speaker 1: where to eat dinner, when to eat dinner, what snacks,
- 6:17Speaker 1: those kids knees, how much they can if for to
- 6:19Speaker 1: pay because dude, we were all about the sandwich bags
- 6:22Speaker 1: because we could not afford going to the restaurant within
- 6:24Speaker 1: a theme park because it was so expensive. About I
- 6:28Speaker 1: remember thinking, all the kids who are going to Disney World,
- 6:30Speaker 1: they were super rich, and I didn't understand it as
- 6:33Speaker 1: well as in fact, if you came back with souvenirs,
- 6:35Speaker 1: what Yeah, And I am the dreaded adults that has
- 6:41Speaker 1: gone to Disney World without children, and I have like
- 6:45Speaker 1: made a kind of mean spirited uh tally or I'll
- 6:50Speaker 1: count how many arguments over here at Disney World, the
- 6:53Speaker 1: Magic Kingdom, the worst? How many kids will have a breakdown? Yes,
- 7:00Speaker 1: into the parents who are dealing with this. You are superheroes.
- 7:03Speaker 1: Just so this is not mocking you in any way. Wow,
- 7:08Speaker 1: that is a full time on, like on taking of
- 7:12Speaker 1: things that I could not imagine, right, And that's again
- 7:15Speaker 1: that's like as you were saying, Samantha, the planning of
- 7:18Speaker 1: the meals and what is this child going to need?
- 7:20Speaker 1: And you're putting all this pressure for them to have
- 7:22Speaker 1: this magical experience. We're not really coming out against Disney.
- 7:25Speaker 1: It's just a really easy target in this instance of
- 7:27Speaker 1: like you feel because you see in commercials the child's
- 7:32Speaker 1: gonna go and it's going to be perfect, and you
- 7:35Speaker 1: want to make it perfect. But yes, they're children, and
- 7:38Speaker 1: it's hot, it's a long day, and it's tiring, and
- 7:43Speaker 1: I just think, yeah, that is another thing where we're
- 7:49Speaker 1: women are trying to plan because there's so much. Samantha
- 7:53Speaker 1: has heard me like, there's so much to plan when
- 7:54Speaker 1: you go to Disney, and you have to do it
- 7:56Speaker 1: in advance if you really want it to go smooth.
- 8:00Speaker 1: And I think some people you know are much better
- 8:02Speaker 1: at being spontaneous and than I am. But I'm like,
- 8:05Speaker 1: days before, here's what we gotta do to be fair.
- 8:08Speaker 1: I enjoyed that I didn't have to plan a damn
- 8:10Speaker 1: thing and you had everything lined up, and I told
- 8:13Speaker 1: you exactly what I wouldn't do and what I would do,
- 8:15Speaker 1: and you did your thing. And if I didn't want
- 8:17Speaker 1: to do it, I would just say, hey, I loved
- 8:19Speaker 1: that too. Tired, I'm like, I'm going back to the hotel.
- 8:24Speaker 1: You all have fun. Well, that is funny you say that, though,
- 8:27Speaker 1: because I'm really good at planning things, and especially like
- 8:31Speaker 1: as I've talked about recently in our boyfriend's past episode,
- 8:33Speaker 1: I can be quite selfish, So I like know the
- 8:35Speaker 1: things I want to do, and I know I will
- 8:37Speaker 1: go out of my way to plan them, and I
- 8:39Speaker 1: kind of get a feel for what other people want.
- 8:41Speaker 1: But it is funny to me how many people, especially
- 8:43Speaker 1: during the pandemic, were like, can you plan this for me?
- 8:46Speaker 1: And then I kind of ended up feeling like how
- 8:48Speaker 1: I imagine a mom feels, where it's just expected that
- 8:51Speaker 1: you are going to plan the whole thing. It's true,
- 8:56Speaker 1: and that could lead to some issues. Let me say yes,
- 8:59Speaker 1: but it so. The trip I'm going on is not
- 9:02Speaker 1: to Disney World. It is a trip I take with
- 9:04Speaker 1: my friends to the beach every year and their friends
- 9:06Speaker 1: I've had since in some cases elementary school, but in
- 9:09Speaker 1: all cases middle school, and we've managed to stay really
- 9:12Speaker 1: close through all of this. Um we always do themes
- 9:15Speaker 1: every year and we take what we call a family photo,
- 9:18Speaker 1: which is really cool to see kind of the progression
- 9:21Speaker 1: and it's it's lovely. It's one of those friendships where
- 9:23Speaker 1: even if we haven't seen each other for a year,
- 9:26Speaker 1: it's easy to just catch up and talk with each
- 9:30Speaker 1: other and we kind of know each other's like I
- 9:33Speaker 1: can tell you like, who won't eat this? And who
- 9:35Speaker 1: won't eat this, and the planning of that, and it
- 9:38Speaker 1: is such a rejuvenating experience to have these friends that
- 9:43Speaker 1: I just know, like I can count on every year
- 9:45Speaker 1: we're going to do this and it's going to be
- 9:48Speaker 1: a recharging and rejuvenating experience for me. That's said, I
- 9:53Speaker 1: do find I have a lot of trouble unplugging from work.
- 9:58Speaker 1: It takes me a couple of days is often, and
- 10:01Speaker 1: even then I never completely am able to do it.
- 10:04Speaker 1: I don't know what your experience has been with this,
- 10:07Speaker 1: John Samantha, No, well not even with this job, so
- 10:11Speaker 1: I don't know. I think when I was with d
- 10:14Speaker 1: j J, the Department Juvenile Justice, I was a residential
- 10:17Speaker 1: placement specialists in which I tried to get treatment for
- 10:20Speaker 1: kids instead of locking them up HM. So that was
- 10:24Speaker 1: my goal. Because I had no one to really cover
- 10:28Speaker 1: me and to answer my emails because they don't have
- 10:31Speaker 1: enough positions. I rarely took a full week off. I
- 10:34Speaker 1: would specifically take Thursday, Friday, Monday, and I would never
- 10:39Speaker 1: actually turn off my email, and to the point that
- 10:42Speaker 1: I would still have my out of office email, but
- 10:45Speaker 1: I would check it and it it wasn't responded to.
- 10:47Speaker 1: Like the person who supposed to cover me, which I
- 10:49Speaker 1: had a partner. Y'all have if you have listened, have
- 10:52Speaker 1: heard Courtney on the show, and she's been my rock
- 10:54Speaker 1: in that position, one of my closest friends, like I
- 10:56Speaker 1: love her to death. She would take it on, but
- 10:59Speaker 1: knowing that she also had literally forty something counties on
- 11:03Speaker 1: her books while I had the metro areas that had
- 11:05Speaker 1: the dense populations, and so if she didn't respond within
- 11:08Speaker 1: a certain time, especially if it was emergencies, I would
- 11:10Speaker 1: respond to it. Yeah, so I never really took a
- 11:13Speaker 1: vacation with that. In this job, I still don't quite
- 11:19Speaker 1: grasp what we're doing. I think I said this already
- 11:22Speaker 1: a couple of times, to the point that I feel
- 11:25Speaker 1: like when we're watching a movie, when we're going away,
- 11:29Speaker 1: I'm always still working, being aware of, oh, this is
- 11:33Speaker 1: something we need to talk about, Oh this is something
- 11:35Speaker 1: we need to cover as in fact, yes, we're going
- 11:37Speaker 1: on vacation, but my intent is to take my laptop
- 11:40Speaker 1: to do some research for future episodes because, as we
- 11:44Speaker 1: said earlier, you know this, we're recording this a little early,
- 11:47Speaker 1: so we're doing back to back as much as we're
- 11:49Speaker 1: gonna try to cram in publishing five and a half episodes.
- 11:52Speaker 1: I count the classics, uh half episodes a week. It's stressful,
- 11:59Speaker 1: and so it never really stops. And even though we
- 12:01Speaker 1: are cramming in, we're probably doing what we've done, what
- 12:05Speaker 1: twenty episodes and it is going to be in a
- 12:07Speaker 1: two week stretch episodes and a two week stretch when
- 12:11Speaker 1: we come back, we don't have to come right back
- 12:13Speaker 1: on it, and whatever words kind of stored up is gone.
- 12:17Speaker 1: So to me, it doesn't stop right, and that's that
- 12:21Speaker 1: it stress Or two is you know what's waiting for you?
- 12:24Speaker 1: And I think I think too that when you have
- 12:30Speaker 1: a job that you care about, are your a generally
- 12:33Speaker 1: empathetic person, that it is hard. Two you can't just
- 12:41Speaker 1: turn that off. And it frustrates me because in the
- 12:46Speaker 1: capitalist system that we operated right, we don't get rewarded
- 12:50Speaker 1: for being extra sensitive to other people, but other people
- 12:54Speaker 1: get punished exactly we don't do it right. And also
- 12:58Speaker 1: they're like, I care about this job and I want
- 13:01Speaker 1: to do it well, and that is a good thing.
- 13:04Speaker 1: I'm happy about it, but it is it can be exploited,
- 13:07Speaker 1: and it has been explorited because it has been Yeah,
- 13:10Speaker 1: and the expectations that's on to us. We don't have
- 13:13Speaker 1: substitute hosts right right. And I don't want this to
- 13:17Speaker 1: sound like to any listeners like we're some kind of
- 13:21Speaker 1: intervention or something, because I do think this is something
- 13:24Speaker 1: a lot of women experience, Like I don't think this
- 13:27Speaker 1: is unique to us, And I just wanted to talk
- 13:30Speaker 1: about that for a second, because I do think vacation
- 13:32Speaker 1: is incredibly important, but for a lot of us it's
- 13:36Speaker 1: difficult to achieve for one reason or the other. Well,
- 13:40Speaker 1: the fact that the US is also a very performance based,
- 13:43Speaker 1: but when we say performance based, they're not They're not
- 13:46Speaker 1: grading on whether or not you're doing well. They're grading
- 13:48Speaker 1: whether or not you're doing not well. So they're always
- 13:51Speaker 1: looking to find a way to punish you right within
- 13:54Speaker 1: the system, but not to reward you. So overworking is
- 13:58Speaker 1: not something that people take technically take notice of outside
- 14:02Speaker 1: of yourself and your family who you're having to sacrifice
- 14:06Speaker 1: time with. And I think that's a whole other conversation
- 14:09Speaker 1: as well as the fact when we have hourly wages,
- 14:12Speaker 1: which you know, not all of us do the goodness,
- 14:14Speaker 1: but when that comes to light or commission based, there
- 14:18Speaker 1: is this again, penalty for not going over and beyond,
- 14:23Speaker 1: and this whole mentality that to be accomplished you have
- 14:27Speaker 1: to be an overachiever, willing to sacrifice everything. It's so
- 14:32Speaker 1: toxic in itself, but we still can't let go of it.
- 14:35Speaker 1: I can't let go of it again. Mine had everything
- 14:38Speaker 1: to do with no Literally, people will die. I can't
- 14:40Speaker 1: do this apart this job, not so much, but in
- 14:45Speaker 1: my head, I can't let go of that mentality. It's
- 14:47Speaker 1: been I've been working since I was thirteen. I can't
- 14:50Speaker 1: let that go in my head. Yeah, and I think
- 14:54Speaker 1: that's an unfortunate consequence of I mean, there are many
- 14:58Speaker 1: unfortunate consequences of this of women and marginalines. People feel
- 15:03Speaker 1: like we have to prove ourselves above and beyond, and
- 15:05Speaker 1: so our standard feels much higher. So we're holding ourselves
- 15:11Speaker 1: to this overachiever status, like you say, Samantha, which shouldn't
- 15:16Speaker 1: be the norm. Like we pushed it up and now
- 15:20Speaker 1: we can't go back to like a basic baseline that
- 15:25Speaker 1: some people get to experience with a lot of us don't.
- 15:29Speaker 1: And I remember telling my mom that in college. She said,
- 15:31Speaker 1: every time you come home, it feels like you were
- 15:34Speaker 1: so stressed, and I said, I just feel like there's
- 15:37Speaker 1: always always something to do. There's never there's never a
- 15:42Speaker 1: time where I can just relax. And here we are
- 15:46Speaker 1: trying to go Vaca, Savantha, what are you? What are
- 15:51Speaker 1: you looking forward to? We've we've painted a lot of
- 15:53Speaker 1: negatives here, but there are some positive So my vacation
- 15:57Speaker 1: is more of a getaway to my partner's family's home,
- 16:01Speaker 1: who has set himself up really nicely in his retirement
- 16:05Speaker 1: as it lives on the beach in Florida and has
- 16:07Speaker 1: an amazing pool. But what I'm really excited about is
- 16:11Speaker 1: taking my dog, who loves to swim and loves that
- 16:14Speaker 1: pool so much that she goes ham when she gets
- 16:18Speaker 1: eloped in that pools. I'm really excited to take all
- 16:20Speaker 1: the videos of her swimming around because it's quite delightful.
- 16:24Speaker 1: What about you, perfect, perfect and people? Whatever? People? Smith
- 16:31Speaker 1: and I recently decided that I am much more like
- 16:34Speaker 1: Peaches than previously realized, and maybe the competition, like you
- 16:40Speaker 1: are the same person, and there's a level of competition
- 16:43Speaker 1: between the two of you for my actions just for
- 16:49Speaker 1: who you are. Also, Oh no, yeah, I'm really like
- 16:58Speaker 1: of course to seeing my friends and I feel like
- 17:02Speaker 1: because we are, I mean, the US is really fortunate
- 17:05Speaker 1: a lot of ways, unfortunate a lot of ways. When
- 17:07Speaker 1: it comes to the vaccine. I'm still really hesitant. So
- 17:10Speaker 1: I think we're gonna stay in most of the whole time,
- 17:13Speaker 1: whereas we used to go out much more when we
- 17:15Speaker 1: would do this trip. But I'm kind of looking forward
- 17:17Speaker 1: to them. I'm kind of looking forward to days where
- 17:20Speaker 1: we just hang around and play games and talk and
- 17:23Speaker 1: and eat and drink and just hopefully relaxed days, which
- 17:28Speaker 1: I don't normally afford myself too much already know pre pandemic, pandemic,
- 17:34Speaker 1: hash change. But you're also an overachiever that gets things
- 17:38Speaker 1: done within like the first two hours of an assignment,
- 17:41Speaker 1: so therefore you have a little more discipline in this. Uh.
- 17:44Speaker 1: But yeah, I really hope you get to do that.
- 17:46Speaker 1: And I have a feeling your friends are gonna I'm
- 17:49Speaker 1: gonna put you on track. They're very they're very supportive
- 17:53Speaker 1: of they there I feel bad that they have to
- 17:56Speaker 1: do this, but they're really good about like it's time
- 17:58Speaker 1: for you to go to sleep because I'm terrible's sleeping,
- 18:00Speaker 1: or it's time for you to eat because anything they're
- 18:02Speaker 1: they're really good at What do you want to do?
- 18:05Speaker 1: You want to watch Star Wars again, Let's put it
- 18:06Speaker 1: in so many Star Wars. Oh my goodness, I am.
- 18:13Speaker 1: I am on a current path of educating another friend
- 18:17Speaker 1: in Star Wars and it's been very rewarding and she's
- 18:20Speaker 1: been very very receptive to my ideas, which yes, I
- 18:27Speaker 1: do too. Um well, cheers, cheers. We hope that you
- 18:32Speaker 1: listeners get to go on a vacation um or get
- 18:35Speaker 1: to relax somehow and you can tell us all about
- 18:39Speaker 1: your trips, your adventures. We would love to hear about it.
- 18:42Speaker 1: You can email us at stuff NEI Mom, stuff at
- 18:44Speaker 1: iHeart me dot com. You can find us on Twitter
- 18:46Speaker 1: at most of podcast or on Instagram at stuff I
- 18:48Speaker 1: Never Told You. Thanks as always to our super producer,
- 18:51Speaker 1: Christina go on vacation Christina Guess, and thanks to you
- 18:55Speaker 1: for listening Stuff I Never Told You. The production of
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