Latest / Momtalk Maryland / From Perfect Parent to Reality: What We Swore We'd Never Do
Transcript
- 0:00Claire Duarte: Hey friends and welcome to MomTalk Maryland.
- 0:02Claire Duarte: I'm your host, claire Duarte, founder of the Columbia Mom, and this is your spot for real conversations, local love and a whole lot of community.
- 0:10Claire Duarte: Whether you're folding laundry, running errands or hiding in your car for some peace and quiet, let's dive in.
- 0:15Claire Duarte: All right, are we good?
- 0:19Claire Duarte: Yeah, I think so.
- 0:21Claire Duarte: It's good as we'll ever be.
- 0:23Claire Duarte: Yeah, I think so.
- 0:27Claire Duarte: It's good as will ever be.
- 0:27Claire Duarte: Okay, so before we get into today's episode, I have to introduce someone very important to me.
- 0:32Claire Duarte: You've already heard her on a couple of episodes, but we've never officially made it podcast official, so let's fix that.
- 0:40Claire Duarte: I am so excited to finally and officially introduce my co-host and partner in crime, fellow Maryland mom and just all-around amazing human, jill Burke.
- 0:51Claire Duarte: Well, thank you.
- 0:52Claire Duarte: I'm so excited to have you here, Jill, with us, and I know you all are going to love her.
- 0:59Jill Burke: So let's jump into it.
- 1:00Jill Burke: Yeah well, I have to live up to those expectations.
- 1:05Claire Duarte: They're not very high, so I think you'll be okay.
- 1:08Jill Burke: Thank you, I love being here.
- 1:10Jill Burke: Like I said, I think on the first episode that I kind of pushed you, shoved you, into doing a podcast.
- 1:18Claire Duarte: This really is your baby.
- 1:20Jill Burke: I know I have a lot of things to say and talk about that.
- 1:23Jill Burke: My husband's sick of listening to me talk to him about it, so I needed an outlet and you were willing to do this with me Right, exactly, no, well, I'm glad this was like.
- 1:37Claire Duarte: The podcast was always like your idea.
- 1:39Claire Duarte: And here we are, which is crazy, you know what I mean.
- 1:44Claire Duarte: Like not even six months later, or just about.
- 1:47Claire Duarte: Yeah.
- 1:48Jill Burke: Just about yeah.
- 1:49Claire Duarte: Yeah, maybe it's like seven, exactly Something like September.
- 1:52Claire Duarte: But who's counting who?
- 1:53Jill Burke: cares, I know.
- 1:55Claire Duarte: So for today's episode, we're talking about things we swore we'd never do as moms, or as moms, as parents, and this cracks me up because I always definitely think of, like pre-kid me.
- 2:07Claire Duarte: And then there's now me, the seasoned, the marinated mom, the marinated Maryland mom, if you may.
- 2:15Claire Duarte: Right, I still am a white girl, so it's lightly.
- 2:18Claire Duarte: Yours is probably better seasoned than mine, you're better cooked than me.
- 2:22Claire Duarte: Um, I feel like that's a perfect topic for today, since you're here with me.
- 2:26Claire Duarte: Um, so let's jump into it.
- 2:31Claire Duarte: I think, for a couple things for me swore, things that I swore that I'd never do as a mom.
- 2:35Claire Duarte: Um, I don't think I ever swore that I was like never going to do screen time or never gonna like let my kids eat junk food.
- 2:43Claire Duarte: I think in my brain I'm like, oh, my kids are gonna be so healthy.
- 2:45Claire Duarte: Or we're like, quote unquote never going to use screen time or never going to like let my kids eat junk food.
- 2:47Claire Duarte: I think in my brain I'm like, oh, my kids are going to be so healthy.
- 2:47Claire Duarte: Or were like, quote unquote, never going to use screen time in the regards of like it's going to be used so minimally, right, yeah, and that's the biggest joke in the world.
- 2:56Jill Burke: Yeah, Like I never thought I would be pricing out iPads and tablets for like my two year old, but when I was pregnant with a two-year-old and it was the pandemic, I was like anybody hello, we need a, we need a tablet now.
- 3:14Jill Burke: Right here and I was sick of my daughter using my iPad.
- 3:18Jill Burke: So there we were, looking at different tablets that would be appropriate for a two-year-old, and then the sun came along and I needed another tablet for him.
- 3:31Jill Burke: And now I have a third and he, at 16 months, is also like but where's mine?
- 3:39Jill Burke: We haven't jumped down that rabbit hole yet with him, but no, we're there there, oh my gosh oh, I know, but I don't know if I ever thought like I wouldn't use screen time yeah I have an older sibling.
- 3:54Jill Burke: I have older siblings, so I kind of saw like, okay, it's inevitable yeah I don't think.
- 4:00Jill Burke: I thought I would go to great lengths oh, my gosh to make sure tablets were always charged and available and ready to go, yeah, when venturing out.
- 4:13Claire Duarte: Yes, two places also exactly and like and this is where I think the nitty-gritty gets so different for so many parents and households across like the way, like one thing that we do in our house and this is like no judgment at all for however you handle it and other moms, however you handle in your house.
- 4:31Claire Duarte: We try to do no tablets at home and I realize that's probably polarizing for a lot of people, but we also have.
- 4:38Claire Duarte: Just because we don't have the tablet, it doesn't mean the tv isn't on all the time.
- 4:43Jill Burke: Yeah you know what I mean.
- 4:50Claire Duarte: It's right, exactly.
- 4:50Claire Duarte: So, yeah, we're, we're pretty good, and like we don't let the kids just like willy nilly, grab the tablets.
- 4:54Claire Duarte: They are like high up in um, a closet in the laundry room and they get them for, like when we eat out and like long car rides, and even then, like we try like we go to the beach a lot, so, um, and it's a quick enough drive, like two and a half hours that sometimes we actually try to not give them the tablet for like maybe the first half of it, just to see if they'll sleep or rest, cause they can be as tired as can be.
- 5:16Claire Duarte: But if they're holding a tablet, those eyes are open.
- 5:18Claire Duarte: No, oh, open.
- 5:26Claire Duarte: I mean, I'm guilty of that too.
- 5:26Claire Duarte: I have my too.
- 5:27Claire Duarte: I can be as tired as I want, but if I have that phone, so I'll sometimes not give it to them just for them to get their sillies out and see if they'll fall asleep, which lately hasn't been happening and, what's interesting, I don't think we've ever talked about the tablet usage of our kids, for our kids, as friends and just like bombing together.
- 5:45Jill Burke: But same so like, even though we greatly relied on the tablet at home, especially during the pandemic and, um you know, during some newborn stages with you know, with my daughter being older, we definitely don't have the tablet available to our kids at home.
- 6:05Jill Burke: It's very much like, okay, the doctor's appointments.
- 6:08Jill Burke: You're going to be sitting in a waiting room or car rides.
- 6:12Jill Burke: And even then, because I'm from upstate New York, so it takes like five to six hours to get there.
- 6:17Claire Duarte: That's a long drive and what I?
- 6:19Jill Burke: do is I actually use our iPad and I download movies and we can plug it in because we have the TV yeah, car, yeah in the van in the van um and so even like their tablets, I have them, but they're they don't have the wi-fi because we use the fire yeah but so even for us like no judgment at all no tv is literally on all the time.
- 6:44Jill Burke: They figured out how to ask our Alexa to play TV shows too sometimes.
- 6:49Claire Duarte: So that's crazy.
- 6:52Jill Burke: But we definitely let him use it for like doctor's appointments, going out to eat or like if we know we're going to maybe like an outing where there's going to be more adults and older kids and not kids their age we bring them as like backup yeah, um, and we'll do something similar, like we're and like sometimes we'll bring them and hide them.
- 7:12Claire Duarte: They don't even know that they're brought.
- 7:15Jill Burke: Yes, and it's just kind of like that, you know back pocket insurance yeah, like I stick it under my shirt and walk out and like they don't exactly, because if they.
- 7:24Claire Duarte: I know I mean to be honest.
- 7:26Claire Duarte: We went to we had season pass to Hershey Park last year and Brooke's probably at the age where she can probably kind of be fine with it.
- 7:34Claire Duarte: Grant's a little bit more dicey with things, so we even brought her with us to, knowing that I'm not trying like yeah, we're at an amusement park.
- 7:45Jill Burke: We're having a fun but if like a meltdown happens, like yeah yeah, it's very overstimulating, exactly.
- 7:47Claire Duarte: It's hot.
- 7:48Claire Duarte: You're doing all this stuff, right, I know?
- 7:50Jill Burke: no, and I think, like for us, we know that they'll appreciate it when they don't have it as often.
- 8:00Jill Burke: Right again, I'm saying this as someone that has our tv on 90 of the time it's like on.
- 8:06Claire Duarte: I mean last night it was on until like the minutes before bed and I'm like, and it's that's not every day, but there's a lot of days yeah, and I think too like our, because we have the fire tablets and our kids like to use them for the games.
- 8:23Jill Burke: Yeah, so, and like more of the educational games, if you will.
- 8:27Jill Burke: So I don't feel as like my mom guilt isn't as bad when I'm like, okay, yeah, here's the tablet when we're out doing things.
- 8:34Claire Duarte: Yeah.
- 8:34Jill Burke: And stuff like that.
- 8:35Jill Burke: But even for restaurants we like give it to them once they're done eating, because we try and give them their food first.
- 8:44Claire Duarte: Yeah.
- 8:45Jill Burke: And like kind of interact a little bit and then like once they eat and we're still eating, yeah, then we'll let them have it and Brooke can, is like and can handle that it's.
- 8:56Claire Duarte: It's my son who's kind of like, once he sits down, he's like like where is it?
- 9:00Claire Duarte: You know what I mean.
- 9:01Claire Duarte: Like he's already like shaking ready and because, like, when Brooke sits down, she'll, like you know, actually do the coloring and Grant, like you know, again fine motor stuff with him.
- 9:14Jill Burke: Like he could care less and does no desire to that, and also like we both have the older daughter, and then we have the son.
- 9:18Jill Burke: And I think it's not even like the motor skills Right, it's not even like the motor skills right boy versus girl, it's so true and yeah, talk about another mom confession.
- 9:29Jill Burke: I never in my life thought I would be like, oh my god, my kids are so different yeah like I thought like okay, going into if we have a boy and a girl, and like two same parents, same household, like whatever, I can't believe how different and how having the girl first and then a boy second is like a whole slap in the face to your parenting style.
- 9:54Claire Duarte: Oh, I know well and it's really funny.
- 9:56Claire Duarte: I mean, I grew up like I'm one of five and my younger brother and I, um, are we're Irish twins and not the Irish twins that like, oh, like we're, you know, 16 months apart.
- 10:09Claire Duarte: I'm like bitch, hold my beer.
- 10:10Claire Duarte: Like my brother and I had the same due date oh my God, yes, and I was born like early, he was born late.
- 10:18Jill Burke: So I'm like literally 13 months apart, exactly.
- 10:28Jill Burke: God bless your parents.
- 10:29Claire Duarte: So, yeah, so I'm like, yeah, so we're really close in age, so, anyways, we could not.
- 10:37Claire Duarte: So I grew up, obviously, with Brendan I have three more, the younger siblings after him, um, and we are like the most polar opposite, like he's got.
- 10:47Claire Duarte: Like you know, he had ADD growing up.
- 10:49Claire Duarte: As kids we were so different academically, socially, like everything, and to this day, um.
- 10:55Claire Duarte: But so I grew up kind of like knowing the polar differences of what our internal sibling stuff was like.
- 11:03Claire Duarte: So that didn't surprise me.
- 11:05Claire Duarte: What I thought was just almost comical was you know how they talk about gender and you know we were never the family that were like, oh, we're like not going to talk about gender or colors or try to push gender on kids.
- 11:19Claire Duarte: And I always thought that I think there's a lot of validity with that, but I didn't like push it.
- 11:23Claire Duarte: But I just always thought it was so funny that it's like my daughter, obsessed with pink, obsessed with Barbies, obsessed with like the most girly girl stuff.
- 11:31Claire Duarte: I mean I can't like blame her.
- 11:33Claire Duarte: Like you know, am I similar, of course.
- 11:35Claire Duarte: And then my son, like it's almost like they talk about like the growing milestones for boys.
- 11:47Claire Duarte: I'm like there needs to be the growth chart of like you know.
- 11:48Claire Duarte: You go from like you know toy story to trains, to hot wheels, to cars, to dinosaurs, and grant is like literally verbatim, the poster boy child.
- 11:54Claire Duarte: Do you know what I mean?
- 11:55Claire Duarte: Like?
- 11:55Claire Duarte: And I find that so I'm like there's nothing that like, it's just in his dna.
- 12:00Jill Burke: Yeah, and it cracks me up, yeah yeah, and I think like with ryan wasn't so much like he's never been into like one.
- 12:09Jill Burke: Well, he's upset.
- 12:10Jill Burke: He was obsessed with winnie the pooh yeah, that's so cute but like the dinosaurs they're cool and cars are cool, but like he takes the cake in boy world of like just non-stop, yeah, and not because he, you know adhd or anything like that, it's just like he's a full boy, like he wants to be wrestling, he wants to be throwing a ball, he wants to be running he wants to be climbing, he just wants that gross motor.
- 12:38Jill Burke: Just like need to be moving, yeah yeah, and like to ask him to sit down and paint or color.
- 12:45Jill Burke: He's into it yeah because he sees emily doing it uh-huh but then he's out of it.
- 12:51Jill Burke: Yeah, quickly.
- 12:52Jill Burke: Yeah, um, I'll never forget my best friend whose son is three weeks older than danielle.
- 12:59Jill Burke: They came to visit us, or her name's danielle.
- 13:03Jill Burke: Her son, caleb um, is three weeks older than my daughter, emily, and they came to visit and Emily's drawing and everything, and Caleb was, and she was like, oh my God, emily's just sitting there, nice.
- 13:18Jill Burke: And I was like, oh my God, caleb's just running around.
- 13:21Jill Burke: And this was before Ryan was able to like really go.
- 13:25Jill Burke: Yeah, and I said to her the other night I texted her.
- 13:28Jill Burke: I was like, oh my god, why didn't you warn me?
- 13:32Jill Burke: Like why didn't you prepare me better?
- 13:34Jill Burke: Right for this?
- 13:35Jill Burke: Yeah, and she just laughed and she's like, do you remember the time when I came?
- 13:39Jill Burke: Yeah, no, I, that's like going through my head right and I'm like yeah, and I just like mom confession.
- 13:44Jill Burke: I was like what is happening, yeah, what is going through my head?
- 13:45Jill Burke: And I'm like yeah, and I just like mom confession.
- 13:45Jill Burke: I was like what is happening, yeah, what is going on.
- 13:48Jill Burke: And now it's like I'm here, and here we are.
- 13:52Claire Duarte: I know.
- 13:52Claire Duarte: Well, next one for me that I was thinking of and I already kind of said like was like the food and eating, and I was like, oh, like you know, we're my kids, like are going to be, because I say, you know, as you start to become a parent, right, you know, and you're learning the basic things like, oh, like, introduce them to everything, like as far as like foods and solids, right, you know, and that will help diminish picky eating.
- 14:16Jill Burke: Or what about, like, you eat when you're pregnant, like all this food, and it will go through to them somehow and it will help them when they're able to eat, like, enjoy this food, right, such a lie, yeah, like, can a doctor call us and tell us, like, if that's actually true, because so many people are like, oh, you're eating this and this and this, those kids are gonna want to eat everything when they're able to lies, absolute lies, well and um, and that'd probably be a problem because I ate like all this, like cereal, and weird.
- 14:47Claire Duarte: I didn't have weird cravings, I just had like very like boring, but like I don't know.
- 14:51Claire Duarte: Just like I wasn't like craving like pickles and hot sauce, I was like I needed like boxes of wheaties, like it's not, it's not very fun and interesting, but it is sort of like okay.
- 15:01Claire Duarte: But um, like you know, I mean I think you remember too I feel like this is the case for so many moms.
- 15:09Claire Duarte: Like you know, the babies eat everything under the sun and then they become toddlers and then they become little shits and then, like all, like the, the pickiness starts and I mean, I'll be.
- 15:20Claire Duarte: My kids are both pretty good for the most part.
- 15:23Claire Duarte: Um, I did find it like odd that brooke like still doesn't really love mac and cheese and like that is just kind of like kidism 101.
- 15:31Claire Duarte: But you know, every kid's got like something.
- 15:33Claire Duarte: But for the most part they are pretty good eaters, but like they probably still only eat like no, they're getting a little bit better with vegetables.
- 15:40Claire Duarte: You know what I mean.
- 15:41Claire Duarte: But and I remember one of the other things that I had read and learned when I was like trying to do the baby led weaning thing is like everybody eats the same thing in the house and to this day, like, and I was so I mean that was the case when we were kids, but like again, I don't remember when we were like really little, like you know it was about, I'm sure it was a principle.
- 15:58Claire Duarte: I remember it was like, you know, everybody has to eat together and stuff like that.
- 16:01Claire Duarte: So, like, so two-pronged, do we all eat together?
- 16:03Claire Duarte: No, um, do I wish we did?
- 16:07Claire Duarte: Yes, my husband's schedule is also a little funny, but it's also by the time, like I finish, like it's just easier.
- 16:11Claire Duarte: You know, I also look at it.
- 16:13Claire Duarte: Like you know, just because we don't all eat together, I also look at it's just life in a season.
- 16:18Claire Duarte: Yeah, you know what I mean, absolutely.
- 16:20Claire Duarte: And but then the second prong of like you know, are they getting the introduction to all the fruits and vegetables and like all the food that we eat?
- 16:28Claire Duarte: Or think you know that they're going to be the healthiest kids in the world?
- 16:30Claire Duarte: Like no, yeah, just no.
- 16:33Claire Duarte: We have like the five food rotation and that's it.
- 16:36Jill Burke: Yeah, I mean you know I the other night or the other day, I purchased cake pops for the kids to surprise them and I asked brendan I go, where should I hide these?
- 16:46Jill Burke: That they won't find?
- 16:47Jill Burke: And he said in the vegetable drawer, because our kids don't eat vegetables.
- 16:52Jill Burke: And that is.
- 16:54Jill Burke: That is just the fact.
- 16:56Jill Burke: Yeah, um, am I going to go poor providing strawberries for my children?
- 17:01Jill Burke: Yes, because they will eat strawberries, and ryan will.
- 17:05Jill Burke: Ryan and logan will devour bananas, but when it comes to a vegetable, I don't.
- 17:11Jill Burke: I don't actually think emily has had a vegetable since she was a baby and she would like yeah, eat anything.
- 17:17Jill Burke: And is avocado a vegetable or a fruit?
- 17:20Claire Duarte: I mean, it has a pit, I always get confused they like it's a side to me, like it's a, it's an app, so what is that?
- 17:27Claire Duarte: But yeah, it's a meal.
- 17:30Jill Burke: I really was.
- 17:31Jill Burke: Like all these kids, I love to eat everything.
- 17:34Jill Burke: They I mean I would say three to four of the seven nights a week.
- 17:42Jill Burke: Brendan will say to me I can't believe you're doing this, because I'm not just cooking one meal for for us.
- 17:51Jill Burke: I'm cooking a meal for us, a meal for Emily, a meal for Riot, a meal for Logan.
- 17:57Jill Burke: Sometimes, like last night I made mac and cheese.
- 18:01Jill Burke: Yeah, two of the three kids wanted that, and I can't let my kids starve.
- 18:06Claire Duarte: No, so there I am, like what do you want?
- 18:08Jill Burke: What can I make?
- 18:09Jill Burke: So it's a busy dinner.
- 18:14Claire Duarte: It is, but we do sit down.
- 18:16Jill Burke: I somehow time it that we all sit down together every single night and eat dinner and we have a rule of no phones we don't, that's nice.
- 18:28Claire Duarte: Yeah, no, we definitely don't.
- 18:30Jill Burke: Yeah, we don't do tablets, our phones like away and when people come over for dinner, I'm like you have to put your phone away oh, that's nice and like when people come over for dinner, it's like my parents are visiting.
- 18:40Jill Burke: Oh, yeah, Like we don't have like dinner parties.
- 18:43Claire Duarte: Right, yeah.
- 18:46Jill Burke: But yeah, we do sit together, but I don't sit, I'm up like still just like serving.
- 18:51Claire Duarte: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and milk and everything.
- 19:03Jill Burke: But yeah, no, we don't.
- 19:04Jill Burke: It's mac and cheese, dino nuggets, sometimes some egg noodles, nice um chicken, the chicken fries, specifically the blue bag from aldi.
- 19:09Jill Burke: I need to try, I need to grab those.
- 19:11Jill Burke: Um, we've, we've added in some french fries, so like see potato oh my god, that is how I'm getting my kids to eat a vegetable.
- 19:18Claire Duarte: I'm like oh, potato, right um brooke is a little, because she's older and she's always been a little bit more, I would say, adventurous of an eater, but just a little bit more open-minded.
- 19:28Claire Duarte: The grant grant just a little bit more rigid.
- 19:31Jill Burke: Um, with all things but emily is my rigid one.
- 19:33Jill Burke: Yeah, ryan had like a taco last night we're kind of taco last year like the.
- 19:38Claire Duarte: Costco ones.
- 19:40Jill Burke: She asks for the taco, the Costco ones with the green sauce, and I'm like, oh, all right, yeah, Like I cut the tortilla in half and like made a little soft taco for Ryan last night.
- 19:50Jill Burke: I'm like he's like I want the big one.
- 19:52Jill Burke: I'm like you look, and then we had the other half and I almost fell out of my chair.
- 20:00Claire Duarte: Brooke did something like yeah, it was basically last year and I think it was my mom watched her and made a quesadilla which, like I've made and we've gotten at restaurants I'm like guys, this is bread, but it's different when someone else does it.
- 20:10Claire Duarte: It's bread and cheese, come on, you know.
- 20:14Claire Duarte: And so I think she was like oh, yeah, I like that.
- 20:17Claire Duarte: So I was like, okay, this is kind of similar here, yeah, so, yeah, I mean, so I think food is a big one, screens is a big one.
- 20:25Claire Duarte: Another one for me that I wouldn't say that I thought that I would never do because I didn't like when I was pre-kids I never really thought about sleep.
- 20:42Claire Duarte: But like again, when you become, when you're pregnant with your first right, like you start to read everything and or like when the baby's here and then everything's falling apart, then you're reading more.
- 20:47Claire Duarte: And I asked, like what do I do?
- 20:47Claire Duarte: Yeah, and um, and with brooke, she was a good sleeper, but I, you know, I did do some of the sleep training with her and it worked marvelously.
- 20:53Claire Duarte: And in my brain I thought, oh well, the people's whose babies aren't sleeping must, like it's your baby's not sleeping because you're not doing sleep training.
- 21:03Claire Duarte: In my brain and that wasn't exactly what I was saying to my friends, but I'll admit that I was like, probably, like in no way like trying to judge my friends or other people, but I think they're just like.
- 21:14Claire Duarte: Again, it was so new to me that I just kind of assuming oh well then you just want to be like sleep train the baby.
- 21:19Jill Burke: How hard is it?
- 21:20Claire Duarte: how hard could it be?
- 21:21Claire Duarte: Just do it.
- 21:21Claire Duarte: And then I had my son and I tried to do the same thing and god and the universe were like ha ha ha.
- 21:29Claire Duarte: You know, I tried those principles for a whole year.
- 21:33Claire Duarte: They got me nowhere.
- 21:35Claire Duarte: And I was like, oh, not that, I not again, not that sleep training is a crock shit, I, it's just.
- 21:40Claire Duarte: It goes back to like, oh, it's just so, kid dependent, yeah and with Emily we tried sleep training and failed.
- 21:53Jill Burke: Like I still remember there was one night, like hours, that we watched her just crying and it was killing me, but we were trying to like, do what the book says cry it out, cry it out and, for the record, there's also like I shouldn't say a zillion sleep there.
- 22:08Claire Duarte: Just there's multiple different methods, multiple different ideologies and ways to do it.
- 22:14Claire Duarte: So I think you and I are both not necessarily talking about just like straight, like cried, and there's, like there's methodologies, that I think, and there's different people there's.
- 22:22Claire Duarte: I mean, there's a couple names I'm not going to drop them here, but, like you know, of handles that I can kind of think of, that we were all sort of like following along, yeah and it didn't work, you know, then we would, it would get going.
- 22:35Jill Burke: Um, I mean honestly, emily slept in our room, we got her good, and then I never thought I would have a child that would sleep in my room I growing up never slept in my parents room.
- 22:50Jill Burke: Same it was not an option.
- 22:52Claire Duarte: Oh yeah, no, it was not an option um.
- 22:55Jill Burke: The only time I would sleep in my parents room is if we were traveling, we were sharing a hotel room, or like going out.
- 23:00Claire Duarte: Y'all traveled Right.
- 23:02Claire Duarte: We said like in a beach house, but yeah, Randomly.
- 23:05Jill Burke: Usually, my brother and sister are 10 and 12 years older than me, so it was like traveling to drop them off at college, um, or like if we went to visit family and we shared a room, yeah, but Emily, after having Ryan, we converted her to like a toddler bed and I still regret that day because she could get out.
- 23:28Claire Duarte: Oh, and how old was she?
- 23:30Claire Duarte: At what age was she?
- 23:35Jill Burke: She was like two and a half when all of a sudden her sleep went back downhill.
- 23:41Jill Burke: Oh yeah, like really downhill.
- 23:43Jill Burke: Yeah, and her pediatrician who's amazing suggested like why don't you do like a bed in your room, like a floor bed, and she'll get sick of it.
- 23:54Claire Duarte: Hmm, can you send your pediatrician a bill?
- 24:05Jill Burke: can you send your pediatrician a bill?
- 24:07Jill Burke: That floor bed lasted until last year, when she was almost five and a half and we were getting ready to welcome our third kid, and I was like we can't have her in kindergarten being woken up by a baby no, and we had to like basically go back to like step one of getting a kid back to their bed.
- 24:22Jill Burke: So my husband took that on because we figured if things were still amiss when the baby came.
- 24:31Jill Burke: Yeah, I'm going to be with the baby he needs to deal with that and he would kind of get that closeness with her.
- 24:36Jill Burke: Luckily, she we got into a groove and yeah like since then she sleeps in her bed.
- 24:42Jill Burke: Um, and then, because her sleep was such a mess, when ryan came along, my second, I was like we are, I am following the rules.
- 24:51Jill Burke: I'm not putting him into his crib when he's asleep, he's going into his crib awake.
- 24:55Jill Burke: We're doing all these things and he is literally my best sleeper, so much so that I just moved my third into the room.
- 25:03Jill Burke: They're sharing a room because I didn't want to disrupt his sleep.
- 25:06Jill Burke: I was so concerned about disrupting his sleep because he's such a good sleeper.
- 25:10Jill Burke: He goes.
- 25:11Jill Burke: I read him his books, I sing a couple songs.
- 25:14Jill Burke: Still, I love it.
- 25:14Jill Burke: Yeah, um, but I was so nervous yeah, like.
- 25:19Jill Burke: I deal with Logan.
- 25:22Jill Burke: That sounds bad to say I deal well, my child, but you know.
- 25:25Jill Burke: But yes, I do my reading with Ryan and Logan.
- 25:29Jill Burke: I get him in.
- 25:32Jill Burke: He has a whole routine of like needs water, whatever.
- 25:35Jill Burke: I bring Logan to my room to get him back in it, like put him in his jammies, walk with him kind of get him snuggly and sleepy.
- 25:44Jill Burke: And then I kind of make sure Ryan's asleep, and then I put Logan into the crib.
- 25:48Jill Burke: Nice, so it's a.
- 25:51Jill Burke: It's a little like juggling but you know, I also never thought I would have my child leaving my room at like 15 months.
- 26:00Jill Burke: I thought like yeah, I was out of my room at five months.
- 26:04Jill Burke: Ryan was out of our room at three months.
- 26:07Claire Duarte: Yeah, so that was like a shock to the system.
- 26:09Claire Duarte: Right, and our kids were about the same as well.
- 26:14Claire Duarte: So I know, yes, sleep, I think, is a big one.
- 26:18Claire Duarte: Food is a big one.
- 26:19Claire Duarte: Food is a big one.
- 26:21Claire Duarte: Um, I was gonna say the next thing I think is like well, again, I think there's a difference between like what are things I never thought I was do as a parent, versus like once I became a parent and started reading the like what do parents?
- 26:32Claire Duarte: What do, what is this generation of parent doing?
- 26:34Claire Duarte: Parenting, doing for for sleep, for for introducing solids, for potty training, right.
- 26:40Claire Duarte: Right, because we're kind of I think we come through this methodology of like, okay, we want to be better than our parents, not that our parents did anything bad or wrong, but you're just like, okay, how can we kind of approach this better?
- 26:50Claire Duarte: And so it's, you know.
- 26:53Claire Duarte: So the thing that I swore that I would never do is kind of like based on like the books or reading, or the handles that I'm watching, the people that I'm listening to, and you know, I think I'm not sorry to interrupt but I think we are generation.
- 27:08Jill Burke: We also are living in a time where we have social media, yeah, and we see these like perfect families and these perfect situations.
- 27:17Jill Burke: You know, there's tons of behavioral psychologists and experts that I follow, that I read and I'm like, oh, I can do that.
- 27:26Jill Burke: Oh, that's why they're acting out or that's why they're not sleeping, and I'm going to do that.
- 27:30Jill Burke: And so we have all this like too much information where our parents just had, like, what did their parents do?
- 27:37Claire Duarte: right, and there was books, right, but like you know, is exactly, definitely different, definitely different, and I think it.
- 27:45Claire Duarte: Well, and that's the reality there is.
- 27:47Claire Duarte: There is so much more information out there and we have it at our fingertips, which is the great thing about being a mom this day and age, when you're exhausted, up in the middle of the night and you and we obviously have our phones, that I can sit there and scroll and I'm like in complete desperation of, like, what do I do to help this, yeah, situation?
- 28:02Claire Duarte: You know what I mean and so, no doubt, and you know, be googling all the sleep things.
- 28:08Claire Duarte: Or you know how to get my kids to, you know, eat a like one friggin piece of food, you know.
- 28:13Claire Duarte: And then potty training right, like you know, we think like, oh gosh, yeah, you and I both will have to do a full week-long episode of everything that we've been through.
- 28:25Claire Duarte: Um, but um, which I think I'm even just gonna sidestep because there's too much if we get into potty training, we're in talk forever, um, but I think they'll do.
- 28:34Jill Burke: you think potty training is something we need to come back to and people?
- 28:38Jill Burke: Feel free to let us know your struggles, because we have endured it.
- 28:48Claire Duarte: It's like a nice soft way to put it.
- 28:50Jill Burke: And one of these episodes, we will actually tell the truth.
- 28:53Claire Duarte: Oh, we'll go into.
- 28:55Claire Duarte: I think I've kind of even in the last episode I feel like I I think I mentioned it I just didn't go heavy into it because I was like I don't really want to like just drop the bomb of like literally fully painted out there.
- 29:06Claire Duarte: But um, and then when I met you, I just realized I was like, oh my god, there are other people that are I mean, I know that people have struggled, but like there's a, there's a different level of struggle that I feel that you and I have bonded into, unfortunately.
- 29:22Claire Duarte: But the last little like minor confession and then we can jump into some other pieces, was just like managing behaviors.
- 29:29Claire Duarte: I think is kind of like the way that I would put it.
- 29:31Claire Duarte: Like you're like, oh, look, I'm, I won't yell with my kids, like I'll, you know um, do the gentle parenting thing, or I'm never gonna lose my shit, and you know um, blah, blah, blah.
- 29:43Claire Duarte: Right and apply all those principles.
- 29:44Claire Duarte: And look, I think we can all admit we have better days and moments, and it's not, of course, an all or nothing thing, um, and there's definitely been seasons of my life that I've been better at it than others, like this week, not a good week, not a great week, not a terrible week, not a great one.
- 30:01Claire Duarte: You know what I mean.
- 30:03Jill Burke: I think.
- 30:04Jill Burke: I think it's with the like, how we go about their behaviors, and this gentle parenting thing for me and this is like my big confession is how stimulated am I?
- 30:17Jill Burke: Yes, and the other day Brendan and I had this whole conversation about it Because I was like why did you go to this level?
- 30:28Jill Burke: I was trying to say it, you know.
- 30:30Jill Burke: I was trying to say at level three you went to like a seven.
- 30:33Jill Burke: Usually we're good at matching energies of like who's staying at the lowest?
- 30:39Jill Burke: And he's like it was just that Alexa was on the TV, was on, Logan was crying, this was happening.
- 30:44Jill Burke: I'm like, oh, so you were just like overstimulated, yeah.
- 30:47Jill Burke: And he's like, yeah, and I'm like if you had just said like I'm overstimulated right now, I would have known, cause that's my thing, yeah, you can't take my overstimulation.
- 31:06Jill Burke: But I was like, no, I get that.
- 31:07Jill Burke: Like that is like yeah, you understand, I have a kitchen timer going, I have alexa playing, I have the kids asking mom, mom, mom, mom, I have you know the dogs barking, the, you know everything happening and that's when I will snap.
- 31:12Jill Burke: That sounds bad to say I snap, but I'm like no, it's it's a literal human emotion never thought, but I'm like, no, it's, it's a literal human emotion.
- 31:19Jill Burke: I never thought in my like perfect mom mind when I was like getting ready to have kids, yeah, that I would like lose it so quickly just over, like the sound I know Of life.
- 31:35Claire Duarte: Oh, I know.
- 31:35Jill Burke: That I chose to create.
- 31:37Claire Duarte: That I chose to create and that I allowed to have happen.
- 31:38Claire Duarte: I know A lot of times it's like we chose this.
- 31:39Claire Duarte: I know that I chose to create, that I chose to create and that I allowed to have happen.
- 31:39Jill Burke: I know a lot of times it's like we chose this.
- 31:43Claire Duarte: I know, oh my gosh and it's the truth.
- 31:46Jill Burke: But like I, I just get so over stimulated by sound.
- 31:51Jill Burke: I know.
- 31:52Jill Burke: I can handle like mom, mom, mom and asking for things and like just being a vending machine constantly like, I can handle that I can do that I can but like when it's one kid wants alexa playing and another kid wants plooey on tv and another kid wants like the transformer and sounds to be on, and it's all at the same time.
- 32:16Claire Duarte: It's like yeah I know it's it's like and it's like a visceral reaction and for me lately, what's been really and I and this is where, like we'll have to do a full episode just on mom guilt you know what I mean again a full month long, but like what's been triggering me a lot lately, and this is just where we're still very much in the what's the phrase.
- 32:42Claire Duarte: We're just still in the hole of this with Grant, of just the intense behaviors and the fussing and the crying and kind of like, and because, grant, we've had the developmental delay and stuff like that, it's not just as easy as like okay, well, maybe I just need to hold my boundaries better, and I do think that's part of it.
- 33:03Claire Duarte: It's not all of it.
- 33:03Claire Duarte: I mean, you've walked this line too, but, um, so last night I was trying to like hold the boundary but it's just, and I could have been at a two or three before, that you know.
- 33:14Claire Duarte: And then, but it's just funny, the fussing and crying, the way that it can burn through that patience and escalate me to a seven or eight so fast and I'm like I was doing you so good before and and it sucks like that.
- 33:26Claire Duarte: So that's just been like kind of like my trigger point lately.
- 33:30Claire Duarte: Granted, this is again this is more than I'm talking about a kid that you know has over, you know has moved through a lot of speech, you know delays and things like that with that obviously influence the behaviors.
- 33:41Claire Duarte: So it's not just as black as white as like oh, just do this one thing, um, and I think it's.
- 33:47Jill Burke: We both have four-year-olds grant's june right yep and ryan's august, so like yeah very same track.
- 33:54Jill Burke: Yep, I also think it's this age too.
- 33:59Jill Burke: Yeah, and we've been even saying to Ryan like buddy, what's going on?
- 34:05Jill Burke: Like one minute, you're our Rye guy, like the fun happy-go-lucky, wild, wild.
- 34:10Jill Burke: But within, like a snap of the finger, he's like don't talk to me, I don't like you, You're the worst, you're the worst ever.
- 34:22Jill Burke: And I'm like because I told you I literally told you to slow down.
- 34:24Jill Burke: Like you can keep running.
- 34:26Claire Duarte: Yeah.
- 34:27Jill Burke: Watch out for your little brother.
- 34:28Jill Burke: Slow down and I say it in my most gentlest, nicest, and it's just like so I think I hope, yeah, I, it's a season.
- 34:44Claire Duarte: Right, I know Well, and actually I think Brooke has been as good of an offender on that too Like well, like the going from, like oh, I'm never going to like do this again, or blah, blah, blah, and I was like hold on, you know, like wait a minute, you know what I mean and it's yeah, it's, it's a lot, but yeah, it's just the general behavioral management a lot, but yeah, it's just the general behavioral management.
- 35:12Claire Duarte: And I and I'll one thing that I told my therapist that I realized I need to tell my mom this too, is like you know, now that we're like living through I think becoming a parent has made me appreciate my parents so much more and realize, like you know, again, it's so much easier to think, oh, I'm going to do it differently and I'm, you know, not going to swear these things off because you now I'm like, oh my God, I like realize how hard y'all had it.
- 35:40Jill Burke: Well, I mean there's five there is.
- 35:41Jill Burke: Ok, yeah, I'm, mine is a walk in the park, yeah, so.
- 35:42Claire Duarte: I was like almost an only child.
- 35:43Claire Duarte: So yeah, and my husband too, and my husband too, and so different, different yeah, but still hard, yeah, I know.
- 35:50Claire Duarte: So I mean, yeah, like I said, we could probably, like you know, give a whole dissertation on each of those buckets, oh yeah, but those are kind of like the easiest things that come to mind.
- 36:03Jill Burke: Yeah, and I thought, don't mind me just pulling up some fun notes exactly.
- 36:10Claire Duarte: I have to live off of them um, oh well.
- 36:14Jill Burke: We had people write in to us about like we knew we wanted to talk about this stuff yeah so we were kind of like pulling some people, asking people like what are some confessions?
- 36:26Jill Burke: Or things you swore you never would do.
- 36:28Jill Burke: Um, you know, one was like bribe your child.
- 36:31Jill Burke: I knew 1000% I was going to bribe my children because I was a teacher first and I loved a good bribery.
- 36:39Jill Burke: I was like okay, kids yeah like my seventh graders.
- 36:43Jill Burke: I'm like okay if we all like get our homework in yeah do like a fun little something or another or like get a special treat.
- 36:51Jill Burke: You know this was like right several years ago, where you could bring in treats oh yeah um, so I 1000% knew I was going to bribe my kids.
- 36:59Jill Burke: Yeah, I mean, I also like to be bribed, so like yeah, I know I mean yes, yeah, oh, I get to do that and then get like ice cream afterwards.
- 37:07Claire Duarte: Oh my God, seriously.
- 37:10Jill Burke: Another one said well, we talked about that, make separate meals Guilty guilty guilty.
- 37:14Jill Burke: Oh for sure.
- 37:16Jill Burke: Oh, one person wrote in about like they never.
- 37:19Jill Burke: They swore they would never let their children like dress, not dress themselves, but like just wear whatever they chose.
- 37:29Jill Burke: Uh-huh, like mismatched clothes.
- 37:31Jill Burke: And like I feel like I also thought that and then Emily went through a phase where she wanted to be Little Bo Peep all the time, so she would wear her clothes Uh-huh, and then put her Little Bo Peep outfit on.
- 37:44Claire Duarte: Oh, my God.
- 37:46Jill Burke: And that's just how we rocked.
- 37:47Jill Burke: And then Ryan would literally recently decided he wanted to just wear every Winnie the Pooh type of outfit he had.
- 37:58Jill Burke: Oh my God.
- 37:59Jill Burke: So we went to the grocery store with his Winnie the Pooh sneakers, shorts.
- 38:06Jill Burke: That didn't match the outfit, uh-huh um, with his Winnie the Pooh shirt on, with his buffalo plaid collared oh my god and then bumblebee sunglasses oh, my god all right, I was like you know what?
- 38:25Jill Burke: but he was happy, and then I was thankful that he has a school uniform to wear every day yeah, you know well.
- 38:31Claire Duarte: And then, like you and I can appreciate this too anybody that's parents of neuro spicy kids I like to call like like I look at it.
- 38:37Claire Duarte: I'm like hey, you independently got it done, because my, my son, only just recently started independently dressing and he's almost five, yeah.
- 38:44Claire Duarte: So I'm like hey, if you did it.
- 38:46Claire Duarte: Like I'm like you have a drawer full of pants that he won't touch, he like has to do only sweatpants right now, and I'm like, I'm like these pants are.
- 38:54Claire Duarte: So I'm like you know what he we got dressed today.
- 38:58Claire Duarte: You know we're wearing clothes, we're going to school, you know.
- 39:03Jill Burke: So, yeah, I think that's a big one um, so another thing that we had people write in about, and maybe this can be like how we wrap up this episode, I think will be fun.
- 39:12Jill Burke: Um, I'm going to read a couple confessions that people wrote into us and like get your reaction.
- 39:18Jill Burke: I can throw in my two cents possibly.
- 39:20Jill Burke: Um, these are really clever and some of them I'm like damn, why didn't I think of this?
- 39:27Jill Burke: Awesome, like mom hack yeah.
- 39:30Claire Duarte: Basically yeah.
- 39:35Jill Burke: So one person wrote in I have pretended to be asleep, so my partner would have to deal with a crying kid at night.
- 39:44Claire Duarte: Have you ever done that Guilty, but only recently Only.
- 39:49Claire Duarte: I feel like, because I'm like I also look, I'm like I paid my dues, like brooke was a good sleeper, so that wasn't as bad.
- 39:54Claire Duarte: And early on, um, grant was not a good sleeper, and this was also like through the height of covid, and my husband did not, does not work from home, so I think I always felt guilty.
- 40:04Claire Duarte: So I took, like I did, all the overnight stuff because I was like he has to like leave like hella early.
- 40:10Claire Duarte: Yeah, I mean it was still brutal for me, but um, but grant still like has some he's sleeps, but just he still has got some funky stuff.
- 40:18Claire Duarte: I'm just like, yeah, so I'm guilty of that.
- 40:22Jill Burke: Yeah, I mean, I've attempted to do that.
- 40:24Jill Burke: Um, I swear, is there?
- 40:29Jill Burke: Has there ever been like a study on the Y chromosome?
- 40:34Jill Burke: What like have they like put little devices on a man's head and?
- 40:39Jill Burke: like they had the cries machine, going like see what the reactions are, cause I swear, see what the reactions are because I swear it's shocking.
- 40:52Jill Burke: Yeah, I mean I can't believe how my husband can sleep through baby cries.
- 40:54Jill Burke: Because I have attempted, I have attempted to be like I'm sleeping, the baby's crying, or a kid is crying or something.
- 41:00Jill Burke: Nothing, no movement.
- 41:03Claire Duarte: Snoring Like continuous sleep.
- 41:05Jill Burke: Yes, of course.
- 41:06Jill Burke: Like, not even even pretending I'm like no, he is, he is asleep, no doubt.
- 41:11Jill Burke: Um, all right, another funny one that I thought was really good.
- 41:15Claire Duarte: Um, I tell my kids their noisy toys ran out of batteries, even though I just took them out oh my gosh, I don't even know that we'll take the batteries out as much as, like my husband will either throw away, hide the toy or, if I don't want to, like turn on the tv or something I could get.
- 41:34Claire Duarte: I could get away with this when they were younger be like, oh, the tv is, doesn't working yeah, the tv doesn't have batteries like I just like, literally like make up the most random and absurd lies for sure.
- 41:46Claire Duarte: Now they're, unfortunately, getting smarter, oh, and they've also learned they know where the batteries are.
- 41:49Claire Duarte: So I can't do the battery thing as much, but I was.
- 41:52Claire Duarte: I did say something about the tv and I'm like oh, the tv's not working, I don't.
- 41:57Claire Duarte: They know how to use the remote now.
- 41:59Jill Burke: So yeah, yeah they know how to use the remote better than I do.
- 42:02Jill Burke: I swear um this one.
- 42:05Jill Burke: Actually someone wrote this in and I recall a mom telling me this story at the pool, like either last summer or the summer before.
- 42:12Jill Burke: So they told their child that the ice cream truck plays music only when it was out of ice.
- 42:23Jill Burke: And I, yes.
- 42:26Jill Burke: And a mom told me that she used that trick and then started coming to our pool and that ice cream truck man knows, when it's adult swim, he is there.
- 42:37Jill Burke: Oh, they do, they do, he has messed me up because now he comes with the music blaring and she's like the kid's like wait, wait.
- 42:44Jill Burke: I thought why are these kids getting?
- 42:48Claire Duarte: yeah, the pool is a different beast.
- 42:49Jill Burke: I was like that was brilliant, though that was.
- 42:54Claire Duarte: That's good for at home, but yeah, that the pool is not gonna work.
- 42:57Claire Duarte: That's gonna fall apart for sure.
- 42:59Jill Burke: Yeah, that's a good one um, sometimes I put my airpods in with nothing playing, just so my kids think I can't I think our kids are too little that I don't think that they would ever care, because they're never gonna stop my kids see me actually get on a phone call.
- 43:17Jill Burke: Like legit, put my air airpods in on a call and then they're like, oh no, now I need to like bother her more.
- 43:23Jill Burke: Oh yeah, like they'll.
- 43:25Jill Burke: They'll be in like a comatose state of mind watching TV the minute I take a phone call.
- 43:31Jill Burke: Jump on a meeting, especially those snow days when we had snow days, oh right.
- 43:35Jill Burke: They're like oh, oh, mommy, I now need to have 8,000 snacks, I need lemonade, I need milk.
- 43:41Jill Burke: Where's my water?
- 43:43Jill Burke: Where's this?
- 43:44Jill Burke: Yep?
- 43:44Jill Burke: Can you help me use the bathroom Like?
- 43:46Jill Burke: Where's my water, where's?
- 43:47Claire Duarte: this Yep, can you help me use the bathroom, like I mean literally?
- 43:48Claire Duarte: Well, um, I don't work from home a lot a lot of like, mainly cause I like to work Like I'll go to like a cafe and stuff to be I'm too stimulated in my house or whatever.
- 43:57Claire Duarte: Um, but we do have an office downstairs and I would close the doors and the kids would just bust them wide open and I would lock them from the inside, but they're like the shitty old ones.
- 44:06Claire Duarte: You know what I mean.
- 44:07Jill Burke: So they could just like grant would just.
- 44:08Claire Duarte: I mean, this is back when I still had like my other, like old full-time job and stuff like that.
- 44:11Claire Duarte: I'd be on calls and with clients and meetings, and you know, great lady, come up to me like I gotta go pee at a potty.
- 44:16Claire Duarte: I'm like, here we are.
- 44:18Jill Burke: Yeah, you know um the beauty, though, like of of your outside of the podcast.
- 44:26Claire Duarte: Yes.
- 44:26Jill Burke: The Columbia mom, as I always say to you, is like well, at least we have the name mom in the business.
- 44:32Claire Duarte: It's built in.
- 44:33Jill Burke: So people who are meeting with us, like when my little baby comes popping in on screen, we're moms, we're actually moms.
- 44:40Jill Burke: So if you're, trying to reach moms.
- 44:42Jill Burke: You've you found them?
- 44:43Claire Duarte: You found them Exactly no, that you found them.
- 44:46Claire Duarte: You found them Exactly no.
- 44:47Claire Duarte: That's so true, so well, and on that note, we are moms and we'll find a way to wrap up here, but I think this was pretty fun.
- 44:55Claire Duarte: It was definitely fun to like chat about and commiserate.
- 44:57Claire Duarte: Yeah, you know, that's the real truth.
- 45:01Claire Duarte: But I do think we should definitely talk more about like the potty training stuff, behavioral stuff.
- 45:04Claire Duarte: We can clearly go on about that.
- 45:06Jill Burke: Yeah, and also, like we both have gone through Kennedy Krieger, yeah, my daughter suffers from high anxiety, so I think there's a lot like to unpack that a lot of parents don't feel comfortable talking to and talking about.
- 45:24Claire Duarte: Yeah, yeah, I agree, and I'll say this too If there's any other topics that you want to hear from us, whether it's, you know, kids specific, you know parenting specific, you know, if you have similar struggles that we sort of hinted at that you would love us to talk more about on, or hear an episode on, definitely let us know, like, shoot us a DM, write a comment, an email.
- 45:43Claire Duarte: We'd love to know any more like you know, topic submissions or struggles you've been going through.
- 45:48Claire Duarte: But, yeah, thank you so much for your time today, jill.
- 45:51Jill Burke: Yeah, nothing's off the table.
- 45:53Claire Duarte: Nothing is off the table.
- 45:55Jill Burke: For better or for worse.
- 45:56Claire Duarte: Yeah, Thanks for tuning in to this episode of MomTalk Maryland.
- 46:02Claire Duarte: If you loved it, leave a review, share it with a friend or tag me at thecolumbiamom on Instagram.
- 46:08Claire Duarte: I'd love to hear what you think and don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode.
- 46:12Claire Duarte: Until next time, keep showing up, keep supporting local and keep being the incredible mom, woman, human that you are.