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Autism Journeys: Insightful Fatherhood Tales With Greg Scaduto · Inchstones with Sarah | Autism Advocacy & Caregiver Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of the Inchtons podcast. Today I have a new friend and dad, Greg Scaduto, with me. Greg is a writer and father of an autistic son named Teddy. And like many connections in this new age of wild social media growth, there is a platform for everyone. And the coolest thing about Substack is that new writers like Greg speak about his son Teddy are constantly pushed to the front of my eyes and visibility through my networks. And it is such a pleasure to host Greg here on the Inchdones podcast today.
• 0:37
  Speaker B: Thank you so much for having me. I've never done anything like this before, so I'm a little nervous, but I really.
• 0:43
  Speaker A: We won't hold that against you.
• 0:45
  Speaker B: Thank you. I really appreciate you having me on. It means a lot to me, and I really do admire your courage in speaking so freely and openly about it. I think it gives a lot of other parents a feeling of not being alone, and it kind of gives us language to put to the feelings that we have. And this wasn't something that people were doing a lot years ago. Because of people like you, it's becoming easier to talk about. So thank you for what you do.
• 1:08
  Speaker A: Of course, you know, there's not as many fathers leaning in to the vulnerability of this wild and unchosen path of special needs parenting. You know what. What really inspired you to write that piece that for all intents and purposes, Greg, you did go a little viral on Substack.
• 1:26
  Speaker B: Well, yeah, I don't know what the threshold is, but it did. It was very gratifying. There was an outpouring of support, and I really was not expecting it to be like that. And what motivated me, I think I feel like a lot of men, I think, feel things really deeply, but it's kind of been like a little bit of an unrefined layer of the consciousness where you know it's there, but you don't really know how to. How to name it. And so for me, I find that writing about it helps me understand complex emotions a little bit better. So that was one. One reason. And then I had this feeling that I wanted to put my voice out in the universe in an authentic way. Not to get too mystical, but I think when you put your voice out there and you're just honest, it resonates with people. And you get. I mean, I had all kinds of friends crawling out of the woodwork, and I just had so many positive things that came from it. Like Autism Society of America reached out and said, you know, we Want to get you involved in the work we do. And that was one. It was one of the most meaningful things that ever happened to me. And it was what I was hoping, as I said to Diana from Autism Society of America, like, I was hoping something like that would happen. And I wanted to get involved and be in the community somehow of autism kids and autism parents. But I didn't really know where to start. It's kind of overwhelming, like, you don't know who to reach out to, what organization. So I wanted to just put my voice out there and see if anything came back. And then I think there's also. There is an uptick. Currently, there's a rising trend in autism cases that I think is not well understood. And I think it will become important for parents to have a clearer idea of what it is and what it means, because it's complex. And as I kind of said in my essay, in some ways, it's hard to put your finger on what it is. It's kind of abstract, and it's difficult to define, both in how it shapes the inner world of the individual affected with it, how it manifests differently in each person, and how, you know, everybody just kind of deals with it differently, and everybody is affected by it differently. So it's. It's hard to put your finger on. So I wanted to just say what I knew about it in the hopes that it would help people.
• 3:28
  Speaker A: Do you find that other dads were receiving this in a way that maybe was a byproduct of just you wanting to share? But the fatherhood role in all this really was illuminated for men.
• 3:42
  Speaker B: Like I said, we still feel it, but it's just harder for us to articulate it sometimes. And I think, you know, it's a combination of things. I think you're right. It's evolutionary biology. It's. I think society teaches men. And I tried to show that in a piece. Like, you know, there's moments where, you know, I. I feel emotion, but I don't. I feel hesitant to show it. And so men kind of push that down because, you know, we're taught to. And this has gotten much better in recent years, but we're taught to not show emotion, to be. To be kind of the stoic one in the family. And so, yeah, I think. I think it's really tapped into something with men. And I noticed that, like, when people reached out, a lot of fathers said kind of very simply, like, thank you. Like, I couldn't have said it better myself. Like, this is what I feel. And you you know, you articulated it on my behalf and because of that, I feel, feel less alone. I feel seen and heard. So that was really gratifying, I think.
• 4:31
  Speaker A: In the fatherhood community. Again, I, I, I hope that I can use, you know, Inchtones, the podcast, to really tell those stories of men like you who are sharing. And again, I, I say that from a place of wanting to so deeply because I. Again, you talk primal, like evolutionary biology. There's only, so we can only go so far. And it does take a lot, I think it takes so much mental energy to tap into things that aren't as innately primal.
• 4:55
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 4:55
  Speaker A: To a father in this situation.
• 4:57
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 4:59
  Speaker A: I joke with you because, you know, my partner's a marine. But how, how do you feel like your army background shaped how you parent in your caregiving role, especially with having Teddy?
• 5:08
  Speaker B: Well, I think, I think it helped in the same way that it helps in life. I think, again, I was an army field artillery, so it's how it's or canon. I think as a military officer, you're put into a situation, not really knowing much about it, and you're, you're told that you're in charge on day one and you're expected, expected to produce results and that, that's an unfamiliar, it's an uncomfortable situation that like, you don't do a great job each time, but you become more and more comfortable with the discomfort, if that makes sense.
• 5:38
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 5:38
  Speaker B: And so I think, you know, being challenged in any field of endeavor prepares you for a difficult experience. So I think, you know, that my time in the army did build some resilience and help me.
• 5:49
  Speaker A: Discomfort.
• 5:50
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I think it does help.
• 5:53
  Speaker A: What do you think you would wish more people knew about fatherhood and that, like you say, stepping into the discomfort daily and sort of the expansive nature of that. With Teddy. Yeah. What's he like now?
• 6:06
  Speaker B: Teddy? Yeah. So Teddy's seven now and he's, he is mostly non verbal. Like, you'll hear a word here and there and it'll light up your day, but it's mostly non verbal. And you just kind of, you have these unspoken moments with him that are, that are pretty powerful. But he's very gentle. He loves nature. I think my wife Jess passed that on to him because she's a gardener. And he's very much like his mom. He kind of caught that in the essay. He's smelling the roses. He's always smelling the flowers. He's kissing worms and watching them burrow into the soil. So he, I think, has that same passion for gardening. There's all these pictures of him, like, you know, eating cucumbers and tomatoes and stuff in the garden.
• 6:42
  Speaker A: And when people are like, oh, my gosh, autistic kids, like, they have such, like, food sensitivities and stuff, and you're. You're just sharing right now. Like, I do really believe that there's all these stereotypes that have been, like, forwarded on in ways. I'm like, no, he's not. Like, that's a. Like, like, honestly, my Millie is. Is my most, like, progressive eater of my three children. I mean, my child.
• 7:04
  Speaker B: Well, that's the thing. Like, there's like, a set of characteristics and attributes that are common throughout, but, like, not everyone. Not every kid is going to, you know, manifest them in the same way. And he does have, like, his quirks with eating. I think every kid does to some extent, but probably a little bit more with. With Teddy. But, yeah, it was never a huge obstacle for him. And so the other thing about. Teddy's very artistic. So he's always coloring. And that's another thing he gets from. He's really all jazzle. So he. He loves coloring. And what he does is he'll do these still life portraits of, like, you know, a fruit, a pear or something, and he tapes it on the wall. So we have, you know, art. His artwork is, like, taped all over all the walls in all of our house. And we just kind of leave them up. Because it makes him happy.
• 7:45
  Speaker A: Exactly. I mean, they're. They're visual kids. You know, I. I love that. I think that, you know, honoring whatever skill that they do show is so important.
• 7:53
  Speaker B: Yeah. And that's. That's one of the things you learn to be flexible. Like, okay, we're just not, like. We're just like. In the story that I wrote, like, you're going to. He's going to put all these bananas in his backpack, and we're just going to go to the State Fair with 40 bananas in the backpack because that's what we're going to do today. It's the same thing with the drawings. Like, we're just going to keep these, you know, crayon drawings up. And he's also. He's very. What's really cool about him, he's very protective and, like, concerned. So, like, whenever he sees a kid fall down or something, he kind of runs up. And this is the few times you'll hear him talking. He goes, you okay? You okay? He just wants to make sure you're okay. He's very protective of his mom. Not of me, but of. Of his mom.
• 8:30
  Speaker A: He knows that you can protect yourself.
• 8:32
  Speaker B: Yeah, that I think that I like to tell people. That's what it is.
• 8:34
  Speaker A: Absolutely.
• 8:35
  Speaker B: So he, he, like, whenever. If we're, you know, the family's roughhousing, and then if anyone gets too close to Mommy's, like, well, that's my mommy. Like, not. That's close enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:45
  Speaker A: There is a. Again, like, these stereotypes with men and women, but also just like autistic kids in non autistic or atypical and atypical. The empathy conversation. Like, I actually think that they. They contain more empathy than a neurotypical individual at all. I mean, my son's very, very similar. Like, his bottom lift will push if anyone on his Danielle Tiger show gets hurt. Like, it is convulsing. He's looking at me like, what are we gonna do about this?
• 9:12
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:13
  Speaker A: This is like. I mean, he is so sad and wondering, like, we have to help. How can we heal him? And it's like, Prince Tuesday's gonna be all right. He just fell off the ladder. It's not a big deal. But that I think bearing witness to that is part of the way that you and I as writers can share and sort of like, rebalance out what nonverbal autism and what their skills and strengths really are versus what the stereotypical vision or characteristics are.
• 9:41
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, it's. Yeah, I agree. Like, there's a strong sense of, like, unspoken emotion that's there. That's. I think you don't see as much with neurotypical kids, but because he is non verbal, you feel kind of. It almost. To me, it almost feels spiritual. Like you, like when you're with him alone and like where we have this greenhouse and like the rain is hitting the roof on the greenhouse and you hear he's listening to the sound and he's watching the rainfall. You know, you don't really need any words because it's just like you're just connecting with him in that moment. And that's. That's what they do. They kind of make you, like, pause and live in the present moment. And that's important, I think, psychologically for all of us is to not have your mind all over the place and to just slow down.
• 10:23
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 10:23
  Speaker B: Smell the roses, you know.
• 10:24
  Speaker A: Yeah. They do have an ability. I, you know, there's so. There's, you know, thousands of books written on mindfulness. Thousands of books. The Power of now, Right. Eckhart Tollen.
• 10:33
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 10:34
  Speaker A: Every which way under the sun. You know how you can become more present. Have yourself a non verbal autistic child.
• 10:40
  Speaker B: That's very true.
• 10:41
  Speaker A: You know, I always think, like, there's an exhaustive factor of the hypervigilance. There is an inability to, you know, be off, like as a mother or father, if they're in your caregiving. And at the same time, I think being able to witness, like you said, like in the greenhouse, an example like that. But also when you're not with your children, I find that I'm more present to, like, my own individual world.
• 11:06
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 11:07
  Speaker A: Even just in going away with my best friend last weekend for her, you know, 40th birthday, I said to her, I probably wasn't as present for your 30th birthday or your bachelorette party as I was right now, because, you know, 72 hours with just the two of us and learning and reliving and like, asking questions. That is all a byproduct of raising Mac and Millie. Without a doubt.
• 11:27
  Speaker B: Yeah. It's a beautiful thing. And like, I kind of had the same thing happen to me. Like, it made Teddy made me a more patient person, like, more compassionate. Like, because there's so many times where he taught me that it's like, okay, you're not gonna have it your way, dad. And like, we're just gonna have to figure this out together. And it almost trained me, like, to not overreact and to. Because with. With kids on school, at least with Teddy, the more frustrated you get. Uh, or. Or even if you don't, like, say anything, if you just feel it look that way. Yeah. Then the longer it's gonna take. So it's like muscle memory for both me and my wife, Jess. Like, we. We just kind of, you know, trained our. We had to train ourselves to just, you know, kind of bring down the temperature.
• 12:10
  Speaker A: You have a younger daughter as well?
• 12:12
  Speaker B: Oh, no, we have a 16 month old son, Sam.
• 12:16
  Speaker A: Okay, so what is their relationship? Like, how is that.
• 12:18
  Speaker B: Oh, my gosh, they're obsessed with each other. And it was really one of the best things that ever happened because they are buddies. Sam, like, looks up to Teddy and it's almost like they're closer in age than they would have been had Teddy been neurotypical. Teddy would be kind of doing his own thing, but because of autism, they connect more. And, you know, Teddy doesn't need to be stimulated with language, so he hangs out with his little brother. And it's just, it's. It's been great.
• 12:49
  Speaker A: The play. You know, one of the things I remember when Millie was diagnosed and I Was pregnant with Mac, was being told over and over again, you know, play is how language develops. Right. This is, you know, I had, I had my typical older daughter in Montessori school. Like, I was very, very aware that, like, you know, the earlier that you can get little kids to teach other little kids and just play together. That's the way that the mind expands, lands and grows and language. Knowing that Millie was so averse to play. Right. I mean, she was so like. I mean, you couldn't even put like two. Two little Duplo blocks and say, like, put these together. She just lost it. And I think now having Mac and how afraid I was at the time, the two of them have such a mirrored experience. And it's. It's allowed for almost like a typical sibling dynamic.
• 13:40
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 13:40
  Speaker A: Children that are very, very not typical. Right?
• 13:43
  Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And it kind of breaks down. Breaks down the barrier. And, you know, I'll just say for parents, maybe some parents are listening and maybe you're like, I just want them to talk. I just want them to say mommy. I just want them to say Daddy. Like, please just talk. I think it's important to remember like, that, like, when I think back to my own childhood, like, I don't really remember much of, like, what my mom and dad said to me. What I remember is how I felt and how they made me feel. And I think that's what, that's what's important to keep in mind. It's not the words. And I tried to say that in the essay. Like, love isn't a word. It's two souls walking side by side.
• 14:13
  Speaker A: That's literally the line that I have highlighted. I'm not kidding. You whole essay, I was like, love is two souls walking side by side.
• 14:19
  Speaker B: And like, that's, that's what it is with kids on the spectrum. Like, you don't have. You don't need the words because you have. You have a deeper connection than language.
• 14:28
  Speaker A: There's a previous episode that I have with a woman named Heidi Rome, also New Jersey, just as a reminder to everyone, we're coming from New Jersey. Her son Ethan is older now, probably 19 or 20, but she. He was at the same school that Millie and Mac are at now, non verbal. And she said to him in his teens, as he was learning to do more spell to communicate. Teddy, Ethan, tell me how to best mother you like. All I want to do is to be the best mother to you. And he spelled this out. He said, you just have to love me. There's no wrong answer. Like, there's No. I think that a lot of parents have severely autistic kids, think, okay, like, what do I do to get X to happen? Or can I facilitate to the best of my ability? Like, I will. I mean, you know, we're. You are a, you know, artillery officer. Like, what does it take to get the mission done? What is the mission? I mean, if the mission is just to show them how much they're loved and adored for who they are, it's a little bit fantastical. When we want hard developmental milestones met, you know, that, That I think for men is harder, I think.
• 15:30
  Speaker B: Yeah. And especially if you're a very type A person, which I'm not, luckily. That's why I probably had to get out of the military, because I'm just not. I'm very not type. I don't. I don't know. It's type B. I don't know what the other types are, but let's type that. So you, like some people, they have all the books and you're like, okay, we got to do this. And we're going to have this regimen and we're going to. We're going to do these flashcards and then we're going to have these Velcro cards and we're going to put this here. And it can be a little bit. It can be a little overwhelming. I think sometimes it's. It's important to remember. And I actually wrote an essay about this last night is like, what's important not just for kids on the spectrum, but I think for all kids. Like, just being a dad or being a mom is just. What you just said is just knowing them, knowing that they feel loved.
• 16:11
  Speaker A: They feel love.
• 16:13
  Speaker B: It's not. They don't have to, like, strain to figure that out. That they. They just feel it, like, unequivocally, and that they know that you're always there to pick them up when they fall, no matter what. And that gives them confidence to. To go out and do their thing because they know mom and dad are going to be that safe landing spot for them. And that's. That's really. If you can do those things. Like, everything else is kind of ancillary to that. I just. It's simpler than a lot of people think.
• 16:34
  Speaker A: It's the capacity for it, though. You know, I think about. Let's be honest, there's some very basic human needs that are. That we have to take care of for a longer amount of time or require us to keep trying a thousand times more. And I think it's sometimes hard to articulate that and get the depth and brevity of it, like through words of, you know, potty training or learning the Alphabet or being able to hold hands and look both ways before we cross the street. You know, there's. There's things that I think are really, again, that's why I'm so thankful that dads like you are writing more prolifically, is that it takes so much for your own psyche to accept that that path is going to. It's not just like maybe a month longer, it might be years. And, you know, it. It, again, it puts a lot in perspective as an adult. Right. Like, it puts all of us in our. I'm in my early 40s. Like, it really gives time a different meaning.
• 17:29
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, you learn not to obsess over those milestones. And like, this is like something in, like, Eastern philosophy and, like, ancient Greek philosophy. And they say, like, you don't anticipate or hope or wish you welcome events as they come. And I think that's key for raising a kid on a spectrum is they're not going to follow the same schedule. They're not going to have the same birthday parties, they're not going to have the 15 kids over and all the activities and the, you know, that they're just not going to do all those same activities. Just accepting that. That your child. It's not. It's. There's nothing wrong with it. They're fine just the way they are. They just see reality through a different interpretive lens and they're just going to experience reality differently and they're going to be on their own schedule. You can't force it.
• 18:10
  Speaker A: How. Without. Now I want to interview Jess next without sharing, you know, her experience as your own. You know, how was that diagnosis, the grief to acceptance timeline of. Obviously, you shared that there was clearly the shock and how a mother and a father deal with it. How did you guys come together after that?
• 18:30
  Speaker B: I mean, so this was like, a really challenging time. And I'm just going to be open about it. Jess, I hope you don't get mad at me, but, like, it was a hard time in our marriage because, you know, she was going through. I don't know if other husbands and fathers go through this, but she was going through this period of mourning and grief for the childhood that he wasn't going to have. She had all of these plans and dreams and visions, the birthday party, the Instagram photos and the friends and the, you know, the. The outings and everything. And then that kind of all, once it becomes apparent that that is just not going to happen, I think it's pretty devastating for. I don't want to generalize, but, like, for my wife, it was. It was devastating. And for me, it was like, you know, I think it's unfair. I don't want to say, because I don't like the trope of the clueless husband, you know, not knowing what's going on. I think I just didn't. I'm so, like, I was so focused on, okay, now I gotta go hunt. Like, I'm gonna go work. I gotta go work really hard and provide for my family, and I'm focused outwardly. And I think that gets back to our evolutionary biology discussion where, like, I'm gonna go work really hard and make sure, you know, we can afford all of these programs in these schools, and I'm gonna do the mba and I'm gonna, like, try really hard at work. And I think if I'm just being honest with myself, like, I could have done a better job, like, being there for her, because I think at a certain point, it becomes a form of escapism. Like, it's. It's, like, too complicated. It's too confusing. It's like, I don't know what's going on here.
• 19:54
  Speaker A: It's like the story we all tell ourselves.
• 19:57
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 19:57
  Speaker A: Tell yourself is X is that it's beautiful. Right. To provide and to make sure that you can. That Jess can pay and get everything lined up and she doesn't have to worry about this part of it. At the same time, I think there's in, you know, any relationship that the entanglement of the. Especially the grief process. I mean, again, not to overgenerize. I think it's that we, as Americans, at least, are sold this idea that you have a baby and this is the trajectory of it. And, you know, and then you get even more niche and you think, like, successful families outside of the New York City metro area. I mean, this is one of those things that, like, was not at all on my radar. And I think that the process of that, for a man and a woman, evolutionary biology aside, is very innate. To, like, say, we have to divide and conquer. This. This is not, like. This is not even a man and woman thing. This is, like, there's so much on our plate. We, like, we are a team, and we have to divide this. And I think at some point, though, those. Those, like, the. The ridges and the grooves get. So if you're not conscious to. It can become really polarizing.
• 21:06
  Speaker B: Yeah. Absolutely. And I just want to emphasize, like, maybe some dads are listening and, like, going through something similar. And I would just, like, encourage them to. When you're working late, just ask yourself, like, do I need to be here right now? Because there is a cutoff point where, like, you don't. You don't need to be there right now, and maybe you need to be home, and maybe. Maybe she needs some help and she needs to know that you're there and you're available emotionally. And that's something that I did not do. Well, by the way, I'm not preaching because that's something that I. I was not mature enough. I wasn't aware enough to do, and it was very hard, our marriage.
• 21:38
  Speaker A: You know, I think, though, I hope that you and I. And I hope. And I know Jess will listen to this. I think a lot of growth in any relationship is about the acknowledgement of what was lacking. But then you can work through and say, you know, none of us can ever go back and redo it. We can't. But, like, at the same time, how are we expected to do it any differently? Right. If given what we had.
• 22:01
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 22:02
  Speaker A: Our skills.
• 22:03
  Speaker B: Well, I think that's a broader point about life. Like, we don't have. We really are in much less control of. Of our lives than we think. You're kind of getting pushed down the river.
• 22:10
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 22:11
  Speaker B: You know what? Where does the thought come from? Like, you just think, okay, I'm gonna go do this. And it's neurochemistry. It's so much that's, like, out of your control and you don't learn. It's only in hindsight that it becomes obvious, like, oh, I shouldn't have worked, like, 80 hours a week. And, like, that probably wasn't wise.
• 22:25
  Speaker A: Right.
• 22:26
  Speaker B: You know, this comes with experience.
• 22:28
  Speaker A: You met, you know, obviously the title of the name of the podcast and, you know, the term that I'm trademarking right now. Inch done. Right. What is.
• 22:35
  Speaker B: I love that, by the way.
• 22:36
  Speaker A: And, you know, I. It was one of those things that it sort of. It floats around the special needs, you know, world. But it became something that I. It almost was like this, like, hook I had every day. I was like, okay, I have to have one today, because if I don't, I'm going to go to this music class with Millie, and I'm going to be nursing Mac, and I'm going to think, like, what the f is my life? This is absolutely absurd. And, you know, it came down to her clapping. When the song ended, I was like, well, she, she acknowledged the song ended, and we are gonna celebrate the heck outta that.
• 23:09
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 23:10
  Speaker A: And then I think it, it ended up translating for my own life too, of, like, what is the one thing that I really made progress in today? I, I, I was conscious of. I, I didn't just, like, go through any sort of default mode of anything. So what would be maybe an inch of teddies recently? And what about yourself?
• 23:30
  Speaker B: I want to pause on that because I think there's a lot of wisdom in what you just said. You're, you want to, you don't want to compare yourself to other people. Just like, as an adult, like, there's always going to be someone richer than you, someone doing better in life, unless you're, you know, Jeff Bezos. Yeah. I mean, and that's the trap, like, of comparing yourself to other people. And this is the same with, with kids. Like, you don't want to get into that trap of comparing. You want to just be a little bit better today than you were yesterday. And I really love that point. And yeah, I think for Teddy, taking him to school used to be really hard. It was like in preschool, I remember it was like a meltdown every morning for a while. And a lot of that was because, like, the teachers kind of is, like, situational dependent. But, like, when we brought him to, like, like, I want to knock teachers because I love his teachers so much. I'm so grateful for the public school system that we're in because they have been so compassionate and welcoming to him. But it's just every, you know, kids on the spectrum react differently to noises. And like, every teacher has a different, you know, communication style. And so, like, it was very difficult in the beginning, and now we, we put him in kindergarten and it was just like a switch went off and, and he was like, okay, I'm going to school. And he gets out of the car and he walks away from me. Doesn't even say goodbye. It's like, okay, see you later. But he's fine. Like, he, he just decided at that point, he was like, all right, I'm going to accept this, and I'm just going to go to school. And that was like, one of the, one of the most encouraging things that happened, you know, that happened to us as parents.
• 24:55
  Speaker A: Very cool.
• 24:56
  Speaker B: I guess I had to pick one for myself, too. And then when I wrote the piece about Teddy and I got so much encouragement and so much, like, outpouring of solidarity from other parents, I mean, it just filled me with dopamine. It was like, oh, my Gosh, it gave me energy and it. And then the ideas just came and then I just. Now I'm doing, like, once, even twice a week. I'm just writing, and that's been. That's new for me. And it's been really. It's been really a positive change for me.
• 25:22
  Speaker A: I love it. Well, I think that your voice is only going to grow within this community. As someone who, you know, holds the vulnerability card really high, I think that you should be really proud of that for yourself and for the community of dads. And I think that everyone here will all be. I'll link to your substack and to specifically this article that brought you into my world. And it's just so nice to have you on here. I think this episode is going to give a lot of fathers and mothers in our similar situations, but also with the age that Mac is 7, as well as Teddy and how it is constantly evolving. And I think I never want to lose sight of the fact that everyone's story that is on the podcast is specific to the year and age of their children and how in any parenting situation, you know, we get to take these little nuggets of wisdom. And I just. I really appreciate you. You sharing yours with Teddy and.
• 26:17
  Speaker B: Well, thank you so much.
• 26:19
  Speaker A: Sam and Teddy are lucky to have you.
• 26:22
  Speaker B: Thank you. Yeah. And I really appreciate you having me on. I hope more dads come on. And Sarah is not scary at all. She's a master class. She, like, made me laugh a couple times. It was like this transition where, like, you hit a couple jokes and I was laughing and then you started to wind down and it was like, oh, we're going to. So that was pretty smooth. And yeah, it was fun. It was fun.
• 26:39
  Speaker A: I love it. Well, thank you again. I'll link all of Greg's information on here. Your page might be blowing up soon, so be prepared for all the acceptance of that. And until next time on the Instones podcast.