Episode 5 of "We're Here Alone Together" (W.H.A.T.) features Jess Rosado: blogger, photographer, designer, mom and creative extraordinaire. You should find her @OddBirdOut on Instagram really quick. Go go go.

This is Episode 96 of the podcast. Jess and I have known each other since maybe 2005 or so, and we met via the world of Flickr. We talked a little about that early time, the social media platform we were on before the words "social media" were such a mainstay.

Jess talked about how much more difficult Christmas in 2020 was for her, in comparison with previous years. Some of that was based on the pandemic... but she also talked about her kids being teens now completely changes the landscape of gift giving and celebration.

We talked a bit about kids, allowances and chores. Being the youngest of 8 kids and growing up in the '70s and '80s, an "allowance" wasn't the same for me as it was for a lot of my friends. So, I was curious on Jess' take on it as a Mom of 2.

I told a story about trying to trick/bribe (call it what you will) my 8 yr old into allowing us to listen to Prince on the 8-minute drive to his school every day for a month and how he wouldn't give in. Someone please help me with this struggle (sic).

We bantered about expectations within the family relationship. I took a minor shot across the bow (sorry not sorry) toward the idea that a Father posting how he is "watching his kids while the Mom gets some 'me time' of her own" and people go out of their way to comment and tell the Dad what a great Dad he is being and how awesome that is. Don't do this.

This wound up in us spending quite some time talking about homeschooling. Jess was homeschooled, herself, some time ago and obviously this has become a way more significant option with the pandemic. So, we really went through how that has changed a lot over the years and how it set Jess up for life and how she is handling it with her teens.

How many of you with kids feel like they are way ahead of you in their understanding of technology? Yeah, we talked about that too. How timely this current world situation has been for just how tech-savvy younger people are. I have said this multiple times: if Covid had hit when previous generations were kids, I feel fairly comfortable saying that almost none of this schooling would have been possible. I know that a lot of people like to call the last school year a "lost year"... heck, Time magazine just had that as their cover story. I, for one, feel like that is a Bolshevik statement (can you say 'click bait'?) and a pretty harsh slap to the face of educators around the world, as well as to a lot of kids.

I don't say that without an understanding and cushion statement that gets that a lot of kids didn't thrive; a lot of parents didn't do well. I know that everyone doesn't have great abilities to work through it (whether that is due to the infrastructure of wifi capabilities, or hardware issues, etc).

As I say in each episode: for anyone who may need help during any difficult times: the National Suicide Prevention hotline: (800) 273-8255. Also, I have a Google Voice Number for ANY of you to use: (872) 444-6784. Leave me a message there and I will get in touch with you... or you can even just use that as a safe place to vent or whatever it may be. 

You can listen to this conversation by finding the Daddy Unscripted podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Tune In Radio, etc).

Find and follow Jess and Odd Bird Out at the website for the blog at www.OddBirdOut.com

Find and follow Jess on her Instagram at @OddBirdOut

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