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Grove Collaborative – Cleaning with a “Friend”
Meredith Masony: You can download this podcast on iTunes and Google Play Music. Be sure to subscribe and give us a review with your thoughts about the show. Thank you to Iris Vanu for her recent review. We love having these relatable conversations with you. I’m your host, Meredith from, That’s Inappropriate …
Tiffany Jenkins: And I’m your host Tiffany, from Juggling the Jenkins. This podcast, we’ll discuss all things, marriage, motherhood, and everything in between. Please remember, we’re not professionals at anything you may actually need, so any advice we give you, you can take …
Meredith Masony: Or leave because it might be crap. Welcome to take it or leave it. On today’s episode of take it or leave it. We are talking school pics, Christmas shopping and how well you know your partner. We also have a hilarious interweb mom, author, video creator, all around delightful lady. CA-
Find CA Miljavac:
- https://www.facebook.com/CarolanneMiljavac/
- https://www.instagram.com/camiljavac/
- https://www.camiljavac.com/
- Podcast: iTunes, Spotify, Podbean
Tiffany Jenkins: Miljavac.
Meredith Masony: Miljacavacavac. Miljavac. Did I say it right? CA Miljavac.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yes.
Meredith Masony: There we go. I got it.
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Tiffany Jenkins: She’s an angel pie. I love her so much.
Meredith Masony: Alright. She’s here today.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yay. Oh my … We are here because we’ve all struggled as human beings and as moms. Anyone who says they haven’t is a lie bagger. I would like to now call on my dear friend, CA Miljavac and welcome her to the show. CA, are you there?
CA Miljavac: Hello Hello, I’m here. Time to get excited.
Tiffany Jenkins: Hello friend. How are you doing today?
CA Miljavac: I’m just so excited to be here. [inaudible]. Thank you so much.
Tiffany Jenkins: I feel like you’re being sarcastic.
Meredith Masony: I did get a sarcastic tone-
Tiffany Jenkins: She did.
Meredith Masony: … and we welcomed you onto the podcast, so geez Louise people. Geez.
Tiffany Jenkins: She’s like, I’d rather be eating Bologna and cheese and watching TV, but here I am, ha ha ha.
CA Miljavac: I live in sarcastic tone.
Meredith Masony: Side question, real quick, before we get started. If you are eating Bologna and cheese, do you use Mayo or Miracle Whip?
CA Miljavac: Oh, mayo and it’s going to be fried bologna.
Meredith Masony: Hmm. That’s a southern thing. That’s what I was wondering. Do you … Tiffany, do you even know what Miracle Whip is?
Tiffany Jenkins: It’s a miracle. I know that.
Meredith Masony: It’s a tangy zip of miracle. Alright. Moving on to-
Tiffany Jenkins: What’s the difference?
Meredith Masony: There’s some tang. It’s tang.
Tiffany Jenkins: Okay. That sounds sketchy, but-
CA Miljavac: Can’t believe it’s not mayo. It’s not-
Meredith Masony: Right. It’s not.
CA Miljavac: … but you don’t know that. You eat mayonnaise.
Meredith Masony: Mayonnaise.
CA Miljavac: You eat mayonnaise.
Tiffany Jenkins: Mayonnaise.
Meredith Masony: Yeah. Alright. Why don’t we go ahead and get started. Every show we start with a mom fail moment, so we’d love to welcome you into the show by you telling us how you failed as a mother.
CA Miljavac: Just one? Just one?
Meredith Masony: Just one. You can pick a recent one. You can pick your most epic. Anything you want. It’s all about you.
CA Miljavac: Okay. Well, since one of the topics is school pictures, I’ll tell you right now, I don’t have a single one of my daughter’s school pictures on my wall. I have all of them stacked neatly in a drawer where they will never get messed up. I just don’t know what do … I just … they probably think I don’t even love them. I love them so much, but I don’t know if I should have your kindergarten picture up or your fourth grade picture up, so I just put them all in a drawer.
Tiffany Jenkins: Amen.
Meredith Masony: Right, but here’s my … Here’s a second que- … Here’s a followup to that because I agree, but it’s really the people who print the pictures, the people who do them, it’s their fault, because they give them to us in that really nice envelope, and so then you’re forced to keep them in that envelope because they’re going to keep them nice and safe. Right? That’s why.
CA Miljavac: Yeah, but also it’s their fault because they don’t precut it for you and I dunno, I really hate cutting the pictures.
Meredith Masony: Yeah, and it would-
CA Miljavac: I’d rather just …
Tiffany Jenkins: They could’ve included a frame at least. You know what I mean? Make it a little easier.
Meredith Masony: And somebody to come to your house and put it on your wall. What’s wrong with us?
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah. I don’t think that’s asking too much.
Meredith Masony: These companies are the worst.
CA Miljavac: I’m going to do all the other moms do and I’m just going to give them all out as Christmas gifts. Like at the school parties, you get everyone’s school pictures, ’cause you really want pictures of everyone else’s kids. I don’t even have my own kids’ pictures up. I’m not even kidding. This sounds terrible. It goes in the garbage. If you give me a picture of your kid it’s probably going to end up in the garbage because I don’t have enough wall space on my ‘frigerator for my own kids [crosstalk]
Meredith Masony: But wait. But the best part is when you’re giving somebody these gifts and it’s your kid like four years ago, and it’s like, wait, what? And it’s like, well, you don’t want to remember what she looks like at four? That’s on you. Okay? That’s your problem.
Tiffany Jenkins: That makes me feel better.
CA Miljavac: Yeah. We all know you’re just trying to get rid of them. That’s all you’re doing, so you don’t even care.
Meredith Masony: Alright. Let’s just … Well, thank you for that mom fail. On the show today, CA has over 100 million video views, 450,000 social media followers, and she has become the go to girl for a good laugh, motivation, loving truths … That’s so sweet … and vulnerability. She can pull at your heartstrings, while tapping your funny bone with a message of beauty from ashes. Her purpose in life is to spread love and joy without sacrificing honesty and truth, and we love you for that.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh my gosh. That was such a good description of her.
Meredith Masony: Right?
Tiffany Jenkins: Did you make that up?
CA Miljavac: You read that really well.
Meredith Masony: I stole it right from her site, and I believe every word of it and love it.
Tiffany Jenkins: Okay. Yeah. Because it’s so true. She believes we all have a story to tell. Abandoned, abused, broken, and lost, grief taught her gratitude. Pain gave her purpose, and lost revealed true love. Faith gave her wings to fly above fear and she is on a mission to lovingly kick you out of your nest too. I personally know CA and I have had the pleasure of hanging out with her, and out with her brought me back to my childhood because she has such a free spirit. She just brings the inner child in you out. I love her so much and I’m so excited that you’re here friend.
CA Miljavac: Aww. Tears.
Tiffany Jenkins: Liar. So tell us-
CA Miljavac: Rolling down my face.
Tiffany Jenkins: … what made you decide to start blogging and making videos?
CA Miljavac: Okay. I was backtracking. Really, I didn’t start putting out videos until after my niece had been diagnosed with cancer and I had kind of lost the goofy side of myself. I had always been super silly, had always been the comic relief in the family or in my group of friends, but at some point after having kids and being a mom and wife, I just started going through the motions and I totally lost my inner silly self.
If you’re not laughing, you’re not happy. There’s no joy. There’s no hope for joy. I had lost that, and then she was diagnosed with cancer and everything else just stopped mattering, and I really started to think about how I was spending my time on this earth, and I always knew that being goofy and silly and just having that freedom, because if you’re laughing, you’re free. ‘Cause when you’re laughing or when you’re making people laugh, that’s one of the most vulnerable parts of yourself. If I was doing that and then I was truly free to be who I am. Really, watching her journey, I was like, you know what, I’m done. I’m going to put everything out there.
I would make videos for her, to make her laugh while she was at St. Jude and we had a dance like nobody’s watching challenge, and I decided to do it, for real, for real, do it. The way we actually do twerk when you don’t think anybody’s watching. I started twerking to, “Push it Good”, with my kid in the background screaming like a dying cat. I almost choked to death on my spit, and that was real. It really happened. I almost died on my spit right that moment, and I kept it all in there and I just threw it up online and then the rest was history and then that went viral and I just kept on doing it and putting it out there and just … I figured if people laugh, they laugh. They don’t, they don’t.
Tiffany Jenkins: Wow.
CA Miljavac: But they did.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yes they did, and how incredible that you were able to take such a dark time and turn it into something beautiful and you do a really great job of keeping Ansley’s memory alive in everything you do, and it’s so evident, and I think it’s amazing. What has been your favorite part of the journey so far?
CA Miljavac: The last month or so I’ve been able to go to book signings, and so getting out there in front of people and meeting everyone face to face and hugging necks and talking and hearing people’s stories and letting them tell me how they resonate with my story or how anything that Ansley went through has help them with similar things they’re going through in their families or with their children. That has been amazing. I really enjoyed that part, and obviously I am so thrilled to be able to raise money for St. Jude and childhood cancer. That has been a huge part of everything as well. Those two things would probably my favorite parts.
Meredith Masony: I read your book in two hours and 45 minutes.
CA Miljavac: You’re lying.
Meredith Masony: No. I sat down on a Sunday and the only reason I got through it was because the kids weren’t home. Right? My husband had gone somewhere and your book came in the mail and I was like, I’ll just … I’m just going to read a couple of chapters because then I’m going to take a nap, because I was like, the kids aren’t here. I’m taking a damn nap.
Tiffany Jenkins: Preach.
Meredith Masony: I sat there and was glued to your book and when you were talking about why you started making videos and the whole story about your niece and what your family was going through and what and what you decided to do with it as a result of that, I just want to say, to promote your book, it’s fantastic. It’s super relatable and there were definitely times where you were speaking and I was like, Oh, me too, me too. I’ve felt that. I’ve been there. I’ve had those thoughts. Congrats on the book. Why don’t you tell everybody where they can get your book and the name of your book.
CA Miljavac: Aww. Well, thank you, first of all. That’s so sweet. It is called, ‘Odd(ly) Enough’, with the crazy random parentheses around the “ly”, which [inaudible]. It’s called ‘Odd(ly) Enough: Standing Out When the World Begs You to Fit In.’, and you can pretty much get it anywhere books are sold. Amazon, obviously, but Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Christianbooks.com. Sams’s Club apparently has a-
Meredith Masony: I was just gonna say, I saw you at Sams’s Club.
CA Miljavac: Getting pictures of everybody. Yeah, I would suggest calling the bookstores before you run out there, just to make sure that they have it in stock before you go, but yeah. You can also go to CA-
Tiffany Jenkins: ‘Cause it’s so popular. It’s flying off the shelves.
CA Miljavac: Right. It’s just like hot cakes over there. You can also go to CAMiljavac.com though and all of the places you can buy it are listed there on my website.
Meredith Masony: It was truly fantastic. It really was. I know everybody here has a sarcastic tone when we speak because that’s just who we are, but bought bottom of my heart, thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yes.
CA Miljavac: Aww. Thank you.
Meredith Masony: We were so excited to have you on the podcast today.
CA Miljavac: I’m so excited to be here. I think it’s funny because everyone kind of knows … well, all three of us really, as really funny girls, but we all have something that’s so much deeper than that, that I think kind of gives us that drive to make others laugh, and it’s usually because we’ve come out of something. I wanted to make sure that people understood where the comedy came from and what was behind all of that, so that they also know that you can have a really crappy life or for being a really struggling situation and still have laughter and still find joy, because if we can, they can.
Tiffany Jenkins: Absolutely.
Meredith Masony: Yeah. Couldn’t agree more with that.
CA Miljavac: 100%.
Meredith Masony: Why don’t we get into the show, and how the show basically works, just so you know, CA, is, we will go through three different segments. You can chime in with any information that you want to at any given time. We just give opinions on crap and kinda go through it.
CA Miljavac: So I gotta try to squeeze in between you two?
Meredith Masony: Yeah. Pull up a chair.
Tiffany Jenkins: Today’s trending parenting news is brought to you by Grove Collaborative.
Meredith Masony: This is the part where Tiffany tells a joke that’s really terrible.
Tiffany Jenkins: By terrible, she means amazing. CA, what did the turkey say to the computer?
CA Miljavac: I don’t know.
Tiffany Jenkins: Google, Google, Google.
Meredith Masony: That’s terrible. See?
Tiffany Jenkins: Okay, but can you say Google three times fast?
CA Miljavac: I’m making my straight stone face. I’m not even cracking a smile.
Meredith Masony: Oh.
Tiffany Jenkins: I don’t believe you.
CA Miljavac: I think you should go.
Meredith Masony: Google, Google, Google.
CA Miljavac: Yeah, it’s not easy, thank you.
Grove Collaborative – Cleaning with a “Friend”
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Alright. In trending news, in trending parenting news, we have a very interesting topic today. There is a big mom-traversy going on in, I guess I would say, communities across the US at least, because this is where I know these photographic companies exist, but should you retouch your child’s school photos?
Tiffany Jenkins: I can’t even believe this is a thing.
CA Miljavac: No.
Meredith Masony: Listen. The social media savvy moms of today very likely love to use filters or face tuning at the very least for lice edit before posting a photo of themselves, and it’s possible that they may use those same skills now on photos with their kids, but what about those yearly school photos? The ones that you look back on and you cringe at. The hair, the teeth, the pimples. What have you could erase all of those imperfections.
Tiffany Jenkins: You can’t go back and do it for yourself, but you can for your kids. Lifetouch, the company responsible for the majority of school portrait photos in the US, offers two options. For eight dollars, you can get basic retouching, which removes blemishes. For 12 dollars, you get premium retouching, which whitened teeth, evens skin tone, and removes blemishes and scars. Christine Bowl, a mom who was also a photographer, said “School photos are supposed to represent a time in moment, their life captured as it is, sweet, ugly, awkward, bruises, teeth missing, crooked ponytails, and all. I know I love my funny and super real photos from my time in school. It brought so much fun out of just looking at them over the years and I feel it’s important not to mess up with our kids self image.”. Words are hard. “They can see if we edit a photo of them.”.
Meredith Masony: Here’s the question. Okay? Do we, in today’s day and age, have our kids’ photos retouched so that they literally look as perfect as they possibly can and if the answer is yes, why do you do that? And if the answer is no, what problems do you see with it?
Tiffany Jenkins: I would be-
CA Miljavac: But don’t the literally already look as perfect as they possibly can though?
Meredith Masony: Our kids?
CA Miljavac: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: Oh get out of here.
Tiffany Jenkins: She’s sarcastic.
Meredith Masony: Okay.
Tiffany Jenkins: Remember that?
Meredith Masony: Yeah, I remember now. Okay.
Tiffany Jenkins: Listen. I would be really interested to hear from somebody who would do this, because I can’t imagine anybody being like, “Yes. Here’s 12 bucks. Make them look like a different kid.”.
Meredith Masony: Well, their argument, at least I think, and we’ll take a caller on this, but their argument, I believe, is why shouldn’t we give them the opportunity to be blemish free? It really sucked to have photos when I was a kid with all those pimples and middle school. I’m just doing my kid a favor, but personally, obviously, I … Literally, our community here is called filter free. Right? Filter free parenting community, and I actually have a show on Friday mornings called Filter Free, where I fold laundry and drink coffee, and I’m a hot damn mess. I don’t believe in filters. Even when I post pictures of myself on social media, I do not use filters. I’m absolutely not going to use them on my children, which is my prerogative, but I find this a very interesting topic for the society that we live in today and what that means moving forward for these kids. What do you think CA?
CA Miljavac: I know when I was in middle school, the day you got your pictures in, everyone wants to see each other’s pictures. I can see being in eighth grade, maybe, or being older. Definitely not for younger kids, but I could see you being in the preteen phases and kind of wishing maybe you could have touched yours up a little bit, but the thing is they see it every day. Everyone at school, sees you every day. When we’re adults, it’s kind of just funny. Right? You look back and you just kind of laugh at it, I probably personally wouldn’t, but I could see being a kid in that preteen phase kind of wishing you could.
Tiffany Jenkins: Well, my kids are young, but all I can think of is truthfully, how I would just want to remember this moment as it is, and I feel like by retouching it, you would be … it’s like false memories. You know what I’m saying?
Meredith Masony: I have to agree there. I just think it’s really tough, especially if you have a kid that has acne. A serious acne issue like that, I could see why they would totally want to do this, and as a parent I could feel my own heart breaking and being like, “Uh, do we do it? Do we not do it?”, because it’s … puberty sucks, man. Everything about puberty sucks. The awkwardness, the smells, your face, everything about puberty. Everything about puberty sucks. I remember being … Well, I’m still awkward, but I remember just being gross in middle school and everybody else was too. Well there were that couple of girls that weren’t gross and I hated them, but if we’re just being honest, this puts the parents, I feel like, in a really, really difficult position because our kids tug at our heartstrings. Right? Then it’s like, do I allow the retouch? What does that say about me? And it just causes a whole other snowball effect. In my mind, that’s what I’m worrying about.
Tiffany Jenkins: I remember a story where the … I don’t know if it was this specific photography company, but they took it upon themselves to edit this kid’s teeth and the mom was super ticked off about it.
CA Miljavac: Yeah. See, that would make me mad.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah. Not knowing about it. 12 bucks. Is this their way of just getting extra money? You know what I mean? Why wouldn’t they do it automatically if it was an issue? Why wouldn’t they automatically re-touch them up?
Tiffany Jenkins: … emphatically if it was an issue. Why, when they automatically re-touch them up like photographers do.
Meredith Masony: Well, and I love they call it premium re-touching.
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
Meredith Masony: Oh, oh. You need the premium-
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
Meredith Masony: … re-touching-
Tiffany Jenkins: That’s what I mean-
Meredith Masony: It’s like, Ouch-
Tiffany Jenkins: … this day and age-
Meredith Masony: Ouch.
Believe me, I was in my gynecologist, years back. And I went in and he was looking at me. He was giving me the once over, right? And right after he had done the old hoo-ha check, he looks at me and he goes, “You know, I can fix those”, and I go, “I’m sorry, what?”. And he goes, “Your breast. I can fix those”, and he goes, “And, if you let me, I could also really help me with your backside. We could do a Brazilian Butt Lift”. Like, he was literally looking at me and telling me everything he would fix on my body. And I was like, “I’m just here for the pap, okay?”.
Tiffany Jenkins: Wow.
Meredith Masony: Like, “I’m not here for you to talk about how awful the lack of breasts that I have are.” Like, “I don’t want your premium re-touching right now”. On top of that, he was like-
CA Miljavac: The last thing you want to hear when someone’s in your hoo-ha is, “I can fix those”.
Tiffany Jenkins: That’s what I though she meant.
CA Miljavac: Like, what do I have down there? Is there an extra set of-
Tiffany Jenkins: Flaps.
CA Miljavac: … bolts I wasn’t aware of?
Meredith Masony: Well, he was-
CA Miljavac: What are you talking about?
Meredith Masony: Well, he was down there doing that, looking up at the lack of titty bitties that I had, you know what I’m saying? But-
Tiffany Jenkins: Jesus.
CA Miljavac: Oh, my God.
Tiffany Jenkins: She said, “Titty bitties”.
Meredith Masony: Titty bitties.
But the point that I’m saying is, I think it’s sad that we constantly, always feel like we always have to be premium re-touched now. I disagree with it, but I really do have a hard time because my heart breaks for these families with kids who are going through that awkward stage. Because I have a kid in puberty right now.
Tiffany Jenkins: Well, that’s just how it is. You know what I mean?-
Meredith Masony: I understand.
Tiffany Jenkins: … That’s just how it is-
Meredith Masony: I understand.
Tiffany Jenkins: My heart doesn’t break.
CA Miljavac: That’s life-
Tiffany Jenkins: My kid has-
CA Miljavac: That’s preparing you for life.
Meredith Masony: I understand.
Tiffany Jenkins: My kid has a fused tooth. So, his front tooth grew in morphed with the one next to it. So, he has a normal tooth here and then this one’s extra long and it has a big crack in it because it’s two teeth in one.
Meredith Masony: Oh.
Tiffany Jenkins: And I’m certain that kids are going to make fun of him and stuff like that, but he’s keeping the tooth in the pictures. So that when he gets older, I could be like, “Ha ha. Look at your tooth in these pictures”.
Meredith Masony: Okay.
CA Miljavac: Oh, make him feel really good about-
Meredith Masony: Okay.
Tiffany Jenkins: My pictures were so horrendous and I really enjoy looking back on them.
Meredith Masony: Everybody in the feed today is like, “I hope you didn’t go back to that gynecologist”. Don’t worry. He left. He fled for India. He had several lawsuits pending at one time. I don’t know if it was for premium re-touching. But he did have some issues.
Tiffany Jenkins: That’s what I was wondering. He’s not a plastic surgeon.
CA Miljavac: He got disbarred.
Meredith Masony: No, he was. He did both. Anyway, that’s a whole other show. But, yes. He did boobs and butts as well. And he was actually late to my third child’s delivery because he was doing a set of titty totties. So, there’s that. But that’s another whole story about why I’m so angry at that man.
All right. Moving on.
CA Miljavac: The pap smear’s was the gateway to the boob job.
Meredith Masony: That’s right. It’s like, “You sell me a pap smear but you want me to get titty bitties, all right”.
So why don’t we take a caller and see what somebody else’s thoughts are on this premium re-touching. And you don’t have to tell me … Yeah, you do. You have to tell me whose team you’re on. Are you on Team Tiffany? Or, are you on Team … and I think CA is with Tiffany.
Tiffany Jenkins: Wait. So, you’re for it?
Meredith Masony: I’m not necessarily for it, but I’m also in the space of having puberty-
Tiffany Jenkins: Understanding-
Meredith Masony: … Kids. And I can totally understand-
Tiffany Jenkins: Okay.
Meredith Masony: I remember crying about going to school in middle school because I was just so awkward-
CA Miljavac: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: … and if one of my kids is going through that, my heartstrings are going to be tugged. But, I think on principle, I would say, “Look, I love you. You are going to learn to love you, too-
Tiffany Jenkins: Exactly.
Meredith Masony: … and this is who you are. But I’m visualizing it right now, how hard that’s going to be.
CA Miljavac: Really?
Meredith Masony: Probably more so with my daughter than with my son. Because, either-
CA Miljavac: Oh, yeah.
Meredith Masony: … he’s not telling me, or it’s just not something he wants to discuss with me. But I know my daughter is going to … she’s already had people make comments about her hair.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah, but I’m so afraid of sending that message.
Meredith Masony: I agree with you.
Tiffany Jenkins: If you don’t like the way you look, we’ll fix it. You know what I mean?
Meredith Masony: I agree with you. And you know me. I’m completely-
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: … filter free. I don’t touch anything up.
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
Meredith Masony: What you see is what you get-
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
Meredith Masony: … all of the time. But I’m telling you as a parent, during this phase of life, this is so hard and so exhausting. And so I can feel for these other parents. That’s all I’m saying.
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
CA Miljavac: Yeah. I totally can see how someone might be tempted to do it. I wouldn’t, personally. But, I also wouldn’t judge someone [crosstalk] maybe do it.
Meredith Masony: Let’s see what Kaylin from Washington State says. She’s got two kiddos, two chickens.
Tiffany Jenkins: Hi, Kaylin.
Kaylin: Hello, ladies.
Meredith Masony: Hi.
Kaylin: So, you may not remember. I was able to call in on episode six as well, when you guys were talking about autism.
Meredith Masony: Yes.
Tiffany Jenkins: I remembered.
Kaylin: So, I’m kind of pooping my pants a little. I made it in for this one with all three of my favorite ladies. I don’t even know what’s happening right now.
Meredith Masony: Yay. You’re the winner. Yay.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah, actually, you won-
Kaylin: You guys, I set my alarm today and I was like stalking all your instagrams and stalking this page, waiting for the “live”, and this was meant to be.
Tiffany Jenkins: Aw, I love that.
Meredith Masony: So what’s the word? Would you re-touch-
Kaylin: Nope.
Meredith Masony: … or no?
Kaylin: No.
Meredith Masony: Okay.
Kaylin: No. Because I’m one of those totally awkwards. I had huge glasses and crazy hair. I don’t have one good picture from back in the day. But, I love looking back at them and I’m glad that there was not the option to touch them up.
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
Meredith Masony: Yeah. There wasn’t, right?
Tiffany Jenkins: No.
Meredith Masony: Like, that didn’t exist.
Tiffany Jenkins: I don’t think even think it was a thing. I don’t even think people even thought that way back then.
Meredith Masony: Well, I think that also really hones in on the fact of how filtered everything is these days.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: That even now-
Kaylin: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: … you can look like somebody else in your school photo and then hand it out, and the kid next to you in class will be like, “Whose is this?”
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
Meredith Masony: And it’s like, “It’s me”. And it’s like, “No, no. It’s not”.
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
Meredith Masony: And it’s like, “No, no. It’s me”.
Tiffany Jenkins: Well, thank you so much for calling.
Kaylin: Thank you. I love you ladies. Thank you.
Meredith Masony: Have a great day.
Tiffany Jenkins: Bye.
Kaylin: Thanks. You, too. Thank you, thank you. [crosstalk].
Tiffany Jenkins: Love you, bye.
CA Miljavac: Bye.
You know what? Here’s the thing. You are not going to avoid awkwardness in your pre and your adolescent stages. It’s just not going to happen. You’re going to be awkward, weird things are going to happen and you kind of just have to go through it. And also, it creates character-
Tiffany Jenkins: I was just going to say that-
CA Miljavac: … that you need to have as an adult.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yes. I would not be who I am today had I not gone through the awkward phase.
CA Miljavac: And as a parent, letting your kids do it though, is really hard-
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh, I can imagine-
CA Miljavac: … but you got to do it-
Meredith Masony: Yeah.
Tiffany Jenkins: I can imagine.
Meredith Masony: How old are yours, again, CA?
CA Miljavac: Nine, seven and four.
Meredith Masony: Okay. So you’re-
CA Miljavac: Girls.
Meredith Masony: … getting a little be of pre-puberty with the nine.
CA Miljavac: Yeah. With the nine-year-old, she had to start wearing deodorant.
Meredith Masony: Yeah, they stink.
CA Miljavac: I got her a book about her body, sort of explain tampons. So, I don’t feel like I’m ready.
Meredith Masony: I don’t think we’re ever ready.
CA Miljavac: You know? There’s no stopping it. There’s no stopping it.
Meredith Masony: Would you stop it? My husband is passing notes to Tiffany. This is a whole other topic for a whole other show. But he claims that I favor my oldest child over the other two. Like, straight up, basically says, “No, no. He’s your favorite”. And I would let the other two go to the wolves, right? Which is not true at all.
But he just made a note that said, “Meredith would let my oldest son re-touch his photos if he wanted to”. And it’s like, “No, I wouldn’t. No, I wouldn’t. You’re such a jerk”. You stick to producing the show and quit passing notes to Tiffany.
Tiffany Jenkins: That’s so funny.
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Meredith Masony: All right. So, “Parenting Crap” is brought to you by Fab Fit Fun Subscription Boxes. Fab Fit Fun is a seasonal subscription box with full-size beauty, fitness, fashion and lifestyle products. One of the reasons I love Fab Fit Fun is because each season, since the fall of 2015, they have provided charitable contributions to a specific charity that supports and empowers women.
Tiffany Jenkins: And not only that, it retails for $49.99, but it always has a value of between $200-$300 bucks. A lot of the products in it cost more than the entire box at retail. So, it’s stuff I would never normally get, delivered to my door. If you use coupon code “takeit” for $10 off your first box.
CA Miljavac: You get $10 off.
Tiffany Jenkins: That is happening in your pocket if you order at www.FabFitFun.com and use code “takeit”, you get $10 off your first box.
Meredith Masony: You can take that $10 back, baby. Just take it back.
That was so smooth the way you read that. It was like …
Tiffany Jenkins: I was like …
CA Miljavac: You crushed it.
Tiffany Jenkins: It’s Monday. We don’t usually do this on Mondays.
Meredith Masony: No. We do normally do it on Fridays. But because of somebody’s famous schedule over here.
Tiffany Jenkins: Shut up.
Meredith Masony: All right, so why don’t you tell us what’s in “Parenting Crap”, today?
Tiffany Jenkins: All right. Christmas shopping is in “Parenting Crap”. It’s that time of year. Everyone is getting ready for the holiday season. Let’s talk turkey and Christmas shopping.
Or, am I reading this exactly?
Meredith Masony: Let’s talk turkey on Christmas shopping.
Tiffany Jenkins: Toy shopping is serious business. Toys that are too easy will bore your babe. Those that are too advanced will aggravate him, but pick one that’s just right for his skill level and you’ll be giving him hours of education, exploration and enjoyment.
Meredith Masony: You can leave it there. That seems like a good-enough.
Tiffany Jenkins: That was a lot of big words-
Meredith Masony: It was.
Tiffany Jenkins: … in a very small sentence.
Meredith Masony: So here’s really what it boils down to. And we do have three sets of kids amongst us, we each have three.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: That’s nine freaking kids.
Tiffany Jenkins: So many of them.
CA Miljavac: Yes.
Meredith Masony: I have the oldest. Then it would go to CA, then it would go to you.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: So here’s my real question on this. And this is why I found this article interesting.
Basically, child psychologists, experts, parenting experts are now saying that it is so important that you research developmentally appropriate toys for your children … I know, hold on, and if you are not doing that and you’re just willy-nilly buying them toys, you are ruining, ruining your children’s lives. And so, my question is, is this actually important? Why can’t we just get the kid a damn Rubik’s Cube? I’m not saying get a Rubik’s Cube for an infant, but let’s be honest here, they’re toys.
Tiffany Jenkins: Do you know what I do?
Meredith Masony: What?
Tiffany Jenkins: Okay. This is going to come back in the future and bite me sometime. I’m not even joking. I go to the dollar store and I get toys. Because here’s why, I think it’s more so-
CA Miljavac: Your kids are very little. They don’t care.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah.
That, and it’s more so like the opening, and the volume.
CA Miljavac: Yeah.
Tiffany Jenkins: So, if you buy them really super expensive toys, they get five and then they’re like, “What the heck? Is that it?” If you buy them 30 from the dollar store, it takes way longer for them to open, it looks like they have way more, and if the pieces are all over the floor, you just chuck it and don’t feel bad about spending the money, because it was a dollar.
Meredith Masony: Okay. So, it also begs another question that parenting experts wait on here. How many presents do you give your kids at Christmas? Is there a limit? Is there a right number? What should it be? So, CA, let’s just talk about … because everybody’s starting their Christmas shopping. I mean, everybody is. It’s ’tis the season. Christmas crap is all around us. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas. I’m just saying, as a mom, you have to buy it, wrap it, store it, make the frigging Christmas magic happen-
Tiffany Jenkins: I love it.
Meredith Masony: … and you got to do all of that. It’s a lot of things to do.
So, CA, we all have three kids … we’ve already determined that, obviously, you idiot. I’m so stupid.
Tiffany Jenkins: It’s Monday.
Meredith Masony: It’s Monday.
Is there a limit, or is it based on age?
Don’t wave me on, producer. Geez. Sorry.
CA Miljavac: Get on with the question.
Meredith Masony: There it is.
CA Miljavac: [inaudible].
Meredith Masony: I gave it to you. I gave it to you.
CA Miljavac: As a parenting expert myself, over nine years experience, I have decided I don’t care. I don’t care how many gifts they get. I’ve tried to do this whole thing every year where I’m like, “Oh, you know what, I’m going to be one of those really, really, great moms who buys something to read, something that rhymes with read, whatever that little poem is everyone says they’re doing”. And I usually end up being, like, the day before Christmas Eve … which I learned from my own mom to do it then, and I just go to Target and I’m like, “What do they like?” And just grab three or four things, each. My whole thing is making sure they each get the same amount because that’s a much bigger deal than how many total that they get.
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
CA Miljavac: And I also like to do, okay, which all year long I’m like, “Do you want a puppy or do you want a lot of Christmas presents?” Because we’re actually getting a puppy this year.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh, my gosh.
CA Miljavac: So, I’m kind of like, “That takes the cake.
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
CA Miljavac: … That’s your Christmas”. I’m fine with that. Maybe I’ll get each, one or two. But, “You got a puppy”.
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
Meredith Masony: “You got a puppy”.
Tiffany Jenkins: I hook Aubrey up because she’s older and she’ll remember. But I feel like if the kids are really young, it doesn’t matter.
Meredith Masony: No.
CA Miljavac: You know, when you’re older, too, you’re kind of more concerned with what you get than how much.
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
CA Miljavac: You know? It’s like, you have the few things that you know you really want. Younger kids, they just want to open.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah.
CA Miljavac: It could just be wrapped boxes and nothing inside it …
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
CA Miljavac: … and they would be, probably, fine with that.
Meredith Masony: Well, and the older they get, too, the older they get, the value of what they’re asking for double, triple, quadruples. My oldest wants a tv. And he wants a tv and an Apple TV.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh.
Meredith Masony: And it’s like, “Good Lord”.
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CA Miljavac: Wow.
Meredith Masony: Like, “Good Lord”, and he’ll be 13 in March. And so, the only thing he is concerned about right now is getting a damn tv and an Apple Tv. While my youngest one is still like, “I want a skateboard. I just want a skateboard and some kneepads”. And it’s like, “Oh, okay”.
Tiffany Jenkins: That’s so cute.
CA Miljavac: And that’s like, no where nowhere near equal in the value.
Meredith Masony: Right, right.
CA Miljavac: So, you feel bad if you get one person a $50 gift and the other one a $1000 gift.
Meredith Masony: Right. So it’s like, “Yikes”.
But what they said … and I’ll just read this briefly and then we can take a caller, so they said, “Babies age, under one: the things that you should be buying for your under-one-year-old are rattles, bath toys, soft stuffed animals, plush toys, pull toys and mobiles. Toddlers, ages one to three: should be getting modeling clay”, Yeah, right, “blocks, hard backed books with rounded edges”, these are super specific, “picture books”. And then it says-
Tiffany Jenkins: Could you imagine?
Meredith Masony: … “Pre-schoolers four to five: basic board games, dress up clothes, large crayons and pencils, musical instruments”, and then it says, “Age six and up: just get a job”. Oh, wait. I wrote that in.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh, my gosh.
Meredith Masony: I wrote that in. I was just kidding. I just think it’s ridiculous because it’s like, I’m not getting my kids all this crap. Forget it.
Tiffany Jenkins: I like how this says, “Ride-on toys: Make sure they go no faster than 2.5 miles per hour”.
Meredith Masony: They were intense, these specifications for what you can get your kid. And I just remember being like, “Here’s a Barbie, and some toothpaste”.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh, my gosh, yes.
Meredith Masony: Do you know what I mean? And always, underwear and socks. That was Christmas.
CA Miljavac: Uh-huh (affirmative).
Meredith Masony: That name has been going around the inter-web. And it’s like, “Hey, mom, I need some toothpaste”. And it’s like, “Okay. It’s part of your Christmas, though”.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: Like, “I’ll give you the toothpaste, but, it’s going in your stocking”. So, I don’t know, guys.
CA Miljavac: Wow.
Meredith Masony: Why don’t we take a caller. Somebody tell me … if you’re willing to give this information, no pressure, but tell us, what is your budget? I’d love to hear a number of what people are spending per kid. Especially when you have multiple kids, because that’s the other problem. My husband and I always have this argument over budget. How much do you spend? When you have three kids, I mean, Christmas can be thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. And that’s just like, crazy, if you ask me. But I know some people get serious and they do spend that. So, is there a budget? Do you cap it? Do you say, “Nope. It’s a 100 bucks a kid”? Just curious. So, somebody tell me.
CA Miljavac: It’s depending on your income, you know?
Meredith Masony: Well, yes, of course.
CA Miljavac: I mean, our budget, when growing up was like, five bucks.
Tiffany Jenkins: The same.
CA Miljavac: The stocking stuffers were the highlight of our day.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: I totally understand. I totally understand.
Tiffany Jenkins: I feel like people are on a mission to make us crazy. I’m not kidding.
Meredith Masony: Yeah.
Tiffany Jenkins: It used to be, you’d go Christmas shopping. Now, you have to bring a printout of specified toys. So, you’re in the book aisle like, “Okay, I got to get Sally a round-cornered, yellow book. I can only have four pages-
CA Miljavac: Because she might kill herself with a sharp-cornered book.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: Well, not even that, but she’s definitely not getting into Harvard if you don’t get her the yellow one.
Tiffany Jenkins: It’s so much. My brain already has so much information that I honestly don’t want to care. Who is this guy, anyway? Who is he, the guy who wrote this? A toy expert?
Meredith Masony: This was from “Parents Magazine”. There was various experts, because there are so many of those.
Tiffany Jenkins: This Semanski guy’s doing a lot of talking in here.
Meredith Masony: Oh, yes, yes, yes. Okay, sorry.
Tiffany Jenkins: I’m going to find him.
Meredith Masony: Yeah. You find him.
CA Miljavac: I can appreciate how these lists, for some moms, it might just make it real easy for them to not have to think about what to get, to just go out there and get it.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh.
CA Miljavac: And be done with it-
Meredith Masony: Oh. She just said, no.
CA Miljavac: and not have to think about it, especially when they’re younger.
Tiffany Jenkins: [inaudible].
CA Miljavac: But a lot of that younger baby stuff, is stuff you get at the baby shower, so you just get to re-gift it.
Tiffany Jenkins: Hey, there you go.
We have a caller. Brittany has six children. Hello, Brittany.
Brittany: Hi.
Meredith Masony: Wow.
Tiffany Jenkins: Hey, girl, in Texas.
Brittany: Yeah. So, yeah. Six kids and Christmas is crazy.
Meredith Masony: Yes.
Brittany: It’s like, the worst time of year.
Tiffany Jenkins: I can imagine.
Meredith Masony: No, Brittany, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Get on board.
Brittany: For them, it really is. It really is. It’s their favorite time of year. But with six kids, it gets harder and harder every single year. Because we’re getting teenagers now and they want those more expensive things.
Meredith Masony: Right?
Brittany: And then I’ve got my little three-year-old what anything costs, but she loves to open presents. So, trying to keep six kids even and make sure they all have the same amount of things to open-
Tiffany Jenkins: Right.
Brittany: … and keep them all around the same value. It’s almost impossible; almost impossible.
Tiffany Jenkins: So, what are the age ranges of your kids?
Brittany: I have a 14-year-old, 13-year-old, a 12-year-old, two 8-year-olds and a 3-year-old.
Meredith Masony: Good Lord, have mercy.
Tiffany Jenkins: May the good Lord be with you, Brittany.
Meredith Masony: But you know what I used to do, and some people would totally disagree with this, the budget is not the same for each of my kids.
Brittany: True.
Meredith Masony: So my older kids have a larger budget and it goes down. Now this is obviously now, changing, as my youngest is eight. So it’s shifting and eventually, I’m just plain screwed. But when they were younger, when I had a seven-year-old and a whatever … a two-year-old, the two-year-old was not getting as big a budget as the seven. And some people were like, “Well, how could you do that? How could you give more to one and not to the other?” And it’s like, “Because I can. Because I’m the mom”. And the stuff for the older kids is more expensive.
Brittany: So we’re trying something new this year. We’re going to … you may have seen them, they wrap presents in
CA Miljavac: … going to … you may have seen them. They wrap presents and stack them so that they look like snowmen, so each child gets a snowman. The bottom box, each of them will get one larger toy or gift, whatever it is, off of their list, that’s bigger.
Then, they’ll have the middle one that’ll have some clothing, some things that they actually need, and then the top box will actually have either a gift card or some cash, so that after Christmas, they can go buy something that they really want.
Tiffany Jenkins: Interesting.
Meredith Masony: I love that it’s going to look like a snowman.
Caller 1: I like that.
CA Miljavac: Yeah, so that’s what we’re aiming for this year, and we’re going to hope these greedy kids are satisfied with their snowmen.
Tiffany Jenkins: I feel like as they’re older, that’s perfect. Like if you’re getting into the teens, you know what I mean? You get what you want. I love that.
Meredith Masony: I do like the idea, like what CA just said. Money, money, obviously an appropriate amount, gives them the opportunity to go get something, and the best sales happen after Christmas. Why do we all still celebrate on the 25th?
CA Miljavac: [inaudible] probably after New Years, because nobody wants to even go back into stores until Christmas is completely off the shelves.
Meredith Masony: Well, unless you want to fight some lady for some discount Uggs. I’m just saying that the best deals absolutely happen after Christmas. I love the families that are like, “We celebrate on the 30th, because we all go to the store on the 26th and buy everything that’s on sale.” I’ve had people write in about it.
Tiffany Jenkins: That makes so much sense, though. Our kids don’t know what day Christmas is. Wait a minute, wait just a minute.
Meredith Masony: My son was so confused, yesterday he’s like, “What do you mean Christmas isn’t in a week?” I’m like, “It’s not. Next week is Thanksgiving.” He’s like, “But, it’s supposed to be Christmas.” My son’s obviously from Boston, also, by the way. [crosstalk] No. He actually just has a speech impediment that I’m currently making fun of on a podcast –
Tiffany Jenkins: Wow.
Meredith Masony: Go me, all right.
Tiffany Jenkins: Thank you so much for calling, Brittney.
Meredith Masony: Thank you.
Caller 1: Thank you.
Meredith Masony: I love the snowman idea. Love it.
Tiffany Jenkins: I hope you have a happy holiday. What do we say now in 2018?
Caller 1: Merry Christmas. Have a great Thanksgiving.
CA Miljavac: Merry Christmas is what I say. So I have a funny story, my nine year old, we were driving around and so many people already had their Christmas stuff out. My nine year old’s in the back and I hear here like “Uggghhh”, like making sounds of annoyance and I’m like “What’s wrong with you?.” She goes, “Well, I just, you know, we haven’t even had Thanksgiving yet and I just don’t understand why these people have their Christmas stuff out.”
Tiffany Jenkins: She’s like repulsed?
CA Miljavac: Yeah, she was so annoyed by it. She’s going to be one of those that’s like going to hating on you for putting your Christmas tree up the day after Halloween.
Meredith Masony: My Christmas tree was up September third, so she can come and judge me all she wants. No, that was actually because we were shooting a video, but I did leave it up. I held in and I actually have been plugging it in every night. I just like to sit in front of it with the lights on. It actually calms me down.
Tiffany Jenkins: I bet, I get it.
Meredith Masony: There actually was a study, there’s so many studies, 98 percent are bogus by the way, that’s a study I just did. That states that people are actually soothed by the Christmas decorations and the Christmas lights.
Tiffany Jenkins: Aw www.
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Meredith Masony: It’s like a thing.
CA Miljavac: [crosstalk] Walker County Alabama, that’s why we keep them up all year round.
Meredith Masony: No, no, no. That is a bold faced lie. Some of y’all are just lazy. Take ’em down. You’re like “It’s March, Merry Christmas.” Take your damn lights down. Okay, no.
CA Miljavac: We keep ours up pretty long.
Meredith Masony: Yeah, well it’s all good. This next segment we talk about the love and the marriage.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yes, we do.
CA Miljavac: Both.
Tiffany Jenkins: Love and marriage is brought to you by Meredith, Tiffany, and CA because we’re all spectacular wives.
CA Miljavac: Love and marriage.
Tiffany Jenkins: How well do you know your partner? Research claims that it is-
CA Miljavac: I know that he’s annoyed with me now.
Tiffany Jenkins: Same. Research claims that it’s best to know your partner before you take things to the next level. What?
Meredith Masony: I know, right? That’s what research says.
Tiffany Jenkins: These guys are so smart.
Meredith Masony: I know. Everybody’s thinking, right.
Tiffany Jenkins: Where do they get this information?
Meredith Masony: So, I was scrolling through the online, on the inter web the other day and there was this article from Babble that said that there are five things that you should definitely know about your spouse before taking things to the next level. And so I thought it would be fun to kind of read them off and see if you guys agree, disagree, care, even know your spouse’s name. I had to laugh when I was reading through this because I just has to laugh.
So number one … Things you should know about your spouse. Number one: Their dreams. What is your spouse passionate about? What does he or she dream about and desire to do outside of being a spouse, parent, or provider? Their dreams. Do you know your spouse’s dreams?
Tiffany Jenkins: I’m going to be honest.
CA Miljavac: Yup.
Meredith Masony: Okay. Hold on. We’ll start with Tiffany.
Tiffany Jenkins: I don’t think he has any.
CA Miljavac: His dream is watching you live out yours.
Meredith Masony: So your … There you go. That’s a solid response. CA?
CA Miljavac: He wanted … his used to be a musician. He was a musician. He’s a rockstar. He loves music, loves playing music, he went on tour and everything but then he kept making me have babies so that [inaudible].
Meredith Masony: Yes.
CA Miljavac: I think honestly his dream would be able to lay on the couch and watch TV and me cook dinner every night. Never gonna happen.
Meredith Masony: That’s my dream. Well, and I laughed at this one because the joke, the running joke at my house is that I’m the dream killer. And so when I read this, all I could think of was my husband saying, “Yeah, right. Like I get to have a dream.” And it’s like for the love, get out of here. So do I know my spouse’s dream? I kind of feel like it’s very similar to CA’s in the sense that he would just want to be taken care of at all times, go fishing, and golf every day. That’s probably his dreams in life. Is that your dream honey?
CA Miljavac: No.
Meredith Masony: He said no. He’s lying.
CA Miljavac: No. Mine’s for me to morph into his mom.
Meredith Masony: Ew.
CA Miljavac: If I could be his mom …
Meredith Masony: Ew, ew, ew. That went sideways.
CA Miljavac: Not like that. Dirty mind.
Meredith Masony: Didn’t need a gross mind that’s what you meant.
Tiffany Jenkins: She said morph into his mom. Can you imagine? They’re getting down.
CA Miljavac: Like if I had the skill levels in cooking, specifically.
Meredith Masony: Specifically. Ew. Alright. We got to go to the next one. That one got weird.
Tiffany Jenkins: How they say I love you.
Meredith Masony: Yeah. Read this one.
Tiffany Jenkins: How does your spouse say I love you. Do they make sure they turn the heater on in the morning so it isn’t cold when you get out of the shower, and make you coffee?
Meredith Masony: So do you know how your spouse says I love you to you and how you say it to them? Tiffany?
Tiffany Jenkins: I feel like my spouse says I love you to me, honestly by just putting up with my crap, to be honest with you. I’m not an easy person to deal with and he does it with grace and tries to make me happy by just going along with whatever I say most of the time.
Meredith Masony: Well, that’s sweet.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: How about you CA?
CA Miljavac: He gives me a little pat on the butt and I’m not kidding. When he gives me a little pat on the butt, that’s like a love pat. It’s a little subliminal “Love you babe.”
Meredith Masony: Are you side note, side question, are you babe people? Do you say babe?
CA Miljavac: Yeah. We say babe.
Meredith Masony: Tiffany, are you babe people?
CA Miljavac: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: You’re both dead to me. People who call their person babe –
CA Miljavac: One time I said baby and I about puked in my own mouth. I was like oh wait, I didn’t mean to say that.
Meredith Masony: That’s the line. Babe to baby. Okay.
Tiffany Jenkins: Unless I’m mad, then I just call him his name.
Meredith Masony: Oh, god. I’m mad always at Dave, that’s why I just say Dave. Okay. Alright. Personally for me the way I show him I love him is by being awesome all the time and doing the cooking and cleaning. I actually don’t cook but I clean and I do laundry a lot. And then I will say to him … you know what though, I’m going of and I’m piggybacking. I pat my husband on the head. Like I pet his head.
Tiffany Jenkins: Like a puppy?
Meredith Masony: I just go up to him and I’ll walk behind him and I just go like this.
Tiffany Jenkins: Good boy.
Meredith Masony: And I pat him on the head and I don’t know why. It’s just been, when I’m patting him on the head, I’m thinking. I don’t ever say it but I’m like I love you, but the words don’t come out of my mouth.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh my god.
CA Miljavac: But he knows it.
Meredith Masony: But he knows it.
CA Miljavac: It’s tiny little love touches.
Meredith Masony: Stop it. And my husband shows me he loves me by giving me the sex.
CA Miljavac: The sex. I like how you put it.
Meredith Masony: The sex.
Tiffany Jenkins: Do you guys say I love you?
CA Miljavac: You say the. Like I’m going to the Walmart and then I’m going to have the sex.
Meredith Masony: Yeah, that’s what we do though. It’s solid.
Tiffany Jenkins: Do you guys say I love you?
Meredith Masony: Sometimes. But he knows it. We say I love you but I mean before I leave to go somewhere, I’m like love you and I go like this.
CA Miljavac: But that doesn’t count. The best I love yous are the ones that happen like once a month where it’s a real looking you in the eye and you say I love you.
Meredith Masony: That happens to you once a month? That’s intense.
Tiffany Jenkins: I say I love you a hundred times a day. We say I love you like a million times a day.
Meredith Masony: Wow.
CA Miljavac: We say it too but those nonchalant ones, I’m not counting. I’m saying those real serious ones where you both feel the love.
Tiffany Jenkins: Wow.
Meredith Masony: Where you just watched The Notebook and then you’re both crying and you’re like I love you. Those?
Tiffany Jenkins: Can’t relate.
CA Miljavac: Yeah.
Meredith Masony: Alright, alright, alright.
CA Miljavac: And then you have the sex.
Meredith Masony: And then you have the sex. Okay. Alright. We’ll read, we’ll do one more of these. Which do you want to do? Pick one, whichever is better.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh. I don’t even remember the question honestly.
Meredith Masony: How well you know your partner?
Tiffany Jenkins: This is stuff that you should know before getting into it. They’ve reached their limit. I think that’s a good thing to know about how they react in situations when they’re ticked off.
Meredith Masony: Right, so do you poke and push them when you know your spouse has reached their limit or do you let them be? Tiffany?
CA Miljavac: Oh. I poke.
Tiffany Jenkins: I don’t think my spouse has a limit, honestly. He’s so chill all the time that I can’t get him angry and I’ve tried. And so-
CA Miljavac: That’s amazing.
Tiffany Jenkins: I know it’s good but also, you know what I mean. Part of me is like will you just fight with me. I want to fight.
Meredith Masony: Now.
Tiffany Jenkins: Fight me.
Meredith Masony: CA, you’re a poker too?
CA Miljavac: Oh yeah, I poke. Sometimes I poke until I really think he might just completely lose his head, might explode. He does the same to me though. As Tiffany knows, he has pushed me the brink of complete insanity, to the point where I’ve thrown his Dr. Peppers in the front yard just because I know that he likes them. We poke each other.
Meredith Masony: Ah, you will not have a Dr. Pepper today, dammit.
Tiffany Jenkins: Clipping toe nails on the bed.
Meredith Masony: Oh. Yeah. I would say that I am a poker. My husband has tried repeatedly when we are arguing to throw a time out in there, and it won’t stop me.
CA Miljavac: You can’t shut your mouth.
Meredith Masony: Nope, I just keep going. I am a p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face. So I think that that’s tough though, but I do know, I can see when he’s had enough.
Tiffany Jenkins: The majority of women are saying that they’re pokers.
Meredith Masony: Yeah, I’m a total poker.
Tiffany Jenkins: What is with us?
Meredith Masony: Pokers, we’re pokers. They’re peckers.
CA Miljavac: The things i that inside your head, you’re going I should probably stop now. But then, oh no, I got one more thing.
Meredith Masony: They’re peckers and we’re pokers.
Tiffany Jenkins: I think that sometimes men are so disconnected, that we want to feel something even if it’s anger. Or maybe that’s just me.
Meredith Masony: I like that. No, I think that’s a truthful statement. I agree with you a huber-100%.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh, that’s a thing.
Meredith Masony: Yeah. I totally, forsuresies-mcturesies agree.
Tiffany Jenkins: Sweet.
Meredith Masony: Agree. Alright. So CA, where can they find you socially?
CA Miljavac: Socially, Facebook, everywhere really. It’s just CA space little jab jigger back.
Meredith Masony: Right.
CA Miljavac: Miljavac. So yeah, Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram, [inaudible], I’m everywhere because I’m so famous.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yes.
Meredith Masony: You are, yes.
Tiffany Jenkins: You’re amazing. I hope everybody goes and follows you on your journey because you really are incredible.
CA Miljavac: Aw, I’m kidding but thank you.
Tiffany Jenkins: I do really like you as a human person.
Meredith Masony: I think you’re okay.
CA Miljavac: Me too. We’ll get there Mer. We’ll get there.
Meredith Masony: I am a little jealous of your twos relationship, I have to be honest. I do, I’m like, “You still like her? mm mkay” but no, I totally agree.
CA Miljavac: You know what though, we’re going to have fun in Louisiana, me and you.
Meredith Masony: Louisville, for the love of all things holy. It’s not Louisiana.
CA Miljavac: Oh, nevermind.
Meredith Masony: For the love.
CA Miljavac: Louisville.
Meredith Masony: You can find us in Louisville in April. If you go to Louisiana, you’ll miss us because we won’t be there. But I am super excited and I cannot wait to go hang and actually just crack jokes with you, so that is going to be fun.
Tiffany Jenkins: Ha ha. Good, I hope that you guys enjoy it. It’s going to be really super fun. I hope that you have a good time.
CA Miljavac: April fools joke.
Tiffany Jenkins: It would be a shame if someone called in a threat of some kind.
Meredith Masony: Oh, get out of here, you loony tune. Alright. so yeah.
CA Miljavac: You two get to hang out like every week so stop it, I don’t want to hear it.
Meredith Masony: Oh, true dat.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh yeah, that’s true.
Meredith Masony: True dat. We are, we are very blessed. #Blessed. Alright, so-
Tiffany Jenkins: We’re too old for that Meredith, you can’t-
Meredith Masony: I just did.
CA Miljavac: Not only [inaudible] on the mother crushers podcast too.
Meredith Masony: Oh, gosh. That’s right. I wanted you to plug that. So tell them about your podcast.
Tiffany Jenkins: She slipped that right in.
CA Miljavac: Yeah, i just did. I must have slipped that in. I also have a podcast The Mother Crushers podcast. We aren’t good with technology yet so I haven’t figured out how to take calls and stuff like that because I don’t have a Dave.
Meredith Masony: I highly recommend one.
Tiffany Jenkins: Where is the podcast at?
CA Miljavac: It is on everywhere, iTunes, Spotify, google play, everywhere.
Meredith Masony: What? Spotify let you in? You need to call somebody, Spotify has not let us in.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh, really?
Meredith Masony: Yeah, I’m agree about that. Call them.
CA Miljavac: Maybe you should drop my name.
Meredith Masony: Oh. She did. For her just going that. That’s it. I’m calling somebody, there’s no phones at Spotify. But seriously, I’m super jealous because we totally wanted to be on Spotify and we have not had the ability to do so as of yet. But yes, you do need to listen to that podcast as well. Oh and by the way, thanks for the invite to not inviting us on your podcast, but it’s cool.
Tiffany Jenkins: Rude.
Meredith Masony: Rude, much.
CA Miljavac: I said I wanted to invite you all on.
Meredith Masony: Well, if you want to invite somebody than you just invite them.
Tiffany Jenkins: You don’t say what you want to do, you actually like do it.
Meredith Masony: Right. It’s fine. NBD.
CA Miljavac: Okay. Well fine, you’re not invited. I don’t care.
Meredith Masony: Oh. That was harsh. But seriously though. We had a blast with you today as always. It can be difficult to have legitimate friends in the work that we do because it is a very, it can be a very tough space and people who try to be super competitive. And the fact that we don’t buy into that and we truly are happy for one another when good things happen, does make my heart happy. So I do appreciate you and I do appreciate the work that you do.
Tiffany Jenkins: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes. Agreed.
CA Miljavac: Amen. Aww, thank you. Same back at y’all both. I’m so happy for y’all. Happy for you shows, happy for all the travelling and the messages that y’all are bringing to people. And the way that you’re helping women, that’s what we’re here to do is help women be better, and learn, and relate. And I love you y’all.
Tiffany Jenkins: I love you too. And we’re all so awkward at good-byes, this is the longest good-bye in history.
Meredith Masony: Alright. But show it to her, she might like it.
Tiffany Jenkins: In case, I haven’t mentioned it, I love you.
Meredith Masony: Aw.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh, she really hung up.
Meredith Masony: No, she’s still-
CA Miljavac: No, I’m here.
Tiffany Jenkins: She’s notorious for saying okay, bye and then just hanging up, when you least expect it.
CA Miljavac: Should I? Should I just do it, should I just say bye and do it?
Tiffany Jenkins: Somebody’s got to rip the bandaid. I can’t let you go.
CA Miljavac: I don’t know how to get off of here guys. Y’all have to hang up on me.
Meredith Masony: Okay, so –
Tiffany Jenkins: Thank you for coming.
Meredith Masony: Thank you, bye.
Tiffany Jenkins: Love you, bye.
CA Miljavac: Okay. Bye. Love you, bye.
Meredith Masony: Oh my god.
Tiffany Jenkins: Listen we can’t do podcasts on Monday anymore.
Meredith Masony: Alright.
Tiffany Jenkins: I’m a zombie.
Meredith Masony: Read your lines please.
Tiffany Jenkins: What is it? Is it … Thank you for being here with us. Oh, you can find me at jugglingthejenkins.com. And you –
CA Miljavac: You know I’m still here.
Meredith Masony: It’s not even on the [crosstalk]. That’s not even here.
Tiffany Jenkins: It says share your socials, events and products.
Meredith Masony: Oh.
Tiffany Jenkins: And that’s my social, my event is my face and my products are these hands. And you’re about to cat ’em.
Meredith Masony: That was terrible. Hold on. He’s writing more feverish notes over there.
Tiffany Jenkins: We’re in trouble.
Meredith Masony: You can just say words Dave. This has gone to hell in a hand basket. Stop writing. Oh. Please review this podcast and how professional it is. Please go and review this podcast because seriously we want 1,000 reviews, my husband said by the end of season.
Tiffany Jenkins: By the end of this day.
Meredith Masony: We need 1,000 reviews so please go and do review it. And don’t just review it because we told you to, I mean do that. But do it because we love hearing you feedback. We truly do, we do read the reviews and love hearing them.
Tiffany Jenkins: Yeah. Maybe we’re too extra. We don’t know. You need to let us know.
Meredith Masony: That is not a possibility.
Tiffany Jenkins: But keep your opinion to yourself. No, I’m kidding. Review it if you have good stuff.
Meredith Masony: No, please do.
Tiffany Jenkins: Okay, you can find me at jugglingthejenkins.com. The end
Meredith Masony: And I am over at filterfreeparents.com.
Tiffany Jenkins: Thank you for being here with us. Join us next week for another great episode of take it or leave it. Oh, take it.
Meredith Masony: Or leave it. An advice-ish show hosted by two struggling moms who have no idea what we’re doing.
Tiffany Jenkins: Who have no idea what we’re doing.
Meredith Masony: For the love. That was awesome. Another great show in the books, baby.
Tiffany Jenkins: It always gets so weird at the end.
Meredith Masony: It does get a little weird.
Tiffany Jenkins: Oh, that’s my bad.
Meredith Masony: Cut the tension with a knife.
Tiffany Jenkins: He’s burning a hole through our soles.
Meredith Masony: Alright, guys. Have a great day.
Tiffany Jenkins: Love you guys.
Meredith Masony: Bye.
Tiffany Jenkins: Bye.
Another great podcast!! I actually read them instead of listening to it cuz my 4 year old daughter is always talking my head off. Its just me and her and she wants my attention 24/7 lol. She watches yall lives with me to! I loved the christmas segment it was easier the last 3 years with the presents her main thing was opening them not really caring what actual gifts was. But this year she’s all into it like i want this this and that. Its still toys not a t.v or anything but the toys can be expensive to. Shes really into peppa pig right now but im also a dollar store shopper for toys to! I might try the snowman idea but not sure how she’d react. Im a single mom with cerebal palsy that cant work also so im on a limited income think ima go to walmart or target and get one or 2 peppa pig toys then the dollar store i go lol!! It usually ends up lost in a couple days anyway. But i love u ladies!! And i love the podcast!!! Tiffany ima recovering addict also and your videos and book have helped so much!! I love how real u are an u dont care about it. And meredith ur videos are hilarious! I love how real u are also and i seen u live for the 1st time a week or so ago i was cracking up the whole time! Keep doing what yall are u doing!! Yall give me hope everyday and i no im not alone! I love how normal yall are an not fake like some of the other mom wanna be celebrities lol.. Cant wait till next weeks podcast!!
Good morning, Hope everyone is doing well. You guys are great. Your authenticity is addictive, love that your both real and say what your really think, in a way not to offend anyone, thats hard these days… Love you both. Much love and respect. Continued prayers for you All???
I really do l love the pod cast =) thank you for everything you both do? I’m actually not a mom but I am an auntie/big sister (we recently took in my little sister) and my nieces and nephews and siblings are my everything. I also just got married to my best friend; we’ve been together 8 years (9 in Jan) so the marriage and love talk is fun… we laugh at what these studies say he’s amazing ?? anyhow I’m so glad CA was on here you all together make me laugh and brighten my day! Thank you for that? keep doing what your doing your all absolutely amazing and beautiful women? I can’t wait to read your books!!!
The podcast is absolutely amazing! Each show is always great! I am not a mom yet but I am a wife but I love listening to the podcast you are both so real and make everything you discuss so relatable. I always take something away from each show and love how their are lots of laughs but also serious messages as well. Keep doing great things ladies!
So I’ve been a fan of all of you separately for a long time now but together y’all are phenomenal. I never miss an episode of take-it-or-leave-it or of the mother Crushers podcast. I highly recommend both. Thank you Tiffany and Meredith for coming together should bring us this hysterical enlightening podcast look forward to more !!