DL4

    5:10PM Apr 13, 2021

    Speakers:

    Ben Fogt

    Clay Nichols

    Nick Dawson

    Dawn Andrews

    Keywords:

    bath bombs

    kids

    fishing

    book

    big

    babies

    boat

    parents

    pool

    dad

    car seat

    products

    people

    nice

    shower

    fish

    year

    steamer

    put

    pulls

    This is Episode Four of the Ask Dad Labs podcast recorded on April 1 2021. It's simple you ask questions and dad's answer. When we need to actual answers, we find the experts. Today we have clay from Austin, Texas. He has kids who are in high school, college and just out of college into the Coast Guard. We have Nick from Louisville, Kentucky has two kids age six and 13. And I'm Ben, I'm in the Detroit River, just south of Detroit, Michigan. My boys are 11 and 12. And joining us today is Dawn Andrews, from Garb2Art cosmetics. She's going to talk with us about bath bombs and kid hygiene. Let's get to the show.

    So I wasn't I wasn't gonna tell a joke this week. But you know, my wife, my wife asked me the other day if the kids were spoiled.

    And I said, No, I think kids normally smell that way.

    No, your wife

    should prevent you from making these jokes.

    She should but she goes to bed way before we start recording.

    Someone should intervene.

    Well, to be fair, when they get to be that age, and they've been around that long.

    18 years old. Yeah, they start

    to smell. They do and they don't stop. It's a matter of fact, we're going to talk about that in our in our segment. Second, second segment with Don Andrews, in this episode, talk about how to get kids to smell a little better. So there you go. Well, speaking of kids, and I'm getting older, I took the boys out to get Easter clothes the other day. And on our way out. There's a girl in the classic pose spread completely out with their fists banging on the parking lot. Her parents were just standing there, just looking like, yep, we've been here and just the perfect parent pose. We're just going to ride this out and wait, it was hard to tell whether they were going in or coming out. But that girl she was she'd done this a few times, you could tell already. And it made me start thinking about what what my, I don't know, my favorite nonsensical breakdown I've ever experienced was, I bet you guys have some that were kind of fun.

    I you know, I was thinking about it. And I I'm sure there are several that have been just like what is going on with my daughter, she's six, she's very independent. And things can be going great. And then suddenly, you try to help her with something or suggest something different than than what was in her head that you had no idea about. And it's, you know, a complete total nuclear meltdown. I can do it myself. Today, it was cold. It's time to you know, she's putting on her jacket, and she's really struggling with it. And she keeps she gets a connected ride. And then she pulls on on the wrong side and disconnects it all and you know, and does this like five times, like Here, let me help you. Boom. And I'm like, Okay, no problem. Just, you know, look at my watch, wait a little while and just stand there and wait for her to figure it out. But the 13 year old when he was, I don't know, probably her age six or seven. He was heavy into my little pony. Yeah. And we loved my little pony because the cartoon was absolutely harmless. always had good storylines and good friendship stuff. didn't have a lot of male role models in it. Or male characters at all, for most episodes, but which we didn't care. But obviously other people do. I mean, we went as a family is Halloween as my little ponies and everything. But Netflix had decided that they were going to take it off or it lost their license or whatever. And they were talking about my little pony was going away from Netflix. And I told him after I picked him up from school one day, and there was this complete meltdown, waterworks, everything just devastated this kid. And I felt horrible for telling him while he's in the backseat of the car, as we're driving, I actually pulled over cuz I thought I was gonna have to get out and get him out of the car to give him a hug. Because he was just so devastated. Turns out they didn't take it off. But man, it was heart wrenching for me because I was like, I should have waited till I got home. So I could console him without because I mean, he was all in his car seat and everything. And he just it was just, it was like a torture chair. It was like you strapped him in for torture. And I did it. I caused it, you know, because he didn't need to know that yet. And I caused that pain and it was Oh, it was horrible. absolutely horrible. But you clay.

    What I I knew there were so many tantrums. I think one of the really great things about parenting especially as you're becoming older and middle aged parent is your your deep capacity. I think you've you've hit on this Nick, of erasure like you really can. It It's like women giving birth, like, you can really forget how intense that pain was. And so I think I've done a good bit of razor, one of the things that your story did remind me of was the contortions, the athleticism, the rigid body formations that my kids could make. As I tried to take the little bodies and put them in a car seat, it just seems like look, I'm gonna put you in this little seat that's gonna save your life. It's for your protection, and well being. This is a, this is an expression of our love, and our responsibility as parents to keep you save. And the kids are like, Fuck you. I'm stiff as a fucking board right now. And I don't give a shit about anything that's happening. And you can kiss my ass. Fold in half right now. And it's true. If you get a four year old, who really gets determined you, you cannot fold them into cart. You know, you got to wait them out. And I think eventually, what what I found is that a four year old can do a rigid plank over a carseat for about three minutes and 45 seconds.

    Yep, easily.

    And they can hold it for about three minutes and 45 seconds. And then they start to relent. And then they get they get a little soft in the middle. And if you're quick, and you get that thing right over their heads and click them, and then you're good. And so that's what that's great.

    And then you got the flailing arms and the kicking the seat and you hope nobody's sitting in the passenger seat that you know,

    yeah, but if you get past the bridge, if you can get past the back arch. Yep. That's their main defense. And there's no way around that one, you know that that one's not defeatable. So you got to kind of wait that one out. And then you can avoid the flailing arms pretty much if you kind of, you know if you're quick, but you got to remember, those, those little fingernails are sharp, man, you don't want any of that.

    And this is also something that that people don't tell you or don't tell you to think about. When you're looking for that family car, those little cars where you got to put the kid in the backseat and particularly if it's a tutorial. Oh, and you're doubled over Yeah, when you got to be all in there close range like that. That's even harder. And it's even easier for them to prevent you putting them in that car seat.

    And this is

    you want space.

    It's this is for another episode. Keep saying minivan guys, minivan sliding doors, when you're ready to throw down when you're ready to do that WWF No Holds bar wrestling match that it is to get that kid in the car seat. You You need to have leverage. Get that in the Mazda three. You need to get that minivan where you got some operating room,

    you're gonna put your back out in the Mazda three.

    You need that automatic door so that you can just, you know, get it get it run and you've got two hands on the kid cuz they'll

    squirm I'm all for minivan. My wife is kind of like man, I'm all for him.

    Well, let's let's let's tag that for for a future episode.

    I'll tell you my kids. They they didn't really my kids didn't mind the car seat. Probably because we bought them like the luxury britex you know, these things were purple and cushy. And it was like a lazy boy. And and if there's anything to splurge on, it's a nice comfy car seat that those kids will never ever not want to be in.

    Yeah, that is absolutely true. I'm

    not currently a sponsor, by the way.

    I also have a whole lot of problem with mine. We had a couple of incidents. Yeah. And we're like, Look, you're just you know, you won't go with this. We all want to go together but you just won't go with us. And, and we always also did it. It's not me. I didn't make this rule. I will get in trouble. You want me to get in trouble. It's not my rule. It's the it's the state's rule. I will go to jail if you do not sit in this seat. If we have a wreck and you're not in this seat, you will die that will be my fault. And you know we put the fear of death in them with the car seat. You know, we were like this you will get hurt. I have to put you in this car seat. So we made it not about us that it wasn't you can be mad at me, but it's not my fault. be mad at the state. Just to kind of take it off

    myself. High Level reasoning wasn't really that effective.

    Oh, no, not at all. It wasn't the times we had the incident. For whatever reason they they did not continue the arched back either one of them. They only did it like once or twice. And both of them did unbuckle while we were doing 70 miles an hour down the highway one time to separate times. And we stopped we pulled over immediately on the highway on the interstate and said Oh no, this does not happen. Ever. Particularly it's 70 miles an hour, I still give in, give any shit if he unbuckles before we park, his sister's in the car, you know, because I don't want her to think that that's okay. We were following my parents on the, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike heading heading to I think Hershey, Pennsylvania. And we're following them. They're

    the kids are in the backseat of my parents car. And we're driving down the highway, and one of the doors comes open in the backseat. Nice. So one of the kids flings the door open while they're driving like 70 miles an hour down the highway. Parents immediately pull over, we just went past we just drove on past to the next exit or the next the next rest area and we did

    not look.

    I want to know what was going on. That was That was perfect. But so my favorite, it's really quick. My favorite, really nonsense breakdown that ever had. I think my older son had had hit my younger son, he they were both crying about it. older son goes into timeout, we had these big picture windows hanging out over a cliff on our honor in the back of our house. And so he's sitting in a little rocking chair rocking in his timeout spot, which is like the best place to sit anyway. And so his little brother pulls up another rocking chair. And in solidarity for bad dad for punishing his brother for hitting him probably decked him in the head. He sits down and protests by sitting in the other rocking chair and starts fake crying next to his brother,

    solidarity timeout.

    It is like the hardest that's that's the hardest breakdown you can you can deal with you know, it's like the support they're showing for each other. And now I'm the bad guy.

    Yeah, you're outnumbered bro.

    I am. I am.

    I've got Dawn Andrews from Garb2Art Cosmetics. They make some some really neat products started with some lip gloss, I believe but but one of the big sellers she's got her bath bombs. And if you're like me, you have all sorts of questions about these things that you throw in, in a in a bath. And I've got some interesting questions. So dawn, what are what are bath bombs,

    bath bombs are first of all, thanks for reaching out and talking to me today. Bath Bombs are they've been around I believe, I think lush was kind of the creator of bath bombs in the 90s. And then we've all kind of put our own spin on what we feel like they should be and what they are. And basically it's it's a mixture of you've got baking soda and citric acid to natural ingredients when you put those together with water or some sort of agent, and then you drop it back in water it reacts. And so I always explain to people that don't know what they are. I said think about having a big Alka Seltzer and just dropping it in your tub. That's what it looks like. And I think that obviously, if you've never used a bath bomb before, you might think, Oh, that's cool. This is great. But bath bombs are all different. I think you have to be really careful and read ingredients. If you can't read what it says. Don't use it. And then just know who your supplier is because I have five children. And before I started making bath bombs, we've had some bad situations where there were skin reactions or there's if there's not enough oil in the bath bomb or a heavy butter. You're putting citric acid on your skin and even though it is a natural acid, if you put too much it can burn you so you just have to be really careful.

    Are there any problems cleaning up after them? Do they have lots of stuff that you might need to rinse out of the bathtub or anything?

    Well, so our donut bath bombs do have sprinkles on them. They're real sprinkles and they dissolve in the water. But I think that the thing you always have to keep in mind is when you're putting something in your tub even if it's a bubble bath, there's a chance that you might have to rent something out. But for the most part, I think it's more of just having an awareness that your tub might be slick and we put those warning labels on there but there's really it's not as big of a mess as what people think it is. I we use them all the time at my house and I don't know that I've ever gone in my bathroom especially with my girls. They can have as many bath bombs as they want and sometimes they'll put two or three in and I don't know that I never noticed. I never really noticed a big mess in the tub. That's a lot of Bath Bombs if they get ridiculous with it. Yeah.

    So my house we don't have any tubs and we've we're an all shower family are there things that are similar to that that that you can use in the shower,

    I think shower balm shower steamers, they've certainly become pretty popular on the market the last several years and we make shower steamers exactly the same way that we make bath bombs, same ingredient, same reaction. I think that the only difference with a shower steamer is with a bath bomb. You want something that's going to make you smell good and make your skin really soft.

    is where a shower steamer is more of, if you're really sick with a head cold or sinus infection and you use a peppermint or Eucalyptus shower steamer, it's more of an aromatherapy experience. It is it will help kind of clear your head up a little bit. Do you remember? I don't know, maybe 30 years ago VIX had? I think it was a VIX. Yeah, you put him in the bottom of the shower. Sure. And Yep, I it really is kind of the same concept as that. And then over the years, we've kind of made them a little more boozy. And just something that people have to have that smells good. But honestly, I'm not sure exactly how there's activated. I think it was a very similar concept. But when you think about a shower steamer, it's I want the aroma therapy of lavender or citrus. I want to be able to wake up in the morning or I want I'm sick and I need to clear my head.

    Do you have a coffee?

    When I don't? I know I coffees an interesting scent. It's something that when we've tried coffee products before and my employees, some of them just can't even work in it. Because it's so strong. It's it's an interesting, it's interesting to work with. Yeah, I bet that's a good idea. Well, thank you for talking to us about bath bombs. We're going to talk to you a little bit later about some other things here. Okay, perfect.

    So I was thinking about some DadLabs history there. And one of the the classic, one of the classic images from Dad Labs, you guys published a book, I forget what the name of the book was, it had a bunch of babies on the on the cover was that the labor and delivery book, The title of the book was Dad Labs guide to fatherhood, labor and delivery, and pregnancy. And it was it was a really delightful project. We had a great publisher that approached us out of the blue, we just got a we got a phone call from this publisher. They were the publishers that had huge success with a book called The worst case scenario handbook. Oh, yes, hilarious book.

    It was just about you know what to do if you're attacked by an alligator. And so they had a great sense of humor. they'd seen the Dad Labs, video production. And so they called us up and said, Hey, would you guys be interested in maybe writing a book and of course, actually, Troy linear, who's one of the founders of DevOps, and I had actually written a book together about filmmaking for kids called pulling off your shorts, which is still by the way available.

    So we had a name, by the way, awesome title.

    We had a publishing experience. So we were really excited about it. So they said, Okay, put together a proposal. We did it. They Yeah, they said, Let's green lit the project. And we were off writing the book. And so Brad, and and oh, in and Troy, and I each sort of had sections, and I was kind of in charge of kind of overall pulling it all together. And we had a great time reading the book. And so as the publication date, got closer, the publisher had an idea of what might be funny for the cover. And it was they said, What, wouldn't it be funny if you guys were just like, covered in babies, like she's had tons and tons of babies. And you're wearing like your Dad Labs, lab coats, which we did, particularly from time to time. And we're like, oh, yeah, that's a that's a great Sunday, it became. And this is one of the funny things about publishing. Like, you have all these images, like these publishers, they just, they're these these fairy godmothers that come in and they, they give you a lot of money, and they take your manuscript, and they do this all this work to promote your book. It really worked that way, am I? So suddenly, somehow we because we had a studio became responsible for creating the cover art for the book that we were about to publish, like, okay, let's see. So we need a bunch of babies. Well, how do you do that? So we just put an ad in Craigslist. And we're like, Hey, you know, we're doing a photo shoot. Bring your baby. And we know we're looking for babies, you know, four months to you know, year. And so if you got a baby that age, and we're, you know, we're giving $50 gift cards here what we're gonna do, and it was crazy, so a lot of people Shut up. So we had a, we had the DevOps studios, where these kind of little homemade soundstage that we had created inside a big warehouse, kind of onto the, on the way to the airport in Austin, Texas, big cavernous space that we had built kind of a plywood soundstage inside of, but it's a it's a big, big space. And so, you know, we we had a number of, you know, four or five folks that worked on the team, and we opened up for the day and here come these moms, and next thing we know, we've got You know, free babies. That's great. That's gonna look great. You know, we've got four, and then there was 10 babies. And there's 15, maybe 25 women, with babies. And all we all go into the studio. The photographer climbs up on a ladder. He's ready. He's got his photography equipment. All right, well, in general in our in our lab coats, and then the moms just start bringing us babies. And so I get a baby bag. It's a baby trying gets a baby at about the time Oh, and gets a baby. The baby starts to look at each other. And up until now, it's been okay, like, everybody seems to be happy about the time I get my second baby. The baby's like, actually, this is bullshit. And one baby starts to cry. This crazy thing happens where the baby the all the babies that were holding then now everybody's got two babies. We're both getting these two babies in the bed. We're both throw every ball for Mr. trading. Where's the dad loves guys, we're trying to make them happy. Though, baby, all the eight of those babies are crying. That's not bad enough. Like all the babies in the studio. There's like 25 or 30 babies all around, they start to cry. And so suddenly it is the sound of 50 babies crying, which is something that your brain just cannot comprehend. This is a sound it's made to drive you insane. And so we're laughing hysterically. These babies are just losing their shit. The moms are laughing hysterically because they can't believe it's this is what's happening. And the guy snaps a shot and it's totally somehow, we managed to have one shot where all four of us are just stone faced. Half of these babies are losing their shit. The other babies are crying. It's a very funny photograph. But it really nearly cost us all our sanity.

    And I bet that would have ended up in the book if you hadn't finished it yet.

    Well, the story certainly one of the dads has videos. Oh yeah, we have documentary photography. We should have been running camera the whole time. Right? It was it was seriously crazy. But also, you know, super fun. And when it was all done, you were just like that was the most that was the most bonkers dad lab ever. Anyway, the book went on to be published in and it was translated into into several languages, which was super satisfying. My favorite was the German translation. And and the title for that book was vindel alarm. And vindel alarm is evidently German for diaper alert.

    vendor alarm. Nice.

    I don't know if that's still on German Amazon. I don't think that I don't I don't think the DadLabs book is still in print the filmmaking bookstores, but I don't think that that's

    Yeah, that's another thing we're gonna have to talk about here pretty soon is his, his making videos, especially with with Tick Tock.

    So we're back with Don Andrews, and we've talked about the bath bombs. Now let's talk about something I think all parents have a problem with and that is getting our kids to clean up. How do you get your kids to wash?

    I think that is I do have five children. They range from nine to 25. And so I've kind of seen it all over the years. And I've gone from threatening to, you name it. And I think it is it is a struggle at some point with every parent. And I think the biggest thing to remember is don't shame your kids because I think I've gone through that phase to just, oh my gosh, you're gonna I'm gonna send you to school this way you smell so bad, or whatever the case may be. I think you really just have to listen to them. And what smells Do they like? What do they like to use, find things that do make it a little more fun for them to take a bath. And if that means getting a couple of bath bombs or getting a soap that's a little bit different, it might be a few extra dollars than what you would normally spend. But I think that at the end of the day, it is just kind of finding a happy medium and picking your battles with your kids.

    It's worth $100 not to be in a car with a stinky kid.

    I know right? And I do agree with that. But I think for me that's the trick that's worked for me is finding products that are different or finding something that they're excited excited about using one of the things that will help us going forward is with so many products on tik tok. My kids are constantly coming to me and saying I saw this I want it so we go get it because I think if I get it I know they're going to use it because some huge person on Tick Tock has used it so if you have to resort to letting your kids watch Tick Tock to find out what Kind of bathing products they want to use? I would definitely do that. Wow.

    Yeah. And that's probably not something we want to search for.

    No, no. You know, it's what they see. And usually, you know, I think I think you don't really start having issues until they're 910. And up anyway. And by that point in time, when you're a 10 year old, you definitely know what Tick Tock is, and you're probably hearing about it seeing videos. So just, I think that's a good way to introduce it to where it's even if you say, Oh, look at this, that's cool. And then they're gonna want it you have to make them want it and then they're gonna use it.

    You have some products that look pretty interesting. You've got like, the soap combined with with the the sponge thing.

    Yes, yes. It's, it's funny, you brought that up. We started making those eight years ago, and the last two months, they've just taken off like gangbusters. I I don't know if it's one of those things like 80s fashion that always comes back around. I haven't quite figured that out yet with our products. But yeah, I think that when we design that product, it really was geared to give people a different experience when they take a bath and something that was user friendly for travel. And something that lasted a long time. So many bath products are a one time use or even a couple of times and this the soap with the sponge attached in it, it's a six week use. It's definitely something that's creative. And that might get your your child to shower too. I have some things going on. We're selling a ton of them. But it's a good product to they're really fun. They're pretty they're nice to look at. I think that's something too is when people take a shower. Sometimes they want something nice to look at instead of just a bar of soap. Just change it up a little bit.

    Sure. Now, where can we find your products? I know that we are stored here down the street on our little island in Metro Detroit has some of your stuff. So where can we look for your your products?

    As far as chain retailers, we work with hot topic. A lot of things are online there but they are accessible. Francesca's Is there a pretty large chain of boutique, we work with Vaughn Mar Vaughn Mar is pretty much seasonal. But those are some of the larger retailers and we work with hundreds of smaller shops across the United States, you can always order off of our website. But a lot of times people want to see things before they buy it for the first time. So those will be a few good places for you to start out and then find things.

    Excellent. And your website is a good source for those too.

    Yeah, yes, yes. Garb2Art.com. And to. Yep, the number two. And if you have any questions, you can always email us from there. And we'll be happy to help you.

    And of course, we'll have links for all this stuff. So awesome. Well, thank you for talking to us today. I hope we've solved some problems for some dads and some families. I agree. Thank you very much.

    Thank you.

    So I don't know about you guys. But you know, we were getting ready for spring up here in Michigan. Until today. Today, the floor dropped out and we're in our 30s we had snow today. I don't think Dallas I don't think Austin had snow today. I'm guessing but

    73 it was chilly. It was like 45 this morning. Oh, wow. Make fun. That's cold.

    It is cold. But you had power. So it's okay. Yeah, the split. But otherwise, we're getting ready for spring, we've got flowers coming out. So that means we're starting to look at outside activities for the families. So what are some things you guys like to do for outside activities with your families?

    Well, we take the dog for a walk. That's always fun. The girl has started riding her bike and still has training wheels, but she loves to ride her bike and and I will take my bike out every once in a while. But I'd say my favorite for the summer is the pool. Getting in there with the whole family is so much fun and watching the kids play and their buddies come over and that makes all of the pain in the ass that a pool is worth it. It's still like, you know, the joke about boats is the best day of a man's life is when he buys a boat. second best days when he sells his boat. It's still a new boat to me. It's still it's still worth every bit of getting out there every week and vacuuming it and

    getting all I forget was it there when you bought the house.

    Yes. Yes. That's honestly what sold this particular house with my wife. That all also ought to be we have to tag that for an episode to finding a home. Yeah. That is one of my favorite stories, my life stories because it was crazy.

    We'll find somebody else. Yeah. That you're shopping for condos in Detroit, right?

    Well, yes, that's part of my global warming escape plan.

    So anyway yeah, we like we like the pool. The dog has not learned to swim yet he had him last summer but he never got in the pool. So that'll be fun this year. But I just like being outside we do this flow fest which is it's called play think it's a great festival. It's really family oriented. And it's a lot of Flow Arts, which are like hoops and puoi and contact staff and various juggling and acrobatics type yoga, and the silks and the all those kinds of weird things it I always call it Burning Man light, because it doesn't have all the nudity and drugs.

    Some of it.

    No, it doesn't have all of its it's it's very mild compared to Burning Man. But it's a lot of that same community vibe. It brought the boy out of his shell at six. And I just I just love it. So we'd love to do that. We tried to do that every year we are at near ledger. It is in central Kentucky. Okay. But yeah, play think check it out. I think the web address is played think fest.com It's amazing. They have some online classes available. They play think University, which is pretty cool.

    Now, have they set plans for this year?

    Yes, they have set plans. It's June 14 around there that weekend. It's usually Father's Day weekend. Okay. So I did, I did level up one year, trying to get the boy to help pack up camp on Father's Day. And I was the worst father in the universe on Father's Day. So that was like big Achievement unlocked. Anyway, we'd love to be outside, I love sunshine, I cannot I hate the cold. If I can't be snowboarding or sledding, I do not want to be cold. And it's been a lot of being cold and not doing anything outside. And I hate it.

    Okay, you know, I got I definitely have some regrets and like guilt around this topic. Because really, as a family, we're more Bar and Grill than field in stream. You know, I'm not a real outdoorsy guy, and backpacking and camping makes no sense to me when there's perfectly good hotels available. You know, so I have to say, I've probably let my kids down on this, and then double down on it. Because, you know, all my kids from a very young age got involved in organized sports, and we've been a crazy, committed sports family. So so much of the free time has ended up being committed to that. Now ultimately, do I feel like that's been a great organizing principle for my kids? And is it paid off? And are they happy doing those activities, I don't have any regrets about that. And I feel like I managed to be only a semi crazy sports parent, although, if you objectively described what I have planned for my summer, you might conclude otherwise, but so a lot of the outdoor time has involved that in, you know, the great thing about what I remember about being at the community pool that we've always had access to, is that unstructured time is just so important. And you know, time when kids are just playing and they're outdoors that are enjoying, you know, that that vitamin D vibe is, is super, super important. So you want to find and it's very easy with with the way parents behave these days to end up to structure with every minute, you know, sort of dedicated to an activity that's that's structured around betterman and you know, getting the kids to a calculator where you know, I think there's just a lot of culture so finding unstructured time is super valuable and you know we managed to find it largely at our at our community pool and I think you do have to find it if you're if you have an inclination to go to go camp and do that. Do that work man. That is my hat is is definitely off to you. And I'll be right here watching cable while you guys are doing

    share videos, Claire, watch them on YouTube. Well, you know, Nikki mentioned your pool our pool just started demolition yesterday. We're getting it torn down. It turns out that people who own this house and speaking of the the house ownership thing, I think inevitably, you you learn that nobody makes good choices on their homes. We found we found out that the people that that have maintained the pool before us have done really horrible jobs. And so it's going to cost us a lot of money. It's going to it's overall it's going to cost us the cost of a brand new pool to get it renovated. But it's it's such a huge pool. It's It's such a huge pool that it's perfect for teenagers, you know they'll be able to have You know, maybe maybe 10 teenagers in the pool without running into each other, which is, which is valuable. It's got a nice diving board, all that stuff. So we're hoping that that gets it started, get underway, we'll get that finished. And then we'll have to repair all the damage from the construction. And it'll take us a couple years to get the backyard actually in the shape that we want. But But it'll be good. But my kids are really tearing tearing at the seams to try to get out to go fishing. And we live in this wonderful you know, it's one of the best freshwater fisheries in in the world. And we don't have a boat, you know that that whole thing about the boat, it might my phrase is that I don't want a boat. I want somebody that I want to have a friend who has a boat. So we're waiting for that offer to come but there's a from the day we moved to this island in 2016. real close to where we were right across the river from where we we started at there was a fishing pier that had been built by the the National Wildlife Service. So there's an international wildlife refuge with Canada that's based. Actually, their headquarters was on the island for a long time. They built a big Nature Center across the river on still on the American side. But they built this really big nature center and then it's got this huge fishing pier that goes out into the middle of what is the best walleye season anywhere in the world. So the best walleye fishing is right there off the pier, which you can never find a pier that has the best fishing. And this goes right in the middle of the stream. And there's white bass that come up through there to later in the summer. And so people talk about the walleye. There was a guy who caught a muskie just last week in a kayak. Right maybe maybe a mile from there. I saw the photo like a forefoot muskie, just a huge fish. And it caught this. And yeah, it was amazing. So my kids want to go out fishing and and i'm not terribly up on fishing, but my kids are into it. So I've got to be into it. So we're hoping to get to do that. But the National Wildlife Service just announced that they're going to be opening that seven days a week, they were just open Thursday through Sunday. And now they're going to be open seven days a week from here on. So I'm really looking forward to that. But you know, other than that our family has been out hiking. You know, we're on this fitness craze. My wife's been doing stuff mostly for for work. You know, she's got one of those fitness programs where they they incentivize you for steps. And so she goes walking around the neighborhood every day. And and so we go out for hikes every once in a while and the kids have just eaten it up. And so they love to go out on these hikes. And they love looking at the birds and looking at all these things. I you know, they were they were listening for birds when we were on this last nature hike that we were on and, and so and I said hey, what's that? I think it's a Cessna. A bird I could identify, right? But but they're enjoying it. And I love that they're enjoying it. Because you know, this last year has been all in plan on playing on their phones, playing on their computers, talking to their friends over over discord, and finally getting them out and doing fun stuff. And so I'm looking forward to it, we're getting a dog. So we're looking at going camping again, because we can't get hotels anymore. You know, beyond the kids doing that, but we have a camper, so we don't have to get out in a tent. It's like taking our own hotel with us. with air conditioning.

    That's nice. I mean that, you know, fishing is got to be one of the most iconic thing dad vibes.

    Yeah.

    And, you know, I, I've been very lucky that that part of our family tradition has been that we go from where we live in Texas, up to New England to Cape Cod to visit, that's where my wife grew up, and where her parents live. And they host us very generously every summer for you know, a pretty extended period of time. And my father in law generously considers me a co owner of a boat that he owns. I own like the bow rail that goes around. Like that's, that's how big my financial contribution was to this boat. But anyway, he very generously considers me a co owner. And so and he's lived in fish those waters his whole life. And and, you know, both taught the kids and in a way taught me how to do this kind of fishing so that when he's not there, I can still get the kids out. I know how to use a tackle. And it's one of these things. It's like, it's a skill you have to it's a craft, you have to learn and you have to practice and the first time you go out with the kids, maybe you don't catch anything, maybe two or three times and it's worth that investment of time. You know, because it's it's hard like learning how to operate the boat. Say hopefully get everybody on board, get all the tackle functional, how to get to where the fish are, right time, you know and catch the fish, get the fish on board, get it off the hook, return to the water or, you know, keep it clean it do all that kind of business. That is, you know, that's a whole it's a whole system. But there's also so many lessons in here and, and all of that. But the kids get so thrilled about that. It's it's kind of worth I think investing the time. And man you It's like when you're on when you're hitting the, you know, hitting the rowing machine band. It's like, oh, man, this hurts. This hurts. This is tough, you know, while you're on there, and you're struggling with all this stuff. And you're trying to make the boat go in the right direction and somebody doesn't got a problem with their, their flight jacket and the fish is like flopping around the boat. And you get home and you're done and the workout is finished. And you know, you end up with this kind of like beautiful exhaustion in the service of something that you know is good. Yeah. And you just feel kind of a rush. This kind of beautiful endorphin laced post stress, relaxation. That is the only indication that you kind of get along the way that you're doing a good job as a dad

    unpopular opinion. I hate fishing. My dad used to take us fishing down to my grandfather's he had a bunch of little pawns is a huge farm, huge farm and had like four or five little ponds that had you know, little blue gill enum, or some shit. And sometimes we go down to one of the state lakes or whatever. That was the most boring thing I could ever do as a kid. No, I don't want to go fishing. I couldn't throw rocks. I couldn't leave where you know from the around the pond. I couldn't go around the pond. Hated hated. My kids are not going to learn how to fish from me.

    Kiss a light you don't fight it right. That wasn't your jam.

    Oh my god. Well, I mean, but and it wasn't he wasn't taking us fishing to take us fishing. He liked fishing. So he had kids, if he wanted to go fishing, the kids went with him. So we went fishing, you know, cuz it was his thing he wanted to go fishing. It'd be kind of like me if the kids hate. You know, the older one hates skateboarding. If I have if I'm gonna go skateboarding, I have to take him with me. I'm not gonna do that. I don't see how my dad did it. Because, you know, me bitching and moaning all the time. I'm I can't believe he still took us fishing. He had to hate it two days, he had to take us. But nope. I can't stand it. I will never do that again.

    Well, I'll tell you that there. There is a difference between between fishing for bass and bluegill in a pond and sport fishing. Oh, yeah. dish.

    No doubt.

    There's I don't want to do that either. Right. But when you're on a boat, you know, there's there's a little bit more sometimes than then sitting next to a pond. But But yeah, I definitely see that I'm glad my kids or my kids are up for it.

    I mean, it's totally cool that kids that some kids love it, and people love to do it. But I just I it's one of those things. I don't get it. Sports ball. I do. I do get sports ball. While why I don't like football and basketball. I wasn't good at it ever, ever. Not even a little bit. So I totally get why I didn't like that as a kid because I couldn't do it. And that's why I never started watching really, you know, picking a team and rooting for that team yet rah rah rah. Because I just wasn't good at it. Fishing always seemed like just it was just boring. It just sitting on a five gallon bucket turned upside down on a pond. You know,

    as we we tell the kids, it's called fishing, not catching what the outcomes gonna be. Right? But

    you know, the best thing that ever happened with fishing, and I realized I've learned now as an adult, you know that it's this was wrong. But we brought home a lot of turtles. I would go you know, trying to catch turtles. So we brought home a lot of turtles and you know, orphaned them and killed them at home. Hey, little turtle you won't come to my house and die. You know?

    Just just took a dark turn. Yeah. Yeah, it's clear. You should not be allowed to fish. It's just not. Oh, come on. You're

    just tricking the fish. Come on. Here have some food. You're just tricking the fish. It is

    It isn't. It's a fish tricking business

    it is. But I get it especially sport fishing, I get, you know, bring in bringing in a sale fish or some shit like that sort of craziness, or even a big tuna. That that takes some that takes some effort that takes some strength that takes some skills and knowledge like you said, knowing all the tackle where to be how to do it. I'm not I'm not knocking fishing. If that's your jam, yeah, you know,

    it's okay. We understand. We're allowed to agree to disagree on fishing. Yeah, it's

    not. You go trick your fish. And, you know, scar them forever put a hole in their face, and go right ahead. Have a good time. I got it.

    Thanks to Nick Dawson and Clay Nichols and their awesome families for sharing them with us today. Also Big thanks to Dawn Andrews for giving us some expert answers about bath bombs and kid hygiene. Ask DadLabs is produced and edited by me Ben Fogt and Fogt Media Productions LLC. Like, follow, subscribe, and share across the social media landscape,. wherever you find DadLabs. Talk to you next time.