Milk and Madness

They do think that there is a Santa that lives at the North Pole, etc, etc. So we tell them stories about that, and like, there is a Santa but the, the ones in the shopping centers aren't the real Santa.

I always knew from as young as I can remember that Santa Claus never existed. Santa Claus was this made up character and it never fazed me.

 Hello friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Milk and Madness podcast with your hosts Dee and Nhi. It was Mother's Day on Sunday here in Australia and in most parts of the world. So firstly, Nhi and I hope that every mother had a beautiful day. How was your Mother's Day, Nhi?

It was really nice.

It was really busy and look, we're pretty busy people anyways. But Mother's Day was really busy cause I tried to cram in everything and try to see everyone as you do. So, what did we do? We had a lot of family time, went to the park, Kenzo got to ride his bike. Then we went to the local market, bought some stuff.

And then I had yum cha with my mom and my gran. My sister and my cousin. It was absolutely chaotic. It was delicious, but it was just, it was absolutely bonkers. And then I spent some time with my mom and then nice dinner at home. So it was really nice. And you know, if you listen to us and follow us on Instagram, I think a reel where I will model.

The gifts that I got for Mother's Day. I got a couple of robes, which, you know, if you're a mum, you probably live in them, like I do. I got some bubble tea earrings. Yes, it was really lovely. How about yours? Did you say you got a couple of robes? Yes, two. I need one. Can I have one? I'm kidding.

I live in mind. Yeah. I genuinely live in mine. And so, one of them was getting pretty rank, so they had to, they had to get me a new one. But yes, how was yours?

I never thought to, to buy more than one, but anyway, side note there, I'm doing this wrong. Oh, wrong. Mine was really good. So, it was a beautiful day here in Australia in Melbourne.

In winter. We're in winter, right? Autumn. Autumn. We're in autumn. But it was just such a sunny, nice day. We did all the hectic Sunday morning things, like the toy library, and then we decided to go to IKEA because we were supposed to go on Saturday and ran out of time. And then we literally just spent like the day in the park just riding bikes and playing in the playground and doing all those, those things.

So. It was definitely a busy day. Got lots of gifts as well. The kids bought me a personalized book and they made so many things at childcare and they'd gone to like our local hardware store and bought like, like, you know, flowers that I could plant and all that sort of stuff.

So it was, it was really nice and they really got into it. So it was really sweet to see. Yeah, it was, it was a nice day. Speaking of celebrations, in today's episode, we'll be talking about some fantasies and festivities that are present in our lives. Of course, every culture has their own variation on, on these celebrations.

But in our world, we'll touch on the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and Halloween. So let's start with your upbringing. Do any of these common Western make believe characters resonate with you? Did you celebrate any of these growing up?

Yes. And I think as parents, how we, how we deal with these festivities and you know, made up characters like the Easter bunny I think in terms of your upbringing, it really affects Your parenting in terms of this stuff.

Right. And this is a really great one because Diana and I are chalk cheese on some of these special occasions for festivities. So Christmas, right? So Christmas, Dee is probably the person who's biggest on Christmas that I know. Right. And it's really sweet.

And I enjoy coming over for Christmas and I see all this amazing you know, decorations, which my house has zero. And I think, yeah, in terms of how I was brought up really affects my. Approach to Christmas with my kids. For me, Christmas is all about family time. It's all about, you know, seeing family and stuffing your face.

And, you know, there is some gifts for us. It's usually just for the kids, like my family's massive. So it's just so. Costly to buy a gift for everyone. We've talked about doing a Kris Kringle. It's never happened because who's organizing it. And yeah, so usually we just say just presents for the kids. If you want no pressure, if you don't, so that's usually what happens.

And then we've been taking turns hosting Christmas. And I think it's not my year, thank God. But yeah, so there's always heaps of food. It's about coming together and eating and catching up. That's what Christmas is about for me. And when I was brought up, we never celebrated Christmas.

We're not religious at all in terms of that way. I always knew from as young as I can remember that Santa Claus never existed. Santa Claus was this made up character and it never fazed me. And my feelings with it is the same as a parent.

So Kenzo and Ambrose, as soon as they could understand, they knew Santa does not exist. And you know, some people are like, , it's so nice to believe in this, you know, made up character and, and all this stuff. And I'm like, yeah, nah, my kids know from as soon as they can understand that Christmas is about family and that, you know, you get gifts from people who love you.

It's not from this made up character. It's from your mom and dad. It's from, you know, aunties and uncles people who have put some thought into the present, they know you and they want to I suppose, celebrate together. So that's kind of like my take with Christmas.

With Easter again, it's a similar thing where they don't know really in terms of like the religious background of it at all, it's about just, Fund family time. There might be an Easter egg hunt and it gets super competitive between the kids.

It's really hilarious to see. They are your kids. How about you? How has your upbringing affected

how you

approach to this stuff?

I think definitely being exposed to that. as a kid has had an effect. My upbringing was a lot more on the religious side. I'm not super religious, so I tend to steer away from that.

For Easter, I definitely remember going to like midnight mass and, and all of that. And because I'm Orthodox, we do like that. We paint the eggs red and we crack them. And we definitely do all the family gatherings and it's always way too much food. We had Easter not the weekend that just passed, but the weekend before, and my mum still has food.

Like, I went over last night and she's like, oh, I still have some of this. I'm like, no, no, I'm done. It's way too much food. Way too much food. Which is great, but like, yeah, it's all definitely about getting together. But also growing up, it was about the, the religious side of things.

I do love telling the kids stories. So I do love telling them Bible stories because I actually really enjoy them. Like, I remember as a kid, I would love Easter time because I would watch all the Bible stories on TV. And I, I do enjoy them, but I, yeah, I'm not super religious. Calvin's Catholic.

So we actually do the two Easter's. So they kind of get more of a Easter bunny Easter egg hunt for Catholic Easter, and they're more of that traditional Romanian Easter for the Orthodox Easter. So the kids get two Easter's tooth fairy. Yes, Aiden has already lost a couple of teeth. So we did go down that route.

How much are you giving? Like what's the, I need some advice because actually we have a funny story about that.

. I think it was a dollar or 2. And we did the whole, you know, put it under your pillow and you know, tooth fairy will come overnight.

So we just adopted that because I just, I'm like, that's the easiest way to go about it. But yes, we have a friend who, while she was at the gym, while she was having some me time, the very, very rare me time that she gets, her daughter's tooth fell out, which wasn't even super wobbly to begin with, but her daughter's tooth fell out and her husband freaked out, didn't know what to do, put 10 on her pillow, like didn't take the tooth, didn't wait till overnight, just put 10 on her pillow.

Bye. And then she had to come home and like, just try and undo it all and say, Oh, this is the first one, so that's why you got so much. And you got to put it in a container overnight so the tooth fairy can take it. And like, just make up this whole story and go into damage control. Because her husband didn't know what to do.

So I don't know if that's just because he never had a tooth fairy growing up and didn't really know what the go is, but it was just quite funny, quite funny to hear how that went. But yeah, I'm just going to adopt that as a way forward. But to your point earlier about us being chalk and cheese, I think the one that we do, have very different opinions on is Christmas, like you said, and Halloween.

So I, I don't know, I would love for someone to explain to me the purpose of Halloween because I don't like it. And I think, I think I have thought about it a lot and I think it's, you know, people kind of say the same about Christmas. They're like, it's become so material and all of that. And I completely, I 100 percent agree with that.

Like if you knew me, you'd know I've totally bought into all that. But Halloween for me is just like another level of. Not only do you have to like decorate your house, but with scary things. So I remember we went to the shops and Amelia was really small and there was a skeleton that was like her height.

So she was like face to face with this really scary skeleton and she just freaked out. So first of all, it's scary for little kids. Second of all, I get the dressing up, but like, I think it just, it's just too much for me. And third of all, I kind of don't get the point of, you tell your kids about stranger danger, and you teach your kids about healthy eating, and then you're teaching them to go and knock on strangers doors and ask for candy.

Like, it just seems to go against everything that I've ever taught my kids, or everything that I've ever been taught. And so, I don't know, to me, I just don't understand. Like, I don't understand the history of it I don't understand the point of it. Whereas with Christmas, like I, It's all about coming together and it's all about thinking about the needy.

And I definitely do activities with the kids. Like for me, it's like a buildup. So basically I start, I'll probably start in July. And it's a buildup of like, you know, being grateful and it's getting prepared for Christmas.

And what all of that entails. So that's that in a nutshell.

Yeah. I think with Halloween, I agree. Christmas and Halloween is so, it's. It's really interesting between us because you love Christmas when I'm like, yeah, yeah, sure. And then I, I actually really love Halloween where you're obviously, as you just said, you know, you could, you can definitely live without it.

Hmm. I think my approach to Halloween is much lighter than how you described. For me, it's just a bit of fun. For us, it's, you know, we think a couple of years ago we had a little Halloween party for Kenzo and, you know, all his friends rocked up and they wore little skeleton outfits and we just played some games.

We haven't actually done trick or treating yet, but I know through our community, we do have houses that do it and again, it could be fun and I would go with them. You know what I mean? Like, it's not you guys go off by yourself. I would definitely go with them. And I definitely hear what you're saying in terms of, you know, we try to be healthy in terms of what we eat.

And yes, you know, how do we deal with strangers and that kind of stuff. So I hear, totally hear what you're saying in terms of that. But I think my approach overall is just, you know, a lot lighter. I've not thought about it in too much detail. It's really, let's just have some fun, you know, and let's get dressed up.

And when you get older, it will get more gory. And I'm looking forward to that. I don't know. It's just fun. Like my sister and I used to have really good Halloween parties and I would spend. You know, time and effort and money to look like a zombie, like proper, you know, contacts and blood and makeup.

And I would have gone to an op shop and got a dress and ripped it up and put blood all over it. And so much fun, so much fun. And the, you know, better your costume, you know, the better, like, it's just, you know, Yeah. So that's kind of my take on Halloween. In terms of its origins, I'm not too sure.

I think the thing for Christmas, like if we, if we go back to Christmas, is that I suppose it's, lying to your kids about Santa because he doesn't exist and you're telling them that he exists and everything like that.

And that's not the reason why we don't celebrate Christmas and they don't know about Santa, but how do you feel about talking to kids about made up characters and having them believe characters? Like, you know, in a way, lying to them, I suppose.

Yeah, yes the kids know that the Santas in the, like, shopping centers and wherever else we go, aren't the real Santas. Like, they already know, they understand costumes. Like we've been to so many different shows and like, Ooh, that, that, that, That dragon has people feet, and I'm like, oh god, why did you notice that?

So they're cluey, like their attention to detail is beyond, so even if I wanted to lie to them, I

couldn't. Yes, but you just said, you just said they know those Santas aren't the real Santa.

Yes. So. They do think that there is a Santa that lives at the North Pole, etc, etc. So we tell them stories about that, and like, there is a Santa but the, the ones in the shopping centers aren't the real Santa.

When it comes to gifts, I got an idea from my neighbor where she says that she'll buy a gift that is from Santa, and then the rest of the gifts are from her and family, whoever else that they get them from. So it's not like they get a bunch of gifts all from Santa. It's just the one gift, which I adopted because I really like that idea, because otherwise it's just like they get five million gifts from 50 million different people, and it's like, well, Santa can't give you this many gifts.

Like, hello, you're two kids. You can't have literally they get absolutely spoiled. So when they were little, I was like, yeah, whatever. They don't understand anyway, so it was fine. But as they got a little bit older, I started talking about these, the gifts from your family and friends.

And so they understand that. And I'm like, this is one gift from Santa. We do a big song and dance about the elf. So we've got elf on the shelf and we do a big thing from like, sort of the first of, of December onwards where the elf elf comes and, you know, It's like this whole big magical thing where like it brings a little door and then like they have to put the door up and then the elf comes and they bring them like little crafty things that they do throughout the month of December and a lot of it is stuff that they have to make for their friends or for us and then obviously we'll give them as gifts to you guys.

And the elf moves around. So like, you know, one morning it's wherever it is. And the next morning it's like climbed up on something. And they just, they love that. So I kind of really enjoy keeping some sort of magical mystery sort of element to it, as opposed to just telling them outright.

Like, I just don't have the heart to tell them outright yet. Whereas I'm like, yeah, here you go. You're like, there's my Santa. What are you talking about? Which is fine. You know, that's, that's fine. That's also okay. But I just, I don't harp on about it. Like, I don't go on about it too much. And the point is really, when I talk about Santa, I talk about how his elves make toys and that, you know, not everyone has as many toys as the kids and that, you know, not everyone has such a big loving family and, and that, you know, we should, when we do declutter, like I do talk about all of that, and how we can help other people and other kids and share our toys with them, especially the ones we no longer need, and all that sort of stuff.

So that's a big talking piece, but yes, they do They, they do believe in Santa somewhere, Santa's there. And one day, it's like so on my bucket list, I really, really, really want to go to Lapland, which is like Santa's, you know, home basically, and they've got like reindeers and oh, I For me, not for the kids.

Don't worry about them.

When, when will you tell them that Santa isn't real or will they just discover this themselves? Like, are you going to leave it to them finding out or do you want to be the one that tells them this?

I haven't thought that far ahead. And I was talking to a colleague about this and he's got a 12 year old son and he was like, you know, do your kids believe in Santa?

I'm like, yeah, they do. You know, they're little, they, they believe in Santa, and he's like, well, I don't know if my son believes in Santa or not. I'm like, what do you mean? Like, we've never told him that there's a real Santa, but I assume he's heard of, you know, in the schoolyard, and I'm like, yeah, probably, so I might just do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think, look, when that time comes, like if Aiden or Amelia come home and they're like, you know, so and so told me there's no Santa, I think that's the time when I'll have that conversation and explain, you know, the magic behind it and how fun it was to, like, make believe and, and all of that.

Yeah. Yeah. So, that's kind of that opportunity to have that conversation, I think.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like with my kids, I've kind of focused on the fact that you guys know Santa doesn't exist. It's, I've kind of done it like a little bit of secret. Yes. So, how I've, because I think that, that stuff kind of resonates with Kenzo, especially.

But my approach has been, hey, you know, other kids. Believe in Santa, and that's totally cool. We can't tell them that you know Santa doesn't exist. So let's not tell them this because, you know, they will find out later on or, you know, from their parents or however, it shouldn't come from us. You know this secret.

You know that , presents are from mommy and daddy and, you know, from your family and that kind of stuff. And his kids are like, okay, yeah, yeah.

I love that so much.

Penzo is a gun because my kids will not keep a secret. I literally, I would go and buy like Calvin a birthday present and I'm like, Amelia, don't say anything like this.

Oh no, that's different.

Yeah. For this one, it's a bit different. Yeah. This one's like, you know, something other kids your age don't know.

Okay. No, he feels that he is a little bit, maybe more grown up or whatever it is. But yeah, no, like I saw those robes straight away. He, yeah. When they bought them, it's like, I picked this one, mom and you know, all that stuff.

So there's no, there's no those kinds of secrets, but with Santa, I don't know why, but that's, that's really worked. He will know that Tooth Fairy doesn't exist. He knows that Easter Bunny doesn't exist, but he knows that we do stuff for it, for fun, you know, for the enjoyment of it. How you talk about Christmas is really nice and the stuff that you do is lovely. And it'd be really interesting to see as our kids get older, what they do with their kids. Right. Yeah. And, and their partners even. So I would bet, I would bet that my kids follow in my footsteps in terms of, you know, Christmas is nice, but it's not about all that stuff.

And then your kids are gonna go all out and just do you know, all that elf stuff and all the decorations. So Christmas parties can be at your kids' house basically. Yes. Is what is what I'm saying. and Halloween can be at yours. Absolutely. Yeah. And yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yep. Let's do that. Oh, I love that.

And you know what, I actually like your approach, because I feel like it takes a lot of pressure off parents, right? If the kid knows that all of these things don't exist, then you don't have to go around and fluff around, and like, when Aidan lost his second tooth, I forgot to pull money and, and I had to like deflect, I'm like, Ooh, like, go and see what's on the table, I made you breakfast, like, go, go, go, go, like, forget about the tooth fairy, so I can go and stash some money, like, I just, yeah, it's a lot of pressure and especially with Christmas, cause I am next level crazy, and, and I know that, like,

I don't think you're next level crazy.

I don't think you are. I don't think you really enjoy it. I have a shipping container for all my Christmas

stuff. Well,

I was

going to disclose that, but there you go. I'm next level crazy. It's okay. I'm okay with it. But I do feel like I'm pairing back, to be honest. So that's, that's, that's a win. But like Aiden, like, especially last year, he just loved, like, decorating with me.

It's like, mom, let's decorate the house. I'm like, okay, that doesn't go there, but that's fine. I'll, I'll change it later. Yeah, redo it later. It's fine. But yeah, I'm really enjoying, like, obviously that's the whole point of it is like, you know, spending time together and I think the lead up for me is just such a special time.

Like the day itself is great, but it's all about the lead up. It's all about decluttering and thinking about others and volunteering and decorating the house, cooking together, like all that sort of stuff is, you know, probably just, it is what Christmas is to me. Like I love all that sort of stuff and definitely buying gifts and thinking about other people and wrapping it.

And just, yeah, I just, I love it so much. It's fine. I'm crazy. It's okay.

No, no, no, no, no, no. I know. I don't think you're crazy at all.

So just in terms of say the Tooth Fairy, you, you'll just be giving money or , have you thought about what you're gonna be doing?

With the Tooth Fairy. Yes. I think we will. Well, Matt and I had a. chuckle when we heard about the 10 thing, so we definitely will not be doing that.

I think we'll give a gold coin towards a tooth. That's about it.

And he'll know it's from us. We know some traditions, bury the tooth. Some traditions, they throw it on the roof of the, of the house. Like what do you do with a tooth?

Once you get it, I'm not sure. Do you save the first tooth? Like we haven't got there yet. But Kenzo will get a gold coin and it will be from us, not the tooth fairy. He will know other people believe in tooth fairy and yeah, that's kind of all we thought about in terms of it. Yeah.

Okay. So you and Kenzo are quite creative and all that, do you think that not talking about these characters or not letting Not that you're not letting Kenzo believe them, you're just being honest with him, but do you think it will hinder his imagination or creativity?

No, I don't think so at all. Yeah, so , he still knows about these characters. He still knows that some kids live in Santa and that he lives in the North Pole and there's reindeers and there's elves and he knows all that. So he'll still know of These people, it's the believing in that they are real aspect that we haven't done.

So I don't think there's going to be any impacts in terms of his creativity or his imagination or like, as you said, he's very creative, very imaginative. And I suppose it's, it's addressing those things or really nurturing those aspects of his personality in other ways as well. Like we do heaps of creative play.

We do heaps of arty, crafty stuff. Like literally he's sewing right now with a needle, with a real needle. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's sewing with a real needle. Yep. And yeah, so we started doing that. I said to him this weekend, we're going to do, you know, some art stuff with my hot glue gun. Like we literally, he's so interested in that stuff.

And in terms of his ability to, you know, think of stories and kind of, extrapolate from like, you know, when you're reading a book and you're like, what's happening here? And he'll be like, Oh, I think after this, this is going to happen. And, you know, this person's feeling this. And I think maybe, maybe this happened before this, like he's really, he's really good with that stuff.

So no, I don't think not allowing him to believe in Santa or, you know, the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy will hinder his creativeness or his imaginative abilities at all.

Okay.

No, that's so good. And I didn't think it would, to be honest, because I've seen him and he's just beyond. He's so switched on and so creative and I'm like, what? What's going on here?

Yeah, his brain, his brain is just wired that way.

So yeah, it's so impressive to watch, though, for someone who isn't creative, it's so inspiring to watch.

I'm talking about Me I'm the creative one. Even with you, like, I'm just like, I would never have thought to do, you know, whatever it is that you, you've done. I'm like, ah, why didn't I think to do that? Like when you upholstered your chairs and you did all this other stuff. Interesting. So creative.

Is there out of curiosity, cause I, you know, obviously the kids watch TV and such, and I will always tell them like, it's just make believe it's not real, et cetera, et cetera. Is there anything that he does believe in like, that he's just picked up from school or from TV that he does believe in that actually isn't real?

Yeah.

Hmm. Good question. I'll assume not. Yeah. Let me just think about that. I don't think so. No, I don't think there is, I don't, I don't think there is any made belief things that he, that he believes in that we haven't really talked about. How about you? Is there anything else?

I don't think so. Like I said, TV is pretty much, they know that what's on TV isn't real. Tooth Fairy was spoken about Halloween, I don't really even talk to the kids much about it.

Like I know it was definitely present in childcare. And it's become a lot bigger here in Australia over the last 10, 12 years, maybe longer. Yeah. Oh,

absolutely. It's gaining popularity. Yeah. Yeah.

I feel like when I was little, it wasn't really that. That big. But obviously now you do see the shops decked out with all the decorations and all of that.

And like I said, for me, it's just like, Oh, it's too scary. Like I don't like it purely because it's scary. Cause I'm a wuss, but that's. I'm okay with that too. No, I'm sure they'll probably come home with some sort of weird thing that they've heard at school or something eventually, but no, I think it's just the mainstream sort of TV things that they don't, they don't that they don't believe in.

The one thing I would add actually is that although they don't believe in Santa, they don't believe in the tooth fairy and that kind of stuff. I have still used Christmas and Easter to teach them.

So for example, you know, with Christmas in particular we've had years where Kenzo has been upset about presents. Because he didn't get what he wanted. And, I have used Christmas, though I don't use Santa, but I have used Christmas, where we say, you know, , it's about giving. It's about family time.

And, you know, so and so gave you this gift, you might not like it, but, We focus on it's the thought of it and it's so nice that someone's gone out of the way to buy you a gift and even if you don't like it say thank you and you know, we can, we can talk about when we get home, what we do with this gift.

Maybe we give it to someone else. Like maybe we share it forward, you know, that kind of stuff. So I, I have used Christmas and some of these festivities to help teach the kids as well. So it's not like, you know, we're totally against Christmas.

Yeah. And like with Christmas, like we do Friendsmas you know, so I think they know that it's all about gathering together and yes, we do presents, but like we try and do like secondhand stores. So, you know, where, you know, You know, recycling things, and I think the kids understand that even though they're little, I think, you know, the more you expose them to that, and it's all, yeah, you're right, it's all about how you actually define that holiday for you, and what the activities are that you do around it, like, if it is all just consumerism, then, you know, that, I think it's, it is a problem, and definitely Christmas, like, I love Christmas, but I'll be the first to say that I think it is a very material And it does make people go a little bit crazy and it actually makes me real upset because when I see people at the shops and they're just doing the rat race and they're just trying to get in, get the food they want, buy the presents they need, whatever it is, and they're just being really unkind and just rushing.

And I'm like, that's not the point of this, which is why I start so early. No, but it's just not the point of it. And I think people in trying to, whether it's Halloween or whether it's Easter, when they're trying to meet the standards of that holiday and meet the expectations of that holiday as set out by society, that's when they kind of lose the essence of it.

And I literally walk through the shops and I'm like, why are you guys fighting? Why are you being rude to the cashier? Like, this is, it's Christmas time. Like, this is not what it's about. Like, if you can't sit and reflect on what it's actually about and have a little bit of fun and buy some presents and buy some food and put some decorations up, then just don't do it.

Like, why bother if you're not actually going to live the values of that holiday you know, in whatever way is right for you and your family. But yeah, I just, it makes me really sad that that happens. And even with the Easter Bunny, like, I just, I don't give the kids chocolate. When we do Easter egg hunts, we'll put like nuts and like little treats, but not chocolate in like plastic Easter eggs that they then have to find, which they love more because then they get to open it up and like what's inside.

So it's like another surprise and all of that. So I try to avoid anything that will build unhealthy habits for the kids. And I think that, you know, definitely, you know, when you're giving them candy and chocolate and all those sort of things as a celebration, you know, I don't know, like, I get that it's a once off.

It only happens a couple of times a year, but it just, it doesn't work for me and for my family. I know that the kids, they just, they go crazy, like as soon as they eat. You know, a lot of chocolate, like their brains just malfunction. And so I'm not going to celebrate a whole day of just eating chocolate because it's not good for them.

And so I do it in a different way. If I can, so I'll still celebrate it, but just tweak it so that it's a little bit healthier and they still get the, you know, the Easter egg hunt and all that sort of stuff still. And Easter bunny comes, Calvin dresses up as the Easter bunny and like would go to their childcare and stuff.

They know, they so know, like, I think Amelia said something like, oh, the Easter bunny has the same shoes as dad. I'm like, oh, interesting. They so know already. Bless.

Yeah. That's so funny. I think, yeah, I think what you're saying is, is really great because like parenting, it's one of those things where you do it, how it works for you and your family.

So, you know, even us discussing this, you and I have pretty different takes on quite a lot of this stuff. I think when it comes to like festivities and, you know, these kind of special occasions scenarios, it's not something I've thought about before I became a parent, but you know, you become a parent and then Christmas is looming like, Oh, okay, wait, what's our approach to this?

What are we doing? Oh, okay, cool. The same as when I was a kid. Yeah, it makes sense. You know, like that was, that was kind of like our approach to it. But when it comes to this stuff, just take it, just take it how you want to take it and you'll be fine. Deal with it how you want to deal with it and, you know, create that experience that you want to with your kids is up to you and your, you know, your partner and your family to do and nothing is dictated by society.

So that, you know can be hard as you said, that sometimes there's pressures you know, if you're hosting to have this perfect Christmas day, but at the end of the day, it really comes down to what you and your family Need and enjoy. I think on that note, that's a wrap on today's episode. The last couple of weeks have been really heavy. So, you know, I hope if you're listening that you enjoyed something a bit lighter today, we'll get back on the heavy stuff next week, I'm sure. But it's been interesting to reflect on these experiences.

You know, from our childhood memories to what we've done as, we became parents and our kids won't stay little forever. So, you know, we're trying our best to cherish the moments as best as we can. This is Nhi and Dee signing off. We'll catch you later, friends. Bye. Bye.