Lots to Unpack There
We’re Jess and Lisa, two best friends in our 40s living in Maryland. This podcast is about life, motherhood, leadership, and everything in between. We’re navigating the “messy middle” of personal and professional life and have learned that having someone who just gets it makes the journey less hard.
Each week, we’ll share something real from our own lives and unpack it together in real time. Our hope is that as we process and reflect, it’ll inspire and help you do the same—wherever you are.
Lots to Unpack There
Unpack Snack: Beach Days and Mom Swaps
We discuss strategies for surviving beach vacations with pale children, including the "reverse beach day" approach of going to the beach after 3pm when UV rays are less intense. We share our upcoming childcare swap plans and navigate the anxiety and excitement that comes with watching each other's children.
• The "reverse beach day" strategy: doing indoor activities during peak sun hours and beach activities after 3pm
• Navigating different house rules – one household allows couch jumping while the other doesn't
• Planning a "mom swap" where friends trade overnight childcare duties
• Different levels of anxiety about watching each other's children
• Creative ideas for entertaining each other's kids, like reading Harry Potter with character voices
• How our different backgrounds (coastal vs. landlocked upbringing) influence our parenting approaches
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Music Playing story so light they'll float in the air. Tune in fast as the bite-sized flare unpack snacks.
Jess:We're always prepared you get to go on vacation. That's gonna be amazing.
Lisa:Yes, it's like a beach type vacation it is. Yeah, that'll be fun. I hope so. Yeah, you never know with little kids but we're, we're all very pale and so I'm just like can we make it through the week without getting sunburned. Yeah, that would be. Really that's a win.
Jess:Well, like the big thing now is to do a reverse speech day I was explaining this to my husband, he was like no way what I know.
Lisa:No, it's the way it must be done. It's the low UV like, and for anyone who doesn't know what I mean by reverse, I mean you do other stuff in the morning, like to and past, like nap time and or lunch time, and then at like 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon is when you toddle down to the beach and do the beach stuff, because the uv rays are less intense and usually people have kind of given up by then and or gotten sunburned and gone home, so you have a little bit more breathing room as well I.
Jess:I think it's the only way to fly we do have a limitation in that our youngest still naps and sometimes naps until 4, 4, 30 and30. And so if we're not going to the beach until 4.30, then that cramps the whole dinner bedtime thing potentially. But yes, I know I said this and he was of a different mind.
Speaker 1:And honestly.
Jess:I mean he has more beach experience and so I'm kind of inclined More beach experience.
Lisa:He has more beach experience and so I'm kind of inclined More beach experience he has more beach experience, at least on the East Coast. Yeah, that's true.
Jess:I mean just full stop. He has more beach experience because he grew up on a coast and I grew up in a landlocked desert Desert.
Lisa:Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you probably have more pool experience if that gives you any kind of leg up.
Jess:I don't know. He's a Boy Scout, so I always forget that. Really tough to say.
Lisa:Yeah, man, yeah Well, I'm excited for you. I am, as you know very well, also going on a brief, brief overnight trip tomorrow.
Lisa:I keep having to remind myself because I keep forgetting that I'm going on this trip tomorrow which is really bad, because it's really bad for me because you are my babysitter, so you forgetting is maybe worse than me forgetting. Yeah, it will happen, especially since I won't be there when you get there, right, so I get to meet your other babysitter, you get to meet my other babysitter. I'm really just stacking babysitters on top of each other for this one, but I'm excited for my kids to spend more time with you.
Jess:I'm excited for that too.
Lisa:Without me as a buffer, you know, they get just like direct Jess off the tap.
Jess:It's going to be so weird. I think, yeah, I think it will be.
Lisa:I think it'll be weirder for you than it will be for them, but I don't, I don't know, I'm surprisingly nervous about it. Are you really?
Jess:Yeah, I'm like, what if they don't like me? What if I'm a mean, like I'm a mean mama, you know, like I'm not their mama, I think you are a little bit more like lay down the law-ish than me about some things maybe not everything.
Lisa:Sure, I think there's some things that I do as a parent that you just go what Like we have.
Jess:like our couch is a full WWE environment for our kids, wwe environment for our kids. I mean, we do have rules in our house, but chief among them is you can be crazy but not on the couch, and this is from like the days of when we had our cat, before we had children. That was a house rule.
Lisa:You told your cat he couldn't be crazy on the couch? Yes, okay, and how did he feel about that?
Jess:Well, he would look at me with his crazy eyes and then I would look at him with my crazy eyes and he knew that I meant business and he would get off the couch.
Lisa:Really, your cat had way more respect for you than any of my cats have ever had for me. We had a good thing I miss that guy?
Jess:Yeah, he's good yeah, so I am going to try to be adaptive to their house rules.
Lisa:Yes, and one of the main ones you're going to have to get on board with is crazy. Things happen on the couch and people often get hurt. It is absolutely something that happens. Yeah, yeah, that's a little bit what I'm worried about, and also they're allowed to go on the coffee table.
Lisa:Oh my God, yeah, yeah, that's a little bit what I'm worried about, and also they're allowed to go on the coffee table. Oh my God, yeah, we bought very, very robust furniture for this exact reason. Like many dance parties have happened on the couch and or coffee table exclusively.
Jess:Yeah.
Lisa:Yeah.
Jess:I was thinking about bringing Harry Potter over. You should do and kind of like restarting Harry Potter 1 one.
Lisa:I know your oldest knows it already yeah, he's done one and two and he's part of the way through three question mark. Maybe he's read all of three, I'm not sure but it sounds right but the but the middle, whose birthday it is today? Um has not read any of it yeah, yeah, and I do voices.
Jess:It is. That's awesome, so I think that'll be fun.
Lisa:Oh yeah, and it's so funny that you say that you're nervous, because I am the opposite of nervous. I'm literally You're probably just really excited. I'm so nonchalant about it that I keep forgetting that it's even happening, because I'm like, oh Jess will just figure it out. She'll just either have the kids here, she'll take the kids to her house, or whatever. Like whatever happens, I just expect you to like, do whatever you want and then just to leave a bill on my like countertop, like here's what I did, here's what you owe me now.
Jess:Like that's it. Yeah, I mean that's and that what you owe me. Like at some point you'll come watch my kids overnight.
Lisa:This is your brilliant idea of a mom swap. Well, that I mean like if you order pizza or like whatever like whatever the thing is, I'm just like she'll just figure it out and we'll, we'll make it happen. So For sure, yeah, yeah, but yes, we're, we're fully doing the mom swap. So I do owe you, whenever you guys want to do that.
Jess:I was telling my girls about this today, I said I said I'm going to be over at Lisa's house. Yeah, they're like why are you doing that? I'm like well, you know she and her husband are going on a trip. They're like when are you coming home?
Jess:And I said well, you know I'll be back on Sunday and eventually I might bring the kids over so we can have some time together. And they're like, okay. And I said, and at some point Aunt Lisa will stay overnight with you. And then again they're like and when are you coming back? It's so funny. I mean like on the plus side, it's great that my kids are attached you know, but on the other side. I'm like, ooh, maybe I need to get out more.
Lisa:On the other hand, I have not, I have not told any of my children about this plan whatsoever. Oh, no, like, not even a little bit.
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