Adam Kunes: We're back baby. Episode number 10. The March to 100.

Ben: I think that's very important to tell the people that the new goal we got past seven, we're at ten, and we set a higher, higher ten times bar. It's the march to a hundred.

Adam Kunes: That's what Dad Day is all about, just setting the standard high. The standard is the standard.

Ben: I mean, go for it. 100 sounds cool. Like this is episode number 100. That'll be a great day.

Adam Kunes: That'd be like next year.

Ben: Yeah, we're averaging one a week. Maybe we pick it up a little bit. This will be like four years from now. We have eight kids.

Adam Kunes: We're gonna have to do two a week. Three.

Ben: That's too much. No, actually, I think it will be good because once I have this baby, I'm just going to, I'm going to have the baby with me on all of these moving forward. Just double duty.

Adam Kunes: All right, maybe we'll move to ⁓ two recordings a week if we have to. If we're seeing, we're really far behind on that March to 100.

Ben: Our kids are like in college and we're like we fucking did it They're like yeah my dad you go to like their schools and they're having like you bring your parents in for what they do and my dad's trying to make a hundred podcasts

Adam Kunes: You losers. That'd be pretty epic.

Ben: Nice, but I remember a couple weeks ago, you said, here's an unhack, and it was about you warming up your coffee mug, and I was supposed to bring a hack to the table. I never really did. But I will say, I think I found a pretty good hack that is good for stimulation. For those that are on their phone too much, this is a good one. So I can dial in all the settings. Maybe you can put it in the newsletter if you like it so much, Adam. But I turned my phone to grayscale. In grayscale, what I'm learning when you're having a new kid is you don't want to give them too much of these crazy books that have all these colors and all these things popping out. You just want black and white. So my phone is now black and white. And I'm realizing it's not fun to scroll on Instagram when your stuff is black and white. And I'm probably doing two or three scrolls. Give me it, give me it, Koonz. Was that a good hat?

Adam Kunes: mean, I didn't know that about colors for kids. I thought you were supposed to introduce colors, so I'm gonna have to go to the old Google or chat chuby tea and ask about that. ⁓ I think my hack was honestly better. I mean, if you wanna turn your phone to black and white and that helps you limit your screen time, cool, we'll let the people speak. No, it doesn't, man.

Ben: You're going to lose that one. That one I am. Dude, your hack sucked. Your hack was like... It honestly reminded me of like an old grandma being like, hands, I want to warm up my hands in the morning because they don't... They're cold. Really good hack.

Adam Kunes: You know what, my hack was vindicated by someone in the comments on the podcast saying, I'm with Adam. I also heat up my coffee mug with hot water.

Ben: I don't want to be friends with him and I don't want to be friends with you anymore. ⁓ But the thing is, no one else commented on it. And that's what we're talking about. We need you talking about what we're saying on here and give us your feedback because we're just two dudes.

Adam Kunes: That's hurtful, he's probably a super nice guy and... We do want to hear from you. We, Ben and I go way, way back. We've known each other. I don't know. We're going on 20 years. So we have these conversations anyway, and we figured we just start hitting record, but we would like to hear from people, which is why I'm paying 20 bucks a month for an 800 number. It is eight three, three dad show. And we've actually, people were actually calling in, which I think is really cool.

Ben: We got a good one this week too and I think it's a hot topic because it pertains to where I'm at and I think people that are about to have children is the epic topic about the push present. Do you get them? Are you an asshole if you don't? And this guy kind of said he had a child five years ago. didn't get a push present and was kind of given some crap about not getting a push present and should he get one now. So Adam, you've had three children. Has me Julie gotten three gifts?

Adam Kunes: Me Julie has not. I didn't even know a push present was a thing until that gentleman left the voicemail. Look, I think we've, we've, we've gone too far as a society and we can't go back, but it's like, there's a present for everything, a baby moon, a push present, people firing off different colors for, you know, the gender of the baby. Like I think we need to pump the brakes, but long story short, I didn't even know what a

Ben: You

Adam Kunes: push present was so me Julie did not get a push present I did ask her last night are you familiar with a push present and she said yeah are you are you upset that I didn't get you one and ⁓ she said no but I got the sense that there was an underlying tone there like hey Jackass you you need to know what a push present is

Ben: You So. So I think we're kind of getting the conclusion to answer the question of the voicemail. Women might expect them, but you might be a jackass if you don't get one, but they also understand that you probably didn't know about them.

Adam Kunes: think it's probably just whatever. Whatever you want to call it, a push present. Yeah, get your wife a present after she gives birth to a child. I think that's probably just a net positive.

Ben: And it could be anything. It could be a written card. It could be a photo of you two.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, any type of...

Ben: When do you give it? guess that's the next question we need to figure out is like right when the baby comes out, are you like, she needs to unwrap a gift? Like, when do you do that?

Adam Kunes: I think you should set a new standard here, because you're weeks away now. I think you should give the push present on that final push, if ⁓ it's a natural birth. When the baby's pushed out, you just come in there hot with the present.

Ben: And the podcast mic. am actually super stoked. I got this podcast mic because all you have to do is plug it into your computer USB-C and you can rip anywhere. So I am adding this to the hospital bag because I am bringing it in case, you know, somebody wants interviewed, maybe some hot takes.

Adam Kunes: you Yeah, I support it. I like to build people up, so I think you should go for it.

Ben: I'm three weeks away, Adam. I had to do a 45 minute car seat inspection with a woman yesterday. And the whole time I felt like I knew how to install that seat better.

Adam Kunes: Wait, wait, rewind. Who, who's this woman? I mean, did you just find her on the street? What?

Ben: I don't, so Jackie was lovely. Shout out Jackie if you ever listen to this and goodness gracious, God rest your soul if you actually find this podcast that we talk about you. But, so you have to sign up for this car seat. You show up, it's 30 minutes.

Adam Kunes: Sign up for a car seat inspection. This woman's name is Jackie and where...

Ben: of car seat infection. It's the Delaware State Health Department. Wow.

Adam Kunes: You live in Ohio though.

Ben: 45 minutes away. Yeah, I didn't drive to Delaware. I guess there's a town called Delaware It's actually a very pretty town tap Delaware and pow there were some beautiful houses out here But we get there you pull under this overhang and she comes out with her little cart that is filled with check clipboards and checklists and all this stuff and we get out and she She talks to you a little bit about you know, all these different, you know, is your car seat recalled is Is it strapped in? And she goes in and make sure that it's strapped in. The Nuna is like three steps. And I'm like, Ashley, I don't know why this is going to take 30 minutes. It's a two-step kind of process. It took me two minutes to install this thing. And then she's shaking it around. And she's like, you don't need to do this. And I was like, well, I did it. And then we were talking about where the placement of the car seat was. And then she said, you can go on this thing. And it tells you where the safest part of every car is. And I'm like, holy crap. Go inside, get this stuffed animal thing to actually load it into. the car seat, which I will say I learned one thing on like how to move the straps around where the button was on the on the car seat. That's cool. Ashley puts the baby like pretty low, grabs it by the top of the head and starts pulling in to lift the baby up to like put it in position. I thought she like ripped the head off. She rips this thing's head like hat off in the lady. I couldn't stop laughing. The lady's like, whoa. So then we go back outside, puts Ashley back in the car. make sure the seatbelt's where it's supposed to be on her belly. So the seatbelt should go below the belly, not over the belly. So then if you are in an accident, gets your hips, doesn't get the belly. And I'm like, this is 45 minutes, I'll never get back. But it's done.

Adam Kunes: I'm glad. Listen, I don't think you're gonna be mad about it. You know that your car seat is in properly. It's probably a little bit overkill, but hey, you know what? Better, it's your first. I think it's a good thing.

Ben: Yeah, how are you doing? You're what are you 10 10 weeks in?

Adam Kunes: Winnie is, yeah, 10 weeks now. 10 weeks, yep, it's good. It's good, it's just a, it's a new adjustment. You know, we're back in newborn mode. The other two are seven and four. So I've been out of that game for a while. And I actually even wrote an article on the Dad Day site about, I do feel more connected to Winnie as a newborn than I did with our first two.

Ben: 10 and 10. 10th episode.

Adam Kunes: but it's still that mode. I feel like we're back in kind of survival mode, where it's now we're outnumbered. So it's been an adjustment, but it's been good. I feel very blessed and fortunate to have a healthy third baby. So I might complain ⁓ occasionally, but it's good.

Ben: Is it different because she's a girl? Is that why? More delicate?

Adam Kunes: No, I mean, no, no, I don't think so. I just think that you get in and you'll see it. get in this routine of this is what it was like with two, you know, and now looking back, it feels easy. Like two felt easy. One felt easy. Like, ⁓ my gosh, had so much time and now we're on three and we are outnumbered and it's, you know, the show goes on. So it's been an adjustment, but it's been good. I'm excited. I'm getting my ass kicked. Yep. I'm gonna call the ⁓ 833 dad show number and just leave an hour long voicemail.

Ben: You're getting your ass kicked, aren't you? Just say it out loud. I'm getting my ass kicked. Help me. I locked myself in the closet. We're outnumbered again.

Adam Kunes: Yeah. And if you do have questions back to the 1-800 number, it's 833-DADSHOW. We're not experts. So if you are seeking medical attention or it's something serious, don't call us. Call professional. And to the gentleman who did call about the push present, I think the takeaway here is just get your wife a present after she gives birth. Women are awesome. I know you already know this, but

Ben: to not. And it kind of.

Adam Kunes: My biggest takeaway from our first was like, holy crap, women are beasts because I wanted to have it in me to carry a child for nine months and not drink anything. And so, yes, get your wife a present.

Ben: Yeah. And the cool thing was, whoever called, we're not leaving names on the voicemail stuff, but he called and asked, and we were, you started a meetup yesterday with some of the dads in the Slack channel, and I actually asked the dads in the Slack channel, and not one single one got a push present, but what we're learning is women just went through a lot of stuff, get it if you can. If you can, it's only gonna be beneficial. But also in that group, we learned a lot of different things that I think is gonna tie into the meat and potatoes this show. Do you want to talk a little bit about what we did yesterday in the meetup?

Adam Kunes: Yeah, we had a good call. we have a private Slack community. It's closing in on 500 dads in there and it's come up quite a few times. Hey, are we, you know, are you open to setting up a Google meet or a zoom call? So we did it yesterday, had five or six guys hop on and there was no real agenda outside of meet and greet, which is always really cool. And what came up then it was, it was around this idea of, of nostalgia, you know, like how we're, I think the original question was how we're viewing screen time and then it naturally just led into, hey, this is how it was back when we were kids, which lent itself to, think, a really cool conversation.

Ben: Yeah, and it got my juices flowing on some of the things I want to bring from my childhood back. And I think that's like one of the biggest things is like, are we, there's some things we're gonna kick and there's some things we're gonna keep. And you brought up this one idea, you have a car, you mentioned, you can go tell it more into detail, but you talked about the DVDs and your kids in the car with DVDs on longer road trips. Talk to me about this because I actually went home that night or went home last night and told Ashley I wanna get a DVD player after you mentioned this.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, for sure. I think even back to the screen time question, we've decided as a family and it's different for everyone. So there's no judgment here. We've decided we're going to keep our kids off phones as long as we can. It's obviously a struggle. You're going to find this out, Ben. But the kids are seeing us on our phones. I have to be on my phone for work. And most times, if I have my phone in hand and I'm looking at the screen, it's work related. So there's tension there, but as far as screens, we do let our kids watch shows. They're really into, know, Bluey, Curious George, shows like that. And then I drive a 2017 Land Cruiser and it has screens on the back seats and it's DVD, which is kind of cool. So I have to go to the pool store to get my chemicals checked.

Ben: you

Adam Kunes: every week and there's a really cool vintage record DVD place. we'll let the kids go in and it's like three or four bucks a DVD. They pick them out. It's kind of cool, you know, and then once a week on the way to school, I'll let them watch a show. So they get real geeked every Friday we do that. And it's very intentional, you know, they're not there's not this information overload. They have to take the DVD out of the case. They have to take care of the DVDs. It's been kind of a fun process. And when I bought that car and knew there were screens in the back, I'm like, ⁓ is this going to be an issue? But it's kind of turned into a cool family thing.

Ben: No, what I loved about that too is like the word intentional, like movie nights back in the day. Friday nights were intentional because what did we do? We got in the car. We drove to Blockbuster. We had family video too. And you saw what was being released and you picked it out. And there's something about like picking out a movie that way, getting in the car, doing the dang thing. Maybe you have a late fee because I turned in a video late or whatever, or, you know, it's out of stock and you can't grab it. But like that was such an intentional movie night. And I remember those so, so well. And there's something about streaming right now that doesn't have that feeling. So talking about bringing some things back like the intentional movie night and what you're kind of doing with your kids, I just love that. So I thought that was so awesome. I think it's like a, a hack, but something that other people can maybe gravitate towards.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, think even just getting, you know, I've seen people that will get old TVs and hook up a VHS to, know, those old TVs that actually had the VHS player built inside of it.

Ben: You

Adam Kunes: It's cool. You bring up a really good point about how intentional was you had to go to Blockbuster or whatever family, you know video store. It was called in your town It was a process, you know and it took time and it was like you had to look around and see what you want now It's we're getting to the point and I don't know if you do this, but I will actually fast forward through movies now, you know where it's like, okay on to the next thing, know, because it's It, spend 30 to 45 minutes sometimes just picking something on Netflix or Amazon prime. Whereas back in the day, you know, we, just got to go, we went to the movie store and yeah, it took time to pick something, but it was a process. You're talking with the people you're with and like, Hey, what do you think about this one? And then you're going back and you're sitting down and you're watching that. Like that was the focus. Now it's, it's too much, man. Too much, too much.

Ben: And I'll keep this going because I have a pretty good list that I want to get your feedback on. But you also talked about, I think it's called TinCan, TinPhone. And I thought that was super cool because you're the second person that I've heard talk about this. But it's like a way for your kids to talk to their grandparents and it's different than a cell phone. Talk to me a little bit about this TinPhone or whatever the heck it's called.

Adam Kunes: Let it rip. Yeah, it's called tin can. They've been out for I think a year now or so, maybe a bit longer, but we wanted to get a landline and it was, it was impossible to get a landline. Truly. I called AT &T and I think they wanted 60, 70 bucks a month just for a landline. You got to be kidding me, but we've been thinking like, Hey, what if something God forbid were to happen, even calling 911, like how are our kids doing it? Are they unlocking our phones and calling 911? So we're like, we're getting. a landline and tin can popped up and it's been so cool. We pay 10 bucks a month. It hooks right into your router and the kids love it. You pick the numbers that they can call and the numbers that you can receive from. So there are no spam calls or anything like that. And then there are a couple kids in the neighborhood with tin cans as well. And it's just a really simple number attached to to their phone as well so the kids can call their friends. But everything's controlled through an app on our phones and you could set different hours so you could have quiet time. So the phone would only ring from let's say 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. which is really cool. And it's been, there have been so many times where Joel and I would just look at each other and smile because it is this throwback to us sitting on a landline phone and just having a conversation. We weren't looking around, we weren't texting, scrolling through Instagram as we're talking to someone like you're in the moment, you're talking and it's been really cool. So if you're not familiar with Tin Can, definitely check them out. It's been really cool having that.

Ben: No, I love that. And I actually was like gonna get one for my nephews. But the next one I'm moving into is activities. ⁓ Because I don't have kids, and your kids I think are old enough to start playing these games. There's three things I've always remembered about summer. Or just being outside, being active, that I always love. Two are games, one's an activity I would say. Knockout, which is a basketball game. I haven't seen anyone play knockout in a while. Rundown, which was probably the neighborhood favorite and it was straight up prison rules. Like you learned how to get an elbow to the face. You learned how to get pegged. You learned how to push someone. You learned how to throw a ball and then lightning bugs. Like I feel like lightning bugs don't exist, but the two I'm talking about is like you have kids that are probably at the age of playing outdoor games. Have you seen him play rundown or knockout?

Adam Kunes: Knockout for sure. My kids are playing basketball now and that's definitely a game they play. Run down I've not seen. I've not seen that in a very long time and it was such a cool game and hopefully it's happening in other places. But I've yet to see it here in the flesh with ⁓ seven and four year old kids.

Ben: Okay. No, that's awesome. And then do lightning bugs like eggs? I don't even know if they exist anymore. Like, do you remember lightning bugs? What do you think about it?

Adam Kunes: I do, I do remember lightning bugs. I mean, we caught them, you know, it was cool. I got bored with it pretty quickly. I ⁓ was a very active child and you know, the lightning bug thing was cool for a second and then I'm like, okay, I'm over it.

Ben: When's last time? What's some other stuff you want to bring back? I know we were on that call yesterday and a lot of people are talking about smartwatches and I think that's like an easy like maybe not go back to the G shock but like the what's it called Casio? What watch are you rocking right now?

Adam Kunes: Yeah? I just have a Garmin, a really simple Garmin. I used to rock an Apple watch and it's information overload. And then there was a point where I was using whoop and no knock to whoop, but I had a Garmin watch on, a whoop. I'm like, what am I doing? I'm not a professional athlete. I think it's good to get a baseline and then cool, use that data as you see fit. But you know what? If you have too many drinks one night, you don't get a lot of sleep. Guess what? Your body's going to let you know pretty quickly. We're just, we're just gamifying everything and it's too much. with my Apple watch, was notifications all day. And I know you could turn those off, but you sitting there taking a dump and you're looking on your Apple watch and photos, like, what am I doing with my life right now? You know?

Ben: I mean, that is the wild thing. remember sometimes I take phone calls on my watch by accident and I sound like a grandma, like, can you hear me? Can you hear me? I don't know how to work this thing. Like it's crazy. Like taking a phone call on a watch.

Adam Kunes: Yeah. Yeah. I hope there's this genuine movement back to some of the things we got to experience in the nineties. And I know there are a lot of those memes and carousels floating around on Instagram where it's like, Hey dad, tell me what it was like back in the nineties. Like we didn't realize it at the time, but you know, like street hockey was huge for us. I we would play street hockey every single day. We were on bikes all the time. ⁓ There was a local ice cream shop called Kerbers where I grew up and we rode bikes. I mean, it was probably like a three and a half mile bike ride and you're going up hills and down hills. And that was a thing we do. And we'd go get pepperoni rolls, know, that was just such a cool, you looking back, didn't, you were in it and you just didn't realize like, man, this is, this is great. And we, I'm, I'm not scared for our kids. They will adapt, but I think phones.

Ben: You

Adam Kunes: for as much good as they've done, don't know. I don't know that they've been a net positive for society.

Ben: I I honestly think we can say our childhoods were better for different reasons. like, overall, I think we were in a pretty good sweet spot for childhood.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, absolutely. mean, even think about, and this is something we're talking about now, video games. We played video games. had Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64. You weren't connected to the internet. You were doing multiplayer. I I have so many good memories of playing 007, GoldenEye with friends, like sleepovers, just playing GoldenEye for just hours upon hours.

Ben: Yeah.

Adam Kunes: I don't know, when we do get our kids a gaming system, I'm not anti video games, but I'd almost prefer to get them something like an N64 or a Nintendo Wii where they're at least moving around. We're overconnected.

Ben: I mean that is a good point. Like back in the day I didn't even think about it because I'm not really a gamer. But you can play single player, it was fun, you can try to beat levels and all that. But you could only have fun if you called people over to physically be with you. That is crazy. I never even thought of, I didn't really take it that way.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, I never liked single player stuff. It was always, you know, my brother and I playing NHL, whatever, you know, 1998 on a Sega Genesis and

Ben: Dude, how many between you and I know people don't know your brother, but he's competitive as well. You broke easily 30 controllers. I just know you.

Adam Kunes: I didn't break any controllers. I was cool as can be. Like when it came to video games, I knew I was better than my brother. And he would get so frustrated and I would just get to the point where like if we were playing something like NHL, I'd get a lead. I'd get up like let's say four nothing. Like I'd just whoop his ass.

Ben: That's bullshit.

Adam Kunes: And then I'd be like, okay, cool. I, in my head, I won, I already won and I'm just going to let him beat me and, know, make him feel good about himself. But it got to a point where really he was playing stuff on N64. There was a star Wars game and he just could not beat it on multi or on single player. And he just broke controllers. I'm like, you jackass, like stop breaking our controller.

Ben: Yeah, I could see him breaking controllers. I think if we were to rank, which one would you rather play, GoldenEye or Tony Hawk?

Adam Kunes: I really like Tony Hawk, I think GoldenEye was just such a fun game to play with people, you know, because the different levels and yeah, I'd pick GoldenEye. How about you?

Ben: So, ⁓ I mean, think GoldenEye was the most fun with friends and it was like jumpy around like, ⁓ shit, that guy's in the room with me or he has the golden, there was some fun elements to that. But.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, you gotta play. I mean, our our role for GoldenEye was license the kill every time and no odd job.

Ben: Yeah, I forgot about that. What was the one guy I think I was Boris a lot.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, we just, wouldn't let people pick odd job because we felt like N64 was doing people dirty. Like there was definitely an unfair advantage with odd job.

Ben: Hahaha. you I think it's cool. think, you know, the more and more I talk to a lot of the dads in the channel, we are trying to go back to this like analog kind of, I think the world, there's two things we're going to be seeing a lot of this year and I'm super stoked to see it. Analog and then also like in real life experiences. And to put a bow on this, I want to talk about the last two. We don't have to go into deep, but I had them written down. Neighborhood block parties, I remember all the time. You don't remember this one, I don't think, but Miss Cleo commercials laid it and I I called infomercials all the time. I remember I was pretty tuned up one night this was later in college and I called this one lady because it was that that frickin blender and she just put chocolate and milk in the blender and hit it twice and it was pudding and I was like how the hell does like two chops on that thing in just chocolate and milk make pudding and I called it and this southern woman picked up and all she told me was honey that's what pudding is

Adam Kunes: Yeah, I don't remember Ms. Cleo. I remember we would prank call QVC. That was our

Ben: I thought it was the funniest thing in the world. ⁓ that was a QVC story. Prank calling was wild. remember you could, cause I don't think we did area codes back then, but you could do like three seven seven or three seven three. And it was always a cricket phone.

Adam Kunes: I remember doing, we would have competitions who you'd have to call QVC and the person that talked to, was able to engage with the person the longest about like the dumbest products would win. I don't know what we gave away, maybe just respect, but I would always come out on top because I would, I'd have like 15, 20 minute conversations about a woman's dressed with someone. It's like, What the hell are we talking about? And then they'd realize it, you know, was a prank. Yeah.

Ben: I feel like that's what taught you how to pitch. Maybe that was it, like infomercials back in your high school. I remember delivery pizza men, ⁓ like how they come, now we have Door Dash and all that stuff, but nobody experienced like the true pizza guy coming to your door and you're handing off money. But me and my brothers and sister, when my mom wasn't home, would like call and order pizza and just give them like a bag of pennies and coins. And he'd be like, I'm not counting this shit. It'd be like three bucks under almost every time.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, man. now people, now places aren't even taking cash. We could do a whole separate episode about that because I have, I have very strong opinions about tip culture right now and cash. And yeah, we should, we should table that one for another episode altogether.

Ben: ⁓ yeah. We're three weeks away from me being an official dad. The wait is over.

Adam Kunes: I'm excited for you. I still gotta send you that dad hat.

Ben: Yeah, you still haven't sent that. So if you're aspiring dad too, this is a great place. I've learned so much just like in a lot of these meetups and just talking to dads in the Slack group to be more prepared with the person I actually know and respect

Adam Kunes: Just give Jackie a call.

Ben: Jackie from Delaware is a G. But I that was a good one.

Adam Kunes: Episode 10, we're getting closer to 100.

Ben: One less away from 100. Let's go. Have yourself a week, Adam. Goodbye.

Adam Kunes: You too, Benjamin. later