Adam Kunes: there, this is Adam with Guys Being Dads. Before you get into episode eight, just a heads up, my audio is not great. Pretty sure I got a defunct mic. So, bear with us. It's not terrible, you can still listen to it. Ben sounds way better than I do, but just giving you a heads up before we dive in. We'll have this issue fixed for the next episode, we promise.

Ben Petchel: Welcome to episode eight.

Adam Kunes: Number eight, we're back baby.

Ben Petchel: Number eight and feeling great. We over the hump. We over that hump.

Adam Kunes: We... that was a long- take full blame for that. think that was our longest hiatus but maybe folks listen to episode number seven and they were like, yep, they didn't really make it over the hump because they haven't put out episode eight. But here we are.

Ben Petchel: Tell them why. We had to keep the people sweating. And then also we had to find Adam's office has construction around it. So there was beeping when we recorded episode eight last time and it would have driven any man crazy or one.

Adam Kunes: Yes, it threw both of us off our game. So we recorded a whole episode and then we said, it's not good enough. It's not good enough for these folks.

Ben Petchel: I mean, the constant beeping, I'm not good with sounds, man. My dog licks at night. It's brutal. So I just plugged my ears, but you can't do that when we're recording a podcast. Cause then you won't hear me. Here we are. And we got a lot of new stuff to talk about. One, of course we got over the hump, but two, Nugo West. It was about burritos. You weren't kidding. And it was, it was, it was a great story, man. Talk to me about that one.

Adam Kunes: Right, but here we are. Yeah, we were excited to get it launched and live and it when I watch it the the end of it if you haven't seen it yet, we'll share a link to the to the second episode of go west, but it just lands man. Richie is is living my life right now. I feel like where he says at the end like it's got to be worth it. It's definitely going to be worth it, you know, and that that hit me as a dad and I'm sure it's going to hit you a little differently once you are dad, but I'm really happy with how it turned out and it's cool seeing the views go up too. It's up to I think around 40,000 views which has been really cool.

Ben Petchel: Yeah, I mean, that's the whole point. want, I mean, you have this audience, you want to show dads doing cool things and pushing through it, you know?

Adam Kunes: Yeah, just showing real life and what other dads are going through and processing and taking risks and how they're viewing it. It's really cool seeing the comments on that video, particularly where folks are like, this is inspiring. You know, I've been wanting to do this. And that's kind of the whole point of the Go West series, just showing dads carving their own paths, going against the grain. I'm fired up about that.

Ben Petchel: I'm just a little butthurt you haven't asked to record my go us cause I want that. It's coming. I had that kid first.

Adam Kunes: It's coming. We're gonna show up with a crew one day in Columbus, Ohio and say, you're on, baby. Tell your story.

Ben Petchel: you do it April 26th, do it when she's, do it in the emergency room, like it'll all start then, I'll start documenting that.

Adam Kunes: Hopefully, hopefully you don't land in the emergency room.

Ben Petchel: I mean, not the emergency room where you deliver. I'll have a GoPro on the forehead. Ashley will be like, what's this all about? I'm like, it's for Go West. She'll be like, I hate you. Why do you always have these dumb ideas?

Adam Kunes: the delivery room. Get the hell out of here.

Ben Petchel: I'm going west baby. She's like, I don't know what that means.

Adam Kunes: We should do that, but I'm not going to.

Ben Petchel: I'm gonna, I'm gonna document the heck out of it. I'm gonna get the meta glasses and just over document, you know?

Adam Kunes: Yeah, think I can do it,

Ben Petchel: I want to show him how she came out. Like you've never seen a video of you coming out of the womb. Like I might get that kind of footage.

Adam Kunes: Nope, don't, don't. I mean they say content is king, but yeah, I don't, I don't wanna see that.

Ben Petchel: Not in that situation. Lean on the side of not of just being there for my wife. I did ⁓ tell her I'm laminating the birth plan. So if we get like any blood or stuff, they can still follow it. And she's like, that's what you're thinking about. said, It's elite. It's elite. We had the OBGYN. She said elite. Elite.

Adam Kunes: I can't wait until they laugh at you and your birth plan and say, ⁓ I can't wait. can't wait. Hopefully everything goes to plan for you guys.

Ben Petchel: Now that she told us, she said, I've never seen a family this ready. I said, you say that to everyone.

Adam Kunes: I can't wait for the first podcast episode we record post you being a dad.

Ben Petchel: elite adam this lady sees hundreds of deliveries every year and she put me at the elite elite but you got your speaking of elite you're trying to get some elite dads not you don't have to be elite dad but you want to get some dads that are doing things differently with your event coming up how's that shaping up

Adam Kunes: Can't wait. Let's just leave it. Let's just leave it. Good, yeah we got around 15 sign ups as of middle of which is good. We're on track and yeah if you're a dad who's wanting to get after it just kind of mix things up. You do not have to be elite to come by the way. You just got to be a dad that's wanting to be a good dad and meet some other dads. just to be, just don't be weird you know. Just come and sign up for the event. It's cool. If you listen to this podcast we'll even give you a discount code if you find our email.

Ben Petchel: There it is. Sign up for the newsletter. You'll get a discount code. It is a great event. Like I said, we've said this in many episodes past, but I'm changing my methods because I am concerned if I go skin to skin with the baby right out the bat, like I might have some man boobs and she might go for my teeth. So I'm really trying to look elite for that, for that first skin to skin contact.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, too bad you can't come to the event, it is shredding season is upon us.

Ben Petchel: I know your intention. I'm dialed in with ChatGPT. Me and ChatGPT, I call him Pepper. We are dialed. It's telling me what to eat.

Adam Kunes: I love it. You should document that and tell us how it goes. We could do a weekly check in on the podcast.

Ben Petchel: I do. I... I'm not kidding. I'm talking to this thing and it's telling me like, I mean, it's hyping me up. You're doing great, man. You're doing great. That was a tough session. said, it sure was buddy. But I pushed through it and I'm like, I'm eating this right now. Is that good? And they're like, no, you got those stupid pills from Instagram. Why are you taking those? You don't need that. And I'm like, dang, I just spent 50 bucks on these.

Adam Kunes: Don't do that. You should share some before and after photos.

Ben Petchel: Nobody needs to see that. like right now my baby would potentially suck from my teeth. So I'm trying to fix that. It's just real. That's just real. I gained some sympathy weight Adam and it is not looking pretty but I am. I'm dialed in right now.

Adam Kunes: I'm happy for you. Speaking of getting dialed in, we, our event sponsor, which I'm really excited about, it was created by two Dad Day subscribers. They created an app called receipts.xyz. If you go to that site and use code Dad Day, you could sign up for this. It's completely free. It's really awesome. I've been using it and it's kind of one of those apps you're like, damn, why didn't I think of that? But... you sign up for the app, you connect your wearable and anytime you work out, you get points. And there are brands like Lululemon on there, ⁓ REI, just a bunch of really cool brands. think I saw Function Health on there, who we're gonna be working with soon. But yeah, if you work out at all, even if you just walk, download receipts.xyz, it's really cool, use code dadday and you'll get some points right out of the gate. I don't know if you guys can't check it out, Ben, but it is a very cool app.

Ben Petchel: What do get? I am using it. mean, you get discounts right off the jump too. think, I think you get some like store discounts immediately, but as your points accrue, you know, you get better discounts at a lot of these brands that we're already shopping at, which is awesome. Like function health. already have, I wish I would have had a code for function health prior, but I'm a little upset about function health. I'll tell you this. There was, I went in for my blood test at 4pm in the lays like you can't like, why would function even let you book this at 4pm? ⁓ because you have to book it at 8 a.m. Like it has to be like as soon as you wake up because there's some I forget what what lab thing they're doing I forget what it is but that was my only rub with function but receipts is awesome it's just you're already doing the things might as well get discounts for doing it or points

Adam Kunes: Yeah, it's a very cool app. We're excited to have them on board for the year.

Ben Petchel: Speaking of being dialed in though, Adam, are you recording your CrossFit workouts?

Adam Kunes: I'm not that guy. I'm not that guy, but I did get back into CrossFit. I used to coach at CrossFit Pittsburgh and I feel like, I don't know, 15 years after the fact, was time. It time to get into a community in downtown Charleston and I stumbled on Holy City CrossFit and I'm four weeks into it. I'm feeling good, man. From my age, I'm getting after it.

Ben Petchel: That's all that's what it's all about. And you were like full blown drinking that you're making the punch for CrossFit back in the day too. it's it's I'm glad you're back in your not your cult days, but definitely drinking the punch again.

Adam Kunes: I drank the Kool-Aid for a minute and I do want to say, because it's like when you discover an artist before they get really big, listen, hear me out, hear me out. My brother was deployed in Iraq, he was a Marine and he came back home and he learned CrossFit over there. And was before CrossFit was bought by Reebok or before they were involved and we did a workout together and I was just so into it. was like, damn, I never.

Ben Petchel: ⁓ gosh, here we go. Here we go.

Adam Kunes: pushed my body that hard. I drank the Kool-Aid, but I drank it before everyone else was for a minute.

Ben Petchel: Yeah, I mean, you created the Kool-Aid because what you're failing to tell the people is you also started a company. What was it called?

Adam Kunes: you We gonna do this?

Ben Petchel: It was called I WAD. I'll say it for you right back. This is how old that we are. Right back when Apple was popping off. So Adam decided to do I, the letter I, WAD. And he made t-shirts for his peoples too. Talk to me about that.

Adam Kunes: I did okay with that. I saw an opportunity and started making t-shirts. If you're not familiar with CrossFit, WOD is workout of the day. I saw some other brands doing pretty well and CrossFit was relatively new so I just started putting sayings on t-shirts. I sold quite a bit of shirts. People were into it.

Ben Petchel: Yeah. I'm gonna make you a shirt for Father's Day that just says IWOD so you can wear that to your CrossFit gym.

Adam Kunes: Yeah I should, I should, next time I walk in there, I should be like, have you guys ever heard of I want apparel?

Ben Petchel: be like, dude, how old are you? People don't do that anymore. Like I walk, we should bring that back. That's nostalgia is coming back analogs coming back.

Adam Kunes: Shut up, man. it is we're going full full analog ⁓ where you at your own week thirty four of the road to fatherhood how's all that going

Ben Petchel: Yeah, 35 right around the corner in a couple days. So we are there. Ashley is, she's definitely slowing down a little bit this week. I mean, she's crushing it. She's done so well with this pregnancy, man. Like she's still working out, going to hit classes, of course modifying, but she's rocking the heck out of it. ⁓ I treated her to a biscuit this morning at her favorite biscuit place. So she's happy, but she's crushing it. ⁓ We're ready to go though. I think it's, it's, it's, ⁓ it's about that time, but one thing I wasn't sure about was she told me I need to go to the fire department to have another man install my baby seat in the car and I was just not okay with that. So I'm gonna install it but I'm going to have them inspect it because now when you leave with the baby they don't check your your car seat or the whatever the connection thing at the bottom. So I'll make sure that's done. That's something we're doing this weekend and ⁓ building another changing table. So we'll have an upstairs and a downstairs one, but we're crushing it, dude. How's ⁓

Adam Kunes: I love that for you. I would not, I'd feel no shame in going to the fire department. I think you do your best to get it in and then you go there and you just get the thumbs up from the firefighters.

Ben Petchel: Yeah, I'm not gonna have them install it though. Like I'm that's so

Adam Kunes: Yeah. You've got to learn.

Ben Petchel: Yeah, I gotta at least give it the freshman try and then let them grade it.

Adam Kunes: teach Amanda Fish, you know what you should do when you go you should film that and then we'll share a video somewhere.

Ben Petchel: I'll say, what do you think of me right now? Don't be like, you're a bitch. Shoot. But how's baby number three? I know you're in the grind right now.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, she's good. Both kids are sick. They both have colds and so hopefully she stays healthy, but it's good. Yeah, we're on week seven and. Yeah, it's been an adjustment, but it's been good. My wife, Julie, she's crushing it as well. I've basically taken on the role, which I was doing already, but I'm full on with the boys. So we're up early, I'm making them breakfast, getting them ready for school, and then we're out the door. And yeah, it's been good. I'm still definitely adjusting and trying to find a routine, but it is pretty awesome. The house just feels... complete now you know that having that third was like okay cool like we're we're good I'm excited about it

Ben Petchel: dialed in, ready to go. Family is complete. Next motion.

Adam Kunes: Yeah. And then I did have a really proud dad moment, which I'll quickly share last night. ⁓ my oldest son, he's seven. He got into, he's playing a bunch of sports right now. was doing soccer, basketball and tennis. And he, this is kind of funny. the refs, I think they knew the coaches of the teams and one of the coaches would just, you know, given the ref a hard time. So he gave him a technical. So it was kind of funny to see a ref giving another coach a technical with seven year old basketball.

Ben Petchel: You

Adam Kunes: And they sent Ford to the foul line and he missed his first one and then he made his second foul shot. And then he also scored a legit basket in the game and he was so stoked and it was just this cool moment. Like I just felt this energy. Like I, it was, it was cool. was the first time I really had that moment with him where he just wanted me to be proud. He wanted to make sure that daddy saw it go in. And that was, that was a really cool moment last night.

Ben Petchel: Dude, that rules. I've never experienced that, but I've been on the coaching side of things, but I couldn't imagine your kid doing it. Good job, Ford.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, I was very proud. He even said, Dad, why are you so excited about this? And I was just, it was a cool moment. was, yeah.

Ben Petchel: You're like, I gotta tell you something son. You came from my balls and now you're shooting basketballs.

Adam Kunes: I did not say that. Next time. When he's older.

Ben Petchel: Yeah, yeah, this is gonna blow your mind.

Adam Kunes: when he's older. Real quick before we get into the meat of this episode, we did create a 1-800 number. This was your idea. It was a great one. We are at 833 Dad Show and we put it out there to the audience saying, hey, if you have questions, comments, concerns just about being a dad, call 833 Dad Show and we'll answer them on these podcasts. This is not disclaimer. We're not professionals. So if you need help, call someone, call a professional. We're not those guys. This is just kind of like a fun, call us, let us know what's going on and we'll talk about it on the podcast. But we did have a call come in.

Ben Petchel: We had two. You're discounting my call.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, I'm not really counting you as a call, but like we had actually someone call our number, which I'm very excited about. I'm going to keep paying the $25 a month to keep this number. It's great that you called. I love that. someone actually called, so we'll read his voicemail. We're keeping names out of this just to protect privacy. want the number goes right to a voicemail. So Ben and I aren't picking this thing up live. You call it.

Ben Petchel: you Answer my damn question, Adam.

Adam Kunes: You're greeted by a voicemail and you just leave it and that's it. That's all we're doing.

Ben Petchel: I like what you did though. You added an Australian. So if you hear an Australian right out the gate, that is you are in the right spot.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, I just thought we'd mix it up a little bit. All right, so let me read this real quick and then we'll answer it and we'll move into the meat of the episode. But this gentleman, he's self-employed, much like us. He has a one-year-old daughter, loves her to death, and wants to spend more time with her. He's kind of in this weird position right now where he wants to continue to see his business grow, still be a dad and pour all of his time and energy into that.

Ben Petchel: Australian voices.

Adam Kunes: And he's asking how do we balance or how have we found balance between just diving into work and only focusing on that and losing maybe some of the parent time rather than only diving into the parent side and maybe falling a bit behind on work. Appreciate the call. I feel like I'm in a pretty good position to answer this, at least like share my opinion. You're not a dad yet, Ben. You're a dad in spirit right now. So I will, I'll kick this off with how I've.

Ben Petchel: Aspiring Dad.

Adam Kunes: thought about this now having kids seven four and a newborn my my hot take is that you're in this time right now where your your daughters one and you like my kids now are knocking on my door at the end of the day saying hey daddy come out and play like we want to hang out my one-year-old kids weren't doing that so I do feel like there's this It's almost easier to balance the work right now. think as long as you're on the same page with your partner on, if you need to stay and work late one night or two nights a week, it's just finding that balance. think with your partner at that age where it's not so much like your one-year-old daughter is not going to remember if you worked till 8 p.m. one night, you know, but as they do start to get older, I'm feeling more of that pressure now where it's like, how do I balance that? Like I want to play soccer with them in the yard. after work and I know they want to as well and I'm feeling that weight right now and I didn't know that at the time where it's like, hey cool, there's a balance. I think the balance should be with your partner and then the pressure around that. as long as you're showing up for them, I think you got some time. Like you're good, your daughter's only one, she's not gonna remember any of stuff. Don't be a bad dad and not get involved. My hot take is that it's more about the balance with your partner and making sure you guys are aligned.

Ben Petchel: No, I think that's fair to say. I think one of the biggest things too, coming from a non-debt is deep focus time. Like the non-negotiable two hours that like you and your partner kind of talk about like, hey, I'm going to do this from 5 a.m. to 7. Like, can you handle that? Like just talk it through. But also like get the most important thing done. Like I think I always ping pong around at putting out fires. But like when I do make that deep focus time to like move the needle on something and no interruptions, no Slack messages, no nothing, like that helps a lot because no matter what, at the end of the day, the important thing got done.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, I like that.

Ben Petchel: So, great question though, because I'm going to be taking all the advice that anybody gives on that once Baby is here and I can't wait to not keep saying like, when the baby comes, I'll be a dad, so.

Adam Kunes: I'm sending you a dad hat. It's going to be your gift.

Ben Petchel: I want the camo one, the new camo one with the gold brand new hat. If you want one that says dad on it, it's the best dad how to business.

Adam Kunes: I got you and I'm gonna sign it as well.

Ben Petchel: What are you going to sign the underneath? Under the bill.

Adam Kunes: I'm not really gonna sign it. I'm not gonna sign it.

Ben Petchel: Please don't.

Adam Kunes: ⁓ Alright, well let's get into the heart of this episode. We don't necessarily have a title for it. It's more around seasons changing. It's nearing the end of March and Ben, you're gonna be a dad before you know it. I just had my third. I think there's just kind of been a lot of conversation around how it's always evolving, it's changing, everything feels really slow but at the same time really fast and... kinda how we're processing that. Is that good? mean, you like that direction?

Ben Petchel: Yeah, I mean, it's a season of life. We're coming out of winter, which I just talked to a friend yesterday and he's like, just being hunkered up in this house. Like the kids are stir crazy. I'm a little stir crazy. Everyone's a little stir crazy. The weather's changing. This is great. I always thought like it's good for them to be in a system of like going to school and all that stuff. But like, what's your hot take with the kids coming out of school and summer break is among us? Like, are you anxious? Are you stressed or? Are you excited about what's to come? Like, is this a good season for you?

Adam Kunes: Yeah, I'm fired up. mean, a big reason why we live in Charleston is just the year round decent weather. mean, summer is a vibe here for sure. is very humid and you need to be near water and we are, which is good. But I don't know how I would have done it had we stayed up north just because with kids, like I want to get outside. I don't want to be stuck inside all day. So it's really nice just being able to be out and about moving.

Ben Petchel: We get it, Adam.

Adam Kunes: It's sunny most days here, which is great. As far as summer coming up, I'm actually excited about it. I feel like I'm stuck in this routine of every day kind of feels the same. And I get that, you know, you, when you become a parent, it's routines are big, you know, but with school, it's almost like it feels like a grind to me. And they both really like school, but It's a long day and it's the drop off, it's the pick up, it just feels like bub bub bub bub bub bub bub. So I'm genuinely excited about summer and not feeling that pressure where it's like, gotta get them up, we gotta make breakfast, we gotta get out the door. That's where I'm at. So they got a couple months left and yes, I'm very jazzed for summer and almost just like getting that pause on not having to take them every day and pick them up and everything that comes along with that.

Ben Petchel: Do like do babysitter still in the summer? Like do you have somebody come and watch the kids or are they just running reckless?

Adam Kunes: Yeah, we have a great nanny. She's been with us for four and a half years now and we want to be able to do it without her. But yeah, they'll they'll be with her and she'll take them. They're going to do a couple of different camps and sports camps. So they'll be they'll be out and about and then they'll be swimming. Obviously, we put a pool in last summer, which this is our first full summer with it, which I'm fired up about. But yeah, they're they're pretty busy. They're active and they like to be outside, which is great.

Ben Petchel: Well, I need help because I'm trying to plan vacation this last nine months. We moved to Ohio. I know what the heck were we thinking, but we're due for vacation and we're waiting for the baby to come. And I've been like, so on the fence about like scheduling vacations. Cause I was like, I actually thought you shouldn't be traveling with such a newborn, but the, information I'm finding is like, this is the best time to go. So I kind of set a hard date, like eight weeks after the baby's born, we can start to go once we get that one shot. But what's your take on eight weeks? Because that's non-negotiable for me. I don't want to be traveling too much with somebody like without their shots. But like eight weeks to two years. Like, is that a good time to travel?

Adam Kunes: Yeah, I think that the newborn stage is a great time to travel because all they do is sleep. So now's your window. I take full advantage of it in my opinion. We had Ford on his first flight when, I don't know, he was pretty young and it was easy. They sleep the whole time. Julie nursed him going up in the air and then coming down so wasn't like this drastic, he was comfortable, he was good and it's just an easy time to travel. just... I mean, even with number three, like I've not been back in that newborn mode for quite a while now. She just sleeps all day.

Ben Petchel: That's, I mean, I'm kind of excited for that. Like look down at that cute little thing. Be like, dang, I made you and you're just sleeping right now. At night. might be a little different, but going back to vacationing though, it all makes sense. My mom had four kids. It was crazy. And a old, I think it was a Woody, ⁓ minivan, but we went to Erie, which was hour and a half from Pittsburgh and then Ohio Salt Fork, which was like an hour from Pittsburgh. And it all makes sense.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Yeah.

Ben Petchel: Like it all makes sense. She was a driving. She's like four kids. I'm not doing the airport by myself with four kids. It makes sense. But for you, you have three. My mom was doing the trip solo. So that's a little different. But like, are you traveling by car or are you going in an airplane? Like, which do you prefer right now? And don't give me this Charleston is always vacation. Let's say the family wants to go somewhere else.

Adam Kunes: We've not. No, you know me. like to get out and around. We've not traveled yet with a third just because the kids are in school. So I can't speak to traveling with three, but with two, was always, if the location is over a five or six hour drive, probably six. Like I'm flying. If it's within that six hour drive window, I'm fine with driving. There are pros and cons to both. I mean I've had situations where I've been delayed for a really long time and with kids, yeah, it's a major pain in the ass. It is nice having a vehicle as well, but...

Ben Petchel: I'm calling it a seven hour drive. Six is too little, because that's two hours before the airport.

Adam Kunes: The thing is though, gotta factor in though, or the stop. So if you guys do drive somewhere, you need to factor in Ashley having to change the baby, because you can't...

Ben Petchel: Well here's my hot take, the woman goes in the backseat. Breath, feed, whatever.

Adam Kunes: Nah, dude, you can't keep driving. You can't take the baby out while you're driving, so you gotta pull over, go to a rest stop, the side of the road, whatever it may be. But if it's a six hour drive on Google Maps, factor in a minimum three stops for feedings, changing, because you're not doing that on the fly. Unless you're just a rebel, man, and you guys are just saying, we're going for it.

Ben Petchel: Are you a rest stop stopper or are you a gas station stopper? They're always like, I need to feed right now. Where are you going?

Adam Kunes: I'm, ⁓ I'm a bit of a germaphobe, as you know, because you've known me a long time. So I kind of plan my stops around what I think looks clean. After I pump gas, I have to go in and wash my hands. So it really just depends. I've driven the boys up to Pittsburgh from Charleston, which is around an 11 and a half hour drive. And we did break it up. We stopped. We did like three and a half, four hours to Davidson, North Carolina, and then drove through. And that made things a little bit easier, but they're, they're good. Like they could probably go a whole drive without being the boys. I don't know how they do it, but.

Ben Petchel: You're driving, you got the two boys going up to Pittsburgh. They're hungry. Where are you stopping? Top three.

Adam Kunes: top three. They'll pretty much eat anything. ⁓ Back to just trying to decent clean places.

Ben Petchel: So you're just, you're thinking germs right away. You're not thinking like good meal. You're thinking, where can I wash my hands?

Adam Kunes: I'm not thinking germs necessarily. I fast food is fast food. It's tough. mean my my Land Cruiser has a cooler actually in underneath the middle console, which is nice. So I was able to just pack sandwiches and load those up.

Ben Petchel: Is it more out of convenience or just because you want you don't want to see germs?

Adam Kunes: If we can keep moving, I mean, can hand back some sandwiches and we're good. Like I'd like to push all the way through. And they're usually fired up because the only time we let them have an iPad or watch, I have screens in the back of my car. Like the only time we let them do that is when they take, we take road trips. So they're good. Like put some headphones on them, let them watch a movie and they are totally locked in. They're content. They almost look forward to it, which makes things easy.

Ben Petchel: Yeah, that's awesome. My brother at the first, I think it was the first four years of both of his kids, they're one six, one just turned three. So the very beginning, their TV was always broken. So I remember Eli coming up to me and he goes, can I come over? And I go, why? He goes, is your TV working? And I was like, no, mine's broken too.

Adam Kunes: Ha! I kind of love that.

Ben Petchel: They were good. They were good with screen time. It was kind of awesome. I love that. But again, back to summer, like you want to get those kids outside. remember I'm pretty sure my mom just straight up locked the front door and we had an awning on our deck and it was like the bait. Like that was it. Like, all right, here's some snacks. Like you have food for the day. Like go out and be outside. It was crazy. Looking back now.

Adam Kunes: Yeah. Yeah, we were, mean, just, you know, in a big neighborhood growing up. And I just remember always being outside and riding bikes. And this is going to be a new season in that, you know, four to seven now, and he's going to be eight in July. It's like, you know, how far do you let him wander from the house with his buddies in the neighborhood? like back to that season thing, it's just.

Ben Petchel: Yeah.

Adam Kunes: things are like you feel like you're getting the hang of something and then a new issue arises or something you never even thought about. know, like school sports right now, or yeah, sports right now. I'm new to navigating this and the relationship with the coaches and you know, I'm not trying to throw any shade, but he had a soccer coach in the fall and she just didn't care. Like she's out there on her phone, like showing no interest in these kids and it's kind of like. how do you navigate stuff like this? it's constantly evolving, it's changing, and I do think it's cool with what we're doing at Dad Day. We're with the Slack community, we're gonna be doing a WhatsApp thread just to have just like live kind of text thread with a bunch of dads, but it's nice to just be able to pop in and ask questions because we're all going through, you're gonna be going through something very different than what I'm going through. with a seven year old, your questions are gonna be, yeah, yeah, we just had a girl. I mean, we have two boys before and we have a girl now and I'm, so it's all happening and changing and yeah, again, back to, and it's not being so, obviously Dad Day is not really self-serving at all because we're just trying to create this platform for dads to be able to connect and, you know, just feel like, okay, cool, I got somewhere where I can go. Like there is a resource here.

Ben Petchel: ⁓ yeah, I have a girl. ⁓ yeah. Yeah.

Adam Kunes: and doing it just in kind of a cool way but yeah it's seasons are changing and that's kind of the fun thing about being a parent you're learning they're learning it's fun yeah

Ben Petchel: Going back to sports coaching, I coached at a couple different high schools in Pittsburgh and there was only one high school that did this and I commend them for it. Mount Lebanon, I was coaching the high school team and the high school coaches would have to go to youth practices and the youth coaches would come to high school practices. And they would watch how we coached and then we had helped them on how they coached at the youth level. Main reason we learned how to simplify the game more by talking to youth kids. They learned what we're trying to coach at the, at the higher level. And then, you know, we kind of meshed in the middle, but we would help these dads that like never knew lacrosse because it wasn't big in Pittsburgh. And they were so receptive to it. And they also didn't teach winning. just teach learning the game in libo has always Mount Lebanon has always been one of the best schools out there in lacrosse. And I'm like, cheers to them because like they really bring that youth into the high school, but you kind of have to have good people at both sides of it. But like, it's crazy. Some of these coaches that just go out there and coach these youth, like the youth, one of the hardest things to do is coach youth. Like, and these dads have no idea what the sport is, let alone coaching. And they're like jumping in. It's kind of crazy.

Adam Kunes: Yeah, I am learning that I definitely want to get into coaching in some form or fashion. I just, I think I'd be decent at it, which sport? I don't know. I'm still kind of thinking through that, but I just want to help out. Like I, I want to bring the energy and that would be a fun thing for me to do. ⁓ which, you know, if you would've told me when the kids were three, I wouldn't even have been thinking about that. Like, ⁓ I'm coach the kids sports someday. But yeah, it's.

Ben Petchel: It's cool. That's awesome.

Adam Kunes: It's a fun time. It's a cool time and the seasons are changing rapidly and at the same time like very slowly. So as we get out of winter here and move into spring and summer, I don't know, sometimes it's just good to kind of hit a reset and say, this is where I'm at. Like this is what I'm focusing on this spring or this summer and being able talk to other dads is definitely a nice to have.

Ben Petchel: think we can wrap this conversation up with a bow that you just typed out that says, you're kind of never ready. Like the seasons change, you're never ready, you're always adapting. Like, you know, even with a seven year old, new things happen, you adjust, you make modifications, you move forward. And it all changes so fast and slow at the same time is what you kind of wrote. And I was like, dang, that hits. Like that's good stuff to put kind of a bow on this whole topic.

Adam Kunes: Hey, great job landing that plane there. Someone had to do it. If you've been listening to these or this is your first one, make sure you check us out over at dadday.co. You can sign up for our three-time-a-week newsletter. It's all free. And then if you have been listening to these and maybe you've enjoyed even a sentence or two, if you could leave us a review, a comment, that really goes a long way. So we would...

Ben Petchel: Yes. Gotcha.

Adam Kunes: We would greatly appreciate that and if you want to call the number 833-DADSHOW and leave a voicemail, we wouldn't be mad about it.

Ben Petchel: Make the call. Leave a voicemail. We're just guys being dads and we'll call it at that.

Adam Kunes: Thanks. Hey, great chatting. Our next one will be, I'm going to commit to it right now. It'll be live next week.

Ben Petchel: Let's go. I'm here for it. Hey, enjoy it.

Adam Kunes: All right, enjoy your day.