Believe it or not, the Best of Both Worlds podcast turned three over the past week or so! I well remember seeing Sarah’s post, in summer 2017, that she was thinking of starting a podcast. Now more than 160 episodes in, we’ve really enjoyed talking careers and family from our perspectives as people who love both!
This episode talks about school options for the fall, and how a family with two parents working from home might make kid coverage work. Sarah talked about how she managed a recent work day without childcare (short answer: it worked for one day, but was stressful and wouldn’t work long term).
We also talk about some of our favorite episodes from the last year. If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, we would appreciate your leaving a rating/review!
So here’s my suggestion for having an uninterrupted conversation with your husband without a screen (sort of). We have introduced our 8 year old to listening to podcasts or audio books whilst out walking or scooting. He happily wears his headphones and is engaged by something interesting and we get to walk and talk in peace. It looks a little anti-social perhaps but given that we are spending plenty of time together at meal times etc. I don’t think it’s a big deal.
@Louise – this is a great idea!
I was going to suggest something similar to what Louise suggested if their kids are younger and ride in a stroller. My best conversations w/ my husband happen when we take him for a stroller walk. We don’t have the distractions of technology and things to do around the house. But if your kids are older, that might be harder! Also, if the person who asked the question has child care, I think day dates are a good idea if they can swing it. Our son goes to daycare so on our anniversary we took the afternoon off and went for a hike at a state park. I can’t imagine us getting a babysitter for the next year+ due to covid so I think most of our ‘dates’ will have to happen during the daytime. We are expecting a 2nd baby in December so I need to have us schedule another day date before the weather gets too cold so we can check out another park or something like that!
Without looking through the archives and just going off memory, my favorite episode was the Emily Oster episode. But I am a huge fan of her so am biased!
Repeat after me: “3 times makes a habit”! Before the pandemic, I was lucky to have a “time makeover” with Laura. One issue I needed help with was fitting in time with my husband now that my kids were older and never went to bed. I’m forever grateful for the advice that it need not be every day to be a habit. Three times a week is doable. Last fall we settled on one lunch date, one evening happy hour out, and one low key porch-date at home talking when kids were told not to bother us. This has proven a very adaptable COVID schedule as well. On Fridays, a local cater delivers cocktails and a charcuterie box to our house for happy hour and hubby and I escape to the porch off our master. A look forward to that delivery every week. Kids know not to bug us until dinner time. We still manage takeout lunch/picnic sans kids weekly and often instead of a night out we’ll plan some time on the water without our kids, either boating or paddle boarding. Since we had already made “three times” a habit each week, when COVID hit we just adapted that same schedule to different circumstances. Thanks Laura!
@Leah – so glad this advice kept working during COVID!!