Jeff:
Here’s a fun topic for today. And that’s how do you really enjoy your kids? Well, I guess this is a two part topic. The first one is self evident that you should actually enjoy being with your kids. I think one of the ways to build super strong bonds, to be parent attached, not peer attached as a book like Hold Onto Your Kids and some other things have talked about, is to actually not just do the hard stuff of parenting, but actually just be friends with your kids at some level, enjoy being with them. Be thankful for them and do activities with them that are just enjoyable for you as they are for them.

And one tip that I have, that I want to hear what Jeremy thinks about, is that we like to do this where we kind of do parents specific ones where, I mean, like I have my things I do with the kids that Alyssa’s not really a part of. And not because she shouldn’t or can’t be, it’s actually because she doesn’t want to be. And one of those is sushi, right? So we’ll go get sushi with the kids. The kids love sushi. The kids love poke. We live in Hawaii. So we have some of the best there is.

Jeremy:
Alyssa doesn’t like sushi? Or what’s going on there?

Jeff:
No, she hates it. She hates it. She’s like-

Jeremy:
Really?

Jeff:
Yeah, she just thinks it’s like the worst thing ever. I think if you even say that word, she starts getting nauseous. So it’s very much a… And that’s hard for me because I’m like, “Man, I love it.” It’s my favorite. It’s what I want to have for my birthday and everything. But so first of all, it’s one idea just rope your kids into things like that. So then you can kind of have an excuse to go do things that are kind of also selfish because you want them. But no, the real reason is… And then I’ve just noticed doing this over time. Sushi kind of turned into our fun little thing we do with Dad. And there’s something about that, when you have kind of these special activities that you do with Mom or you do with Dad, I don’t know. It just starts compounding meaning, it starts having a really fun, unique purpose to it. And I think those memories down the road will be really strong.

Another couple… Two other ones that are really easy for us too is I paddleboard with our kids, well not Keenan yet. With Kinsley, and that’s kind of my thing with her. And then even like trips to Home Depot, that’s a classic Dad one, right. But we make that fun. They get to go on the carts and all that stuff. And that’s not something Alyssa does. So like we kind of have our things. We have like three or four things that I try to always envelop them into when I know I want to or need to do it. And I’ve just seen it has a really, really fun, cool element of like a date type thing, cool bonding and all that. I think’s really important, but I don’t know how you guys would do this or what you think about that Jeremy.

Jeremy:
Yeah. I love this idea. And I think part of what this is, is I think a lot of dads feel ton of pressure to sort of do little kid activities all the time with especially their young children. And there’s sort of this belief we have to sort of call it out. We called it out before. It is not your job as a parent to constantly entertain your children. And one of the things that you can really do in this area to make it way easier on you, deepen your relationship like Jeff was describing, is really wrap your kids up and suck them into what you’re into, right? Like get them excited about what you love. And sometimes it’s a hit. Sometimes it’s a miss, but if you can make it a hit, man, now you have something that you can bond over for years and years.

Jeremy:
And so some of the things for us when our kids were really little, I really love to go to parks with my kids. That was so anytime if April had a really bad day and she’s like, “I need you to take the kids.” I’d be like, awesome. And I take all the kids, we had two or three parks close to our house. I’d go, I’d set them all up. I would even sometimes if it was for hours, I would just bring my computer. I’d work. I’d go play with the kids. I’d work. It was like just part of what we did and it was super fun, super easy. I loved it.

Now that our kids are older, one of the big things I love to do with my kids is take them out one on one to the different little foodie restaurants around Cincinnati.

Jeff:
Yes, oh, I can’t wait for that.

Jeremy:
April… She loves to have those experiences more relationally, but she’s not super into flavors and tastes at an Epic level like I am. And a few of my kids are as well. And so that’s a really big one. Pickleball is another one we’re just getting into as a family. I grew up playing it. It’s just starting to become a thing out here in Kentucky. So there’s some courts that are opening up. So we’re doing that thing. So yeah, just a lot of those kinds of things, find those things that you love to do.

And sometimes I’ll even, I’ve made lists of art museums, Elisa loves those or different kids that have different things that they really are into that I’m into. Certain books, certain shows, certain movies, certain experiences, things that were magical in your childhood. Things that you like. Football, me and Sidney totally bond over football. So anyway, I love this topic. Definitely don’t make it all about, “Oh, I’ve got to play three-year-old games all the time.” That’s not necessarily true.