Episodes
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Parenting: How It Started... How It's Going — 53
The Martini Shot It's the last episode of I Shouldn't Have Had Kids and we're taking a minute to look back at how things started and how they're going now—with parenting, pandemicing, and podcasting! How it started and how it's going with kids: From baby blowouts to graduating seniors who remind…
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Blended Holidays — 52
Trying to make magic and create memorable holiday traditions—especially for a newly blended family—is a pretty tall order. It takes intention, patience, and a willingness by everyone to embrace the idea that families come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes, it also takes a lot of wine. This week...
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Temper Tantrums: They're Not Just for Presidents — 51
This week's episode is inspired by a POTUS unwilling or unable to accept the facts. Indeed, you can probably currently find him prone on the floor of the Oval Office, pounding his feet and fists, screaming, "I won't go! I won't! I won't go, and you can't make me!!" If you've ever parented a 2- or...
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Adulting — 50
Millennials are so... special. Believe us. We have one. In the Millennial generation, everybody gets a ribbon and everything gets a sticker. They even have a word for growing up. It's called "adulting." In fact, there's a book and about a million articles all about the subject. There's really...
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Imagine That: Kids and their Imaginary Friends — 49
Imaginary friends and freaky role in the family Uh, honey? Who are you talking to? Cue Twilight Zone music as your son or daughter turns around slowly, looks at you, cocks their head and asks, "Can't you see him, mommy?" What does it mean when a child has an imaginary friend? One with whom they...
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Tales of Terror: Little Ghouls on Halloween
A woman runs down a dark street screaming in terror. She races up the steps to her best friend's house and pounds on the door. As the door creaks opens, the woman pulls out her (hot glue) gun and trains it on her friend. "Hot toddy. Stat!" she pants. "Oh, and I need to borrow some orange felt. I...
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Chores and Allowance: Working Hard for the Money
On episode 47: Chores and allowance are on our minds Is it a bad idea to pay kids to help around the house? A house they live, eat and sleep in? A house where their parents work, on their behalf, from sun up to sun down? This week, we unpack the ins and outs of rewarding kids for what is the…
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All in the (Extended) Family – 46
On episode 46: Grandparents steal the show! Oh, baking pies with grandma or building birdhouses with grandpa might sound like a quintessentially grandparental moment, but let's not forget the somewhat more interesting tidbits about the role of these important family members. For instance: Grandma...
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Mental Health: Winter Is Coming – 45
This week we tackle the thing on everyone's mind: How can we protect the mental health of our children during the dark months of winter? Yes it's going to be H-A-R-D. But you are absolutely capable of weathering the storm that's brewing. We've collected sage advice from experts—because god knows...
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Exercise Your Authority – 44
Exercise. They need it. We know it. But how to make it happen? Why does Minecraft win out over biking, Super Smash Bros beat a neighborhood run, or the promise of Among Us lure our kids back early from a summer swim? We know exercise is good for them, but what's the magical spoon full of sugar…
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Teenage Dating: The Rules of Engagement – 43
One day they're in diapers; the next they're nervously picking up their first date, standing on the doorstep with sweaty palms because they're about to meet the parents. You, meanwhile, are sitting behind the wheel of the car trying not to stare. No, you're not stalking your child. You're…
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Quarantine Quarrels – 42
Parenting in normal times is hard enough, but then you add in a little pandemic, a three-state inferno, political division the likes we've never seen, deadly policing, and for a little kick how about the start of a new school year with, yet again, distance learning and no one around to supervise....
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What Do You Meme? – 41
It all started with Baby Cha-Cha. That creepy little dancing baby was the first modern meme and made its splash on Ally McBeal waaaay back in 1998. Nope. We're not kidding. 1998. We could never have imagined how that little meme would jump from television to the internet and spawn today's teenage...
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Dating After Divorce – 40 (The Ruby Episode)
Knock, knock. Who’s there? Mommy’s new boyfriend. Mommy's new boyfr– wait. Whut??!! It’s our 40th show—the Ruby episode—and we are celebrating with a topic hand-selected by one of our OG PodSquad listeners! How in the world do you introduce your children to a new love interest? Let’s get real....
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Love They [NextDoor] Neighbor – 39
When the social media platform NextDoor came on the scene, it seemed perfect. It provided a place for people to connect locally, share neighborhood information, and look out for one another. You know, a total love-they-neighbor kind of opportunity. But that Nirvana was short-lived. The platform…
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Puppy Love and Puppy Loss – 38
There is little a parent can do when it comes to teen love. You can't pick your child's crush because that would just be weird. And if you don't like said crush, well, you're out of luck on that one, too. No teen wants to hear a parent's criticism of their heart's true desire. About the only…
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Back to School? – 37
Back to school hasn't changed much for decades. The styles have been updated, but the old standbys still mark the start of a new year: Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencils A 3-ring binder Glue sticks A lunchbox 2 Masks A case of hand sanitizer Wait. Whut? This year's back-to-school shopping list looks a...
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Lessons from the Crib – 36
You are a parenting ninja. You know it. Your friends know it. And, someday, your children will know it, too. So you're feeling a little cocky one day, throwing down wisdom you feel sure will shape your little darling into an amazing human being, when all of a sudden, BAM!! The tables turn. You...
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Soiling the Nest – 35
You spend nine months nesting, making your everything just right so that your beautiful newborn will know, from the very beginning, that home will always be the safe place. Then, 18 years later, that little chick you've been loving and coddling and providing for graduates and you burst with…
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Game On – 34
With so many kids stuck at home, every parent under the sun is looking for ways to keep them entertained. Hold our beer. We're talking games this week–from Minecraft to Ms. Pacman, Racing Demons to Poker–and everything in between. What keeps your kids entertained? Which games did you love growing...
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Play Ball! – 33
It starts out so innocently. Your baby boy or girl joins a team of 5-year-olds running onto the soccer field and chasing down a ball for the sheer joy of it. Before you know it, however, you are shelling out bank for private lessons, equipment, fees, and an airline ticket to some ball field in...
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Don't Take No for an Answer – 32
Kids hear "no" from the time they can reach out and rip an earring out of mommy's ear until the night they ask an adult to buy them alcohol for the senior prom. Who knew it was all training for the biggest "no" of them all? "No, honey, you can't have a social life during a pandemic." Ouch. It's...
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Crappy Kids' Shows – 31
Riddle me this Batman: Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? The world has produced incredible kids' cartoons and live action shows over the years: Mr. Rogers, Avatar, Sesame Street, She-Ra, and the like. They are shows that inform, entertain, educate, break the mold, and make us think...
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I Know You Are, but What am I? – 30
How can it be that children around the world—especially siblings—argue about the same things, over and over and over again? Do these fight starters sound familiar? "I call shot-gun!" "Heyyyyy. You ate the last cookie!" "You're looking at me. Why are you looking at me?!" "That's my sweater. Did…
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Pet Peeves – 29
"I promise I'll feed it and walk it and scoop poop—whatever you want me to do. Puh-leeeeeze, mom!?!" So begins the everyday saga of parents folding when a child begs for a pet. You know the rest of the story, don't you? That's right. The only people doing the feeding, walking and scooping are the...
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Pomp and Shitty Circumstances – 28
Ahhhh, high school graduation. Senior skip day. Signing yearbooks. Commencement pranks. Celebrating with family and friends. Parties (the kind with grandma as well as the kind with a keg). Saying goodbye to friends, teachers, mentors and childhood. Then there's graduation 2020. Damn you,...
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Family Traditions – 27
Goodnight Moon. Secret handshakes. Saturday morning waffles. Every family has traditions that help define its culture. Ours has been defined, in part, by an annual, multi-family camp-out in the San Juan Islands. TBH, the kayaking, crabbing, campfires, sing-a-longs and potlucks on an island…
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My Kid's Better Than Your Kid – 26
Do you know a parental one upper? You know, the parent whose kid is a little faster, a little smarter, or a little more talented than anyone else's? It's the parent who truly believes that her own child's s**t doesn't stink, even though everyone else in the room is like, "Ew! What's that smell?!"...
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I'm sorry. You did what? – 25
Parenting is hard, sure, but mostly because kids sometimes do the dumbest things! This week, stories from grown-ass adults who did things when they were young that are at least as questionable as the stunts their own children pull. Give a listen and you'll be entertained with stories about…
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Sneaky Teens – 24
Sneaking out of the house is a rite of passage for lots of teens. And they'll tell you that it's as easy as 1-2-3. Step 1: Slip out of bed and use an extra blanket to create a "body" under the bed covers. Step 2: Army crawl out your bedroom door, down the hall and out the front door, steering…
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I Spell Stress C-O-V-I-D – 23
As if raising kids wasn't stressful enough: let's layer on a pandemic while we're at it. Then ask parents to work, teach, cook and discipline all at the same time. Oh, and don't forget the dog. The dog must have a walk. As the pandemic wears on, parents are beginning to implode like faulty...
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Bow Down to Teachers – 22
This week's episode is an ode to the Mighty Teacher. Most of us didn't really understand just how essential these hard-working men and women were to our kids, our daily routine, and our ever-loving parental sanity until COVID-19 hit. Without the support of teachers, we parents have been left to...
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Blended Weddings – 21
Planning a wedding typically means making a boatload of decisions in rapid-fire succession. When you're a blended family, however, you can add an additional layer of complexity to the situation. Here are the kinds of extra questions we had to deal with when we said our "I do's": Since it's our...
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Food Fight – 20
Quarantined at home with COVID-19 means every parent is now the host of their own cooking show—and kids are the audience. Talk about a tough crowd. What do you do when said audience turns their nose up at rice and beans, your signature pandemic dish? Don't they know there are starving kids in...
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Summer Fever – 19
Remember when spring meant a million end-of-the-year school events, figuring out who would watch the kids for the summer, and a frantic dash to get their summer activities selected, booked, and organized? We used to complain about the headache of it all but now we'd give our right arms—both of...
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Coping with Covid – 18
They say laughter is the best medicine. Well, we call BS. A vaccine against this damn virus is truly the best medicine. Until it arrives, however, we'll have to make do with a little laughter and a lot of alcohol. And Doritos. There must be Doritos. This week, a look at how this pandemic has…
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A Covid–19 Quarantine PSA from Lola
Our middle son, who's nickname for the podcast is Lola (if you are scratching your head over that one listen to the show trailer), has a word or two for those of you who think that a backyard neighborhood BBQ is good idea in these days of STAY AT HOME. If you think that every teen and…
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Raising Boys vs Raising Girls – 17
While the world spins out of control, we hunker down in the Bombcast Studio to compare notes on the differences between raising boys and raising girls. And don't you even suggest that there's no difference between the two! Could we have spent an hour talking about Covid-19, lamenting the demise…
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Sharenting – 16
Sharenting Covid-19 has turned the world on its ear! Schools are closed. The world is working remotely. And Lola is home from college until the next school year. WTF? So what do parents do? We jump online to post "home school" schedules, photos of our kids being adorable, and everything in…
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Quarantined with Kids – 15
Covid-19 is turning our lives upside down and inside out. There's a weirdo run on toilet paper, schools are taking classrooms online, and many parents here in the Pacific Northwest are quarantined with kids. Sounds hilarious, right? To be honest, when you are podcasting from the epicenter of the...
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Nannies and daycare and sitters, oh my! — 14
For some of us, having our hearts ripped out and eaten by cannibals would be better than leaving our children with relative strangers when we return to work after parental leave. Others, however, do a happy dance all the way to the car, envisioning an entire workday without wiping snot, poop, and...
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Parent Volunteers Deserve A Special Place in Heaven – 13
Parent volunteers are saints. In fact, we think there's a special place in heaven for every damn person who has ever served as President of the PTSA. And if you ask the most dedicated of these angels the secret to their success, they will all give you the same answer. Alcohol. All drinking—I mean...
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Near Misses: When Kids Don't Engage Brain Before Acting – 12
For the love of god, why don't kids look before they leap? Let's be honest. Parenting is a journey punctuated by heroic endeavors to save our children from themselves. In this week's episode, you'll hear about concussions, car wrecks, and balls with bee stings. Ouch! If you've ever looked at your...
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Same-sex Parenting – 11
If you're straight, you might not know the kinds of hoops that same-sex parents jump through in their effort to raise and protect their kids. Never ones to shy away from the taboo, Bonnie and Ellen tell you all about it in this episode of I Shouldn't Have Had Kids. It will probably blow your…
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Crime and Punishment – 10
Let's be honest. All kids make bad choices, break house rules, and openly defy parental boundaries. It's kind of their job. Our job is to let them know that they've stepped in the proverbial pile of dung—and to make sure they feel the sting of their bad behavior. In this week's episode, we get...
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Homework Hell – 9
It's the Great American Parenting Nightmare. Too much homework. It turns households into battle grounds, kids into sleep-deprived zombies, and parents into puddles of frustration. Are we wrong? By the time kids get to high school they are juggling after school activities, about 3 hours of…
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Traveling with Kids: Are We There Yet? – 8
Planes, trains and automobiles. Regardless of how you do it, traveling with kids is always a crap shoot. It's not like they stop arguing, eating, or costing an arm and a leg just because you've left on your grand adventure. In fact, sometimes they do even MORE of all that stuff when you leave…
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That Takes the Cake – 7
How do you know when you've gone too far for a child's birthday party? How about when they bring in the snakes. Some of us evidently operate under the impression that the perfect birthday celebration will lead to the perfect life. Then we hate ourselves in the morning. File it under "What Was I...
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College Bound – 6
Send in the S.W.A.T. team! Preparing, applying, and paying for college has handcuffed our family and is holding us hostage. On this week's podcast: A California college tour uncovers collegiate stash Tigger competes against some of the best voices in the nation And we wonder how the hell families...
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Gift-Giving Fails – 5
Wrapping up 2019 with gift-giving fails When it comes to gift giving during the holidays and beyond, we have failed just as often as we've succeeded—especially with our kids! On deck this week, you'll find us: putting together a trampoline in the wee hours of Christmas morning under the soft glow...