Ask me to sign books that way sometimes. Really? Yes. That's

the impact of what you're doing, fellas. It's all happening. We have, once again, our dear friends. Did we make you, you're governor or something. What was

your? I think I was. Was it governor? I think I maybe outranked David.

She needs to hold a higher office. That feels necessary. It helps the relationship continue. How are y'all doing? So happy to be back with you two. We love being in the Dadville studio. Always. We are honored.

How are things at Daystar? How are things in each of y'all's lives? How's life? What's the 411? They're

good at Daystar. We have a team in Asheville right now. That's right. Which is amazing. I'm so glad you said that. I'm so grateful they're there. And yeah, we're just kind of plodding along.

Do y'all find, I mean, I have a really dumb question, but is it seasonal at all? Do y'all see bumps in seasons or is it just kind of the same? Yes, very seasonal. Oh, because summer I bet probably thins out a little bit yes and you'll have and you have a hope town that you do yes

but people are very anxious first parent teacher conferences we see oh my gosh that

is so funny and then winter are probably our two peak times oh yeah just because it's dark and short days and everybody's kind of like yeah yeah so you do see that.

Mm-hmm.

That is so interesting. Has that been consistent throughout all your years? Like, is that an evergreen sort of rhythm? You know what I mean? I

would say for as long as I've been working with boys, I always know when parent-teacher conferences are happening. Really? Yes. It's just an identified time where parents are going to hear a lot of the things that you might imagine. You know, he's struggling to stay focused. He's struggling to sit still. He's handsy in the hallways. I've heard that one over

the years. That was John's first single. It was inspired by your adolescence. Well, much is. So much is. Hansy in the Hallway sounds like the worst Poison song in the hit, like a Motley Crue song. Yes. Hansy in the Hallway. It's a fan favorite. It is. It's a B-side. Huge in Japan, that song. Translates well. Yeah, that I would imagine. And then you kind of have Summer with Hopetown, which is great. Tell people a little bit about that, by the way.

So it's our version of a little summer retreat program. And we take, I think we had 199 kids over the course of the summer last year, second through 12th graders broken down into age group. And I always feel so self-conscious talking about it because people, it's such a rich, sweet place that people inevitably want to send their kids. And we have 2,000 families at Daystar. And we take 30 kids per group. And so it really fills up with Daystar kids. Gracious. Do

you just go off of attractiveness? Or how do the kids get in? Yeah.

Is it height?

Yes. Okay. Yes.

Do you know that?

But it's such a beautiful combination of conversations that are really emotional in nature and digging in in terms of depth with kids, but meeting faith. And so I love it. I don't think there's a lot out there like it.

Do you guys do a lot of sort of like, obviously these are all kids that you guys know pretty well from meeting with them one-on And then they're in like group settings you're doing that that would be really interesting to see sort of the dynamic change a little bit like this kid that you know what they are like you you know their stories and then you see them in the group and see what changes see what sort of like hierarchies yes develop yes that's interesting i can't even count the amount

of kids over the years that have struggled with friendships. And I'll sit with them individually and think, you're delightful. I don't get this. And then we put them in a group setting and I think, oh. There it is. You just tickle people all the time. That's really distracting. Sorry, I'm speaking.

That's my story. I shouldn't do that. Hansy on a hill. I'm assuming it's outdoors. Was that the Bill Clinton autobiography? I'm so sorry. That was just, you set it up. That sets

up politics.

Who are you guys voting for? Oh

my gosh.

Oh my gosh. Okay, so today, like John and I were talking and obviously we've had y'all on so many times. And so the thing that I'm always terrified of is that because this is sadly the way my brain works is I'm going to ask like the exact same question we asked last night. And so as we were talking about it, I was like, maybe it'd be fun. John and I agreed to maybe focus a little on parent stuff. Cause you know, we always talk about kids. That's, that's y'all's specialty, but like, you know, what would it be like to kind of maybe move the lens a little up? Because we're taller as parents. So maybe it's just you move up from the little sweet faces to the more grizzled, gray-haired faces. And Annie had listened to – do y'all ever listen to The Daily? You know, it's the new york times podcast thing and so she came in the other day and um was you know just like i gotta take this podcast and actually no i came and she was listening to it on her like out loud on her phone you're like just as she was full and close and uh she's super domesticated and um she and i and so i kind of found myself sitting there listening because they were talking about, um, I'm going to read this because I don't want to get around. It was intensive parenting. I don't know if you guys heard about this. It was really interesting, but, uh, some of the, what they talked about was like, it was prompted by the surgeon general's warning about parenting being so stressful that it's bad for your health. And so, you know, I was talking to Annie about that, John and I were talking about that. But, like, I wonder, as we think about parents, you know, obviously you guys deal in so much of the kids stuff that's going on. But you still have a lot of parents, too. What are y'all's thoughts on that in 2024 and as we're about to get into 2025? What's sort of like how stressful parenting has become? Do you feel like it's always been that way? Do you feel like something is making it more acutely that way than ever? I'd love y'all's thoughts on that.

And the Surgeon General issuing a warning like that is super, I mean, has that ever happened before?

Not that I know of. Not any time I remember. Yeah.

I'll jump in first and then you share thoughts. I would say to that i was and was not surprised i think i wasn't i was surprised that it had reached that place that the u.s surgeon general would categorize it in that way i wasn't surprised in that it's in keeping with everything we've been seeing with parents over the last five to ten years, and that parenting has become unbelievably stressful, competitive. We could fill in the blanks with a lot of things that we were feeling all the evidence of it, and even seeing evidence as we think about, you know, our dear friend here, the governor of Dadville, has written amazing books on kids and anxiety. She's with us today. She's with us today. And it's often asked, you know, what are the contributing factors? And we certainly know that anxiety is contagious. And so as parents are carrying more stress and more worry, we've certainly seen the spillover effect of that on kids in ways that we weren't surprised to see it reach that kind of place, but jolting

to think it registered in the way it did. So what's precipitated that change? Like, what do y'all feel like has been, I mean, I feel like there's probably some really obvious answers, but you

know, I mean, I think one thing is if you think about, and we're older than you all are, but when I was growing up, there was one parenting book by Dr. Spock. And I think his sagest advice was smile at your children a lot, which my mom took to heart. And Kathleen and I are told that we smile a lot. And maybe that's why I'm a sister. But now, I mean, I think part of it is we are inundated with voices speaking to us about all things yes including parenting and there have never i mean on one hand i think we would both say parents have never been as intentional as they are today in this really beautiful way and at the same time they've never been abdicating to experts more wow because they're all

over your social media. Every aspect, every area of life seems to be getting more intense, just like parenting right alongside. Yes, exactly. I agree. It's like everyone is deferring to experts in whatever field it is.

Yes. I had a mom, I was doing a parent consult, which we do a lot where it's just meetings with parents. And she said to me this week, I was in a really hard moment with my daughter and she was in a terrible place and being really disrespectful to the people that we were on fall break with. And I didn't know what to do. And so I hopped on a parenting experts app and I was talking to the AI bot about what to do.

Oh, wow. Really? I'd be so curious to read that transcript. Wouldn't

you? I know, me too. But this is a really silly example, but I have a friend who is a phenomenal decorator. And when I moved into my new house, she came over and helped me hang almost all my pictures. And a month later, I got a new piece of art and I didn't feel like I could hang it by myself. And I think that's what's happening. I mean, I spoke to a precious mom and dad just this week. And I mean, she, the smallest hurdle, she would say, I just don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I kept thinking I need to talk to Sissy. And I thought, oh, I don't want you to feel that. I mean, it almost makes me feel like we don't need to have more conversations because I want you to trust yourself. And I think this expert driven world is causing all of us in different avenues to doubt our own intuition. And we talk about so much that a parent's superpower is your intuition. God has given it to you, and you know your child better than anyone.

Well, and David, you mentioned this, and I love, I hate this word, but I love how descriptive it is, the competitiveness of it. Which, can you speak to that? Because what a great word to describe parenting in 2024, you know? I know. Or for those who are listening, 2035, I'm sure this will carry on. I hate the thought of that fitting

as well as it does. But I think, you know, we have watched this acceleration happen with a lot of high school kids. And we talk about thinking back to when we were applying for college. And I don't remember ever thinking for a moment, I won't get in somewhere. Like, I might not get in the place I most want to go, but I'll get in somewhere. And we sit with kids nowadays who are terrified they won't get in anywhere, that it's become so competitive. And how that spills over to parents thinking we need to start the right extracurriculars we need to get them in the right preschool we need to all the different ways that i think we build toward that moment early on that makes it so competitive we sit with families all the time who've relocated to nashville and talk about how unbelievably difficult it is to get into a school and a preschool. And so all the different ways that I think that trickles down and the fear I'll hear parents voice of, you know, if, if he doesn't play, you know, this level of sports at this point, he'll never be able to play in high school. And so all the ways I think that's building over that make it feel more competitive than it's ever felt. And I think create this panic and urgency that I just don't want parents to carry on the front side of parenting. I don't want to be carried at any stage of parenting, but particularly that early. John,

how much fun do we have? A

surprising amount of fun. I don't

want to interrupt.