I've mistaken more than once on what episode we're going to do for what agenda. And I felt really proud of an agenda sent to you guys like that's not today. So

we had a couple of those. Whoops, something new. But with that, we don't have any news or announcements or beats in the streets this time. So we're going to just jump right into our our kind of topic here. Actually, maybe I apologize. I forgot. Tommy, you've got something I think here. We're winding down on summer um, it's getting close to time to send our children back to school. So stommy, Tommy, you maybe have a little story here personally around some, uh, experiences at home around the word from home. This age. So again,

my, my kid, the oldest is, I'm going to say seven with 90% confidence. 90%

certainty. Okay. And

then two other young ones and they're all going to be in school, the youngest will be in kindergarten or pre-K. I really can't wait to miss them. I can't wait to miss

them. No, they say, distance makes cargo funder.

I can't miss you if you're still here.

So.

No, but it's just that time of year and we've done a lot of good things with them. And Not a lot of summer camps, but my two oldest ones I wrote a contract with them. And it's basically what they have to do every day. So basically, if they want to do Nintendo or T. Well, they have to like my oldest just to do 30 minutes of her workbook 30 Italian, 30 minutes of reading, yada, yada, yada. It's been good.

60 minutes of learning Power BI.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I'm in the cold. I

tried to add that and Sarah's like, slow

down, slow down.

There's enough screens.

She doesn't even know how to use the keyboard yet. You can't have her doing things on Power BI yet. But

we're getting to that point now. We're, I think we a week away, uh, the end of August for here in Chicago. The kids are, I think even at each other, they're realizing they need to go back to school and they don't know it. And it's really hot. There's that, there's that moment where everyone's getting short with each other, but you still love each other, but you're still like really short with each other. What'd

you call it? Like stir crazy, little stir crazy. Didn't any change of scenery at some point? I

think so. Everyone's personality slightly changing and not for the better. So

your kids are younger, Tommy, you're seven and younger and Seth, your kids are younger too as well. Right. Eight and 10. Are yours going for a similar experience at this point? We've, they've been they've been pretty good. Thank

good. I mean because they've we've been keeping

them busy a lot.

Yes a lot of like little summer camp summer school. This helped. Stuff outside like couple days a week going to you know other places so realistically they're not they haven't been around the house a ton. Yeah so's, I think we've had a good balance this year. We had some family come in, we went on a trip, you know, all this kind of stuff to stir it up as opposed to it's the same thing every day. At which point I would, I've been there before. Yep. Ready, ready to send them. This, this, this summer kind of went fast. It went quick from a busy perspective. So I mean, don't get me wrong, I work from home 99% of the time and over summer having kids in and out of the house and screaming and yelling is slightly distracting when you're trying to deal with the day-to But I think they've they've weathered it well. Parents are always happy when the quiet comes I think for the part of the day.

I agree. Our kids are a little bit older. My youngest is 10, my oldest is 14. There comes a pattern where they start getting involved with doing their activities. So they're leaving for a little bit more like my son is in cross country, he does some running. So he's leaving in the morning to go do some running exercise stuff with it with the team. And so there's some more time where we have a little bit more distance for things. Also, he's been working at a local restaurant nearby here. And so that's also been taking larger chunks out of his time. So it's been a different dynamic for us this summer as well as the kids have been leaving for more extended periods of time doing activity things. And I think that's kind of you know, you want you grow them up and they kind of leave the nest a little bit and they kind of do their own thing for a while. So this is part of, you know, that growing up process and and feel like, yeah, they're, they're expanding their wings. Although the job thing has kept us kind of close to home. So typically, you would go on a lot of trips or take some adventures. And so if there's a job involved, you're not as inclined to leave the house all the time, or we're not inclined to like, you know, we have to we have to get someone so that, you know, the work with them pick them up and these things. So we're not able to as easily let's just go see family for a weekend or go for a little trip or a long weekend here or there.

Yeah. I have a question for the two of you just briefly because this is the first year, at least for three of the days that all the kids are going to be out of the house. And that's going to be incredibly new for us. So one will be in pre-K, this is going to be the first time.

It's a half day, right? Half day out of the half day.

Yeah, but still, there's gonna be three hours that they're all gonna be out. Is there any in between between like what I'm talking about where I'm like, I'm going crazy. And then Mike, I feel like I'm hearing the extreme of like, no one's here. Look, no, I don't think it's

I don't think it's that I mean, are my kids to be perfectly clear, they still are home a lot. Yeah, they still get on each other's nerves. We still have fighting and picking and, you know, whining at things. Like, so I wouldn't say I'm that far removed from where you are. They have gotten a lot more, as they age, they're able to do more on their own a lot more. But, you know, with that comes just different challenges. So friends and other things could become more of an increased talking point with the kids as they age. So yeah, I don't think you'd say I'm never lonely. It's also really, really nice that we get to work from home most of the time. And I can just show up upstairs and have lunch with them and say hello and see them as they're kind of going in and out of the house. So I do really enjoy that too, having the family so close. And this is something we wouldn't experience if we were working from offices and buildings. Like that's just something that wouldn't happen. So just to be very, I feel very fortunate that we're in an industry that allows or has the ability for us to be able to work from home. Still earn good money, have a schedule, a normal calendar, like everyone else would at work. I don't commute. And I don't know if I'd ever want to go back to an actual office job because I don't think I really want to have to spend 20 to 30 minutes in a car going to and from work just to get there and then start working. So that's an extra hour of your day just to travel. And that doesn't count for any of your actual time.

it's true for everybody but in certain roles like those those extra hours in a day are huge the truth like and and and not having to waste them in a car is is value that's a lot of value I would say I think your wife is going to enjoy it because it'll give her a window of getting all the stuff that done Around the house that is just insanely difficult more difficult with kids around especially young ones With you, I doubt you'll notice because it'll be a blink of an eye like you getting it like with me It's like okay. See you later kids and then before you know, it's like they're already walking back through the door and look where did my day go? Yeah, you know cuz I mean your, my days are just busy. Yeah. I would, I'll say this one thing

too. I think that bigger change comes when everyone's in school for full days. I think that's a bigger momentum than just like one person for half a day. It's because believe it or not, I mean, even though they're gone for three hours or four hours for the morning pre-k You're still doing a lot of playing to get them there and get them home and pack lunches and do things and so there's still a lot Of effort involved. I think with that. I feel like it's more of a Of a time change when they're there at school all day long when everyone leaves and then everyone comes

back.