Welcome to this is Den episode 81. I am on tour. I am coming to Pittsburgh very soon and we have added a city. I'm so excited Syracuse, New York.

Full Weiler Nation show up big in Syracuse, New York. That's the same leg of the tour where I will be going to Albany. Oh no, I've been told it's Albany Albany and Hartford.

I can pronounce Hartford. Well, can I, can I though? Can I though? So that that's exciting news that we added a show in Syracuse and Pittsburgh is it looks like that is going to be a wild show. I'm really looking forward to it.

You can get your tickets at J F comedy tour.com. That is J F comedy tour.com. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. Oh, sorry. I forgot your your mystery voice there. Shady Ray joining us as producer as always. You guys saw we were out at my mom's birthday this past weekend and it was great on the name tags my mom put how she knew everyone and she just listed Shady as family, which is about right that felt about right today. I am going to this has been a long time coming.

So you guys know we always homeschooled and my kids are now all in school, all of them my two oldest go to a private school and my four youngest go to public school.

So if there is one thing I know about it's school and it's the pros and cons of different schools and you guys know how analytical I am. I analyze everything to death. I think heavily about everything.

So I'm going to give you the real honest scoop about kids and school. I'm going to I'm going to tell you what I honestly think about our experience homeschooling about our public school experience and about our private school experience.

And even if you don't have kids in school, I think you'll find this interesting because this is if you know parents at all, if you ever speak to parents.

These are issues that are on a lot of parents minds and so this is relevant to people you know I promise. Now if you don't know parents.

If you say yeah, I don't I actually don't have a single friend acquaintance or neighbor who is a parent, then actually you can skip this one and you'll be fine. This is not really relevant to your life.

Unless you would like to hear about the crushing cross that is managing email for six kids going to three different schools that if you want to be thankful for something in your life, you can stay and listen for that.

Okay, but first I just have to note that I am coming to you from the week of the great Instagram Facebook outage that we all did you now shady. Did you see Instagram yesterday? Did you try to

I'm not on social media now. Okay, so shady is taking a shady is taking a social media break because she is very healthy. This is a good thing to do. Right. Yeah, it is okay. Wait, actually, is it helping like is your life better from not being actually really don't think that anymore.

What is it like it's so you just feel more peace with your own life. I just feel like I'm not on my phone as much. Well, who cares about being on your phone. I mean if it's good. Like let's say you were on your phone and every time you click a button, you made $500. You'd like being on your phone. Right. So what is it about your phone that was it. You know what like I get stuck using it. I start using it and I keep using it and I keep using it. Yeah, but the real world is so boring.

You know, it's like they're interesting things on your phone. I'd like to make the case for. Yeah, I'm just not sure. Has it added piece. I'm just trying to get to honestly, it hasn't done much. I wish it's done. Well, honestly, I feel like I've missed out on a bunch, but also it's like I haven't been thinking about it as much. And so I think that that's a healthy thing. Not worrying about what other people are doing as much. I think what people usually go to with this is that it's

it's a comparison thing. It's a comparison game. And actually, you know what, I'm going to share something different than I than I plan to share with you. There is, there's in general, I have gotten to the point that I don't too much play the comparison game on social media. I don't know. It may be it's a special gift. I've, you know what it is. No, I've just gotten really cynical. I just know enough about enough people who look really perfect.

And you know what, Shady, though, I don't, I don't even, I wouldn't say that they are fake. Because I think that some people have different comfort levels of what they are meant to share online. And I fully agree with people owning that comfort level and leaning into that.

Like just a second ago, I was checking Twitter. And there's this great account T with Tolkien. And she's a big fan. She's a mom. She has kids. She has a lot going on in her life. And she is also a big fan of J. R. R. Tolkien, Tolkien. You know, I've never fully figured out how to pronounce his name. But, you know, and that's and that could get you X communicated as a Catholic. Yeah, the Lord of the Rings guy. So she's T with the Lord of the Rings guy. And, and that that's her thing. She talks about that. She does not give really any detail.

About her marriage, about her kids. It is just her fandom of this one guy, the guy whose name I struggled to pronounce who wrote Lord of the Rings. And that is her calling. She is not called to share at all. And then meanwhile, my friend live Harrison, who was on my radio show a lot.

And she's been on social media. She's like, I had weight loss surgery and my wounds are infected. And I'm in the darkest pit of depression. And it's awesome because that is what she is called to bring people into that struggle. That is what she is meant to do. She that is the right comfort level for her to be more intimate in a more public space.

And I've found that very encouraging as a follower of hers, like, wow, someone else is struggling too. Someone else has these problems. So that live, I think we all have a level of intimacy that were meant to share.

And some people are only meant to kind of show the nice things, some nice pictures of their kids, the pretty dress they got. And they don't, that's not their call to be like, I got in a fight with my husband. And I broke his phone when I threw it against the wall.

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