Welcome to the year 2025. We really made it. I won't say happy New Year because we're too many days deep and there are rules. But welcome back to the Ross Bolin podcast. Life rolls onward. I love the horrifying dread of what's to come in a brand new calendar.

I'm just kidding. That's not the attitude to have. Harness positivity, Ross. You're going to have to

give me a break. I have two small children with whom I share my home. Neither of which has had

school for like the last three weeks. So my wife and I barely clinging to sanity at this

point. The cabin fever you develop as a parent hits so different, so much harder, and the stretch

between school getting out for Christmas break and starting back up in the new year is perhaps

the most exhausting stretch of the year for

parents with young kids. They simply can't entertain themselves for that long when they're

under like eight years old. So if you have things to do like, I don't know, a mortgage or rent

to pay, groceries to be able to afford a job to do, a domicile to keep clean,

you're getting absolutely crushed during these stretches without child care. So my wife and I have

two little maniacs. My stepdaughter is five years old. My son is one. They both have birthdays

next month in February. And as a result of they're not having

child care this past three weeks, we've watched an embarrassing amount of children's television

because my wife and I are both self-employed. And the kids present too much of a danger to themselves

to be left to their own devices for long stretches. So yeah, screen time

has been through the roof. You think you're better than me? Honestly, it's a problem you can't

solve once you realize you have it. It's like once you introduce a child to the magic of television,

that's their crack rock. And if you try to take a crackhead's crack rock,

there are consequences. You better be ready to go to war. And I'm usually not ready to go to war

because I have work to do. I'm barely awake. And the ravages of time have begun to break my

body and mind.

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