Two Parents & A Podcast
Being the “default parent” (+ moving into a hotel & crying babies on planes)
Thu, 27 Mar 2025
Happy Thursday! This week, we dive into “default parent syndrome”—what it means, how it’s not good or bad (unless you’re experiencing it and you think it is!!), and how it could be your own fault if you’re the default parent?? But first - we talk about our housing update (I think we’re moving into a hotel… Eloise at the Plaza 🤝 Tate at the [insert Austin hotel here]), recap our Aspen trip (plus answered your questions about we handled childcare while traveling) and is it OK for babies to cry on planes (+ a bunch more of airplane talk lol). In Things We DMed Each Other, we talk about Frontier clapping back at Southwest and the viral TikTok trend on teaching kids to share. Then, we’re responding to your comments (trying this for the first time!!!) about building family traditions. And in this week’s Brain Break, we read a sweet (but hilarious) text from Harrison’s dad. We LOVE YOU GUYS! Timestamps: 00:00:00 Welcome back to Two Parents & A Podcast! 00:01:20 We made our “What Happens If…” housing plan 00:07:55 Aspen trip recap 00:13:33 How to find child care while traveling 00:19:33 The most amazing customer service experience 00:24:42 Crying babies on airplanes 00:32:05 Things We DMed Each Other: Southwest vs. Frontier 00:38:16 Things DMed Each Other: Teaching Kids to Share on TikTok 00:42:20 Responding To The Comments: Building Family Traditions 00:45:50 Listener Question: Being the “default parent” is exhausting… 00:58:20 Brain Break: A text from Harrison’s dad 01:00:02 LOVE YOU GUYS! #twoparentsandapod ---------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you to our sponsors this week: * Cozy Earth – Get up to 40% off Cozy Earth’s best-selling sheets, towels, pajamas, and more at https://www.CozyEarth.com/TWOPARENTS with code TWOPARENTS. And if you get a post-purchase survey, let them know you heard about Cozy Earth here! * Calm – For listeners of our show, Calm is offering an exclusive 40% off a Calm Premium Subscription at https://www.calm.com/TWOPARENTS. * Magnetic Me – Order Magnetic Me today for yourself or as the perfect gift for any parent! New customers get 15% off their first order at https://www.MagneticMe.com. * Ollie – Get 60% off your Welcome Kit when you subscribe at https://www.Ollie.com/TWOPARENTS and use code TWOPARENTS. Plus, they offer a Clean Bowl Guarantee—if you’re not completely satisfied with the first box, you’ll get your money back! * DraftKings – New players can get 500 CASINO SPINS ON A FEATURED GAME! Sign up at https://casino.draftkings.com/promos with code JUSTALEX and wager a minimum of $5 to receive 500 CASINO SPINS. The Crown Is Yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. In Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit https://www.ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. 21+. Physically present in MI, NJ, PA, WV only. Void in CT and Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. New customers only. Non-withdrawable Casino Spins valid for featured game only and expire in 168 hours. Ends 4/27/25 at 11:59 PM ET. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to the pod on YouTube/Spotify/Apple: https://www.youtube.com/@twoparentsandapod https://open.spotify.com/show/7BxuZnHmNzOX9MdnzyU4bD?si=5e715ebaf9014fac https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/two-parents-a-podcast/id1737442386 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Follow Two Parents & A Podcast: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/twoparentsandapod TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@twoparentsandapod Follow Alex: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/justalexbennett TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@justalexbennett Follow Harrison: Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/harrisonfugman TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@harrisonfugman ---------------------------------------------------------------- Powered by: Just Media House – https://www.justmediahouse.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the housing updates for the hosts?
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I would say in another life, that was probably my dream house. But not with a kid.
I'm torn. I'm torn.
But let's save this. Can we go? Okay, ready?
Let's go. Let's roll.
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Chapter 2: What was the experience like in Aspen?
Welcome to Two Parents in a podcast. Two parents and a pod. You always want me to say and a pod.
Thank you.
Let's hop right into it because we just literally just came back from touring two houses, both of which we could walk to, which means the three L's of real estate are in play. Location, location, location. And they were two totally different houses.
And hopes were so high for both homes. And I think they're both out of contention, which is very disappointing. Yeah.
But I'm really proud of us. And we're seeing another one tonight at 5.30, which I'm hopeful for. Like, that is... Okay, so here's the thing, you guys. The two we saw today were bending for the location. This one that we're seeing later, still a great location.
Different neighborhood, though.
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Chapter 3: How do you find childcare while traveling?
Just a different neighborhood. But the house is awesome. And they want to sell it. Okay, so we've got motivated sellers. The thing about the house we just saw, which... It was truly like my jaw was on the floor. It was unbelievable. It was floor to ceiling windows like unreal.
It looked like it was out of an architecture magazine. But we also like if we were to get that house, we would have had to really, really, really, really stretch, which is something that you and I like needed to get comfortable with, would need to get comfortable with.
on budget we'd have to stretch like it's it's so we have like the top of our budget and this is like 10 above that which not ideal and then the second thing about it is it's so funny when you have a kid the way you think about houses because like when it's just you and i oh we would have moved in that house in a minute yeah i actually think it's a dream house for when your parent when kids are gone to college like that would be the hq in austin we would live there we would like walk places
There was patios outside. The master suite was unreal. But like that's not where I want my square footage to go now. I want like a playroom.
What matters more to you? A playroom or a big closet in the main bedroom?
A playroom. in a big walk-in closet is on a top 10 list for me, but a playroom's a top two. You know, like I want a yard and a playroom.
We need the playroom.
We need a playroom. No, like, and it doesn't have to be a big playroom either. It could be an area of the living room. But this house didn't have, like, where would she play? Oh, that's not fair.
Yeah, I actually think it should, ideally it's located in a totally separate room and that way, like, the mess can be contained.
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Chapter 4: What are the challenges of managing crying babies on planes?
I think it's like in my TikTok that I made, that I'm making throughout the day today. Okay. So it is a bit in there. So the housing update is we are on the timeline. What is the date today? Yeah, I mean, we, okay, this is what we did do, though. So we made a what happens if. And April 15th, if we don't have our house, what do we do? We move into a hotel.
And we play, instead of Eloise at the Plaza, we play Tate at the wherever. Okay. Like I don't want to do hotel life, but like it's our option. And so you teach me a lot about the power of perspective. And so we're just reframing it into that would be really fun.
It's a really weird scenario because one, there's like nothing for rent that we like right now. Like I can't believe the lack of rental options on the market. Very surprising. And then secondarily, it feels like there's like a bucket of stuff that we do like for sale and all is in a similar price range, but none of it's moving, implying things are still pretty overpriced.
And so I think the question is, can we get those people to come down where we can also make the numbers work much better for us? Because everything right now feels like a stretch.
So there's like five or six houses that we like, ish, we sort of like, and they're all So let me, I am trying to understand this. If one comes down, and we live in one right now, okay? This is an overpriced house. If one comes down, do they all come down? Or is somebody going to try to like hold on?
It all depends on how motivated the sellers are.
So if somebody's like down to wait, then they'll wait till next year or something.
Yeah, and a lot of people we saw, we're seeing a lot of homes that were for sale last year come back on this year.
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Chapter 5: What was the interaction with Frontier and Southwest?
But the market's not any better now, right?
The numbers do not reflect that they are much better. They're better at all. They actually reflect the opposite. So it's tough because you don't want to get too cute with it. Like this is where we're going to live. But we also need to make sure that we're responsible with the decision that we make.
Well, one thing I have become extremely confident in is that we are responsible. Because like irresponsible me would have loved the house we just saw. But it took me five minutes after leaving. And it's just like, no, we're not going to live there.
I can't believe you didn't just like walk out of there and be like, we got to do it.
No, like we need to have a kid-friendly house that makes a lot of sense that we feel good about with the budget.
I feel like I'm the one that can be molded on this. I feel like you're going to take the lead as to where we actually like pull the trigger.
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Chapter 6: How can parents teach kids to share?
I think that I'm going to because what I've learned about you is like – You are a dreamer. So you'll come back and be like, I'm 99% sure I saw the house that's like the house. And then I'll go see it. And I'll just be like, and with what money are we redoing the whole house?
But I also think like I've lived in a lot of different types of homes and a lot of different types of neighborhoods. And so like I can kind of like adjust my perspective to like love the situation that I'm in. If that makes sense.
It does make sense. But I do think instead of, I think it's more important, not more important, but a good type of importance is realizing like we love the walkability of this house. Okay. There's a lot of good walkability places in Austin and we found a house that we absolutely loved, but you couldn't walk. Neither of us wanted it. So I think we value walkability.
For sure. That's probably a top of the list right now outside of making sure that the core home checks the boxes that we're looking for.
Yeah, so I think just acknowledging that is important.
Yes.
Yeah, and then adjusting accordingly what we want. Because we looked at some great houses, but you can't walk anywhere. Yep. Okay, so again, I wish we had another update, but the update is at April 15th, we will move, oh my God, into a hotel, which we will make fun of.
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Chapter 7: What does it mean to be the 'default parent'?
Well, I really applaud how you're handling the uncertainty until we find the right home for our family.
Well, the way I'm handling it is I'm embracing it.
Love it.
You've taught me about that. Thank you. You've really changed my mind on that.
Don't enforce it.
Come with that what may. Okay, so we just got back from Aspen, the land of, as Harrison puts it, the good-looking ladies.
I mean, that's just going to come off terribly.
No, I'm sorry. I don't mean like that. I just, you thought that like the women were, they looked really nice. Like not in a weird way.
I'm very surprised that that's your core takeaway from our time there.
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Chapter 8: What are some humorous parenting moments shared?
We passed him. I was like, do you want to go get one of those jackets? And Harrison just looked at me and shook his head and was just like, what? It's just like they find designer stuff and put that on.
It'd be like taking that print and putting it on a bag and then putting a pink strap on it.
I see what you did there. That was funny. So whenever I bought my diaper bag, which is my most beloved thing because it just reminds me of Tatey's, they had the pink one, the pink handle, or they had the regular tan handle. And I remember you wanted me to get the tan one, but it's a diaper bag. The pink one feels diaper bag.
You know I'm not a bad guy, so I want to keep this train on the Aspen tracks. What do you think of Aspen?
So logistically, I love it because it's walkable. I think that, I like it. I actually think I would rate it my favorite ski town in America.
It is one of the most charming places I've ever been when I look at that village and how that village just looks out onto the mountains and the architecture of the village.
It's unbelievable.
Yes, but it is, that charm is then wrapped in ridiculousness.
Yeah, but they've preserved the character of the town, which I love. I do not understand what's happening with Kemosabe, though. We walked by, and what were they singing? Party rockin' on the house tonight.
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