Comedy Through The Chaos: Parenting Edition - The Uncertainty Season

Hello, hello, hello. And happy Saturday Cadre sphere. If you are watching on Saturday, if not, happy whatever day it is that you are watching, if it happens to be in the Future. I am Ms. Shannon Paul and I'm feeling old school today, so I'm gonna roll these sleeves up a little bit. I'm Ms. Shannon Paul. I'm a comedian, corporate speaker, voice actor, event emcee and benefit auctioneer that hubs out of the great state of Minnesota. And I'm happy to be one of your Cadre contributors. Chrissy Moe, good to see you in the chat.

Lake lover, good to see you. Speak wonder, my lovely friend. Hello, good morning and happy Saturday to do you as well. I also am going to be doing this a lot because I have on a pair of sweatpants that are cool, but they don't have pockets. Hello, Andi. Matt. I know. So first world problems. They don't have pockets. And so I am used to having pockets and there are no pockets. So habits. Habits. Erie, Pennsylvania. I I always love whenever you check in with us there because that'll come into slight play for the story that I'm gonna tell today.

But before we get to that, I wanted to give you an update on how my week is in. Hello, Luke. Hello. Thanks for the shout out earlier this morning. This is one of my busy time periods as far as work stuff goes because it is fall gala season. So I'm very fortunate enough to be able to support a lot of our nonprofit organizations and different companies organizations here. No pocket. I it, you know, it should be. I didn't know that they had no pockets when I bought them. I did not know. I did not read that far into the description.

And it's. And it's a good brand. It's Savage Fenty. So Rihanna, you know, we need pockets. Come on, riri, what are you doing? So this week I was fortunate enough to do a variety events, including the one that I did on Thursday during the lunch hour for an organization called Haiti Outreach. And so they work to provide resources for. For people in the country of Haiti so that they can actually do their own water reclamation and do their own wells and do those things. So instead of outside forces coming in and putting in a well and then not teaching the people how to use it and to repair it and how to keep it functioning so that it remains a resource for the community, they come in and they provide the infrastructure to set it up, the training to actually repair it and to run it and then sets up the whole community for success.

So one of the Things that they gave me was this lovely piece of Haitian art that they gave me, which happens to really match my vibe. It was. It was lovely. They gave me this and one other thing. So I'm deciding where in my kitchen this is going to go. So that will be part of the discussion. I'm thinking. I'm thinking because I wanted to. I want to be able to see it easily and make sure that it is inspiring. So I'm thinking it's going to go over there where my calendar lives, because I would enjoy walking inside often and seeing it.

If you wonder where my kiddo is. Since we're doing the Comedy through the Chaos parenting edition. Yes, I am a parent. For anyone who is new, he is out here. You want to wave, wave. So back to eerie. A different variety of eerie speak, wonder. But it has been an on and off, gloomy, eerie sort of season here in the part of Minnesota that I live in. So, yeah, so I will. Yeah, I will let you know when I put it up there. There. So it's. That is the art. And then I am going to determine where in my kitchen, because I think I want it in my kitchen because it, you know, with the baskets and the, the vibe of it, I, you know, and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

So I'm thinking I'm going to put it in here and rearrange some stuff and find a place of honor. Maybe I'll put it up there. Maybe it'll fit. Yeah, maybe I'll put it up there. So instead of seeing over my head, only seeing my air vent, you'll see that art. Maybe. Yeah, maybe I'll do that. I'll figure if I can do that in a way that feels centered enough for what I do. Yeah. So I'll work on that. So thank you for following my asides, everyone. And I'm sure that there's people who are, wow, she is chaotic in nature.

And that is true. That is why my brand is Comedy through the Chaos. I know that I am chaotic, and so is the world that we live in. And so this week has been interesting because also, while navigating all of the busy things in my season, it's also working with a variety of people that are in my circle to try and find a way that we can navigate all of the uncertainty that is going on right now. And I want to make it clear that I believe that uncertainty is difficult for all of us. But I'm going to add in the caveat that if you add in the additional layers of uncertainty when you are a parent.

And the even more complex layer. That's why we talk about onions a lot. Speak wonder the other more complex layer of being a parent of a special needs kid. Uncertainty is the bane of our existence. There are so many times when we are trying to work towards a goal, and you don't even know if that goal is the right goal. And so adding in a layer of uncertainty makes it even worse. And. And I think that what a lot of parents and caregivers are dealing with now, that is even making their anxiety worse, is the fact that there is additional uncertainty.

That so many of us are doing the best we can with the resources that we have, and really working to provide a stable foundation for the people that we care for and our kids and the universe is not helping right now. And I think that that is causing additional layers of anxiety. I was talking to a friend of mine, which really inspired this conversation, and she's one of the people who recently found out that she's going to be laid off. And I know her and her partner and her daughter, and her daughter also happens to be an adorable kiddo who happens to be on the autism spectrum.

And she's already been working on how to find the proper resources for her daughter, how to get her in the proper programs, what are the proper supports, and now wondering if those supports are going to continue, if the goals that she had set for are ones that are going to be achievable based upon the resources that might change, evolve, go away completely, who knows? And I think that that's a lot of what parents are dealing with right now is, well, I made this decision to keep this job, and I was working in this particular industry because it was going to provide stability or security or something like that.

Hello, Christine. Welcome. Welcome in. And now so many of those decisions where you made them on behalf of your family, on behalf of your kids and people that you care about, and now even those jobs seem to be in question, you know, and. And I know from my friend's particular perspective, this was a job that didn't fuel her, that it wasn't necessarily the one that she would have wanted, but it provided so many resources and stability for her and her family that she was willing to keep it. Good to see you, junk food junkie.

I'm gonna call you JFJ Now, I saw Luke call that earlier, so I like that. So I truly believe that that additional uncertainty and that feeling of dread because you were doing everything you thought you were able to do, and now that's even getting thrown into chaos. And so I get it. And just reminding all of us that even though the decisions that we were making with the information we had before may have turned out to be incorrect, maybe you thought it was going to provide stability and now it didn't.

And now you're kicking yourself, maybe you're saying, I, I made the wrong choice. And the answer usually is you didn't make the wrong choice. You made the best choice that you could at the time with the information, information and resources that you had available to you. And that's what we will continue to do as parents and caregivers is do the best we can with the information that we have and with the capacity that we have. So reminding us again that it still needs to be, how do we maintain joy?

How do we maintain connection? How do we maintain community? Because things are going to continue to be uncertain, unfortunately. How is it, how is our resident vampire doing? He actually, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put a pin in that and I'm gonna come back to that because I want to remind everybody that, you know, the concept of doing the best you can with the resource you have available to you that morphs and changes and grows and, you know, regardless of what situation you're in. So that answer is still probably the answer for you.

You're doing the best you can. And you need somebody to remind you that that choice made sense at the time and you didn't make a mistake by making it Now. Junk food junkie, to your question, our resident vampire actually becomes less vampiric in. And so what junk food junkie is mentioning is that throughout the summer, for my 17 year old who happens to be on the autumn spectrum, it was very vampire summer. Like, it was just him in his room, curtains closed, every blanket, every blanket. Like, just that's it.

And I tried to get him to come outside. No, outside, I tried to get him to. I opened the curtain, he'd go close the curtains. I just wanted to stay ensconced in darkness in his room. Hence the term vampire summer. He is not a summer kid. He doesn't like the sun. He doesn't do it. But today, here in the great city of Crystal, Minnesota, it is cloudy and gloomy and raining a little bit. So not raining aggressively, but a little bit. And see, look how happy he is. Like, he's, he's, he's excited. You like the rain.

Rain. So he's happy he was out there. He's a very Minnesota kid. So he's got his. His. His shorts on and his jacket, and he immediately. I didn't have to tell him to come out today, you know, kind of thing. I didn't go in his room and try and encourage him to do anything. I had to, like, rush because I heard the door starting to open, and I just wanted to make sure that he had on enough fallish, winterish clothes. Because depending on where you're at, we are. I'm looking at the Alexa. It is 46 degrees right now, and look how happy he is.

So we are moving into his season. You know, his season. This is what he is. He is a fall and winter kiddo. And then we'll put up with the spring because he likes the rain. So thank you for asking. So I think that for us, this is a season that we transition into well. But I know a lot of people feel a sense of loss once we move into the. The winter months, where they're missing the sunlight and the freedom that we have during the summer and the ability to leave your house without putting on seven layers.

All of those things. All of those things. But for us, hey, you know, I didn't even put the jackets away. I just left them out because I knew that he was waiting for that moment and feels good every once in a while, being able to go, yes, today is a black jacket day. Maybe tomorrow will be a green jacket day and we will see what kind of mood he is in. So you'll get to check in on that. I was hoping it's a little rainy for this, but I was hoping today because I have a little more free time. I was hoping to move some more of my wood chips, which, if it stops drizzling, I need to go move some 49.

And eerie as well. Yeah, it was. Oh, what a lovely, lovely. Yeah, we don't have any rainbows yet because we have not had any sun peeking through in my part the town. But it is a lovely, lovely fall day here. And the cl. The. The trees are doing their fall thing. All right, other burning question. How are you doing with getting rid of the spin bike you started with? Oh, good question. I. I did check in with people that. For the spin bike did. On the day that I mentioned it, the spin bike was rehomed.

And so that is often about. So I do have room downstairs now for the weight set and other things that I bought in its stead. So it is. It is often away. The other thing that I've been doing is slowly, like, I actually have a box of things that need to be rehomed in my garage, in my car right now, in the garage. So I've just been in that mode that this is a good time of year for me to do that as well. And maybe I would suggest that to you folks, especially if you live somewhere place like Speak Wonder, and I do.

Where you do that, transition from one style of clothing to another one. Like, I have a bin of winter clothes that I will get out soon and put away all of our summer clothes. Hello. Welcome back into the house. You want to pick a beverage? And so what I do is I use that as a time to be intentional. And instead of putting things back into the closet that have been sitting and waiting throughout the year, I make sure that I'm like, are you really gonna wear this this winter? And if you're not, bless you.

Heavens. If not, then it needs to go and be rehomed and bless somebody else. So you'll get to see that process stuff, too. So in case you weren't here at the beginning, my. My project for the rest of the day. I'm gonna find a place for this to live somewhere in my kitchen. I'm gonna give myself some grace and some space on the decisions that I've made in the past with the information that I had at the time. And I encourage you to do that, too. Give yourself grace and space for the decisions that you made in the past.

Tickles, come here. If you want Tickles, you come over here. My arm's not that long, so we need tickles. Tickles. And that is currency in our houses. Tickles. So I'm going to do that. I'm also going to give him some blue iced tea. Blue iced tea. And we are going to put this into a cup. Bring me your cup. Because clearly. Priorities. Priorities. But I do hope that the day treats all of you well.