The Two AM Club: "Collecting Stories: A Discussioncast on Embracing Diverse Approaches to Raising Children Around the World.
Welcome to The Two A.M. Club, where we have open and diverse conversations about parenting and partnerships across different cultures. Join us on an amazing journey as we explore the joys and challenges of raising children through the stories of parents from around the world.
Our collection of stories represents a tapestry of cultures and personal experiences. We celebrate our differences and the love we share for our children. While everyone's parenting journey is unique, we find common ground in the experiences that connect us.
Whether you're a new parent, experienced, or simply curious about raising children, The Two A.M. Club has something for you. Expect heartwarming stories, practical advice, and thought-provoking discussions. Our goal is to inspire, support, and connect with parents and partners worldwide.
At The Two A.M. Club, we value open-mindedness, diversity, and honesty. We create a community that embraces the universal journey of parenthood, where love knows no limits. Join us today and be part of a welcoming and supportive community of parents and partners.
We believe that parenthood is a journey filled with joy, challenges, and countless stories that deserve to be shared and in doing so we are collecting stories from parents about their experiences in navigating the intricate paths of parenting and partnership. We understand that parenthood isn't solely about raising children; it's also about nurturing and sustaining strong relationships with our partners.
Our aim is to weave a rich tapestry of stories that celebrate the beautiful, messy, and wonderful world of parenting and partnership. Your stories have the power to inspire and guide others on their path to growth and fulfillment. We are eager to share the triumphs, struggles, and lessons learned along the way. Whether you're seasoned parents or just embarking on this remarkable journey, we invite you to listen to the diverse experiences, insights, and advice that these stories hold.
Join us as we embark on this voyage, hand in hand, as parents and partners. Welcome to our discussioncast, where we embark on an honest and unfiltered journey through parenthood and partnership. As everyday individuals, we deeply empathize with the triumphs and challenges that come with these roles, just like many of you. Each episode of our show explores a wide range of topics and features special guests, offering a glimpse into the diverse experiences and perspectives within our global community. Despite our differences, we all share a common objective: navigating these challenges and joys in our own unique way.
The Two AM Club: "Collecting Stories: A Discussioncast on Embracing Diverse Approaches to Raising Children Around the World.
“Parenting & Politics: Raising Voices, Shaping Futures”
“Who said podcasts need walls? We’re breaking free and hitting the road, blending raw conversations with the ever-changing scenery of life. Inspired by the contrast in social openness between Germany and Dubai, we’re diving headfirst into fresh directions, navigating our struggles with consistency, and embracing life’s beautiful chaos.
Parenting meets politics in this intimate exploration of dreams, education, and the art of raising a child amidst shifting societal and political landscapes. From the humorous moments with our little one to reflective musings under Germany’s cold, starry skies, we’re here to unpack the joys, challenges, and transformative moments that define our journey.
With a year shaped by resilience, adaptation, and gratitude, we’re celebrating new beginnings and crafting a vision for 2025. Join us for laughs, love, and a toast to the future in an unfiltered evening of connection and storytelling.”
Hello and welcome to our podcast. The 2am club the honey bunnies. Hey, my hansabons, how you doing.
Speaker 2:Hey, my everything.
Speaker 1:It's been a while.
Speaker 2:It's been a while.
Speaker 1:We've been busy.
Speaker 2:And this time in a completely new setting. We're actually walking and talking. Oh, we got these new microphones, these DJI ones, because we want to make our podcast more mobile, right, Exactly Because we've realized that taking the time to sit down and record it and doing everything around it somehow is not really working right now with our life, but it's also because it's not so easy to get Germans to want to actually talk about their life and their family life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very different from Dubai.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're right, you're right, People are not that much on social media.
Speaker 1:Exactly, but also people are not so willingly to share things. This whole data, this whole data security and I mean to be fair. Germany, when it comes to social media, is so different from Dubai.
Speaker 1:That is true, no one takes fucking pictures here about their food or their coffees. It's just such a different world. And even when we tell people like, oh yeah, we have a podcast, they're like, oh nice, but the funny thing is we get a lot of people that listen to it, right, right. So I feel somehow germans are very much in this, like social media vultures yeah, yeah but I mean, we finally will have one of our friends, um, who we asked uh, with the, the three kids, yeah all right, yeah, they're interested to join for christmas, uh.
Speaker 1:But he also works as someone who does public speaking and stuff like that, yeah, yeah all right so but yeah, in general I think people here a lot more shy.
Speaker 2:They're not as willing to share things, whereas in dubai a lot more people like publicity and like, being on social media is very normal.
Speaker 2:People post about their lives, so they're not that hesitant to share things about their lives, and yeah, I think here is just a completely different story. But but I don't believe that is the the actual reason why we change the setting. I mean, be honest, it's also been us just not really taking the time to sit down, you know, do all the setup with the microphones and stuff and just do it While, for example, munanui is having his nap on the weekend. I mean, it's not that we don't have the time, we just didn't really take the time.
Speaker 1:That wasn't our priority at the time Exactly, and. I'm not sure why. Why was that? I really don't know, actually.
Speaker 2:I maybe just being in a new environment and, as you said, you are, I mean I mean, we've only been here for how long now?
Speaker 1:nine months nine months, so still kind of almost 10 months, I think, yeah 10 yeah, almost 10 months but uh, I also kind of feel in some ways, I'm posting, but I'm also posting not as much as before. Okay, christmas I posted a lot, but in general I find it also very difficult for me to post things.
Speaker 1:But, how, why is that? I just feel this kind of like eh no, need, no, I don't feel the need that I have to do it. I think there's also the fact, like in Dubai, you kind of have to do it. You have the feeling you have to do it because everybody else is doing it. Really, yeah, it's a little I don't know. It's also been something that's been troubling me for a while and I've been really thinking about it.
Speaker 2:So I mean, I don't know, I mean I'm not the biggest poster, but for me this is really a timing topic, like I just don't prioritize it and I don't take the time to do it Because it's so limited. But yeah, no, I think for you it's very interesting now that your feeling there has changed, that you don't feel you want to post that much anymore, even though I mean, in the past you always said that this is also a bit like your diary, right?
Speaker 1:yes, it is like my diary, but I mean, the thing is, I also see that just having the pictures in my phone is also a part of my diary. Maybe that was the excuse I gave myself before, I don't know. Yeah, it's. It's uh just fine, kind of fine and funny that this is now. Where am I kind of? Uh, I really enjoy doing the podcast. I love talking about the podcast, but somehow it's also harder to. I know the topics also.
Speaker 2:Maybe you feel you also just don't want to be talking only about parenting.
Speaker 1:No, there's also that. This is also something, and this is also why I got the microphones, because I feel, okay, the parenting part important, yeah, but I also feel like wanting to make a change in the difference part is more important and I also kind of want to entwine it with your political stance, with your, you know, that whole part, because the thing is okay, you talk about having kids, but what about the future of the kids? Right? How is that going to play out? What is that? That you know, and I kind of feel like this is also something that's more and more important now, I see, is what kind of world are we going to leave to our kids? What can we do to make a difference instead of just complaining and bitching and moaning about it? Right?
Speaker 2:but I mean, I do believe that, at least for some people that listen to the podcast, we made some difference about the parenting part.
Speaker 1:I agree with that. That's not the problem. What I'm saying is more, I think somehow I want it to be more political, I want it to be more political.
Speaker 2:I want it to be a little bit more deeper and more significant on, maybe not deeper but wider, because I think it was pretty deep before deeper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wider is a good way to put it but yeah, it's just. I don't know, but you also haven't been really pushing for you know recording podcasts and stuff.
Speaker 2:No, but I would say this was anyways always a bit more you, right, like you were the one that would set it up and like, hey, now on the weekend we have this and that person coming in for an interview and the podcast. So I would always be more than happy to do it because I love it, but I wouldn't be the one to to take the initiative. Yeah, I think that was really more on you. So I think that's now, and that now kind of is a little bit reduced, and so that's why we didn't record, record one for a while. But I mean, this whole thing is also still new to us, right. So, um, and you know, I mean if we don't like the direction anymore, we just change the direction yeah, I mean, this is not a problem, it's.
Speaker 1:it's a little bit like when, when, remember when, when I said when we move and we'll do the pause, and you're like yeah, yeah, but the other podcasters they don't do pauses. We can't do that because otherwise we'll lose listeners and whatnot. And for me, this has never been my. This never comes into effect because it's our podcast, not anybody else's podcast. The same for the length of our podcast. What we talk about in our podcast? Else's podcast? The same for the length of our podcast. What do we talk about in our podcast?
Speaker 1:There's, you know, I think I was just a little bit lost on it, you know, I just didn't feel there was, there was. No, I just didn't feel I know you hate this sentence there was no need for it at a certain point. Yeah, so, and this is where I felt a little bit more of a need for the political stuff yeah, I think the political stuff is somewhere where I really want to push more. Yeah, and I think this would be, you know, political and with the parenting, I think this is something that would be super, super interesting, okay, and super fun. Yeah, to see how can we make a change as parents instead of.
Speaker 1:You know, I think about it like when my parents would complain about something and I would just be like like my dad, he's always complaining about politics and I said, yeah, but do you do anything about it? No, I don't have the time, blah, blah, blah. You know, and it's kind of like if nobody tries to make a change and nobody's gonna do anything about it yeah you know what I mean yeah, yeah, and I think maybe it has to do also with the election now.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was election year, right, so a lot of things happened. Trump is again president and we were were I mean the German government dissolved. I mean there's a lot of things going on China-Taiwan conflict and so on and so forth. Also, countries that we're quite close to because we have lived in them, are from them or whatsoever, and yeah, I mean we just care what's going on and maybe, yeah, we talk a lot about it.
Speaker 1:Maybe, yeah, we talk a lot about it yeah, we talk a lot about it, we don't record it exactly which is also why we got this now portable recording setup because we want to be able to record things on the go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because a lot, of, a lot of the great discussions we have now is really on the fly and I mean when we started the parenting podcast, actually one of the main reasons was because we didn't find, um, we didn't find authentic content right.
Speaker 2:Like we were sitting there at 2 am in the middle of the night feeding our little baby boy and and like scrolling through our instagram and, yeah, somehow not not seeing what we were feeling and experiencing. And that was where, when we started talking to people, we realized, oh, they all feel very similar, but then somehow no one was recording it or no one was actually putting that out there. And I think that was the starting point where we said, okay, let's just talk about it and let's put it online, so maybe someone awake at 2 am is going to listen to it. And somehow it feels better afterwards. And maybe this has now a bit shifted because obviously, the kid getting a bit older, we don't have too many 2 am, 2 am, although lately, lately, lately again, because we just opened the crib, right, and he's walking to bed, but okay, I mean, in general the nights are not as tough as at the beginning.
Speaker 2:And now other things, you know, and maybe this is connected to parenting, because now we're more thinking about um, which school does he want to go to, in which environment do we want him to grow up? I never thought you know like, maybe so, instead of the daily, the daily struggles it's more of a bigger, long-term struggle and this is what people say right, when your kids are getting bigger, you will have bigger problems.
Speaker 1:I mean at the beginning your 2am bottle problem is a problem, but you know looking at the bigger picture, what I would give back for a 2 am bottle exactly.
Speaker 2:But now, or especially, you know now growing up and starting kindergarten school and so on. I mean things like education system, political system to grow up in, environment, society and so on. I mean they will all be come so much more relevant. And maybe this is also why now those topics are getting a bit closer to our hearts, because I mean this first year of having a baby, you literally just shut, yeah, turn turn off everything around you, right like it's a daily struggle exactly so you really focus just to survive your day-to-day.
Speaker 2:Very good, very good point maybe this is the reason.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I just way, but yes, I I. The more you say it, the more it makes sense for me where I was, like, I mean the daily stuff I don't really have. Yeah, okay, now we took off the oh, wow, one second. Looking up, we have an amazing sky with a lot of stars, that's the the galaxy right there. You see that white.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, oh, wow. Okay, it's also freezing, by the way. It's like minus five degrees roundabout. And we're going through a park in the middle of Germany.
Speaker 1:And it's beautiful. But, yeah, it makes a little bit more clear, a sense that the daily struggles are not as crazy or as needed to be talked about. Yeah, now it's kind of like okay, so we took off the one of the fences from his crib and, uh, so he's. Because we thought like, oh, when he wakes up he can just go onto his floor and play with his toys, instead of coming to wake us up. Unfortunately, he is waking up not every night, so it's like I would say 30, 70, 70%. He sleeps in his crib through the whole night.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think 50-50.
Speaker 1:Really. Yeah, I think a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, but anyways, he walks up in total darkness of our home. Oh a rabbit, yeah a rabbit, a wild rabbit, oh that would taste yummy, yum, yum, yum yum yum, oh my God, just love the fact we thought the same thing.
Speaker 2:Exactly, you just talk about eating him. Oh my god.
Speaker 1:Poor rabbit, and he walks up the stairs alone with his bottle and then comes into bed and sleeps with us, which is super cute. Unfortunately, he moves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it wakes us up at the time that he stands next to me in bed asking me to, you know, carry him up, exactly Putting him in the middle.
Speaker 1:But it's not really a problem, right, it's more of a. We started it. We can't stop, we just need to go through with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it will change. It will change and we know it. It will just take some time.
Speaker 1:Exactly yeah. He just needs to train himself to do it yeah and that's all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's kind of the and oh, we're going through the potty, the potty training, because when we were recently in thailand, I mean honestly, I just got got sick of changing diapers, so now we're just starting to put him on the potty. Um, yeah, so you know, this kind of stuff it's, I mean it's happening, you know there's, and then I don't know.
Speaker 1:The next thing will be to teach him swimming and teach him how to ride a bicycle on his own in thailand also? That is true. No, right now, it's more the fact that you know we want to make sure that he speaks the three languages that we're trying to teach him right now, and how to not be an asshole in society by saying hello and goodbye and please and thank you and sharing. You know, and then he doesn't understand when other people don't do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of like well Munanui, not everybody has common sense and not everybody was raised properly. Some people were raised in pigspins.
Speaker 2:Just because someone else doesn't say hello doesn't mean that you stop saying it Exactly.
Speaker 1:But I'm like two fingers away from telling him when someone doesn't say hello back to you, you just say oh, it's because he's an asshole. But Svenja said that I can't teach him how to say asshole yet, so I'm keeping my mouth shut and I'm just saying for now until she gives me the go-ahead. But yeah, so it's kind of this, you know, seeing this little person grow up and making sure that we're you know navigating him properly and kind of the way we want.
Speaker 1:Of course he's going to have his own way of doing things and whatever, but the basis should already be good.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's common fucking sense.
Speaker 2:Did you just make a poopsie?
Speaker 1:No, that was a firecracker. Trust me, if I would have made a po, made a pussy, I would have laughed so hard that everybody on the podcast would hear it yeah, so maybe this is one of the reasons these struggles are kind of becoming smaller and now our mind is simply capable of thinking bigger again, exactly, long term exactly, and I think this is the, the, and maybe it also also to do with now being again in a more political environment as well.
Speaker 2:Right, because when you think about dubai, I mean you cannot talk to politics. I mean, basically it's not allowed. Yeah, so you are, um, even allowed to do any kind of critical comment of a restaurant. So, yeah, rather than talk about the government or whatsoever. So now, being in a democratic country again, I mean politics takes a lot bigger room Also. You know also, when talking to people, people talk about what's going on. Yeah, when the German government dissolves, I mean people talk about this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at the office, friends, whatever, yeah, I mean, the only thing you hear government-wise in Dubai is when one of the wives escaped. Remember when she fled?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly yeah, and even that is illegal to talk about officially, right? So yeah, I think that maybe is.
Speaker 1:But we've always been, you know. Yeah, we've always been political.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean both of us. We were always interested, even since we are teenagers, right.
Speaker 1:Exactly, we study politics. It's always been an important part of us, even since we are teenagers, right, exactly we study politics. It's always been an important part of us. Yeah, and the thing is, we've also come to this point now. Where See I told you the lights are always on.
Speaker 2:It's not only for Christmas, yeah but maybe let's see, maybe let's look again in a month.
Speaker 1:You know, and we've also come to this point when we just cannot. It's really this what do I want munanui to learn by our example?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, exactly, and I mean maybe also. I mean one reason, like I just said, maybe just when we're growing up and the problems now are changing, but another reason why the political topics are now more interesting to talk about for us, because also here we don't see a lot of authentic content. I mean, when you look at Instagram or whatever social media you're following, I feel people are almost scared talking politics or sharing or posting anything about it.
Speaker 1:It is so polarized that, um, yeah, you are, yes, very and it's always a testing ground when you're with people at a dinner and they always put out a few, you know, like fishing words, to see whether you you're on the right side. Yeah, yeah, like even tonight at dinner time, when he said oh uh, you don't call him musk, you know yeah, yeah, exactly fishing to see if I was pro-trump or not. Yeah, but.
Speaker 2:But that's exactly, and I feel this was differently, at least as a kid. I mean I do remember that when my parents were talking politics at the table, I don't know with family, I mean it was totally fine to discuss this and people just had different opinions, yeah, and then they were, you know, discussing a bit louder or stronger, but afterwards it was fine again. But I feel nowadays doesn't seem the case anymore. I feel you have this type of people. They just completely shut it out, they just don't want to talk about it, don't want to think about it, they just don't like. But at the end of the day we can't right, because what's happening in politics is impacting all of us in the society. We cannot simply cut it out.
Speaker 1:You know, and I mean this is, I think, maybe also I just have a great joke going through my head right now and it was talking about politics. We are really trying to make munanui take a shit in the potty. It was funnier in my head.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not that funny. Okay, not sure I got it actually Because of the poo-poo. Yeah, and what's with the poo-poo?
Speaker 1:In the politics people always say it's shitty to talk about it.
Speaker 2:Oh, so I don't know.
Speaker 1:Not funny.
Speaker 2:Anyways shitty to talk about it so well, I don't know, anyways not funny. Anyways, yeah I mean, but this could be another reason, yeah that we, we I mean because also when you think about dubai, completely non-political environment also people no, that's not true.
Speaker 1:That's not true. It is political where you don't talk about the Dubai but everyone is so open on talking about how shitty other politics are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, true. They move there hiding from whatever, fleeing from whatever it's more fleeing and then kind of, yeah, you're right, and then shitting on others and then shitting on everybody else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I remember. Yeah, that's true. So Dubai is not.
Speaker 2:but enough about Dubai no, but I what I was just thinking. Maybe this still also has an impact on us, that it also at least? Yeah, because you also have a lot of people that just go there and they don't want to think about anything, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, but everyone does shit on other countries all the time in Dubai, which really got me, which really got on my nerves yeah, okay yeah yeah, yeah which also gets more the situation.
Speaker 2:I mean, I remember that was one situation where I was thinking about, where I saw the big difference covid, right, you had the covid pandemic and we were there during that time and simply there was not too much news about it or media content. Yeah, so people simply tried by not speaking about it, by not reading about it, by not hearing about it, just ignoring it yeah, just not like, let's not focus on this by basically, it's like taxes that's why you go to Dubai to ignore it exactly.
Speaker 2:And so that was a good joke. That was good, um, and true, not that much of a joke actually, it was true, but but that that's the interesting thing, right, because, um, here in Europe people were actually kind of depressed, especially the first winter, because it was constantly on the news, constantly in the newspaper, let it be in the radio, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:So, and the only thing you got in dubai was how great dubai was doing exactly vis-a-vis of covid we're doing so much better than everyone else, everyone is already vaccinated, blah, blah, blah, right.
Speaker 2:And then the rest was oh, the sun is shining, weather is good, blue sky and so on, and I did see also a positive impact of that, right, because you can.
Speaker 2:You can influence a mindset of people by by I mean influencing your media yeah, well, yeah I mean that's that is uh yeah, which is definitely not a good thing, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not a good thing, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not a good thing, yeah, but I think this could be a reason why, also, now we feel we want to be more political, because we just couldn't be for such a long time and we're in this non and that's why I say non-political in a way, right, because it's not officially discussed in any kind of news channel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with you a little bit there, but for me it's also it's not the biggest chunk of it. For me, it's really the fact that I want to make a difference, I want something to change and not just complain about it. I think that is the biggest thing. Yeah, yeah, and I think for us it was living in all these different political realms and to be able to see really what is. Where is the balance, where is the best of whatever it is. If you want to put your head in the sand like an ostrich, then you go to Dubai and just make your money and whatever. But for me it really has to do with the fact that, yeah, you're right. I don't want Muna Nui to come to a point where he's like, well, you didn't do shit, you could have done something, but you didn't do anything about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right, so it kind of doesn't give you the right to complain about it. Yeah which I also tell other people If you didn't vote, you can't bitch. That's really how I feel. If you didn't do something about it, then you shouldn't be able to complain. You don't have the right to complain, and that's really how I feel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we do see the disconnect right. We do see the disconnect between politics and what's going on and what people actually talk about right problems people have and then what politics or politicians are talking about and I think this was also a little bit of the idea now in the podcast. Right to talk about what is it actually? What's on people's mind? Yes what are people's problems? And then think about, okay, how can we help solving them?
Speaker 1:what keeps you up at night? Yeah yeah, this, this whole rising of the right wing, it's a little bit scary, yeah, when I knew he is a mix a mixed breed yeah, yeah, I don't want to be harsh or whatever, but in the 30s he would be on a train with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's just the way it would be. So you know. Thinking about it now that we've come to a point, yeah, the right wing has always existed. I remember in my teenage years I demonstrated in the streets of Tahiti because Le Pen, the father at that time, was in the second round against Chirac for presidential elections. But it was a low percentage compared to today, yeah, yeah. And I also don't want to sit around with my thumb up my ass and say, well, it's not my problem, I can't do nothing about it. Me as my little self, and this is where I believe we can do something about at least try, yeah, and then we try. If we don't make it, no one can say we didn't try yeah, that's true yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think it's kind of also I think it's a social responsibility that everyone has living in democracy I also see it a little bit like I was thinking. I'm just thinking about it right now. Maybe it was me just thinking my problems about the parenting stuff is nothing as big as what's going on in the world.
Speaker 2:You understand what I mean oh, honestly, both of them come together, yeah, but on the one hand, we need to raise like humans with values and, on the other hand, we need to make this. We need to fix the humans with values and, on the other hand, we need to make this. We need to fix the system because there is something broken we need to be able to, to dictate what.
Speaker 1:No dictate is a bad word. Someone on the internet is going to be like oh you see, typical leftists they want to dictate what they're going to say, not dictate, but at least we need to be able to say what are like, give our thought on what the social norms should be.
Speaker 1:The same, like right-wing people should do. Everyone has the right to do it. That's the beauty of democracy, right? That's also the bad thing about democracy. It's like I told finia you know how you can prove that democracy exists. Donald trump was voted president of the united states, yeah, and no beating about how you say, beating around the bush no beating around the bush exactly.
Speaker 2:So let's, let's talk like clearly, directly, openly, you know, like what's your problem, why do you have the problem and what can we do to fix it about the potty training.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to make the potty joke as as best as I can as you can hear, we're really outside yeah which is great, yeah, so so yeah I mean. But you know what I think we need to be we need to be.
Speaker 2:I mean, no one dictates us what we should talk about in our podcast. It's our podcast and, yeah, maybe now we change directions and I think it's totally fine I don't think it's changing direction.
Speaker 1:I think it's adding a lane into the u-bahn or adding a perspective. Yeah, you're right adding a perspective because it's more on the long term. How do we raise a? Human in this, I would say, very volatile world and what kind of world are we going to give to him? What are the norms are? What is it that we're going to give to him? What, what is it that we want to share with him? You understand what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like okay, I want to raise a son that actually does give a shit and that does take matters into his own hands. Yeah, that sounded very conservative right there, but you know, that is the thing If you want to make a difference, you want to make a change, you have to do it yourself. Yeah, you want to lose weight? Well, you got to go to the fucking gym and you got to eat less. Yeah, it's not like you can just magically do it by hoping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is true.
Speaker 1:You can hope for things, which is great, but if you don't actually try and do anything about it, it's not going to change, it's true.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, and we do care.
Speaker 1:I think, I think sometimes a little bit too much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe, but we do care.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think having moon and we made us even care more yeah, because then we actually figured out that we have to do it for something.
Speaker 2:Exactly Because we could always live our life.
Speaker 1:Exactly Because we could always live our very protective and privileged beautiful life wherever we wanted to go. Yeah, yeah, we could. You know, we have amazing passports that allow us to move wherever we want to move, and you know we could just be like, all right, fine, we don't like it here, let's get the fuck out of here and we'll go live there for a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But now with Munanui it's like, well, Is it fair to not try and do something about it and just have him move around? So yeah, I think our podcast is making there's a shift in the road. I think the parenting is important but it's become a political parenting PP. See another potty joke.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, not a potty joke.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's PP, pp, political parenting.
Speaker 2:Political parenting? Yeah, I don't know, yeah, but it's just been Our minds and All right back to the parenting. Back to the parenting. What's our issues right now?
Speaker 1:What's our issues right now?
Speaker 2:He didn't listen.
Speaker 1:Winanui makes pee-pee in the potty but isn't making poo-poo in the potty.
Speaker 2:And he doesn't tell us when he wants to make a poo-poo.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a little bit, and we tell him so every time. We tell him he's always like nah, all is okay, and we're like you don't need to be ashamed, you don't like, just it's okay.
Speaker 2:Tell us.
Speaker 1:I sit down with him when we make a poo-poo.
Speaker 2:Actually once he sits on the potty it us beforehand. Yeah, we just you know so now he's wiping his Lulu after making a peepee yeah, lulu is penis.
Speaker 1:For those who don't know German, it's just a Peter's thing. So why do you wiping his? His huge penis, as the pediatricians would have said yeah, yeah, so he is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:And for the last couple of weeks he's going into this pain in the ass phase where he's not listening to me Anything.
Speaker 2:He's being like you. Well difference, I'm an adult. He's two and a half years old.
Speaker 1:I feel both of you guys are the same age once in a while.
Speaker 2:Bullshit, I feel both of you guys are the same age once in a while, to be fair. I don't think so.
Speaker 1:But yeah, this is.
Speaker 2:But I felt now the last days were better again. Yeah the last days were better again, but he always gets his kind of.
Speaker 1:I think it's maybe the Quito also. Yeah, exactly I think there's somebody at the Quito.
Speaker 2:Because now that the schools are closed so he's with us all day and then it's a little bit easier, yeah, but because, also in the the last day, I remember at the kita, I talked to the teacher and she told me well, all the kids are right now not listening. So I don't know, maybe there's a kid that shows some kind of behavior and everyone copies it, or. But I mean, this is also a situation we'll face more and more the older he gets, right like he will have kids around him that do not have the behavior we wish for Munanui to have which is kind of funny, because we want him to be his own person and to say no when he doesn't want to.
Speaker 1:But only to a certain extent which is the paradox of parenting, of course. My god, that's a lot of pps in one oh my god, you and your pb but it is true, right, you want them to be independent yeah but you also want them to be reliant on you forever because you just want to say the parent like you are yeah, right exactly so I want him to say no, but but also not so much.
Speaker 2:Oh, look up there in the apartment. No, no, here. See here the bow on the wall. Oh, wow the head.
Speaker 1:Beautiful horse that looks cool. You see the fan. That's what we need in the house.
Speaker 2:Ah yes, oh yeah, this is a good idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I told you. See, this is typical of my honey bunny she needs to see it before she believes it. You're like Doubting Thomas. Doubting Thomas is one of the persons in the Bible. He had to touch Jesus' wounds in order for him to believe that Jesus was back from the dead Okay. Anyways. So yeah, these are a little bit the difficulties that we're facing right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which are great difficulties.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean honestly, in general he's super cute, super easy to be around him. Have him with us, like things are.
Speaker 1:And fifth, this city, Fibunanui. Yeah, I mean he's like a king. Now in this city, everyone knows him. And like when we call restaurants, and like what was it the other day you called?
Speaker 2:ah, for the cake yeah, yeah, the cake lady. And I was like, ah, we're the family with the cute boy and they knew exactly who it was exactly who it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah just super cute yeah, I get stopped in the middle of the street asking me where we're from. A lot of people in the city tonight yeah, yeah, and a lot of foreign number. Plates not foreign different cities. I mean, yeah, so from germany I mean foreign meaning non-none, non-furt. Non-furtian.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:As long as they're not from Nuremberg, it's all fine. Yeah so, but apart from that there's not really big problems with Moon anyway, right.
Speaker 2:No, honestly, I think we're.
Speaker 1:We're sliding it pretty good. Yeah, we're kind of rocking this whole.
Speaker 2:Thing.
Speaker 1:I have to say, maybe also something I don't like to boast about in the podcast all the time, but it's also kind of nice to know that you know.
Speaker 2:We're doing a great job.
Speaker 1:We're high-fiving each other all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I mean it is true, like everyone loves him, he loves everyone. Like things are, we can pretty much do what we want, and he just joins us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that we trained since the beginning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, he just followed our life.
Speaker 1:I think we did really good training since the beginning. Yeah, yeah, I think now we can use the word dictating. We dictated yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, we made him used to certain things and and now they pay off. Yeah, and now it pays off. Which?
Speaker 1:was difficult in the beginning, but now it's finally paying off.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:So yeah, this year has been. I mean now the year end is almost there, retrospectively looking, the move from Dubai to here was nothing like people said it would be.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:And I think the word for 2024 was resilience.
Speaker 2:For me, change, and also don't listen to other people's bullshit yeah, exactly, just go through yourself, because you know everything that people told us, what would be hard and um difficult, and yeah, it just all didn't happen at all. Yeah, yeah it, uh, yeah. We had three kita spots we could choose from. We found an apartment, an amazing one. We have a great neighborhood, like also this wow, europe is going down. Things are so unsafe.
Speaker 2:I mean yeah no, I'm not saying that in general or that everything is great has anybody tried to steal your Rolex?
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely not. No right.
Speaker 2:So I think yeah. And then also I remember in Dubai people saying oh, it's so child-friendly, blah, blah blah. I mean honestly, this is the biggest BS you can tell yourself.
Speaker 1:This city is so child-friendly.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and having I mean fresh air playgrounds everywhere, play corners in almost every restaurant we go. Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 1:Free toys that everybody can use at the play pens.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:The public ones, free public libraries with great books. Yeah, it's a misconception.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly A misconception, really a misconception misconception.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, misconception, misconception. Yeah, this year has been quite eye-opening on how some things that we took for granted or thought would be harder than others turn out to not be yeah right yeah, exactly we still miss arlene as arlene as a person. We have a nanny that comes out every Friday. We decided for ourselves every Friday we'll have somebody come to the house. She's great, we saw French speaking. She comes every Friday now, so we have our own parent time. Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:And a couple of time, not parent time A couple of time and yeah.
Speaker 1:And all the rest is also fine to be, honest we managed completely fine, but we also felt that in Dubai was already. You know Again, arlene is family. We talked to her all the time. We just did a video call with her the day after Christmas with Svenja's parents, video call with her the day after christmas with svenya's parents, and she is.
Speaker 2:She is the grandmother that we chose, yeah, but uh, we we saw that this was not necessary anymore it was super helpful in the beginning, but now not really and uh, yeah, because like this right, it's also nice for them to. I think the nice thing here the kids grow up being more integrated in your daily life, helping you cook, helping you clean, helping you, I don't know, just joining you in your daily activities, yeah everything that the kids in dub Dubai do with their nanny.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and in Dubai you would just give the kid to the nanny and then do what you have to do, or the other way around you ask the nanny to do what needs to be done and then you play with the kids, but it doesn't feel that integrated and I think they need to see that right. They need to see you cleaning, they need to see you making the table, and so on and so forth. Yeah, um, because that's then how, yeah, how they will do it.
Speaker 1:So we'll go afterwards for a drink.
Speaker 2:I just want to say shall we have a drink? Yeah, just walking by bar which looks very cozy after we finish this episode yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1:What would be your words for the end of the year?
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a tough one. That is really a tough one.
Speaker 1:Wow, my wife lost for words.
Speaker 2:Doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 1:No, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I'm on fire. Now you're on fire. Oh my God, what are the words for 2024? Resilience, I think, was one that you mentioned.
Speaker 1:Adaptation, agility was one that you mentioned, adaptation agility. So that with adaptation, yeah, kind of let's go this way, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Go through the drug dealer Lane change importance.
Speaker 1:What's important, change interesting change.
Speaker 2:2024 was a year of change was a big year of change. It was a big year of change.
Speaker 1:It was also exhausting, true.
Speaker 2:I think especially there around March, april, june, like this whole moving thing and sleeping on an air mattress for three months, that was really tough. I mean, that was tough, that was just exhausting.
Speaker 1:By the way, we need a new air mattress, that is true. Maybe we just gonna roll our couch yeah, or yeah, right for downstairs, right, yeah, that's a good idea everyone that sleeps at our house on that Ikea bed as much as they love the fact they don't have to pray for a hotel but it's really hate.
Speaker 2:They hate that bed. Yeah, exactly, the bed is really uncomfortable. We need to work on that. Yeah, yeah, but I would say success.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say that too.
Speaker 2:I think we kind of rocked it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had our rough spots here and there. Yeah, like every couple. I think this was the first time that the move was that hard yeah, it's that this was really because of the fact we had munanui.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, and, and for me, just the internal stress right like the wanting to but you always have that when we move back to Germany. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, you have this like oh shit, we're in Germany.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is going to be a pain in the ass, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and then I become more German again.
Speaker 1:Exactly, you become more German again. I guess that's where the word dictation is coming from. So many good jokes, but yeah, I feel now we've really our life is settled with a big D.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Right, we have. We've met some really great people here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We have our weekends, we have our. Things are set. When I knew he was going to the the gym, he's going to music class. He's developing as this amazing little kid that says um, complains when people don't say hello back to him or don't say thank you. Yeah, he also says nothing, hello, nothing, hello. Super cute, but yeah, it's been a good evening, it's been a pleasure too, and we'll see you again soon.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you bye. Yes, thank you bye.
Speaker 1:I see super nice, love the city people, you're just super super friendly no matter where you go, yeah, like when I went to the second hand shop today.
Speaker 2:I mean, they were just friendly this city is just a gem.
Speaker 1:A gem, but maybe we shouldn't exactly don't move here, sell it too much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, I think.
Speaker 1:I'm happy. I'm happy that we moved here. I think somebody asked me not too long ago if we were happy having moved out of Dubai, and I know, yeah, it was at the our neighborhood Christmas market, christmas party.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Remember when they asked about where we lived? You were already upstairs sleeping and they asked where we lived and I told them our story. The China, japan and I always now end up with Futh right and it's always people oh, now F, you know.
Speaker 1:And then the next question always comes along which one was the best? And for me, hong Kong is always, always will be number one. You know, having gone back there after September, in September, it's still an amazing city. Yeah, it's changed, but it's still an amazing city. So, and yeah, so, and then I told them, yeah, first, first, for me right now is number two, um, but it's also in this moment of our lives that we need that, right. But they asked, you know, I was like, oh, you don't regret the big city life moving from dubai to here? And I said, nope, not at all.
Speaker 1:We could have stayed longer if we really wanted to yeah, definitely but we didn't want to and I think this was this was one of the best decisions we made, also in 2024.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was the perfect timing, to be honest.
Speaker 1:We were fortunate enough to be able to have these options. Yeah, but I'm super happy we did take that decision.
Speaker 2:Yeah me too. I think it was the right decision.
Speaker 1:And I'm looking forward to next year.
Speaker 2:And see what's up next for us exactly.
Speaker 1:Apparently, my wife wants to make a vision board. She's looking at too many influencers on instagram. This morning she was like we need a vision board for 2025. Like I just woke up, I need a vision board for where's my coffee?
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then he told me I should just do it by myself. No, you actually like the idea.
Speaker 1:Yes, I like that idea. I told you about this autospant, or whatever.
Speaker 2:Autogenic training that I'm doing, autogenic training.
Speaker 1:You sound more and more like a yoga mom on Instagram sometimes yeah, I know Vision board autogenic training that's okay I know, but just kind of funny. It's like, no, we should do this together. No, and I gave her a great example about it today. I was like you know, I want to go back to smoking more cigars on a daily basis. But I don't ask you, do I? And she's looking. She's like, oh yeah, that's a good point, yeah.
Speaker 2:I understood. Then I was really ready. I was like no, okay, I'll do my vision board by myself.
Speaker 1:No. And then I told you no, the vision board I'm okay with. It's the autogenic one that I'm like. No, I don't need that, but yeah.
Speaker 2:All righty, I think we call it a night now.
Speaker 1:Close to the bar. Close to the bar. Going to get some drinks. Then go back home. Give a kiss to baby and fall asleep.
Speaker 2:Sounds like a perfect plan.
Speaker 1:I love you, my hunts bum.
Speaker 2:I love you too.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the wonderful year. Thank you.