School Days, Gym Class Nightmares & Road Trip Ready

Shawna and LaLa: Life Beyond The Mic

Shawna and LaLa reflect on the return to school, sharing personal stories about parenting, childcare challenges, and their own childhood exp

Key takeaways

• Many parents struggle with balancing work and child-rearing, especially when full-day preschools are necessary due to job constraints.
• The idea that 'I can't wait for school to start' reflects a deeper issue: some parents view children as burdens rather than life-long companions.

Main topics

• Back-to-school season
• Parental guilt and work-life balance

Notable quotes

"Why the F did you have kids? Because kids are an 18-year sacrifice."

"I can't wait for you to go back to school. Thank god school's starting again." – Shawna says this breaks her heart.

Conclusion

Shawna and LaLa use the return of school as a springboard to reflect on parenting values,

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) What's up? You're listening to Shauna and Lala. Check us out at shaunainlala.com on all social media platforms at shaunainlala. You could follow me on Instagram at therealshaunamay. And check me out at bella underscore lala one two five. Well, summer is officially over and school has started, at least here in New York. And I guess it is back to reality and getting up early. especially for you. I hate it. I hate it. I have to be up at 6, 6.15 every morning, and I've been sleeping till 8. So it's really frustrating, and I have to get into the swing of things again. Speaker 1 (0:45) Is Gio excited to be in eighth grade? It says last year of middle school, and then he's only got four more years left. I can't believe it. I know. It goes by so fast. He's excited. You know, he was a little nervous. Of course, that's normal to be nervous, but he's excited, and he loves school. I mean, unless he gets a bad teacher, we'll know. He's trying to gauge how he feels about his teachers. There's some that he doesn't like, some he likes, but... I've seen with him that changes throughout the year. As he gets to know them, he's like, you know what, they weren't that bad. Or, you know what, now they are bad. But yeah, he is excited. He had a good first day and a good second day, and hopefully that continues. I remember when he was in preschool, we would... Speaker 1 (1:32) get together at your house and film and record and he used to give you such a hard time about going to preschool yeah he didn't he didn't like going he wanted to be home with mama it was hard it was definitely hard but luckily it was not a full day of school back then I feel like it wasn't five days a week, but maybe it was, but it definitely was a half-day program, so at least it wasn't too crazy. Nowadays, these poor kids are going Monday through Friday at three years old, three turning four, but Monday through Friday from 9 to 3.30. That's crazy. That's too long of a day for these little ones. I don't know what my cousin's kids do. I know the one is three, I believe. Speaker 1 (2:21) And I know she goes to like a preschool program, but I don't know if it's every day, all day, or if it's like certain days, you know, like one time. I'll have to find out. But yeah, I think they're just maybe preparing them for school life, but they still, they need to be a kid. No, I already asked what the reason was because it made no sense to me. I said... Babysitting. Yeah, parents. Parents complain. This is what they told me. Speaker 1 (2:50) parents were not putting their kids in the pre-K program because then they had to find babysitters or someone to pick them up half day because most parents work 9 to 5. So you're thinking, okay, they're dropping the kids off fine, but then they have to come back at 12.30, 1 o'clock, whatever time it was to pick up the kid, and that was interfering in their work day. So they complained and said, I want full day. And while I get that, I don't in a way. It's like I always say when you have kids, you make sacrifices. You have little ones. Speaker 1 (3:19) hey, I know people need to make money, but you got to work. You got to make it work. And I will always take my child's mental health and then how they're growing over a job or money, you know, because that's most important to me. And a little three-year-old should not be sitting in class or daycare all day. That's my opinion. So that's why they did it. That's what they told me they did it. And the state listened because it gives them more money. Every student that's enrolled, they get a certain amount of money. Speaker 1 (3:48) They wanted to get the enrollment up. So they offer this and then more parents put their kids in because, oh, yes, perfect. Now my kid can be in school all day. I don't have to pay a babysitter. I don't have to do this or that. And this is great. And the state makes money and the parents are happy. I wasn't happy, though. I get it. I mean, your mom was home with you, right? Yes. And your dad. So both my parents worked. My mom worked, you know, two jobs. My dad was an over-the-road truck driver. So I get that. Like, I get where, like, my mom's coming from. But you hated it. But I hated it. Yep. And then I get where you're coming from, you know. And my mom, she worked two and three jobs. But her one job was from, like, 7 in the morning. She would put me on the bus, leave for work, and then work till 5, 5.30. Speaker 1 (4:41) And then sometimes had to do like meetings or meetings till 10 o'clock at night, you know, and then she did that. And then she also was in school. So it was a lot. That is a lot. And I mean, I know you guys and I'm never going to tell your mom, oh, you shouldn't have kids. But I tell women today, knowing that more women have to work. in today's age than back then. It's like, hey, you gotta make that decision before you have kids. It's either, to me, it's either a full-fledged career or you're raising your children. And I know everyone falls on hard times, believe me. But I think that people don't want to make sacrifices. And this is not about your mom. Speaker 1 (5:20) Other people don't want to make the sacrifices to cut back. Either that or they're afraid they're not going to have money or they want to live this lavish lifestyle. Yeah, not making sacrifices. When me and Mike got pregnant, we weren't planning it. We're like, oh, crap, how are we going to afford this? Well, let's cut down our cell phone plan. Let's drop down to one car. Hey, Lauren, you're not going to have a car, but God forbid there's an emergency. Our neighbor will take you, this, this, or that. Speaker 1 (5:47) It sucked. I didn't have my own car for a few years. But we knew that what was important to us was me being home with Gio and raising him, not sticking him in a daycare. So people don't want to live without. And I think that's it too. Some people I know they can't. But for a lot of these women that I know, it's like, no, I want to keep my career. I don't want to change anything. And I'm going to put my little baby in a daycare from 7 a.m. till 6 when I get there from work. And to me, I will never agree with that. Your baby should be raised by you, not a daycare. So that's just my personal opinion. A lot of women get mad at me when I say that. Or family members. Yeah. So I was always with my grandmother, my aunts. I