Episode 586: Homecoming – The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

The Whinypaluza Podcast

Hosts Rebecca and Seth reflect on the logistical chaos of managing homecoming week for their two daughters, Ella and Lily. They discuss the

Key takeaways

Homecoming occurred unexpectedly early, during only the second week of the school year.
The hosts observed that every child has a unique social style; Lily is highly inclusive, while Ella's experience focused on managing shifting schedules.
Parenting 'Type A' tendencies were challenged by the 'Type B' reality of teenagers changing plans every few minutes.
A lack of communication, such as low phone batteries and unannounced location changes, served as a major stressor for parents.
The importance of the 'village' was highlighted through the help of other mothers in coordinating photo locations and updates.

Main topics

High school homecoming logistics
Managing sibling social differences
Parenting communication strategies

Notable quotes

I have come to terms with the fact that every single child is different.

Conclusion

While homecoming week was a period of high stress and logistical uncer

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:01) Hello, everyone. Happy Whinypalooza Wednesday. Hopefully, Seth is going to join us any minute. Hey, Lily, will you text Dad to get on the live with me? Hi, baby. I got a friend. Say hi to everyone. That's my kitten. My little pumpkin. I'm waiting for Seth to join. We're going to talk about homecoming. My kids just had their first week of school, and then their second week of school was homecoming week. Nothing like jumping right in full force. Thanks for joining me, Faith. Lily, did you Speaker 2 (0:46) text Speaker 3 (0:46) your Speaker 2 (0:46) father? Speaker 3 (0:47) We're going to see. Hopefully he's going to join us. I guess I'm going to start without him, and we shall see if he joins us. Speaker 3 (1:05) Where is he? There he is. There he is. Yay. Speaker 1 (1:32) Live from Vegas. Speaker 3 (1:34) You're live from Vegas. Your volume isn't good. All right. Speaker 1 (1:39) How's that? Speaker 3 (1:41) Turn it up. Speaker 1 (1:42) It's up as high as it can go. Speaker 3 (1:44) Uh-oh. Okay. Well, who is watching? Can you hear Seth? Seth, say something. Speaker 1 (1:52) Something. Can you hear me? Speaker 3 (1:58) You've got to fix it so that we can hear you. Speaker 1 (2:01) Again, I think we have... I think we had this issue last time and you couldn't hear me, but it ended up sounding okay to everybody else. Speaker 3 (2:09) Okay. All right. Well, I guess I'll start and do my best to hear you. Speaker 1 (2:15) Yes, please. Speaker 3 (2:17) So, so Seth is in Vegas. You miss him. And did you have a good day? Speaker 1 (2:25) I had a fantastic day. Speaker 3 (2:27) Are you tired? No. No, you're not tired. What time is it? Six? Speaker 1 (2:33) It is 6 p.m. and I am energized. Speaker 3 (2:37) Are you going to go out for dinner after this? Speaker 1 (2:40) I ordered room service and then I am hopefully meeting up with a long time friend from high school. Speaker 1 (2:48) Yes. Speaker 3 (2:48) Okay. Well, let's get through this so that you can go party it up in Vegas. Speaker 1 (2:52) Don't party too Speaker 3 (2:53) much. Speaker 1 (2:54) I won't. Speaker 3 (2:58) So... I was telling everyone that our kids had, our daughters had their first week of school, and then the second week was homecoming. Speaker 1 (3:06) Yeah, that's crazy. Way too early. It Speaker 3 (3:09) was ridiculously early. And it doesn't matter if you're the PTA, whatever. I had no say, people. So all those people talking to me about homecoming, I had no say. So if I had had any say, I would have said, absolutely not. Speaker 1 (3:28) Yes, it was not up to you. Speaker 3 (3:30) It wasn't up to me. So way too early. My friend's high school for her kids has homecoming on October 3rd, which is perfection. Speaker 1 (3:42) Yes. That's Speaker 3 (3:42) when you do homecoming. Speaker 1 (3:44) Yes. Speaker 3 (3:45) Let's talk about it. We're going to talk about the good, the bad, the ugly. Okay? So let's start with the fact. That as much as I have resisted this over the years, I have come to terms with the fact that every single child is different. Okay. So as much as I have resisted, I have arrived. I have arrived in a good place to accept my children and other children and what they like. Okay. So some children, guess what? Some kids don't want to go to homecoming at all. Speaker 1 (4:22) Right? No dance for them. Speaker 3 (4:24) Some kids want to go with a date, and they just want them and a date to go, and they want it to be the two of them. Right? Some kids want to go by themselves. I see kids pull up by themselves to the dance. some kids want to go in a small group. Some kids are like, let's have 40 people over and let's all go, let's get a limo and let's all go together. So our kids are three of those kids. Yes. Speaker 1 (4:55) All different. Speaker 3 (4:57) And when I talked to Max the other night, I don't know if I reported this back to you, but he said he wished he hadn't gone to any of the dances. Oh, Speaker 1 (5:05) no, I don't like that. No, you did not tell me. I don't like that at all. Speaker 3 (5:11) Max is not a dance guy. And as I talked to my friend about this, her daughter's not a dance girl. Some kids do not like the dance. Okay. Accept it. We can't force them to like things. Our middle daughter wants to go with a couple of friends. And our youngest is like, Speaker 1 (5:37) She wants all the more the merrier. She's like her mother. Speaker 3 (5:40) So my motto in life that I teach my children. is the more the merrier. And what I love about Lily, this is one of my favorite things about our daughters, is they don't like people being excluded. So if Lily gets word that someone's being left out, she invites them. She always opens her arms to whoever wants to come over when we did it at our house. It was more and more and more and more. And she would just tell me every day that there were more kids coming over. Speaker 1 (6:18) Yeah, the list kept going and you kept going. Do I need to order more pizza? Do I need to order more food? Speaker 3 (6:24) So, I mean, I love that she's, I want my kids to be inclusive. That's one of the most important things to me. And I love that she just opens our door. Anybody's welcome. Our door is always open to all of their friends. Anyone at their high school is welcome over. We had a Halloween party last year, almost every year. And I think Lily invited the whole class. There were a Speaker 1 (6:51) lot of people. Speaker 3 (6:55) So anyways, moving on. So before the dance, we're talking about the good,