At the end of the COVID tunnel, the thought of light is very appealing — 2020 was a whopper. The pandemic has affected us all differently. We’ve developed our own ways of navigating hurdles and managing emotional stress. Middle and high school kids faced unique challenges as they missed iconic milestones and were robbed of social lives. While drugs and alcohol have always been a concern for parents, 2020 saw a rise in addiction among adolescents looking for a coping mechanism. Author Richard Capriola brings decades of experience to the conversation and shares ideas on how parents can best support their kids. His book, “The Addicted Child,” lays out the warning signs and offers seasoned advice to help turn this trend around.
At the end of the COVID tunnel, the thought of light is very appealing — 2020 was a whopper. The pandemic has affected us all differently. We’ve developed our own ways of navigating hurdles and managing emotional stress. Middle and high school kids faced unique challenges as they missed iconic milestones and were robbed of social lives. While drugs and alcohol have always been a concern for parents, 2020 saw a rise in addiction among adolescents looking for a coping mechanism. Author Richard Capriola brings decades of experience to the conversation and shares ideas on how parents can best support their kids. His book, “The Addicted Child,” lays out the warning signs and offers seasoned advice to help turn this trend around.
Episode 43 of Modern Dadhood opens with a brief catch-up on Marc’s solo-dadding weekend and a realization that the release of this episode falls on the Friday of Mother’s Day weekend. The guys quickly formulate a plan to let their wives take over the next episode and mom it up for half an hour!
The guys discuss their (quite different) experiences with their second doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which leads into a conversation about the pandemic, the light at the end, and the impacts that the past year has had on people of all ages. The guys discuss the differences between younger children and high school aged adolescents and coping mechanisms for stress, depression, and trauma—including drugs and alcohol. Marc brings up a recent episode of NHPR’s The Exchange, covering a similar topic with guest Jessica Lahey, before playing back a recent conversation with author Richard Capriola.
Richard is a father one grown son who has spent much of his career counseling young people with alcohol and substance abuse issues, and recently published the book The Addicted Child, A Parent’s Guide to Adolescent Substance Abuse. Rick joins to promote his book, and we discuss topics including:
• Raising his son as a widower
• The importance of writing a simple and clear guide for parents
• The harm in labeling someone an "addict"
• When is the right time to discuss substance misuse with your kids?
• The neuroscience of adolescent substance use
• What has changed from the "Just Say No" era to now?
• Warning signs to watch out for in our kids
• The importance of listening to words and the feelings behind them
• What assessments are, and why they're important
• The impact of the pandemic on young people
The episode culminates with a no-explanation-needed installment of Did I Just Say That Out Loud? in which Adam finds himself doing... some dirty work.
Stay tuned for Episode 44, when our wives will take over the podcast—and do whatever the heck they want with the time!
[Episode Transcript]
Links:
Richard Capriola [website]
The Addicted Child [Amazon]
DrugFree.org
Red Vault Audio
Caspar Babypants
Spencer Albee
Stuffed Animal [Marc's musical project]
Adam: All right, it's as good as its going to get.
Marc: There we go.
Marc: This is Modern Dadhood, and you know what we call it? We call it an ongoing conversation about the joys, the challenges and the general insanity of being a dad in this moment. My name is Marc Checket and I'm a dad to twin boy, three year olds.
Adam: And my name is Adam Flaherty. I'm a father of two daughters who are seven and four years old, respectively. The older one came first.
Marc: Did she?
Adam: Younger one came second.
Marc: Did she? Okay, thanks for clarifying. You know, a year into this podcast, I'm glad you finally set the record straight.
Adam: I realized that there may have been some confusion about it. So I want to clear it up.
Marc: We have gotten a few emails. I gotta tell you, I'm excited to be sitting here with you, my friend. It's been a long weekend. I see you've got a glass of wine. Let's just do a real quick virtual cheers, yeah?
Adam: Sure.
Marc: Okay, there we go. I feel... Let me just take a minute.
Adam: Our guest today is Richard Capriola. Richard is an author, among many other things, of a new book about how to speak with adolescent people about drugs and alcohol and substance misuse. We spoke with Rick a couple of weeks back. It was an awesome conversation and we are excited to share it with you in a little bit. But first...
Marc: First..?
Adam: I turn it over to you.
Marc: But first... But first, all parts of my body from the tip of my hair down to the bottom of my feet is sore.
Adam: Due to age?
Marc: Just from watching...
Adam: Bluey?
Marc: Just from watching toddlers by myself for two days while my wife is away.
Adam: And you're exhausted?
Marc: That starts to describe it, yep. Yep. But they're they're sleeping soundly now. I'm watching they're watching their cute little... Oh don't... shut up. One of them's moving... All right, we're good. We're good. Dodged a bullet there!
Adam: Oh! When this episode releases, it's going to be two days before Mother's Day! It's Mother's Day weekend. I think it would be appropriate for us to give a little bit of recognition to the moms. The moms who make this world go 'round.
Marc: How much recognition should we give? Should we give this much recognition? What if we let your kids' mom and my kids' mom, take our microphones for a few hours and just...
Adam: Hmm...
Marc: And just have a go at this and we see what happens. And we edit it, we put it together, we put it out. What do you think?
Adam: Alright! Do we give them any sort of outline, any sort of agenda, or is it just... You guys make the podcast?
Marc: I mean, I think it's, you know, it's it's Modern Dadhood from their point of view... Whatever that means to them.
Adam: Okay!
Marc: They have joys and challenges and insanity. Right?
Adam: So it would actually be the episode following Mother's Day weekend.
Marc: That's right. Well, because, you know, they're going to get this weekend to relax. They're going to get whatever they want... Cleaning and making beautiful meals for them, or at least calling and picking up beautiful meals for them.
Adam: Foot massages.
Marc: No, come on. That's disgusting.
Adam: I forgot! I forgot. You have a weird foot thing.
Marc: We talked at length about this last time.
Adam: I totally forgot!
Marc: No, I would put my foot thing aside if if my wife so desired.
Adam: I should hope so, man! It's your wife!
Marc: You know, these are the things we do, right? I mean, I'm not saying I'm a hero, but...
Adam: You're a hero to me.
Marc: Yeah, yeah.
Adam: So happy Mother's Day to all of the moms listening, and I think we just made a plan for our next episode. Mom takeover. So you got the second dose, correct?
Marc: That is correct,
Adam: And I got the second dose, too. How'd you do with it?
Marc: Good. I think it was one of those days where I felt like I was late for everything. So I was like a little anxious. And for a few hours, I think there was just I was in my own head a little too much.
Adam: Yeah, just nerves?
Marc: Yeah. And I don't know, before I knew what it was like halfway through the next day and I was fine. But texting you and your your situation was a little different. Yeah?
Adam: Yeah, I was fine that day and woke up the next day feeling a little off. Had a couple of meetings in the morning, you know, Zoom meetings, and just progressively just started feeling worse and worse. And by lunchtime, I was really feeling pretty awful. So my shot was in the early afternoon on a Monday, and it was like probably a little more than 24 hours later is when it peaked. But I mean, I was just on the couch like nausea and like, just cold.
Marc: Jeez, dude...
Adam: I want to go on the record saying it's absolutely worth it. I mean, I would have put up with those symptoms for a wee if I had to. But but yeah, it's funny because Sarah, my wife, had her shot two days later and I think she felt a little fatigued, like the following afternoon, but really like there was no nausea, no headache or anything like that. It's odd and hits different people different ways. But I'm glad this is out of the way. Hopefully we can return to something that feels normal.
Marc: I wonder... I keep thinking about moments in like a year from now, being at an office and hearing someone sniffling, and thinking to myself, like, how am I going to react to that person? Am I still going to be carrying a mask in my bag, like just in case, you know, with like a bunch of Purell and like, am I going to look at that person and be like, "You need to get out of here,"? For me, the big change is in realizing, like, hey, dumb dumb, it's not just about you, it's about everybody else around you.
Adam: I think a lot still about obviously our kids. You know, this is had different effects on different kids of different ages for different reasons. But I haven't really thought about it too much from the perspective of a parent who has teenage kids, for example.
Marc: That's hard to wrap your head around.
Adam: It is. I mean, school changed in such a big way. Their social lives were like so heavily affected by this. And, you know, thinking back to when I was 15, 16, 17, your social life is everything.
Marc: Yeah, I know. It's easy for, like, a 40-year-old to sit here and say, like, "Okay, you missed your prom. There are other important things in life." But like, when you're that age and you're in it, to your point, it's everything to you.
Adam: Devastating.
Marc: And you and I both can remember that feeling, because it's not... It's pretty far back in my past. I'm getting to be an old fart. But no, it's not. It's not all forgotten. I remember what it feels like to be 15, 16 or whatever and thinking your world is only so big, you know, and it's very important to you.
Adam: Think about it as a sophomore or junior in high school, thinking about what comes next, you know, whether it's going to college or whether it's preparing yourself for the workforce outside of high school. There's just a lot of pressure on you to figure out what you're going to do after high school and if that entire year, say, your junior year when you're supposed to be figuring all of that shit out, you're learning remotely... You have no social life. You're not able to participate in the activities or sports or whatever you like to do. How do you go into your senior year feeling prepared for anything?
Marc: No idea.
Adam: And I think that stuff can, and has, led to a lot of mental health issues. I think it's a huge crisis.
Marc: It's a heavy time and it's affecting us and it is taking a mental toll on probably a lot of us. And there's a lot of us that don't maybe quite even realize like. Some of the things that we're doing to maybe cope with some of these effects, these these effects on our mental health and well-being, I don't know if, you know, the show on NHPR called "The Exchange" with Laura Knoy?
Adam: Sure.
Marc: Yeah, it's a great show, it's awesome. But they just have to do an episode about this very topic with an author. I believe her name was Jessica Lahey and she herself is a recovering alcoholic.
Adam: Did they know... that we were doing this episode?
Marc: They probably heard and they were like you know, they're like, "What's Modern Dadhood going to do next? We gotta beat them to the punch."
Adam: "We're always going to be one step ahead of Modern Dadhood."
Marc: "What are they doing with their really small audience that we should be with our enormous audience?"
Adam: Oh, you'll be hearing from our laura, Lawyer Knoy.
Marc: But she said something that I thought was very interesting, which is that you you can start the learning process about what is and isn't good for your body or good to put in your body and what is and isn't good for your brain. And you can start that conversation. It doesn't have to be related to drugs at all. It can start with something like very simple.
Adam: That's right. I mean, my older daughter is seven and we've talked about drugs more than once. She knows that we consume alcohol. She knows what beer is and wine is. And she knows that it's not for kids and she knows that it affects your brain. But I think the bottom line is that, you know, there are these things there. There is alcohol, there are drugs that can provide an escape, that can be a coping mechanism for people of any age. And now here we are, thankfully, at what seems to be kind of that coming up on the tail end of this pandemic, thank God, but here we are in this span of a year where if you're someone who's going to experiment with that stuff as a way of coping, like... this is the time where you're more likely, probably than any other time, to start to slide down that that slippery slope. Well, I think that this is a really natural segue into our conversation that we had recently with Richard Capriola. Should we tee that up, Marc?
Marc: Yeah, I think so. Let's get into it.
Marc: So today we are talking with Richard Capriola. Richard spent 30 years as a lobbyist, Communications and External Relations Manager and Special Assistant to the State Superintendent of Education for the Illinois State Board of Education, and more than 10 years working as an Addictions Counselor for the Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas. Recently, Richard has written a book called "The Addicted Child, A Parent's Guide to Adolescent Substance Abuse." Richard, thank you so much for coming on to Modern Dadhood to talk with us.
Richard: Thank you, guys. I really appreciate your taking the time to talk to me and to discuss this issue of adolescent substance abuse and my book, which is intended for parents and families and anyone interested in learning about adolescent substance abuse. So I really appreciate you helping me to reach out to families about this topic.
Adam: Our pleasure. Such an important topic. And we thank you for using your knowledge and experience to write this useful book. Before we get too far along, I want to ask you a question that we we kind of ask of all of our guests when they join. Tell us about you, Richard, as a dad.
Richard: Well, I was born and raised in Illinois, up near Chicago, as you mentioned, spent a number of years working for the state of Illinois and then worked into mental health. I have one son that I raised after his mother passed away when he was two years old. She passed away from cancer. So I pretty much was raising him on my own as a single father, you know, went through all the trials and tribulations and joys of having a son and watching him go through school and high school and then move on. He's now in his 30s and he's a paramedic here in Texas. So I'm quite proud of him. You know, it seems like it was just yesterday that he was born, you know, and as I look back, the years went by so quickly that it really is surprising. But he's one of my greatest joys and my greatest accomplishments.
Marc: And what an amazing thing you had to go through, becoming a single dad when you said he was two years old?
Richard: He was two years old when his mother passed away.
Marc: Yes, that's incredible. Your career began in education. Maybe you can talk a little bit about that, but then how you phrase it as a second career, how did you go from a career in education to a second career as an addiction counselor?
Richard: Well, probably for the first 25 years that I was in education, I was devoted 100% to that job and to that career. And I retired from the State of Illinois. After about 32 years of working, probably three or four years before I retired from the state, I started working part time for a mental health crisis center in central Illinois. And I would work three days a week at the crisis center in the evening. And we would have patients that would come in from the hospital, from the emergency room to the crisis center. And we would we would house them for a number of days. And I noticed that a number of these people who were coming to the crisis center had not only a mental health issue, but a substance abuse issue as well. So as I continued to work for the State of Illinois, I went back to the University of Illinois in Springfield and received a Master's Degree in Addictions Counseling. I then retired from the State of Illinois, continued to work at the crisis center for a while until I was offered a position to be an Addictions Counselor at Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas, which is which is a psychiatric hospital. A large psychiatric hospital in Houston, Texas, for both adolescents and adults. Worked for Menninger Clinic for about 11 years as an addictions counselor and then retired a little over a year ago from Menninger. It's been a journey that took me from education into mental health and then into addictions.
Adam: I really want to get into the meat of your book, Rick, because I think that there's so much value for parents listening. But first, can you briefly share about what inspired the book? You know, why right now? And what's your overarching goal with publishing the addicted child?
Richard: Yes, after I retired from Menninger and I had thought about this while I was at Menninger because I had met so many parents who were in the crisis of having a child who was using substance abuse. And one of the most common responses I would hear from them when I talked to them and gave them the history of their child's substance abuse, they would look at me and they would say, "I had no idea this was going on." Or if they did suspect something was going on, they would say, "Well, I knew something was going on, but I didn't know it was this bad." So I wanted to create a resource for parents that would be not very technical, not bogged down with a lot of jargon and research, but something that as a parent, they could read very quickly and walk away from thinking, "Okay, I've got this. I understand this a little bit better. I'm not as frightened about this as I was before. I know the warning signs. If I'm in this situation, I know what to do." And I wanted this to be in about one hundred pages or so so it could be read quickly and kept as a resource. So after I left Menninger, I set about to start writing it.
Marc: One of the things I notice, it's very, very easy to read is not a difficult thing to pick up. And you're talking about such a difficult topic to approach. So having something that's so easy to access, I mean, even just physically and mentally to get into is, I think, is really smart. I was wondering if we could talk a little bit about, like, the language around the topic. For example, not referring to a person as an "addict," but rather somebody who might be "struggling with substance misuse." So you've said the phrase a couple of times, "substance abuse" or "substance misuse." I just wonder if you can talk a little bit about why it's important that we kind of get that language right as we have this conversation?
Richard: Well, that's a very good point. And it is important because when we label somebody an addict, that carries so many negative connotations with it in society. And as I point out in the book, we don't diagnose somebody as an "addict." If it's an appropriate diagnosis, it will be a "Substance Use Disorder" and it can run on a range of either mild, moderate or severe, and what places a person in those categories is the degree of negative consequences that are associated with the use of a drug. So the more negative consequences, the more it's affecting a person's life, the more likely there to be they will be in the moderate or the severe category. But it is important that we get away from the stigma of addiction. I tell parents in the book, "Your child is not going to be labeled as an 'addict'. If it's appropriate, the diagnosis will be Substance Use Disorder'."
Adam: So, Rick, both Marc and I have have two children, my daughters are seven and four, and Marc's two sons are three years old. None of them have ever presented any signs that they may be using any kind of substances. But I wonder, when is it a good time to start having conversations with them about substances?
Richard: Well, it's never too early to begin the discussion, the age appropriate discussion. And so how do you do that? Well, what I recommend is that if you have a child that that's very young, you start working on building that that communication, that trust, so that they feel comfortable coming to you to talk about any issue. So what I suggest to parents and we can all benefit from this is to practice listening to your child's feelings, not just their words, but their feelings, so that when you have a conversation with them, you're able to pick up on what's going on underneath the surface. You hear their words, but do you hear the feelings behind those words? And that's an investment that that if you make with the child when they're six and seven and eight years old, is probably going to pay dividends when they turn 17 and 18 years old. It's never too early to start talking to children about their brains and how their brains are developing and their need to protect their brain. And as they get a little bit older, you can sort of start to work in some of the neuroscience. There's a chapter in my book on the neuroscience so that they begin to understand that these drugs can have an impact on their developing brain and they need to protect that brain.
Marc: it's really sad that we even have to have this conversation. But it's such a necessary conversation to have it's such an important topic for parents to talk about to each other too, you know, parent to parent. And there's so many things that happen when you become a parent, right? But you look at the world through a different set of lenses and I've suddenly become a really scary world. And so and I also got me thinking a lot about when I was young. I grew up in the 80s and it was the "Just Say No" era. But I'm just wondering, from your vantage point, how is the national conversation changed over the last couple of decades? Because I just think we're at such a different point now than where we were back in the 80s in that "Just Say No" era.
Richard: There's been a big change in terms of substances that the teenagers are using. But I think that the key is that knowledge is power. So the more parents are informed about these and the warning signs, hopefully they feel more comfortable and they're not so afraid of this topic. Unfortunately, not much has changed in terms of what we do within the education system to help prepare kids to stay away from alcohol and drugs. We're still doing this "Just Say No" approach as opposed to a neuroscience approach. If it were if it were me making the decisions, I would start in the elementary schools with the focus on neuroscience. And then I would reinforce that every single year, all the way through high school, because what I've noticed in working with teenagers is it doesn't do me any good to tell them it's illegal. It doesn't do me any good to tell them, well, if you keep smoking marijuana, your grades are going to drop. You might drop out of school, you won't get a job, you won't go to college. They don't care about that. They don't believe all of that. But what did captured their attention was when I started to talk to them about the neuroscience that they were interested in. They wanted to know about their brain. They wanted to know how these chemicals and these drugs affected their brain. And it was very easy for me to show them the the research and to show them the assessment results that showed for them that the processing speed of their brain was below average, their short term memory was impaired and their motivation was below what they wanted it to be. I think the key in working with these young men and women is to take an education approach because that's what they're interested in.
Adam: Rick, you you mentioned a moment ago some of the warning signs. I feel like most parents probably don't assume that their child is going to become addicted to a substance. It may not even be present in their mind enough to notice those warning signs. Can you share some of the most common sort of telltale signs that we as parents can look out for in our kids?
Richard: Sure. In my book, I have warning signs for for some of the substances like alcohol. What are the warning signs for alcohol? What are the warning signs for a child that might be developing an eating disorder or might be self injury? But as a general rule, what I [00:23:48]what I say to parents is pay attention to the changes that you see in your child. Don't assume that the changes you're seeing are just normal adolescent acting out in development. They may very well be, but they also might be an indicator of something more serious going on underneath the surface. [18.4s] So, for example, if you have a child, for example, that used to participate in sports, enjoyed playing sports, no longer enjoys doing so. If you have a child who was very outgoing and social, now becomes isolating and very withdrawn, if you have a child who used to take pride in their appearance now no longer cares about what they look like. If you have a child who was very open in introducing you to their friends, you knew who their friends were, you knew who their parents were of their friends now becomes very secretive. Pay attention to the changes that you see in your child and and don't assume that they're just normal adolescent development. Find out what's really going on.
Adam: Rick, can you recommend any techniques to parents listening for how to broach a conversation with a young person in a way that wouldn't immediately scare them off or offend them or upset them or, you know, immediately put them on the defensive?
Richard: Yeah, I think you just express your concern. You don't accuse them. You don't want to give them the impression that you're judging them. You just want to understand. And as I said earlier, [00:25:13]the key to this is to listen not just to their words, but to their feelings behind the words. And what you want to do is establish a communication that the child feels comfortable talking to you about this. Now, that might not happen immediately, but the more you the more you work at it and the more you develop those communication skills, the more the child might feel open to talk to you. [22.7s] There's a section in my book that that makes reference to one of the reasons why adolescents are reluctant to share with their parents what's going on is a fear of being judged. So the less your child feels that you're going to judge them and [00:25:51]the more that they feel that you're there just to listen to their perspective, in their point of view, the more likely you're going to have a fairly good conversation with them. [8.4s]
Adam: You know, I think that the tricky part, the kind of catch 22, is that you still are ultimately the the authority figure and the one who can take their car keys away or punish them in your situation as kind of a this sort of objective third party, you're not going to put them in handcuffs and take them away or you're not going to ground them and take away their social media. I guess my point is there's definitely a different dynamic there, whether it's a parent or a counselor.
Richard: Yeah. And it's not really anything magical. It's just basically coming at them with the perspective of "I want to understand."
Adam: Are there any other resources that you personally like or recommend frequently if parents are either seeing some of those signs or experiencing this in their family?
Richard: Yeah, I think the question often is, "Okay, I think this is going on with my kid. What do I do next?" And my book has a section on assessments. You need to get the assessments done. So the question then becomes, where do I get these assessments? Well, there are several sources you can turn to. First of all, probably talk to your school counselor. If your child's in school, talk to the school counselor. They can probably make some referrals to you on psychologists to do a psychological assessment for example. You can also talk to your family physician. Many of them have resources in terms of what's available for psychologists and social workers and things like that. The mental health associations that are out there also provide resources for parents and support groups for parents. So there's a lot of resources out there that that a parent can turn to so that they don't feel so alone. Probably the first thing a parent says is, "Okay, well, what do I do now? Where do I go?" And that's where you need to probably begin, by talking to your school counselor and following the the recommendations on assessments that I have in my book. You need to get those assessments done as soon as possible.
Marc: How has the pandemic made things difficult?
Richard: It has had a tremendous impact on adults and adolescents. You know, our entire world has been turned upside down for adults who are struggling with all of the ramifications of the pandemic, all of the fears around the pandemic, and for kids who have been pulled away from their social environment in school and confined to home and and the challenges of online learning and and not being able to participate in sports, not being able to see their friends at school, it's had a tremendous impact on mental health for both adults and adolescents. And we're just now starting to see the ramifications of that and we're going to see it for years to come. The Center for Disease Control, for example, has said that there has been an increase in the mental health needs of adolescents and teenagers since the pandemic began. There has been about a 24% increase in emergency room visits by grade school children. So stop and think. 24% increase in emergency room visits by grade school children. And there's been a 30% increase for teenagers who are urgently in need of mental health care. So it's disrupted things like sleep and eating patterns, excessive worry, depression, irritability, aggression. So it's had a wide range of mental health effects that we're just now beginning to see start to emerge from adolescents and we may see more of it as these children start to integrate back into school and try to adjust to getting back into that social environment after having spent so much time away from it. But there's no question that that this is having a significant impact on children and adolescents. And I think, sadly, we're going to see more and more of the effects mental from a mental health perspective as we move forward.
Adam: Richard Capriola's book is called "The Addicted Child, A Parent's Guide to Adolescent Substance Abuse". Rick, where can people buy a copy of your book?
Richard: It's available on Amazon. It's also available at the book's website, http://helptheaddictedchild.com. There's also a parent workbook that's available because I wanted to provide a resource for parents. If they go to the website, they can read endorsements and reviews and some blog articles and get some more information. There's also a link where they can contact me.
Marc: There's certainly a lot to explore with this particular topic. And I think the book that you've written is such a good first step into this topic for parents that either, you know, have concerns or just want to educate themselves like like Adam and I do. If you've got younger kids and, you know, it's a conversation that you'd like to have at some point in the future with those kids, I think that this book is a really great place to start. So thank you for the work that you've done, thank you for for the book, and thank you so much for coming on and talking with us today.
Richard: Well, thank you, guys. I really appreciate your contributions to the discussion and your questions, I think were very thoughtful and very important. And I really appreciate you taking the time to help me reach out to these families about this resource.
Adam: So Dads and Moms, in addition to the resources that Rick shared with us, if you suspect that your kid may be using drugs or abusing alcohol and you're unsure how to approach it, I found that the website http://drugfree.org Also has a great service where you can simply text the word CONNECT (and it has it all in caps) to 55753 to be connected with a trained specialist who can help you navigate that situation.
Marc: We usually do a recurring segment at this time.
Adam: Recurring segment! Yes.
Marc: What have you? I didn't come prepared today.
Adam: I have one and it's going to be a really quick one because I think that we front loaded this episode with a whole lot of gab.
Marc: A whole lot of yakking.
Adam: And this one doesn't require really any context. Can I throw it to you for the...
Marc: For this thing?
Adam: I'd like you to read that bullet. I'm going to deliver a very quick....
Marc: Did I Just Say That Out Loud? Should I close my eyes on this one. What should I... Should I do anything to prepare?
Adam: I'm just going to tell you what I said because we need to move on, Marc Checket. Here's what I said. "It appears that you've chosen to put clumps of mud into your lunchbox." That's it!
Marc: It appeared to you as if that was what happened. Let me hear the sentence one more time. And I want to try to picture myself as being a seven-year-old standing behind you in the kitchen. Give me the dad tone.
Adam: "It appears that you've chosen... it appears that you've chosen to put clumps of mud into your lunch box!"
Marc: "No, papa. Was not me."
Adam: She does call me papa!
Marc: Does she?
Adam: No, no, no!
Marc: I'm sorry, Papa. Friends, you can find us at http://ModernDadhood.com or an Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts. There's a whole slew of them out there that we're on and do us a favor and please subscribe, maybe leave us a quick rating or a review. Go so far as to tell a friend. We'd really appreciate that.
Adam: You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Just search Modern Dadhood. You can also find us on YouTube. You can find Modern Dadhood T-shirts and Dadhoodies for sale on our website, http://ModernDadhood.com.
Marc: Oh, hey. Also, you could drop us a line at hey@moderndadhood.com. And tell us what you like about the show. Tells a joke. Tell us to stop.
Adam: "Just stop!"
Marc: And say, "Guys, enough."
Adam: We want to thank Caspar Babypants as always and Spencer Albee for the Modern Dadhood music, to Pete Morse at Red Vault Audio for always making us sound as good as we possibly can, considering we're recording in different places, and to Rick Capriola for doing the very important work that he does. And last but not least, Marc Checket will take the final thank you, as he always does.
Marc: That's right, Adam. I'll take it from here. And this episode will be over in just a moment. As soon as I get to the very last line. And thank YOU for listening.
Adam: Oh, we got one more thank you! Thank you to the moms! We love you, moms!