Screen Time & The 18 Summers We Get

In this episode of Mama’s Playground, we talk about the beautiful chaos of summer — kids in camp, the pressure to make memories, screen time, AI, mom guilt, and the reminder that we only get so many summers with our kids. We also dream up the ultimate Mama’s Playground Summer Camp for moms, because honestly, we need a reset too.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to Mama's Playground. Welcome.

unknown 0:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

I don't know. I got stuck for a minute.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Yeah. So today we're gonna be talking about when you call your dog, does he really listen to you or your husband?

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Oh my gosh. Tell them why you're saying this, darling. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Tell them please explain why you're asking this question.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Okay, so I get here today, and Monica opens the door, and Clifford, the dog, my big red dog, right? He's so big. Yes. Um, he leaves the house and he decides to just go for a run. For a run. For a run. And there goes Monica, like running at barefoot, barefoot, look at like crazy. I was talking to Nancy at that moment, and I'm like, you gotta see Monica. She's running around like crazy. And then there's all this old lady, like also like working out this morning, and she's trying to help, and it's this whole situation. And then I go to Bendy, Monica's husband. I go, hey, Clifford is gone. And se te dio, se te dio. Yeah, yeah. He's like, Yes, let him run away. He loves him. And he goes, Oh, okay. So he goes back into the house, and I'm like, I think she needs help. Oh, okay. So he comes out and he goes, Clifford, come, come to bed. And he comes running inside with no issue.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Listen, I was frustrated. It was about what a five-minute, eight-minute ordeal running around the whole neighborhood, barefoot on the road, stopping cars, and then all he had to do was Clifford, come home. He said, Come to bed. Or come to your bed. Or go to your bed, exactly. Go to your bed. And he went running from the other side of the street all the way to where his dad was. And I came home and I said, You freaking dog.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

You you that was so funny. My question is, is it the same thing with the boys? Who do they listen to the most?

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Um they listen to both, but I would say that they respect dad more than they respect me. I think with me, it's like, oh yeah, whatever. That's my mom. You know, she, you know, I can get away with it. She's gonna pamper me. She's gonna love me no matter what, you know. Even when I when I scream at a point that sometimes I feel bad because I've just lost it, even then I think they just don't take me seriously. It's bad. But anyways.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

What do we do?

SPEAKER_02 2:23

What do we do in life to be taken seriously by the way? I don't know. I don't know. I this you know, and it's funny because I see this, I see most patterns like that. I see most patterns as like the dad just gets home, he hasn't been home all day, and he says, Hey, uh kids, do this, and they listen. And then I've been home all day, and maybe it's that they're so comfortable that they they are like, Oh, whatever, you know, we know how she is already, or I don't know. I don't know what they're thinking, but they definitely they respect both, but I think the that when dad lays down the law, they listen to him more. Okay. I don't know if they're more like like they get scared when he raises his voice.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Do we do you ever do this? Because sometimes when I try to stop myself, I'm like, I'm gonna tell your dad that you're doing this, and then it's wait, are we putting some fear that shouldn't be there? Or maybe it should be there. That's when they listen, right? Yeah, or you make it seem like I'm gonna tell your dad, but we're not an authority figure.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Exactly. You know, like so we're we're like kind of you know threatening them. We're oh I do do that, and I've had to stop doing that. Yeah, I'm like, when your dad gets home, I'm gonna tell him what you did. And I'm like, no, hold on one second. Why am I saying this? I'm also the mother figure, I also have to have authority, I also have to be taken serious, not just the dad. So I've I've tried to catch myself when I do that, and then I yeah, you know, I stop.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

I've seen that too. It's wait, why why put that fear about the dad and oh whatever he says, it it is what it is. Yeah, when I say that yeah, so we need to change that anyway. It's June 10th. Happy summer. We're officially in summer, although I think the official day is somewhere later uh in June when summer begins. I think so. But anyway, it's for us for our kids who are out of school. It's summer, they're out of school, and it's so freaking hot outside very that. Yeah, welcome to summer. Uh, and yeah, so the kids are in camp right now.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Yes, thankfully. They have it. My my camp, thankfully, is all day from eight to six. So I'm like, wow, that that saves me to be able to do the things I need to do. And then, you know, actually yesterday I went to the city. 8 to 6 is a great 8 to 6 is amazing. Is amazing. I thought they were gonna cut it, but they said no till six o'clock. So which is amazing. Yesterday I went to go pick them up and I picked them up at 4 30. Typically, school days are at 2, right? And I said, you know what, I'm gonna leave them till 4, 4:30 because either way, they didn't go in till about 9 30, almost 10. So I said, okay, I'll leave them, you know, till four, four thirty. I picked them up and the first thing they say is, Why are you here? And I was like, Yes, they love the camp. That means I can leave them till six. Awesome. This is great, you know. And I love my kids, don't get me wrong, but you know, it saves me. I'm like, okay, maybe they didn't want to be there that long. Let me pick them up so that they don't feel like I'm leaving them there all day. But that they asked me to stay. Listen, my job is done.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

That happened to us when we went on a cruise uh in it was in Europe a couple years ago. And it's Luna was three and a half, and so we know that there was a kids' club, but I'm like, okay, we're really international waters here, and she's three and a half, and I don't know. So I was so nervous, and then we take her to the kids' club, and then probably an hour later, we come back and she didn't want to come. And it happened like that the whole week. So she spent the whole week in the kids' club, and it was great. And you know, sometimes we're so scared, like when you take them to school for the first time, uh, that you're so scared that they're not gonna like it, that they're gonna cry, and no, they're and they're independent, they love it.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Actually, it's better for them because like I told Benjamin, I'm not planning to put them in camp the whole I'm like scratching my head here. Um, I forget that we are on camera here. Um as long as I'm not scratching something else, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Anyway, like that would be a problem like my friend was saying you made it weird, Monica.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

You just made it very weird.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Sorry, let's cut that out. This is mama's playground, it's not just Kick Talk, okay? Um, but as what was I saying? I said to him, I'm not gonna keep them in summer all day long. You know, I'll probably do one week and then one week. No, but the fact that they loved it made me think, wow, it's probably better for them too, unless I have plans to take them somewhere like to the beach day or to do something, you know, locally, the zoo or um yeah, the beach out here in the East Coast, I would say it's not the best time because of all the sea.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

We we went to Boca yesterday for a job, and yeah, as much as I love the beach, I'm like, please take me out of here. But I do want to do something maybe in Naples on the west side and see it's cleaner how the waters are doing. And so I put Luna in her school camp, which at the beginning I'm like, come on, you go to that school the whole year and you want to spend the summer there too. Uh I said, let's go back to Puerto Rico, which we did it last year, and it was great. But she said, I just want to at least try it. And I said, Okay, we're gonna try it for three weeks, and then you know, kids need to get bored too. You know, they need to, and it's hard. Like her bestie, she's leaving, Ana Julia's leaving to Mexico for a whole month, and she had her other friend leave like to Costa Rica for 10 days, and everybody's leaving, and we have all this pressure of okay, everybody's traveling, and we're like, mom. And I even told Fabian, I said, fall is gonna be hard because she's gonna be in so many things, and then supposedly the grade and the class she's gonna go into, it's gonna be very hard. So it's gonna be a lot of work. And I said, I need a vacation right before we hit the the back to school and all that.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Yeah, you need a time to get away away from your original or like your setting. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

So I said, let's do the three weeks of summer camp, and she's super excited, and she's there with friends, and just being like in the school scenario without the pressure of having to learn. They learn anyway.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

But it's funny because as long as there's other kids around and they're playing, I think they're always gonna have fun. It's better than them being at home. I mean, obviously, they can stay home every so often and just veg out a little bit. They don't have to always have something, like you said, planned out. But the fact that they're entertained with other kids, they're playing, it's better than them being here at home, at least in my case, where I'm working on the computer, and then what do they end up doing? They end up taking the phone or they end up being on YouTube, and I keep telling them, no, stop, you know, then they spend hours watching shorts, which I tell them, no, because you know, you could spend, I mean, I've done it, you know, and for them, for their little brain that's still, you know, evolving, it's not great, you know, for them to be scrolling through all these um uh shorts and reels all day long. So I said, you know what, it's better that they're in camp. It's better that they're outside, it's better that they're playing games with other kids and that they're making new friends because they will meet new friends at camp.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yeah, and therefore we're gonna keep we're gonna start listening to new things and new questions because my new friend asked me this and she said that, and I was just telling Luna this year, like when your friends tell you things, I mean, just know that not everything is a hundred percent true. Because she'll come like, oh, she told me this, this, and I'm like, What? They're in that age. What was the last one?

SPEAKER_02 9:46

But yeah, it they are in that age where they come and they ask you questions, you're like, Where did you get that from? That's not you, you know, or it's or these like random things, and you say, Wow, but it's it's you know, those are regular things. I think we don't remember asking all these questions because we're in our 40s, we're not seven anymore, eight years old anymore. But I'm sure that we had our curiosity and our our friends that would come with like different things and we would question and ask our parents, and you know, it's but the thing now is that when they have questions, they go to Chat GBT, they go to Cloud, they go to Gemini.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

And this morning when we were getting ready here, I would hear your son Jacob. He was um, what is the fastest dinosaur? He was asking Alexa. Then he was asking about the weather and he kept asking questions, and it's super cute and it's fun, but we also have to be careful because okay, the summer, you know, we see it like a it's a slow time, right? Like, oh, vacation, but not necessarily, especially for working parents from nine to five. Yes, they have the kids on camp, but I don't know, I would also feel guilty of for the summer just having them in camp the whole time and not taking like a mini vacation and or spending some time, even if you if you do a staycation and you're doing different activities with them outside of the house, right? Yeah, and like what we were saying, you know, let's do the camp now for June, and maybe in July, I have uh like my friends are coming back from Mexico, and yeah, a lot of people that I know they're not gonna have their kids in camp that last month. And I said it's about you know, find an experience that you can do, like museums.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

I know that the package that you were telling me that they have uh Yeah, a friend of mine sent it to me, and it's basically, I mean, here in South Florida, you pay like sixty dollars and you can do uh five attractions like throughout the whole summer, so for two months, right? Uh all of June and all of July. And it's basically the Flamingo Gardens, then you have uh Miami Metro Zoo in there, which is good. Um, although it gets so hot, but you know, it's it's good. The kids like to go. Um, then they had something else like at um Butterfly World, and they had like two other things. And I was like, that's cool, you know. If I mean you're not gonna probably go all the time, but for 60 bucks and you get to go and maybe plan a day, or you plan a group of friends that you know that are home with their kids that you can all go together, you know? Those are fun plans to do versus staying home all summer and doing anything, you know, not doing anything.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

No, we oh my god, Luna's now in the blue, she has been in the bluey fever. Is she oh still bluey?

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Still my kids don't want anything to do with bluey.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

No, she's seven and she still likes uh little angel, which is you know, and then bluey and Gabby Stowhouse and Peppa, and I love that. I'm like, why not? That's great. And then she still plays like the dojo games from like education. Oh class dojuston. Yeah, I'm a little bit more anal with what she's doing on the computer, and now that she knows what ChatGPT is, she's always like, Mom, just ask Chat GPT, and I'm like, no, stop it. Why, why do you know about this?

SPEAKER_02 12:59

Like, my kids, everything. And I mean, and that you know what the issue is too, and I'm at fault here. I I completely like put myself out there. I'm at fault. I will tell them if they ask me a question and I don't know the answer to it. I'm like, just ask Chat GPT and then or Alexa, just tell Alexa, ask her the question, you know. Because Jacob, my oldest, he's very brainy. And when I say brainy, he's just very curious, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Yeah, he was the one just asking about how which is the fastest dinosaur.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Everything, the fastest dinosaur. And then he's like, What was uh how old is the oldest person that lived? And he said, somebody lived to be like a thousand something years old. And I was like, Jacob, you need to ask ChatGPT. I'm not too sure about that, you know what I mean? So he'll go and he's like, Chat GPT, and then he'll get on my phone and he'll ask, or he'll ask Alexa, you know, and then I'm I'm like, I don't have the answer, so I might as well just have him ask and get the correct answer, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

But anyway, what has happened to me with ChatGPT lately? And I this realization came to me yesterday, and I'm like, this is so wrong. I don't remember what is it that I needed. It was just like comparing one lotion versus the other, and I all I had to do was just look for the picture and send the ingredients, right? But no, I'm like, I'm just gonna have Chat GPT do this. And what's happening is that I find myself the relying on it on basic things that I can do on my own. That it takes me like 10 minutes to think about something. Should I do it like this? But now it's like, let's just go the easy way. Let's just go the easy way, and it's sad because and it's the new generation, think about it. They're not gonna even be thinking, they're gonna be like, chip, chad.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

I use it like so. What you say with the creams. The other day I was at the store and I was getting like face creams, face, a facial wash, this and that, and I took a picture of it, and because of the ingredients, because you know these ingredients sometimes have like these very like long names, and I'm not too sure what they are. So instead of researching every single thing, I said, I'm gonna just put it, tell me which one's better for my face. Like which one has less like chemicals in it, you know, and then it'll it'll say it for you. So I do think it definitely has its pros, you know. Obviously, it has its cons, but it does have its pros. No, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

First, you know, I'm not saying that I'm not gonna use it. Yeah, I'm just on the contrary, you're gonna keep using it more and more. 100%. But I remember when we first started the podcast, I was trying to do the uh these outlines from scratch, and then um Monica would send me like Chat GPT outline version this, and I'm like, stop it. You gotta think, Monica. We gotta put our brains to think, girl, it's late. This is the outline, and we're just gonna talk about it, and that's it. And I'm like, okay, and I'm trying to do everything like old school, so it has taken me time but now, no, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

It's something that cuts time, and unfortunately, in this fast-paced world that we're living, that we gotta also do chores and we gotta work and all the other things that are in between. When you need to do something and you need somebody's like, for instance, the the you write a letter and you know you did it okay, but you wanna like perfect the letter. You throw it into Chat GPT or Claude or whatever and say, please make this more polished for me. That's so much help versus having to call somebody because you might be alone and say, Can you please proofread this for me? You know, it's so much easier. And I and it's again, I know that we're instant gratification people, everybody. We want things fast and we want things easy, but it definitely does help us save time, you know, or we can put time somewhere else. Yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Yes, I agree. And Fabian, he's been practicing it a lot. He's it's been helping him. If you know how to use it, and there's different the free version and all that, and it's just amazing what I see that he's able to do on his you know, workspace that it it helps him a lot. And he was working with these, you know, we're talking about CEOs and people that are doing really well, and they were talking about the future of AI in their businesses. And Fabian comes home saying, like, definitely in a few years, that's it. People are not gonna be needed in so many different workspaces. And just two weeks ago, on one day, in the same day, I was in two birthdays, and I was talking to one dad, and he was, you know, frustrated. He said, They're laying off probably 250 employees from my company, and you know, I'm just trying now to go on the side and get other clients. That same evening, we're having dinner with another group of friends, and um, and one of the gentlemen there, he was saying the same thing. He said, Uh, I'm talking to people that are already laid off and they don't know it, it's gonna come out in October. And both reasons were the same. It's because of AI, they don't need these people. So it made me really sad. And then as a parent, uh maybe trying to, you know, lead our kids to go in a way where they can eventually study some technology. Get into a career that won't be replaced by AI. Yeah. Like you were saying today when we were talking about my nephew, firefighters, like that can be replaced. I mean, I don't think so. I don't know. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Not in our generation, and maybe not in our kids, but maybe prior, you never know. At the point that we're going, we'll probably have well, we'll be robots ourselves. So they'll like put a chip inside of us and we'll be walking around like robots. I mean, now that it's summer and the kids are gonna be home or they're gonna be in camp, but when they're home, you know, we do have to be like looking at them and seeing that they're not all day long on AI. I mean, we want them to learn it, right? Eventually, we want them to learn it so that they are so that yeah, not yet, but we do want them to learn it because that's where we're going with this. You know, this is their their future is consisting of AI. Yeah, but at the same time, we want them to still be kids and still like play and have fun and not be completely submerged in just talking to their phone all day long.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

And I think we've been really good at that at balancing it out, but it's funny because the other day I was helping Luna with the math homework and I did not understand it, and it's gonna happen a lot. Oh, yes. Um first grade homework, thank you. But it's it's not the same as first grade back in the day. Like now everything is so much advanced. So she wasn't looking. I try to do everything without her knowing. I took a picture and I know Fabian did too, and I put it on Chat GPT and I'm like, solve this for me. So then it's sold it, and then I'm look reading at it and I go, Oh mamita, this is how you do it. Oh mom, how do you know that? I just knew. Yeah, like trying to try to hang the phone because obviously I don't want her to be doing the same thing. But more than anything, with Chat GPT assisting in homework or whatever, it's in not replacing, for example, if a kid is going through something and they need to talk to an adult about it. It's talk to a person, talk to your mom, talk to a counselor, talk to a teacher, your dad, your grandparent. But don't try to go on AI to because that could be happen, that happens, you know, to older kids, obviously. And the other day I said something and it was like, but may do you want me to give you advice on this? And I go, sure. And then it kept going, and I'm like, wow, this could be a therapist. And we as adults, we're like, okay, no, no, no, no, it is a therapist. Uh uh teenager, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

So this is what I was thinking the other day because I have used AI at one point to like, you know, say, I have a headache, and I've had it. I don't know. I'm giving you an example, not exactly this, but I've had it for like five days. Why is this so? I've been sitting like this, doing this, and then it'll come out with a whole thing. Well, maybe you need to look at your posture, maybe you and again, a whole story. And it says, Maybe you need to do breathing exercise, maybe you need to do this. And I'm like, wow, will it be that therapists no longer will exist and AI will be our therapist? I mean, let me tell you, yeah, everything, everything it says, and I'm not saying to replace doctors, real doctors, but you can take your uh test results from your labs before your doctor has even called you and stick it into chat GPT and say, Hey, these are my labs. Anything wrong with them? And it'll tell you, so I see that you need to drink more water because you're whatever. And I'm like, wow, your doctor will tell you the same thing. Could you imagine you're gonna die in two no, but you know what it is?

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Like, delete the account right now.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Oh my god, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

But yeah, yeah, I've done that before.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

It it helps. Is it gonna replace doctors? I don't know, but you know what? At the point that we're going, I it's a anything is possible.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Yeah, it's just as far as of uh our kids, it's just keeping an eye on how much they're using it. We were working at a seminar the other day and they interviewed this woman who she's in the department of child pornography, uh, law enforcement. We're talking, and so when she was leaving, I I stopped her. I'm like, please, I need a minute. And I said, Whatever you do, I mean, whatever you tell me, I'm gonna do. My daughter is seven, you know, I do have a social media. Account and sometimes I put pictures, but at times I'm not sure if it's something I should do. And she said, and I was all ears, all my attention on her because she what I said, whatever advice you gave me, that's it. You give me that's it. So she said, Hey, I have I don't have kids, I have nephews, nieces, I put pictures of them online. The important thing is keep your account private, know who your contacts are. Uh, which that I immediately moved it. I had my account public. So now it's it's not. So now our mama's playground will always be public, but our personal mine is gonna be private private. And then at some point I'll go over who's following me and see who they are and and let me see when. And the other thing, obviously, not try not to put pictures of them, especially now that it's summer, that you're at the beach and you want to take pictures of your kids. And this woman did tell me, try to, if you're gonna do pictures, try not to take any of her, you know, private parts. Yeah, just try to keep it, you know, serradito.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

People could take the face of your daughter or anything and put stuff out there that's not even, you know, pictures that you post.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

So she said, if you're putting something that it could be replaced or something, just be careful, like the face, you know, a lot of people. But she said you can post pictures of her, just make sure that you know your contacts. And then, and if she's in any of these apps where they can chat with outside people, stop that or do it right next to her. And I said no. And I said, No, I don't, no Roblox. And she opened her eyes and she said, Absolutely no Roblox.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

I don't have my kids on Roblox.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

And I say, I had her like for five minutes and I deleted, and she said, No, nothing that they can be talking to somebody else, which is it's obvious, it's common sense, but many people don't follow it. And I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

I just now that it's summer, now that we are in summer, now's the time to actually be like looking at that because now they have more time to be doing those things, right? Because when they're in school, they're in school, they're not with the phones, this and that. Then they're here, you know, they go to sleep. I'm sure, you know, Monday through Friday is one thing. Then Saturday and Sunday is another. So you have a little more control. But now let's just say that the kids are home uh a month in summer. You know, that's where we have to be careful because you're doing your chores, they're home all day long. They might be with their phone, they might be, you know, and then they they could be talking to somebody, they can be now if you know looking at other things, which I have to be careful because my five-year-old is like that. He'll grab the phone and it's like he's on again, he goes onto all the things. He'll go on to YouTube to look at videos. Then he loves roadblocks because his other little friend has it on his phone. And I'm like, no, I'm not downloading it on my phone. Like the next time if you go to your friend's house, okay, while I'm there, you'll play it. You know, I'm not gonna be that mom that doesn't allow them to um put them in a bubble. To put them in a bubble. I had there's people that are like that though. I went to a party one day and the mom had an 11-year-old boy, and that day I do not let my kids on um on roadblocks. Her son came and she told her son, nope, they're playing roadblocks, you can sit here right next to me till they're done. And she's like, I'm sorry, I could care less. This is a way that I'm gonna parent my kid. This is how I choose to do it. I don't want him on roadblocks, neither in a party nor in my house. And I said, No, you know what? To each their own, that's perfect. I allowed my kids to do it, and I said, Who are you talking to? And they're like, No, uh, he only has his friends that are playing on the game. And I said, Okay, while we're here, you can play it, but you're not getting it when you get home. Like, it's for right now, but when we get home, like there is no Roblox.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

It's crazy, you know, like it's the things that we need to deal with now because of you know, yeah, technology that our parents probably the only thing was you're gonna go outside, okay, come back before it's dark. Yeah. Uh, and make sure you wash your hands. I mean, I don't and I asked my mom, was it this hard? And she said, you know, obviously not, because there was no technology such as this and the internet and all the apps and the games and the iPad. We uh I had a Game Boy, and that's it. I had a little Game Boy and I bought coloring books.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

My mother-in-law bought two Game Boys, like little, like they're not Game Boys, but they were like Game Boys for my kids, right? When we went traveling, so they have it, but they get bored, they'll play for a little bit and they're like, Mommy, give me the phone. It's like the phone is more entertaining for them. See, that's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

You know, then okay, let's talk about getting bored. For example, with Luna, what I when she gets bored, I go, Okay, so let's go get a box. Why, mom? Because we I'm gonna go to your room and get all your toys and pack them in a box. Yeah. Because, mom, but they are my toys, but you haven't played with them because she says, I'm I'm always too busy. I have dance and I have school, and on weekends we have things, and I'm too busy. So those moments that she says that she's bored, I'm like, oh, okay, turn off the TV, go to your room and start packing all your toys, and then she'll go to the room and she'll play with her toys. Yeah, we're gonna get rid of them then. And like Fabian says, it's okay for them to get bored. Like, look at the wall. Look at but when he tells you that that he's bored with the Game Boy, just take it all out and see what happens. Take the phone off.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Yeah, I think I think they do best either. So if they're at home, obviously they love the technology, right? They get bored of the TV as well, they want the phone, and then at outside they do good. But the thing is here in South Florida, it's really hot outside. So right now for summer, I'll tell them we have a trampoline in the in the yard. I'll say, okay, just go outside and play. But they can play for like 10 minutes, and then they're like, Mommy, it's too hot outside. So then you gotta bring them indoors and find things to do with them indoors. And this is where I say camp is a lifesaver because at least they're with other kids, they are talking to other kids, they're making new friends, they're doing water activities. You know that the camps change it every day. Like, so one day is water day, and the next day could be uh we're gonna do a movie day, and the next day is bring your book or bring your, you know, which sometimes now they have obviously bring your electronic day. And I'm like, damn it. Oh, they do. They have like bring your electronic, and people go with their Game Boy, or they'll go with their PlayStation, whatever that my kids don't have. You know?

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Oh, I would bring like a karaoke microphone, turn that thing on my drive.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

But I wish the kids would do that.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

They would have so much fun, they would have so much fun.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

These kids are not thinking about that. That's definitely not something on their on their radar, but camp definitely, oh my god, is a life saving.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Because they're gonna meet like other people, no kids.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Yeah, I want to go to camp.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

I know. I dropped Luna off, which by the way, big blooper. So camp started on Monday, right? And um, and for some reason, I woke up that morning so paranoid, so scared because I had not received any email, any commentation. That she was registered, any confirmation, nothing. And we pay registration, we paid for the three weeks, and then I'm like, I haven't received anything. So I write to one of the moms at 6, 10 a.m. And I go, I haven't received anything. What do they wear? Like, what about food? And she sends me a whole message, and I go, I didn't receive it. And I said, I didn't receive it. So I go there, she's not on the list. But obviously, they know her. Ah, look at the closest school. We're gonna put you here. Yeah, we're gonna put you here. And then, but I was so paranoid because I said, You know what? I forgot to do what register her. Oh, I paid for everything, but for some reason, there's just so many steps. Like, there's so many steps. You have to do this and do that. And then they're asking for all of this when we were still testing for fast and I ready. So I'm like, I'll do summer camp later. I'm like, Fabian, do you pay for it? Yeah, yeah, pay for it. And then I go, Oh my god, that's what happened. So I'm like registering her, then I fill out some paper, and then I said, Oh what? Something happened. I don't know. I did register, so they probably say, Yeah, this morning. Listen, thankfully. Oh yeah, she's good though.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

It's funny because I didn't realize this. Again, I'm I'm, you know, sometimes like in all over the place, but I had put something the other day on TikTok and I said, ladies, what's summer? What is everybody gonna be doing for summer? And some moms, I said, I don't have any plans. And then some moms said, What do you mean you don't have any plans? Like, you haven't registered your kid in summer camp. And I'm like, Oh, I haven't done it yet. Well, you're not, you're gonna some people had to respond that you're gonna be left out of summer camp. And I'm here thinking, like, no, I'm not. You did it like the same day, right? Are you kidding me? The same day that I took them in, I said, Okay, I sat down at the register's office. Again, this is their school camp. I'm sure I can't get away with that in every camp. But I sat down, I filled out the form, and I paid uh that same day and I took them in. So I was like, What do you mean? I'm not late, and I was true, I was not late.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

So he was probably not listed in any group.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

No, they put them in listen, over there they have it based off of ages, so they have them like or they have it off of grades, so like uh kinder up to first maybe is together, and then uh second to fourth is together. So it was it was not a big deal, and I was like, whatever, these moms don't know what they're talking about, and I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

But maybe it's you know, it depends on the camp, you know. But it looks so much fun when I dropped her up. I'm like, I want to go like that excitement, and everybody dressed like with the city. Where's your an adult day camp?

SPEAKER_02 30:58

This is so we we have an idea here. We do an adult camp. We do an adult camp and we call it mama's playground. Exactly. We got the name tech. And then this is like a mama's playground camp for all the women. You don't have to be a mama. If you have a dog, we count you. I love how she's making this up with a lot of things. We count you, we count you, and then we have like we do like a big, you know, kind of like a meetup movie night kind of thing, and we do like activities for like we want movies. I mean, not a movie, or we do like like go dance.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

A retreat. A retreat. I want a retreat, which by the way, we're gonna bring Clara. Clara is a really, really, really good friend, and she's travel expert. These amazing retreats uh in uh she said Peru. I believe she said Belice. No, um, I forgot. She's has she just had one in Puerto Rico. Is there a reason why you're squinting? I don't know. I'm trying to squint, and I'm like, what are you looking at? By trying to remember, I go like this. Like if it's written in the wall and I'm like, well, okay, I need to stop that. Um, but she's gonna be here and she's gonna be talking about these retreat, re retreat. Some are um that, for example, she has one in January which has to do with detox. Uh, some are very like holistic. Um, it's for different things. And so she's gonna tell us more about it, and maybe we can join her in one of these and and do an episode from one of these beautiful countries while we're doing yoga.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

So I have an idea. So that would be great. So, like, obviously, not this summer because we're late in the game. But next summer, we plan, okay, a mama's playground summer camp. So while the kids are at camp, the mamas are also at camp, and then we do outings because if the camp is to like six or four, that means we can do morning and we schedule them. We take them in the morning from like eight to four, and then us moms have from like when we drop them off till we have to pick them up for our own camp. No work. Yeah, I know, right? Yeah, I mean, okay, so maybe like one day camp, like a one-day camp, which doesn't exist for the kids, but one-day camp for us, like once a week.

unknown 33:10

I know.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

And we call it mama's playground.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

We start with coffee, then we go and we do some stretching and then we do work, and we do it's too hard for the park. We're not going to the park. And then we do like some yoga or pilaris and weights, and and then we'll have a proseco, me and my proseco. And then we have a nice healthy meal, and then we'll have somebody come and play like these instruments while we're doing some hollamaha.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Well, that could be one day, and then the next day we do this. Then we go to a park and we uh like rent one of those big bounce that we actually do like a mama's playground, but like if we were kids, and then while they're in camp, we do at the park, a public park, we rent bounce houses with water, and we all get in our bathing suits, and we go into these bounce houses and we have a beer at hand, and we all jump and we slide.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

This actually picture it. This actually sounds so much fun. And then at the end, we're gonna have like a table with Ben Gay, I see exactly ambulance when they're waiting for us. There's gonna be an ambulance gonna be like oh my gosh, my bag.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

So we need to tell so this is we're gonna have permit like little permission slips.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

And Monday, there's gonna be emergency cards. So our husbands are gonna be like, sign this.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

In case of an emergency, I will be in charge of packing the kids' lunch tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

And and wait, and in case we can't go to pick up our kids now because we're injured, we need like a backup plan for somebody to pick them up. Oh my god, I see it. I envision it.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Tell me Mama's Playground 2027.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

Okay, we're we're Darlene, we have to remember this episode.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it. I think we need to get some sponsors. Yes. Let's think about uh Multrin. Multrin Tylenol, uh That's the pain pain management, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:13

We have the pain management. We'll have some therapist on site in case you injure yourself.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

And then we can have some Josh, so we can get like some yummy proseco and wine and have somebody cater the food. You know, we'll have our friend Maricela cater the food. That's it. We got it. I got it.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

I got it. This is gonna go far, you guys. This idea. Remember, we just point this is what is it, June? What's 10th? June 10th of 2026. Wait for it next year, okay? Summer next year. Let's put it out into the world. I I envision this. Okay, so we're gonna have uh bounce houses at CeeVee Smith Park. We'll invite our Miami Dade girls too, Miami Dade and Broward. We'll all get together, we'll do this big event. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

So if any of you are interested in this beautiful idea and fun idea that Monica uh just came up with, then hit us up. And we're gonna have a great summer.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Absolutely. I could see, Darlene, you know how much fun. You know how many moms will be like, I sign me up, sign me up. They'll act like they're kids while their kids are not around. We get water guns. Oh, I'm gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

You know, water guns and water balloons, and we have like a pool party, like kids style, like that. And then we'll have like, I don't know, let's throw pinaras in there and we'll throw condoms. Well, we're not in that stage anymore, probably.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

But we remember doing like uh I don't remember how old and we wanted like a kid party for adults, and we just put like condoms and no, we do wrinkle creams, we do wrinkle creams, we get sponsors for wrinkle creams, that's bad and aesthetic stuff, and then uh, you know, clothing and uh a weekend retreat at a spa kind of thing in the pinatas, like in eggs, like they'll come out of these. Now you got my inter You see. I have this out. You know what? My mind's gonna go, whoo. You know where Jacob gets it from now, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:00

I go, she's gonna be like, Alexa, how do I plan this big bash? Big bash. Let's do it. No, let's do it for real. But let's do it like in another place, in another country.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

We could start here. We this could be a worldwide thing. I I feel like Mr. 305 Pitbull worldwide, you know? It's gonna be a worldwide event. We start here in South Florida, and then if it hits good here, we start going to every we'll go to Puerto Rico, then we go and we start expanding these mama playground events. Listen to that. I like that. Yeah, you see, I like that. We got it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

So if you're listening, if you're watching, and if you want to be part of this uh plan, yeah, adventure, I love it. But talking about adventures outside from the kids' camp and all that, any plans in the month of July? Because this is the thing. I asked Luna in Puerto Rico, we would end school in May and we would start like at the end end end of August. And here it's we finish in June, and I go, Luna, when do you start school? Because let's see if maybe we can go somewhere for a day or two. And she goes, August 9th or 10th, something like that.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

I think it's the I I think in in Broward, if I'm correct, I think it's like August 12th.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

So I mean, I don't know. Are you the parent that you want the summer to be long, or you are the parent that just wants to put the kids back in school and start the new year? I think your husband is more like that. Because last year for school to start and things to be more stable, because last year when we were in Puerto Rico, I think he told me that he said, No, I like summer, but I like when school starts and everything goes back to normal routine.

SPEAKER_02 38:44

I think it's a fact because keeping them entertained all summer, and then we don't want to put them again in the same camp for two months. You want to do activities, you want to do a trip at least, something so that they remember their summer. Again, we only get 18 summers. That is the truth. We only get I but it's the truth. There was a meme the other day that said, remember, appreciate it, as crazy as it could get, as stressful because you don't know what to do with them sometimes, or you can't do anything. You know, everybody's situations are different. Like you only get 18 summers. There's no hear that, Fabian. We only get 18 summers with Luna. There's only and there's gonna be a push. She's like, Mom, I don't want to spend summer with you. Like, I want to go out with my friends. And not just saying that, I was talking to a friend yesterday at my other friend's house, and she has two teenagers. One is 15, the other one is 13. And she said, What do you mean? At 11 years old, they were already telling me, uh, I don't want to hang out with you. She's like, you know, she's like, and I try to do things. She's going, you know what? I'm no longer forcing them to do anything with me. She's like, I'm not gonna go through that battle. I used to stress me out before. She said, now I'm like, you don't want to spend time with go ahead. You don't no, I don't care. Okay, yeah, that's fine. Do whatever you want. She's like, I'm not, I'm not fighting with them anymore. She goes, because I was losing my shit. I was losing my shit. She's like, I would do things, I would get out of work early and say, Hey, I have the day off. And she's and one's 15 and one is 13. Oh, that age. Those ages. And I said, Ah, you know, so really in reality, if we're lucky, we will get 18 summers of being able to spend time with our kids. If we do it right and they want to be with us, and you know, and so on. So I'm sad.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

Thanks for listening, guys. See you next week. But it's true, it's true. Yeah, so we just have to make the best of it. And you know, Luna, and we've talked about this being that she's an only child, she only she always wants to be with friends. Like every weekend, it's like, mom, who are we gonna see? Who are we gonna see? And I'm trying to. I mean, it's my first time being a mom and going through this for the first time, right? But this is the time when like on weekends, like, okay, Luna, this is a weekend where you're not gonna see any of your friends. You need to learn how to have fun just with me, yeah, or just with your dad, or just with on your own, enjoy your company on your own, and and I and she listens and I see her, you know, being less asking about who we're gonna see, who we're gonna see, unless it's a whole week without seeing any of her friends. But yeah, it would kill me the day that she does say that. Uh, hopefully, not not all are the same. Hopefully, she'll be like, Mom, come and join us, or we wanna do this. That's why it's important for the parents to also be friends. Absolutely. It makes a big difference. Like, wait, you girls want to go out there? Well, we're all going and we're all gonna have a great time and we're gonna stay in an R Airbnb.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

It makes a big difference. It makes a big difference because you get your adult time with your friends that you get along with. Hopefully, the couples, everybody gets along, and then the kids get along. So it's like you get the both of the best, the best of both worlds. But yeah, you have to appreciate it. You know what? I think just a thought that I had when we were talking about AI and all the electronics and this and that uh previously with the kids and the 18 summers. I think maybe now this is another thing.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

What the kids and the 18 summers.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

Kids, well, and now you see if you know don't put more ideas in my head. Don't put more ideas in my head. Um, what I what I was gonna say is uh oh, with the electronics, now you say, okay, we have 18 summers. Yeah, technically till they're 18, right? Till they're adults. But when they become 11, 12, 13, if they are stuck on the electronics, that's where you start to see the bad mood. I've seen it with like the nieces and nephews and this and that. They wanna be even yesterday at my friend's house with her cousin's daughters. She's the one that was telling me about that. Her daughters at 11 were like, uh I saw them headphones on, phone underneath the covers, the whole time we were there. Listen, my five-year-old does that. Okay, and I say he's five, and I have to stop him and say, Hey, get out from under there, give me the phone. So I say, if if if we don't put kind of like a boundary, and this is everybody, eventually, yeah, they will be 11, 12, 13 years old being like, I don't want to be with you. I want to be on my phone. My phone is my my my thing. My phone talking to my friends on you know, all these chats and all that. So, yes, if you have your kids at home for summer and enjoy, enjoy the time that you get with them, especially when they're in the age group of our kids, right? Because they're just gonna get older and and uh eventually we're not gonna be, you know, we're not gonna be their everything. It's gonna be their friends, the phone, uh, let me do a TikTok video. And and who are we to say anything? We have a podcast, and my kids see me doing TikToks sometimes. Yeah, but you're 25. Yeah, oh yeah. You mean I am uh no if I reverse I was gonna reverse it, and if I reverse it, I'll be 54. And I was like, or but anyways, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

But I mean, if you tell Noah, if you try I I would start now because you he's still moldable. But when he's a preteen and it's like Fabiana always says the day that we give Luna a phone, that's when they lose her. And it happens. Like it happened with my youngest nephew. I mean, we didn't lose him, but in the next gatherings, I would just see him on the phone. And I'm like, what's up? And he was like on the phone. And it's understandable. That's how that they want to see what everybody else is doing. And that's how they communicate. But still, like we've talked about this again. Jennifer Gardner, she didn't give a phone to their kids. Her the kid was what 16, 17, or something. Her kids thanked her later. And she and they thanked her later. And and I told that to Luna. And she said, I want to see a picture of her because I tell Luna about her. And I said, one day you're gonna understand. And now that she reads, when she started reading this year, it's now she grabs my phone. And Fabiana had to tell her the other day, stop reading other people's messages. And she's like, Monica just sent you a message and this. And I don't want her to be so starting to get like this anxiety of trying to get the phone. First time parenting and in this stage where the kids have phone and they see us. So if we put it there, they're gonna grab it and they're gonna imitate us.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

I don't know what the right answer is for that. And again, going right now to the summer. Sorry, I'm like scratching my eye.

SPEAKER_01 45:24

Scratching your eye, scratching. That's where the ideas are coming from, they're coming.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

The more I do that, the more you know it expands. Now that we are, you know, in summer, oh my god, this is happening to me a lot. This is really bad. I mean, this is where I'm I'm going onto a thought process, and you say something, and I forget it. This is the second time this happened in this episode. And then I started saying, the other day, this happened to me. No, and I said, Oh my god, can it be because all of a sudden my phone popped up an article about dementia, right? And I was reading the dementia, and I go, Wait, one second. These signs seem like stuff that's happening to me. I go, no, but I go, is it or is it not? It's no, this has to be other stuff, you know? You're not gonna be una vieja hypocondriaca. No, you know say it, but I just read it and I said, Oh my god, what if it was the starting of dementia? And I was like, no, no, let me read further into this chat GPT. Do you think because and then it said, no, don't worry about it. It's your age.

SPEAKER_00 46:15

It's the perimapus. Don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_02 46:16

It's your age, it's your age, it's the perimenopause, it's the things that you're juggling a thousand things. I said, Okay, yeah, let me put that to rest.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

Yeah, it's understandable that we forget things in life because we forget things, like registering your kid to go to summer camp after you pay for everything. So it's okay that when things are happening live, like having a conversation, that the same thing happens, that you forget what you were gonna say. Yeah, but it's like, oh, and I can't get back to it.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

And I'll get back to it after we like, oh, this is a rap mama's playground. I'll be like, Darlene, now I remember what I was gonna say. It this is like all the time, anyways. Whatever.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

We wrap up, it's gonna be like, hey, FYI.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

We gotta whatever, thanks for tuning in, Dada's playground, mama's playground.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

That's like Dory. I'm like Dory from uh what is it? Dory from Finding Nemo, and then we're like, she has anxiety, PTSD. I don't know what they said about her in that movie. You remember uh Finding Nemo, anyways.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Okay, it's age, it's okay. You know what? It's cool. We need a break, we need a rest, and it's summertime, so I don't know. For me, the summer, I just want to be in the pool, uh, the beaches on the west coast, and just trying to find those moments to reset. Yeah, because like they say, summer is supposed to be slow, which is kind of not because we're trying also to keep you know the kids busy, the more you have, the more, the harder it is. But also, we need to find a moment as moms as that uh to reset. Because once it starts again in August, and then before you know it, it's it's Halloween, Christmas, the full events, the costumes, the testing, the it's a lot. And I need a break.

unknown 48:02

I need a break.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

I think we all do. We need to find that time and say it's summer. Let's figure out whether it's a little weekend getaway, whether it's I don't know, doing something different out of the norm from your regular uh schedule of school and work and all that.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

Yeah, and then just trying to find those moments to be with your kids because summer, I mean, kids love summer. I remember my summers. We would go to New York almost every summer, and I remember it was super hot. But I love that we were with the family, and there was no phones or nothing at that time, and and I still think about those days, and I still remember, and I want my daughter to feel the same way, to be like, Oh my god, I remember the summer where we would do, and it could be something small, just activities. The day after school uh ended, I put on a board, I immediately did like the this week. This is what we're gonna be doing, and you're gonna be reading an English book this day, Spanish book this day, and today we're gonna do this. And they get excited, like to cross the things and add chores, make them do chores. This is the time when you're like, okay, on this day, you're gonna take everything from that drawer and you're gonna take out the things you don't want and fold everything, and they'll see it as a game. So you have to like sneak in chores in there uh with fun and and find whatever works for you, but definitely find that moment where you can reset for sure. Yeah, camp, reset.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

Well, camp is not for us.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

No, not yet, no, summer 2027, summer 2027.

SPEAKER_02 49:38

Seriously, I'm thinking about this. My mind is still like up there going, Mama's playground. Uh, yes, I could see it. I could see it. Mama's playground summer camp. I see it. I like it, me too.

SPEAKER_01 49:49

And it started today, June 10th. Tomorrow, I have an anniversary, by the way, with that man that's behind the camera. So I'm gonna tell you beforehand here on our show.

SPEAKER_02 50:00

Happy anniversary. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

Thank you. Nine years, nine years, nine years, and who's counting? Are you counting? I just started. He was gonna say something. It's like I plead the fifth. I'm very excited. We're gonna have Clara in the next couple of weeks, and we're gonna talking about uh be talking about those retreats that she's working on, and we definitely have to jump in one of those.

SPEAKER_02 50:25

Yeah, Clara, she is a travel expert. So any travel things, well, you guys will see on the on the next episode.

SPEAKER_01 50:31

Yes, yes. So actually, if you have any question regarding travel now with the world being crazy as it is, and with you know the airlines that are shutting down, and well, it was only one, but there's so many things changing in the transportation and airline industry. So if you have any question, just let us know through our inbox and we'll ask Lara and she'll come with an answer for you in the next couple of weeks. Yeah. Thank you guys. Thank you. Bye. Happy summer.

SPEAKER_02 51:02

Happy summer.