Comedy Through The Chaos: Parenting Edition

If you wonder who I am, so many things popping up on a screen sometimes. But hello, everybody. I am Ms. Shannon. I am a variety of word-related things, including a comedian, a corporate speaker, a voice actor, an event emcee, and a benefit auctioneer. I think I'm supposed to make a wish. I am also happy to join you on behalf of being a proud parent of an adorable 18-year-old kiddo who happens to be high supports on the autism spectrum. So today it is our Saturday edition of Comedy Through the Chaos.

If you're here in the Twin Cities, you have to be joining us down at the Pride festivities. Happy TC Pride to everybody. I know that we'll be down there today and tomorrow, so I'm very excited. I think I'm gonna have time to go stop by. Our installation, doesn't this sound fancy if you call it that? Our installation. tomorrow. In the meantime, what I'm working on today is I thought for us specifically here in this Saturday edition of Comedy Through the Chaos where I talk about a variety of parenting related things, I thought it'd be good to do a little summer vacation check-in because if you're like us, we're about 3 weeks into our summer vacation.

I had a variety of things that were from the mindfulness like rest and recovery standpoint, but I also had our little summer chore checklist. And I'll remind you what that was as I was trying to figure out just some things that now that we are in the midst of the summer vacation and have some time where I get time to work on things more actively with my kiddo because I don't know how your year goes when you're in the midst of all of the schooling, but there's lots of days where we're just rushing, where we're just trying to get to the place, we're trying to get to the next thing.

It's a combination of what he has ongoing, you know, as far as school and then what I have going on as far as work. So there's lots of days that I would do all the things that needed to get done for the two of us just because it was more efficient. So this summer, I'm like, we have time to slow down. And there are some things that I elected to work on with him. I did a little crowdsourcing of some ideas. One of the ones that I thought I would work as, I know he is very good at if I take the garbage out of the garbage cans and put it next to the door, he can go put it in the dumpster.

He's successfully done that before. I let him fall off. So he can go back to doing that, a trash can duty. And then a couple other things we're gonna work on eventually is he can help me with the dishes in a way that is appropriate for him. And he can help put his laundry away, which in a way that is appropriate for him, which is basically I'll fold it, you put it in a drawer. You can take it out of the drawer, you can put it in a drawer. some things where I can be more like his mom and less like his maid is what we're working on.

So it's not like I've been keeping like a very scientific tally on all of these things, but if you were to ask me just to give you a ballpark success rate, I would consider it 60%. Like today, I don't know if you could hear that in the other room, but he just turned on the shower on his own and has decided that he's going to get in and take a shower. Well done young person. Yes, you should do that. Do you need help? You got it. So I'm very proud of him that he elected that that's what he should do with his part of his morning routine.

So if you add in those kind of things and the number of times that if I just put the garbage out, he'll go and put it in the dumpster, I'm giving us a good 60%, you know, of me having him be able to help out with some of these additional chores and have him not be completely prompted by mom. And I'm gonna give myself, I know that that's a passing grade, but I'm gonna consider it, you know, more than that. I'm like good for us because that's doing really well because for us that's moving forward that's progress and I like to remind us that we are by no means looking for perfection and this weird unattainable thing especially in the realm of parenting and caregiving but you can work for progress and that is progression and doing really well because that would have still been on the wish list Even if I flashback to the way things were going last summer, so year over year.

So I'm really proud of him. He's doing really well. And you know what? I'm proud of me too, because I was the one that sat there and said, you know what? You can work on these. things. It is not beyond the capacity that you have. It's not going to be too hard. It's not going to throw a wrench into everything. It's where else can I find the space and the emotional capital to be able to do these things? And overall, well done for all of us. So I would encourage you to kind of look at yourself, look at your system and your schedule.

Now that we're about three weeks into this new season, how is it going? Are there things that you're like, okay, this has turned into a bigger or larger speed bump than I thought? Is it turning into, instead of a rock that you can turn, is it turning into a wall? Is it something that maybe you're just anchoring yourself to that it's time to maybe let go and then try something else? All of those are fine answers because unlike a lot of tests that we take, these answers are all fluid. They are not set in stone.

So I encourage you to do that. Just look at it. I know that often our field of vision can get very myopic. And so it feels like, oh, this isn't working when in fact it might be working. You just have to zoom out a little bit. So I encourage you to look at it that way as well. So I will continue to check in with you. We'll see if the score goes up or stays static. I am pretty sure it's going to stay at least static, if not go up. I'm being hashtag optimistic on this one. Hashtag optimistic. So my plan is to be back here with you on Thursday.

for the Thursday edition of Comedy Through the Chaos. I think now that I think about it, I actually might get to do that on location. Coming up, moving into this next week, I have a couple of things that are going on. So the first thing I'm going to be doing is a crowdfunding round for the TV series version of this comedy through the chaos, which would be a combination of these kind of conversations that we have, but also stand-up and storytelling. So I'm going to work on that starting next week.

The additional thing that I'm going to do is I plan to be at a wonderful, wonderful thing here in the Twin Cities called Convergence. And Convergence is one of the largest fan-driven sci-fi and fantasy conventions in the country. And so be there as well doing some nerd related things. So on Thursday, I'll actually be wrapping up a, not a dress rehearsal, a, we'll call it a dress rehearsal, but that is not the word I mean. And I use words for a living, so I should be able to come with this. Tech rehearsal.

Thank you, brain. All right, I'll be doing a tech rehearsal. this Thursday for the Convergence edition of Comedy Through the Chaos that is happening on Friday night. So I will wrap up that tech rehearsal and then come and hang out with you on location at the Hyatt Regency before I head off to a panel where we'll be talking about trying to find space for a variety of different opinions at these kind of cons. So I'm excited to do that. So throughout the week, I always encourage you just check in with us.

If there's any content that we can provide that would be of benefit to you, let us know. If there's anything that you're going, hey, you know what, Cadre Sphere, this is what I need to be able to support me. It'd be great to have this kind of information here. Let us know that as well. And we're going to be trying to do some in-person things and some Cadre in the community things so that you'll have a chance to come and see many of us in real life as well. So, as I always like to say, be good to yourself, as good as you can.

And I hope that the day treats you well. If it doesn't, shame on it, not shame on you. We'll see you soon.