No Kings, Big Consequences: Parenting Through Political Chaos

The Odd Moms panel is back and diving headfirst into the chaos of summer 2025. Chelsea, Britt, Lindsey, and Jess tackle the massive No Kings Movement protests, the bombings in Iran, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Trump’s declaration of martial law in D.C., and the looming threat to marriage equality. Along the way, they share how they’re navigating these issues as parents — from deciding what to tell their kids, to finding moments of joy in a heavy world.

This episode blends raw reactions, personal stories, and practical resources for talking to kids about difficult current events. Whether you joined the protests, watched from afar, or are simply trying to keep your family grounded, this conversation offers solidarity, perspective, and a few laughs in the face of the unprecedented.

Key Takeaways

• No Kings Movement impact: Millions protested nationwide, with small-town turnouts rivaling big cities. The movement addressed democracy, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and immigrant protections.
• Parenting in protest culture: Panelists share why they did or didn’t bring their kids to demonstrations, and how they explain activism in age-appropriate ways.
• Bombings in Iran: Reflections on the fear, déjà vu from 9/11-era deployments, and the challenge of shielding children from overwhelming news.
• Humanitarian crisis in Gaza: Even without deep political knowledge, the panel agrees — children starving is unacceptable. They share ways to help without overwhelming kids.
• Martial law in D.C.: Concerns about militarized policing, detainment camps, and historical parallels to authoritarian regimes.
• Marriage equality at risk: The petition to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges sparks fear, frustration, and personal reflections on LGBTQ+ rights.
• Balancing joy and advocacy: From Taylor Swift album drops to quiet acts of rebellion.

Sound Bites

• “All children are our children. And as parents, we have a duty to protect and ensure they have a future.” – Chelsea Myers
• “Protesting might get snuffed out for a while unless we teach our kids how to actively participate in it.” – Britt Sandoval
• “You can care about all children without knowing every political detail — starving a child is not a political stance.” – Jess Rabon
• “Allow yourself to find the glimmers. Rest is resistance.” – Chelsea Myers

Resources for Parents

• Little Justice Leaders – activism resources for families
• A Kids Book About… – accessible introductions to social justice topics
• UNICEF – information on global humanitarian efforts
• Vote Mama Foundation – supporting parents in politics
• Ground News - a platform that makes it easy to compare news sources, read between the lines of media bias and break free from algorithms.
• Vitus "V" Spehar - an accomplished TikToker and political advocate, best known for Under The Desk News™, the GenZ and Millenials go-to source for news.
• Muzzy Brand Dolls - creating opportunities to explor

Got a hot take you want to share?

Send us a message, or email us at Oddmomsoncall@gmail.com. We might just talk about it on the show!

Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Threads, Youtube, and BlueSky!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
• 3:16 The No Kings Movement: A Collective Protest
• 12:07 Personal Experiences and Perspectives on Protests
• 20:21 Media Consumption and Awareness
• 22:24 Recent Events: Bombings in Iran
• 33:02 The Situation in Gaza and Its Implications
• 34:11 The Human Cost of Conflict
• 39:16 Navigating Conversations with Children
• 42:36 The Power of Speaking Out
• 50:05 The Struggle for Awareness
• 53:15 Political Turmoil and Its Implications
• 1:01:30 The Fight for Equality
• 1:06:56 The Impact of Legal Decisions on Personal Lives
• 1:09:45 Navigating Privilege and Awareness
• 1:12:51 Finding Joy Amidst Fear
• 1:15:08 The Weight of Predictions and Reality
• 1:16:09 Balancing Joy and Activism
• 1:21:44 Hot Takes on Political Conversations
• 1:28:52 Odd Moms Outro

Transcript

Chelsea Myers (00:01)
⁓ hey, you're back with Odd Moms for another crazy adventure. It's been a little while.

Britt Sandoval (00:09)
I am so excited for this episode, you guys, but it's also gonna be real dicey, I think.

Chelsea Myers (00:15)
It's gonna be dicey. It's also, we're giving you like a warning if it feels like we're not diving deep enough into anything. It's because it's very late for half of us and for half of us it's almost late. And so we're gonna cover as much as we can and then we'll probably come back and do this again and talk more about it.

Britt Sandoval (00:36)
Well, and honestly too, it's noted that we, a lot of these things that we were gonna talk about, we were gonna talk about weeks ago, but life has just been lifing for all of us. And so I think there's been a lot of big things that we've kind of had to like add on too. So this is gonna be like a really hefty episode.

Chelsea Myers (00:53)
Yeah, well, and not only has life been life-ing personally for us, like life has been life-ing in the country. And I can't keep up. I'm going to be completely honest with you. There's at least one section in here that I don't feel like I'm informed enough about, but I mean, we'll get to that. But yeah, to give you sort of an overview and then we'll do our intros.

But just so you have a taste of what we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about the No Kings Movement, which is originally what we wanted to talk about way back when. And the bombings in Iran, Iran, I'm sorry, the bombings in Iran. We're also going to talk about the situation in Gaza a little bit. We're going to talk about Trump essentially declaring martial law in DC as of yesterday, as we're recording this.

Then as recently as today or yesterday, the petition to overturn, I had to look up how to say this, Obergefell versus Hodges. So that is a lot and we're going to talk about it. Let's meet your odd moms. I am Chelsea. I also host Quiet Connection Postpartum Mental Health. I am a stay at home mom, non-binary and all the things. That's me. Hey, what's up?

Britt Sandoval (02:09)
Hey, I'm Britt. I host the Odd Mom Pod. I'm a mom of four and a registered nurse as well.

Lindsey Basler (02:19)
Hi, I am Lindsay and you can find me on TikTok documenting my art, maternal mental health, and all the things at big.sister.irl.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (02:30)
And I'm Jess or Jessica. am a psychologist, mom of two littles and host the podcast Psych Talk.

Chelsea Myers (02:38)
We love each other and we love you for listening. You turn the mic on, we hit record and I just babble. So we're gonna dive in, you guys. We're gonna dive in because there's so much to cover. Let's start with what we originally wanted to talk about way back in June, which is the No Kings Movement.

And for those of you who were living under a rock, I don't know how you could not know about this. It was huge. There was participation across upwards of 2,100 cities with upwards of 12 million people protesting across the country on the same day that Trump was hosting himself a little military birthday parade.

So that was the No Kings protest movement. And yeah, guys, I want to hear from you and then I'll chime in with how we celebrated.

Britt Sandoval (03:36)
I actually ended up having to work at the hospital and so I didn't get to participate which was sad because I really wanted to but also I felt like in a different way I was serving my community so it was okay but I

It was incredible to see, and I was honestly really sad because Jonathan Van Ness came to the Oklahoma City protest and I freaking missed it, you guys. I could have protested with JVN. I know, I would have been absolutely pumped, but did not get a chance to. Who all ended up getting to show up?

Chelsea Myers (04:03)
What?

I I protested. My mom is obsessed with Jonathan Van Ness, I can't speak. So I'm gonna tell her that and she's gonna be so jealous. Me and my husband actually used it as like a date day, which was really freaking cool. And it was hot as hell. It was like 90 something degrees. So we didn't bring the kids, but there were...

Where we were was a pretty small town in Vermont, but it was huge. had, luckily my husband's sitting right next to me. Do you remember how many people were at the protest? They counted.

Was it like 700? It was close to 700 people in this really small Vermont town.

you could count on one hand the number of cars that were like Trumpers that were like booing us. There were very, I mean, we're Vermont, we're liberal. So, but it was cool. There were families, there were little, kids, there were bigger kids, there were pregnant, there were pregnant people. there were people who

are of like my parents and grandparents age. Like it was hugely diverse. It felt very safe. But again, I'm in a very liberal state with a lot of like minded people, but it felt fucking amazing. It felt so good. My husband's sign said, no faux king way. And my sign.

I don't even remember what mine said. It had two sides though, because I couldn't decide. But yeah, did anybody else get to protest?

Jess Rabon (she/her) (05:53)
I didn't and I'm glad you brought up what you did Chelsea about like feeling safe and stuff. So my husband works Saturdays. So I was home with my two kids and I live in South Carolina. And so I have made the active decision when there are protests and I don't have childcare to not go because I don't feel comfortable bringing my one and four year old. So far all the protests and I've been very proud of my state have been very peaceful, large turnouts.

And you never know, especially living in a red state and with my kids being so young, it's, and it's something I struggle with because I'm like, I'm very vocal. I'm an advocate. I want to show up and I'm a mom and my kids have to come first. And so I

Britt Sandoval (06:39)
Also one in four

is so young, Jess. Like I just like give yourself some grace. I'm like, is like, I didn't take my oldest to her protest until this year and she's 11. And that was the first year I felt old enough and I still only took my oldest and like for the exact same reasons, especially when they're that young and there's so many people they're easy to get lost and you never know. So like your kids are so young too.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (06:42)
Yeah, yeah. no, I know, I know.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Britt Sandoval (07:08)
plenty of time.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (07:08)
Well, thank

you, Britt. But it has been nice because one of my closest friends and colleagues who I work with has been going to all of them. So she'll send me the videos, text me live updates, things like that. So I feel like I'm participating from afar. I will say, don't know, Chelsea, you brought this up at the beginning. For me, living in a red state, it was really amazing to watch how far of reach it got.

and seeing people, and I don't know if you guys saw this man on TikTok, that he lives in South Carolina in a tiny, tiny town, and he had a one-man protest. And he just walked up and down the main street, and he gained a bunch of followers on TikTok. And seeing people like that, just speaking up for what they believe is right. I know we didn't really talk about the core messaging, but like...

solidarity, safeguarding immigrants, voting rights, like all of these things and seeing how many people are actually physically showing up or sharing things on social media for me in a time that has felt so gloomy in many ways. That's a very easy way to put it or light way to put it. It's nice to see like people showing up. So that was the biggest thing that I took out of it, even though I couldn't physically be present.

Britt Sandoval (08:29)
I just looked it up because I was curious and estimates as of right now, as of today, are up to five million participants worldwide that they've been able to calculate. And obviously that's estimated because like those small town protests, like those aren't gonna be as reported and things. So that's incredible. That is, I think, like record breaking turnout for protesting in general.

Lindsey Basler (08:54)
Yeah, just.

piggybacking right off of that. was unable to go again. I have a four year old so kind of with Jess I if I was able to go I would plan on taking her but her dance recital was right in the middle of it our big event for the year. So I could not go but in the town where we live did not have anything. It's relatively closer to St. Louis. So people are more in the city area. There were quite a few but in the small very very red

where I'm from. Missouri is a red state but in the town itself and I had the number I had the number so ready when we were originally going to do this because I could not believe it but there were I feel like 200 might be too many but it was a huge number of people around our tiny courthouse in our hometown that were there and someone had taken tons of photos and it was everyone from

very elderly people of all abilities, some children. So I don't doubt that, you know, of that five million that a lot of those were really small towns that you may be surprised about.

Chelsea Myers (10:05)
I think the reporting to know everywhere you look it reports a different number. But I think what's important and is something that I'm still trying to completely wrap my head around is the number we were going for for was that 3 % if 3 % of the population sort of rises up in descent. And in this case, no Kings was kind of a huge

It encompassed, like Jess was saying so much, like in terms of immigration, in terms of voting rights, in terms of LGBTQIA +, right? Like literally everything that's on the table right now. And we were like, our whole thing was, why are you celebrating your birthday using our tax money to host a military parade? Like, fuck that.

we're gonna do the exact opposite. And we did, we did hit that 3 % and then again, depending on where you check, it was a lot more or it was like right on it, right wants to say something.

Britt Sandoval (11:01)
Yeah, was actually even my kids, they were even doing like no Kings marches and protests in Roblox in the games that there. huh. That there were like groups of kids that were all doing. There's this game. What is it called? there's this game and it's like you build like it's like people can build their own like little houses and cities and you can like whatever. And there were

Chelsea Myers (11:14)
What?

Britt Sandoval (11:28)
kids on Roblox protesting no kings that day. And so ⁓ it was something I got to talk to my kids about later on. My daughter was like, I didn't have them that weekend, but so I obviously didn't take them and for other reasons, but yeah, she was saying that even even on Roblox and asked about what it was. and so like it was a really cool way to

Chelsea Myers (11:33)
So cool!

Britt Sandoval (11:51)
even see like how even our younger generations who can't aren't marching up in the streets or even using things like video games and things like that to find that camaraderie. Because I think when all this is going down and the whole world feels like it's burning down, like hearing the stories of the groups, like even the single person in a small town or like these larger groups that accumulated in these smaller towns, like I think what makes it part of

being so impressionable only needing that 3 % is that it really does then light the fire of camaraderie and fire to make a difference and a change and finally fight back.

Chelsea Myers (12:38)
Yeah, and I love hearing that especially because it does, it ties it back to us as moms and as parents, how is this impacting our kids and how are our kids perceiving this? And again, we didn't bring our kids, but it wasn't because we don't talk about this stuff, because my three-year-old, we don't talk about this stuff. But my nine-year-old actually has lots of questions and asked if she

could go. And the only reason that we didn't bring her is because it was very, very, very, very hot. And she is pretty heat intolerant. So I, yeah, to hear that kids who may not have had an opportunity to be there for whatever reason, we're finding a way like maybe that's the future of like, protesting, like, I don't know, or it's a different way of protesting using technology. Like, these kids are freaking smart, man.

They are smart. But how, before we like dive deeper and before we move on from this, like how do your kids know about the No Kings movement? Or do they know what was going on that day? Or do you think they had any sort of idea that we had some stuff on our minds that day?

Jess Rabon (she/her) (13:57)
speak for my one year old and say he had no idea. And I don't really think my four year old does but like she's I mean she's in school she did mean daycare but now she started 4k and like they learn about president like that she had a whole section so she like has knowledge of like presidents and we talk about it at home just in a very developmentally appropriate

Chelsea Myers (14:01)
You

Britt Sandoval (14:02)
you

Jess Rabon (she/her) (14:23)
way, but she asks a lot of questions about everything in life ever. So if she ever asks questions, we'll just, you know, explain it to her in a developmentally appropriate way. But I don't think either of my kids just being their ages really understood what's going on. But we definitely have conversations in general about like, you know, equality and, you know, treating people fairly and kindly and things like that.

Lindsey Basler (14:51)
on that specific day, my daughter's only concern was the ballet recital. So no, not on that. Yes, yes. But I know she hears my husband and I having conversations and very similar to Jess Moriba. What are you talking about? What are you, what, wait, what are you saying? And if I was showing him pictures, we looked at the pictures of the protest and just kind of talked about what a protest was more than

Chelsea Myers (14:57)
As it should be.

Lindsey Basler (15:18)
exactly what was going on there, but more what is it and what is kind of happening.

Britt Sandoval (15:27)
We my kids my older two, but my younger two we had seen there was a protest for There was a I'm not quite sure what the protest was it wasn't the no Kings protest But there was another protest that had happened in June I think it was an anti-ice protest actually if I'm remembering correctly But we were at the same park at the same time

and my kids watched it all walk by and we hadn't shown up for the protest. I didn't even know it was that day. And so we had, we discussed and had like all of my kids know what a protest is. But on No King specifically, I didn't have them. So couldn't say if they even knew what was going on. But my daughter did have questions. My oldest daughter who plays Roblox did have some questions after she had seen some stuff on Roblox.

about what no kings meant. And her and I have talked pretty extensively about, you know, Donald Trump and things like that being in a very, very red state. She was hearing a lot of pro-Trump rhetoric, even in elementary school, right after the election and things like that. And was even hearing racist remarks, kind of uptick and things towards the end of the school year. So her and I had a pretty extensive conversation about what it was.

and she definitely understood. My other ones are eight, six, and four. So my eight-year-old kind of understands the protest understanding and she'll say, I don't understand why people just can't understand. But she actually doesn't actually understand herself, but it makes sense, right? So that is kind of where we're at with that. But I think...

I think it's important to talk to kids about protesting. I think, especially with everything that's coming up, like protesting might get kind of snuffed out for a while unless we are teaching our kids how to actively participate in it.

Chelsea Myers (17:19)
I'm actually, from what I am, we've talked about this before, like being mindful of the media that you're consuming. like, I really only follow, I follow Vsphere from under the desk news. I get a lot of my news from there. I also get a lot of my news from Jess, because I trust Jess's sources. But.

But V is really who I follow a lot. And she is kind of saying the opposite. She's kind of saying that like, thank you, because I wasn't sure I've seen different things. Thank you. Okay, I'm gonna go back. They had kind of a different view on the protests and they think that we may see an uptick.

Britt Sandoval (17:50)
I think they prefer their pronouns, by the way.

Chelsea Myers (18:05)
because of the drastic measures that are being taken right now. And don't quote me because like I said, I have to be very careful and mindful of how much I'm consuming. But one of their recent posts was talking about how

because they do like only good news on Thursdays or something like that. And they said sometimes it's really hard to find the good news, but you can find good things in a bad situation. so they were taught, this is kind of a tangent, but also not, it relates, I promise. They were talking about ICE and they were talking about how...

like Trump had done the $50,000 sign-on bonus, and then he'd done the student loan forgiveness, and now as of like this week, they're lower, there's no age limit, and one of their slogans is like, there's no better bonding for a father and son than to join ICE. No joke.

And she's like, that may sound really scary. I'm sorry. They said that may sound really scary, but how they view it is that it's not working. That they keep having to up the ante because people aren't joining. So they keep making more incentive. So it's just a different way to look at it, I think. And it gave me a little bit of hope in a really scary situation. Yes, Britt.

Britt Sandoval (19:22)
I wanted to give a little, just for those of us who are also obviously really mindful of what media we're consuming, I found an incredible app recently. It's called Ground News. And my favorite thing about it is it has this blind spot section. And it will tell you blind spots for the left and the right. it'll tell you how much is reporting where.

like

in your actual discovery news stuff like your top US it's really nice because you can kind of get a gist of what's going on. But none of these actually like if you click on them, it'll tell you who is reporting where and how they fall. But you don't have to get into the nitty gritty of like staying up to date on all of the things. But it gives a really good brief overview. And I love the blind spot section because it can be really hard to see all of what's going on.

while not seeing all of what's going on.

Chelsea Myers (20:20)
I love that. We'll link that in the show notes too. And I saw all of us kind of like eyeing our phones. So yeah, yeah, I'm gonna download it after.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (20:27)
I just downloaded it.

Britt Sandoval (20:31)
Yeah,

it's a goodie. really like that you can, it'll, like, I like the little bar on the bottom. It'll tell you exactly how much of who is reporting what. And so you can actually see it so much better. And then you're actually seeing the full sides of both stories, because you're also seeing blind spots for the left. Like, what is the right reporting that is looking good for them that they're using for leverage? It's been really helpful.

Chelsea Myers (20:53)
I love that. I'm gonna roll us into our next section just because like we said, we're talking about events that have gone on. This is another one that it feels like I should say this was recently, but because it's like a new disaster every day, even though this happened in June and we're recording this in August.

Britt Sandoval (21:12)
Yeah, end of June, June 22nd.

Chelsea Myers (21:13)
Yeah, it was the

end of June. the bombings in Iran by President Trump, again, so just an overview. There were strikes.

on Iran's nuclear facilities and Iran retaliated with some missile strikes on a US base in Qatar. Trump was all over, I don't know, is it called truth social, whatever it is that he is on, calling it this huge military success and saying that it was like the greatest thing ever. Everything he does is the greatest thing ever in his mind. But.

It was really scary for a lot of us. It was, remember the group chat that night being like, what the hell is going on? Let's talk about it a little bit. were your first thoughts? We kind of had an inkling that this was coming. We kept having hints that this was going to happen. And then it did. How did that hit you? How did that land?

Jess Rabon (she/her) (22:11)
So when I heard about the news, we were driving from my cousin's wedding to the reception. And so we were in the car and my husband was like, and then probably said a bunch of swear words. I was like, what's that E word? Explicitives, And it was me, my sister, my brother-in-law, my husband, and we were just all kind of frozen and just like.

what is going to happen. Like, and it was for me, it was just like a lot of fear of like, what is the outcome of this going to be? And, you know, and I'll fully admit like foreign affairs is not something I'm nearly as knowledgeable about as US government and even then.

I'm not super knowledgeable. So I was like trying to also like research, cause I'll be honest, like I saw a lot of people on both sides, like either criticizing or for, or things like that. I also saw a lot of like lack of nuance, which you see on social media all the time. Like people that were speaking up against it were getting criticized like, so you think Iran should have nukes? And it's like, no, nobody's saying that. But I think

I just felt a lot of fear and worry like of what is this going to turn into? Like, is this going to be back in like the Bush era? 9-11, like there's just so many things racing through my mind of like, what is going to happen because of this?

Chelsea Myers (23:35)
I was just gonna say us millennials, right?

Britt Sandoval (23:46)
Yeah, my dad was in the military during that. And so on 9-11, my mom pulled us out of school early because my dad was deploying. Like we knew right then and there that he was leaving. And so for me, my ex, my waspend is what I'm now calling him, you guys, was a pilot in the military. because I mean, we're still technically, he's a waspend.

Anyway, he was a pilot in the Navy and he's still technically in. He's being medically retired out actively right now. And so I texted him immediately. It was like, please tell me they are not somehow like pulling you like anybody who's deployable. So that was my concern was honestly my kids and my kids' dad. was like, I can't, I remember as a kid, how scary that was. And my dad was deployed most of my childhood because of everything that was going on. And so,

was definitely a weird traumatizing moment of like, holy shit, are we headed back into what we were doing under Bush? And that was terrifying. As far as like conversations with my kids and stuff goes, I actually didn't have any conversations with them about it. I've been trying really hard not to get spun up into the fear of everything. I'm trying to keep myself like,

aware and open to all the possibilities of what could happen because who fucking knows at this point? it literally, every day I wake up, I'm like, we're doing this now. But those kinds of things are hard for me, unless it's one of those things that we were talking about was if staying silent makes like.

risking denial and those kinds of things. Or if like you feel bad about not talking about certain things. But I also think as a parent, sometimes my job is to protect my kids from the hellscape that we are living in and that preparing them from the hellscape does not mean that they have to know everything that's going on in the thick of it at the time. And so that's kind of where we were at on our side.

Lindsey Basler (25:49)
I agree along with you, Brittany, in that it is a really hard decision to decide what do you talk about, what do you not talk about, does it make me a bad parent if I'm not talking about everything? Am I staying silent on this? But I didn't have a conversation with my four-year-old or my 13-year-old that has Down syndrome for both of them. It would have been a pointless conversation that would honestly just scare them. And for what I...

It's not like I know what's going to happen. We don't know what's going to happen. That's the you know, I'm scared of what's going to happen. And it definitely was. I had friends that were traveling and just had sent me a text that were just like, have you seen this yet? Like we are all, you know, out doing this fun thing and just stopped and are just like, what? What is happening? But like you said, Chelsea, definitely that millennial throwback of

remembering, you know, is this going to be one of those moments where I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing?

Britt Sandoval (26:46)
You guys, we've been through way too many unexpected life events. Yeah. It's so odd that the unprecedented times aren't becoming unprecedented anymore, because I'm like, feel like we've... Now it's just, it is what it is.

Chelsea Myers (26:50)
the unprecedented times. ⁓ Yeah.

I remember in

Trump's first term talking to my mother-in-law and just having this conversation of like, my God, how do we get through this? How do we do this? And at the time she was telling me, she's like, well, we've been through things. You have to think about, we went through desegregation and we went through like,

up just we've been through presidencies that have disasters and now we're at this point and I'm like mmm don't think we've actually been through this since the revolution and and like

Britt Sandoval (27:35)
And that's how we've ended up back here because everybody that remembers that is no longer alive.

Chelsea Myers (27:40)
No, exactly.

like, yeah, I think we're past the point of like, oh, yeah, we've gotten through these things before every era has its challenges. When you're waking up every day to a new unprecedented event, that's off the rails. I will say, we found out, again, this is gonna sound like I never have my kids, but my kids were not with us. It was my husband and I.

were my husband surprised me and we were celebrating our anniversary and he was taking me to where we honeymooned. It was a resort locally and the weirdest shit happened to you guys. So we had heard about the strike that that the the bomb whatever that the places had been bombed and we were freaking out and we're like, okay, we're to take this time. We're going to the spa. We're just going to like check out and then we can deal with this later. And as we're driving through

this mountain town. There's no cell service all of a sudden. We drive through this town all the time, but the cell service is gone. We stopped at the gas station to get gas and none of the cash registers or the gas pumps were working. Nothing was working. They couldn't accept credit cards. Nothing was working. Everything was down. We looked at each other and we're like, is this it? Like, is this our

Britt Sandoval (29:03)
This is the end of the world. We've reached the end.

Chelsea Myers (29:04)
Seriously, seriously, we were like,

is it, is it happening? We're like, the first thing that they take out is communications, right? Like, and we can't, our phones aren't working and the, we were losing our minds. ⁓ my God. It, it wasn't that. It was a, it was a Verizon thing, I think. And it was just down in that town. So.

Britt Sandoval (29:17)
We'd all be screwed, honestly. If that's the way to do it, that's the way to do it. We're screwed.

you

Chelsea Myers (29:29)
But for a solid like 15 to 20 minutes, we were losing our shit. We were like, my God, are we under attack? Like, is this the end now? Yes. So it was really fucking scary. And I, like you, Britt, like I have, my stepdad is retired air guard. And I called him just because I had so many questions. I was like, how can...

Britt Sandoval (29:38)
It's the beginning of the end.

Chelsea Myers (29:58)
how could he do this without congressional approval? How could this be allowed to happen? And he explained to me the circumstances in which it was possible. It was an abuse of power. So the circumstances that they cited weren't, they shouldn't have applied, but they did them anyway. And he basically kind of talked me down.

Because I was like, okay, what level of panic should I be at right now? Like the OCD in me. And I'm like, I'm not asking you like, give me all the reasons why I should panic. Just like, what level of panic should I be at right now? And his explanation to me was, he was like, you know, I always think about it in terms of the safety of my family first. And he said, I'm not worried about us right now. With what just happened, in his opinion,

He said it was another distraction, which Trump is known for. It was an abuse of power and it was a dumb ass move, but he said he wasn't worried about us. And so that kind of put my mind at ease. And just like you guys, I didn't really talk to my kids about it for the same reasons. I'm like, well, I'm not going to scare them. If something happens and I need to prepare them, then I'll go down that route. But...

Beyond that, we didn't talk about it. And I feel like that leads us into our next section

Britt Sandoval (31:29)
I

Chelsea Myers (31:29)
which was a topic.

that is it's it's being talked about a lot right now and from both sides of the fence and it's a situation in Gaza and we can speak as the odd moms panel we have our group chat and there was a moment where I feel like the like the planets aligned or I don't know but all of us sort of came to the same conclusion one night and we were like are we gonna say something about this?

And every single one of us was like, yeah, it's felt like this has been a long time coming and we need to say something about this. So when you're talking about the bombings in Iran, you cannot ignore what's going on in Gaza and Palestine. But at the heart and the core of it is the starvation and lack of medical resources being kept from children and families in Gaza, no matter what side.

you fall on in terms of what's going on over there. There are kids dying, thousands and thousands of kids dying every day of malnutrition and lack of medical care. I'm just looking. So the highest monthly numbers to date are nearly 12,000 children under the age of five in Gaza suffer from acute malnutrition.

Famine has been declared. Hospitals, malnutrition centers, they're overwhelmed. You can see it on TikTok. I mean, I'm not on TikTok anymore, but you can see it on all the, I'm not, well, I see it on Red Note, which is the Chinese version, which I fricking love. Yeah, but you can see like their NICU units are like using an oxygen supply that's meant for two isolettes max, and they're like,

Britt Sandoval (33:08)
I even see it on Instagram still. ⁓

Chelsea Myers (33:19)
busted them into like 12 to 24. And it's just, it's, it's insane. And we're at a point where not saying something feels really, really wrong. I won't speak for everyone, but for us, I feel like we needed to speak out. And I'd love to hear your thoughts. And if you've talked about that at all with your kids, or just what you want.

listeners to know about this absolute shitstorm that's going on over there.

Britt Sandoval (34:01)
I'll go, I guess.

Yeah, it's been wild. This has been one of those hard things as a parent, where it's again one of those things.

How much do you share with your kids? How much not? I have had some brief conversations with my oldest about certain things. Mostly it'll be things that like I'm consuming, I'm watching Instagram or I'm listening to a podcast or something and she'll ask, mom, what are they talking about? Those kinds of things, but not anything that I've actually like sought out and talk with my kids about.

and

It's hard because it's, I struggle with it, you know? I guess it's just like one of those things as a parent you just struggle with. Because I feel like on one hand, my job as a parent is to make sure my children are informed and that they know and are aware of things like war and the world outside of us. Because for me, it's very important for me to not raise a child who,

only sees the people in the United States as viable people and does not understand the rest of the world and the way that it operates or doesn't operate. And so it's so hard because it's, I don't want to instill a fear or anxiety in my children. I don't also want to fuel them with.

Propaganda that could be missing out even on the far left side, right? Like I don't want to also fall into that line where I'm

giving my kids ammo to say things to other kids because I don't feel like that's appropriate either, especially as my kids are getting older and there is a lot of open discussion about various things that I don't think children should be discussing at school happening. so, but I also am very much on the side of like when if...

and how questions come up. Like I'm always very open with my kids about this. And so my oldest does know that there is a war. We've talked about a little bit about genocide and what that means because that was a question when something came up. I said something to somebody, I was like, I cannot believe this amount of genocide. And my oldest said, what does that mean? And so we kind of discussed it as far as that goes. But.

It's been crazy and I very much agree that at this point, if you're not speaking out about it, or you're not openly opposing it, that you're almost contributing to the continuation of it, just like with racism, things like that, know, like when you're, if you're not against it, you're also kind of saying that you're partially for it. And that for me is one thing that I do want to instill in my children is that they will see me advocating and talking about what I feel.

and what I think is important in ensuring that I'm doing my side, but I also don't want to push on my kids too much either.

Chelsea Myers (37:06)
I think there's several important things that you touched on too and things that, like I'm gonna be completely honest and vulnerable right now, listeners. Like I am not fully aware of what the circumstances are that are contributing to this war that is happening. All I, and again, it is because I can't handle the amount of

unprecedented events in our own country. But my new mantra kind of is what would Miss Rachel do? Miss Rachel is all over social media. She is 100 % saying if you have a platform, big or small, you should be speaking about this and I agree 100%. And I'm not speaking about the war because I'm not informed about that.

But what I am speaking about is kids dying because in no situation, I mean, in no situation does anyone deserve to be starved to death. But

These children are our children. All children are our children. And as mothers and as parents, we have a duty to protect and ensure that these kids grow up and have a future. And so, yeah, I am admitting I do not know hardly anything about why the war is happening, how it is happening, where exactly it is happening.

But I do know that kids are dying because medical supplies and food is being intentionally withheld. And that's not okay. I don't care where you fall politically. It's not a political thing. If you think starving someone is a political stance, I think you need to take a really long hard look in the mirror because it has nothing to do with politics.

In terms of talking to my kids, we have, so I supported, there's a business called Muzzy, and they have dolls that teach about different cultures. And I purchased a doll and the money goes towards helping to get food to the kids in Gaza. And I had to do a lot of research because I wanted to make sure that that money was actually going to that because there's a lot of people.

doing lots of crazy things. But what we got was this beautiful doll named Mina who wears a hijab and she has a book about Palestine and Gaza. And I have not read the book with my three year old because it is heavy.

but my nine year old has read the book, but my three year old loves the frickin' doll. She wants to buy more hijabs. She wants to learn about what they mean, what the colors mean. And so we're bringing the culture into our home without bringing the war and the genocide. So we're informing without bringing fear, I guess. I don't know, any other thoughts?

Lindsey Basler (40:10)
That is such a beautiful way to do it, Chelsea. I love, I love that you said one, I am not 100 % informed on this and I don't care how informed you are. You should be able to understand that starving all of these children is not okay. So I wanted to share a story, one about how proud I am of a friend, mother, almost doctor who is getting some really nasty ramifications for speaking out. One of my very close friends and a first time mother.

made a very small comment on Instagram against a doctor who was basically condoning the genocide and agreeing with a lot of the things that are going on. And just from this one simple comment, there is an Instagram account. It's at doctors against anti-Semitism too. And all they do all day long is just call people out.

and she got her a whole full legal name put out there, where she works. They were sending emails to her boss trying to get her medical license revoked over one comment. I mean, she's always sharing a lot of information, but I guess they found this one comment and she didn't even know about it until her boss at work called her into their office and was like, hey, I'm getting all these emails.

basically asking me to fire you and remove you from the premises. And then she's also getting a lot of death threats. We will hunt you down, find you. And it's crazy to see those kinds of comments. And then you're like, well, if you're going to make those kinds of comments, I guess I kind of understand why you're okay with this. I guess that tracks. But yeah, I'm so proud of her for continuing to speak up.

but she has ended up just having to delete her social media. And luckily her place of work is on her side and none of those things are happening to her. But it was very scary and I am just so proud of her, first time mom. And almost a doctor for, you know, caring and speaking up when if she didn't, you know, she wouldn't have had to go through that. But she did anyway. So if you are scared to say something, I totally understand.

But you know, even just sharing information is an act of saying something, even if you're not using your own personal words.

Chelsea Myers (42:27)
That was the first time I learned the term doxing was through that kind of a situation is having all of your information given out because of something that you say. And Jess, I want to hear your response too, but Jess in particular, I love when Jess takes on our trolls on things that we post. And we did when we posted our statement about

the children in Gaza, we had this one account that just kept going and going and going. And I had to text you Jess and be like, they're in our DMs too. Like they're rage baiting. They're rage baiting. Maybe you can talk about it a little bit more, but like it was getting to me at first. And then I had to be like, no, you don't actually want to, like you just want to make us mad. That's all you really want to do.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (43:17)
Yeah. Oh, and Chelsea, I didn't know if you were going to bring up that situation, but that goes into what I was going to say going off of Lindsay's comments. And I'm very proud of your friend too. I don't know her, but I think social media has, on the one hand, made it so much easier to speak up and be informed, but on the other hand, made it so much harder. like October 7th, I started

trying to educate myself as much as I could on Israel Palestine. And I started speaking up. And everything started way before October 7th. This has been going on for 70 plus years. But every time I spoke up, if I said something pro-Palestine, I would get a bunch of nasty DMs for people that were pro-Israel. If I said anything, anti-Semitism is bad.

Or like you can care about people and not like their government trying to create nuance. I would get, you know, people saying negative things. And admittedly, I stopped posting about it for a while because I was like, okay, clearly I'm either not informed or also my mental health can't take it. you know, bringing in that conversation, Chelsea, that you're referring to.

and I don't want to get into all the nuance, but like to me, it came down to like a lack of nuance and wanting to be right. I think, you know, there are people on both sides, pro Palestine, pro Israel that regardless of what you say or do are going to stand their ground. like everybody has already said so far at the end of the day, when we think about starving children, whether you believe it's

Hamas starving the children or whether you believe it's Israel starving the children or whether you believe it's whoever at the end of the day, they're starving children. And I know something that came up in that was, the images going around those kids have chronic illnesses. Okay. And children with chronic illness. And there is, there, there is some evidence that a couple of the viral images, those children have chronic illnesses. I work in a children's hospital. I see kids with those chronic illnesses and like, yeah, some of them may have nutritional.

deficiencies and children with chronic illness don't deserve to starve either. Like, and I, I know you also already brought up miss Rachel and I was listening to a podcast she was on the other day and she was basically like, I finally spoke out because I thought about Mr. Rogers when he had the black man on his, you know, TV show first time the shared a

like little kiddie pool together. And she was like, if he can do that, like, I need to speak out. Cause at the end of the day, I care about all children. Chelsea, said that beautifully. Like as parents here, we should care about all children. Like we don't want to see children suffer. They're innocent. Like they, they depend on their adults if they still have adults in their lives. And you know, if

I wonder frequently if we take the label, it's not a label, but that's the only word coming to mind, of Gaza out of it. And we just talked about starving children, but people have a different reaction because like I said, it's become so politicized. Social media has caused immense conflict about things. And Chelsea, I admire you for...

you know, acknowledging you don't know all the nuance, because I think that's another thing. And I don't know all the nuance either. I don't think any of us could know all the nuance. And by any of us, I white people sitting in America that have never lived outside of here, that don't have ancestors in either Israel, Palestine. I think a lot of times people...

sit in their echo chamber and just hear what they hear and then they post so confidently and it just causes further chaos and divide. And then we just need to strip back the layers and be like, but at the end of the day, children are starving. So what can we do about that?

Chelsea Myers (47:20)
Yeah, and I think that was where it shifted for me. And it feels like that's where it shifted for a lot of us, at least sitting here, is yeah, we may not, like you said, have the nuance. We may not know the nuance of the situation as a whole, but at the root of it, at the very root of it, if you just take everything else out of it and just...

This is terrible. Maybe I'll take this out. But like when you were talking about it, all I was thinking about is like when we were kids, we would see those commercials for kids starving in other nations and for the pleas for us to donate or to like a day. Yeah.

Britt Sandoval (48:00)
Yeah, they're like, they're for 35 cents a day. You can

feed a child and wherever.

Chelsea Myers (48:06)
And again, going into that, there's lots of documentaries and I don't know how legit a lot of those things were either, but it evokes something in you and it obviously evoked something in American TV.

consumers because the ads ran for a long time and we were drawn in and we were like, my God, yeah, no, child should starve. So if we take all of it out and we just look at it as there are children dying by the hundreds, by the thousands every day because they don't have access to food or medical care, those are two of the most basic

rights or needs anything any way you want to describe it. And if we just looked at it that way if maybe people would think a little differently but I'm not sure. I really don't know anymore in this world that we're living in. I really don't know. I'm gonna keep us rolling along. I know again like I said like it's gonna feel like we're not diving deep enough and I think we're gonna I say this with every episode but for this one in particular I think we're gonna dive into it again. But

Britt Sandoval (49:07)
Well, and lot of these things too, like as things are gonna continue to roll on, like a lot of these things that we're talking about aren't short, fixed situations. They're not one thing that we're gonna be able to talk about and say like, oh, okay, this is our summarized feelings of everything in this. It's because, I mean, all of this is still so ongoing. I mean, this is where it like 600, 700 days now for Gaza. Like this is gonna be something that's,

that we're definitely gonna talk about again. And I think too, that's important, like anybody that is listening, that is wanting us to dive in specifically to a deeper thing, please make sure to let us know, like on social media or in our email box. Like we want to know what you guys want to hear specifically about. So please feel free to do that.

Chelsea Myers (49:58)
Yes, please. oddmomsoncall at gmail.com or Instagram. I'm on the DMs. I'm there. I'll answer you. I'm a real person. No bots here. But bringing us back to the US again, I do.

I don't even know how to like preface this because it seems so wild but nothing's wild anymore. As of yesterday, yesterday I believe, yeah, yesterday was the press conference that was literally just a bunch of gibberish and people looking like idiots. Sorry, that's an opinion not a fact. I don't know, you know me.

Britt Sandoval (50:43)
Says who?

Seems pretty facty to me.

Chelsea Myers (50:49)
I mean,

it was a shit show, but Trump essentially declared martial law in DC and spewed him and his cronies, spewed several facts that were completely incorrect about rising crime rates in DC, which are wrong, so wrong. Crime rates are down, public safety and stuff. The things he was saying were wrong, but he basically...

not basically, he took control of, so he, let me be factual, he invoked section 740 of the DC Home Rule Act, claiming rising crime, despite data showing it as a historic low. He deployed 800 National Guard troops and took control of the DC police. So they are under his authority now.

And yeah, local leaders are not happy. Citizens are not happy. And the wider consensus is that this is like the test site for the rest of the country. He's doing it in DC, and then we're gonna start to see it in other states and in other cities.

which is absolutely terrifying. He's also talking about criminalizing homelessness and putting them in camps. It's giving, it's not giving, it is, it's concentration camps. When Hitler rose to power, he started with the homeless and the disabled and put them in camps, and that's what Trump is doing.

Britt Sandoval (52:16)
What's crazy is it's all under this guise of like ending homelessness, but like they're still unhoused. You just now have them in a prison, but okay. Like it's, it's mind blowing.

Chelsea Myers (52:19)
Yes.

He's saying, well I don't know if he's saying, who speaks for him, I don't know. talking about like, getting people who are...

who don't have a home or maybe struggling with mental health disorders, like getting them into a place where they'll receive treatment. Well, there wasn't space for that to begin with, and you've cut Medicaid and Medicare, and so there's even less spaces, and there's more places closing down, and Jess, I think, can probably speak to this a little bit in terms of the mental health side of things. And the fact that it's just a bold-faced lie. Like, they're not being...

delicately picked up off the streets and dropped into a warm bed and given a therapist and a detox counselor or things like that. They're being put in camps. And if you want to take it further than that, if you want to take it to immigrants, whether you're here legally or illegally, whatever it is, you want to talk about alligator alcatraz? Yeah, Britt, chime in. I always see you go for it. Yeah.

Britt Sandoval (53:23)
I'm like, I say, wait, but I'm like, ooh, there are no illegal people on stolen land. First off too, I just would like to say that out there. I speak for myself, maybe others, but yeah, think it's the big thing too is these camps, they give the government in out to hiding deaths, hiding abuse, hiding starvation and things like that. so,

Chelsea Myers (53:29)
Yes, thank you.

Britt Sandoval (53:45)
You know, as somebody who works often with a lot of detoxing, unhoused individuals in an emergency room in a not great part of Oklahoma City, you can die from withdrawals. can, like, these are going to be, when these people are being picked up, there's so much more than it's just these people are being picked up and put into a camp, like you said. It's like these people are going to be slammed in their, like, sardines where people are going to die because of withdrawals, because of

starvation because of abuse from the conditions, the guards, and it's just, it's scary. It's very, it's gone, it's starting to go, it's too far. We're way too far.

Chelsea Myers (54:24)
It's not even, and like you keep saying like it's going to, it's happening. Yeah, this is happening. So like in DC now, the difference I think is that they're like militarizing, it's becoming a policed state. It's not a state, I don't know what you wanna call it, but anyway, think a Handmaid's Tale and that's what's happening right now. The government.

Britt Sandoval (54:27)
You're right, you're right. This is actively happening, which is terrifying.

Chelsea Myers (54:47)
is taking control of local authorities and using military to police people based on what they think is right and wrong. But beyond that, it's already happening. It's happening with people who are deemed criminals, even if they have no criminal record, they're just from a different country. People are being detained coming back from other countries who are completely legal.

upstanding citizens, we had a superintendent of one of our school districts be detained. My therapist was detained on her trip back from Paris. Yeah, like, and she has no idea why. And I'm not going to get into it because it's her story. And I also don't want to like cross that line. But it's, I just happened to know that she was detained. She has no idea why. And it was very traumatizing. It was just her and her child and she was separated from her child.

while that whole thing happens. So it's happening. It's happened to what she is a white woman from Vermont. So it's not just happening to black and brown and, and people who may not fit what their ideal is. It's happening to everyone. And we shared a video a couple of weeks ago. I want to find it again and share it again, because I think it's really important to watch.

And it's the amount of 911 calls coming from these detainment camps. They are overwhelmed. 911 is being overwhelmed with calls from these camps where people are being sent because people are dying or there are riots breaking out or they're like, there was some, one of them, I don't know if it was a nurse that was on the phone or if it was a quote unquote prisoner, cause that's what they,

are they're being held as prisoners but they're saying like he's bleeding and the person the dispatcher saying well is he breathing and she's like never mind he's not breathing anymore so you guys don't have to come and the dispatcher like i'm paraphrasing but i want to share it again because these are real calls and this is really happening it's not it's gonna happen it's happening and with trump

doing what he's doing in DC, I think that's just step one and shit's about to get really scary. I will say our governor, who I don't agree with on a lot of things, but our governor in Vermont declined to send any US military service members to aid in ICE, whatever.

to aid them at all. And so I am proud of that. He did also hand over all of the data from our WIC programs and things like that and justified it as this is all information that they would have access to anyway. And if I said no, then we might have our funding pulled more. So it's a give and a take. But I think it's going to be a less of a give and a lot more of a take.

if things continue the way that they are continuing. Are there any other thoughts on this before we move on to the next thing? No? Okay. So I know it feels really depressing and you know what? It is.

My husband this morning just told me, he's like, I really don't know why I'm depressed, but I'm really depressed and I can't tell you why. And I said, because everything is heavy, not just everyday things that we deal with as parents, like making sure the kids are fed and that the laundry is done and the dishes are done and that the kids are at their camps on time, school starting again, getting all those things. Like those are normal stressors that will burn out any parent, but we're dealing with

all of these things that we're talking about and every day is something new and today's something new is the petition to overturn Obergefell versus Hodges which so again I gotta read my notes because I want to be right but so in June 2015 the Supreme Court ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples

by both the due process clause and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment from the Constitution. That, mean, for a lot of us here, it's common fricking sense, but that was that. The impacts of that were massive in many levels. It improved mental health and quality of life for LGBTQ people in general, couples. It also stimulated the economy.

like to a massive degree, Jess did this research for us and I'm so thankful. And I obviously just scrolled to the top by accident. So same sex marriages were estimated to boost state and local economies by an estimated 5.9 billion and generated an estimated 432.2 million.

in state and local sales tax revenue since that original decision and it supported an estimated 41,300 jobs for one year. So it was like.

Britt Sandoval (1:00:04)
All I'm saying is, the gay is not a throw-a-party man. We know what we're doing. And so like, it makes sense that we are putting out all this money for a good party. I think it's honestly, it's just a jealousy thing at this point.

Chelsea Myers (1:00:07)
We know how to throw a party.

Yes. Yes.

Well, and then we can get into like lavender marriages and whatnot, like where...

Britt Sandoval (1:00:25)
It's because this made it so that you didn't have to be in a heterosexual marriage to be able to have the benefits of marriage. now, this was all put out, petitioned by that same baker lady, right, who...

Chelsea Myers (1:00:33)
Yes.

I don't think it was the

baker because no.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:00:44)
It wasn't the Baker.

was Kim Davis who got arrested back in 2015 for refusing to sign the same sex marriage. Yeah. She was the court in Kentucky, Kentucky, I think, or Kansas. I can't remember. I should know that.

Britt Sandoval (1:00:52)
⁓ it was the same sex marriage lady.

Chelsea Myers (1:00:54)
Yes.

who

has been divorced three times is on her fourth marriage. No, I'm not fucking with you.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:01:04)
three times.

Britt Sandoval (1:01:06)
Are you for fucking real?

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:01:07)
But husband

number four is also husband number two. But then when she was married to husband number one, she had two kids with him and then got pregnant with twins by a different man while she was married. And that man became husband number three, but then husband number two and four adopted those twins. I did some deep dive into her today.

Chelsea Myers (1:01:12)
okay.

So yeah, so

Britt Sandoval (1:01:28)
Not

at all.

Chelsea Myers (1:01:29)
A, A, A, whatever, you do you girl. You do like do what you want with your life and see how that turns out and we'll hold our opinions. But if you say, if you're protecting the sanctity of marriage, I don't think you're the best spokesperson for that.

Britt Sandoval (1:01:32)
I love it. No, I'm so for it.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:01:33)
Except.

Britt Sandoval (1:01:39)
You know, I know this is probably so surprising. Uh-huh. That part.

I mean, look, okay, look at our other large, large spokesperson, our president. know, like all of these, so many conservative politicians and like how many times have they been married? How many times have they been caught cheating on their spouses in affairs in their marriages? And it comes down to, again, the party that is so like,

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:01:53)
Mm-hmm.

Chelsea Myers (1:01:56)
Let's talk about that.

Britt Sandoval (1:02:14)
pro-traditional marriage is only that way because it's means of control and it's and then they get to then abuse the system because it's the system that was written for them and not the system that was written for the people that could benefit.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:02:19)
Mm-hmm.

Britt Sandoval (1:02:30)
It's mind blowing.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:02:32)
Oh, it is. And it's one of those things. And I mean, I heard this all throughout Trump's first presidency. heard this all throughout Biden. heard this, especially in 2024, that Trump is not anti-LGBTQ. And I could argue all day at everything that he has done, but like,

Britt Sandoval (1:02:48)
That is.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:02:52)
This is a prime example of, you know, people who months ago were like, okay, first they're going to attack trans rights and then they're going to come for marriage equality. And people were like, stop, you know, blowing things out of proportion.

Britt Sandoval (1:03:06)
It would have been so much more

helpful if they would have just released like a 940 something page document that was gonna line out exactly what the plan was. That would have made all of this so much easier to navigate if we would have known what was coming.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:03:19)
I know if

Chelsea Myers (1:03:19)
Well,

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:03:20)
only they had done that.

Chelsea Myers (1:03:20)
Brit, that would have been such a good idea.

Britt Sandoval (1:03:23)
Damn.

Lindsey Basler (1:03:24)
Britney,

Brit with the facts.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:03:27)
but it is.

Chelsea Myers (1:03:26)
Yeah, dropping. It's it's

almost like they gave us these clues. These little tiny bread crumbs and we just yeah. I don't know. It is wild.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:03:31)
Alright.

breadcrumbs.

Britt Sandoval (1:03:36)
wild.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:03:37)
But it's

just, and I don't know, my fear with this is that if the Supreme Court does decide to look at it, five of the nine current justices already voted on this, and three of those five voted or dissented. And we know we already have a six three split. Now granted, Amy Cohn Barrett surprises us sometimes.

sometimes and she'll like side with the liberal justice, but I guess I just go back to like, why are we talking about this? Like, why doesn't matter? And like, I, I always have a different perspective because I'm from Massachusetts. So we were the first state, like I'm not anymore clearly because I talk about soccer all the time, but like that's where I grew up. We legalized same sex marriage in 2005. Like I have spent more of my life. Right. Am I doing math? Correct? Yes.

I was like, how old am I? Like living somewhere or claiming somewhere as my home that values marriage equality than not. like I go and bring this back to being mom. I look at my kids a lot of times and especially my daughter, not that I, but I have a white son. Like he's, he has such inherent privilege. But especially looking at my daughter and being like,

I literally, you're potentially gonna have less like rights or grow up. And like, I don't obviously know her sexual orientation or anything like that she's four, but like, these are conversations that I guess I just didn't expect to have as a parent to be like, well, there was a brief, hypothetically, if this does get overturned, there was a brief time where, know, so and so and so and so we're allowed to get married. Cause I have a number of gay friends that are married. She is well aware. This is one thing.

that I talk to my kids about. Like she is well aware that two boys can be married, two girls can be married. She has met friends of mine that are same sex and have kids and she's never asked like how that happened. She's just kind of like, two daddies, that's cool. Like does not care. But the fact that there might be a time where I have to be like, well, that was legal. And now it's not anymore. It's just like mind blowing to me as a parent. Like I feel like we should be moving forward with things.

not backwards.

Chelsea Myers (1:05:58)
It hearkens back to, I don't know if it was, I think it was when we talked about gender and bathrooms. And it's like, who the hell was thinking about this before someone decided to get loud about it? None of us. I mean, obviously there's always, I'm not gonna say that there hasn't been homophobia and that the LGBTQIA plus community has not had to fight tooth and nail for the rights that.

they have, even though it's still not enough. But what I will say is it's like it was not a issue, a, a political issue. Like it has been thrust into being. It's just, it's insane. And again, it's one of those things that's like, okay, do I, do I let this be the thing that breaks me down? Do I, what am I going to let? What's going to be the straw?

that breaks the camel's back. And I guess that leads us to, at least today, like right now, where we're sitting right now, what's hitting you the hardest? And that might be a really, for me, it's a really difficult question to answer. Because like I just said, it's like, what's gonna be the thing? What's gonna be the thing that finally does me in?

And I don't have a good answer. I feel like some days it all creeps in and I cry and I let myself feel it. And then I remind myself that we're doing this and that I'm getting the doll from Muzzy and teaching my kids about other cultures and that like rest is resistance and things like that. like, I can't pinpoint one thing. I wonder how the rest of you feel about that.

Lindsey Basler (1:07:39)
For me, it's pretty similar to you, Chelsea. There's not one thing. I spend a lot of time when I'm doing things. Like, just, went to got, I went this past weekend, was relatively close to you, Jess. I went to Raleigh, North Carolina over the weekend. I got to visit a friend who just had her first baby. And I'm like, I'm getting to go and do the super fun thing and everything seems so fun. And we're just pretending like everything is fun.

but everything is not so fun. And it's it's balancing getting to do like fun things and still getting to pretend like everything is great. Nothing is that bad. And then, you you open up your phone, turn on the TV and you're like, oh, I'm just living in my, back to our last episode, I'm just living in my little privilege bubble and I need to come down and you know.

Britt Sandoval (1:08:32)
my god, she froze in the most like, opportune time.

Chelsea Myers (1:08:33)
Yes, she froze. I know.

Hold on, let's see if she's going to come back.

Lindsey Basler (1:08:37)
I think for me it's a balance of

much am I myself to spend time in that privilege bubble of not pretending like things are bad.

Britt Sandoval (1:08:42)
then we what,

Okay, I think for me, as being an openly queer individual,

Lindsey Basler (1:08:52)
I'm just gonna pause.

Britt Sandoval (1:09:00)
And, you know, I'm now getting out of my marriage, which I'm, we have had to like hasten because we were worried about Oklahoma ending no fault divorce, which was gonna be a thing. But now like as an openly queer individual who is dating people of the same gender and other genders that are similar and not similar, it's scary. I think that today,

Today's ruling of the Obergefell versus Hodges challenge, I think, has been one of the first things where I'm like, holy shit, we're really doing it. They're really going for it. I know that's, it's so easy to say that all of these things are so hard and scary, but not until it individually impacts you is something like, God, this could, this could.

mean this could change who I could marry and conversations that I've had with my kids about being gay and things like that now like that is is definitely something that is

kind of a little scary. So I'm trying to find the joy where I can and been traveling to see friends on little day trips here and there as much as I can. I'm out visiting a friend in Texas just because I needed a couple days to just unplug and be and find joy. And it's hard. It's a lot of fear. It's a lot of anger. It's hard.

It's a hard life right now.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:10:37)
So I feel like it's all heavy, like what's being said. But like Britt was saying, I think right now in this moment, the thing that is hitting me as well the most is the petition to overturn the Supreme Court ruling. And I think for me, because I was reflecting, listening to all of you talk, I mean, there's a lot of layers to it. But if I really reflect on why I think this one's hitting the hardest is because this is

probably the one thing that I accurately predicted was coming down the pipeline. And I and many other people were told, you're just being dramatic, stop fear mongering. with that disclaimer, we have a petition from one woman. So I do want to be realistic. We don't know if the Supreme Court is going to relook at this case, things like that. But the fact that there is even the petition.

is scary. The fact that many of us were saying this last year, many years ago, and we're called like dramatic. And it's like, at least in my experience, when things come to fruition, like, we could predict this happen, things like that, then the goalpost moves. Well, it's not this, it's not this. it's just like, it's not even a hamster wheel, because it's not the same thing. We're like picking up a bunch of stuff, but I feel like we're on like a hamster wheel. It's like just something we're going, going, going and getting.

nowhere good. Very fast.

Lindsey Basler (1:12:06)
cliffhanger.

Chelsea Myers (1:12:06)
I'm going to condense some things now just because of what time it is.

I think something that's super important and it's something that I saw today a lot across all social media. And we talk about, right, like what's impacting us, what's hitting us the hardest, and then that guilt that comes from our place of privilege of like, we can turn off the TV, we can put down our phone. The example that was given was that Taylor Swift, if you're a Swiftie, which we are in my house, Taylor Swift just announced

a brand new album coming out on 12th. You already bought it? my God. ⁓ my God. you pre-ordered it. You have your Tay-Tay sweatshirt on? Yeah. So Taylor Swift just announced her new album and it's okay to be really

Britt Sandoval (1:12:41)
We already bought it. Yes, I was in line. Are you kidding me? For like 76 minutes. I meant pre-ordered it. I did buy it. I love it.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:12:50)
I have a Taylor sweatshirt on right now.

Chelsea Myers (1:13:02)
freaking excited about that. It is okay to feel joy. It is okay to go visit your friend who just had a baby and be really happy that you get to spend time with them. It's okay to feel joy doing things that fill your cup while also holding space for the heavy. You don't have to live in it, which is a privilege for a lot of us. But I think like

what a lot of us in Odd Moms, not just the panel here, what we're doing is small acts of rebellion and small acts of advocacy every day amidst the glimmers, amidst the joy. Because if we let ourselves sink into the pit of despair or from the never ending story, the swamp of sadness, RIP, our tax.

is that was that the horse's name? Please tell me I got that right. You guys didn't watch the never ending story. You can. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm taking a personal offense to this and your homework assignment this weekend is you have to what you cannot claim to be a millennial and not have seen a never ending story. Anyway, I love you all so much. so I think, honestly, it's

Britt Sandoval (1:13:58)
I have no idea.

Chelsea Myers (1:14:16)
Allow yourself to feel the joy, allow yourself to find the glimmers. I know Jess is Googling the never-ending story. This is ridiculous.

Britt Sandoval (1:14:22)
And honestly, that's how like, that's how we model resilience for our kids. Because like, as parents, I think there's very few things that we can do to prepare our kids for the world. Like, and we are learning that every day you really don't know what's gonna happen. And so there is so many uncertainties in life every day that like us modeling to our children,

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:14:23)
We really have never heard of it.

Chelsea Myers (1:14:27)
Yes.

Britt Sandoval (1:14:50)
even those small forms of resilience or the importance of us taking our time to make sure that we're filling into ourselves teaches our children how to encounter difficult situations when it comes time for them to. And we can't prepare them for everything that's going to happen. But if we teach them how to take care of themselves mentally, emotionally, by doing that ourselves, we're then showing our children how to do that. And I think that's something that you can't really, it's not a lesson you can learn other than by watching it happen.

Chelsea Myers (1:15:20)
Absolutely. We are very quickly approaching the point where we're going to get to our hot take and then we have to go back to real life. Before we get to our hot take, I just want to list some resources. They will be in the show notes. But like we said, if you're feeling overworld, overworld, overlord, if you're feeling overwhelmed, same. But talking about it, talking about it with your peers, talking about it with your kids, it's the first step in change.

So some resources for democracy and protest, there's Little Justice Leaders, their kid-friendly activism activities and curriculum, and there's a kids book about activism. That's for ages six to 10. I love all of their books. They have a kids book about racism. They have a kids book about pretty much everything, and they're great. If you want to talk about war and global conflict, there's PBS Parents, How to Help Kids Feel Safe When the News is Scary, and there's the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

They have some guides for families as well. In terms of the humanitarian crisis, you can look into who, that's how I always think Dr. Who, I need to say that again. It's not Dr. Who. You can look into UNICEF, who reports on Gaza, stories like Gaza Soup Kitchen or Hamada Show to share hope and human resilience. And we will link Muzzy Brand and the Dolls if you want to look into that.

Political literacy, there's Kid News, which is a daily news podcast for kids. The 10 News, again, youth-friendly current events. And News-O-Matic app, which is kid-focused global headlines. Again, be mindful with that. Your kids don't need to know absolutely everything, and you want to be in control of the narrative a little bit so that it's age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate. And then in terms of action-oriented resources, there's Moms Rising.

There's Vote Momma Foundation and We the Parents, and you can find all of that linked in our show notes. And we will also link Instagram accounts. There are a lot of good Instagram accounts that Odd Moms is following that we love. But now it is time for Lindsay to take us into our hot take, which is fantastic when you hear some of the responses she got.

Lindsey Basler (1:17:29)
So our hot take for this week's episode is if you had 30 seconds with Donald Trump, what would you say? There are so many possibilities here. And some of them we just won't mention. But I have to ask my book club, I am part of a liberal readers book club and this is a pretty big variety of ages. Same.

demographic area, rural Missouri, red state ages 34 to 75. There are lots of retired teachers and I'd say at least 95 % of the women in this group are mothers and we typically read a lot of political books and sometimes we'll throw in some historical fiction. So I asked these ladies this question. They told me I didn't give them enough time to answer since I waited till the end of the book club meeting.

But these are some of their answers. My favorite answer is I would just vomit at him. That's my personal favorite response. We do have a fuck you, which that's, you know, you could say that a lot of times in 30 seconds.

A lot of people said I would need a lot more time to think about how to pack my 30 seconds with the right words. mean, 30 seconds is not a lot of time. And then what I think a lot of us could agree with is really, why do you hate America? So I would love to know what responses the other odd moms have to add to this question.

Chelsea Myers (1:19:03)
I agree that 30 seconds is not enough time. And the more I thought about this, there were so many things. I've actually had a recurring dream where I like tell off Donald Trump. It's the weirdest fucking thing ever. I'm a vivid dreamer and I dream every night, but I have a recurring dream where I'm just yelling at him. But that was, I know it's ridiculous.

What I came up with is going to be kind of a lackluster answer though, because I don't think anything that I would say to him, I don't think he'd hear it. I don't think he would acknowledge it. I don't think he would care. So there's a lot of things that I would love to say and I would love to like, manufacture this 30 seconds of a total take down. But I don't, yeah, maybe I would just puke on him.

Lindsey Basler (1:19:52)
Maybe that's where the vomiting comes in because the hearing wouldn't work.

Chelsea Myers (1:19:57)
Maybe I would just puke on him. He'd probably just have me removed from this new billion dollar ballroom that he's building. But yeah, no, I, there's a lot of things. Why do you hate America is perfect. That's like Chef's kiss. I just don't think anything that I could come up with, I don't think it would matter. I don't think it would matter to him.

Britt Sandoval (1:20:21)
I would just say you sad sad sorry fuck of a man. That's it. Like you're... That's... I mean I... I don't even have any other words man. Like it's just to this point it's just like... sad sorry fuck.

Chelsea Myers (1:20:25)
That's all you need.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:20:38)
Yeah, Chelsea, I agree with a lot of what you were saying with regard to like not hearing because like, as I was reflecting on this, like earlier before we hit record even now, because there's like short questions I could ask, like, you know,

How are we making America great if you're actively harming many of its citizens? But like you said, that's not going anywhere. On a much more surface level, I would be interested to know why he's weirdly obsessed with Joe Biden and Taylor Swift and why he posts on true social about them all the time and in stark contrast, has never posted once about the person that attempted to assassinate him.

slash the two people, because there was the second one on the golf course. Things like that. But I agree. think it wouldn't be hard. I think it would just, in one ear out the other, if he was even paying attention. That too.

Chelsea Myers (1:21:22)
That needs to be an episode at some point. The Tha-That-Needs-Speed episode.

Britt Sandoval (1:21:38)
Or if he was even awake.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:21:41)
I would actually rather have 30 seconds with Melania and ask if she voted for Harris, because that's my conspiracy theory.

Chelsea Myers (1:21:48)
Yes, or are you okay? Like, are

you okay? Blink twice if you need us to remove you from the lake. I'm not even kidding, you know?

Britt Sandoval (1:21:59)
Honestly, she's probably hoping

she's next to get deported. I would be at that point.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:22:02)
You're good.

Chelsea Myers (1:22:08)
my gosh, she's like, get me out of this hellscape.

Britt Sandoval (1:22:10)
She's like,

I'm here illegally, let me go home, please.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:22:14)
It's volunteer's tribute.

Chelsea Myers (1:22:15)
Yes!

Lindsay, what would you say to him? What would you say to him if you could?

Lindsey Basler (1:22:23)
Ugh, it is so hard. I did leave out the comment from one of them that said, would just ask, why do you keep up with the orange makeup and the hair? Can you just give it a rest? That was pretty funny. But I love the why do you hate America one or just like why you hate children? Why do you hate everyone? or like.

Britt Sandoval (1:22:44)
He doesn't hate children, he loves

children, he was besties with Epstein.

Chelsea Myers (1:22:48)
Yeah, we gotta do, we gotta, mm-hmm.

Lindsey Basler (1:22:48)
Ugh, that was, you're right. That was a

bad question. I think I would also like to say like, did your mother hurt you? Like did your mother hate you? Like what, like what? I don't know. There's too many things.

Jess Rabon (she/her) (1:23:00)
I would like to note his mother was also an

immigrant. She was from Scotland.

Chelsea Myers (1:23:04)
Yeah, I'm sorry. Like a lot of the people in the White House have... Something. Maybe we get into, I don't know if Jess feels comfortable doing this, but we may need to have like a let's diagnose, like let's armchair diagnose Congress and the White House. Like, you know what I mean? We'll open the DSM and we'll have a little party.

Britt Sandoval (1:23:08)
He has to have some like reactive attachment disorder. There's gotta be something. There's something serious. He was not snuggled enough as a child.

written down the goal list. This guy.

I know for sure they're all giving me trauma though. Even my therapist.

Chelsea Myers (1:23:34)
yeah.

Okay. Well, listen, this has been heavy and this has been a lot. We're going to come back. We're going to talk about this more because this stuff isn't going away. But like, as always, you never know when we're going to show up. Life is happening and we are doing our best and you are doing your best.

Send us messages. Tell us what you want to hear because we want to talk about what you want to hear about. So anyway.

Britt Sandoval (1:24:03)
We're all PocketBesties and we encourage you to be PocketBesties with us too. Send us a message. Let us know how you're feeling. If you need a place to vent, always an open space.

Chelsea Myers (1:24:07)
Yes.

Always. And you are an odd mom, and I am an odd mom, and we are odd moms. And we will catch you on the next one.