Parenting Through a Government Shutdown

The Odd Moms are back and fired up. Chelsea, Britt, Kara, Tianna, and Courtney are unpacking the longest government shutdown in U.S. history and what it really means for families. 

From SNAP and WIC cuts to military families without paychecks and schools struggling to feed kids, this episode breaks down the chaos and the human cost behind the headlines.

It’s part outrage, part heartbreak, and part pure solidarity as the crew dives into who’s being hit hardest, how parents are holding it together, and why the 2025 election results actually give us a little bit of hope. Plus, we talk about small ways to show up for your community, make “Thriftmas” happen, and keep your sanity when the system’s a mess.

Because yes, the world feels dystopian, but we’ve still got each other.

🗝️ Key Takeaways

• The 2025 government shutdown is the longest in U.S. history, leaving families without food, paychecks, and basic resources.
• Programs like SNAP, WIC, Head Start, and Section 8 have been halted or delayed, directly harming millions of women and children.
• The money exists—it’s being deliberately withheld as a political weapon.
• Vulnerable communities, especially women of color, single parents, and families of disabled children, are feeling the heaviest impact.
• Parents are finding creative ways to stay afloat: community fridges, “little free pantries,” thrifting, growing food, and teaching kids empathy through action.
• The “Blue Wave” election results gave hope that change is possible when people show up and speak out.
• Connection, compassion, and community are the antidotes to chaos.

🔊 Soundbites

• “Hungry people can’t fight—and that’s exactly the point.”
• “It’s not a political stunt. It’s a household crisis.”
• “We’re one paycheck away from collapse, and somehow people still think this isn’t their problem.”
• “The money is there. It’s being withheld. That’s the dystopian nightmare part.”
• “They can take away our assistance, but they can’t take away our humanity.”
• “Thriftmas 2025—because joy doesn’t have to come from Amazon.”
• “There’s more of us than there are of them. The election proved it.”

Resources Mentioned:

• Save the Children – How the Shutdown Hurts Kids 
• Feeding America – Find Your Local Food Bank 
• Food Finder – Locate Free Food Resources Near You 
• Watercress by Andrea Wang 
• A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams 
• Little Free Library Map 
• Freedge Community Fridge Locator 

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 Host Introductions
• 2:15 Understanding the Government Shutdown
• 4:44 Personal Experiences with the Shutdown
• 9:20 Impact on Families and Food Insecurity
• 11:40 Emotional Responses to the Crisis
• 13:56 The Politics Behind the Shutdown
• 18:52 Conspiracy Theories and Intentions
• 22:44 Collective Action and Future Outlook
• 25:09 Disproportionate Impact on Vulnerable Communities
• 32:20 Government Shutdown: Effects on Families and Services
• 38:15 Teaching Empathy and Awareness to Children
• 46:40 Political Shifts and Hope for Change
• 49:20 Household Crisis vs. Political Statements
• 55:37 Community Support and Resources
• 59:41 Empowerment Through Connection
• 1:04:01 Outro

Transcript

Chelsea Myers (00:00)
you are back for another episode of Odd Moms On Call. It has been too long since at least the four of us have been in the same space at the same time and we're fired up y'all. We are fired up, ready for action. We got a couple other odd moms that may pop in, pop out and if and when they do we will welcome them and love on them. But for now

You have with you, me, I'm Chelsea. I host Quiet Connection, postpartum mental health. Stay at home, mom of two, non-binary, all the things. That be me. Who else do we have on this call today?

Brit. ⁓

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (00:42)
I'm

Britt. Hi. I always love a chance to talk. I'm Britt. I'm a mom of four. Currently I'm a registered nurse, but also doing my transformational life coaching certification, the host of The Odd Mom Pod, and super excited to hop in today.

Chelsea Myers (00:58)
Okay, Carrie, you wanna go?

Kara Kushnir (01:00)
Yeah, sure. I am Kara, mom of one perinatal and child psychotherapist based in Jersey because we're from Jersey, baby. So relevant this week and ⁓ very excited to be here.

Chelsea Myers (01:09)
YEEEE

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (01:11)
Blue wave, blue wave!

Tianna (01:13)
Okay, it's my turn. I'm Tiana. I'm founder of Love Surf Warm. I help busy professional women with PCOS get pregnant. I am a homeschooling mama of two beautiful miracle rainbow babies.

And I absolutely am so excited to be here as well.

Chelsea Myers (01:30)
Yay! So that's who you have with us right now. We're all excited to be here. We may have Courtney joining us in a little bit. And Courtney is the face behind Beyond PPD. She also has two kiddos and she does a lot of work for PSI, specifically PSI Indiana. And we'll see. You never know who's gonna hop in. So we'll see if somebody else joins us. But today, we're excited.

because well, we're not excited about the first part of what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about the government shutdown. It is as of recording, it is November 7th. The United States government has been shut down since October 1st. This is the longest shutdown in our nation's history. And we're going to dive into it. But we're I think the four of us are super jazzed because we just came off of an election cycle on Tuesday and

Blue wave, baby. America really showed what they want and what needs to be heard and needs to be said. And yeah,

Tianna (02:27)
Thank

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (02:36)
It

was also the first election without daddy Elon's machine. So I think hopefully that's the

Tianna (02:42)
Hmm.

Chelsea Myers (02:43)
Well, yeah, because he and Trump are not besties anymore.

yeah. So, no, no. So we're all holding on to these little glimmers of hope. But we are, we're going to talk about the government shutdown, how it's affecting us, how it's affecting people that we know. And then we're also going to like, we're going to end on some positive. We're going to talk about.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (02:48)
huh. Fascinating. I'm a conspiracy theorist sometimes you guys. No.

Tianna (02:53)
No honor amongst thieves, right?

Chelsea Myers (03:12)
this crazy, crazy historical election cycle that we just went through. But yeah, so like, what is actually happening? Okay, because it's, it's one thing to hear, there's a government shutdown, and there's a whole other thing to sort of understand what that means for families and for the American people. So, I mean, I guess, let's just like roll right into it. Like how

Tianna (03:31)
Uh-huh.

Chelsea Myers (03:39)
Did you first learn about it? And do you guys even fully understand or did you understand what a government shutdown meant?

Kara Kushnir (03:48)
Yeah, that's a great question. I feel like I started hearing about it from a lot of the different agencies and contacts I've had. I work in social services, like it's something that's very much on our radar, even as an outpatient provider because of the systems that our clients are going to be facing. And some of the work I do with PSI, even just thinking about new parents and what they needed access to, I think for me, it started with finding out actually friends and colleagues had been furloughed in their government jobs and then clients.

Tianna (04:01)
you you

Kara Kushnir (04:15)
needing to actually pause or reduce frequency of treatment because of not having a paycheck coming in was a big thing that started and understandably so. And then from there, it really morphed into the food insecurity, you know, because of SNAP and I think also WIC and just, and

to the challenges of accessing nutrition and basic sustenance. And that became the glaring and understandably glaring focus. But I mean, I live in a very,

So like socioeconomically stable, considerably stable area. And we are food banks are empty. Like there's there's community to drives. People are making food banks on their front lawn. And I think that's been a big focus in our area, as well as folks in some of the government positions that they have. And then

Tianna (04:42)
Okay.

Kara Kushnir (04:55)
even just in other parts of our state, like southern wise, even just hearing about military bases and some of the military families who are there. So, you know, they have to still be on active duty and yet they don't have food. So just a very fascinating, you know, storyline to follow. And then

how things have been, we've had picking and choosing of who's gonna re-get access or how and what's gonna happen. So it's very confusing. And even as somebody who's supposed to know these systems, I find myself confused. So I feel like most parents are probably wildly confused about what's actually happening and it changes day to day anyway, it sounds like. So, yeah.

Chelsea Myers (05:26)
I mean, yeah. sorry, Britt. Do you want to go? Yeah.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (05:30)
Yeah, yeah, it's

been crazy. like I personally we I learned very much about government shutdowns in the last Trump era because we were active duty military last time and so, you know, we were a hundred percent like impacted this time. Now my husband was kicked out of the military in August and so like and we're divorced. So I'm completely on my own.

Tianna (05:50)
you

Okay.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (05:57)
And in

one way, it's been really nice because I've actually finally been stable enough to where like, I am very lucky in this part of my life to be able to like provide without government assistance, even as a single mom. It's hard. And if I didn't have a nursing degree in the ability to work night shift at the hospital, like I would be also struggling. But I think last time was.

was a big one where we really felt it a lot more personally. And now this time it's hard because I'm sitting here watching all of these military families that I know from all over the world who are now kind of waiting. They, from my understanding, most of the military families are still getting paid at this point. They've found like special funding for military paychecks. But now we're seeing it just big in my community.

I live in a decent ish area part of town, I work in one of the most economically challenged areas of Oklahoma City and. The we have already been having unhoused complications with our terrible governor, like breaking down encampments and like not allowing we used to have this big large encampment where they like took up this huge field and it just become like a tent.

encampment that was really close and walking distance to all the homeless shelters. They went and they raided it completely tore the whole thing down, kicked everybody out of it. And like it was just like some plot of land. Like it wasn't hurting anybody. It was never in the way. was allowing people to be close and have like a sheltered area. So we're just seeing big in the community at the hospital. We're seeing a huge increase in people coming in for

small things and like asking for food while they're there. I've been packing bags of patient belonging bags with crackers and peanut butter and whatever I can for families when they come in and kids when they come in because they don't know where else to go. And it's been terrible to kind of watch on that side of it.

Chelsea Myers (07:56)
I mean, I was

Tianna (07:56)
Cool.

Chelsea Myers (07:56)
gonna say, like, going back to the previous government shutdown under the first Trump administration, that...

what I did, I still didn't have a full understanding of what it was at the time. Like I was like, okay, so it's not in session and like, they're just not voting on anything. But at the time, at that time, my stepfather was still in the military. And so he was not working. And so I kind of had like an idea about it through that. This time around, because I'm so much in the like maternal mental health and the just like the maternal realm.

Tianna (08:09)
Good night. Okay.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Chelsea Myers (08:34)
I learned about it because of Snap and WIC. And so like I was seeing everywhere like this is

happening, this is coming, this is coming. And I was like, oh shit. And I was looking into it more and looking about I'm like, there was never a point where I was like, okay, this isn't gonna happen. I knew it was gonna happen. That's just the way this administration works.

but I was immediately like, okay, how can I facilitate, spreading information about how and where to get food? How can I donate to areas, where there is food insecurity? And, and we are a family that is, I mean, I'm disabled and can't work. And I, I, receive social security disability benefits and my husband is the sole, like he provides for the family. So.

Tianna (09:01)
⁓ huh.

Chelsea Myers (09:24)
We understand food insecurity and I can't just go out and donate hundreds of dollars, but what I can do and what I am seeing popping up in Vermont at least is we love a good little free library. Every neighborhood I feel like in this state has a little free library and they're turning into little free pantries. And that is.

Tianna (09:42)
Yes. I love.

Chelsea Myers (09:48)
so beautiful. So not only are their books because that's still important, but they are also lining their shelves with soups. And we're gonna get into it a little bit later about like, are good things to donate? And what are things that aren't helpful to donate? Because things that we assume are helpful, sometimes just aren't like mac and cheese is great unless you don't have milk. But Yeah.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (10:10)
or a heat source.

Tianna (10:12)
you

Chelsea Myers (10:12)
So

yeah, so I still will admit that I don't 100 % understand a government shutdown, especially when it gets into and we'll get into like non essential versus essential stuff. Like I don't get it. But I learned about it beforehand, primarily because of WIC and snap. How about you, Tiana?

Tianna (10:33)
want to say that I have all of my life been a, for the most part, like a recipient. was born, know, my mom was really young and we always relied on the system for a very long time. So I am just, if I'm honest, I've been a little bit distraught by some of the opinions of people that I respected and their opinion about mothers and children not being afforded the

basic necessities of life. And it's really left me like, I'm just a very empathetic, it just has left my husband is like, you just have a hard time believing that those truly are how those people have always been. And they just feel safe enough to express their views now. Because I am just like, how is this not an issue where the whole world is revolting when children and mothers are not getting their basic necessities?

Like I'm just, I'm genuinely hurt. It's something that sometimes I feel like even hard to get out of bed because I'm just like, how have we reached such a place where this is even our reality? When I was in the seventh grade, I won an award from the district attorney from doing a food drive because of food insecurity in my neighborhood. I have always, it's the reason why I'm a philanthropist is because I have been on the other side. I remember we would wait hours in line for our wits.

like it used to be like a book back in the day. And then you have to go to another line to get a Metro card to go home. I used be so tired and so hungry. My mom's like, we need the Metro card now, honey. And so I'm really heartbroken for the state of where we are, but more importantly, the privilege that I've seen in some of the people closest to me for them not to realize that we are all no more than one to two paycheck away from housing instability. And I'm just like,

I'm just really broken and I don't really have the words. I really haven't, like I don't have the words because I'm just so shocked that we're even here. I'm most you know. I learned about the shutdown because both my kids have disabilities. They're both on a lot these they don't have a big business. So when these things happen, they automatically shut down to protect themselves. They can't continue to services and never know.

So I found out very quickly when a lot of my children's therapists were like, we're going to shut down until we know that we can get funding. And so it's just really sad because my children, I'm a homeschooling mama, I'm prepared for this, but I'm worried about the parents who aren't. The parents who have children who are more, who have greater needs and who are now not only with food insecurity, but they're finding themselves without And I don't even have the words.

Chelsea Myers (13:13)
I mean, I don't, I don't think there are words. I think what is happening is so disgraceful and so disgusting. Like those words don't even sum it up. and like, I'm not following our, our outline here, but like, let's be totally clear, especially since we're talking right now about like Snap and WIC. The funding is there. The money is there.

There is backup money there. It has already been paid into from our taxes. Courts have ordered Trump to cut the shit and reinstate these benefits and he is refusing to do so. So anyone listening who is like, well, okay, maybe the money is not there or no, it is. It's there. This is deliberate withholding and it's a tactic. It's a tactic that

Tianna (13:42)
Yeah.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (13:59)
Yep.

And it's never

been used before. This is the first time that this tactic has really been used before in this capacity. Like even in previous shutdowns, SNAP funding has never been something that has been caught, that has been deemed as something that has been essential and has been funded. And so the fact that the money is there and that we are now seeing this play out in real time, also while...

Tianna (14:25)
Yeah.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (14:29)
the whole while they're building a golden ballroom. It's like the most dystopian nightmare bullshit I've ever seen. I'm like, what in the fuck is that? This is like straight out of the Hunger Games, you guys. This is straight up out of the Hunger Games. It's

Tianna (14:32)
Yes.

Chelsea Myers (14:39)
I was just gonna say Hunger Games. Well, and the Halloween thing that they threw was The Great Gatsby. And it's like, okay, did you read the book? Did you read The Great Gatsby?

Kara Kushnir (14:39)
Yes.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (14:47)
my god, the great gats people.

Kara Kushnir (14:47)
know.

Courtney Ginder (14:48)
party. Yeah.

No.

No, would know that the symbolism behind that says the former English major. Yay.

Chelsea Myers (14:57)
Hey, Courtney's here, you guys. Courtney's here.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (15:00)
Hey,

Chelsea Myers (15:02)
So Courtney, we're just talking about if we sort of understood what a government shutdown was before this and how we found out about it. a lot of us, like Kara knew about it because of a lot of her clients and the outreach and the things that she does.

Courtney Ginder (15:07)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Chelsea Myers (15:15)
A lot of us found out about it because of Snap and WIC and services like that. What about you? How did you sort of come to find out about this?

Courtney Ginder (15:18)
Mm-hmm.

I knew about it. One of my friends, her husband is in the army. And so he, I mean, he hasn't been paid in a couple of weeks and they have kids and you know, they have to go without him getting paid, but he still has to go to work. He still has to report to work. You know, like it's just, it's, I'm so He has, he has no concept of personal space and he's currently here. Come here. Come here.

Chelsea Myers (15:40)
I love your cat's commentary, by the Your cat is fired up as well.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (15:43)
very passionate.

Tianna (15:46)
She's like, yeah.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (15:48)
One passionate pussy. We love it.

Chelsea Myers (15:50)
He is, yes, he's a compassionate pussy. ⁓ compassionate too, yes.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (15:54)
Compassionate pussy, but compassionate as well, honestly.

Courtney Ginder (15:57)
He's...

God love him. There's no one else home but me, so he is just dying for attention. So... Yes.

Chelsea Myers (16:02)
That's okay. He can be an honorary, odd mom today.

Tianna (16:05)
mascot yeah

Chelsea Myers (16:06)
Okay, well, just for time's sake, because listen, y'all, we're on a crunch today. But so yeah, we talked about how we found out about it. And it's one thing to hear numbers like, like Courtney was just saying, like 900,000 furloughed employees, like, that's insane. It's another thing, like you said, to really dig into it and realize that this means families are not being paid. This means families cannot buy their groceries or pay their mortgage. so

Courtney Ginder (16:20)
Mm-hmm.

Kara Kushnir (16:23)
Mm-hmm.

Chelsea Myers (16:34)
Yeah, that was a perfect segue, Courtney. Like, do you guys know or are you specifically being impacted by the current government shutdown?

Kara Kushnir (16:46)
Yeah, have my two of my best friends, actually, I was just checking on them. They have a baby who is about almost six months old. And my friend took maternity leave from her job and now her husband is on paternity leave. He has a government job and he has been furloughed and he's supposed to return to work in a week or two. And he said, I don't know if I'll I probably won't be returning to work. And I really hope we're going to be able to put food on the table and feed our baby and and put him and his wife are both public service employees. So it's just

Tianna (16:49)
Yeah.

Okay. Okay.

Kara Kushnir (17:14)
And it goes back to actually something you said earlier, Chelsea, about essential versus non-essential and how is that decided? And I think that that's, I understand from a pragmatic standpoint and trying to understand what is truly essential to life and safety, which is the definition. But I think that the problem is that you can't send the message that something is essential and say that, we need to only fund what is essential when you're not funding food. How is that not essential? And I don't understand that.

and how you're not funding people's livelihoods because you're saying that they are not essential by picking and choosing while simultaneously saying, we will eat cake at a Gatsby ball and you will go hungry. It doesn't compute. And it's personally so frustrating to me because these people that I'm friends with are the most giving, kind people who are constantly giving back. But again, and they have no control. So it's incredibly frustrating to watch.

Tianna (18:08)
I have a question and it's more it's more like for Britt but it's for everyone else is I only direct it to Britt because she says she's like the conspiracy theorist ⁓ But I'm like, do we not feel like this is intentional?

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (18:15)
Okay.

Tianna (18:19)
Like I'm just like, is he not looking for a reaction so that he can put in like this military law? Like this, like I'm like, because at this point it just like my neuro spicy, right? My pattern recognition. I'm like, you know that the Kings and Queens, when the people in the poor hungry, they will revolt. And this is the reason why it's never happened. Cause we know like, so I'm like, do we not know what's going to happen here? Are we like, are we like, I feel like it's, you know,

Chelsea Myers (18:46)
We'll turn.

They're inciting chaos. This is another thing that my husband and I were talking about last night. The big upset and we'll talk about this too for the Trump administration with the whole blue wave is now they're saying like Trump's not even going to see for years and they're going to try to take him out in two years. And so they're shitting themselves right now a little bit and they're really pissed. But what the Trump administration is doing is they are trying to

our entire culture as American people. So they are trying to get the American people used to having a military presence in cities. They are, again, trying to make the most vulnerable of us even more vulnerable so that we will have, in their opinion, no other choice than to sort of like go to them. Hungry people can't fight. Yes.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (19:33)
Hungry people can't fight.

Tianna (19:37)
Yes. And

I even.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (19:39)
I mean, that's why

even I have conspiracy theories all the way back to skinny culture. They keep people thin because then you are weak, you are controllable, you are not able to go longer times without food because you don't have the reserves of the room. I think it's all 100 % intentional. This is entirely, yeah, it's all entirely intentional.

Tianna (20:02)
can scream. I am with you. Like when Miley

Cyrus came out like and all of these celebrities came out with no buccal fat like the fat from their face was literally missing and we went into this from the BBL to this ozempic trend. I was like, are we teaching people like are we going to be like starving soon in my mind just like I was like, because why are we making this thinness this unreachable the norm?

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (20:17)
Mm-hmm.

Tianna (20:30)
Britt, I love it, Britt, yes.

Chelsea Myers (20:34)
Let's take it a step further. We just saw this yesterday. So they're, again, they're cutting snap. So that's 42 million Americans, by the way, who are losing, who have lost benefits at this point. And that's more than 6 million mothers and children who rely on that. And then they're holding, on WIC, yes. And then they are holding conferences about lowering costs on Ozempic.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (20:51)
and that's on WIC too.

Chelsea Myers (21:00)
and we go V and

Kara Kushnir (21:02)
Mm-hmm.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (21:02)
Oh

my gosh, you guys, I just also, did you know that the whole thing on Ozampic, that they're doing this $250 thing actually makes them like 11 billion more money than not changing how it is?

Kara Kushnir (21:16)
Yeah, it makes them more money

than if it's the way it's structured with the insurance companies. So and OK, I'm going to add another. Well, this is a really conspiracy theory. It's fact. But I don't know where this was. But I did see this video the other day and it made complete sense to me to your point of I feel like there is an attempt to try to create an excuse for control because they know that if there is a switch in government control that they're going to jail. And that is what Steve Bannon literally said at a I don't know if he was at what he was at some sort of event, but he.

Tianna (21:24)
Thank you.

Kara Kushnir (21:44)
He literally articulated if we do not take back control or maintain control in the midterms, many of us are going to jail. And I do not understand how that is not not only validation that these conspiracy theories are not truth in many ways, you know, or to your point, Tiana pattern recognition in action, but they're literally saying they're doing stuff that's illegal. How are like how can people continue to sit there and say,

Tianna (22:02)
Yeah.

Kara Kushnir (22:09)
It's one side's fault. like beyond political side, it's just so maddening that as a country, people cannot see through the theater to kind of say, this is people's lives and how are we

Tianna (22:12)
Okay.

Kara Kushnir (22:21)
not fixing this and like just continuing down. And a lot of it is because we're stuck. And so, and I know that that's a big part of it of like how we do this, mechanisms, like collectively shifting. And I actually do think that the most recent elections did show that there is a collective shift that we can finally acknowledge because, you know.

Tianna (22:21)
Thank you.

Courtney Ginder (22:37)
Thanks.

Kara Kushnir (22:38)
It was ideally an evidence of a free and fair election speaks the truth of the people.

Tianna (22:43)
Yes.

Courtney Ginder (22:44)
Mm-hmm.

Chelsea Myers (22:45)
100%.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (22:45)
Yeah, I think a lot of this too, honestly,

when you're talking about conspiracy theorists, think we know that when people are hungry, crime increases because people commit crime to do that. We have lost a large portion of force, in field-type jobs, heavy work, construction, those kinds of things.

Courtney Ginder (22:54)
Yes.

Tianna (22:55)
Yes. ⁓ huh.

Courtney Ginder (22:57)
Yes.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (23:14)
And so seeing, you know, what we're trying to do is they're increasing the things that they can put you in jail for. They can put you in jail for being poor now. They can put you in jail for being unhoused. They can put you in jail for anything, an immigrant or anything. then the only, I mean, slave labor is still a thing in the United States under prisoner type work and slavery. And so,

Tianna (23:36)
⁓ huh.

huh. huh. ⁓ huh.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (23:38)
What I was seeing is they're increasing things that you can be put in jail for. They want to increase prison populations so that we have a free labor force to take over the

jobs of everybody that has lost their jobs, the hardworking people in the country who have been carrying our nation on their freaking backs. And it's all linked to making people hungry on purpose.

Courtney Ginder (24:02)
you.

Chelsea Myers (24:03)
There are a couple of distinctions that I want to make too. Like I'm fact dropping. I'm channeling my inner Jess right now. ⁓ So because this is also a perfect segue into the whole access and stability and the inequities within it.

Tianna (24:06)
Thank

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (24:09)
I love it.

Chelsea Myers (24:19)
when we're talking about like who this is affecting and, like you said, like a more, more things that you can be arrested for, they are making these little changes that have big impacts. So like literally as of like yesterday with our passports now, if, your passport does not match your assigned sex at birth, it's invalid. so that targets the trans community.

I actually have to go back and look at my passport because I'm not sure. I know in Vermont we could list X if we wanted to and I just can't, it was a while ago so I don't remember. ⁓ But they're arresting people for petty crimes and yes, the prison system is modern day slavery. ⁓ That's not what I wanted to say at all. But this is a good segue into the inequities in this whole thing. So.

Tianna (24:52)
Yeah.

Chelsea Myers (25:08)
Like most crises, this is not hitting everybody equally. ⁓ So some families

Tianna (25:13)
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Chelsea Myers (25:15)
are completely stretched to the breaking point, and others really don't notice a change. And that's not unfair. That's systemic. That's intentional. It's intentional. So let's talk about this. What kind of families

Tianna (25:18)
Bye.

Courtney Ginder (25:26)
It's built in. That's the way it's meant to be. Yes.

Tianna (25:27)
Yes.

Chelsea Myers (25:35)
are being hit the hardest in your areas.

Anybody.

Tianna (25:38)
Yeah, I

feel like with the whole employment, like the we've seen that it's disproportionately affecting women of color. And so that's already an issue. I feel like this whole thing is meant to affect women and children the most, but I feel like we're seeing people of color being affected the most, especially in

Courtney Ginder (25:47)
Yes.

Tianna (26:01)
like the color community because women are the primary caregivers, right? We went from like the 1970s, like two out of every eight out of every 10 homes were two parent households. So like two out of every 10 nowadays. So I really feel like that's who's suffering on top of that. It's on top of this already vulnerable population of women of color, women of color with disabled children. I feel like they are the most vulnerable because they are.

facing, they're getting the systematic oppression from so many different ways, and they are being the most And I feel like the most challenge with the least representation, if I can be like honest.

Kara Kushnir (26:39)
Yeah, I totally agree. think it's I absolutely think that women of color and single moms and children and these populations and certainly people with disabilities. And I also think the irony too is that we also know that there is such a I want it to sort of like contrast with that. There is such stigma of this idea of like the welfare queen and like how it is women of color. But we know that disproportionately individuals

on SNAP and using government assistance are actually white men. So we should probably name that to also say that ironically, a lot of the states that also supported the administration making these cuts are also individuals who probably needed these services and did not realize or willfully and ignorantly chose to vote against their interests. And so that is really important to not underscore because it's certainly affecting people the most who really deserve and need the support, who have been disenfranchised, who have been systemically oppressed and need the lift up.

Courtney Ginder (27:05)
Mm-hmm.

Tianna (27:16)
No. Thank

Kara Kushnir (27:30)
And to that same point, it's also affecting people who claim that they are not mooching off the government and they're not a welfare queen or whatever the rhetoric is that's used when disproportionately we know that it is white men who are utilizing a lot of the services and are now gonna lose access to benefits.

Tianna (27:39)
Okay.

Courtney Ginder (27:46)
And also like everyone says like, you know, they can just get a job. And I'm like, bro, you know, they have jobs. They have multiple jobs. Our minimum wage is still $7.25,

which is the same as it was when in 2008, when I got my first job at a grocery store. Like that is bonkers. They already have jobs. You know, our wages are not enough to make, to feed a family, to feed just a single person.

Tianna (28:13)
And to put things into perspective here in South Florida or most of LPNs for home health start off at $16 an hour Okay, so when it comes to my girl being on hospice

and Medicaid paying for her hospice. We've seen a decline. The nurse, they're just, can't. Before they used to do it for the love of their job. They love my girl, Bree, she's funny. Now they literally have to choose between doing the thing they love the most or feeding themselves at $16 an hour for hospice. And it's just, it's, I just don't know where we're

Chelsea Myers (28:48)
Okay, I don't think this is the thing. This is gonna haunt me this whole episode, but I do remember one thing that I wanted to say and I can't remember either if it was something that Jess posted or if it was something that V from Under the Desk News posted and there was a comment on it and it was so delusional that I...

Like I usually stay out of the comment section, because that's just a really good place to make me mad. But it was so delusional. The person, and I'm paraphrasing, said something like, actually, you're wrong. The only people whose benefits are being cut are the people who are misusing the system or are here illegally. And I was like, A, people who are undocumented don't have access to these services.

Tianna (29:13)
you

you

Thank

Chelsea Myers (29:33)
Period end of sentence. That's not a thing. You

are delusional. You are also delusional because B, the vast majority and I don't have the stat in front of me, but I know it's my notes somewhere. The vast majority of families that are utilizing services like WIC and SNAP are working families. Families that have one or more jobs per adult in the household and still cannot afford I ca-

Tianna (29:53)
Yeah. So.

Chelsea Myers (30:02)
I understand how an individual could think, no, no, no, no, they're going through these millions of people and saying, this person's abusing the system, we're gonna take theirs away. This person's abusing the system, we're gonna take... Absolutely not, no. They cut the tap. They shut it off to everyone. And

it's a system that's critical. And it is a system that is not being abused in any way, or form.

Courtney Ginder (30:29)
They cut

it off and have been told by two different judges to turn it back on and they said no. What the fuck?

Tianna (30:32)
Okay.

Chelsea Myers (30:38)
on, I'm just looking at our notes.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (30:41)
I was saying the other thing, the other place I've been seeing it big impacted as a because I'm a I'm an adoptive mom, but a prior foster mom is

Tianna (30:42)
ahead. ⁓

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (30:49)
we're seeing it a lot. I'm seeing in a lot of my foster parent groups, a lot of foster parents who are taking on, you know, sibling sets or things like that are relying on snap and WIC and things like that, too. And it's just a it's insane that, you know, the same Republicans who are like

so posted up about making sure that these babies are being born and limiting access to reproductive health care and all of that. And then, you you have the systemic wide oppression of already taking kids away from their families because we also know that systemically foster, you know, CPS, all of that, they are overtaking of children of color, families that taking kids just for

Tianna (31:19)
Huh.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (31:39)
families being poor and there is such an abusive system systemically from that port. But now you have these foster parents, the people who are stepping in, who are trying to help take care of this kids that are in the system that do need the most support. And you're also seeing cuts along them being able to now care for these children without the increased costs that come with having more children in your home. We're seeing loss of access to therapies.

and things like that as well. And so it's just, think when we're talking about access and when you're seeing families that are feeling the blow, it's just over and over our most vulnerable families and our most vulnerable populations. And it's just so fucked up, you guys.

Tianna (32:09)
Thank you.

Chelsea Myers (32:27)
It's let's hit it with, let's hit it with like, we've talked a lot about SNAP, we've talked a lot about WIC, we've talked a lot about childcare. I'm gonna hit you with all of the things that are affected by a government shutdown, specifically those that will impact families. So yeah, we're talking about nutrition and family assistance. programs like WIC and SNAP and school meals and Head Start, housing instability, we touched on that a little bit.

Section 8 payments being delayed, risking eviction for thousands of low-income renters. USDA, rural housing loans and grants are frozen. Healthcare access, we talked about that a little bit. Community health centers are reliant on federal grants and they're not getting that money or they're having layoffs. FDA and CDC, there's reduced inspections. So there's way more, like we just had a Listeria.

outbreak from peaches ⁓ through

Courtney Ginder (33:23)
There's the ongoing

Listeria outbreak from pasta, those ready to eat pasta meals that are all over and it's still going. Like they keep finding more of it.

Chelsea Myers (33:28)
Yes!

Kara Kushnir (33:30)
Yep.

Chelsea Myers (33:32)
Yeah, ⁓ it's insane. I'm just I'm gonna hit these real quick. There, I'm almost done. Like Tiana said, education and childcare. So federal preschool and childcare programs, Head Start, Early Head Start, things like that. They, they're, they're halted, like 10,000 kids across the country sent home like, sorry, we can't do this. And then delays in processing. ⁓

Tianna (33:34)
And.

you

Chelsea Myers (33:57)
FAFSA and Pell grants and things like that. And just to toss this in here, Trump is now trying to take away loan forgiveness from public servants who do not align with his ideals. Also, so the emotional toll that it's taking on families, 60 % of federal workers live paycheck to paycheck. Shutdowns spike stress, depression, anxiety, and parents are talking about their kids.

reporting depression and anxiety and fear around food in their home. ⁓ So there's so much more, like those are the actual things that are being hit by this government shutdown, which sort of leads us into our next area. Like, what does this mean for families? What does it mean to parent through instability, to parent through fear, to parent through

No food!

I don't have an answer.

Tianna (34:54)
can start, I am using this as ⁓ I'm using this as an opportunity flip the narrative, right? So what we are doing, we have learned, we have bought seeds, we're planting our own fruits and have doubled down to learning sewing and how to make our own laundry And we're just using this opportunity to become more self reliant, right? Like what are the things that

I feel like it only took us like maybe like a hundred years to like lose like everything that we have. So like, what does it look like bringing that back in? What does a little bit less reliance, right? ⁓ Can I can food with my kids? Can I preserve the scraps of the food? So we're really just leaning into it, right? Because you can, I can't change the circumstances, but I can change how we respond to it. I can make my kids feel empowered throughout all of this. And there's really the spin we're taking on it.

No food is a problem. Don't worry. We will always want it to plan anyway. Right? And so we're just trying to make it as positive as we can make it. And I'm trying to teach my kids how to make lemonade out of lemons.

Kara Kushnir (36:04)
Yeah. I feel like for me, my son is too little to have an in-depth conversation. But it's funny, I've become more aware. And I think something that I'm noticing as somebody who works a lot with parents is how to just the validation and acknowledgement that even if you are not directly affected by this, there is a systemic impact and a collective experience of noticing scarcity, of noticing how somebody mentioned earlier in this, we're all like one paycheck away.

one medical issue, one experience away from not doing well. My husband is a teacher and he said to me the other day, and this has been all over social media, he's like, yeah, no, we're all, and he's a math and physics guy, he says, yeah, no, we're all much closer to being homeless than to ever being remotely close to any of the wealth that the people who are making the decisions and trying to decide what happens to us are.

You know, as somebody who has some stability right now in my life, I actually just was able to buy a home and like when we moved into a home and like we and I am so hyper aware of how much money we're spending on things and what's happening. And I've taken a step back and noticing that to say this is because I recognize all of the instability and it is looming over every decision I make as somebody who is still not even at this point in time, thankfully, in need of any of the services that have been cut. But certainly it's

I think it's something to honor and to acknowledge in parents that if you're feeling that way, if you're checking the prices in the grocery store far more vigilantly, if you're cutting things, if your kids are noticing that their friends are getting free and reduced breakfast and lunch now and they're having conversations about to honor how dysregulated our nervous systems are, how overwhelming this is, that it's not normal. And to also talk about to what you are acknowledging, Tiana, what can we do, whether in our own homes or in our communities to make difference within our own bandwidth and also rest.

and then think about where we can move forward because it is so exhausting and that is the point is to exhaust. So we do not feed into that. And I think that is something that I'm really trying to focus on too, even in just my own life of taking that pause and acknowledging how real the feeling is, but not feeding it further and deciding where I can put, know, passion to power and make change within my own community. And then also take step back when I need to pause, but it's, it is hard no matter whether you need it or not.

It's exceptionally hard if you need it. And to have the conversations with our kids of it's not somebody's fault and it's not something that they should feel bad about, that they need support is a huge thing that we can do to help demystify who's receiving these services and benefits and the validity of them and our kids.

Tianna (38:29)
Okay.

Okay.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (38:34)
We're doing a lot of talking with the kids here. My kids, we're, my kids are even seeing it as far as like behavior issues now, like that are increasing in the classrooms. Because, and I'm explaining to my kids, kids are going more hungry. Like kids are gonna be, you're more likely to not be able to tolerate your emotions if you're not fed well. Kids are gonna be more mean. People are going to be hurting in a lot different way.

And so my big thing is we've been talking about being aware of other people's circumstances and situations. And like I said, I'm in a very privileged position even as a single parent to have a degree that has allowed me to like pay well so that we're not being impacted by this personally. But when with my children, we're in a heavily impacted area. And so it's just conversations that like when they're noticing these little things that it's reminding

and teaching them the empathy of understanding that we don't understand everyone's experience and people are really, really hurting and how can we do the best that we can with what we can. And so like the other day we were in the McDonald's drive through and a mom came up and asked if she could buy, or if I had a couple dollars. And so we ended up buying them a meal.

because I was like, we're gonna buy you 40 chicken nuggets and whatever else because she had three kids and I'm like, I could not imagine not being able to feed my kids dinner right now like the the scare scariness of that and I gave her like 10 bucks cash to go into the Dollar Tree to buy essentials and that's that's going to be that's the biggest thing as far as my parenting I think that has been impacted is it's it's really just teaching my children and ensuring that we are aware of that because I grew up as

like very similar to Tiana, I had a single mom, were growing up, we grew up on all of those systems. I grew up with that understanding of like, we have $5 for dinner, we're walking into the dollar store, how are we putting together a meal for $5 for the three of us, you know? And like my children don't have that because of our experiences, but ensuring that my children are aware of the experience that.

Tianna (40:30)
Yeah.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (40:46)
other people are living in even though we're living in our privilege currently.

Chelsea Myers (40:50)
100%. 100%. So we, my family in particular, we don't, we're not seeing the impacts as drastically as a lot of families, but, Vermont is a really, isn't a great litmus test for the rest of the country because we tend to allocate our state funding.

into these social programs and we prioritize these social programs. But my kids are on Medicaid as well. They have Dr. Dinosaur through the state and schools are, mean, Vermont was, there were millions of dollars withheld this school year for special education funding. And I know that as a former special educator and going into this school year, my daughter just got.

her ASD diagnosis, so now she has, she is an odd-y-HD-er, just like her daddy. And me making the decision to not put pressure on the school because she is, she's what they call high functioning. And instead getting services through our local hospital, our local children's child development center, because they're getting their funding directly from the state. So it's a longer wait list.

And the services are going to be on our time, but I am making the decision to not put pressure on my child's school because I know they're already strapped. And I know that there are other kids that need it so desperately. And it's not that my daughter doesn't need those services, but she's going to be okay. Like she's going to be okay. And we're going to get her the services outside of school. And we haven't talked in depth about the government shutdown. Cause again, like my oldest

will hyperfixate on it and my youngest is three, she won't understand it. But what we're doing as a family, at least on my husband's side of the family, and I'm actually really excited about it, is this year we're doing a thriftmas. So we are either thrifting or hand making. And if we can't do that, if we really find something that we really, really like, it has to be from a local small business.

We are keeping our money out of corporate America. We are intentionally reducing waste and yeah, so we're doing thriftmas and I'm really excited about it I'm excited to involve the kids in it. I think it's gonna be really fun for them to like come to Goodwill with me or to come to like Once Upon a Child and like pick things out. I don't know. It brings me a little bit of joy, but like that's how our family is kind of being impacted and or taking action.

in small ways. How about you Courtney?

Courtney Ginder (43:23)
Yeah, my kids are little, my oldest is five, she's in kindergarten and my youngest is two and a half. So kind of similar to you, Chelsea and Kara, where they don't really understand what's going on. But I mean, we are just, and we live in a very privileged area. live in the suburbs. You know, we have good paying jobs kind of like you, Britt, where we, we have good degrees and we have good jobs that are well paying. But I mean, we're still tightening things up as well. Like I love taking my daughter to once upon a child because I mean, honestly, like

kids go through clothes so fast, like why do I need to buy them new? And I mean, I was just looking at Target and kids shoes are $40. Kids shoes, $40 at Target. What in the world? She's gonna wear them for a season and then now grow them. That's bonkers. So we've just been tightening up and trying to be just more cognizant of what we're spending our money on and where it's going and that sort of thing and trying to just, you know, if our kids are affected or seeing things that are affected.

their friends are being affected by this, like teaching them empathy and to have empathy for those situations and, you know, those terrible things. And I completely lost my train of thought there at the end. just went away entirely. No, it's not just you. It's just like, it just gone.

Chelsea Myers (44:30)
It's not just me. It's not just me.

Tianna (44:32)
Okay.

Chelsea Myers (44:35)
Yeah,

I always say all the tabs in the browser just close. I also want to make sure that I highlight, and I'm sure that a lot of you guys can relate to this, but, well, let me say, I hope you guys can relate to this. I truly do. The support.

that I am receiving, whether it be through you guys, like emotional support and like cheerleading on the sidelines, or whether it be family and friends who are just like stepping up and there people have been doing things for me and helping me or offering help to me and and my friends in ways that I never dreamed possible.

And that's beautiful. So out of something really, really ugly and really, really disgusting and horrible, people are, people are showing me humanity in its purest form. There are opportunities that my family has had amidst all of this that would be completely impossible without the support of certain people in our lives. And I, and I think that's happening. I think that's what the true America.

Tianna (45:14)
Hello.

Yes. Yes.

Courtney Ginder (45:23)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Chelsea Myers (45:41)
is and Kara I did see your message

but yeah and we'll let you go like gracefully and everything but yeah I just I really think at the root of it and I think that this election cycle really highlighted that so before we get to our hot take and then our resources for you guys I do

And before Kara has to leave, Kara, want you to shout from the top of your lungs, New Jersey, baby, and then we can get into the rest. like, yes.

Kara Kushnir (46:13)
Yes, we're from New

Jersey, baby. We love Jersey. I am so proud to be from New Jersey, where we pump our fists and not our gas and we exercise our right. But yeah, but I really am. It is so nice. I cried my eyes out ⁓ and was up.

Chelsea Myers (46:23)
Yessss!

Kara Kushnir (46:31)
very late, thinking I was going, I thought I was going to be up very late checking that. And I was texting my sister the whole time, who's going through the infertility process and the wave of relief that came over her of being able to know, know that she can access the care that she's going to need because of the changes was really insane for me and critical. I felt a safety for my patients and I felt a hope that I've needed for a very long time. And I think very many people did it in our country, 100%.

Courtney Ginder (46:53)
Yes.

Chelsea Myers (46:55)
100 % yeah so

Tianna (46:57)
So,

Chelsea Myers (46:58)
on November 4th 2025 y'all the elections the Democratic Party achieved insane wins like wins that were so unprecedented and people that came that rose from the bottom to the top it

Courtney Ginder (47:07)
Mm-hmm.

Chelsea Myers (47:16)
the blue wave, we're gonna keep saying the blue wave, the blue wave, like it was insane across the whole country, New Jersey and several other states. Democrats are now holding key seats. And this really is a signal of what the American people really want. yeah.

Tianna (47:18)
Yes.

Courtney Ginder (47:30)
Mm-hmm.

that jumped out at me

and gives me hope is living in Indiana in a red state. Mississippi broke the Republican supermajority. Mississippi, deep red Mississippi. If Mississippi can do it, Indiana can do it. And that is why they are trying to redistrict. I'm dealing with this in Indiana where they're calling for special, our governor just called a special session to redistrict. And I have been calling my representatives and my senator like,

Tianna (47:47)
Yeah. Yes.

Chelsea Myers (47:56)
Yeah.

Courtney Ginder (47:59)
every day and emailing them being like, we don't want this. Like they're talking about carving Indianapolis up into three separate districts because Indianapolis is always blue. Exactly. And so like if Mississippi is doing it, like there is hope everywhere.

Chelsea Myers (48:09)
Because they don't want to lose control!

If Mississippi is doing it, Virginia, was it Virginia that just elected its first female? What was it? Was it Virginia? Yeah, ever.

Courtney Ginder (48:23)
First female governor, yes. And every single county

Tianna (48:26)
huh.

Courtney Ginder (48:26)
of Virginia went blue. Every, or not went blue, but trended blue. Every single one.

Chelsea Myers (48:31)
and is supposed to be

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (48:33)
Yeah, and think they flipped like six seats that were primarily Republican for the last like 40 years that they

Chelsea Myers (48:39)
Yes. This is supposed to be a really good litmus test for the 2026 midterms. And that again is why the Trump administration is currently

shitting themselves ⁓ and why we are feeling really excited.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (48:56)
Is anybody like super like, I wanna run for local government now.

Chelsea Myers (49:00)
No, because I think I'd lose my fucking mind, but you should though Brett you should

Courtney Ginder (49:01)
Absolutely not. not. My skin is not

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (49:04)
Bye!

Courtney Ginder (49:08)
thick enough to do local.

Tianna (49:10)
I was

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (49:10)
like, as

I've fostered in this situation, I was a military spouse. Maybe I should, guys.

Chelsea Myers (49:16)
I think you should! This is- this announcing

Tianna (49:18)
I think you should.

Courtney Ginder (49:18)
Do it.

Chelsea Myers (49:21)
their candidacy for whatever office they choose. my god, yes! No, if I take on one more thing, I'm gonna, like, literally become ashes on the floor.

Tianna (49:33)
I'm trying to

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (49:34)
Valid.

Chelsea Myers (49:35)
Okay, all right. We don't have Lindsay here with us to do our hot takes from hot moms. So you're just gonna have to, we're gonna have to roll with it. I had kind of asked her to pick one, but we're just, we're gonna do it. So we, we, before we give you our resources for this episode, and we've got a lot of them, which is great. It makes me so happy. We're gonna, we're gonna tackle a hot take and I'm just off the cuff here. Gonna pick one.

⁓ the middle one, that was the one I was looking at, Brit. Okay.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (50:03)
I say the middle one. That's my favorite.

Tianna (50:05)
Yeah.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (50:07)
God, I'm screwing up the whole note. Sorry guys. I was clicking

Chelsea Myers (50:09)
do mean? What did I'm old school.

I'm old school. I printed it. Okay, so yeah, we'll pick them in one. Okay, shutting down services isn't a political statement. It's a household crisis. And who pays the price? Families. How do we feel about that?

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (50:25)
Yep.

100%.

Chelsea Myers (50:28)
I mean, yeah, that's pretty much like everything we've said.

Courtney Ginder (50:29)
Yeah. Yeah.

Chelsea Myers (50:31)
It's not a political state.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (50:31)
Yeah, I mean.

Chelsea Myers (50:33)
Well, okay, okay, okay, okay. Let's say this. They said they shut down the gov. First of all, the Whitehouse.gov website is a fucking joke. Please don't go to that website for any accurate information. And it's set like it says at the top of every page, like the Democratic government shut down and that it is such bullshit.

Courtney Ginder (50:40)
Yes.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (50:44)
It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. It's crazy.

Courtney Ginder (50:45)
It's awful.

Tianna (50:49)
Thank you.

Courtney Ginder (50:54)
which is a violation of the Hatch Act, but whatever.

⁓ Who cares about laws anymore, right? Like, what are we doing?

Chelsea Myers (50:57)
Thank you, Courtney. Yes, there's so much like this is nobody,

nobody. It is not a democratic government shutdown. The Democrats are perfectly willing to show up to the table and negotiate and the Republicans just want them to sign their fucking bill. So the whole reason I know, I know, but I mean, I won't speak for every Democratic representative, but I can tell you that my Vermont representatives

Courtney Ginder (51:13)
Mike Johnson sent the house reps home! They're not in DC at all!

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (51:19)
It's crazy.

Chelsea Myers (51:25)
They're still there. They're not getting paid. They go there. They're still showing up and they're ready to sit down at the table and negotiate. And there are several other and it shouldn't be a fucking party line thing, but whatever, whatever. The whole

reason that this is happening is because MAGA wants shit done their way and will not budge.

And because the Democrats want to talk about it

Tianna (51:50)
.

Chelsea Myers (51:51)
and don't agree to these insane things that they're asking, there's, they won't come to the table. They won't sign anything. We have to shut down the government. Okay, bye. Peace. I mean, that kind of like boils it. Am I, I mean, am I wrong?

Courtney Ginder (52:02)
Okay.

Tianna (52:02)
Mm-hmm.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (52:04)
Well,

and the Republicans are winning in this too, because they are using this as a political stunt. It has become a political stunt because they are now able to twist it and use it how they want. And they're saying, you the Democrats won't, they won't just approve our bill. But when you actually look at the bill, okay, then we're cutting how many millions of American families, healthcare.

Tianna (52:05)
No.

Courtney Ginder (52:08)
Yes.

Tianna (52:09)
Yes, absolutely.

Courtney Ginder (52:11)
Yes.

Yes.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (52:26)
the ACA cuts that they're wanting to do and the impact on what that would include for healthcare. It's crazy that their options are like, okay, well, if you aren't gonna agree to that, then we're just not gonna fund anything. And so now it's continued to allow it to be used as a weapon.

Courtney Ginder (52:44)
And

also they hold both chambers in the White House. They could reopen the government whenever they want because they are the party.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (52:56)
And the money

is there, you guys. The money is there. ⁓

Chelsea Myers (52:58)
The money is

Courtney Ginder (52:59)
Exactly!

Chelsea Myers (52:59)
there.

Courtney Ginder (52:59)
It's there!

Chelsea Myers (53:01)
You paid it people. You paid it in your taxes. It is there. Meanwhile, we've said it. I was just gonna say, meanwhile, they're building, they're building a golden gilded ballroom and destroying pieces of history. ⁓ No one has ever demolished pieces of the White House. Am I, am I?

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (53:07)
Well, it's not there anymore now it's in the great Gatsby.

Courtney Ginder (53:10)
Right, it's in Mar-a-Lago.

Tianna (53:12)
No.

Courtney Ginder (53:17)
Yeah.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (53:19)
And the contractors

aren't getting paid. Did you guys see?

Courtney Ginder (53:21)
Why not?

Chelsea Myers (53:22)
No, but am I wrong in that? don't want to be wrong. Has any president ever demolished a section of the White House?

Courtney Ginder (53:29)
I

don't know, I don't think so. like, specifically the East Wing, which is where the Office of the First Lady, where Eleanor Roosevelt established the Office of the First Lady, like that just feels like a target to women's history in this country.

Chelsea Myers (53:35)
Yes.

women

and they're gonna put a ballroom in there and or they are it's it's it's it's a big one now yes

Tianna (53:48)
taxation without representation.

Courtney Ginder (53:49)
It is because they were not getting we're

don't we're not represented right now the government's shut down And if you're gonna get rid of all these services, what are we paying taxes for? Tell me what my taxes are going for because I want them to go to I want them to go to food families

Chelsea Myers (53:56)
and

Exactly. we said this a few- we said this a few episodes ago.

A few episodes ago, we were like, let's just stop paying our taxes. It's taxation without representation. We're not being represented. Why would I pay my fucking taxes right now?

Courtney Ginder (54:10)
Mm-hmm.

Tianna (54:15)
Yeah, and I'm just like right now.

Chelsea Myers (54:14)
Laugh, IRS.

Courtney Ginder (54:16)
Can you start at the White House?

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (54:16)
And I'm like,

why don't you start with your billionaires?

Courtney Ginder (54:19)
Right, can you start at the White House, please?

Chelsea Myers (54:20)
Yeah.

Tianna (54:20)
They're coming for...

And I'm like right now when we are being taxed without representation you want to come after people who haven't paid their taxes? Really?

Chelsea Myers (54:29)
Yeah, I'm gonna say, I mean, it feels like dangerous to literally say anything, but like, fuck them.

Tianna (54:31)
Okay.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (54:31)
Okay, there have been three

major demolition and reconstruction projects on the White House. President Harry Truman in the late 40s ordered a complete gutting of the interior due to structural issues. They left the original exterior walls while replacing the entire interior with a steel frame, modern wiring, and new internal walls.

Chelsea Myers (54:40)
Thank you.

Tianna (54:40)
Damn.

Chelsea Myers (54:58)
Okay.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (54:59)
President Roosevelt in 1902 included a construction of the West Wing, which did involve demolishing the original space that had been used, but then they rebuilt. then in 2025, the demolition began on the East Wing to make way for a new ballroom addition. So.

Tianna (54:59)
make sense

Chelsea Myers (55:15)
So

the first two were for structural reasons or for expanding offices. And then this was just bullshit. ⁓

Tianna (55:18)
Thank you.

Courtney Ginder (55:19)
Yes.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (55:19)
In the 1940s, in the 1900s, correct.

Courtney Ginder (55:22)
Yes.

Tianna (55:26)
either.

Courtney Ginder (55:27)
He wants to put his name

on the White House, that's what it is. Like he puts his name on everything. He wants his name on the fucking White House.

Chelsea Myers (55:31)
Y'all did you see that there's did you see there's printed

there's printed paper with huge golden bold letters that say the Oval Office outside the Oval Office and people are like is this like his dementia like Post-it notes like

Courtney Ginder (55:40)
that says the oval office.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (55:47)
Remind

him like reminding him where he's at. We're reorienting. We're reorienting the president to his surroundings. This is terrible, you guys. This is not a good time.

Tianna (55:48)
Yeah. So,

Courtney Ginder (55:49)
Yeah, it's ridiculous.

Chelsea Myers (55:49)
And it has to be gold.

Yes. my God. No,

Courtney Ginder (55:55)
my God.

Chelsea Myers (55:58)
it was never a good sign. We all knew he was fucking deranged. And yeah, it does feel I don't know why I feel so okay saying things like last episode. I was like, I don't know if I can say this. And this one I'm like, I just don't give a fuck anymore. Okay, I don't.

Tianna (55:58)
you.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (56:12)
Well,

we are realizing that it's not gonna really impact anything at this point. Everybody knows where we're at. Don't be surprised.

Chelsea Myers (56:17)
mean, it's scary though, because people

Courtney Ginder (56:19)
Mm-hmm.

Chelsea Myers (56:21)
are still disappearing and now, like, they just- I just read this morning. No. No! Come- Come live with me! Come live with me! Okay, anyway. Yes!

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (56:25)
honestly disappear me please put me on a nice little farm. I am like a former I would just like to pick some vegetables like honestly

Tianna (56:29)
Can I come?

Like

Like I have a no kill farm. We can totally like trade. I'm totally down, Brit.

Chelsea Myers (56:35)
Yes! Yes! Yes! I have Penn

Acres and it's gonna be an Odd Moms compound! Yes! Okay! Alright! ⁓ anyway, we're gonna get into resources, you guys, because we're nothing if not helpful, right? We don't just rant for listening to us, and to give you a little something to hold on to.

Courtney Ginder (56:44)
Yes.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (56:45)
Hell yeah, I'm so in.

The least we can do.

Courtney Ginder (57:01)
Sorry,

my cat's looking directly at the camera and that was the funniest thing I've ever seen.

Chelsea Myers (57:03)
love it.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (57:04)
So cute!

Chelsea Myers (57:05)
I love it. Hello, sir. Welcome. Merlin, welcome to Odd Moms. We're happy to have you here. All right. So some trusted sources. Merlin, Merlin, do you want to read the list?

Courtney Ginder (57:06)
His name is Merlin.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (57:08)
Hi, Marla.

Courtney Ginder (57:16)
Sorry.

No, he can't read. He had scrambled eggs for

grains.

Tianna (57:22)
you

Chelsea Myers (57:24)
some trusted sources

and tools that can help during a government shutdown. so Save the Children is a breakdown of childcare, WIC, early education. It's like how the government shutdown hurts children. Look into that, read about that. National Partnership for Women and Families. Again, it helps you work out how to financially navigate a government shutdown. Local

food security resources, which we will be linking in the show notes. Feeding America, there are local food banks, which again, I will link and it will take you directly to your local food banks. Food Finder and find a fridge, which I thought was the cutest. It's not fridge, it's fridge. F-R-E-E-D-G-E. And it's very similar to Food Finder. It just sort of helps you locate where your local food pantries are.

and things like that. Children's books, which we all know I am obsessed with. Children's books to not necessarily break down a government shutdown, but to sort of help teach some empathy and some understanding to your kids. Are you looking up Fringe, Brit? I can see your face. Okay, so.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (58:31)
like I'm gonna be starting a fridge a community fridge cute a fridge yeah

Chelsea Myers (58:34)
Yes, a fridge, a fridge.

Tianna (58:39)
Brett,

Chelsea Myers (58:41)
my God.

Tianna (58:42)
Brett for governor, let's go.

Chelsea Myers (58:41)
You are Brit for president

Courtney Ginder (58:46)
Yes.

Chelsea Myers (58:46)
Brit for president. Okay. All right. Back to children's books. That's another episode. So Watercress, Watercress by Andrea Wang. It's a beautiful book where one of the main characters discovers the significance of Watercress to her parents personal stories.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (58:49)
be the president you guys.

Tianna (58:56)
my

Chelsea Myers (59:07)
and their Chinese heritage. So it talks about food and the importance of culture and feeding others. A chair for my mother, which was one of my favorite books growing up. It's heartwarming, it's inspiring, talking about community coming together to help community members in need. I think there's a fire and they lose their home and their mom just wants a chair, comfy chair to sit in at the end of the day. It's amazing. The Good Garden.

Tianna (59:31)
Okay.

Chelsea Myers (59:32)
How One Family Went From Hunger to Having Enough. That's by Katie Smith Millway. It's a young girl in Honduras learning how to nurture her family's garden. Maddie's Fridge is adorable.

It's a joyful story about friendship, but also the emotional tale of hidden needs. So, learning about how you may not realize that your friends are hungry and they really are. And then for older kiddos, How I Resist, Activism and Hope for a New Generation by Maureen Johnson. and that's just an all-star

collection of essays, songs, illustrations, and interviews designed to remind young readers ages 12 and up.

that they're not helpless and that they do have things that they can do to help their communities. All of these things will be linked in the show notes for y'all.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (1:00:18)
Make sure to check out

your local libraries for these things too and make sure that you're using those to request those kinds of books in your local libraries as well. That's gonna be a big way we're gonna be able to pour back into our communities and all of this is making sure we are utilizing the local resources that are there. That's how they get funding is by proving that they're being used. So you're really interested in looking in these children's books or wanting to look into that thing that can't necessarily afford to buy any books out of pocket right now. Sometimes that's a.

privilege expense versus a need. Your local libraries, don't forget to look into them. And that app, what's the app? What's the local library app? Libby, yeah, Libby.

Courtney Ginder (1:00:48)
Yes. Yes.

Chelsea Myers (1:00:53)
Libby.

Tianna (1:00:53)
Libby.

Courtney Ginder (1:00:54)
Ready? Yes!

Chelsea Myers (1:00:56)
So there are

other apps as well that I would encourage you that you can get. So like streaming services, if you like me have gotten rid of Disney Plus, and the Disney adult in me is crying, but the responsible adult is like, you needed to do this. So if you got rid of Disney Plus, if you got rid of Amazon Prime, if you got rid of your subscriptions, there are so many things that you can use your library card and get free streaming. I'm opening my phone because I have

Courtney Ginder (1:01:20)
Mm-hmm.

Chelsea Myers (1:01:23)
have it. I just can't remember what it is. So Libby, right, Libby is great. And you can get a lot through that. Hoopla. H-O-O-P-L-A. Yes, Hoopla. You could like audio books and shows and movies and documentaries. Also, if you do if you are finding yourself wanting to purchase books that you want to keep thrift books is a great option. That is just like

Courtney Ginder (1:01:30)
Hoopla, yeah.

Tianna (1:01:32)
Yes.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (1:01:33)
Mmm.

Chelsea Myers (1:01:47)
buying used books or books that have been retired from libraries and you're keeping your money out of corporate America and you're still supporting authors.

Courtney Ginder (1:01:53)
or

go to little free libraries. Local bookstore's little free libraries.

Tianna (1:01:55)
Can I add one more thing?

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (1:01:55)
Or local bookstores. Local bookstores.

Chelsea Myers (1:01:57)
local bookstores. Yes.

Tianna (1:01:59)
I wanted to add one more thing,

it could just be 20 bucks and things like that.

So, and sometimes it could be free for other states. They might allow you to do it for free. that's just another thing I wanted to throw that if you're having some trouble because people are utilizing the resources more than they typically were, ⁓ you can check out other states that have broader resources and see if there's a small fee or if it's free to be a part of their library system.

Chelsea Myers (1:02:23)
The library is the shit, y'all. Reading Rainbow is back, everybody. ⁓ my god, I'm so happy. Is there anything else anybody wants to add in here as we go back to fucking real life? You tell how disgusted I am.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (1:02:27)
I can't wait.

Tianna (1:02:38)
I'm just so grateful to be here with you guys. ⁓ It's made my day to connect with you guys and just have this ray of light in the midst of the chaos. I'm just grateful for each and every one of you.

Courtney Ginder (1:02:53)
if there's something you can take away from this election cycle is that you are not crazy. Like it feels like you're like, there are times it felt like I was absolutely crazy because I was like, how could anyone support this? And this recent election shows that you are not crazy. There are a lot of people that feel the way you do. Like it's not collective psychosis. Like we are.

Chelsea Myers (1:03:00)
⁓

Tianna (1:03:11)
Absolutely.

Courtney Ginder (1:03:14)
Like, there's more of us than there are of them. And this election cycle proved it.

Tianna (1:03:18)
Yes.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (1:03:19)
Gaslighting by the

Tianna (1:03:20)
Absolutely.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (1:03:21)
government.

Courtney Ginder (1:03:21)
Yeah!

Chelsea Myers (1:03:22)
it's best. I'm gonna I'm gonna echo Tiana as always. I'm thankful for odd moms. I'm thankful for every single one of you and I just I want this community to grow because the empowerment that we all feel when we get together, I want every mom, every dad, every parent to feel that because there is power in connection and we're capable of more than what they what they want us to believe.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (1:03:23)
It's wild.

Tianna (1:03:44)
you

Courtney Ginder (1:03:48)
Yes.

Tianna (1:03:48)
Absolutely.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (1:03:50)
And our connection is gonna be the one thing they can't take away from us. They can take away food, they can take away assistance, they can take all of that, but they can't take away our humanity, guys. So pour into it, love on the people around you, show up for your community members, invite friends over for dinner. Those are gonna be the things that literally kept us fed and surviving in this shit hole of a dystopian nightmare that we're in. But hang in there, guys, because we're...

Tianna (1:03:52)
Yeah. Okay.

Courtney Ginder (1:03:53)
Yes.

Chelsea Myers (1:03:54)
Yep.

Courtney Ginder (1:04:00)
Mm-hmm.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (1:04:16)
We're gonna be able to overcome this. It's gonna be hard and it's gonna

Courtney Ginder (1:04:18)
you.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (1:04:20)
take a lot of work on everybody's effort to get us through, but that's what we've got. That's what we've got.

Courtney Ginder (1:04:23)
We can do it.

Tianna (1:04:27)
Absolutely. Thank

Chelsea Myers (1:04:27)
We've got each other. All right, this is your OnMoms signing off. Until next time. Bye.

Britt Wylde (They/Them) (1:04:33)
Stay on bye!