Our First Fight, Drowning In Housework, Put The Phone DOWN | EP 47

IT’S OUR 50TH EPISODE OF VAN TALK!!! 🎉🚐💛We’re celebrating 50 episodes with a very special rapid-fire Q&A, and absolutely nothing is off limits! 😂Do we ever hide in the bathroom just to get five minutes of peace? Are we secretly snoops? Who has BO? Who’s better at keeping up with laundry? And would we ever work at Disney?!We’re answering all kinds of hilarious, random, and surprisingly revealing questions about motherhood, family life, personal habits, and everything in between.Plus, we’re talking R5 reunion questions and taking a little trip down memory lane!50 episodes of laughs, parenting conversations, family stories, and plenty of opinions. Thank you for riding along with us every week and being part of our little Van Talk family!Here’s to 50 more! 🥂💛

In this episode of Van Talk, we’re talking about family traditions, motherhood, and some of the big decisions that come with raising kids! 🚐💛First up, we recently started having the kids ASK for what they want instead of constantly whining, “I want! I need!” and how those little everyday habits can make such a difference.We also talk about the importance of weekly family traditions and why we LOVE our Sunday sports gatherings! 🏈 There’s just something about everyone coming together, cheering on their teams, and having a reason to spend time as a family every single week. We especially love how sports bring all the boys together!Then we’re getting into some interesting mom conversations, including navigating jealousy from other moms, what it’s like having a husband who works from home while you’re a stay-at-home mom, and why making a good old-fashioned pros and cons list can help when you’re figuring out what works best for your family.And of course, we’re answering a BIG question: How do you know when you’re done having kids?! Is there ever a moment when you just know your family is complete?Finally, we’re talking about why it’s so important to know who’s in your kids’ ears. The people surrounding your children can have a huge influence on their confidence.

In this episode of Van Talk, we’re asking a big question: which generation has had it hardest when it comes to raising kids, especially now that technology, social media, and the internet are part of everyday life? We talk about why we want to be a “living room family,” spending time together in the same space instead of everyone disappearing into separate rooms and separate screens. That means phones away at the dinner table, family meals filled with actual conversation, and intentionally creating opportunities to connect. We also share why we LOVE being activity moms. Dance, cheer, hockey, parkour, swimming, diving, riding bikes… bring it on. 😂 We believe giving kids opportunities to try lots of different things, learn new skills, and discover what they love can help build confidence along the way. And activities don’t have to cost a fortune. We talk about finding the free things happening around you, from libraries and community programs to churches and Mommy & Me activities, and surrounding your family with people who share the values that matter to you. Most importantly, we talk about making home a safe place for your kids. No teasing them, degrading them, or making them the punchline of the joke. We want our kids to know that home is where they can completely be themselves and that the people closest to them are always in their corner.

This week on Van Talk, we’re going all the way back to the very beginning of R5. 🎸Before the tours, the albums, the screaming crowds, and the R5 Family, there were a bunch of kids learning instruments, practicing constantly, writing our first songs, and playing anywhere we could.We’re telling the story of our very first band, how each of us started playing our instruments, our earliest practices and shows, the first songs we wrote, and some of the funniest memories from those first few years.We also tell the story of Rocky having to practice guitar for an hour before he could play video games… until eventually he loved playing guitar so much that the video games basically disappeared. 😂But more than anything, this episode is about the part of the story people didn’t see. We practiced and worked at this EVERY DAY for years before anything big happened.This is essentially R5: Chapter One. Where it started, what those early years actually looked like, and all the little moments that eventually became something much bigger. 💛🎸

In this episode of Van Talk, we’re talking about the never-ending to-do list that comes with motherhood… because somehow you can accomplish 15 things and still have 37 more waiting for you. 😂We share some of the little habits that help us actually get things DONE, including why you should NOT open your phone when you’re trying to be productive, the “touch it once” rule for keeping the house under control, and why that task you’ve been avoiding for three weeks might only take you ten minutes once you finally do it.We also get into the emotional side of motherhood. How do you move through sadness, anger, or frustration when you still have little people counting on you? Sometimes talking it out helps, and sometimes you just need to get outside, move your body, and walk it off.And finally, we’re talking about comparison. Every family has different work schedules, different responsibilities, different support systems, and different seasons of life. What works perfectly for someone else might make absolutely no sense for your family.Figure out what works for YOU and stop looking sideways. 🚐💛