Mom Life with Special Guest Fizzy

Today's guest is Fizzy she is the Senior Paralegal and Operations Manager at New Direction Family Law.
What started her love for family law was Fizzy's own experiences as a victim and survivor of domestic violence and her experience with custody battles and working with the court system. This also gives her another level of empathy that she is able to use to help her clients.
Fizzy talks about how hard it is being a single mom and how some people wish that the other parent would disappear but she does not wish that on anyone.
Fizzy talks about the importance of community and the community that she found were the moms of her son's friends.
Fizzy talks about how one of the hardest things about being a single mom in her situation is being able to help her son emotionally when it comes to the complicated relationship with the father and navigating whether or not he wants a relationship with him.
Fizzy talks to people who are currently stuck in domestic violence and how they can get out and there is light on the other side of the tunnel.
As Fizzy's son is growing up she now has to navigate the world of teaching her son how to be respectful and kind especially when it comes to dating.
They all talk about the importance of seeing a mental health professional and how to get over the things that are holding you back from receiving help for you and your child.
Fizzy talks about how her child is biracial and the talks that she has had to have with him and how him growing up is a lot different from the way she got to grow up but he has found coaches to help mentor him.
Fizzy's best advice for single parents is to make a plan and to stick to that plan so that they can be prepared.

What is Ex-it Strategy?

Your no bullsh$t guide to divorce with experienced attorneys from New Direction Family Law and guests and professionals who have been there. Unfiltered discussions to help you move from victim to victorious and from bitter to better.

[00:00:00] Hi, it's Elizabeth Stephenson and I'm Sarah Henke law partner and pod partner with Elizabeth partner in crime. And we're here with our other partner in crime busy. That's me. I'm just so I can't say, I just want to preface this by saying that. I could not get through the day without this woman, but none of us could same.

. What is your title now? Senior operations manager. Literally she runs the office. So if you need something physical, find a way to help you for sure. And it matches her personality perfectly on a good day. I started thinking about like other names. People have college.

We [00:01:00] shouldn't repeat this. That's one of the off limits. Got it. So fizzy is multi-facet. Here's a big words. And she looked at me like I used it incorrectly and I was like, shit. Okay. But she is faceted. Bingo was cause of your face started making the look when, before I finished the word. So I just got shuck multifaceted and I'm in the office.

And also today with us on the post. Because not only does she have experience in family law being a paralegal, she is like case law memorizer strategy, stormy brain partner, but also has been involved in the family law process on a personal experience as well. Yeah. That's really what started my path into family law was my own experiences as a single parent and with domestic violence and custody and child support [00:02:00] starting when I was, in paralegal school and I had my son.

So that's what gives me the passion and being able to help people and share my experiences. Have them feel validated in everything they're going through. Yeah. And our last guess we, we mentioned how some people get frozen and that age where they have their child. And I think the other people like him and fizzy just, say, okay, this is happening.

I got to change things. And I got to get up and I got to get scrappy. I gotta make sure that I do all I can for this child. Oh yeah. And having a child, I was quite young. I was 22 years old when I had my son. And it was a nice kind of floating through life. I had a job I was doing okay for myself, but it wasn't really any formal commitment to anything life, career path.

And that was my wake up call. You have to get it together and make it happen. And I pushed pedal to the metal [00:03:00] to almost in survival mode. And it's something now that I've reached a point where I'm trying to reel myself out of survival mode where you're just in this hamster wheel of gotta go.

Gotta go work harder. Trying to get out of that a little bit is the point I'm at now as a single parent. Yeah. Some of us that's what your normal cause I'm the same way. It's if there's not a crisis happening, I don't feel like there's. Wrong. And then you'd have to learn too. It's okay.

Take a break. It's okay. To take a breath. It's okay. Not to have to go a hundred thousand miles an hour. Yeah. Yeah. And the different thing with fizzes as I was a quote-unquote, wouldn't a single mom and I was the mom of divorce and that's different because I had a partner or ex partner. Who had shared custody?

So I had 50% of my time. I could take a breath and take a, moment. You don't have any of that. No, my story is, not unique. There's a lot of moms out there and stats as well, [00:04:00] who are living similar stories to mine. I got pregnant at 22 and I was alone from the get-go. I experienced domestic violence during my pregnancy and Been so low financially, I've got my village, my friends, my parents, but I've been solo as a parent with no shared time, which is a blessing and a curse.

I don't split holidays, but also I don't have that time off. It's unique in the way you work things out. And I always try to find the lemonade of situations in my eliminated. I don't split holidays. I don't consult. I don't have. The co-parenting crises that some of our clients do experience because I don't consult.

I would get cricket, chirps. And so many people wish the other person would just disappear, but it's hard. It's hard. They wish that, and that sign , I [00:05:00] try and point out sometimes decline. You wish that, but you don't because it might be easier in the fact that I don't have to confer about decision-making authority, but I don't get the time off.

I don't get the support, with discipline. I don't have anyone to consult with on, I need you to back me up on this, or I just need you to take this day. We have a moment and have a moment. I don't have. Obviously the financial is like its own little thing, but what do you do for, what do you do for self care?

That's something that's hard and I think that's hard for any single parent. I think, especially as your children get older, I think it gets a little easier. They develop their own friendships and you find ways to carve out time. So for example, my son does a lot of sports, so I carve out my self-care time within his time.

If he's at a practice or a camp, I'm going to go to the gym or he is getting a little [00:06:00] older.

I go three times a week. I get that stair stepper moving. Yes. Yes. Used to be like clubs though, right? Yeah, exactly. that was the exercise back in the day. That's absolutely right. We mean physio joke that we.

Yeah, we were definitely at some field parties. How about you said you had your tribe or they single moms or dads, or how does that work? Yeah, I carved out my village by making friends with moms who were at my kids' events. And then it's win-win he can go with his little friends. Play down in the basement and we can sit up upstairs and drink wine and talk and chat and catch up.

Or if we're sitting at practices together and those friendships that I've had, I've got some basketball mom, friends that are [00:07:00] boys met in second grade and Leighton's in seventh grade now. And we're still friends. The boys are still friends. We go to dinner together. So you just find your village within.

Kind of making it all work and I'm an only child too. So I don't have aunts and uncles and cousins. And my family's all in England. I don't have. Siblings to help out. So it's its own unique thing.. So , what are the other moms say are their biggest challenges?

So my mom friends, we've got the gamut. I've got mom, friends that are married. I've got mom, friends that are divorced and remarried mom, friends that are single moms at co-parent and then moms in my situation. I think that for my other single mom friends, The biggest issue for those that co-parent is just like our clients go through.

It's coming to a nexus about decisions and And dealing with conflict within that. And then [00:08:00] for the moms that are in similar situations to me is the hardest thing we deal with is really dealing with our kids and their emotions. We've figured out a way at this point to deal with it.

And I think the hardest thing for us now is we want to protect our kids. We don't want to ever want to see them sad. And so the hardest part, I think for me in the situation that I'm experiencing is. Reconciling my child's emotions and how he feels because they see these other families and dynamics and thinks, okay I should have a dad in the picture.

Even if my parents aren't together, I should still have a dad in the picture. And then going through the motions, especially when you're growing up and. You start to have more thoughts and feelings and not understanding that. I think I want my dad, he, maybe he's not a good person. I don't know what's wrong with me.

I visit my fault in as a parent having to, go through that with your child. And it's harder to, because you're not that age and you forget [00:09:00] how those minds work. I don't even know if we ever know what those, how those minds work, but even something that me and my friends we both experienced is we've given them the chance to have that relationship. And cause sometimes the dad comes around and is oh, I want to fix this. And so we're like, okay, here you go. And. They just, at some point they want nothing. And my my son wants nothing to do, you get hurt. Even a chance.

And then you get hurt. Yeah. And then they want nothing. And so it's just, it hurts because you don't want them to hold on to any negative emotions and that hope, and that is honestly, I think the hardest part of a single parent in my situation, cause the rest of the. You can control like the brakes and the working and the financial, you just get through it, you push through it, but that's something that you can't just push your way, just facts.

You can't just will your way through it. So that's definitely, I think the hardest [00:10:00] part, but I find just being Frank and honest and keeping open communications is what we do and what works with us. How have you seen different phases of that? How old is your son? So late in this 12, but I've definitely seen different phases.

There were phases where he pretended that he didn't have a dad. He told people his dad was dead. That was how we dealt with it. There's been phases where he. Glorified it cause it's better to in your head, think that he's a good person than he's not, and he's not here. And then it's as it's just like stages of grief, there's denial. And then there's finally there's acceptance. And I think that's where we're at. And I think the way that we've been able to get there. We've been able to stay focused on what matters and keeping stability. That's been, my number one thing in his life is keeping stability.

It's one thing if someone's in and out and unhappy and there's domestic [00:11:00] violence, but if they're out and it's staple and you're happy and you can thrive, that's more healthy. So how about an earlier as you went through the court system, right? Yeah. I I went through the courts, the stem, I experienced domestic violence when I was pregnant.

And that was my first experience. And then of course there was domestic violence, protective orders. There was custody cases, which I did myself and that's really what segwayed me into family law. There's been child support and, there's people that I work with now as a paralegal. That are on the other side of cases.

And I know that they were involved at some level and I still remember their involvement and how they helped me and people that were judges, people that work to draft orders. And now that I'm on the other side of it and I see it, I'm just like, wow, those people saved my life. [00:12:00] So it's cool.

I don't know if they know that this. We're in my cases, but I know that they were, so that must really push you out, in this area of law that you're working in to understand that you're helping these people into the level and degree that you can. Absolutely. And I think that gives me a different kind of rapport with my clients, knowing that I could really relate, I'm not just a talking head.

No, I agree that, Empathize and you are sympathizing because you have walked those shoes. Yeah. . What's the hardest part of being a family law paralegal. And is there any connection to having to live through that again? Yeah. I've been doing this over a decade now, so it gets easier.

It's not easy, right? You still there's emotional attachment. You want for your client. You want justice, you want to advocate, you want to see them happy. But I do remember in the beginning, there were times when I would meet with clients or talk to them on the phone. And it was very triggering for trauma [00:13:00] that I had experienced.

And it was hard. I think now a cause, I've processed the trauma, but B also I've learned as I've gotten into it more, I'm a more capable of managing that and it, In different manners. I think that the hardest part about it is, I'll be Frank. The one thing that's really hard for me is I understand firsthand how hard it is to leave the cycle of domestic violence.

It's hard, all of the different facets of being trapped in that cycle. And now that I'm out, it's. I just want you to see, you can do it. You can do this. It's so hard to see it when you're in it though. And I know that first firsthand so hard to see it. And I just wish I could do a better job expressing to them.

You can do this on your own. You're not trapped in step is to get them to see that it is domestic violence. A lot of times they don't, they refuse to even accept that. That's what [00:14:00] they're going through and use it across the table from you just nut. And then you say, this is the. Violence. He doesn't have to hit you and you just see a light, then they just start sobbing because nobody's ever put a name to it for them.

Don't they? And it's shameful. I have some people that are like, yeah, I've been, I've heard that before. Like my counselor told me that foreign is still doesn't register them. That it's true. And they both, even if, they do know they're for me. My mindset was I'm strong. I'm strong enough to make this through.

I'm strong enough to rehabilitate this person. I'm strong enough. I can make it through this. I'll be fine. I'm fine. It's not that bad. I know that it's domestic violence. I know, but it's fine. I'm strong. I'm going to help him change. And honestly, I'll tell you, there's a moment in my mind that sticks with me.

And I was in court for a domestic violence [00:15:00] protective order return hearing. And I was sitting in front of a judge and the judge looked me in my eyes and told me you were going to die if this continues. And that was my moment where. Oh, wow. This is bad, but I think that's part of it in the cycle.

You just think that's not that bad. There's other people that have at worst. It's not that bad. It's minimize it, become numb to it. It's just another part of life, unfortunately, when you're in that cycle. Oh yeah. Yeah. But I will say. Oh, it's brag on lightened because you talk about it.

Success story. This isn't, you're an overachiever, but late TA is I think his just culinary tastes.

he's my foodie in the making, and I think that's something that a lot of single moms it's like I was in school and I was like reading all these statistics about single parent households and like all the negative. Things that they say won't go [00:16:00] to college or they'll end up in jail. And I just remember being like, we are not going to be that statistic.

I'm going to do whatever it takes. Yeah. He's doing fantastic. Great student, great athlete. He's very compassionate. And he is a foodie. Extraordinary. He's not afraid to try anything. No, he far more adventurous than I am. And he asked him where he wants to go for dinner. It's not McDonald's. You created a monster?

That goes back to being a single parent that, like I'm not going out for a dinner date on Friday night, but I want some sushi near you coming with. Yeah. They've always told me like something that you enjoy, which is therapy to you is cooking. So you'll take the time to make him a good dinner because you enjoy it as well.

Yeah, exactly. You find ways as a single parent to do things that are therapeutic within, your parameters. I love to cook, so that's something Amy and Layton do together, but also like he is doing [00:17:00] his homework and that's my time Alexa play

Yes, I love. And something similar to our last guest, Tim, is that you both make sure that your kids have the best opportunities you give them. What do we need to do to make sure that you can do any sport that you want to do? Making sure that you're going to Excel in school. I want to make sure that if you want it, you can get, yeah.

I never wanted to feel that being a child of a single parent household, he was lacking on anything. Obviously I can't give you a dad. But I'm going to make sure you have everything else. And I think that's it's like towing the line. It's something sometimes now that I'm older, I'm trying to be more mindful of, because you want to be careful that it's not , grows into an entitlement.

You still want them to have that inner drive and motivation without feeling. Everything is going to be handed to them. That's something that's been tricky for me because I've got this [00:18:00] I want to give you the world and whatever I can do to give you that, but here's a preteen. So it needs to be like, copy I'm backed up.

Yeah. That system and making sure that they recognize that these things are earned as well. Exactly. Yeah. So that's the hardest thing that I'm dealing with now, especially. Preteen hood for the week before I started daily. Neither yet. So not that she knows that I don't think he would tell me. Oh, he tell you he's a momma's boy online at that age.

Just like texting and our stock, the phone. I still do that, but I know where he is. Again, this gray.

I don't feel so bad now. [00:19:00] So he's a preteen what are your worries about the next phase in his life? Being a single parent. Okay. So he's going to kill me if he ever it, obviously he's a boy. I am not. And so we've got, the sex talk and that kind of. Which we [00:20:00] had, it was incredibly awkward.

It was like, are you done

and then, I, I don't know. I guess having been in the domestic violence relationship, I just am trying to teach. Respect and being respectful and teaching him, first of all, women's emotions are a lot to handle. So just . Being kind, as you get into dating relationships, he says he's never going to date.

But I think, yeah, that's the biggest thing, especially with society today, social media, making good choices. And I think that's any something that any parent would face. But also, I think that's a conversation that would typically be had between a dad and the son, how to deal with women and dating and that kind of thing.

So that's, unique as well. That's hard. I bet. I bet it [00:21:00] is. Yeah, but I had to get that reinforcement. I think it's better coming from us because it's our perspective. Oh yeah. Yeah. Hold I hate it for

Yeah, it always depends on the partner. It's interesting. Leighton will be a good husband one day when it comes to like late and go get the tampon from my

it's about a lot of men don't learn that until they're like 50 or kill me ever listens to this, like a 70 year old man, till you get your tampon, they will go over on time. They won't even know where to look. That'd be overwhelmed by all the choices they'll be on their speaker.

yeah. He was like, do you want these ones on [00:22:00] clearance? Mama? See someone something funny, just more tampon jokes, like they have the ones that are labeled L for light. R for regular. And the guys were like, why is there a left and right. One

fair assessment. Yeah. It's the flow levels fellas.

All right, derailment, I actually have bring you back to a serious level at the firm. We are a big proponent of. Mental health counselors and, paying attention to your mental health and recommend that everyone pretty much steps foot in our office team members and the clients see mental health providers to help them through the process.

You have such a unique perspective in for yourself personally, going through the family law, different areas of that working in family law and having a child that's gone through that. So what would you say or what do you say? Cause I hear you on the phone and you like, clients just have they learned to lean on you so much and they learn so much from you whenever you talk to them.

What advice do you [00:23:00] have for parents that, are hesitant maybe about their kids going into therapy or, themselves? Just because I know that it's such a good source, but it can be so hard to start. I think that for one I think it's a level of acceptance. Part of.

Therapy. And I think what's hard with it is accepting that you need help and accepting that it's okay. Cognitive goes back to what we talked about with push, push, push hamster, Ralph, we've gotta push through it, gotta be strong and it's that vulnerability I think what I tell clients is, and it goes back to the communication that we've talked about here as a single person.

Going as a team and being able to communicate in your child, being able to think that they can speak to you and trust you and be part of their team and so useful. And a lot of these situations there's, trauma especially when domestic violence is involved. So things like trauma focused, CBT [00:24:00] therapy that help you first learn coping skills.

And then you go through the, on Raveling at the different trauma. And in the meantime it really builds the bond closest. Something that's unique to trauma and a coping skill with trauma, like a not healthy coping skill is avoidance. So a lot of times if you've been in these situations, whether you, the parent is a family as a child, one of the things that happens is you avoid it until you reach crisis level and avoidance is what happened.

So again, just going back to relating to it, it's being vulnerable, not avoiding, and then, seeking out it ultimately strengthens your relationship with your child and in your ability to assist them, communicate with them and just grow as a family. Yeah. I actually have that in one of my cases, opposing party, like not my client.

[00:25:00] The other party when there are a lot of trauma and she refuses to do any counseling and she doesn't see the concern in that. And I you have all these psychological evaluations that are saying you need like intensive weekly therapy and you refuse to do it. That's going to be a concern to the judge too, if you're not taking care of your mental health, because it's like, the judge is going to see it as, okay.

You have, some kind of disease like diabetes. Take care of yourself. You need to take the medication prescribed. You need to make sure you take your insulin, or you're not going to be in good health. It's the same thing with your mind. Like you have to take care of it, mask on yourself first, right?

Yeah. Like an analogy, right? What is hard? And then, cause I'm survivor of sexual abuse and you have to go down that rabbit hole. For someone who might just say, oh, you need to go to therapy. Great for you. Yeah. And that's but it doesn't have to do that. Yeah. It's it's tough.

I go back to the, a, the avoidance, which is a sign of trauma that is trauma. And then, but [00:26:00] there's the crash and burn. That's what happens. It's then you stuff it away again and don't treat it. That was exactly right. And I'll go with fizzy that once John, I never dealt with mine.

And then when Sean thorn was born, it was like, Fucked up. Yeah. I get myself straight for this child and I went and inpatient. I I did everything I needed to do and sometimes it takes, it's hard. I have to hit yeah. And acknowledging, as a single parent, you're like, I have to be strong.

I have to push through this. I'm not going to let anything break me and to acknowledge. Okay. I'm not stronger than this trauma that is hard to threaten. Not avoiding and allowing that it's really hard, but it was, I went through it with their. TF CBT with late. And we did it as a family and it was very hard and it's very triggering at times, especially for your child, right?

We're adults. We manage our emotions and sometimes after I would be anxious or I would be just wiped [00:27:00] out or irritable, those are things that we would expect, for Leighton, it would present in a different way after these sessions. He would perhaps be like disruptive or sometimes he would be very forgetful or he would, freak out over something minor, and I think that's something that we just have to remember is, these are ways of trauma as adults are very different. So sometimes as a kid and trauma doesn't have to come from domestic violence, trauma can come from. Divorce or losing a parent or, witnessing a verbal fight between your parents over an act of violence.

If your child is acting out or forgetting things, maybe they're not acting out, but maybe they're just really forgetful. That's a symptom. That can be, obviously I'm not a doctor, but from personal experience, I say that all the time on this podcast, I am not a [00:28:00] doctor. This is my personal, it's just good advice for any parent equally.

Don't have these things. Yeah. Who teaches us how to control our emotions. I don't think. Yeah. Our parents teach us how to control our emotions, how to not have emotions or have them, how you, that's, how you learn. That's how you learn. That is really what you have to be reflective about.

What, what told me, we gotta sort this out, right? Cause you don't want to repeat the cycle. My parents are English. It's like stiff upper lip world war to get through Winston Churchill kind of thing. And that's hard as a child because then you're, we want to break through that and you're like, And you want your emotions to be validated, as a child, that's what you seek. And as a single parent, they, you don't get, or there's there's me. And there's no one else that kind of. Contribute to , who they're going to mirror. It's just me. And if I can't model effectively, then there's no one else that's going to really [00:29:00] sprinkle a little this spring, a little out of that.

No, it's straight busy. So we need to do the lucky boy for sure. Doing paralegal work and family law been doing it for a long time, a very knowledgeable on the topic. What's your favorite aspect of. Besides helping people, like you mean like specifically what kind of cares about the clients we care about our clients.

Sarah that's so much. I can't, no. I probably care too much about my clients. Close relationships with them. But as of late, I have really other than legal research to that legal research is what she's going to say. Yeah. I love some good legal research and the analytical aspect of it.

I love that, but I don't know, Elizabeth, I've been having fun with our spreadsheet. we all know. The spreadsheet don't you, if you were hiding income from us, if you're getting stuff from [00:30:00] somewhere else, Finding it do not screw with us and us. Everything you got that answer just shows how being in the world of family law as practitioners is really hard because we're managing people's emotions.

And at the same time having to do math.

managing people's emotions and dealing with our own life. No,

that's one way family loss been a savior for me. It's I don't have to deal with my own personal fire. I'm going to deal with yours. I'm not so fucked up after all

We're all fucking crazy a little bit. We would not be doing what we were doing and we were not local. Have you seen American psycho? It's the normal guy, right? That it's actually the really psycho guy. Yeah. Oh yeah. I saw that play like on Broadway. [00:31:00] Yes. There was like fake blood spotter. It was amazing.

I do love that movie. Anyway.

parenthood. I'm stuck in the bathroom scene. I'm sorry. What's your overarching, what's the best thing you can say to a single parent to pump them? Best thing I can tell a single parent is, first of all, I read this book by Elon Musk's mother, who is a single parent. And the name of the book is a woman makes a plan, make yourself a plan.

And do it. It's achievable. You can do it. Don't have parent guilt because whether you're a single parent or not parent guilt is real. So make a plan, don't beat yourself up. You don't have to be perfect. And I think also just make sure that this is really any parent, but [00:32:00] make sure that you remember this time goes by so quickly and.

Enjoy each moment. Just be mindful, be enjoy mindfulness of the moment because it goes by so quick

free that dropped down, thrown off at college. It happens. I wake up every morning crying, right?

I am not crying for anyone. That's scary.

That will also make us cry

time today. Yeah. It's hard. I don't bring anyone around late in first of all. Cause he will. Make fun of them or like mama, what kind of shoes were those Sketchers? That's a red flag. Skechers. This is not 1992 [00:33:00] catchers are sketchy. Yeah. Got it. So a gazelle roast them, but because, I just.

I don't want him to get attached and then lose anyone. So dating is hard. We're busy. We do everything I work in. That's just what our last guest said as a single dad, maybe. No, it was just, it should be, we would look it on, I'll be his wing woman. I'll be a hell of a wing woman for your last guest and a.

I don't know if he can be my wing, man. Yeah. What concert for the children? I feel like that should be the single parents group name. Mooting is for the children, ladies and gentlemen. She does not have children, I think. And this is something that was also in line with our past guests. The dear son is biracial.[00:34:00]

So as a single parent, he had one perspective on it as a single dad. And what about you as a single mom? How has that affected things? So that's a really interesting angle and that I have a son and the experience for a black man in America is so opposite from the experience that I had as a.

Young privileged white woman and white girl. So that's been its own set of unique circumstances that I've dealt with. I think that I have a lot of positive black male role models in his life and created a village for him. Whether it's coaches or mentors or teachers. A lot of coaches have really stepped up and played that role to him.

But also, there's something that's talked about in the African-American community and that is the talk and. [00:35:00] How I explain that to him and how I tell him Layton, I didn't grow up with this, but this is something you're going to have to experience. And as he's gotten older, he's experienced it more and more.

Coaches have told him, Hey man, Yeah. You're the only kid out there on the sidelines. That's black. Yes, he's biracial, but he has a big old curly hair. And there was an incident lately and he got in trouble and it was like, it wasn't even me. And they were like you're the only black kid on the sideline.

You have to be 10 times better, 10 stronger. That's been, you need, and also supporting him in that journey in him feeling connected to both sides of his culture and his heritage. And I just really credit my village for helping him. And we make sure we speak openly. I think that's the biggest thing.

We talk about [00:36:00] all that we joke about it all. We'd talk about, all sorts of things and just being open and Frank about it, going to marches, cultural events. And yeah. Yeah. We all know what a great job you do. Absolutely. And we'd all be so better off to have you as her mom.

pretty good. Eating good. You'd be pushed pretty hard to diamonds. Build pressure.

We're going to call it for sushi, right? Let Layton pack. No. So I entered this state fair cooking competition. So I entered two. The first one is Leighton's obsessed with all these restaurants have this spicy chicken sandwich. So I entered the spicy chicken sandwich, cooking competition, and then I entered the apple competition.

I'm going to try out. I don't even eat meat though. He's my taste test. You eat meat like every other [00:37:00] week, at least. Okay. Like once every other week, I've all been. I don't eat

your spicy chicken. You're doing a hot honey one. I love that. Oh, why can't we be tasters? What's wrong with me first. I eat well or cookouts after the fairs are no it's before. Oh, you need to do it. Cookout. I think it's isn't. I think it's actually, I have to turn it in that same day. Oh, pressure. We digress, gentlemen, we dressed well, I think we had two amazing guests we have from a single father's perspective and going through the court system then of course, fizzy who we love so much, not only as.

Rockstar. Apparently I hate the word rockstar. Everyone who says that

rolled off the tongue multifaceted paralegal, or back to the official manager case laws sorted in there. I'm sorry. This is amazing. Is what we're trying [00:38:00] to say is amazing. I could go on for hours. Yes. Elizabeth has a meet and greet to get to

but there's been some great tips from the last episode, in this episode for all the single parents out there. And of course, you're not alone. You got this, and there's going to be some shit there. It's going to be some shit. If you're going to laugh about it later, might as well laugh about it now.

Make a plan. That's some shit