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Two Factor Parenting is a conversation between two parents navigating technology's role in raising kids. He's the early adopter and tech optimist. She's the skeptic who asks "but should we?" Together they tackle screen time, AI, social media, and all the parenting decisions that don't come with a manual.
Two parents. Two perspectives. Raising kids in the age of screens, AI, and chaos.
Feb 11 2026
00:00:13 Speaker 1: Read this.
00:00:14 Matt: Yeah. I hope to God we get better at this. So. For for purely just for ourselves now. Yeah. Okay. So let's start this. Welcome everybody to the Two Factor Parenting podcast here. Very first.
00:00:31 Val: Episode.
00:00:32 Matt: So numero uno.
00:00:34 Val: It's pretty apparent that this is her first episode.
00:00:38 Matt: It's going to be.
00:00:38 Val: Fun to.
00:00:39 Matt: Look back at this one for sure. So but let's let's start it out. So Val, you want to start out.
00:00:49 Val: Sure. Um, I'm Valerie Davis. I for people who maybe have not known me quite as long, um, I have a BSc in with an emphasis in high school English education. Uh, BS is a Bachelor of Science in education. Um.
00:01:16 Matt: For those following at home. What, for those following at home?
00:01:19 Val: Yes. So I have a bachelor's degree in education. I did not teach in the high school classroom, but I have. I taught preschool for a little while. I've taught various summer camps and done different things there. Um, decided I didn't want to be a teacher. Meandered my way through different secretarial and administrative jobs before I landed at Party City and loved it. Um, it afforded me the opportunity to like, work and be around people, which I liked, which is a part that I really loved about teaching was. And what I was really good at was building relationships with students, but it was the actual like whole class teaching that I never really connected with.
00:02:24 Matt: Mhm.
00:02:25 Val: Um, and then while and then while I was working at Party City, I was able to be on the board at the Maplewood Barn Theater and do all of that board work before having kids. And since having kids, I have been a stay at home mom and done more volunteer work with different organizations related to education. And um, I would say like child advocacy and things like that.
00:02:59 Matt: So, um, so very people oriented and very kid oriented.
00:03:05 Val: And I think that you are gonna see where I stand on a lot of these things based on that background.
00:03:13 Matt: All right. So then a little bit.
00:03:19 Val: So tell us about you.
00:03:20 Matt: Yeah. So my name is Matthew Davis. Hi, everybody. Um, and my background, I guess, kind of really started in, uh, more kind of in the arts and theater space and then worked in a, um, a lab, a cell biology lab, actually out of college. And then at that time actually went to go get my masters, uh, an MBA. And yeah, started really kind of getting into more and more, frankly, technology. And I've always enjoyed, you know, playing around with computers and, and and so it's kind of a fun little split of having some of the theater background in there as well. But um, yeah. But then after that, um, yeah. Got MBA and, um, worked for a small company and really playing around with, um, text data and all that kind of stuff. And then it started working for IBM and been there for almost ten years. And so now I'm kind of into, uh, not just the, um, what it used to be, this global outsourcing work, uh, essentially like give us your IT department, but now it's I'm in the space of actually helping with their IT support and specifically around the AI work around that. So also since that time I love, love, love, love just playing around with AI and just all the different stuff you can do with it and so much fun and ridiculous and hopefully people um, at this time as we're recording this on February eleventh, our first February eleventh. Um, the getting into the whole open space or cloud bot, how it was a couple of weeks ago. Um, and doing all of that stuff was just, ah, it's so cool. So you'll hear you probably already hearing part of my how I feel about this.
00:05:40 Val: Um, can I tell can I tell a story real quick about kind of the first time, I guess the first spark that I saw your absolute like joy of. Data analysis and what that could do.
00:06:04 Matt: Yeah. Go for.
00:06:04 Val: It. Okay, so I said that I was on the board and did board work at a theatre company, and Matt also was on the board, and our time on the board overlapped a little bit. Um. So, Matt, you were what secretary? Were you Secretary? Yeah. Your secretary. And at the time, I was probably VP. There was a year where we were both on it. Right. And officer positions. And you had been playing around with because this was a summer theater and outdoor repertory theater. And so because it was outdoors, there was constant anxiety around the weather. And like, if it was going to rain, if it was going to be too hot, you were going to have to cancel a show. And oh my God, what are you going to do? And so you had put together like on your own this projection of based on ticket sales of that day based on weather projection like weather, whatever.
00:07:17 Matt: Yeah.
00:07:17 Val: Like patterns, but like what the weather was last year on that day and then, like, what the dates were like. You mapped it out using all of the data from the last year to try to predict what our audience was going to be.
00:07:33 Matt: I want to get I want to selfishly give myself more credit here, actually, because what I did was I was looking at the weather like, what was the projection for that day? Um, but then I also looked at the page views of people that would go to our website.
00:07:49 Val: Right.
00:07:49 Matt: And so like the of course the ticket sales were obvious, right. Like that would give me at least a baseline. So using that, how many people visited the website, what was the weather, you know, like try to do all these like little things to see how close I can get. Yeah. And and for a lot of it, I was like, you.
00:08:08 Val: Were like within like five people.
00:08:11 Matt: Sometimes. Sometimes I would kind of nail. Yeah.
00:08:14 Val: And that whole summer was just like. I feel like where that. I mean, I really noticed that, like, spark in you of seeing like, oh my gosh, like, like you said, like just taking all of these different data points and being able to, like, do something with it and create something meaningful out of it. And so I feel like the kind of that kind of leads into this next point of like, why are we doing this podcast? Because when, when we had initially talked about this, like one of the points that we had talked about was like, it's probably going to be very easy to say, oh, well, like, Val really hates this, and Matt really loves AI. And like, Val is always right. And and it's not necessarily that. Um. And We're not trying to persuade each other or argue with each other or write like that. Isn't the whole point of this at all. It's mostly that we started this because we have these conversations all the time.
00:09:29 Matt: Yeah.
00:09:30 Val: All the time. Um, I just tend to be more of a skeptic and tend to try to. Lean more towards the side of like, okay, like. But let's also remember living in the, you know, human world and, um, things like that. So and you tend to be more on the side of like, okay, but this is happening whether we like it or not. So we might as well, you know, ride this wave.
00:10:05 Matt: Right, and embrace.
00:10:06 Val: And embrace it and again, find this like, meaning in it.
00:10:12 Matt: Yeah. And I think the, the aspect I always think about, you know, as we accept the AI overlords. No I'm.
00:10:19 Val: Kidding.
00:10:19 Matt: I'm kidding. But but I think the aspect right is especially when we, you know, consider our family right and our, our kids right. There's still a part of it that I'm, I look to that and say, oh, how do I prepare myself. But then also my family for everything happening there. And where do we where can we can where do we find the joy in there? So I always appreciate the back and forth that we have on a lot of these conversations. And a little bit why we want to do this is we already have these conversations. We enjoy talking to each other. So we're like, well, you know what? Might as well just record some of these as we're here doing it. Um, so slap it on the mic and saying, let's talk. Yeah. Um, so that's a little bit of what we're trying to do here is have that conversation. Um, you know, commonly folks are always in these, you know, one side's a little bit hesitant. The other side really wants to embrace it. Where do you kind of find that, you know, how do you navigate that together? Right. And how do we really listen to each other and talk through it? Um, because I think regardless, there's going to be pros and cons on both sides no matter what, because that that's there compromises there. Um, but I think ultimately it's always going to be finding how do we find, you know, the, the human element, the, the US in it. Um, in the middle here is the key, key point at the end of the day I. Yeah. So same way was that, you know, folks, if they don't know the two factor authentication. Right. That's that whole fun little thing where you have to type in your password and you get a little text about it, or authenticator, which are freaking impossible to remember all the different ones you got. But is, you know, I'm the I'm the, I'm the, the crappy password. And Val here is the actual real test with the, uh, cell phone number there with the actual passcode to say. Are you sure? Yeah. So. All right. Okay, so so let's let's set the ground here, you know, you know a little bit about us. That's a little bit of our background. We're not experts, right?
00:12:41 Val: No.
00:12:42 Matt: No. Right. Um, we have a we have education here. You know, we have some experiences ourselves. Um, but at the end of the day, something that we feel that is important is we we think our communication is pretty good. And the fact that how we talk to each other, and I think that's kind of one of the things we wanted to explore is these conversations that we have that, you know, citing different things that we read or understand or talk through. That's where we're coming from is let's let's kind of talk about this and let's hear the let's hear both sides of these arguments as we talk about these different areas that we are constantly and.
00:13:23 Val: Just put it out there because.
00:13:24 Matt: Yes.
00:13:25 Val: Like, this is parenting in such a different world than our parents grew up in, certainly than our grandparents grew up in. And it's and, you know, I read a quote, oh gosh, what was that quote one time like. Like today technology is going to be like, what was that quote is like today technology is the best it's going to be. And then like tomorrow it's the worst, you know, because it's just getting better every day. Like every day, like it's it's just moving at such a rapid pace that the age in which we're trying to raise kids in now is difficult. Um, and we had talked we'd had a few conversations about this before we started about our, our kids, because we both want to maintain that sense of privacy and boundary. But we do have, um, multiple kids, I guess. I mean, like, I don't know, multiple, multiple kids. No. Uh, we have three kids.
00:14:45 Matt: Voice modulation.
00:14:47 Val: With three kids in the United.
00:14:49 Matt: States. Yeah.
00:14:50 Val: Uh, we have three kids, and, um. So. And like I said, I've been a stay at home mom ever since the first one was born. Um, and it's been a learning process every single step of the way. Um. So, yeah, like, I guess I guess from from again, that parenting side of it too, just just trying to put it out there that like, you're other people are not in this alone. You're not. Trying to parent your kids. You know, like it like there are a lot of other parents out there trying to, like, struggle and figure this out. And we're all just trying to do our best.
00:15:42 Matt: And so what our hope here too, is let's have these conversations about these topics. So as much as we can, um, you know, recording these sessions, you know, we're going to be trying to be finding those details, finding, um, topics that we can kind of highlight there. You know, these questions you can ask yourself of, okay, what is what is too much, what is too little. And I think a lot of this is going to be, you know, how do we help kind of at least talk through the questions, right and hopefully find some answers. So that's where we kind of want to try to go. Um, and I think that I think that's fair. You know, so so I think we should kind of talk a little bit about what what is our reality today. What is it kind of look like? Um, and I think that kind of starts with meaning.
00:16:33 Val: What does.
00:16:36 Matt: How does.
00:16:36 Val: A very loaded.
00:16:37 Matt: How does it totally is. It's how do we take the matrix.
00:16:41 Val: Now wait a minute.
00:16:42 Matt: The matrix thing. And then stab it straight in the back of her neck. No.
00:16:47 Val: No. Stop it. Okay, I think you mean is, like, what does tech. What does our meaning Matt and Val's tech reality look like? Obviously, in our home, for our family, for.
00:17:08 Matt: Our family and all that kind of stuff.
00:17:10 Val: So when I when I think about our tech reality, like I obviously think about things like iPads for the kids. Um.
00:17:30 Matt: Parental controls, things that we put on, you know, the iPads themselves. But then, um, even, you know, like the Nintendo, um, and the parental controls we have on that, um, even though I'm still trying to work through those, sometimes it feels like I'm just trying to understand how those work at times. But, um, so that's a little bit of kind of our reality. Of course there's the streaming, like there's like a TV, you know?
00:18:02 Val: Um, yeah. I mean, like, do you want to list like.
00:18:05 Matt: No, I mean, I think it's just good to kind of know like that. That's kind of like, what does that landscape look like? You know, like, okay, what do you got? Um, and I think that's it. Like, there's no kids.
00:18:15 Val: We uses Siri a lot. Oh.
00:18:17 Matt: Yeah. Oh, God. Now you just activated. Oh, no. No.
00:18:19 Val: Can I say that? Am I gonna get you?
00:18:21 Matt: You did activate them all. But no, to the point, though, is we do have that. Yeah, we don't have an Alexa or anything like that. I'm sorry. I just called those all out. I apologize everybody. The other thing, though, is, um. So there's those pieces there. There's some some general kind of like, you know, the ring and stuff like that. But the key point, though, is like, the kids don't have phones and we're a little we both agree on this one. And the fact of like no phones for a while and that just they're just kind of other aspects in here that I think we can kind of expand later on. But um, that's one piece. Um, the smartwatches, like the kids don't have anything like that right now. Um, however, I that's a absolutely a challenging spot. I feel for myself because it feels like we've run into situations and, you know, every kid's different, you know, and some kids, you're you're like, that kid needs a smartwatch. Yeah. Uh, you know, it's, it's the age old of, like, you.
00:19:30 Val: Know, which one of your kids needs one.
00:19:32 Matt: Yeah, exactly. I need I need to put a bell on them or something, like, where are they?
00:19:36 Val: And to be fair, we live in a neighborhood where the parents are well connected and we have very well established relationships with our neighbors, not just the parents of the other kids, but like our like all the neighbors on the street, you know, like if they see our kids, like our child free neighbors next door, like.
00:20:00 Val: Carried kid up the street one time after they fell on their scooter. You know, like, we we have good relationships with them, right? But having said that, you know, that's a that's a privilege. And we is that's also very intentional. That's very intentional. Building those relationships so that you can afford kids those opportunities for independence to build their independence. Yeah. And again, it's a very intentional, thoughtful choice to say, should we just put a smart. Should we just give him a smart watch? Yeah. Or, you know, is this the child that can handle riding their bike up the street? If are they going to remember to tell the mom to text me when they get there? Right. Um, and that's worked out differently with different kids.
00:21:03 Matt: Yeah. And I think it's really just. That Depends on the kid, right? And you know how how they're handling things. And like I know, the other day, one of our kids was we're like, oh, is he gonna are they gonna get here at five twenty eight? And they came in at five twenty nine. And you're like, well, well done. You know, so I mean it's always depends. Right. And and that's I think that's a fair thing. And it's hard to have a blanket kind of thing. And um, but that's kind of a little bit about this too, is um, you know, as much as we try to do and I think something that what I hope we do in these, right is start to look into these topics. Things that I've always been curious about is just like the attention span of things like, you know, the, um, anxious generation in that book or I think that was what it was called. Um, but just like little things like that, that we can, we can kind of tap into and just say, like what? You know. Why do our kids want to look at an iPad instead of just looking at, you know, a TV of the same thing, but on a larger scale? It's just something that I don't know if. It's also like a little personal thing. It's like, no, this is your space. And there's that. We're tapping into that part of human behavior. But I mean, there's so many things we can keep going in this and that. That's kind of the whole point here is, you know, this is kind of where we're coming from. Um, but I think in kind of future episodes, right, we could start to explore some of these topics and really kind of get into, well, what does that mean? Like what? You know, what are what are the impacts that, you know, kids are dealing with. What are some strategies? You know, things that we've seen success with, things where we have not seen success with, um, you know, there's a lot of things that we can kind of get into just to kind of have a space to talk. Right. And, um, and. Yeah. And that's, that's, that's our hope here through this whole thing is you can come along with us in this journey as we try to figure stuff out and, uh, yeah, rock and roll.
00:23:29 Val: Yeah. Nothing. Nothing else.
00:23:31 Matt: For.
00:23:31 Val: Me. This is also just to, like, have fun.
00:23:33 Matt: Yeah. This is.
00:23:35 Val: You know, something, something to do.
00:23:37 Matt: So something to do. So. Yeah. All right, folks, uh, then. Yeah. Do all that that, uh, like and subscribe stuff and, uh, what is it? Smash that, like, button. Oh, God. All of that stuff, folks. And I'm sure we'll, uh, get into, uh, the actual full details of all the different things that we have. Um, uh, shout out to our executive producer, Winston. Uh, that will also be an entire episode, I'm sure, in itself. So.
00:24:14 Val: Yep.
00:24:15 Matt: Yep. Thank you everybody.
00:24:19 Val: Bye bye.