Episode 60: True Crimes of Imperfect Heroes with Bailey Olsen

DJ Stutz  0:13  
We think you should know that Imperfect Heroes Podcast is a production of Little Hearts Academy USA. Perfect. 

You're listening to Episode 60 of Imperfect Heroes - Insights Into Parenting, the perfect podcast for imperfect parents looking to find joy in their experience of raising children in an imperfect world. And I'm your host DJ Stutz. And today's episode ends in zero. And that means my good friend, and my niece, Bailey Olsen is back for a fun conversation. And today we are sharing the stories that made us laugh, and the ones that we are actually surprised we manage to live through whether you have a large or small family. I know you're going to enjoy this episode, there's so much to learn. So let's get started.

Summer is starting to wind down and some of you may have already started the school year. Isn't that crazy, it went so fast. And whether you're spending time with your kids just trying to get in some final fun activities for the summer, or whether you're getting everybody used to those new routines that come with the new school year, running to the store is not always convenient. So don't bother, get everything you need for school. And for those precious end of summer break activities delivered in as fast as an hour. Plus, you're gonna get free delivery on your first order of $10 at Instacart. Plus, when you use the link in the show notes below. One of the cool things about this is you can have a friend or another family member and the two families can put their orders together. And so you're getting like two memberships for the price of one, which is less than $10 a month. And you can share the perks and the benefits with both families. So that's pretty cool. Again, I've got the link down below. So just go ahead and use that one. 

Well, I grew up in the 60s in the 70s in Los Angeles, and Bailey grew up in the 2000s in Las Vegas. And so while we're decades apart with different cities that we grew up in, there were some differences. And there were some similarities, surprisingly, and we had a great time... some of the hair raising stories of being a kid. And whether you come from a big family or a small family, you will most likely relate to some of our stories and be surprised maybe at some of the others. So let's listen in. Welcome, everyone to imperfect heroes podcast. And I'm so grateful that you chose to spend this time with us today and listening in today. I just have my favorite I keep having her back. Just so you know, we've come up with the plan that any episode that ends in zero. We'll have Mrs. Bailey Olsen back as we talk about a variety of subjects and topics and today is a crazy funny one. So Bailey, just remind our listeners tune to those who maybe who haven't heard from you before, what you have going on in your life.

Bailey Olsen  3:51  
So I am in my mid 30s, almost. I have two kids that are six and seven, who I just absolutely adore, obviously. And then I teach school as well as gymnastics and have done that, or oh, I started teaching school in let's see 2012 Wow. So I'm about a decade of teaching school. Now I took a little time off when I had my babies, but I taught in one way or another either in the elementary school or in daycare, and then I also coached gymnastics. So pretty much I'm just with kids all day long. It's just what I love. Isn't

DJ Stutz  4:31  
it fun to be with kids?

Bailey Olsen  4:32  
Oh my gosh, they are the best. They're the worst and the best, but mostly the best. Yeah, they're the worst when they're asking you what those big bumps are on your face, you know, like and it's acne. And they're like, What Why do you have all those boots on your face? And I'm like, thank you to her pointing

DJ Stutz  4:50  
this, but I get this when they asked me when my baby's coming out.

Bailey Olsen  4:57  
Well Brody, my son, he asked So he does we, we actually have struggled with fertility for many years. And I'm pretty open with my kids about it. And we've talked about what happens during pregnancy and tell them that you know that we want to have more kids. And he will very often come up to me and hug me and rub my belly and say, Mom, it's getting bigger. They're gonna have a baby. Like, no, I'm not gonna be like, Are you sure? Because it looks bigger, like a lot. And I'm like, Oh, well, you but no,

Unknown Speaker  5:31  
we love our kids. There's,

Bailey Olsen  5:34  
that's the worst, like I said, but I appreciate the honesty. So,

DJ Stutz  5:38  
exactly. Yeah, you know, where you stand. If you don't look right or something, they will tell you.

Bailey Olsen  5:46  
And they'll love you anyways. Exactly. I'll let you know. And they'll love you. So it's,

DJ Stutz  5:52  
it is. It is? Well, today's topic. So for those of you who this is a new experience, the Bailey and DJ show. So Bailey is my niece. And her mom is my one and only sister. And it's kind of funny, because we have never had an argument in our entire lives. My sister and I, which is I think, fairly unusual. But she's seven years younger than me. So she wouldn't fit in any of my clothes. So that wasn't an issue, to be a competition with boyfriends. So that wasn't an issue. And she was adorable. Everybody loved her, and rightly so.

Bailey Olsen  6:43  
Well, you know, I have four sisters, and one of them is a lot younger than me. I can't remember that. I think I was 16 when she was born. So we're about 16 years apart, which is a pretty big age gap. I've still fought with her, though. Really? Yeah, I have. I mean, not like nearly as bad as with my other sisters. I'm closer in age with. But my youngest sister. And I can actually only remember one argument that we've ever gotten in. And it wasn't really a fight, but kind of because she felt annoyed. She felt like I was talking down to her. And I was like, I'm not talking down to you. I'm literally telling you my opinion. She's like, but you're talking down to me. But she's also very, very happy and good. She's such an amazing kid. She just and I disagreed with something on her. And she's not used to people disagreeing with her because she's awesome. cute. She's cute. She is she's cute and young. And I've definitely thought with all my sisters. So I would say you guys are just special.

DJ Stutz  7:47  
There we are. We are special. And as I was thinking about it, so I'm the eldest of seven, and I've got five brothers. And then Sunday, my sister, but Danny, the youngest was born the summer before my senior year. And I don't think I've ever been even angry with him. And anyway, but he was again, so adorable, and just so much fun.

Bailey Olsen  8:11  
Let's see. Here's the scary uncle. I mean, not anymore. But me growing up. I was still scared him there. That's what we call them as bear. Yeah, cool. Bear. I vividly remember because he was like in college. And I remember he was on my grandma's couch sleeping. My mom was like going uncle Berra. And so I did. And he was so mean, he yelled at me so mad. Like, I thought it would be so funny. And my dad's like a prankster. So my dad told me to do something loud or give him a wet willy or something to wake him up, which I did. And Obear was not not happy at all with I think there's a phase in his life when he just was little angrier. Anyways, but now I love uncle Barry. He's the best. He was my strength coach. I did gymnastics at Southern Utah University and he was my strength coach there and I love bear, but I was very scared of him when he was younger.

DJ Stutz  9:07  
That's funny. Yeah. So Bear was it for Shiloh and Christian? Because he included them in everything. Right now they're

Bailey Olsen  9:18  
relatively close in age. Yeah.

DJ Stutz  9:21  
Well, Candace, so my oldest and Danny bear, so don't get them confused at the same person. Dan, Danny bear all the same person. Anyway, he was five when Candace was born. And so I think that made him seven When Shiloh was born. But he would just take Shiloh with him everywhere. And if his friends complained or didn't like it, they could leave. Because you Shiloh was coming. But then he was also like the really rough uncle. And so

Bailey Olsen  10:01  
strength coach, he was a sports guy. He was always roughly and I remember him wrestling with our Rottweiler, whose name ironically was also bear. Yes, I remember Uncle bear wrestling with our big burly Rottweiler bear. And then I also remember your youngest son, Christian. Yes. wrestling with bear, and I'm pretty sure he got bit. Wouldn't surprise me.

DJ Stutz  10:29  
And then I would have blamed Christian for being too rough with the dog is how that would Yeah, i

Bailey Olsen  10:35  
Yes, I'm sure something like that. I don't have much recollection. Besides, I was scared of my own dog after that. I was only scared of the dog when we fed him because he was very fierce about his food. Other than that, he was just a sweet. Yeah, sweet dog. And so wrestling with him was fine, but man, he was strong. And then I saw him bite Christian. And I was like, Oh, your husband, Uncle arrest. I thought he was a firefighter for a while because you guys had a donation. So I don't know. You know, it's firefighting dog. And I just thought he was a firefighter. Uncle. He's like a big dude. And he's kind of more quiet and reserved, and I could see it in my head. He was a firefighter. I forgot about that. Until you mentioned that don't be so funny.

DJ Stutz  11:25  
Yeah, so we've already kind of got started, but I guess we got to let people in on. But we're just sharing the crazy stories of growing up in a large family. And we survived. No one has died yet. So we're just sharing. So we want parents to feel like, yeah, raising kids is craziness, and goofy things happen. And when you become an adult, and your children have families of your own, you're gonna hear stories

Unknown Speaker  12:07  
you never knew about.

DJ Stutz  12:12  
And it's gonna curl your hair. Well, not me my hair super straight. But I probably lost some because of the kids. Yeah. Well, in the stories for after to, like you hear? You did? Oh, my gosh, I'm so glad I didn't know. Right? So anyway, so we're just sharing some of those stories. So Bailey is obviously generation younger than I. And so my sister and I, we grew up in the 60s and 70s 70s. Rock is the best, just letting everyone know. And when you have a bigger family, I think it happens more often. But even if you just have one or two kids, there's still goofy things that go on things that they do with and for each other. And so we just want you to that, for me, that's part of the joy of raising kids. And you'll be like, frustrated, maybe at the moment, or, Oh, I'm so glad you're not dead.

Bailey Olsen  13:24  
But it is

DJ Stutz  13:25  
even so strongly part of that joy of raising kids. And so just to give some background to so your mom and me are parents, who are from just entirely different worlds completely different worlds. So my dad had his doctorate in electro chemical engineering, which he got from Berkeley. I remember being in in first grade when he graduated, and we went to the football stadium and there were only three kids back then. And I behaved the best throughout the graduation. So that afterwards, my parents had promised us some Kentucky Fried Chicken. If we were to get and we would go to the park and as run around for us, that was better than any restaurant note to parents. So we would we would go and get KFC or something like that. Take it to the park. And us kids would just run around like crazy people and we had a blast. That was our favorite thing to do. Because I was the best behaved. I actually got to go into the KSD store with my dad to get the food while my mom's sat in the car with the boys. And I just I isn't that weird that I really remember that experience? It's kind of funny the things that you really recall. What are some of the first memories you have with your parents?

Bailey Olsen  15:10  
Oh, goodness. Um That is a tricky one for me. So I had mentioned before that I was in gymnastics, and I did it my whole life. It was a huge part of my life. And I honestly my huge

DJ Stutz  15:26  
part of everyone's life, just letting you in now.

Bailey Olsen  15:30  
Yeah, it was it was. Gymnastics is so wonderful. I still coaches. So I love it. But it is a huge commitment. And for not just the athletes and their parents, and like being in this, this is cool. So when you get good at it, not everybody wants to come and watch you. And sometimes you have a slightly crazy grandma, who really shows favoritism towards people that have followed their passions with their grandkids. And so then she forces everybody to come. Yeah, but anyways, my earliest memories, I would say, with my family. So I have one from when I was really, really little. So my grandpa passed away when I was three, and your dad, and my very earliest memory that I have was in their house in the basement, and there's like a blue couch. And I had this oh my gosh, cabbage patch doll with red yarn hair. And he had set her arms out to the side, like she was gonna give me a big hug. And he had set her like in the corner of the couch. And then he had me on his shoulders, and he was like galloping around the room with me on his shoulders. And then he spun in a circle, and put me down on the ground, and said, look at your dollies there to give you a big hug. That is the only memory I have of him. And it is my earliest memory. And I don't know why that stuck in my head. We lived with them for a while when I was really little. And that is all all I remember waking up early and watching TV on a little tiny TV down in the basement. But I feel like that was maybe when we visited. I don't know. That's my earliest memory. And then when it comes to my parents, mostly, I remember them taking me to first gymnastics place that I went to which your oldest daughter coached in a gymnasium of like a high school or middle school or something. It was a brinly middle school. See, there you go. I remember going and I remember there's a mini tramp. And I was so excited to have my mom watch me jump on the mini tramp and then onto the mat. And I was probably like, I don't know, three or four years old. Those are probably my earliest memories,

DJ Stutz  17:46  
isn't that. And it's funny, you talk about my dad doing that messing around with you and putting you on his shoulders and stuff. That is not the dad that I grew up with. He is very serious and kind of aloof to be deaf, his doctorate in electrochemical engineering, and then becoming the second most recognized authority in the world. In that field, you got to be a little off.

Bailey Olsen  18:22  
Well, that's what my mom always said. And maybe that's why it's stuck in my head because I was used to him being like, quiet and reserved and not super involved with them. And so I in my head now looking back, I'm like that was probably just a weird spur of the moment that it was like three seconds, you know. And for some reason, it just it just really stuck in my head. And other than that the only thing I know about him. I mean, I've learned more as I've gotten older but knew about him growing up was that he was a pilot and every time we would see a plane fly, we would have to look up in the sky with my grandma and say hi, grandfather.

DJ Stutz  19:00  
Oh my gosh, my mom's so crazy. Yeah.

Bailey Olsen  19:05  
Have a crazy grandi story for us.

DJ Stutz  19:07  
Oh, I Oh, but before that I just wanted to say it was interesting seeing the the metamorphosis that took place when he went from being a father to grandfather, night and day. And I saw the change too, because like I said, Danny was only five. And there was a change from the way Danny grew up with dad than the older kids. So there's seven years between Danny and the next kids, which are twins. And it changed like his whole outlook on life. And I was at a point I didn't even want to be around my dad. He was very hard to be around and then to see this change. It really healed us. It took time it wasn't overnight. But when someone loves your kids you can forget Have a lot of stuff. That's very true. Yeah. Tell me your granddaddy story. Okay,

Bailey Olsen  20:05  
so my grandma is my grandma and deejays mom. And she lived connected to our house. So she had her own house. But we were connected by laundry rooms. We had seven kids in our family as well. So my mom would need to leave to run a kid to a sport camp or a doctor's appointment or who knows what. And usually I would just be left to babysit, but grandi would be home at her house if we needed anything. And I remember so vividly, actually, I was at gymnastics practice and then was dropped off at the house. And so my next brother down bow, he was the one who had been babysitting before that. And apparently he had done something mean to the younger kids in Graham dt. First of all, she had this green ring. That was like a huge rock, like, huge. J dangerous rock. Yes, it was just huge appointee. That's what I and she was so proud of it. She's, he had said to him, apparently before then if you do that, again, I'm gonna give you a swirly. And I came home to grandi chasing him down the hallway, holding a fist so that her ring was chasing him down the hallway, forcing him into and picking up his feet trying to pick up his feet, put his head in the toilet. To give him it's really. And I will say, in my head. It's very, it's a very funny story. So I do need to clarify, it wasn't like an abusive mean thing. It was more of like, I mean, nowadays, I would feel like that is too far.

Unknown Speaker  21:50  
Just a little

Bailey Olsen  21:51  
mom, if you listen to this, don't chase my kids down there. It's a little much for me. Just funny that she tried to like horse's head to give him a swirly. And honestly, we were petrified and lacking. So yeah, lead it was brand new, you really kind of didn't know if she was really mad, or if she was just being funny, but we love her. And I felt like I got to sit right next to her and watch her grow up in a lot of ways even though you know, she was obviously a grandma when I came around, especially at the time I have memories. But I felt like I got to see her go through a lot of different stages, because she often lived with us. And so yeah, we got very close. And also, I feel like I was one of her favorites. So

DJ Stutz  22:42  
you were you were you was very

Bailey Olsen  22:45  
clear about her papers. And she would say in front of like me and my siblings. Yeah, you would legitimately say, well, Bailey's my favorite. And I liked her better than I like you to make siblings. It's like, oh, I need like, oh, that like that. But like you said, we all survived in all of my siblings, who she would say stuff like that in front of, she still totally proved her love to them. I'm not saying what she did was right, because I wish she would have handled it differently.

Unknown Speaker  23:18  
Because my kids were not

DJ Stutz  23:24  
well, few grandi stories to

Bailey Olsen  23:25  
your kids are my favorite. So

DJ Stutz  23:29  
we are the most fun. Yes, totally agree. We're also probably the most out there. Big personalities. Yeah, yeah, but they are fun. The party doesn't start until we're there. That's right. I've heard that more than a few times. But I've also, when you tell that story, though. She would do stuff like that when we were growing up. So I don't know what would start it but she would all of a sudden be wrestling with the boys. But I mean, she didn't hold back. She was full on and she would get her like her bottom teeth. She'd kind of

Bailey Olsen  24:18  
put Yeah, oh my gosh, you did that. You looked a little like that's like the face she did?

DJ Stutz  24:22  
Yeah, don't but yeah, she would do that and she was just determined that she was going but that was fun for her. Don't you dare cry if you get hurt, but but she would do that or she would do like we would be doing dishes and she would all of a sudden like grab a table knife and on guard and started this sword fight out of the blue. One time she did not grab a table knife. She grabbed a fork and By the end of it, I was impaled

Unknown Speaker  25:05  
by her or by one of the rock. Just doing this sword fight and she went to do a forward thrust and got me in my thigh bleeding holes. Oh, I like it. She felt horrible. She felt terrible about it. And I didn't have to do dishes for like

DJ Stutz  25:29  
a week or so. So it was worth it. But she cleaned it out and bandaged it up. And, you know, that

Bailey Olsen  25:38  
is too funny. See, I think that those moments right as a mom, and especially in her situation, she she had a rocky marriage, right? They were both wonderful people. But you know, they were separated. And

DJ Stutz  25:54  
we didn't finish those things though, too. So my dad had this PhD. My mom had a high school diploma. And my dad's family was Country Club. And my grandfather was a professor at Oregon State University. My grandmother taught English very, very proper, very proper. My mom was raised by lumberjacks, literally. And that's like one step up from wolves.

Bailey Olsen  26:29  
And no offense to any lumberjacks who may or may not be listening.

DJ Stutz  26:33  
Wolves. So they had these very different worlds. And I think that's what drew them to each other to begin with. And yet, that's what kind of drove them apart. as they got older and just had different outlooks on life. They survived, they split up a few times, but they always got back together. And they were together when dad passed. So anyway, so that's

Bailey Olsen  27:01  
always has nice things. Well always had nice things to say about him until she got dementia. And then once she got dementia, things changed her tone change. I didn't know they had they had ever had any problems my whole life until she started getting dementia and mentioning that things weren't always great between them. Before that I thought they were like the perfect couple ever. So and I knew that grandfather was a pilot, and I knew that he was a professor and I thought he was the bee's knees, which I still think that. Yeah, so but you know, marriage life in general is just, it's hard. And it's hard. Meshing two totally separate worlds. And yet here we are seeing all seven of you kids who grew up with your mom stabbing you with a four with some separation, lots of moves that I know, you all endured, and you're you are all raising beautiful, wonderful families. So I think that it's good as a parent to consistently. I mean, like Randy did, right. I'm sure she was stressed and struggling. And yeah, you know, having a hard time. And she tried to find the fun. She tried to swordfight you guys when she was making dinner, or I remember her setting a timer and telling me, I'm setting a timer for two hours. And my goal is that for those two hours, I am going to be absolutely perfect. I will do zero things wrong, and I'm going to be perfect. I remember thinking like you live alone in your house. And you can't be perfect for you. What do you do? That's wrong? Because you know, you're a kid, and you're just like, I'm just gonna fight with my sibling. That's

DJ Stutz  28:43  
right. Right. Yeah, it's worth noting too, that your family, when I think of the grandi story, the hero that story is your mom and your dad. And so when mom last spent all her money, what she was good at. And so it's basically gone, your parents actually added on to their house. So she had a living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom. And so that she would have a place to live. And I remember going to them and saying, Hey, I know that what mom has isn't going to cover the cost of building this. And so we need to all kick in and help you with the cars just to say thank you for taking her on. And they were like, No, No, we're fine. We have what mom has. And then you know she's not going to live forever. And so it'll be part of our house and maybe we can use it for our kids. Well, they moved to Utah before mom passed. And in looking for a home they specifically needed to have a place that they could make for grandi. So they want to bind the house they're in now, which the previous owner was a cabinet maker. So he had this big workshop out back. And they went and converted that into a place for grandi to live. And now your sister Regan lives there.

Bailey Olsen  30:18  
Yeah, so we've had multiple, we've had multiple of my siblings that have lived there. So my parents, I probably would have loved to live there had they had it done, or grantee was still live. So it was her house, I couldn't, I couldn't live there. I never lived in that house, actually, because they moved after I graduated. But almost all of my other siblings have lived there for at least a short period of time, which has been great. So I know that my parents, they cherish that time, it's always so special, to be able to have that extra time with your parents well.

DJ Stutz  30:49  
And to like, when her dimension or health issues got to the point where we couldn't have her. She could wake up in the middle. It was I don't think she ever slept. And she would go out and wander the streets. Now you guys were pretty deep inside the subdivision that you live in. But she would start walking around on the streets. And so then it became a safety issue and keeping track of all her medications and stuff. So we did have to place her into a facility but your family made sure someone was there every day. And this went on for years. So Sonny is raising all these kids. She's coaching lacrosse. She's very active at church. She's got all of these things going on. And yet she made sure that she made the How long was the drive?

Bailey Olsen  31:44  
Um, it wasn't too far, probably about 15 minutes.

DJ Stutz  31:47  
I always thought it was a little further than that. But

Bailey Olsen  31:50  
she was in two different facility. Yeah, I

DJ Stutz  31:55  
yeah, I think

Bailey Olsen  31:56  
the first one was closer, but then she wandered out of there and into somebody's home. And they needed they needed the more locked down.

Unknown Speaker  32:08  
Well, there was this house down the street, and she really liked the house. It was a cute little house. And

DJ Stutz  32:13  
so it wasn't a closed facility. They could come and go. And

Unknown Speaker  32:20  
this poor lady, she comes home from running chores or whatever. And my mom's and I think she's starting to cook something.

Bailey Olsen  32:33  
That sounds like Randy, of course, she wanders into a house and immediately find something to try and cook. Which by the way, is part of the reason we ended up really deciding to put her in a home with because she started a fire in her home and we were like, it's just it's not safe. She keeps forgetting little things like that. We go over it. All the food in her freezer would be melted, because she would have just left it open the whole time and southern Utah. It's like 115 degrees outside. So yeah, but of course she went in and cooked something. Yes. Trying.

DJ Stutz  33:06  
So that's Yeah, we had to move her. So grandma, funny. So Grandma, you know? Yeah, she was crazy growing up. And so I was young. So it was still toward the end of the 60s and but I'm the oldest and it was hot. We were in Los Angeles. We didn't have a pool. And it had just gotten very hot. So my mom decided we had this huge Mercury station wagon. And I think the twins were born. So there were probably six of us. And we went down to the local thrifty store, which was about five or six blocks away. And she bought one of those hard plastic little swimming pools that you can fill up, right? It wouldn't fit inside the station wagon. So her idea because we had these baggage racks, you know, that was on time. So her idea was she was going to put it on top of the car. But she had nothing to tie it down with. So her great idea was for me to sit on top

Unknown Speaker  34:20  
of the car and hold on to swimming pool as she drives home.

DJ Stutz  34:30  
So we're driving down Devon sure Boulevard coming over to Haskell Avenue, which was where we live. And I was actually embarrassed. I'm scared out of my mind. And then Mom had said, Whatever you do, don't lose this pool.

Bailey Olsen  34:52  
Not don't fall off. Don't get hurt. Don't die. No, don't lose the don't

DJ Stutz  34:58  
lose the pool. And so I'm hanging,

Unknown Speaker  35:02  
you're holding on to the luggage rack with one hand and the pool with the other hand. And we get a couple of blocks down and up police officers law this. So he whips

DJ Stutz  35:17  
around turns on his lights. So she turned left into a subdivision that was a little closer than the one we lived in. So she wouldn't be on the main road. So now we're I'm dealing with the centrifugal force of her turning the car and scared to death of losing. I didn't care about the police. I'm scared about. But let me pull. But okay, so you know, this had to be in the 60s in a whole nother time. Because the police officer came up and said, What are you doing? And she goes, Well, it wouldn't fit in the car. And he's like, so you have your daughter up there? And she said, Well, yeah, because she can hold on to it. I mean, mom doesn't see anything wrong. But here's the deal. The police officers said, Well, it's illegal. You can't have her do that. That's not safe. And so she says, Well, I don't know what to do, because we still have, you know, a bit to go. And he says, Well, she can't get back up there. Okay, DJ, well, back then Debbie. Daddy, you just bring it home? Don't brag it? Because I we don't want holes in it. Oh, police officer says Yeah. Okay. And takes off. Like, Oh, can you imagine if that happened today?

Bailey Olsen  36:48  
Oh, I cannot even imagine. Yeah, that is.

DJ Stutz  36:52  
So it's like a billion degrees. Las Vegas. And here I am, like 11 years old trying, she bought the biggest one. But with all his kids, there had to be room, right. So I'm trying to hold it above my head the best I can. So that it doesn't drag and wear a hole in it. And she just goes and drives home. So I get a couple of blocks. And then I see Spence and Don, the two brothers just younger than me. And they're heading out grumpy and angry.

Unknown Speaker  37:32  
Because I made them go to help me finish bringing this pool. Oh my goodness.

DJ Stutz  37:39  
But I just I just think of all of the things that could have gotten.

Unknown Speaker  37:45  
And none of those things were

DJ Stutz  37:47  
in your head. But you know, different time when you look at some of those TV shows from back in that time. Yeah, it's not even as crazy, I think, as I remember.

Bailey Olsen  38:00  
See, the biggest thing that I have between then and now is I remember babysitting. And it was my siblings and our close family, friends. And all the parents went out and I was the oldest and so I was babysitting. I was 11. And there were at least seven kids there. I'm trying to remember actual ages. But there were at least seven kids there that I was in charge of that I was babysitting, and a police officer knocked on the door. And legally, the babysitting age was 12. And my parents had told me you're fine, nothing will happen. So we actually were staying at their house in an RV because we were adding on to our house at the time. But I just remember that we were staying temporarily in an RV on our friend's property in their neighborhood. But the police officer came because of the complaint that the RV was on their property, which apparently was against the HOA, which they didn't know. And anyways, he comes to the door and I'm like, oh, there were two I very much remember there were two babies. And I was in charge of them. And he's like, Where are the parents? And I'm like, they're not here. Also, for those of you obviously, who do not know me, I was 11. And I probably looked like eight or nine. Because I was small and beloved year old. They're kind of starting to grow into their own maybe a little pre pubescent. I was not. I was nowhere near any sort of puberty. That didn't even happen until college. So you can imagine how little I looked. And he was like, who's watching you? And I was like, Well, I am. And he was like, I'm sorry. How old are you? So I told him the truth. I told him I was 11 and he said, I'm gonna pretend that you said 12 and come back when your parents are home. I was like, oh, and I just remember being like that didn't seem that off to me. But now I'm like, Oh my gosh. to only have two kids, and they're relatively self reliant. And I work with the youth ages 12 to 18 in my church, and I don't think I would have one of the little 11 year old girls to watch my two very self sufficient six and seven year olds. And I was 11 Watching a whole slew of children. So times have definitely changed. But I never sat on the top of a car to carry a pool. So no. Slowly, you know, things are slowly changing over the

DJ Stutz  40:37  
improving. Yeah, but then kids don't have the freedom that we had. It's true, very as well. I remember now lay I mean, we're in LA for holy cow. And on Saturday, we had all these jobs. Mom was very diligent about having this work. And so our big goal was to get the jobs done and get out of the house. That was our whole thing. So we would get up, we would get the jobs done usually by 10 or 1030. And we hopped on our bikes, and we were gone until dinnertime. And I remember there was a family that went to her church, but they live probably three miles away. And they had a pool, and they really liked our family liked our kids. Your mom had a crush on the father of this family. Yeah, J. J. D. Dicker was his name. And so they didn't care. If they weren't home, we could just climb the fence and go swimming. They were fine with that. So yeah, we would ride our bikes and jump over the fence and go swimming or so there was this hill, we called it the Lassen Hill was on Oh, lassen. And it was a really steep hill, and there was a stop light at the very bottom of the hill. So we had worked it so that we knew right when to leave the top of the hill, because you could go really, really fast. But you didn't want to end on a rod light, because stopping would be next to impossible on that. So we had it all timed. And we knew and we would just go down that hill mom never knew any of that. We'd get into construction sites and use their wood or whatever was left there and build ramps for our and, and we just were gone all day having adventures. No cell phones, no. We just knew be home for dinner.

Bailey Olsen  42:48  
And see this. That's the funny thing. Even my kids school is half a mile from our house. And our neighborhood is a very small neighborhood. But half of that half mile to the school were in the very back of our tiny neighborhood. It's very quiet. And half of it in the neighborhood. The second half of it is on a mediocre ly busy street, but there is a sidewalk path. And the sidewalk path is there. And then there's trees. And then there's the busy road on the other side of the tree. All right. It would totally be safe. I know for a fact my mom would let me do that by myself in first grade 100%? Um, no, there's no way I will let my kids go even though like I know, they'll probably be fine going to or coming home from school, they would probably be fine. Because it's it's a half of a mile. It's less than half a mile actually. Because they even come from Yeah, it's probably less than that. And I still wouldn't let them do that. And I have actually thought about even getting my first grader a watch that I track them on. And although I will say I live in Oxford, Michigan, and some scary things have happened in Oxford this last year, the high school, there was a shooter in the high school. And I did since then is when I've been considering it because they both get more anxious in school now when anything out of the ordinary happens is last time. It was pretty scary, terrible situation for our town. So that's the main reason I wanted to but even other times I'm like, man, it would be nice to be able to say, Hey, I'm going to be two minutes late. Don't be worried. Yeah, but you know, that's just the time change. Right? I'm I'm like addicted to communication with my kids. So and we're becoming more

DJ Stutz  44:37  
so of that. But then even with that, that should kind of give our kids more freedom, because we can track them and know where they were. Mm hmm. So I don't know. My husband Russ. He remembers growing up so he grew up in until he was 13. They moved to Oregon when he was 13 but he grew up in this little town Midvale Utah. Just south of Salt Lake City. And there was a family, they had a bunch of kids and he remembers the mom, she would get in the car and just drive up and down the streets, you know, do and calling their names and that and that's how she would find them when it was time for dinner or something.

Bailey Olsen  45:22  
Oh my goodness. Yeah. No, no, I

DJ Stutz  45:24  
did where they were whose house they were in? Yeah, she was she had a big boys restroom members. Dinner at home. That's awesome. Yeah, it. Yeah, we had a lot more. We rode our bikes, Spence and I, my brother just younger than me. We rode our bikes along to our piano lessons. And that was a good couple of miles away. And I remember what we were riding our bikes home after the lessons together, and we're just kind of talking and Spence was looking at me and not paying attention. And full speed man, he ran into the back of a car,

Unknown Speaker  46:06  
flip over the bars, and landed on the trunk of the car.

DJ Stutz  46:14  
No, her was her non like, thinking, well get on your bike, let's get home. And so we can have mom take care of it. Because no, you got to go get Mom and I'm thinking Mom's not gonna come. But she did break anything. He was just had some bumps and bruises. But

Bailey Olsen  46:37  
oh, jeez, That's too funny. I will say I have another memory of my mom, which you mentioned how wonderful my mom is she is she is a rock star. And she is wonderful. So we'll preface it with all of that goodness. And we'll go back to again, seven kids, seven of us that specially remember coming home from school and her feeling so frustrated because she'd gotten the house clean. And then we come home from school and our whole front. Wish we had a good big entryway, a good big family room, a good big kitchen. And it would just be strewn with backpacks and shoes and jackets. Granted, it was Las Vegas. So I think she's exaggerating about the jackets, because I never even remember wearing one. And then of course we'd want to play so we'd get toys out to so it would just be a disaster. And I remember, we always tease her about this that one day, she just lost it. And she just started picking stuff up and chucking it out the front door. Just throwing everything out onto the lawn. And she's like, the trash is coming tomorrow, anything out there that trash is gonna pick up. So if you want your stuff, if you don't care about it, that's fine. It's going to the dump. And we were so mortified because she was not happy. And she was throwing all of our stuff outside on the front lawn and actually, in the moment, a little bit traumatizing, because we were petrified. But now we look back on it. And it is like such a fond memory. And now as a mom, I look back on it. And again, I only have two kids. So it is not the mess that it was with seven kids. I'm sure the mess was just unimaginable, and frustrating. But I look back and I'm like I totally get it. I totally go mad because sometimes it's like, ah, please can we just I work all day for you to come home and all my work to be undone. Well, your backpacks where I asked you to put them?

Unknown Speaker  48:34  
It's a simple thing. Yeah.

Bailey Olsen  48:37  
Simple shoes and backpacks. That's all she had to just say just shoes and backpacks just put them in your room. I don't even care if your room is messy. Just put them in your room. Yeah, but you know we never did. Well we did get better for a while after the whole throwing everything on the front one incident but but other than that, that's that's about as crazy as it got with ours. Oh, except for I do remember watching the babysitter vacuum when she was babysitting, but didn't plug it in. And she did that because she wanted my parents to think that she vacuumed without actually having to vacuum

DJ Stutz  49:18  
would that babysitter be named Candace?

Bailey Olsen  49:21  
It could have been I don't remember who it was to be honest. My first thought was Rocky. But I don't know for sure if it was her but I just remember thinking why fake it if you're gonna push the vacuum around. Why not just turn it on? It's not I mean, all you're doing is wrapping the cord but you're still doing the rest of the work. Yeah, but I remember that the babysitter's did the dishes if there were dishes there Yeah, they clean everything up this house was vacuumed and I love my babysitter's that I have I really do. They are awesome and wonderful. But the dishes are never done there. I would never even dream of them vacuuming or doing something like actual will house work, don't burn the house down. Keep track of my kids. And that's all I expect. Like don't leave a disaster but and now we pay them like triple. Oh my gosh, they were paid, but I was paid back in the day.

DJ Stutz  50:16  
I remember getting in $1 an hour. And I thought that was good.

Bailey Olsen  50:20  
Yeah, I remember asking for 50 cents an hour per kid. So if you watch like for kids, that would be $2 an hour. You know? Yes. That's much, much, much different now.

DJ Stutz  50:34  
Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, we're coming up on our time, it's been so much fun. I hope our listeners have been able to listen in and see some of the goofy things that have happened, and how things that might have been hard to go through when we were little are now some of our fondest memories. And it's okay to relax and be silly and do goofy things. And if you stab your daughter with a fork, she'll survive. It's no

Bailey Olsen  51:09  
way you can make up for it.

DJ Stutz  51:11  
Pack got out of the dishes, that was always fun. But just I hope that my listeners will take the time to think back and maybe even write down some of those stories, and definitely share them with your kids. And my boys. They were both a general though. They're kind of adrenaline junkies. But they were like, oh, gosh, I was just trying to keep them alive when they were growing up. And and they said, don't tell our kids. I'm like, No, you're I'm telling them. So that needs to know. Yeah. Yeah. Because they're both super overly protective of their kids. It's hysterical to see. And so it's like, oh, well, let me tell you what your dad did.

Unknown Speaker  52:02  
Why? Yeah, the kids love it. So

DJ Stutz  52:07  
anyway, just enjoy life. You know, our tagline is let's find joy in parenting. And I hope today has given you a chance to maybe laugh and to reminisce on your own childhood. And so Bailey, thank you for spending another time with me for episode 60.

Bailey Olsen  52:29  
I love it. I'm great. I'm grateful to be here. It's always such a blast.

DJ Stutz  52:33  
Yeah. All right. Thanks. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai