Emily and Ben talk about their use of natural family planning and how it has impacted their relationship. In this episode, we use the audio from Emily’s other podcast, “Wholly a Woman,” where she interviewed Ben about their use of NFP. They talk about some research studies that have looked at NFP and the effects on relationships and their own experiences. We even talk about sex (nothing graphic). Get ready for the most intimate episode of Married with Kids yet!

Ben and Emily talk about exercising before and after kids. We talk about how we have made our routines work over the years and discuss some strategies for fitting in exercise even with the busy-ness of kids.

Emily and Ben go over what they learned from the First Name Basis podcast (www.firstnamebasis.org). The worst thing you can do is NOT talk to your kids about the difficult topics of race and racism. Here are some good things you can do: 1)talk to your kids about differences in skin tone, 2)teach them that race was made up and our society is UNFAIR, 3)question your own biased thoughts and teach your brain to think new ones, 4)seek out new opportunities to meet people who are different from you, and 5)when someone tells you that you do or say something racist, apologize and ask how you can be better next time. These are tough conversations and you will probably screw up, but it’s better to do that than not have the conversation at all. Check out the First Name Basis podcast and their website for even more information on how to have important conversations with your kids

Emily and Ben talk about their kids being creative and using their imaginations. You don’t have to do much to foster creativity - keep it simple and have an open mind.

Ben and Emily talk about how they are parenting their kids while dealing with the loss of a family member. Parenting can be tough when times are tough, but asking for help and recognizing when you can provide extra help for your spouse are important. And sometimes kids are the best distraction from the hard stuff and they can help you remember the good.

Ben and Emily discuss how they were disciplined, how they discipline their kids, and how they would like to discipline in the future.

Part 2/2. In the opposite perspective from last week, Emily and Ben discuss the things they enjoy about life with kids.

Ben and Emily reminisce about life before kids. They discussing missing things like time-freedom, cleanliness, and quiet. Stay tuned for next week’s episode when they will talk about all the things that are now better with kids

Ben and Emily discuss the costs of child-rearing. They talk about how they thought about newborn expenses (needs) and the decisions they are making about toddler expenses (wants). They explain how they’re trying to teach their kids about money now and what that may look like in the future

Ben and Emily talk about navigating friendships with small children. We discuss different kinds of friends your kids may have, including imaginary ones. Friendships can be difficult, even into adulthood, but we are all influenced by the people we surround ourselves with, so it’s important to be mindful starting when your kids are young