to join me on a journey? For the next two hours, you're going to immerse yourself in a wonderful
English conversation. This conversation is with two American English speakers, me and my husband,
Dan. You asked us some wonderful questions related to three separate topics, pregnancy,
parenting, and education. And during the next two hours, you are going to join us on the journey.
Make sure that you turn on your English listening ears so that you can understand everything we're
talking about. You're welcome to click CC so that you can view the full subtitles for these
three conversations. Or you can just watch this lesson and you will see the key vocabulary appear
on the screen. This is to help you be able to catch every important expression that we use.
Hi, I'm Vanessa from speakenglishwithvanessa.com. And like always, I have created a free PDF
worksheet for you. This is not an ordinary PDF, though. This is an extra, mega, super
long PDF with all of today's important vocabulary, expressions, definitions,
sample sentences. There is so much here. And at the end of the free PDF worksheet is a quiz.
I want you to test yourself and see if you can remember the key vocabulary that you learned over
this two hour conversation journey. You can click on the link in the description to download this
free PDF worksheet today. All right, let's get started with the first conversation topic, which
is pregnancy. Let's go. All right. Are you ready to get started with the first category, pregnancy?
Vanessa: Okay, well, I got a big old belly
that's ready to talk about pregnancy. Let's talk about the first question, which comes from Olga.
or might not know that we have a name for our baby. First of all, is our baby a boy or a girl?
Vanessa: Yes. So we have a five-year-old boy,
a three-year-old boy, and now we're going to have a third child who's a girl. Very exciting.
Vanessa: Well, Olga's question is about that.
Vanessa: She says, "I love the name you chose, Matilda."
Vanessa: She said, "Matilda is my favorite Roald
Dahl book for children. Did you have any specific inspiration when choosing this beautiful name?"
Thank you, Olga. So yeah, what do you think? Did we have any inspiration for choosing this name?
know if you did. So my process was to look at the most popular names, the top ,1000, basically.
Vanessa: 1,000.
through all of them and I just wrote down the ones that I liked and I saw Matilda and I thought,
"Hmm, that's a pretty cool name, but I don't think Vanessa will like it." So I wrote down,
I don't know, 25 names. And Vanessa does the same thing and she writes down two names.
Vanessa: I said no to a lot of names.
down two names. One was Louise and the other one was Matilda.
"Matilda, really?" And I was like, "Why?" And I don't even know if you
had a good answer. Well, I mean, there is no good answer. What is your answer?
Dan: Because I didn't even decide it.
Vanessa: I think what sold me on the name was not so much
the full name, but I really like the nickname, which is Tilly. I think Matilda in English,
it sounds very strong. It's not an extremely feminine name, but I feel like the nickname,
Tilly, is very cute. This is absolutely unknown in the US. It is so unusual in the US, but it's-
Vanessa: ... Yeah, to be called
Matilda or Tilly, I think in the US on those lists, it was like...
not popular at all. But in the UK, Australia, a bunch of Nordic countries, it was like top
20. I was so surprised. So I don't know why the US is lagging behind, but we are here to-
Vanessa: ... Bring back
Matilda and it's a old-fashioned name, and our other kids' names are old-fashioned names.
Dan: Yeah, it definitely fits in with the other names.
Vanessa: Yeah, Theodore, Frederick, Matilda. And
each name has a shortened version, Theo, Freddie, Tilly. So it kind of fit the theme of our family.
Dan: We like to have big, bold names and then we
chop them up into smaller names that sound cute. Although I think I might call her Matilda a lot.
Vanessa: Yeah, we've been calling her Matilda so far.
Dan: That name has grown on me quite
a bit because at first I was like, it's really strong. To Americans, it sounds really strong,
I think. Although most people we've talked to, they've been like, "Matilda's so cute. I love it."
Vanessa: Yeah, it's really unusual.
good reactions about it. But the more I say it and the more I hear my kids say it especially-
Vanessa: Oh, it's so cute when they say it.
Dan: ... Like when Theo and Freddie say,
"Oh, how's Matilda in there?" It's very cute. So I think I'm just going to call her Matilda.
Dan: Actually her middle name is Mai, so
that's actually my grandma's middle name. And so we decided to take that and call her Matilda Mai.
Mai. So I'll probably call her all of those things.
Vanessa: All right, let's go on
to our next question. Wafa has a question about deciding to have a third child.
Vanessa: She said, "Many families hesitate before deciding
to have a third child. So was it your case? Did you have any concerns about deciding to have a
third child?" This is a deeper question. Did we have any concerns about having a third child?
for sure both of us hesitated quite a bit. I hesitated less because in my family growing up,
there were three of us. So actually it's exactly the same as my family's going to be.
So I have one brother and one sister, older brother, older sister. I'm in the middle.
so it just seemed kind of natural to me to have three kids in the family. And so I was into the
idea and I would've probably been somewhat disappointed if we didn't shoot for three.
Vanessa: Sure, yeah, we talked about that.
Dan: But I would've ultimately
been okay with it because yeah, when you take out a piece of paper and you start writing down,
why do I want a third kid? And you're like, I don't even know, this is going
to be a lot more work and we're going to have to have a minivan forever and stuff like that.
Yeah, and you don't have to deal with this, so it's a lot easier for-
Dan: Well, that's another thing altogether.
Vanessa: ... The man to say, "Oh sure,
let's have three kids." And for me, I think there is a lot more hesitation and I think rightly so,
I want to make sure that it's a good decision for our family. I definitely hesitate more and
I think that that's very normal considering I have to be pregnant, I have to give birth,
I have to breastfeed our child. There's a lot more duties on me and run this business and take
care of our other children., so there's a lot of hesitation. But in the end, I think it came down
to the question of what if we chose not to? Would I feel like I was missing out on the unknown? And
I think a lot of women feel this, that when they have one kid, maybe they expect that they'll have
a second kid. And then the question of, am I done? Am I done having children? That's a big question,
I think. A lot of moms that I know feel that really strongly, like am I done?
Can I be okay with being done having children? How do I feel about that? And it's a really
tricky question to answer and very personal. So if you have only two children, that can be okay
for your family. Our family's choice doesn't have to be the same for everyone. So yeah,
it kind came down to, hmm, well, are we missing out on something? I don't know. Let's see.
Dan: Were you shooting for a girl at all?
Dan: Did you think about that?
about the gender because I feel like when you decide to have a third child,
especially if you have two of the same gender like us, we have two boys, you have to want a
third child because you're going to get a third child. It can't be about just boy-
Vanessa: ... Or just girl. For us,
it was a very great, happy surprise to have a girl. But I think I would have been just as happy,
less surprised, but I think I would've been just as happy to have a boy because
the idea for us was will this third child complete our family instead of will this
girl complete our family? So we'll see what Matilda's like. I have no idea. I don't know
if my idea of this completing our family will be correct, if we made a good decision or not.
Vanessa: Try to have some high hopes. All right, let's
go to the next question. This question's mainly for me, but you're welcome to have any input.
and she says, "Is this pregnancy different from your pregnancy with the boys?" Well,
you were not pregnant with any of them, unfortunately.
Vanessa: I would say this pregnancy is
different, but not because she's a girl. That's my guess. This pregnancy is different because
it's my third pregnancy and that makes it a lot harder. So my body hurts more, my belly's a lot
bigger than with them. Just everything is harder because it's the third pregnancy. I don't know
if it's the same for everyone. I know some people have a very smooth, easy pregnancy. For me, this
pregnancy is very difficult and I'm very ready for it to be finished, so that's pretty much it.
Dan: Was the morning sickness about the same though?
Vanessa: Yeah, I'd say morning sickness,
which is when you feel nauseous during the first trimester, that was pretty similar.
I think it's just that everything happened sooner and my body hurts more in general.
noted that with every child, she complains about her body earlier.
and I think that that's very possible. My body is having a harder time this time and that's normal.
So yeah, anyway, it's different. It's harder, but not because she's a girl, I think. All right,
let's go to the next question. Now, this was one of our most asked questions and sometimes this
question can be perceived as rude, but because I asked my students directly to ask me anything,
it's okay that they ask this, but I want you to be careful when you're talking with
a random person who's pregnant. Do not ask this, but now it's okay. So for those of
you who asked me this question, it's okay. The question is, can you guess what it is?
Dan: Was she an accident or on purpose?
Vanessa: That's it. That's one of the-
Dan: That's rude way to say it.
Gloria asked this in a very nice way. She said, "Did you plan this baby or was it a surprise?"
Vanessa: Surprise is very positive word.
Dan: ... That's the nice way to say it is a surprise.
like to explain really quick before we answer this, why it can be considered rude. And it's
not really because it's too personal, it's more because if you did not plan
your pregnancy and you just got pregnant by accident, there's kind of a concern,
maybe for me, if I got pregnant by accident then and someone said, "Is this an accidental
pregnancy?" And I said "Yes," I might feel like, oh, they might think I don't love my child. It
Dan: It puts you on the spot.
of feels like maybe you don't care about your child as much as someone who plans
their pregnancy. So I think it can make, especially the mother feel uncomfortable.
But for those of you who asked this to us, no problem. I allowed you to ask any question.
Dan: Yeah, we don't have a problem with it.
Dan: Especially because...
Vanessa: ... Did we plan this baby?
all children. You cannot be married to this woman and not have a plan.
Vanessa: Yeah. So generally I'm very careful about,
I know things could always happen, but I try to be very careful about planning when we have a baby
and all of those types of things. I think that that's important for the family unit, important
for me. I know that your body and your life is often unpredictable, but that's just how it went
for us. The next category is questions about birth and around the birth time. So our first question
is from Lucas and he says, "Will you give birth at home like you did with you and Freddie?" Quick
correction. I gave birth in a birth center for Theo and Freddie. So it's like a home environment,
but they have all of the emergency supplies should your baby need oxygen, if you hemorrhage and you
can't stop bleeding, they can help you with all of that and it's a very comforting environment.
It's not the hospital, but it's kind of beside the hospital. Anyway, it was a beautiful experience.
Vanessa: Yeah, it's kind of like a bedroom,
like a really nice hotel room. I feel extremely lucky that we had that available in our city, but-
Vanessa: ... About a year and a half ago, the birth
center had to close. There was just insurance problems. It was really a big shame. I know the US
doesn't have a good healthcare reputation and this is one of the problems. So the birth center closed
down and I needed to find an alternative and we had two options. One was to go to the hospital and
one was to have a home birth because I already had two very smooth, pretty straightforward-
Vanessa: ... Successful,
simple births, I feel very lucky about that, I know a lot of people have scary birth stories,
but for me it was really empowering and great. Not like fun, but certainly a positive experience
overall. I felt comfortable not giving birth in the hospital. So I interviewed a couple midwives
who come to your house and help you as you're giving birth, and we found one that we really
liked. So I've been having appointments with her. It's just like normal, really. She takes my blood,
she does various tests, all of those types of things. And when she comes to the house when I'm
in labor, she said she has three gigantic bags of all of the emergency supplies and
anything that she might need to help me or the baby. And yeah, we'll see what happens.
Vanessa: Yeah, very capable, very-
Dan: She's delivered thousands of babies.
Vanessa: ... Yeah, and I think because I've given
birth before, I kind of feel more comfortable with the experience in general. So yeah, that's
what we're going to do. We'll let you know how it turns out. All right, the next question could be
more for both of us. And a lot of people ask this. Carmen, Michele, Evangelina, and Ofelia asked,
do you think Freddie and Theo will be jealous of their little sister? What do you think?
Dan: I think they're going to be just very excited
to see her and be with her and I think they won't be jealous. I think they might get frustrated if
we're doing something with her and they want to play with us or talk to us or something.
Vanessa: That's kind of part of jealousy
though. I think that's how kids can express jealousy in a way.
Vanessa: Is like extra anger, extra frustration.
Dan: They're just kind of like that now anyways,
if we're doing something and they want our attention, they're going to be upset about it.
Vanessa: ... Really positively to other
babies. And whenever we talk about Matilda, it's funny because you know how as adults,
whenever we're near babies, your voice kind of goes up like oh little baby, you kind of
create this baby voice, our kids do that too. They'll say, "Oh, I wonder if Matilda's going
to have little cute fingers." And they have that voice too. So you can kind of tell that they are
expecting her to be a cute little play thing. I think it will become harder as she gets older and
starts grabbing their things. It's always growing pains, but I feel like in general it'll be okay.
I associate jealousy behavior with something like hitting the baby because they're upset-
Vanessa: Oh, like aggressive.
Dan: ... That mommy's holding the baby.
Dan: But I don't think they're going to be like that.
Vanessa: In general, what I found is that having
a newborn is okay. Having a three-year-old is the problem. So I expect that the very age appropriate
three-year-old tantrums that our three-year-old is experiencing now will also happen later. And
it will just be harder for us because we also will have a small baby to care for. So I don't really
expect it will be that much more, but it will just continue and we'll have more responsibilities,
which will make it trickier for us. So yeah, that's the idea. We'll see. All right, Ana,
Gualterio, and Olindo had a similar type of question. "Will you have some kind of help with
the kids after she's born?" Olindo specifically asked about the role of grandparents because he's
a grandfather, so he helps to take care of his grandkids, takes them to sports games, and this
is specifically about after birth, but they asked, "Is it normal to have help with your kids, either
paid help or grandparent help after the baby's born?" So yeah, what will we do? Do we know?
Dan: I believe my mom will be here for a while. Right?
Vanessa: We'll see how long a while is.
Dan: I don't think this is set in stone yet.
Vanessa: So because we're going to be,
because we have other children, even if we weren't giving birth at home, even if it were at
a hospital or birth center, you still need someone to take care of your kids while you're gone. So
Dan's mom is going to come during the birth and probably the next day. With Theo and Freddie,
with Theo, our oldest child, she stayed for two weeks and then with Freddie she stayed
less time. But in the end, I'm not exactly sure what will happen this time, but we do have several
babysitters who help in our daily lives now so that I can film these videos and do my job.
Everyone needs help in their life. So they will also be coming to be with our oldest children
and we'll be with the baby. So it's kind of perfect timing because she'll be born at the
beginning of June. We didn't mention she's going to be born at the beginning of June.
but sometime at the beginning of June.
Vanessa: And Dan works at a school,
so school will be out, which is perfect because we will both be home all summer. So for me,
I feel like we can care for me and the baby and then if someone helps to care
for Theo and Freddie, that would be great. Obviously we'll still spend time with them,
but I think I am less worried about someone caring for the baby and if you can take care
of me and I take care of her and someone else takes care of them, we'll be good. Right?
Vanessa: Yeah. We're basically asking
all of our friends and family to... We don't really need baby stuff, so we're asking them,
if you want to give us something, please give us food, please make a meal and we can put it
in our freezer. I think that's the perfect gift so I think we will be taking care of. I hope.
Vanessa: Along with the idea of help and getting help,
Sharon and Valentina had an interesting question that shows how not American this is. Is it
expensive to have a baby in the US and will you receive a government subsidy for a newborn baby?
That's what I laughed at. So my first thought, and then you can say something about this,
my first thought was if you are already receiving government subsidies, maybe you are on welfare,
or you get food stamps, or something like that, you will receive some kind of care,
like some kind of extra subsidy or something to help you pay for baby food or something like that.
Dan: You have to be under a certain income level.
you're already receiving that, you might get something also for your
baby. But for most people, the government doesn't care if you have a baby or not.
you count them on your taxes and you probably pay less taxes.
little bit less taxes because you have for each child, but it's that much, it's not worth it.
Dan: They certainly don't give you money.
Vanessa: No. And they don't give... I know some countries-
you a time off or anything like that.
Vanessa: ... Yeah, no time off. They won't
give you a package. I know some countries give a baby package to every new family and you get-
Vanessa: ... It's kind of famous, I think in
Norway where they give you a baby box and the baby box is big enough to be like a crib for a newborn
and they have towels, and swaddles, and bottles, and tons of stuff for a baby. And I don't know,
that would be amazing if someone wants to send us that, but the government does not do that.
Our government's more interested in making bombs.
Vanessa: That's the truth of the matter. So the
first question was, is it expensive to have a baby in the US? It depends what you think about money.
Dan: Yeah, it depends on, I don't know. We've
just always really worked into our budget child stuff. I don't think it's incredibly expensive.
couple different costs. The first one is Americans pay health insurance monthly.
And that's around, I wouldn't say at the moment, it's specifically a requirement,
but almost everybody has some kind of health insurance. And usually your company,
if you work full-time, will pay like 50% of the healthcare or the health insurance monthly
costs. So if you work for a company, your health insurance is much cheaper than someone like us.
not the best people to ask because we're self-employed.
and you get the short end of the stick. Let me tell you why.
full price of health insurance. You have to find your own health insurance independently. Not fun.
America is not known for cheap healthcare.
Vanessa: No. Yeah, so in general,
I would say if you work for a company, you might pay like $100.00 a month in health insurance. If
you work for yourself, you might pay between $500.00 and $1,000.00 per month in health
insurance. So thinking about that, that is part of the cost. When we went to the birth center and
for this home birth midwife that we're paying, the cost is about $6,000.00. So our health insurance,
we pay a lot for per month, we will get reimbursed a big chunk of that, over 50% of that we will get
reimbursed. If you have a hospital birth, I know some friends have had a hospital birth, they had a
C-section, and they did not have insurance and it costs $10,000.00, which is a lot of money.
Dan: It's less than I would've expected.
Vanessa: But that's what I thought. I thought it
would be like $100,000.00 and usually the hospital gives you some kind of payment plan. So you could
pay $100.00 every month for the rest of your life or something like that. So that's the cost that
I know. I know some people who have... I don't know how expensive their insurance is monthly,
but their whole birth was like $25.00, but maybe they're paying $500.00 a month in insurance.
it's hard to say exactly. It's a very complicated question.
having a baby in the US, save some money.
Vanessa: Don't. Save some money,
and yeah, just check with your insurance company. I know some
insurance companies like ours, you can't start a new insurance company
if you're already pregnant. Okay. Are we ready to move on to our next question?
question is also a new category. We just talked about pregnancy,
then we talked about birth and around the birth time. Next is our life with three children.
So we have a lot of people who asked the same question. Maggy, Amaury, Elodie, Lizzy all asked,
"Do you want to have another baby after Matilda?" First of all, never ask a seven month, eight month
pregnant woman if she wants another baby. That's okay. I'm just saying that as a joke. But yeah.
Dan: Don't ask her to her face.
Vanessa: Let's answer together on three. Are you ready?
Vanessa: No. So this is it. I think
I will do everything in my power and so will Dan to make sure that this is it. Our family is done.
three feels perfect to me. I mean, obviously I grew up with two siblings, so it makes sense
and I know it was already quite a push for you to go with three. So four is a bit...
Dan: As close to out of the question as possible.
Vanessa: ... So the underlying feature here is if I said
in the future that, oh, guess what, we're having a fourth baby, you'll know it was not planned.
think three is good. My baby, my belly, and my body is suffering a lot. So we'll stop it here.
Dan: So you can finally recuperate after this.
Vanessa: Yes, it would be great to say,
okay, now my body is mine kind of. I still have at least another year of taking care of a baby
with my body. But the idea that I can go to the gym, I can work out, I can try to repair my body,
all of these things and that's it. I'm not going to get pregnant again and then have to go through
all that again. All right, the next one is also a big question and a lot of people asked it, Ella,
Eleonora, Jeff, Ana and Claudia all asked, "How in the world will you arrange your day between
your professional duties, housekeeping, and your three beautiful children?" I don't know.
Dan: Well, babysitters are pretty key.
have a nanny, honestly, but we have good babysitters already.
Vanessa: Yeah. So as far as childcare, our oldest will
be going to first grade. He's in kindergarten this year. He'll be going to first grade. Our second,
he's three, he will be going to preschool. And that's nine o'clock to one o'clock, four days
a week. And the baby will be with me and Dan will be working at our oldest's school.
Vanessa: So he has the same hours, the same vacations.
Dan: I take him to school, all that.
him to school, so that's a good puzzle piece in our life. As far as childcare,
I think the hard time comes when children are sick.
Vanessa: You just have mad chaos-
Dan: Yeah, that throws off everything.
So that's for childcare. I feel like when-
Dan: That's also the time you work.
... Yeah. When Matilda is young, really young, she'll nap a lot.
Vanessa: Yeah, when Matilda is young,
like really young, she'll nap a lot, and I plan to just lower my standards. I'll
still film YouTube videos. I'll still be active in my business,
but I'm not going to be making a ton of new courses and lots of new stuff over the next year.
But I do have a lot of help in my business, in Speak English with Vanessa. There's about
10 or so people who participate in helping make this business run, help to edit videos, help to-
Dan: She's got a real team now.
questions. All of this, whether you know it or not, there's a lot of work that goes into making
this run. So it's not just me. And I think that due to other people helping, it will continue.
Right now, I am working very hard to prepare for the next six months, so I would love to,
I'm filming a lot of YouTube videos, like four months worth of YouTube videos. I have a lot
of things prepared in advance, and a lot of the people who are working for the business are also
preparing for kind of a maternity leave. I'm still going to be doing something,
but it's not going to be as busy, and it's a good thing when you get pregnant,
you have nine months to prepare. So I'm using this time to kind of prepare for the business,
and I'm sure at some point Matilda will be taking less naps, she'll be sleeping less, and I'll need
to have someone come a couple mornings a week to watch her so that I can do my business, which is
what we do now. But I think at the beginning we'll just take it slow, see how it goes.
have some time, especially early on, to just be with our family,
build a new relationship with this child, and then after that we'll have help via babysitters.
parts of this, it said, "Professional duties, three beautiful children and housekeeping."
Vanessa: Yeah. That's why we have Dan.
Yeah. Right now I'm the housekeeper.
Vanessa: Yeah. So at the moment,
Dan does everything for the house, and that's kind of a halfway through pregnancy into the
future. Who knows? Maybe Dan will always do all the household chores. Probably not,
but I think it's really useful to try to help each other out when you can. Especially when
having a third child, having a business. Both of us are working, part-time, but also full-time,
and there's a lot going on in our lives. You just need to be there for each other really.
Dan: At least we have the robot.
Vanessa: Oh yeah. And we have about 10 robots-
Vanessa: ... Who also live in our
house and do everything. Just kidding. Talking about us though, we have one bonus question,
but before we get to the bonus question, Edita has a question about us. She said,
"How can you keep up your relationship with each other when you have three children?"
How do you do it when you have one child or two children?
have a toddler in the house, it gets pretty difficult, let's put it that way.
of the day, you're like, I'm done.
have time to work out our problems. It's like, can I just pass out now?
anyone who has kids period realizes that there's a big extra effort that you have
to put into your relationship to just find the energy for each other, and I think we try to do
that. We don't always succeed, but trying to find some time for each other is good.
us is that we have a couple's therapist that we see every week or every other week or so,
and so that really helps us check in with each other. Having a middleman
there really helps being like, "Hey, how do I really feel right now?"
recommend talking with a couple's therapist for anyone who is in a
relationship. You don't have to be on the brink of divorce to go see a therapist.
Dan: You don't have to wait till then.
Vanessa: No, do not wait till then.
I know when we started meeting with him, we were like, yeah, our relationship has normal problems,
but it's not disastrous, and it's been so helpful for us. You don't have to be-
Vanessa: ... At the very end of
your relationship to do that. So I think that's been, it's helped us to understand each other
better. And also all of these big life changes. It's like a teacher, you have a teacher kind of
guiding you through that, because, I don't know, we don't really live in a culture where you have
great-grandparents and grandparents and parents all living together helping with your life a lot
and teaching you about how to do different things. So having a professional give you
some insight and ask the hard questions. Yeah, that's been really helpful for us.
Vanessa: So yeah, highly recommend.
Dan: We also occasionally go on a date.
Vanessa: I think whenever we get a chance to go out to
lunch or drop the children off at Dan's parents' house for a couple days. We're going to do that
next week. And it feels so refreshing. And I think just try to take those chances when you can. Don't
feel guilty about enjoying spending time away from your children. First of all, your children
need other people in their lives, not just you. They need grandparents. They need babysitters.
They need a community, not just their parents. So it's good for us, but it's also good for them,
I think, too. All right, we have one final question. It is a bonus question. Are you ready?
Vanessa: Yes. All right. Well,
we've talked a lot about our experiences and our lives, but Ava has a great question. Ava says,
"Do you have any recommendations for someone who's pregnant for the first time?" Well,
we're not the world's foremost experts, but we've gone through
this a couple times. What would you say?
Dan: I think you're an expert. At this point.
Vanessa: I think if you've gone through pregnancy one time,
all of a sudden you have so much more experience and then two times and then three times.
does she mean actually the pregnancy part or?
Dan: Because a better person to answer that part.
Vanessa: ... Pregnancy, the mindset,
your relationship, all of that stuff. I think we could take this question in many directions.
Dan: Yeah. Well, I hope that you have time to spend
with your partner for one. I hope the partner's there. That's pretty key. Having somebody who's
really your support person is extremely important. So even if the partner's not in the picture,
then you're going to need somebody who's super committed to being with you during that time.
Vanessa: I think that's a good
starting place, is having... Well, if you're already pregnant, it's too late, but choosing-
the chapter back a little bit. Find the right person to get pregnant with.
Vanessa: Choosing someone who you like and having
kids with them. I know when one of my friends was thinking about having a baby, she's like,
"I just don't know when the right time is." And I was like, yeah, maybe there's some times
that are better than other times. But the biggest question is, is he the right person?
Because it's never going to be a perfect time to get pregnant, but if you're with the person
that you want to be with, in the end it will work out. Yes, sometimes will be harder than others,
but I think the first question is who? And I would say the second thing is a lot of people,
a lot of women who are pregnant for the first time, it's very normal, I was like this too,
do a lot of research and feel a lot more anxious about their first child,
especially for us compared to number two and number three. It's not that they're neglected,
it's you're more realistic about what your life is going to be like. So I would say talk
to other people who have two or three children or more when you're pregnant with your first
child. Because I think it helps to give some perspective when you're worried about, well,
is this type of washing detergent? I know new mothers sometimes think I need to wash my baby's
clothes in this specific type of soap, or those little things that can really stress you out.
Talking to someone who's had more children, just chit-chatting with them. Or even if you, I know
there's some great YouTube channels of parents who have 11 children. Don't look at the crazy
ones. Look at people who seem pretty normal still, and it can be really grounding to see their kind
of advice where we are thinking about, oh, okay, we have two boys and then a baby girl. Are they
all going to sleep in the same room? What are they going to do? We have three kids, so we have kind
of a lot of experience, but when you hear about someone who has six or seven children and you see
their life, living situations, it kind of helps give you more perspective. So you feel not anxious
about everything. There's some things that are worth spending a lot of time on, but in general,
I think that can help give you good perspective. A little tip that I am just learning now is-
Vanessa: A little late, but is
not too late yet. There's a very interesting book called The Fourth Trimester. A lot of talk when
you have a baby is how to take care of the baby, what do you do with the baby? But a lot of the
focus goes off of you when you're pregnant. It's like, "Oh, your belly, oh, the mom, mom, mom."
But then when you have the baby, a lot of the focus is on the baby. So this book focuses on
how to take care of yourself, and I guess the spoiler is that you don't take care
of yourself. You have other people helping to take care of you, and you kind of set up your-
Dan: You need your pamper people.
up your life so that the first couple months after birth, you are taken care of because it
can be a really big shock. It is going to be a big shock starting your life as a mother. And
so I think this book would be extremely helpful to a third time mother or a first time mother to
help you be able to be your best self so that you can come out of the first three months
of having a baby and you feel stronger, you feel more capable, and you feel ready
for starting that new part of your life. I feel like that book would've been very
helpful to me. Maybe you live in a culture that really takes care of new mothers. We don't. So
I think the ideas in this book were really helpful to me. So anyway, that's my advice.
Dan: I think I have another tip.
Dan: You should go to a birth class.
Because we went to a class together that kind of-
you bring your partner, your support person.
they just went over all the different things you can do to not basically freak out and help
the person through it, what all the different signs are during the labor so you're not totally
surprised. And I probably need a refresher Last time with Freddy, our second child, I just read
the paper over and I was like, oh yeah, those are the good tips. And so I was more prepared. With-
so fast that there's no time to think.
it will probably take a lot longer so it's good to be very prepared,
especially the husbands out there or partners of various shapes and sizes
and forms. Take a birth class with your wife or partner. Yeah, you need to be prepared too.
that sets you up for the birth, but it sets you up for being parents together. A lot of
moms will have a pregnancy app on their phone. I remember the first day of that
pregnancy or the birth class, the teacher asked us, "So who has a pregnancy app on your phone?"
All of the women raise their hands. And they said, "Okay guys, which one of you have a pregnancy app
on your phone?" And none of the men raised their hands. So if you're the one who's not pregnant,
doing a birth class together, or just even having a day where you go over some birth articles or
watch a couple birth videos together, those types of things, it sets you up to be partners
with your baby. It's not just the mom's duty. There's a lot that is on the mom that the mom
has to do and the other person can't do. But in general, that mindset that you're in this
together is really important. So yeah, that was a good tip.
Well, thank you so much for joining me on that pregnancy conversation journey. Now we're going
to step into parenting. After having that child, we are now deep into the three child parenting
life. So let's go on to that conversation where you'll see some of your questions
that we answered about parenting. Let's go. Are you ready to start with the first question?
Vanessa: All right. Here goes.
Vanessa: The questions are from Alex,
from Brazil, Claudio, also from Brazil, and Vera from Taiwan. They all asked questions
about parenting. The first one is, "What has it been like having three kids so far?"
Maybe we should give a little background of our children's ages and all of that.
do we have? We do have three. Indeed.
Vanessa: Yes. So we have Theo,
who is six now. We have Freddy, who is three, and we have a new baby, Matilda, who is two
months old when you're watching this. Yeah. What's it been like having three kids so far?
like what we've experienced so far is not probably representative of what will happen.
she is just a little baby and she is actually a very, very, very good sleeper.
made it very helpful for us. She takes her nap and then she wakes up and she's not that upset,
and then she takes another nap and then she sleeps all night.
unheard of for a baby. So, so far it's been pretty easy with Matilda, but the other two,
as they get older, I think they kind of in their own way get a little harder.
they say bigger kids, bigger problems, generally is how it goes.
And I'm sure it will all change as they get older and all go through different stages. But really,
I think the most difficult, oftentimes parents ask, what's the most difficult stage? I think
the most difficult was going from zero kids to one kid because it's such a huge life change. We
were going to the brewery and trivia night late at night and going with our friends.
Going on long hikes and doing things spontaneously.
you have a baby, all of a sudden your life changes dramatically.
backpacking is carrying the baby down the stairs.
backpacking. So I feel like that was the biggest change and probably the most difficult change. I
know a lot of people say going from one kid to two kids is the most difficult because all of
a sudden you're juggling two different humans. But for us, at least for me,
I would say going from zero to one was the most difficult one to two. It was trickier.
gets progressively harder, but I'm not a woman, so.
their own opinion about this. I think going from two to three so far hasn't been a huge change.
just because she's pretty chill and I think that this summer has been really special
because you've been home. I've had another parent at home at all times to help with all
the children. So instead of being parenting alone, being a parent alone with three kids,
right now, we've got two parents at home at all times. But when you're watching this,
that is changing because school is starting back. Dan's going back to work at the school
where he works. Theo will also be going to school. Freddy will be going to preschool,
so it'll be a little bit trickier. So maybe we'll keep you updated. That's the final answer.
I think it's a lot trickier for moms, especially when they're at home. Now
that I've been home for the summer, it's actually been harder for me,
I think overall because you're always holding or caring for somebody all the time.
Dan: And that's especially true with the
baby. So it's just cycling through the kids. Who am I tending to now? Y.
Vanessa: Yeah. Sometimes we say,
"If it's not one, it's the other." Somebody is always having a problem at all times. Hopefully
it's not all three at the same time. I think that only happened one time so far.
Vanessa: When everyone was crying?
were almost there. We were almost crying too.
Dan: I don't know. At that point,
you just kind of look at each other and you kind of laugh because you're like,
what am I going to do now? I don't know. You're all crying.
picture once. There's a Facebook page, it's also an Instagram page called Humans of New York. Maybe
you've seen it before. If not, I highly recommend it because it's a great way to get little snippets
of language and culture. Anyway, there's a guy who goes around New York taking pictures of strangers
and he asks them a bit about their lives and they usually share something pretty interesting,
I think. But there was one couple he took a picture of and they had a young child
with them and he said something like, or they said something about the process of deciding
whether or not they should have children. And they're like, "I don't know. We like
our lives now. Should we have kids?" And I think the husband, he said, "Well, having kids is the
full human experience. Humans have been having children and being around children for eternity."
Vanessa: She said that when their
child is screaming in the bath or having a crazy time, they just look at each other and say, "Full
human experience." And really, that's kind of all you can do. Yeah. I get frustrated sometimes. I
get angry sometimes, but in the end, you kind of just got to take a step back and go, all right.
telling yourself, I hope it'll be worth it someday.
Vanessa: We are experiencing the full human experience.
Dan: It's not really that bad though.
it's been very nice and very rewarding. That's the word.
that's the thing about parenting is that on paper there's a lot of negatives. You
got to change your life. It's expensive, it's a lot of work-
Dan: You got to change diapers.
Vanessa: You got to change diapers.
There's a lot of negatives on paper involved, but I think anyone who has been a parent,
or if you've been an aunt and you've helped to take care of your sister's child or a grandmother
and taking care of other children, it's intangible the reward, which, that's a great vocabulary word.
Just as a little reminder, we will be talking about some key vocabulary from this conversation
in a couple of weeks on my YouTube channel, so don't miss that video. Make sure you subscribe
to the Speak English with Vanessa YouTube channel so that you can get the vocabulary
lesson coming in a few weeks about this lesson. All right, let's go to our next question. Our
next question also has to do with parenting and it's talking about competition. How do you handle
competition between siblings? First of all, let's talk about what is competition between siblings.
questions. I don't know if I'm ready for the surprise.
Vanessa: Alex, Vera and Claudio were not holding
back with their questions. Yeah, let's talk about what is competition first? What competition means.
is where two people can't win. Only one person can win.
Dan: You're competing for the one prize, basically.
I think that prize in a family is your parents' attention.
So there's only two of us, and sometimes there's only one of us at home. So that
competition is often, they're not thinking, I want to be the one to get mom's attention the
most. They're not really consciously thinking that, but that's just by nature how it is,
that the limited resource is our attention. So siblings, that's brothers and sisters.
Competition between siblings, do we do anything about that?
especially in the sense of our attention. I think we try to give each kid attention, especially
one-on-one attention. Although I've noticed that with Freddy, our second one, he definitely cries
out for attention a lot more. He does more things to make you say, "What are you doing?"
Vanessa: Little naughty things sometimes.
naughty things and a lot more like, "Hey, look at me, look at me, Daddy." Stuff like that. So
he is a lot more direct about it, I think. And it's probably because he's the second child.
you're the second child. You're the middle child. You're like Freddy.
Dan: Apparently, I was the quiet one though.
Dan: Yeah. Easygoing. I was sneaky though.
a cry for attention too. It's like doing little things to try to get away with it,
and just, I don't know. Did you ever feel like you lacked attention from your parents?
Dan: Is this about my childhood now?
Vanessa: Yes. We're turning it on you.
maybe a little bit. Because it was the, I was the easy child, and my brother was a little bit more
of the squeaky wheel is the expression we use. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Is that the saying?
he was a little more of a challenging kid than I was.
Vanessa: So your parents' attention was on him?
Dan: At least from my parents' perspective. Yeah.
what I've heard, that they just put a lot of attention on him because he was either
more difficult or they perceived him as more difficult. And so it's not that you got ignored,
it's just that maybe they felt like you didn't need that type of attention.
Dan: Well, they just thought that I was like,
he's good. Look at him, he's happy he's doing his thing. Yeah. And inside,
well, yeah, I maybe had some problems down the road because, maybe.
wants as much of their parents' attention as possible, and I'm sure you did too.
I think Freddy is much more direct than I was. He's pretty-
that's good. I want to know what he's thinking.
He's more your sister than me. Her sister is the second child too.
Vanessa: Yeah. One that will tell you,
"I want this and I want it now, and I'm not going to stop until I get it." That kind of attitude.
Dan: That's exactly what I want.
that was one of my thoughts when we were deciding whether or not we wanted to have a third kid was,
will I be able to give enough attention to Freddy? Because it's kind of a stereotype
that the middle child gets glossed over or forgotten, and I love Freddy. I don't want
him to be glossed over, but kind of by default, we spent years with only Theo-
Dan: He won't let you not get attention.
Vanessa: ... And then I have a baby,
so I have to spend time with her. And so what happens to the middle child? By default,
they get a little bit less attention their whole lives. So I wanted to make sure that
that was something that I could handle. Because yeah. I love Freddy. I don't want him to get
less attention, but I think he's ready to stand up for himself. He's got a strong personality.
about competition with each other? Because that's how I would've initially taken the-
Vanessa: Like fighting with each other maybe?
I have noticed that Freddy will say, "I can do this the best." And Theo will be like,
"No, I can do it better." So they kind of have these little arguments.
Vanessa: I think we try not to compare
them with each other in front of them. Sometimes when we're talking with just each other, when the
kids are asleep, we might say, "Is this okay? Theo didn't do this and Freddy's doing this?"
We might talk amongst ourselves about that, but I think it's really important to not say,
"Theo does this. Freddy, you should do it too." Or, "Freddy, Theo doesn't do that. Look at him."
That kind of comparison. It's better to keep it, I think more general, like, "Don't hit."
Instead of saying, "Theo doesn't hit, you shouldn't hit too." Just don't hit. Keeping
it as a rule versus a comparison. Also, I would highly recommend if you have multiple
children or if you are a grandparent that has multiple grandkids, there's a book called-
book. Siblings Without Rivalry is the older-
It's Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings. It took me a moment to think of that. Peaceful parent,
Happy Siblings. I'll put a picture of it right here, on Dan's face. This book gives amazing tips
about how to help there be less competition between siblings and just have your kids get
along. I think when I see you with your siblings, as adults, you guys get along really well. It's
so nice that at Christmas when everyone gets together. Some people dread going to-
Vanessa: ... Family gatherings
because they just fight with their siblings or they just have a terrible relationship
and I feel like you guys get along, you play games, you enjoy chatting.
Dan: Me and my brother can be a bit.
I don't know. I think that's brother stuff.
Vanessa: Yeah. I think compared to what it could be,
from my opinion as an outsider, I think that you guys have what I would want my kids to have.
age too. There was definitely phases in me and my brother's life where it was pretty contentious.
Vanessa: Yeah. What'd you guys do?
Dan: We fought a lot in high school.
Dan: Middle school, high school.
Vanessa: ... Physically hit each other?
Vanessa: I think that's probably normal.
Theo and Freddy do sometimes too, but not too often. I think Theo is actually pretty good at
recognizing that he's the older brother and not always being so serious about the competition.
And then Freddy will even recognize, "Well, someday when I'm bigger,
I'll get better at this." So they almost both have a little bit of recognition.
Vanessa: But the other day when
Theo wasn't at home, he was at a friend's house, and we were talking to Freddy and we're like,
"Oh, what would it be like if you were the oldest sibling, Freddy?" He got this look on
his face like, I would be bigger than everyone. I would get to do everything better than everyone.
Vanessa: Yeah. I think that it's just,
like I said, by default, the second kid and third are going to have kind of a complex almost that
they're not the biggest, but that's normal. Humans have been dealing with this forever,
so it's not dooming them. But it's just going to be part of their personality.
Dan: I think a big picture with our kids,
it seems like maybe we're a little bit fortunate that they're not gung-ho, crazy, competitive-
Dan: ... gung-ho, crazy competitive.
I think some kids can be a lot more, and they're not, especially.
Vanessa: At least at this point.
there's a developmental stage that, well, there's lots of stages we haven't gotten
to yet. Our oldest is only six, that maybe they'll become more competitive.
Or they're just not touchy about it in the same way. Freddy will say, "I'm the best digger in the
world and I'm doing it the best, and I'm number one." And Theo will be kind of like, "Okay."
knows you're not really, you're just saying that because you're three.
Dan: See, I'll show you later.
yeah. I think that's good. That's good. And having a good foundation for their friendship. I mean,
that's the goal. We want our kids to be friends when they get older,
and now too. All right, let's go to our next question. This one pivots a
little bit from just talking about multiple children. This question is a little deeper.
of raising or parenting children at a time when technology ends up taking
over a parent's role. Are tech devices dumbing down our children and what do we currently do?
Dan: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.
Vanessa: What do we currently do
and what do we plan to do as they get older? So I think the essence of this question is-
Dan: Wow, that's a great question.
screens and tech, I think by tech they mean screens, affecting children in general? And
then how are we approaching that in our family? Which, that's a big question.
Dan: Yeah. I think that's like-
Vanessa: That's something I feel very passionate
about. So I think this was Alex's question. Thank you, Alex, for this great question.
I think screens have the potential to absolutely ruin people, families, children.
Vanessa: But children are just,
they don't know what they're getting into. So adults at least have control over their lives.
Dan: Starting them young is not probably the best idea.
people appreciate the addictive qualities of these
things. People design these to hook you in so you'll use them for hours and hours.
for us, I mean, our kids, they do watch stuff on TV, but it's just for a little bit of time.
Dan: And then they just have to go outside or play.
don't have iPods. No computers, no phones, nothing like that.
Vanessa: iPods back in the '2000s.
Vanessa: Hey, we used to have iPods back in the day.
Vanessa: Yeah, I think that two
decisions that we decided to make as a family about tech so far. So our kid, our oldest is-
Dan: And they're young, so it's a little easier.
only six. I mean, some people would say it's harder because it acts as a free babysitter.
the friends yet being like, "Get this thing. Come play this video game."
Vanessa: Yeah, but what I mean
is people will give their kid a tablet and it makes the parent have an easier time.
that's true. The TV is really nice whenever you need a break, that is a very true statement.
that we decided to do as a family with tech is one, we don't own any tablets,
but to not give our children a phone or a tablet, so something personal. And instead,
when we watch something, we watch it on the TV. So it's kind of a community experience. Even if I'm
not watching it, if I'm making lunch and they're watching it, it's not this type of thing. Instead,
they're watching together and it's a little bit more of a public experience. And I'm sure
this will change over time as they get older. But that was kind of one of our goals because
in our relationship, we lived for a long time without a TV in our house. And when we moved
to this house, we had to kind of decide how to use it. And especially with children, that's
tricky. So we decided no personal device, just the TV. And the second one was have a set time,
and also time of day when they watch something. So this has worked well for us. Our kids are small,
I'm sure if you have a 12-year-old you're saying, "Oh, you have it so easy."
works a lot better if you start them young.
Dan: It's much easier to say, "Hey, this is what
we do," than, "Hey, you watched all this TV, let's take it away." That's not going to work so well.
Vanessa: Yeah, it's harder to go back and change.
Nevermind, you can't have a tablet.
work so well, or it's not going to be fun for a while.
have done for our kids is there's a specific time of day, usually it's before lunch or after lunch,
around this time. Before maybe a couple months ago, Freddy started to care, but Freddy didn't
really care about watching something. He was too young, two years old. He didn't really
care. But Theo would choose one program, and this was something that we thought was okay.
So I think the quality of what they're watching is important. And obviously that's very subjective,
what you consider quality. But we had a couple of shows that we thought were okay, and Theo could
choose one show, like 30 minutes. He could choose which one he wanted to watch. And when that show
is finished, it's done. That's it. So he watched something for 30 minutes. And now that Freddy is
also a little bit older and he's wanting to choose something himself, they each choose
something. And so they watch for one hour most days, I would say. In the summer, it's every day.
Dan: But not during the school year.
Vanessa: During the school year,
they don't watch anything except on the weekends. But I feel like this specific time of day and a
specific length, it's not just five minute YouTube videos and then it keeps going and keeps going,
and then it's hard to stop that flow. I think as adults it's hard to stop that when you're watching
something, especially something short. There's no definitive end. But for our kids, that has
worked so well. There's times of course when we turn it off and they're cranky or they're fussy,
but overall, this has worked so well. And the truth is, it is harder as parents because we
don't use the TV as a babysitter for four hours a day. They're not watching even two hours a day.
I think at least the science as of now, 2023, says that one hour of TV per day for children
over the age of two is fine. There's not negative consequences. Obviously, if they're watching, I
don't know, a horror movie, it's not a good idea, but something appropriate for children, that's the
guidelines. And for me, that kind of relieved me of some guilt because I was like, "My kids aren't
going to watch TV, they're not going to watch screens." Blah, blah, blah. And then I saw that,
and I feel like I can trust that one hour, limited time over the age of two. So under the age of two,
no screens are good for kids. But this kind of idea that this is okay can kind of relieve you
if you're the kind of parent, I think especially moms suffer from this, who would feel guilty about
making a decision about letting your kid watch TV or whatever it might be, something that-
Dan: I think most parents let their kids watch TV.
Vanessa: Yes, but I think a lot of people feel guilty
about it. They probably do it, but they might feel guilty. So I think this kind of relieved
me of some guilt. Anyway, that's what we do. What about the future? Because part of this is-
Dan: Well, yeah, the elephant in the room is phones.
do? Yeah. What do we plan to do as they get older? And the plan might be different from the reality.
Vanessa: But do we have a plan?
solid plan yet because we're not sure.
Dan: I have seen these phones that are, they're
kind of like safe phones for kids and they can chat. But I guess even chatting can be dangerous.
Vanessa: Yeah. Like text their friends kind of thing?
got a lot of parental controls on it. So that would be one option. But I probably
wouldn't even give them any phone until they're in their, I don't know, mid-
Dan: I was going to say mid-teens.
Dan:
I don't know. I don't see any reason why they would need one.
think the trickiness comes when their peers-
are going to be pressuring them for sure.
And then yeah, they come home and say, "Mom, you're the worst mom ever. I don't
have a phone. I hate you." Blah, blah, blah. And that continues forever. That's tricky.
Dan: I don't think they'll necessarily say that.
Vanessa: Mark my words, it will be hard.
and I never said that to my parents.
Vanessa: Well, did you have peers
though? Were you at a school where you had lots of peers? I think you were really removed from that.
Dan: Oh, well, later on, yeah.
up in the '90s. That's very different. My family didn't have a phone until-
Dan: I got pretty angsty about video games.
Vanessa: There's always something to get angsty about.
Dan: It's like, "Why can't you buy
think teenagers are going to be tricky no matter what. That's just the way it goes.
I say this as someone who has no teens at the moment, but I feel like as parents, we have a
responsibility to deliver our children safely into adulthood. That's the goal of parenting.
Dan: Safely and not being a drain on society.
Vanessa: I think that's part of that.
Dan: Being a productive member.
Vanessa: Yeah. So part of technology is not just,
oh, I don't want you looking at a screen, but there are things about being addicted to
technology or chatting with a stranger online that are extremely dangerous. And yes, there will be,
I'm sure, a lot of tension about why can't I use these apps? Why can't I use this social media?
video games all day? My friends do this. I'm sure there will be a lot of tension with our
kids about that. That's inevitable. But I do think that it's a tricky decision to figure
out what's the line. But my goal is to make sure that our kids are safe, not just physically safe,
but mentally and emotionally safe. And there is more and more evidence showing that the
more screen time you have, the more apps you use that let you chat with strangers. This
is so dangerous and it's everywhere. So I really want to be aware constantly of what our kids are
exposed to and kind of train them to realize that yes, it's hard. Yes, you're not going to like me
about this. Yes, you're going to be different probably from your peers due to not always-
Vanessa: ... looking at a phone
and playing video games all day, but that's still for the best. So it's going to be hard, I'm sure.
so far too, having some parents and kids with like minds really helps.
Vanessa: Like-minded parents. Yeah.
parents and kids. Because I don't know if it's going to continue and I think it gets harder,
but as of now, a lot of parents of younger kids are like, "We don't want them to use this stuff
all the time. We've seen what it's done to me or my family, or my brother still plays
Pokemon until the wee hours of the morning. That's kind of weird." So stuff like that.
If your kids have friends that are doing the same things it's easier.
they have friends who are kind of doing similar things-
Dan: ... and then they won't feel so left out.
other parents have enough fortitude to say, you know-
Vanessa: Yeah, and personally I don't-
Dan: They're going to put some boundaries on it.
Dan: Although I think there is some gray area,
you can test the waters with some things and make it very clear upfront and see how they handle it.
the internet in general is so unbound, the way that you can just, two clicks away, pornography.
that is just rampant all over the place.
Vanessa: Really dangerous for children.
that's a really difficult area to say, "Here, you can just, yeah, go ahead kid." Yeah, no way.
Vanessa: Yeah, that's kind of the
idea of keeping our children's minds and bodies safe. And the internet is quite unknown, but I do
have hope that as especially our generation grows up as parents, there's more information and more
studies, and I think there is kind of a movement away from unlimited technology for children.
Dan: Or just people in general.
Vanessa: Yeah, for people in general to say, "Yeah,
I don't really want to look at Facebook all day. Yeah, I don't really want to watch YouTube all
day, except for Vanessa's videos." No, don't watch my videos all day, please. But this kind of idea
that we're becoming more aware of the addictive quality. So I have hope that in the future there
will be more people who want to just be careful about their kids' consumption of technology and
screens and whatnot. It's not all bad, but you definitely have to be very careful. All right.
Dan: That bad is always hiding around the corner.
Vanessa: Yes, lurking. All right,
let's go to our final question. We do have a bonus question, let's see if we have time
to get to it. But the fourth question is, how do you and Dan usually manage the housework and the
childcare? How do you decide which of you will take care of what? And the little extra part of
this question is, the student asks, "I'd like to know some common expressions to ask someone like,
can you wash the dishes? I'll do the dishes for you. These types of expressions." So,
little teaser. When I talk about the vocabulary from today's lesson in a few weeks,
I'll give you some expressions to talk about chores, about how to delegate chores. Like, oh,
I'll do the dishes for you tonight, I know you're really tired. Those types of expressions. So,
coming soon to a YouTube video near you. Yeah, how do we decide who will take care of what?
first of all, I have to preface that I think we are pretty mid-tier in the chore category.
Vanessa: Oh, what's that mean?
Dan: We're not the most cleanly people on earth.
Dan: We're maybe little more than average.
Vanessa: ... fastidious, is that the word?
Dan: Yeah. For example,
we have cleanup time with the kids at night where we just pick up stuff and try to put it away.
Vanessa: I think that's pretty normal.
little bit throughout the day and at the end of the day do it together.
say is it doesn't happen every day.
Dan: Some days we don't do that.
Vanessa: Yeah, I think that's fine.
up probably you walking by grabbing stuff again.
of the chores, tidying up. But other chores are continual, like laundry and dishes and-
to be maintenance or the kids' tuition, school needs to be paid or whatever it is. These types
of things that just keep your life running. How do we decide who will take care of what?
were pregnant, I basically said, "I am going to do every single chore."
Vanessa: I had a big chore of growing a baby.
and the laundry. Those are the big ones to me.
Vanessa: And tidying up and putting the kids to bed.
everything on the floor because you can't get stuff on the floor.
My belly was so big, I couldn't pick up anything.
I think you were still doing cleaning off the tables and stuff.
work. I used to do the lawn work. In America that's a big thing, you got to mow your lawn.
Dan: But now we pay somebody to do that because-
good old red-blooded American in me that said, "No, I've got to
mow my own lawn." And you were like, "I'd rather you just spend some time with us."
Vanessa: Yeah, especially because we
have a pretty big yard. So that task, especially for this time in our life when we have small kids,
it's better to delegate that to someone else. I feel like a big thing that worked for us was-
Dan: For, excuse me, delegating.
Vanessa: For delegating, yeah. It was
just really treating it like a business, which I think the home is kind of like a business.
Vanessa: We had a meeting, I remember we went-
Dan: Okay, we did have a meeting. That's true.
Vanessa: We went out on a date,
so tried to have a little fun. We went out on a date, went to a restaurant.
Vanessa: Couple of drinks, nice food.
We brought a notebook and we wrote down every chore. Little things, like fixing the car or-
Dan: That's not a little thing.
like maintenance on the car or checking the bank account, looking at our health insurance,
these little things that come up. Scheduling doctor's appointments for the kids or ourselves
or whatever. These types of things that kind of add up. We wrote every single one down. And based
on other things. So am I pregnant, am I not? That's also a big responsibility. How much am
I working? How much is Dan working? And not just hours, but that mental load of you're working on
a big project or whatnot, those types of things. Who did what chores? So we just wrote down-
Vanessa: Putting the kids to bed, that's a big chore.
Vanessa: We just put D or V based on who did what, so this
kind of strict delegation. But there was a little asterisk, I think, we put on this that said... And
I think this is an important part of a healthy relationship, if I can say this, is that when
one of us was not capable of doing one of those chores, for example, the dishes. If the kids were
having such a hard time going to bed and you were really overwhelmed by that, I would do the dishes.
So there's a little asterisk of we help each other out. We're not going to say, "Nope,
it's not my chore. I will never do it." But we were willing to help each other out. But
in general, you wrote down Dan does this, you do it. It's your chore. And yeah, kind of just
figuring out what works well, because we both work, we both take care of the kids. If one of
us did not work, totally different situation then because that person's job is the home.
Vanessa: It is the children. And you take that seriously.
kind of harder than a regular job really, if you do it all by yourself.
Vanessa: I think every stay at-
home parent would absolutely say that.
Vanessa: That going to work is a break.
Dan: It depends on your job, but still.
for me, taking care of the children is harder.
yourself is the most difficult. And then going to work is like a break. It's like,
oh, it's quiet. I can focus, I accomplish a task from the beginning to the end without
being interrupted. That feeling is much different. It's much-
the bathroom without a child barging in on you.
Vanessa: Wow. So yeah, I think that's
generally how we handle it. And we change it over time because we have two kids and Dan worked from
home with me. Actually, that's our bonus question. Dan worked at this business, Speak English with
Vanessa, for several years. So that was a very different situation. We had similar type of jobs,
somewhat. We were both home, so yeah, we had to kind of organize and delegate our chores in a
different way. So basically whatever works for you. But I highly recommend having a meeting,
writing down all the things that need to be done, and then determining who does what. But working
on it together because it can be a big point of contention, I think, for a lot of couples.
Dan: Yeah. And I do think it's a lot more cut and
dry for a lot of people. Especially if one person does the work and makes the money for the house.
It seems a lot easier to be like, the other person takes care of almost everything at the house.
Dan: That just kind of makes sense.
important to determine what happens when that person comes home.
Dan: That can get contentious.
Vanessa: Yeah. I think that's why it's important to talk
about it and write down the stuff. What do you do on the weekends? Because everyone needs a break.
Dan: Just know the expectations. You don't want
to assume. You don't want to be the guy who just kicks his feet up and puts them up on the chair.
Dan: While the wife is making the dinner.
Vanessa: Yeah. And I think making sure that everyone-
Not fun for the person making... Actually, you know what? In our house making dinner is a break.
dinner because if I've been with the kids all day, making dinner is like,
I can focus on this task. And sometimes we make dinner with the kids. But in general, I think
that you just decide what's best for your family, but it's best to decide together and kind of work
through that before somebody explodes, generally that's a good idea. All right. Thank you for those
wonderful questions. We have a bonus question. Would you like to answer a bonus question?
Dan: I thought we already did the bonus question.
Vanessa: We did not do the bonus question.
Vanessa: But I hinted at the bonus question.
Vanessa: The bonus question is,
how is Dan feeling going back to work after helping you to teach us English for a long time?
Dan: Wow. I didn't know they knew about that.
some of my students in my course, The Fearless Fluency Club, they have been a part of our lives
for a long time. They're privy to all that information. So just as a little background,
Dan taught and worked with me at Speak English with Vanessa, making videos.
Vanessa: Behind the scenes, helping with-
all of that. And then, yeah, tell us what happened. September last year, what did you do?
now I teach at my son's school. I was an assistant teacher last year and
this year I'm going to be a co-science teacher. It's an alternative school,
so it's not like a regular classroom setting. It's a little bit more integrating outdoors,
so the kids are actually outside for half the day. And so that's a big goal or mission of the school.
So that's what I've been doing and I like it a lot. I like being able to go out and do my own
thing. It's not so much working with you, but working with a partner all day long and living
with them and then having kids and everybody's in the house. I think that got a little bit old.
think it's healthy for us to be part of the community, because especially when-
Dan: Especially when technically you were my boss.
Vanessa: Yeah. I think deciding what works-
Dan: That can't last that long.
Vanessa: ... best for your relationship. But
I think even for our family, you working outside the home, you working at Theo's school especially.
great. You've been able to... At least I feel good that Theo is with you during
the day. You're not his teacher at school, but you're at the school kind of with him.
you'll be his teacher. But kind of connecting us to the community more. You have coworkers. If
anybody has either worked from home or moved to a new country and then worked remotely,
or just this kind of isolation that's prevalent when you work from home. It's really nice to
be connected to the community in some way. And work is a kind of easy way to do that.
being perfectly honest, there are some patterns that people just can develop as work partners
or even just home life. And we had kind of developed something that was not good.
Vanessa: It wasn't working long term.
Dan: It wasn't as healthy as it could be.
we need to change something for sure.
that was good of us to be able to decide something needs to change.
Dan: We weren't at each other's throats or anything.
that that's important to realize in our relationship. So Dan works at a
school now. And the question was, how do you feel? You said it's going well.
Dan: Yeah, it feels great. Yeah,
I like it. I think this works really well. I get to go out and forge my own
path in some ways. I don't feel like I'm kind of tinkering around the edges of this business,
which is a great business. And it's like, yeah, it's amazing and you guys are awesome.
Vanessa's amazing. Amazing, amazing. But yeah, it's just going off and doing my
own thing for at least part of the day, I think, has done a lot for me personally.
Vanessa: Yeah, I think it's done a lot for our family too.
Dan: And for our family. Yeah.
Vanessa: Because I think when somebody in your house
isn't feeling well, I wouldn't say you weren't feeling well, but you weren't at your best.
Dan: At times I wasn't so happy.
really affects the whole family unit. So I'm glad that you are feeling better.
we just saw each other and neighbors mostly. So that was kind of like...
Vanessa: Yeah. It's nice to have other people in our lives.
Dan: We had friends, but it just
felt different. Even though all of you are our friends, but we don't get to see you every day.
Vanessa: You know what we mean.
Well, thanks for joining me on that parenting conversation journey. Now it's time to move on
to a new page, education. Many of you asked us some great questions about education in the US,
our education experiences, and we talk about it for the next bit.
So I hope that you will immerse yourself, learn something new,
and have a great time. Let's go. All right, Dan, are you ready to
get started with the first question that our students have asked us?
Dan: I'm ready to get educated.
Vanessa: All right, let's do it. These education questions
were asked by my student Carmen from Italy and Mai in Australia. Are you ready for the first one?
Vanessa: All right. The first question is,
what age does school start in the US? That's where we're from, the US. And what does the education
system look like? So let's start with the first question. What age does school start in the US?
a lot of kids go to some kind of school around four years old. So this would be
preschool. And in a lot of cases, this is not provided by the state.
this is something that parents have to pay for out of pocket.
Dan: And I would say this is kind of
like daycare except maybe a little more education peppered in, because they're really little kids.
official school is kindergarten, which starts around five or six years old.
real school begins. We're sitting and trying to learn our letters
and alphabet and reading and here's numbers, and all that kind of thing.
Dan: And then elementary school would be first
through fifth grade. Yeah, first through fifth grade, which is probably what, 7 to 11 or 12?
on to middle school, which is everybody's favorite time of existence, 12 to 14 ish.
Vanessa: This is a great example of sarcasm.
yes. This is sarcasm. Yeah, middle school, not known for being the most fun time.
a lot of kids are moving at this time. They could be going to a different school, different classes.
going through this awkward time in your life and here's some other new
people for you. It'll be fun. So yeah, that's an interesting time.
school has the stereotype of being pretty rough, pretty tricky. And then
after middle school is high school. And by that point you're what, 14 years old?
Vanessa: 14 through 18 years old,
so you're not right at the beginning, at the cusp of puberty. Instead,
you're a little further in and maybe a little more mature, maybe.
Dan: Ninth grade is still kind of awkward.
Vanessa: Ninth grade is still pretty rough.
ninth grade and you're 14 or 15 and then you see a 17 or 18 year old, a lot of the, especially-
or 18 year old, a lot of the... especially if you're a guy like me,
puberty can hit all of a sudden and then you'll be a man versus like I was a boy.
Vanessa: A little boy when you're in ninth grade.
Vanessa: Yeah. So this is the typical progression of
school and there's a couple different options in the US. You could go to public school,
which is free. It's paid for by your taxes. So if you pay taxes, it's technically not free.
Vanessa: Yes, free, not free. It's paid
for by the state. You could go to public school, you could go to a public charter school. So this
is kind of a nuance where you don't have to pay extra to go to a charter school, but it's somehow-
it's smaller. Usually the programs have a little bit higher quality. And to get into
a charter school, you often need to do a lottery. And this isn't like the lottery
where you try to win a million dollars. This is where you just sign up and they pull a
kid's name out of a hat. Totally random. And if you get it, you get it. And if you don't,
you don't. So it's not based on your income, it's not based on where you live, because most
public schools are based on where you live. You have to go to the school in your neighborhood.
Vanessa: But a charter school,
especially if you live in an area that's really poor, well your school is probably not going
to be very high quality. And there's a lot of controversy about that because kind of a cycle.
Dan: Yeah, it's definitely a cycle.
many resources to get out of poverty and all of that. So we've got public school, charter school,
private school. I have a little statistic here I looked up in advance. Fancy. Private schools,
9% of students go to a private school and parents have to pay extra for a private school. It could
be a religious private school, it could be a secular private school. Our child, Theo-
probably in the 1% because he goes to a "nature" school.
Vanessa: It's not religious based.
Vanessa: It's a very unusual private school. But
there's also other types of private schools like in nature school where half of the day they spend
time outside in the woods or the teachers try to incorporate the outside nature into the lessons.
Dan: A lot of times these schools will call themselves
"alternative education". So that just means, "We're trying to do something different here".
varying degrees of quality. Just because you're paying for it doesn't mean that it's going to
be vastly better quality than the free public school. So if you come to the US and you think,
"I want my kid to have the best education, I think I can afford to pay for private
school," make sure you check it out first and make sure that it's actually the quality
that you want. There are a lot of scholarships actually. So the school that our son goes to,
a lot of people have an 80% scholarship to go to the school, which makes it very affordable. The
state has scholarships, the school provides some scholarships. There's some grants given
to the school to provide scholarships. So they're trying to make it more accessible.
Dan: Yeah. Most schools, especially private schools and
anything education related, you're going to find a lot of organizations that will try to help kids
get into whatever they really, really want. And the government helps with that as well in America.
Vanessa: I think a lot of it comes down to the parents
having the ability to sign up, follow through with the applications, sign up for the scholarships.
Dan: That doesn't mean it's easy.
Vanessa: It doesn't mean it's easy, but it is an
option. There's a fourth option, which is what Dan experienced when he was a child, homeschooling.
Vanessa: So interestingly enough,
what percent of Americans do you think homeschool? This means that generally... don't peak, your mom-
Dan: This is what I learned in homeschooling.
Vanessa: Your mom or your dad is your teacher,
usually your mom. And there's local organizations that you can join weekly like a co-op, they call
it a homeschooling co-op. What percent of American children are homeschooling as of 2021 or 2022?
it was very low. See, I think I looked at your phone earlier and saw it.
Dan: Well, you showed it to me,
but I would've guessed like 2% before seeing that, but I think it's higher.
Vanessa: Yes, the answer is 7%.
Dan: Which is pretty high actually.
same amount as go to private school.
Vanessa: Yeah, so 7%. And the interesting thing is-
Dan: I guess it probably bumped up after COVID too.
Vanessa: Yes, that's the big thing. So before COVID,
it was I think four or 5%, and now it's 7% and it's growing 10% every year. So it's hard to
talk about those stats. But it's growing every year because of all the changes in education.
school has gotten kind of a bad reputation as well. I mean there's varying qualities,
but a lot of people where they live, their school is not very good. And it is not just teachers,
it's also the peers you're with. And it's kind of... I don't know. I mean obviously
I teach at an alternative school, so I am not a big fan of the traditional model and I don't
like all the bureaucracy. And not to say that there's not a lot of good-hearted people in the
system. I just think that the system is, well, it might sound a little cliche, but it's broken.
the general options in the US and I think the cool thing is that if you choose an alternative option,
private school, charter school, homeschooling, it's not seen as very weird. It's unusual. It's
not the majority, but you're not like an outcast. You're not so weird like,
"Oh my goodness, you homeschool?" It's not like that. Generally it's just, "Oh, okay,
someone does something different." I think that's kind of like in the American culture.
Dan: That is very much an American culture thing.
Vanessa: You try to accept people who do different things.
we lived in South Korea for a while, we felt that difference so big. We never met anybody
who homeschooled there. We met one family and we're like, "Whoa, this is amazing."
the same education system and deviating from that norm is really unusual in that culture.
down on. But in America, if you do something different like that people, they may sometimes
go and whisper about it or say, "I don't really agree with that," but they'll never tell you to
your face that they have a problem with a decision you might make, especially a personal decision.
Vanessa: And Dan was homeschooled until how old?
Vanessa: 13?
Dan: I think. Yes. Until middle school.
Vanessa: And Dan's pretty cool.
and I feel like homeschooling today is way better than it was when I was a kid.
what I experienced, I don't want for my kids, but today I can kind of feasibly see how you can build
up certain social exposures, have certain groups. There's a ton of resources online.
your mom certainly did the best that she could do.
Dan: Oh yeah, my mom did a good job. I think it
was just for me personally, I don't think it fit what I probably needed as a child looking back.
pressure to have deadlines and stuff.
Dan: I needed another authority other than
my mom and I needed a bigger social circle and a little more structured education I think would've
been good for me. Not that my mom wasn't somewhat structured, but it is a different kind of thing.
in the nineties compared to homeschooling now 30 years later. That's crazy. All right,
let's go on to question number two. Do most American students
go to universities after their graduation? Is it considered important? Let's talk about our
general feel first and then I've got some stats about how many people actually go.
Dan: Yeah, good because I haven't looked
at the stats. This time I didn't make it that far.
Vanessa: Let's hear what's inside your heart Dan.
people generally go to, we would say college, but I think a lot of
the world would say university. I don't know the percentage, but I would say-
Vanessa: What's your guess? What's your guess is a good-
Vanessa: I think this is showing your bias because-
Dan: 50%. I don't know which way the bias is.
Vanessa: Let's say that. So for us, we have a
four year degree, and that's what you call it when you go to college for four years, you could have a
two year degree, it's called an associate's degree or a four year degree. And we have
four year degrees. And I think there's been some studies that show if you have a four year degree,
most of the people in your social circle also have the same or close to the same level of education.
Dan: Everybody I know is educated.
Vanessa: So that's why you think it's so high.
Dan: Dang it. I should have thought about that.
Vanessa: Okay, so let's compare 1990 to 2021. In 1990,
the people who graduated high school were 77%. So 77% of students graduated from high school
and 20% of people graduated from college. Okay. 2021, 91% of people graduated from high school,
so much higher percentage rate. And 38% of people graduate from college.
Vanessa: Yeah. So it is higher.
Dan: It has bumped up a lot though.
Vanessa: And all of the charts
that I saw were all going up. So finishing high school and college are definitely on the rise.
Not 70% or whatever you said, but if it probably is 70% of the people we know, which I think is
quite interesting, and that's kind of part of the cycle of education I think that if you don't know
anyone who's been to college, it probably won't be a priority for you. And it will be harder for
you to go because you won't have people who know how that process works and all of that. But if you
been to college like us, it will be easier for our kids to do that process because we've been there.
I could be instructive of a fallacy, but my personal experience, but...
for being willing to be the fallacy in front of millions of people online.
Dan: Yes. You're welcome everybody.
a part two of the question. Is it considered important?
well, again, this probably goes to your social circle because in my social circle
it was super important, and I think this is probably family by family.
it's almost expected if your parents are college graduates.
of course you'll go to college.
I think I have heard from certain... like our neighbor, I think she said she was the
first to go to college and it was looked upon as great, but it wasn't expected. But as a society,
it is definitely encouraged. Like there's ads playing on the TV and YouTube and every teacher
will tell you going to college... and I'm just going to say university because more people say
that probably, going to university is going to be a great benefit to your life and all this
kind of stuff. So I think that is definitely pushed in society. That probably is another
reason why I think that a lot of people go, but I'm also forgetting about how expensive it is.
Vanessa: Yeah. The other thing is that it's-
Vanessa: It's really expensive. I would say
anywhere between 30,000 and $200,000 for a four year degree, depending on if you go to a community
college or if you go to a state school or if you go to a private school, it can range anywhere in
there. And that's a big burden for a young person starting off in their career to have to pay.
Dan: The state schools aren't cheap or free?
Vanessa: They're not cheap, and they're not free.
than private schools. It's a very complicated system. But-
a little ignorant in this realm because I haven't thought about college in a while.
But we went to a small private school and that's known for being pretty expensive.
a lot of scholarships to go to that school, so I applied for tons of scholarships. The school also
had scholarships, and it was pretty much required if I was going to go to that school, I had to have
a lot of money already paid for, otherwise it was just too expensive. But I think it's interesting
because of our experience, we felt, I can speak for you too, we felt pretty burdened. Even though
we had scholarships, we felt pretty burdened post-college to pay back our student loans.
When you start off your life, your adult life in debt, that's so hard. And my parents tried
so hard, they paid a lot of money. I had a lot of scholarships and I still had college
debt that I had to pay back. So even though I think I was probably starting off in the best
possible position, it still felt like a burden. So I think for us, at least for our children,
I have no idea what the education scene will look like in another 15 years, but I think that
we might have a different perspective on college because we've been there, we know what it's like.
We know if it helped us or not in our life and how expensive it is and if it's worth it. Are there
other alternatives? Yeah. And in our changing world, those might be better. I don't know.
Dan:
I think it's a cliche among people our age that college is not worth it and that it's just way
too expensive for what you get out of it and it doesn't really prepare you and all this stuff.
Vanessa: Mm-hmm. I think if you graduated
2005 to 2010, around that maybe even 2015 in that range, you probably feel like us that your
degree does not mean you will get a good paying job. It's not a given that that will happen.
I think initially when we went to college, there was a transitional phase where everything,
it was getting a lot more expensive, and that cost benefit analysis was maybe making less sense,
but a lot of our families were still saying the same message that you just have to go even if
you're not even sure what you want to do which was in my case, which I think didn't help me.
Vanessa: Well, my job didn't even exist when I went
to college. This job, teaching English online was not even an option. So I don't know. It is tricky.
I don't know exactly what the future... I don't know what the future holds, but-
changes really, really fast in that I will certainly not tell my children they have
to go to college and that this will make all the difference. I'll be like, "Well, what exactly do
you want to do? Let's get in that program. Let's look at the cost benefit analysis of how much it
costs and really dig in there." Unfortunately, I don't feel like my parents did that, but-
Vanessa: I think their generation really was the
last generation who said, "I'll get a university degree and that will give me a good job," and it
worked. So their expectation was what happened to them, but that's not how it is now. Anyway,
who knows what will happen in the next 10 to 15 years for our kids, but I certainly won't
pressure them and I won't feel disappointed if they decide not to go to college as long as
they are independent adults trying to do something different. And I'm going to transition to the last
question and skip one question actually, because I think you're about to say something about it.
Vanessa: I'm going to guess. Because
it has to do with what happens if you don't get a college degree? Is it hard to find a job if you
don't have a university degree? I did a little bit of research about this, but what's your gut say?
don't get a university degree, is it harder to get a job?
if you didn't have a degree right now, would your prospects be more difficult?
think it has to be, but I do think that... I don't know if I've actually read a study about this,
but I think I heard in a podcast that is something that employers will look at and they'll be like,
"All right, check off four year degree." They'll just kind of assume that that
means a lot. So I do think it does mean something unfortunately. I don't think
it has to be. I think that you can probably really get well-educated without it nowadays,
and I think that might even be preferable when you consider how much it costs. So other than
there's a lot of social experiences, however, a lot of the social experiences are getting really
drunk and misbehaving and stuff that doesn't really have anything to do with keeping a job.
of American college is that you just go there, get drunk,
sleep with a lot of people, and then maybe you stumble into class once a week.
Dan: Yeah. It doesn't really make any sense at all.
Vanessa: And then you pay lots of
money for that. That wasn't my college experience, but that is certainly-
Vanessa: Certainly what happens to a lot of people.
Dan:
Yeah. But I'm still saying that it does unfortunately probably still matter.
Vanessa: Yeah, I would say that that's
probably the case for specific careers. So what I saw was of course, if you're going to be a doctor,
if you're going to be an engineer, if you're going to be in the medical field, those very specific
technical type of jobs that require education, that education is probably necessary. But for
other careers, what I read online said is a college degree necessary, yes and no. The yes was
if you want to be in those specific career fields, yeah, if you're going to be a nurse, go get a
degree in nursing and you'll be fine. I think it's actually even a two year degree. That's amazing.
preferable to me. Some kind of two year program, I feel like you can learn maybe
not anything but a lot of things in two years. It doesn't have to be four years.
Vanessa: But it said if you want a
job that usually says we require a degree or they highly recommend a degree in their application,
maybe like a software engineer or something like this, if you are an assertive person who
has done a lot of alternative experiences, now this takes a specific personality type I think.
Dan: Got to have something for that resume.
Vanessa: Yes, you have a good resume,
you've interned, you have maybe taken some extracurricular classes at the local college
or maybe even some online courses about that specific field. It doesn't have to be a degree.
Dan: There's a lot of alternatives out there.
Vanessa: That you can by your assertiveness,
which is really what people are looking for often, people who will see a problem and fix the problem,
the skills can really be taught, but that personality and character quality can't
be taught as much. So if you show that, then you could get in. So for example, this isn't about a
job. This is about getting into college. There was a homeschooler who had been homeschooled
their entire life and they wanted to get into a huge university. I don't think it was Harvard,
but it was a really high level university. And what they did instead is they wrote out,
of course, every charity they worked with, every volunteer experience, all of this. But
they also wrote a list. The second page of their application was 100 books that I read last year.
Holy cow, that's like two books a week. They wrote out everything that they had
read in order and all of this, and it showed their assertiveness, "I'm going to be a good student,
I'm going to be dedicated." And I think for a lot of jobs, if you can be outstanding like that,
then who cares if you have a degree ideally. A little example too is someone who works for me,
Laura. Hi Laura if you're watching, she helps to write some of the sales content,
like sales emails. She's called a copywriter. When I interviewed her, I don't even know if
she has a college degree, I don't even know her official education, but her application process,
her experience, and she had taken the initiative to do some online copywriting classes and had been
working on and off for some other businesses doing their writing as well. So she had this
kind of initiative, and that's really what I was looking for, was someone who was organized,
took the initiative, creative, and was interested in the job. She had
taken some classes of her own volition and really done it, and that's why I hired her.
amazing. Actually, a lot of my students who join my courses, they say that their
job didn't require them to take English classes, but they write on their resume,
completed a three-month English course with Speak English With Vanessa.
Vanessa: And this is like the-
Vanessa: It's not a four year degree, it's
not an IL certificate, something official like that, but it shows that you took the initiative.
Dan: I think she's pretty official.
you're willing to go the extra mile to try to do your best. So I think that's a good example
of a way that extracurricular education can enhance your career as well. Well,
talking about internships, I'm curious in your country, is it common to do an
internship? I think in Germany it's maybe required that you do a year internship after
high school that it is part of the system. I'm not sure if you're from Germany, let me know.
like a better system to me, but I don't know if that's real.
Vanessa: That you get real world experience in
the world doing something. But I feel like for me, that would've been pretty helpful just to get out
of the education system. I felt very overwhelmed going from high school to four years of college,
and then I had had part-time jobs working in restaurants and these types of things,
but nothing like a career. And by my third year of college,
I just felt like I just want to go out into the real world and try to get a job. I don't want to-
Vanessa: Yeah, I want to do something. And
it's not common in the US to take a gap year. This is a common thing I think in Europe and Australia,
that after high school, students will take a gap year and go out and do something.
Vanessa: Go be a nanny, go volunteer on a farm.
Dan: Yeah, I think when we were-
Vanessa: Go travel in Southeast Asia, do something.
Dan: When we were in France that one year, we did meet
some younger people who seemed to either be taking a gap year or doing some kind of intern thing. I
don't know. I like that a lot. In the US, it's kind of strange that you graduate high school and
you have this big ceremony and congratulations, you get to move on to more school.
I pretty much guarantee that if you were in the US and you graduated from high school and you said,
"I'm going to take a gap year and then I'll decide what I want to do," every single person will say,
"If you don't go to college now, you're never going to do it. This is your chance to do it
now because you'll forget about it or you won't have the motivation to do it, or you'll forget
about education and forget about math," these types of things. But in reality, if you're not
meant to go to college and you wait a year and you decide not to go to college, well maybe that
was a better path for you. I don't know. I feel a little biased because I saw people doing that,
Europeans who were doing that gap year and I felt really jealous like, "Oh, I would've loved to do
that," but it's just not in American culture. Maybe it might start becoming part of it as
we learn more about Europe. We're 10 years behind Europe in those things,
but right now it's not part of American culture. You just do school, possibly more school and then-
Vanessa: Pay back your school with your job. So that's
it. All right. Well, thanks so much for joining me on that education journey. I hope that you
enjoyed immersing yourself over the last two hours with these English conversations. And now I have a
question for you in the comments, let me know what topic would you like us to have a conversation
about next. You can ask us a topic and you can also ask us some questions that you would
like us to cover in our conversation and maybe you'll be lucky and we'll make a video about it.
Well, don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet, which includes so much information. It
includes every vocabulary, expression, definition, sample sentence, and you can take the quiz at the
bottom of the worksheet so that you never forget the vocabulary that you've learned. You can click
on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today. It's a big one,
but it's all for you, my gift to you. Well, thank you so much for learning English with me and I'll
see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. But wait, do you
want more? I recommend watching this video next where you'll join me and my son, Theo, as we play
a great card game called Uno. You can play this with your family and the kids in your life or the
adults in your life, and you'll learn how to do that in English in this video. I'll see you there.