Saving Your Child from Ostrich Attacks

Saving Your Child from Ostrich Attacks & Finding the Humor in Parenting

Parenting humorist James Breakwell shares how to laugh at both the mundane and the absurd moments in raising kids!

by Steve Silvestro, MD @zendocsteve

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Comedian Ray Romano once noted that “Having children is like living in a frat house — nobody sleeps, everything’s broken, and there’s a lot of throwing up.”

As just about everyone listening to this right now knows, being a parent is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. Sure, it’s also the most wonderful, joyous, meaningful thing you’ll ever do—but it’s no cakewalk.

That’s why it really is so important to be able to look at the craziness of raising kids—yes, including the vomit everywhere—and somehow find the humor in it all.

That’s the superpower of my guest today, James Breakwell. James is a professional comedy writer and self-described “amateur parent” of four girls, aged 8 and under. His parenting humor twitter account @XplodingUnicorn boasts over 1 million followers. Because of the way the social media world works, you may or may not recognize that account name, but I guarantee you’ve seen his writings if you’re on social media.

James’s online writing, most commonly taking the form of conversations between himself and one of his kids, deftly brings to life the innocence and absurdity of living in a house with tiny people whose understanding of the world is tenuous at best. But he does it in a way that I really appreciate and that makes him stand out from so many other parenting humorists—by respecting and marveling at his kids along the way.

He is the author of three books, including Only Dead on the Inside: A Parent’s Guide to Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Bare Minimum Parenting: The Ultimate Guide to Not Quite Ruining Your Child, and his newest book—How to Save Your Child from Ostrich Attacks, Accidental Time Travel, and Anything Else that Might Happen on an Average Tuesday.

This was a conversation that I really think you’re going to enjoy. If you do, and you want to share this episode by sharing the link drstevesilvestro.com/108 , neither James nor I will be offended!

Take a listen on your favorite podcast app or in the player below:

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In This Episode, We Talk About:

How James got his start, from pre-kids on to viral parenting comic
How he works in the parenting space while still respecting his kids
Finding humor in parenting without being snarky
How to handle online parent-shaming when you talk about your family online
James’s thoughts on “bare minimum parenting” and the benefits of giving kids space
James & I take a momentary dark turn to discuss milk carton kids…
Finding the funny in everyday parenting
James’s issues with clowns confront my past experience clowning with Patch Adams
How to save your kids from pirate attacks and T-rexes
What’s up ahead for James and XplodingUnicorn
…and a whole lot more!

Scroll up to the player above to listen, or hear it on your favorite podcast app!

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