1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,280 On this episode of the Dudes and Dads podcast, we talk with our friend, 2 00:00:03,280 --> 00:00:06,720 Sean McRindle about kids facing significant challenge. 3 00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:14,640 You're listening to the Dudes and Dads podcast, a show dedicated to helping men be better dudes 4 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:19,280 and dads by building community through meaningful conversation and storytelling. 5 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:25,200 And now here are your hosts Joel, DeMott and Andy Lehman. Andy Joel. 6 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:28,640 Dude, I had a fantastic Sunday. I'm glad. I'm glad. 7 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:30,400 I'm glad to hear. Fantastic Sunday. 8 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:32,400 For those of you that don't know, we record on Sundays. 9 00:00:32,400 --> 00:00:35,680 You'll hear this on a Tuesday, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because 10 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:38,400 it's a Sunday now. It's a Sunday now and I need to share a few 11 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:42,160 year a few joy points with you. Sure. Let's start off with first. 12 00:00:42,160 --> 00:00:48,960 Had a great day. Great day at church today with my friends over at restore church community. 13 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:54,160 Church was great. It was fantastic. All right. Number two, I went sledding. 14 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:58,240 That's always a fun, a fun time. Yeah. I love sledding. 15 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:03,360 Did you stay warm when you were? I did. You guys, we'll put it. We'll have to put a picture. 16 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:06,560 We'll put a picture up on the socials later of what, 17 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:12,880 what I did to, to protect myself from the elements. We got a balmy high of 14 degrees 18 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:15,600 out here today. So you did want to, you did want to bundle up. 19 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:20,880 Right. I did the full rabbit hair mad bomber hat. Okay. 20 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:24,640 Which makes me look a little cousin Eddie like out there. 21 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:30,080 And then all, then my, my hunting bibs and coat. 22 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:36,560 I was, so I was in full camo out there sledding as also provides a little bit of extra padding 23 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:41,360 when you wipe out, but the problem was it snow camo or was it tree camo? 24 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:46,000 No, no, it was tree camo. So my, my camo did the opposite effect. 25 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,200 It made you very visible. I am the most visible out on the snow. 26 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:51,760 All right. Yeah. I look like a, yeah. 27 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:57,440 I just, so that was, that was fun. Did some sledding. 28 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:02,640 And then to really cap off just before heading over to the studio here 29 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:06,960 to cap off my day, the, the Lions won yet another playoff game. 30 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:09,680 And we're excited about that. All my Lions fans. 31 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:13,920 Congratulations. Hey, those down in the 313. Congratulations. 32 00:02:13,920 --> 00:02:17,200 Bob Seeger was at this game. 33 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:18,880 Really? Yeah. 34 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:20,160 That's interesting. 35 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:21,120 Yeah. Who knew? 36 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:21,600 Who knew? 37 00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:23,680 I didn't know he was a Lions fan. 38 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:27,120 All the, he's a Detroit guy. It's all the, all the Detroit greats were there. 39 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:30,000 Jeff Daniels too. Oh, yeah. 40 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:30,560 Great. 41 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:36,320 All the, the classics. So anyway, I'm in a, especially good mood today was just filled full 42 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:41,120 of all kinds of goodness and got a, got a Costco run into today as well, which, 43 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:41,680 well bless you. 44 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:49,040 And everyone knows that eight launch at Costco, Costco pizza guys, come on, to feed a family. 45 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:51,600 I got a Costco pizza for $110. 46 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:53,680 You, come on. 47 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:55,280 You can't beat that. 48 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:56,880 You cannot beat that. 49 00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:01,520 So really in totality, I mean, we're adding all those things up. 50 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:03,680 That's the, that's a recipe for a fantastic day. 51 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:06,800 So how are things with you, my friend? 52 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:08,240 Pretty good. Pretty good. 53 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:12,880 I was, before we came over, I was watching the chiefs since my eagles are out. 54 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,200 I mean, fly eagles. 55 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:16,800 Yeah. Fly, yeah. 56 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:18,400 Yeah. Not fly today. 57 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:20,720 Not flying. More dying than flying. Sorry. 58 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:26,480 But that being said, I was watching the chiefs game since my family's chiefs. 59 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:31,040 Yeah. You're one of those guys like, like me, like I'm a Detroit Tigers fan when baseball 60 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:34,560 season comes around the rest of my family are a bunch of traders and follow the guardians. 61 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:38,800 Do you feel similar? Do you feel like the odd man out amongst your family? 62 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:44,240 I mean, I, yes, because they all hate, they don't, they're like, they're terrible team 63 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:46,320 or they're terrible people. 64 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:53,360 Yeah. Yeah. They call the, they're leaving like throw out like the, the morality of the team as well. 65 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:54,640 Yes. That's what they have done. 66 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:55,840 That's deep. That's deep. 67 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:57,440 Yeah. It hurts. It hurts right here. No. 68 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:03,680 Well guys, we have a, we have an awesome show today with our friend, Sean here. But, but first, 69 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:09,920 I want to remind you that this show is supported by listeners like you. We could not do this show 70 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:15,680 without the financial gifts that you guys give to us. It keeps us going, keeps the lights on, keeps 71 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:22,400 the heat on in this cold day. Yeah. But, but also for all of the technology that we have to feed 72 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:25,760 all the stuff, all the things that we do to make this show happen 73 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:34,400 are supported by listeners like you. And if you want to join, you can go to dudesanddadspodcast.com/support. 74 00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:38,000 We will find all the support options available. 75 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:39,200 Yeah. That's great. 76 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:41,040 Dudes and dads. Thank you. 77 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:42,160 Yes. Supporters. 78 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:47,040 What should we do? We actually have an official name. We never do some podcast. 79 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:51,440 Dudes. No, that sounds terrible. Let's not do that. No. We're not calling you dudes. 80 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:56,320 I've got a, I've got a, a comedian I follow, Dustin Nickerson. Oh, yeah. 81 00:04:56,320 --> 00:05:02,480 He does the podcast, Don't Mean We Come Back There, which the logo is he and his kids. And then 82 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:05,520 it's like, he and his wife in the front seat and his kids riding in the back. And it's like, 83 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:11,200 Don't Mean We Come Back There. And then they call their fans, their supporters. I think 84 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:16,880 back seaters. I think that's what they call them. Yeah. So like back seat drivers or whatever. 85 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:20,560 Right. Right. I got you. Okay. So we'll have to work on that. If anybody out there has a 86 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:25,120 recommendation for what we should call the community that supports us and it has to be nice. 87 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:30,000 It has to be clean. Family clean. And better than duties. Because that's not, that's not, 88 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:35,120 that's not a good one. Love, we love, we love to hear your recommendations. Well, hey, 89 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:40,160 uh, yes. Thanks everyone. Um, we're super excited this evening to have our friend, 90 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:47,680 Sean McCrindle on the show. Sean serves as the president and CEO. Yes. President and CEO. 91 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:51,920 I didn't get double titles with my job. I feel like I, I feel like I, uh, I missed something 92 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:57,040 there. But yeah, Sean serves as the president and CEO of bachelor children's home located here 93 00:05:57,040 --> 00:06:04,080 in beautiful Goshen, Indiana. Um, and, uh, he's a friend of mine. He's a colleague. Sean and I 94 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,280 were fortunate enough. We get to spend a fair amount of time together. Actually, we, 95 00:06:07,280 --> 00:06:11,600 we sit on a round table every month together. We talk about CEOE things, 96 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:18,400 right? Which, which, and I should say we have, we have a lot of, it's not just like business. 97 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:22,560 It's a lot of personal, we share life together and, and I've gotten to know Sean in that way 98 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:25,520 and it's been really, really good. So I've, I've just been over this last year. I felt really 99 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:30,960 fortunate to spend that time. So Sean, thanks for joining us this evening. Good to be here. Yeah. 100 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:39,120 So Sean, we, uh, you know, when thinking about, um, we, we talk a lot about, obviously this is the 101 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:45,440 dude, you know, Andy and I being dudes and dads and having kids and you yourself, uh, as a dude and 102 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:51,600 a dad, uh, we always like to start, start to show off by, uh, asking about the dad stats. So tell us 103 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:56,320 about your family, your kids, where you grew up, where you went to school, all the stuff that you 104 00:06:56,320 --> 00:07:01,280 want to share with the internet about, uh, you and your family. Yeah. We'd love to hear it. Well, 105 00:07:01,280 --> 00:07:07,200 it's, you know, my family is amazing. Um, you know, I'm obviously I'm biased probably. 106 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:14,400 You guys are too, but, uh, you know, it starts off with my wife, Shelly. Um, she and I had met up 107 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:19,280 in college. We actually both went to Goshen High School, but didn't really know each other and 108 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:24,640 met through mutual friends and, uh, you know, I kept, uh, trying to set her up with my friends 109 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:28,640 because I thought she was an amazing person. Sure. And then one day I realized why am I 110 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:35,120 just warming up with anybody but me. That's right. You know, so, um, you know, a mere seven and a 111 00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:41,360 half years later I wore her down and we got engaged and got married and we've, this year will be 25 112 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:48,000 years. Nice. Awesome. Nice. And we have, uh, two kids both in college at Purdue right now. Uh, 113 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:53,600 Liam, who's a senior at college and Kara, who is a sophomore and, uh, both of them are. What are 114 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:57,840 your kids studying down there at Purdue? He's, uh, he's graduating with mechanical engineering. 115 00:07:57,840 --> 00:08:02,000 Yes. He's studying biomedical engineering. Yeah. So I'm glad to know they'll be able to support 116 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:06,640 you guys in your old age. That's all I know is thank goodness for my wife's genetics. 117 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:14,960 Cause I know that didn't come from this guy. They were just like, dad, we've seen, we've seen 118 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:19,200 that what social work has done to you and we're just, we're heading in a different, a different 119 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:23,040 direction. You know, it's interesting because, uh, fair amounts of times throughout our lives, 120 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:26,960 silly. And I've looked at each other and said, I don't know what couple got our kids, 121 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:32,480 but they've got to be going, what went wrong? We're such great smart people. You know, so 122 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:38,640 yeah, no, they're great family or kids are just amazing. You know, um, I think, well, 123 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:43,040 everybody's always biased about their kids and it, but, uh, you know, really I can, I can say 124 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:50,160 there's lots of points in my life where both of my kids have taught me huge life lessons at critical 125 00:08:50,160 --> 00:08:54,400 times. And yeah, till to this day, I mean, we just, you know, when they were home for this, 126 00:08:54,400 --> 00:09:00,320 the Christmas break, we got to do a week's vacation together, climbing around rocks and kayaking and 127 00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:05,360 stuff. And just a great time. And when you have kids that you can actually go like, I like being 128 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:09,680 around them. Exactly. That's cool. Exactly. Right. Andy and I talk a lot about, you know, 129 00:09:09,680 --> 00:09:14,240 and, and kind of any of our parenting journey, that really what we are is we're raising adults 130 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:18,320 that we want to hang out with, right? When they get, when they get older. And I think that's 131 00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:22,000 when I see families that are older that have kids about your age and it's like, 132 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:26,480 they just can't wait to spend time together and they look forward to that and it's life giving. 133 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:31,200 Like that is the, I think it's just the sweetest thing. I think it's, I think it's a, a win and 134 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:36,640 chalk it up to a victory in the old parenting category. We're like, I raised, I raised adults 135 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:42,480 that I want to spend time with. They don't, they don't, uh, you know, drive me up the wall. So 136 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:50,720 that's, that's good on you. Um, so Sean, you have now, uh, you've obviously been in the, 137 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:56,720 been the area that we live in here in Goshen, Elkhart County for, for a time. You've worked for 138 00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:03,360 basher children's home for a total of 28 years. Yep. Um, been the CEO for how many years now? 139 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:08,480 Are you two and a half? Yeah. Two and a half. And, and so prior to that, what sort of roles did you, 140 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:14,880 I'm guessing Sean's a real, you know, he likes to climb the ladder. Um, probably a clear, 141 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:20,000 uh, yeah, it was, it was a set out plan from the beginning. I'm sure, I'm sure. But what's, 142 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:24,080 I mean, what is kind of what, what roles and sort of things have you done while serving at 143 00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:28,960 basher children's home? Yeah. So it's interesting because, um, when I had graduated from my 144 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:34,480 undergraduate, I was initially planning on going right onto graduate school, but through an internship 145 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:38,720 realized I was going down the road to being a psychologist, realized that wasn't really the 146 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:43,280 thing for me. So I thought I needed to pause a little bit. I came back home to this area and, 147 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:47,840 you know, applied at basher. I told the guy that was interviewing me 148 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:52,400 that I'd be there about exactly one year. I was going to be moving away. Um, 149 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:57,760 and he laughed at me there and at all three of his retirement parties, which he finally 150 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:04,400 fully retired after 50 years. Um, and so I started as a second shift, direct care staff 151 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:11,600 in one of the residential programs with younger guys and, um, it just got under my into my into 152 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:18,000 me, you know, like I realized that there's a lot going on with these young guys and most of the kids 153 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:23,760 that I've worked with, but at heart we're just really not all that different. You know, um, 154 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:28,800 the thing that happens with kids who've had a lot of crazy things happen in life is at some point, 155 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:34,400 it becomes really risky for them to believe in their future and have hope for their future. 156 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:39,760 Yeah. And so acting like a fool is easier than acting like somebody who might believe in yourself 157 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:43,760 or believe that you can have a chance in life. Yeah. And so they choose that path until they 158 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:48,800 have an opportunity to see another one. Yeah. Yeah. So when you're going into the residential 159 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:55,600 situation, you know, um, I think, you know, obviously there's some of the challenges there 160 00:11:55,600 --> 00:12:02,000 that you, that you mentioned. What sort of, if you think about like skill sets that you, 161 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:05,840 that you needed to succeed, because obviously you stuck with, you stuck, you didn't leave 162 00:12:05,840 --> 00:12:11,920 Bachel, you stayed there, you stuck with it. Yeah. What thinking about skill sets and abilities to 163 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:17,440 to succeed in that environment, what, what would you, what would you name, what would you say was, 164 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:21,360 was essential for that? Yeah. So I think, uh, really when it comes down to it, when you're 165 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:25,680 starting any of this stuff, you know, if you're going to be working with kids, you got to know 166 00:12:25,680 --> 00:12:32,320 where your values lie and, and you got to be strong in those. Um, but you also have to 167 00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:39,200 get to be able to, to be a person who can ask more questions than, than make statements. Um, 168 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:43,120 I think if you're going to get somewhere with kids, even your own kids, you get a lot farther, 169 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:47,440 if you're willing to ask them questions about things, rather than tell them about things a lot. 170 00:12:47,440 --> 00:12:50,960 Absolutely. And so I think that that, that's one of the things I think kids have, 171 00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:56,320 have taught me over the years, but I think knowing where my beliefs lie, where my values lie, 172 00:12:56,320 --> 00:13:03,520 was important for two reasons. One was because a lot of times even kids with a lot of trouble, 173 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:07,600 their values and beliefs matched up with mine a lot more than I would have thought. 174 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:11,920 Interesting. And then the second thing is, is sometimes my values and beliefs, 175 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:16,720 if I were, if I wasn't aware of how those came into play with kids, 176 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:22,240 it caused problems and friction between us. Because say one of my, obviously one of my 177 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:27,520 values is you treat women right. Well, sometimes our kids don't do that very well. 178 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:34,720 And, and I would jump in too harshly early on. And I had a great, uh, female co-worker who said, 179 00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:40,240 "Hey, maybe let me fight my own battles." Oh yeah. You know, and it was a great lesson for me because, 180 00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:45,040 one, she needed to, to gain that credibility. But the other thing was, is I wasn't going to 181 00:13:45,040 --> 00:13:50,800 change that kid's feeling by jumping in there. And so I, I think that, and then I actually think 182 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:56,960 a fair level of ignorance is the beginning of it. Not knowing that you're, you know, 183 00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:03,200 you're going to go through a lot of roller coasters, both emotionally and, and, and in other ways. 184 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:11,200 And just not knowing how tough it's going to be to get close to kids that you see 185 00:14:11,760 --> 00:14:17,840 horrible things sometimes happen to, you know, um, that ignorance can be really a blessing at times. 186 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,520 When you think about, um, 187 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:28,880 the, the kids that you guys serve at Bashar, and I guess let me first ask this, 188 00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:34,720 kind of paint a picture for us for, uh, the, the types of services that Bashar offer, 189 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:37,120 because they are, they are varied at various levels. 190 00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:41,200 And you had mentioned your children's home, but what, what else do you guys do? Because, yeah, 191 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:47,440 you guys, it's a, it's a varied thing. Yeah. And so, you know, I want to encapsulate it, 192 00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:51,840 because if I went into that stuff, we could be here for hours and hours. I mean, so, 193 00:14:51,840 --> 00:14:57,600 quite frankly, Bashar serves over a thousand kids a year and our residential side is the most 194 00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:03,600 intensive, but it's actually the fewest number of kids. And so, you know, I think if you think of 195 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:09,440 like a hospital, Bashar, that the residential kind side would be that intensive emergency 196 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:15,120 room and critical care unit, a lot of intensive work, that sort of thing. But then we have 197 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:22,240 services where we help kids who are in our, in our community schools and struggling there, 198 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:27,360 not, not making it there, who, who the schools can refer to our alternative school. They come in 199 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:32,320 for the day, they're actually going back home at night. And the goal is to keep them connected 200 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:38,080 to their school and get them back into their school. We also have a very small foster care 201 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:43,120 program, basically just for our kids who come out of residential. And we have our community-based 202 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:51,040 services, which has a huge array. I mean, this is everything from one-time classes to outpatient 203 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:57,680 therapy. We have programs to keep kids from getting into the system, like stop skipping, 204 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:03,120 which is for kids who are having trouble missing school, stop lifting for kids who shop lift too 205 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:09,360 much, or our shoplifting. And then we have a Teg Court program, which is all run by teens, 206 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:14,160 everything from the prosecuting attorney all the way through. Huge success right there. 207 00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:17,920 And then one of the other things that we have that I think is really good in our community-based 208 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:24,240 services is for every family who is going through divorce in Elkhart County and has kids under the 209 00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:29,360 age of 18, they go through our Transparenting and Seasons class. And the whole goal of that thing 210 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:33,360 is whatever is going on, you both care about your kids. Let's help you focus on them. 211 00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:40,720 I wish more people knew about that service right there. I think that, right, because that hits so 212 00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:45,040 many families in a very significant way. Can I tell you a quick story about it? 213 00:16:45,040 --> 00:16:49,920 So years ago, when we were first starting this, I got to run some of those classes. And one of the 214 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:54,640 things I would do is while the parents are in the Transparenting class, their kids are in Seasons. 215 00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:58,880 So, you know, we'd have some of the kids who are younger. And a lot of times what we'd do is, 216 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:02,560 that was big for them because they got to realize I'm not the only kid going through this. That's 217 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:07,200 pretty big. But I would always have the people who are working with the young kids take them out 218 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:14,320 while I'm doing some classes with the parents. Heather kids do sidewalk chalk art. And they 219 00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:20,240 would tell them, don't put any names down, just draw how it is for you right now with your family. 220 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:24,800 And then they would come in and I would tell the parents, hey, we're going to go on break. 221 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:29,200 We're going to go out and walk down the sidewalk. Every parent knows their kid's drawing. 222 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:35,280 Wow. Wow. And so there were parents in there who were terrified that they were doing horrible by 223 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:39,760 their kids who would see pictures that their kids drew that actually were pretty normal. 224 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:45,200 Families holding hands, things like that. And they would break down and cry. Because for them, 225 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:49,680 it let them know for the first time, I'm not doing as bad as I thought. And there are other parents 226 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:54,160 who were so much in their own hurt that they didn't realize what they were doing to their kids. 227 00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:58,640 And they'd walk out and they see their kids with a heart that's being pulled apart and they would 228 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:04,880 break down. And those families would come in and be like, we need more help. And so to me, 229 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:11,760 I look at that and I say, that's a very critical time for families and for kids. And if we can do 230 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:18,400 things the right way, the direction those kids go from there can be hugely impacted, 231 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:22,560 but also just their connection to their family again can really be drawn together. 232 00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:28,160 So you've talked about the residential and that's kind of a smaller group. And they're 233 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:33,600 on the Basher campus. You have houses that are individual houses that are dedicated to that 234 00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:39,440 service. Yeah. So we have an emergency shelter care, which is really designed for kids who are in 235 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:43,840 transition. But also if there are kids who've been kicked out of their house or they've run away from 236 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:49,120 home, they can check in and there's no cost for that. We just have to work with their parents to 237 00:18:49,120 --> 00:18:53,120 make sure that they're okay with them staying for a while and working with us. And that's been a 238 00:18:53,120 --> 00:18:58,000 really good thing. And then we have a bunch of other residential programs, everything from substance 239 00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:07,360 abuse treatment to significant traumatic kids who are dealing with traumatic issues, things that 240 00:19:07,360 --> 00:19:13,040 have happened and behaviors that result. And then our newest residential program is for girls who 241 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:22,880 have survived human trafficking. And in that one, I think the, so maybe you can help, you can help 242 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:29,360 me understand this. And I think I sort of understand, but when I drove by your guys' 243 00:19:29,360 --> 00:19:37,360 facility shortly after that, that place was built out. There's a stark appearance to it 244 00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:44,320 in comparison to the rest of the facilities that you have. Kind of describe it to us and then 245 00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:50,320 why, the kind of the why behind it. So excuse me, I think the thing that's always the hardest to 246 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:55,280 understand because our brains can't really comprehend it and mine couldn't even after doing 247 00:19:55,280 --> 00:20:02,160 in doing this work at the beginning. But the girls who have been subjected to that, you would 248 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:08,080 think that once somebody saves them, that they would be like, thank you so much. I'm so excited 249 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:13,440 about this help. And actually, they have gone under such systematic brainwashing. I mean, 250 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:19,760 we don't even have a good concept of the level of brainwashing that happens with these girls, 251 00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:27,280 that their first thing is, I don't trust anybody. I definitely don't trust you. I have to get away 252 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:34,480 from this place and many times get back to my abuser or my pimp or whatever, which makes no sense. 253 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:39,520 But if you understand the levels of psychological abuse and trauma that these girls go through, 254 00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:48,560 it does. So our facility is set up to be as, to be a secure facility. So that means the girls 255 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:53,040 aren't locked in their rooms or anything like that. It means that they can't freely run outside into 256 00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:59,200 the community because if they did, their skill set would make them gone. And then once they're 257 00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:05,040 gone, they're at real risk for never coming back or somebody finding them and them no longer being 258 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:12,880 alive. And so we built this really, it's a beautiful facility really. And the girls helped 259 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:17,360 design a lot of things. And in fact, one of the girls who's one of our, we call her our most 260 00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:23,200 notorious, but she also is one of our most beloved girls who's been gone for several years. 261 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:29,360 We actually contracted her to help us look at some of this stuff because she was so effective at 262 00:21:29,360 --> 00:21:36,480 hurting herself and doing things. And she was extremely helpful in that. But then we also have 263 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:43,440 outside courtyards and all that with really high fences that are anti-climb fences. And they look, 264 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:49,280 they actually look really nice to look through. But then on the side, it's amazing how things are 265 00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:54,240 so well designed on the side to our parking lot. The wall that is there, you could literally drive 266 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:59,360 a semi into and you would not break through. And it's because those girls got to know that nobody 267 00:21:59,360 --> 00:22:05,360 can bust in and steal them. That's interesting. I think that's one of those things that you think of 268 00:22:05,360 --> 00:22:13,040 happens elsewhere. Happens in third world countries. It happens in Miami, 269 00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:19,440 but not in Goshen, Indiana or this area. And yeah, that's sad. And thank you for doing the work 270 00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:25,360 that you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. I'll say this. Just to be honest, we didn't think it was that bad. 271 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:30,960 And it wasn't until we were getting more and more kids in our shelter who were couch surfing 272 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:36,240 and kids run out of places to couch surf. Then they run into places where people expect things 273 00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:41,280 of them and then they run into danger. And as these kids told these stories, we realized, 274 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:46,560 okay, there's more than we even realize is going on both within our community and then traveling 275 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:52,000 through our community and within the state. And so we really tried to work with other facilities 276 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:57,840 to help get these girls the help they needed, but both our kids and those places said, 277 00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:02,560 you guys know as much as we do, you need to jump in the game and do this. Wow. Yeah. And so that's 278 00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:09,040 what we do. Yeah. Yeah. So and again, and then so we've, you know, the trafficking side, the residential 279 00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:14,080 side, the education, the education side. So you're running an alternative school within, 280 00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:19,840 within on your campus as well. Yeah. Grades ranging from kindergarten all the way through. 281 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:25,360 Okay. Yeah. And it was interesting because we used to go fourth grade through and then as the 282 00:23:25,360 --> 00:23:29,440 schools kept asking us, how about third? How about second? When they got to kindergarten, we were 283 00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:34,320 like, seriously, you need us for kindergarten? They were like, they were in a position of deciding 284 00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:38,640 whether they were going to expel kindergarteners or not. Wow. And we were like, really? And then 285 00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:42,880 those kids promptly showed up at our place, bid our teachers just like, you know, they were going, 286 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:48,800 okay, we understand now. Yeah. And you know, there's a lot of difficulty schools deal with, 287 00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:53,920 but it's nice that we, it's good to be able to be there in our, our community schools try really 288 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:59,440 hard with these kids. And that partnership has been good because they, they really see the 289 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:03,200 importance of us doing things, but also the importance of them being able to get those kids 290 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:14,080 back into their schools. So I wonder if obviously this, the stories are 291 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:20,960 unique to each kid and kind of where they come from. If you were able to kind of paint 292 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:29,680 with broader brushstrokes, like the circumstances that are, that you, that you guys identify that 293 00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:35,680 are contributing to the students that are finding their way. It goes from even start with just the 294 00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:40,160 alternative school, like the students that are finding their way into your, into your services. 295 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:47,520 What, what challenges are they facing or what, in what atmospheres are they in that maybe 296 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:53,280 that, that might probably overlap with kids that are, that are kids that are also staying in the 297 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:58,080 schools. It's clearly they have responded to something different differently though, that 298 00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:02,320 something different has happened in their life. What are the sort of the things that contribute 299 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:07,680 to that? Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I can say this, there, there's kids from varying backgrounds. 300 00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:13,040 Like we always tend to think it's kids from certain backgrounds that, that run into these 301 00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:20,160 challenges. But sometimes you have kids who are, who have very loving families who, who care about 302 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:24,960 them a lot, but there's been some trauma that's happened or some things that have been really 303 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:32,160 difficult. And so as the kids' behaviors become more and more problematic, there are times where 304 00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:38,160 the family just realizes, okay, if I don't do something different with my kid, my kid's going 305 00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:43,120 to end up getting expelled from school. And so we have kids that come in where their parents are 306 00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:48,880 working with the school on that, and we have kids who come in whose families are kind of chronically 307 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:56,240 homeless. And so they aren't in a particular school system for very long periods of time, 308 00:25:56,240 --> 00:26:01,440 and they bounce and bounce. And once you get really behind as a kid, if you have two choices in class 309 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:07,120 to look stupid or be a problem, it's easier to be a problem in front of everybody than look stupid. 310 00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:11,200 And so our kids will act that out. And some of our kids, you know, really come from a lot of, 311 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:19,600 a lot of substance abuse within their family. And, you know, that, that's hard, especially with, 312 00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:23,520 you know, a lot of the stuff that's out there now, it puts kids in bad positions. It puts them 313 00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:28,720 in positions of basically being in control of their own lives at really early ages. And we all 314 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:33,280 know that that doesn't work out real well, but also puts them in situations where they're around 315 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:40,880 some particularly dangerous people sometimes. And so those kids both like going to school 316 00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:47,120 because it's one safe, stable place. But then they have real trouble at school because they're 317 00:26:47,120 --> 00:26:52,400 used to doing whatever they want everywhere else. And so that's a lot, I think a lot of what we see 318 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:57,440 are, you know, families who have had some difficulties have kind of that chronic homelessness 319 00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:03,040 side of things, a lot of substance abuse issues. And then we do see a lot of families, a lot of 320 00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:12,800 boys struggle with a complete father absence or positive role, male role model has huge impacts 321 00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:18,960 on those kids. They don't realize that, but you can see it. Yeah, I think this has been a 322 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:26,000 conversation, I think this is a conversation that comes up a lot on our show. And it's definitely 323 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:33,600 close to the work that you guys do really addressing fatherlessness, really talking about 324 00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:43,200 the impact that it can make. I say this with all respect to the families that 325 00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:48,960 you know, that are running and trying to operate without a dad. But, you know, there's just no, 326 00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:54,240 I felt like culture for a long time, you know, was trying to say like, well, you know, 327 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:59,280 like the single mom, like she can, she can, she can get by, right? She can, she had enough resources, 328 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:05,840 enough support, whatever. And for all the amazing women, and there's story after story after story, 329 00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:11,840 who, man, just went and got the second, the third job, worked all kinds of hours and shifts, 330 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:15,360 it made a way for their family to survive. And that's really what it was. Just had a, 331 00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:21,680 had a mindset of like, we will, we will make this, set themselves to that. Like, my goodness, 332 00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:30,160 how amazing. We can say that. And at the same time, say that nothing replaces having a father 333 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:33,600 in the home. And that's, that's for our young men. And that's for our, for our young women. 334 00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:42,000 Well, and not only that, but I think that when you have a son, especially that doesn't have a dad, 335 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:46,320 not only is he not getting that example, but then he also has to be that man of the house. 336 00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:50,960 Yeah. Right. And that's not something that any kid should have to take on. 337 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:55,360 Right. Yeah. Yeah. Such a lot of, I mean, I can only imagine just the amount, 338 00:28:55,360 --> 00:29:00,080 in so many cases, with some of the kids that are, that are coming to you guys, 339 00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:06,160 just the level of stress, just chronic stress that they are carrying with them. 340 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:12,720 Feelings of, like having to take on responsibility before they should really have to take on that 341 00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:14,560 responsibility. Right. 342 00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:17,840 Wondering how are my parents doing? How are my, I mean, they might be, 343 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:21,280 they might be the ones that are the adult in the room, right? No, kind of, kind of thing. 344 00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:28,960 How, so, I mean, you guys are provided, and obviously, and I, you guys are providing 345 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:35,520 in the services that you do, there's a lot of psychological care, I would imagine in all of this. 346 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:43,360 What, what is a young person who's coming to you? What do they, what is your goal? 347 00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:49,040 Like, what do you feel like they need to know and experience and understand to, to move forward 348 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:55,520 in life? Yeah. Well, you know, one of the, one of the great things is, is a part of our agency, 349 00:29:55,520 --> 00:30:01,280 we've always had, you know, a strong Christian spiritual background. Yeah. 350 00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:04,640 And the great thing is, is, you know, our people, though, 351 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:10,400 try to shove anything down any of our kids' throats, a bad idea, right? Yeah. 352 00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:14,480 And so, you know, we're always trying to offer as many things as we can 353 00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:20,160 and not have it be like, we're trying to make you do this stuff. And I'll tell you this, people 354 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:24,880 think, would think, and in, it does happen at the beginning, but our kids are not as 355 00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:29,920 resistant to that stuff as people would think. In fact, most of our kids are interested. We have 356 00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:36,560 kids who go to area churches, who are involved in area youth groups. We have a chaplain on campus, 357 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:42,160 and actually one of my favorite statistics, the only 100% statistic that Basher has, 358 00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:47,440 I love this one. Every kid who has tried to punch our chaplain has gotten baptized. 359 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:54,800 Now, we've had other kids who've gotten baptized too, but every one. So, so my, my question for 360 00:30:54,800 --> 00:31:01,120 our, you know, chaplain who most recently came in was, I said, told him that I said, you, you 361 00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:07,440 will want to take one for the team. He's like, I'll take two of it gets a kid baptized. That's a 362 00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:12,640 good stat. I mean, you should be maybe gotta be more concerned about a kid if they haven't taken 363 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:17,760 a swing. Right. Yeah. It's like, are you okay? Is this? Well, they don't, you know, the good thing 364 00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:24,320 is I always say that's not a kid who's, who's apathetic. He's at least mad. And I do think so, 365 00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:29,440 for me, you know, kids choose to put in repair requests. And it's amazing to me. We have 366 00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:35,040 something like 1400 people who are on our prayer request chain who like, yeah, our kids and staff 367 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:41,120 put out prayers. They pray for them. But, you know, like in my role now, I watch those very 368 00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:46,560 closely and I can tell you when something changes for a kid because it'll look a lot like this. And 369 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:52,560 I remember this one girl had this very specific one several years ago, 16 straight weeks of Get Me 370 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:59,760 Outta Bashar. That was the prayer. Week 17 was please pray. Or my prayer is that the man who 371 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:07,040 killed my mom knows he's forgiven and that I can realize that I'm forgiven too. Wow. Wow. So that 372 00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:12,640 was week 17. So I got to tell her staff. I said, Hey, you know, she's going to be doing butter here 373 00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:16,480 soon. And they're like, yeah, right. Cause this is a kid who flipped every furniture. She was like 374 00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:21,520 super human. A couple weeks later, a couple of staff show up at my door and they were like, 375 00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:26,720 how'd you know? And I was like, well, I'm just that good. And then I told them, I'm like, well, 376 00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:33,040 no, actually, I was reading her prayer request. But you can see it. Yeah. Like so, so how do I 377 00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:38,080 know? Yeah, I like, I like the kids start to feel hope for their future and belief in things. 378 00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:45,440 But I know that that's also tied to grace, knowing that they're them having grace for people, 379 00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:51,200 having grace for themselves. And then also being able to kind of see that side of things where 380 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:56,160 you're grateful. Yeah. You know, I had one of the kids tell me one time when I said to him, 381 00:32:56,160 --> 00:33:00,800 said, why are you still making it years after he said, you just statistically shouldn't be making 382 00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:06,800 it. And he said, I got so much more to lose now. Wow. He's like, I just don't want to pay the cost 383 00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:13,200 anymore. And I was like, that's a grateful person. The 100% living with gratitude is powerful. That's 384 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:20,960 a powerful thing. And you know, you say 16 weeks of prayer. That's, that is, that's a few months. 385 00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:23,520 Yeah. Right. That's four. That's a long time. Yeah. 386 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:28,880 How many of us as adults, when we look at a problem at a troubled kid or a kid who's going 387 00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:33,200 through something are willing to say, are willing to say, Hey, I'll go through, I'll go through hell 388 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:41,920 with this kid for four months. If it means, if it means, you know, I just think like, that's why 389 00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:47,440 I appreciate what you guys do is that it is, it's not a sprint. It is a marathon with, with so many 390 00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:53,120 of the kids, but you're, you guys are in a position and you have an intentionality to take that journey 391 00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:59,680 with them. And, and I know like not every story, not every story ends, ends as happily as you guys 392 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:03,920 would want to. And I'm sure there's lots of stories that actually in the long term, maybe did, and you 393 00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:09,040 just don't, you don't know, but you're committed to planting the seeds of hope for, for a better 394 00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:17,120 future. And it's a win every time. I mean, it's a win every time we do it. Right. So as you've done 395 00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:21,920 this, if you've, as you've, as you've just climbed the ladder at Basher and if, you know, you did 396 00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:28,080 direct casework and then you, like how many, how many different roles have you, have you held? 397 00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:33,280 I think, you know, I never really counted them, but it's got to be over 10. Yeah. And here's what 398 00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:39,680 I found out was just like, I, you know, looking backwards, I didn't realize it wasn't that I was 399 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:45,680 so good at anything. It was just, I was really interested in everything. Yeah. So it was like, 400 00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:50,880 hey, we're going to start this really hard new program that it's like, it's, I don't know if 401 00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:56,560 it'll work out. And I'm like, yeah, can I do that? You know? And what I realized in that was 402 00:34:56,560 --> 00:35:03,920 that, you know, the good thing is, is, you know, God already had the plan. He just needed, again, 403 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:09,280 back to ignorance. Somebody ignorant enough to realize they didn't have the skills, but we're 404 00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:14,320 fortunate enough to be backed by somebody who did, you know? That's good. And so like, yeah, 405 00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:19,200 I've gotten to be involved. Now, the one thing I've never gotten to do as a job and I'm not even 406 00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:24,560 allowed to play with is anything in our maintenance or engineering. So I get to look at this stuff. 407 00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:29,680 I just don't get to touch anything. I don't know if I've ever seen Sean Molaouan out there. 408 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:36,160 No, no, no, let me wash the mower. So yeah, that's nice. It's nice. Sean, as you've, 409 00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:40,560 as you've done this work, as you've had, you know, you've, you've seen 410 00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:46,000 the importance of the work, you've seen the dynamics of the work of working with kids that 411 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:51,520 are coming from challenging situations. I'd be interested to know how it impacted your own 412 00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:59,360 fathering journey. What it meant, yeah, how it impacted the way you talked to your kids about 413 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:04,320 things, the way you parented. You're kind of, you know, we always talk about parenting philosophy. 414 00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:08,320 I'm not sure I have a fully baked one yet, you know, like, but we're trying to get in that 415 00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:11,680 direction, right? Like a framework that we're operating from. I'd be interested in what that 416 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:17,200 was for you. Right. Well, at some point, my parenting philosophy at its base level was this, 417 00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:23,920 try not to set the kids on fire. Yeah. As much fun as you can without setting your kids on fire by 418 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:30,400 accident, you know. Well, I'll say, yeah, I was, I was really taught so much by the kids, you know, 419 00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:34,960 so I was 21. Yeah. When I started, Shelley and I got married two years later, it was two years after 420 00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:41,280 that. We had our first son, our first child, Liam. And so there was a couple of things. In fact, 421 00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:47,280 Shelley told me this at one point early on, because, you know, she's just an awesome everything, 422 00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:54,000 but she's an awesome mom and she's adventurous and all that. But, you know, the, is a first mom, 423 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:59,600 it's a first parent anyway, but especially the first mom, I think you worry, we're doing everything 424 00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:05,440 wrong. I'm doing everything wrong. And one day, you know, I guess I didn't really even think about 425 00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:13,280 it, but I said to her, I said, look, you know what I do? As long as our kids know without a doubt 426 00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:20,320 that we love them and that we believe in them, we're going to have to try really, really hard to 427 00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:27,600 screw them up. And I believe that. Like you think about it, like you can be too hard on your kid or 428 00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:36,720 too soft on your kid, but if you are, if your kid knows, not fake, but knows that you believe in them 429 00:37:36,720 --> 00:37:43,120 and that you love them, even if you're too harsh on things sometimes, they're going to understand 430 00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:49,520 that. And in fact, that was probably one of the other things I learned in working with our kids 431 00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:55,440 at Bash or was, you know, I had to truly believe in them. I had to really be interested in relationship 432 00:37:55,440 --> 00:38:01,120 with them. Truly had to love those kids. But if I had to fall on one side or the other, 433 00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:09,040 my side was always more stern or strong, not stern in a mean way, but like strong. And it would 434 00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:14,400 immediately be followed up with something that would make that kid know that I was being that way, 435 00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:18,560 because I believe that they had something in them that was really good. And I wasn't going to accept 436 00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:26,080 something less than that. And so that really fed into my kids. I mean, yeah, I think my kids made 437 00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:31,200 my life too easy. Shelley and my life too easy. In fact, there are times where like, shouldn't we be 438 00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:37,840 having a little more problems, you know? And there's, I think there's lots of things that go into that. 439 00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:45,280 Large family is wonderful and supportive. And so it's far beyond us. But definitely the other 440 00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:51,920 thing the kids taught me early on, quick story to show just how stupid I was at the very beginning, 441 00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:57,440 but that how God gave me a great lesson. And that is we had this policy that came out like three, 442 00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:02,240 four weeks after I was hired that said, if a kid throws a chemical, you have to physically 443 00:39:02,240 --> 00:39:07,680 intervene with them right away. Makes sense, right? Because now we don't give kids chemicals 444 00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:15,040 anymore to do. That was back then. So just me and one kid are in the cottage and the kid 445 00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:20,080 trucks this bottle of chemicals and I'm in my head going, this seems weird, but I got a, 446 00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:25,280 but I take the kid down in a physical intervention and we get to the ground and the kid goes, 447 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:32,400 why did you do that? And I said, I don't know. And so I said, you okay? And he's like, yeah, 448 00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:37,040 like, can we sit up? And he's like, yeah, so he's set up. And so I kind of explained to him. I said, 449 00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:40,720 but now I'm realizing I'm pretty sure that only men, if there's other kids in the area, 450 00:39:40,720 --> 00:39:50,400 he started laughing and I said, I'm really sorry. And he started tearing up. And I was like, 451 00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:56,560 I'm like, oh no, maybe I did hurt him. I'm like, you okay? And he's like, yeah. I'm like, what 452 00:39:56,560 --> 00:40:02,720 happened? He goes, nobody's ever said that to me. And so that was like God thing. And it was like, 453 00:40:02,720 --> 00:40:06,880 my own human stupidity does this thing. But then God's like, I'm going to make something out of it. 454 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:07,600 Right. 455 00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:10,960 Realizing that kid had never, that kid should have been told he was sorry. 456 00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:11,280 Yeah. 457 00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:15,200 Like so many people. And the craziest thing is a couple of months later, 458 00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:20,080 to one of the female staff who is really hard on female staff. I heard him say, I'm sorry. 459 00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:26,320 And it changed her world too. Because she never thought that would happen. And so I think in that 460 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:34,240 is saying you're sorry to your kids isn't weakness. No. It is the only real strength. 461 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:42,240 And kids are incredibly forgiving. This kid who had this horrible life immediately forgave me 462 00:40:42,240 --> 00:40:45,280 for physically intervening for absolutely no reason. 463 00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:47,680 Yeah. Yeah. I love it. 464 00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:51,760 He had no reason to end it. Who am I to him? And he forgave me immediately. 465 00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:57,120 My own kids who love me to death, me being able to say I'm sorry and truly be sorry for something 466 00:40:57,120 --> 00:41:00,400 is not going to do anything but make their lives better in mine too. 467 00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:08,880 So you mentioned kind of at the top of the show that you, you know, initially when you got out 468 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:11,520 of college, you're like, Hey, I'm going to go get my masters right away. And then you're like, 469 00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:19,440 No, maybe, maybe not. And so went to Basterd did that, did that work? How, so how long between 470 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:23,040 undergraduate and graduate work for you? Let's see, probably would have been 471 00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:30,320 eight years. Okay. Yeah. So do you feel like that was the right, that was the right move? 472 00:41:30,320 --> 00:41:31,680 Like that was the best. For me it was. Yeah. 473 00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:36,720 Yeah. Yeah. We, we talk a lot on this show frequently about, we've had like gap year 474 00:41:36,720 --> 00:41:42,800 discussions. We've had kind of, I think helpful because we've got lots of families, 475 00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:45,360 they're listening and they're asking the question about how, you know, 476 00:41:45,360 --> 00:41:49,840 how they should be encouraging their kids one way or the other in education and things like this. 477 00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:59,440 I know, I know in my under my, I know in my, well, from between undergrad and graduate work for me was, 478 00:42:00,240 --> 00:42:07,440 was not, I just was a year in between, but, but I was an older, I was a super senior by the time 479 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:12,320 I graduated was a little bit, I was married and you know, and all sorts of things. But I just, 480 00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:19,520 I think now so often times like the value and I'd be interested in even when you're looking at, 481 00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:25,760 when you're hiring people and talking about staff, the value of getting some real world on the ground 482 00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:34,160 experience. There is such a, there can be such a rush through the educational process. And I know 483 00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:39,680 in my, in my time in graduate school, the students that annoyed me the absolute most that really 484 00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:45,200 got under my skin and I was just like, you're just not, they were not able to connect with the 485 00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:51,040 educate, the graduate educational part the same way because they had not gone and been a practitioner, 486 00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:54,720 like they had not actually been a practitioner for a time. They had not, 487 00:42:54,720 --> 00:42:59,600 they'd not gotten hit in the face by a kid, you know, or, or, you know, an elder, 488 00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:08,320 or whoever, you know, they had not had to have that kind of, you know, rubber meets the road 489 00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:13,200 experience a little bit to help gauge their, you know, yeah, to give some parameters and some 490 00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:19,840 direction for their future. I mean, are you there? Do you think like, hey, 491 00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:25,680 space it out, get some real world experience. It's, it's valuable. 492 00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:32,720 Well, you know, here, here's what I would say. I, and I guess this comes from my own experience 493 00:43:32,720 --> 00:43:38,400 with my own kids. So, you know, both my kids being it Purdue for engineering, you know, 494 00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:42,880 okay, yeah, that's a bragging thing or whatever. It's hard to get into that. Right? 495 00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:48,400 I told both of them, if you get into this and it's not for you, change your major. 496 00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:53,520 Because the worst thing you could do is be in something that's super successful 497 00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:58,960 and you're really good at it and you do all this and it pays you too well that you can't really 498 00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:06,720 move into something else and you hate it. Yeah. And so, and I truly meant that and that came from 499 00:44:06,720 --> 00:44:10,800 my thing. I was going to come, I was going to become a psychologist because that was kind of 500 00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:17,360 the highest paying and this helping profession. I realized I wasn't like there and like wonderful 501 00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:22,160 psychologists are very, very important. I'm just not that guy. You know, I got to, 502 00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:27,040 I got to have more different interaction, less testing interaction. And so what I'd say is 503 00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:35,440 when you're looking at your kids, step back and assess honestly. If your kids are in high school 504 00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:41,920 and they're being really successful, they don't need you to drive them anymore. Like they just 505 00:44:41,920 --> 00:44:48,560 don't. You've already done your work, you know. And in fact, probably at that time, the best thing 506 00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:54,160 you can do is switch gears and be like, you don't have to take yourself so seriously. You're already 507 00:44:54,160 --> 00:45:01,920 going to be successful. Because one of the, I mean, we all remember back to high school age and if 508 00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:07,920 you went to college, early college, that whole being terrified of, am I going to be good enough? 509 00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:11,520 Let's face it, you're not going to go anywhere where you're the smartest person ever. 510 00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:15,040 I mean, somebody will, but it ain't going to be me either. 511 00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:21,520 So I can let go of that. I'm also not a failure, you know. And you probably don't have kids who 512 00:45:21,520 --> 00:45:26,320 are a failure. And that's where I think switching, especially, you know, from junior high to high 513 00:45:26,320 --> 00:45:31,840 school age, switching from a parent who makes a lot of statements to being a parent who asks a 514 00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:38,640 lot of questions becomes really critical. Because your questions will bore out your kids' 515 00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:43,440 beliefs and their deep values. And you've already cemented those in your kids. 516 00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:49,040 And over the long haul, most kids, even if they're kind of going out of bounds a little bit, 517 00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:56,720 if they've had the right kind of moral upbringing and all that stuff, good family, outside of drugs, 518 00:45:56,720 --> 00:46:01,920 drugs are the wild card, man. But outside of that, most of them, even if they bounce around, 519 00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:07,440 by mid to late twenties, they'll be coming right back into line with things. And so I think we put 520 00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:12,400 that pressure on ourselves. And I would challenge us not to look at how other people's kids are 521 00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:18,400 doing. There you go. That's going to kill everything. I care comparison goes you every time. 522 00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:25,200 Yeah. Yeah. And I hope for us, for listeners out there, I mean, I really hope you hear this from 523 00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:32,800 Sean as someone who's interacting with a lot of kids and has seen, in 28 years, I just can't 524 00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:37,520 imagine all that. I mean, you've probably forgotten more things than you, than anything. But like, 525 00:46:37,520 --> 00:46:45,600 I think to sort of boil it down to say, you know, the takeaways from your work and what you've seen, 526 00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:54,560 I really hope everyone hears like it really isn't rocket science in as much as like we just often 527 00:46:54,560 --> 00:47:00,960 think and I'm there too. I have, man, I've got it like it's a, it's a voice that's in the back of 528 00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:06,240 my head of like, Hey, I need to keep the accelerator down with my kid. I need to keep, you know, 529 00:47:06,240 --> 00:47:13,600 to keep on making sure that they, that they're doing their best all the time. And, and I hear, 530 00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:17,120 but I mean, and this is what we also know. It's what we know about adolescent psychology. It's 531 00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:22,000 what we know about, you know, brain development, moral formation, all that sort of stuff. 532 00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:28,080 The key building blocks more than likely through adolescence are there, are there, 533 00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:33,520 are there as long as they don't get mixed up in, in substance abuse, which like you said, 534 00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:40,160 that's a major wildcard. As long as they don't, and they have a parent that really what you've 535 00:47:40,160 --> 00:47:45,120 really really said becomes more of a mentor and coach to them and less of a less of a 536 00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:48,320 guiding each one of their steps and kind of giving all of this. 537 00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:53,600 You're setting up them by and large, setting them up first and first success. And then 538 00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:58,080 that way we can just as parents take a little bit of a breather. So absolutely. Well, man, 539 00:47:58,080 --> 00:48:04,880 Sean, wow, really helpful, interesting perspectives on things. I think a lot of good experience. 540 00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:13,440 But we can never end a show without putting you through the final ringer. And so now it is time 541 00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:18,400 for now it's time for dudes and dads pop quiz. Thank you, Aaron. James appreciate it. This is 542 00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:22,640 where we ask you random questions. You can't prepare for them right anyway, shape or form. And 543 00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:29,760 we can't prepare for the answer. Oh, man. That's good. That's what makes this podcast magic. 544 00:48:29,760 --> 00:48:34,800 Yes. Andy, you got you tell me when you're ready with your questions and I'm going to fire mine off. 545 00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:42,800 All right. What's your greatest regret? I want the regret one. Nice one. My greatest regret 546 00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:51,120 would be and I don't have very many of those. That's okay. So yeah, my greatest regret would 547 00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:56,320 be that I couldn't trick Shelly into marrying me at five years instead of seven. 548 00:48:56,320 --> 00:49:02,320 Wow. I feel like the way he answered that is like it's a win. Right. Yeah. One more matter 549 00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:09,600 of what. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Sean, if you were, if you had a time machine 550 00:49:09,600 --> 00:49:19,120 and you wanted to relive three significant events within your lifetime, 551 00:49:19,840 --> 00:49:26,400 what would those three things be? I would, and I'm going to pair these together. I would relive 552 00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:34,480 both of my kids being born because I've never had a body mental spiritual reaction like that in my 553 00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:45,680 life. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then so the second one would be reliving a week before my dad died. 554 00:49:45,680 --> 00:49:54,880 He was on a fishing trip with us and my son Liam was on the boat and my dad could barely do anything 555 00:49:54,880 --> 00:50:01,520 by that point. And my dad catches about a three and a half pound small mouth bass and reels it in 556 00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:07,840 himself, which was like, he could hardly hold a spoon and we get it in and we're all just excited. 557 00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:13,440 And Liam turns to me just tears flush in his face and he said, I just prayed God let him have one 558 00:50:13,440 --> 00:50:19,760 more. Oh, come on. Come on. Yeah. I could live that all day every day. Yeah. That's great. 559 00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:28,400 And then, then the, I think probably one of my greatest gift joys in my life is a mug my daughter 560 00:50:28,400 --> 00:50:37,760 Cara gave me that basically the mug said, thanks for raising me to be a great man even though I'm 561 00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:44,560 your daughter. And I was so excited about that because I've always said we don't have different 562 00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:51,120 rules for boys and girls in our house. She's a very strong woman, but not a not mouthy strong. 563 00:50:51,120 --> 00:50:55,840 She's just strong. Yeah. And so when she gave that to me, it was one of the best gifts of my life. 564 00:50:55,840 --> 00:51:02,480 That's great. All right. What is your favorite gadget? My favorite gadget would be, 565 00:51:04,400 --> 00:51:11,360 I'm going to have to say my, this is my favorite. I'm thinking of all the things I play with. Okay, 566 00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:17,200 probably my favorite gadget is I have like a World War two trench lighter. There's somebody 567 00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:22,320 had built out of a cartridge in World War two and it's taken me a lot to kind of get it running 568 00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:25,760 and going again. So I'd say it's probably my favorite gadget. That's nice. That's good. 569 00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:30,080 Favorite book that you've read in the last five years? 570 00:51:32,080 --> 00:51:36,320 My favorite, the favorite one I'd say would probably be endurance. It's the story of Ernest 571 00:51:36,320 --> 00:51:43,200 Shackleton's ship. I don't know if you've heard the story, but they got 1800s, got stuck in 572 00:51:43,200 --> 00:51:49,680 pack ice, survived for 400 and some days in Antarctica. Amazing story. Great leadership story. 573 00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:53,760 My last question, which living person do you admire the most? 574 00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:04,560 It's a tie and it's all within my family. Oh, wow. Oh man. Yeah, I admire both. I admire all three, 575 00:52:04,560 --> 00:52:11,520 my daughter and my son and my wife. Nice. For different reasons. My son is probably the 576 00:52:11,520 --> 00:52:19,760 best representation of Jesus that I see. He's just crazy weird how good he is. You know what I mean? 577 00:52:19,760 --> 00:52:27,200 Like almost irritating. My daughter is always a surprise in the depth of her spirituality 578 00:52:27,760 --> 00:52:34,960 and my wife is always an amazing representation of grace where it's not. 579 00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:40,800 I just go to dinner with my family basically. That's great. Awesome. That's great. 580 00:52:40,800 --> 00:52:45,680 Sean, what's the best thing you've eaten in the last year? 581 00:52:45,680 --> 00:52:54,800 Well, that's easy for me to answer. So when the salmon are running into Bering Springs, 582 00:52:54,800 --> 00:53:01,760 my son and I always go out and fish. And so there's been times where we catch a salmon, 583 00:53:01,760 --> 00:53:07,520 flay it up, butter it and salt it over a fire and there's nothing better than that. 584 00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:12,160 Well, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. Sean, congratulations. You have passed. 585 00:53:12,160 --> 00:53:18,720 You have successfully passed. Flying colors. Oh, gosh. Sean, I just want to say, 586 00:53:18,720 --> 00:53:22,480 from the bottom of my heart, I'm so grateful for you. Thank you for being out there. 587 00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:27,120 Yeah. Thanks for coming out. We're just so fortunate to have people 588 00:53:27,120 --> 00:53:32,720 like you and the many great people that are at Basher doing amazing things in our community. 589 00:53:32,720 --> 00:53:37,040 And so as always, we will give you all the ways. 590 00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:43,600 Basher is always looking for volunteers, people to invest in their ministry there and all that. 591 00:53:43,600 --> 00:53:49,200 So we'll make sure over the show notes at Dudes and Dads, Dudes and Dands podcast. 592 00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:55,040 You'll get it right. We'll get it on these days. We'll make sure to send links over there so you 593 00:53:55,040 --> 00:54:00,880 can get to know more about them. Guys, we appreciate you. We're grateful for you. You can 594 00:54:00,880 --> 00:54:07,280 hover to dudes and dads podcast.com for all the show notes, past episodes, future episodes, 595 00:54:07,280 --> 00:54:12,720 present episodes, Dudes and Dands podcast at gmail.com. You can listen now to our future 596 00:54:12,720 --> 00:54:17,760 episodes. You can. You can. You've got a time machine. It's amazing. Dudes and Dads podcast 597 00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:22,000 at gmail.com. If you want to send us an email ideas for future show ideas, all that good stuff, 598 00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:29,120 all that great stuff, all that great stuff. Anything else Andy with grace and peace. See ya. 599 00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:30,640 Hey, baby. 600 00:54:30,800 --> 00:54:32,800 Yeah. 601 00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:33,620 You 602 00:54:33,940 --> 00:54:34,500 you 603 00:54:38,020 --> 00:54:48,020 [BLANK_AUDIO]