The Unhinged Father

Some guy on Reddit told Robbie he sounded like he'd achieved parental nirvana. Robbie wanted to punch him through the screen. Then he took a breath, re-read his own response, and realized the guy kind of had a point — he'd accidentally presented himself as someone who had it figured out. This episode is the honest correction of that impression. Nobody has it figured out. The perfect fami...

His youngest got sick the night of the Fourth of July. Croupy cough turned into a real respiratory issue — urgent care, breathing treatments, oxygen monitoring. Holding his son in his arms and feeling that labored breathing going in and out of him, Robbie couldn't control it. Couldn't fix it. Could just be there. For someone who is wired to be the protector — the one who handles things —...

Happy Fourth of July. Robbie grew up believing America was unambiguously the greatest country in the world. He's still proud to live here. But the rose-colored glasses came off somewhere along the way — between watching a debate that made him genuinely concerned for the country, having kids who could one day be drafted into a war he doesn't believe in, and watching political theater repl...

Robbie is genuinely somewhere in the middle on this one. He believes in grace, self-compassion, and acknowledging that parenting is hard. He also gets annoyed when he sees a five-minute Instagram video of a parent melting down because their kid said no. Both things are true at the same time and this episode is his honest attempt to figure out where the line actually is. This is also the episode wh...