The Dude Dad (ft. Taylor Calmus, Dude Dad Video Creator and Author)

00:00:00:10 - 00:00:24:19
Matthew Krekeler
Welcome to Girl Dad Nation. In this episode, I welcome Taylor Calmus. Taylor is a Colorado-based video creator with a show on the Magnolia Network called Super Dad, where he helps other dads build awesome things for their kids. But I first discovered Taylor through his amazing YouTube channel called Dude Dad, where he makes comedy sketches, DIY videos and vlogs all about family life.

00:00:25:09 - 00:00:49:09
Matthew Krekeler
He also recently published a book for New Dads called A Dudes Guide to Baby Size. Definitely a great dad content creator to follow. Let's get to it. Taylor. Thank you so much for being here.

00:00:50:03 - 00:00:51:09
Taylor Calmus
Thanks for having me, Matt.

00:00:52:06 - 00:01:05:11
Matthew Krekeler
It's awesome to have The Dude Dad on the show. My wife and I have been huge fans of your channel. All the videos and content that you guys have posted on Dude Dad on YouTube and then now following you on Instagram, which is super cool.

00:01:05:23 - 00:01:06:15
Taylor Calmus
Thank you.

00:01:07:06 - 00:01:15:03
Matthew Krekeler
But yeah, I want to kind of just start with how did dude dad come about? What inspired you to start do Dad?

00:01:15:22 - 00:01:37:18
Taylor Calmus
Yeah, I've been making YouTube videos for a while, but never with, like, a purpose or like a genre or anything. And at the time, me and Heidi were living in Los Angeles, now is pursuing acting. And then she got pregnant, and I was like, Man, I don't know if we can live on next to nothing forever. If I like, you know, now I'm going to be responsible for this little human.

00:01:38:12 - 00:01:59:00
Taylor Calmus
So I kind of had this feeling I was going to have to give up that traditional Hollywood acting dream, but I wanted a way to stay creative. So I was like, Oh, well, why don't I, like, make my own YouTube channel? That's about being a dad. I saw a lot of, like, women having success with like mom blogs and things like that, but there wasn't much out there for dads.

00:01:59:00 - 00:02:31:05
Taylor Calmus
So I thought, Well, maybe I'll do that. So I started it two weeks before Theo was born. So the channel is as old as my oldest son, which is now six, six and a half. So yeah, that's how it started it. And, and it just kind of grew from there. But we ended up kind of finding myself on this front end of a wave of like lot like this involved fatherhood community, you know, which I'm sure you know, a lot of that now as well.

00:02:32:12 - 00:02:38:18
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, well, I started the podcast as a way to get connected to other dads and also as a creative outlet.

00:02:38:20 - 00:02:41:15
Taylor Calmus
Yeah, absolutely. Have you been to Dad 2.0 yet?

00:02:41:20 - 00:02:43:23
Matthew Krekeler
No. What's Dad 2.00.

00:02:43:23 - 00:03:02:12
Taylor Calmus
Dad 2.0 is like a conference for Dad creators, basically. But like, they get together once a year, and it's like. It's like that community. But everyone gets to see each other in person. It's pretty cool. That's great. Yeah. You should check it out. You would really enjoy it. But there's, like, a lot of podcasters.

00:03:02:13 - 00:03:02:20
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah.

00:03:03:07 - 00:03:20:10
Taylor Calmus
YouTubers and Instagrammers and bloggers and. Yeah, but I was sort of like one of the part of the new blood, because a lot of the people there were, like, bloggers and stuff and blogs have kind of like are not what they used to be. Now that video content is so huge. But yeah. Anyway.

00:03:20:23 - 00:03:23:01
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, I'll have to check that out. That sounds awesome.

00:03:24:00 - 00:03:24:09
Taylor Calmus
Yeah.

00:03:25:02 - 00:03:36:19
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. This is so much in its infancy. This podcast, like I started January this year, but it's just been amazing to meet people like yourselves and so many other people just through through the podcast.

00:03:37:08 - 00:03:39:11
Taylor Calmus
Absolutely, man. It's what it's all about.

00:03:40:12 - 00:04:03:15
Matthew Krekeler
Now, you lived in L.A. for ten years and kind of grinding it out, like as an actor and all of that, like I hear I went to film school but purposely chose not to go to New York or L.A. because I just heard stories of just how hard it is. Yeah, I think too. Unfortunately, it's really hard on family life.

00:04:04:17 - 00:04:11:02
Matthew Krekeler
Could you kind of talk about your decision to move out to Colorado and like.

00:04:11:02 - 00:04:11:14
Taylor Calmus
Yeah.

00:04:11:14 - 00:04:23:01
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, the way that you prioritized family and but now you're incorporating your family life. Yeah. Into into your career and. Yeah. The whole Doodad brand.

00:04:23:16 - 00:04:50:04
Taylor Calmus
You know, it's a weird situation when there's like isn't a lot of there's a, there's a ton of gray area between family life and work life which can be stressful and kind of like hard to navigate at times. But also what it you know, in the and another viewpoint like my work is my life and what I love to do and like people always ask me like, can you just ever shut off?

00:04:50:04 - 00:05:09:01
Taylor Calmus
I'm like, Well, but I like being on. I like I enjoy it. So why do I want to stop doing it when I love to do it, you know? But you do have to make sure you, you know, set boundaries when you're, you know, when your kids are involved in the mix it all and stuff. And that's why you'll see a lot less of my kids in the videos in the last couple of years.

00:05:09:01 - 00:05:34:21
Taylor Calmus
It's because they're getting a little older and we want to make sure that we're not like, you know, imposing too much work responsibility on them and and what they want to do. But to answer your question, yes, like moving to Colorado, a lot of that had to do with building a better structure for our family life. Living in L.A., we didn't have a lot of space.

00:05:35:03 - 00:05:58:18
Taylor Calmus
It was really expensive. Our daycare was like an hour drive to get to, you know. And like I said, like, the kids are just spending a ton of time in the car. It was just really hard, you know? And so much of it comes down to just there being so many people in one area. Yeah, traffic and parking are, you know, two things that you hear people complain about all the time.

00:05:58:18 - 00:06:31:15
Taylor Calmus
But it's those two things that make everything harder and more difficult, you know, because it's like, oh, it should be a Well, if we leave now, we're going to hit traffic, we're going to do this. And like little fun things turned into like a big headache, you know? So coming to Colorado is a way to just go like, let's, let's make life easier for ourselves and for our kids and give them a safer place to be and and it's been fantastic now for everybody that, well, nobody else should move here.

00:06:31:18 - 00:06:32:18
Taylor Calmus
It's the winners.

00:06:32:18 - 00:06:34:02
Matthew Krekeler
So that's what I tell everyone.

00:06:34:02 - 00:06:34:23
Taylor Calmus
Yeah. The winters are.

00:06:35:03 - 00:06:38:00
Matthew Krekeler
Terrible. Don't move to Colorado. It's like you see all the movies.

00:06:38:00 - 00:06:50:03
Taylor Calmus
And then in the summer, it's just heat and no rain. It's just a drought. Everything is brown. You do not want to move to Colorado.

00:06:50:03 - 00:07:01:01
Matthew Krekeler
I hope. I hope that gets out there. Yeah. I think we also talked about doing a Colorado Sucks campaign for all the yes, all the people.

00:07:01:01 - 00:07:07:15
Taylor Calmus
Want to do that. I think there's just got to find the right way to do it. Just giant billboards to say Colorado, stop dry Idaho.

00:07:08:06 - 00:07:11:19
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. Just like right on the border of, like, Utah and.

00:07:12:11 - 00:07:12:19
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:07:13:21 - 00:07:14:21
Taylor Calmus
Exactly. Yeah.

00:07:14:22 - 00:07:15:02
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:07:15:16 - 00:07:28:14
Matthew Krekeler
Now, with deer dead, that was a big leap of faith at the time, since you kind of put everything else aside to concentrate 100% on doodad at a time. From what I.

00:07:29:11 - 00:07:32:18
Taylor Calmus
Recall. Yes and yes and no. Yeah, but yeah, go ahead.

00:07:33:10 - 00:07:57:22
Matthew Krekeler
And I think one of your YouTube videos, you talk more about the like the sentimental side of starting the channel and the way that Heidi was really influential in that and really supportive and said like saw the passion and saw the potential. And I just think that that's awesome that you guys were on the same page. And yeah, eventually, like, you took that leap of faith.

00:07:57:22 - 00:08:06:14
Matthew Krekeler
I know. Like, you can't always just, like, jump into something 100%. Like, sometimes you have to supplement just practically, but for sure. What was that like?

00:08:07:00 - 00:08:26:00
Taylor Calmus
So I supplement it for a long time, and I think that's the one thing that I always try to tell anybody that moves to Los Angeles to be an actor or anything. Is that like if you move out there and you like put it on yourself, that like, I'm only going to accept acting jobs and that's it? Well, you'll be homeless in two months and like it happens to a lot of people.

00:08:26:00 - 00:08:41:04
Taylor Calmus
How do you work with homeless youth all the time? And that was their story. They were like, No, I'm sticking to it. But the reality is, if you want to stick to it, you have to find a way to make money that allows you to stick to it. You know, you have to create income to then be able to support that passion.

00:08:41:09 - 00:09:01:05
Taylor Calmus
So I did that for Dude Dad for over three years. I, you know, had side jobs that I would work. So but at the time when I first started, I was an apartment manager. So I had a lot of free time because I would just, you know, collect rent and fix people's toilet. That would work my own schedule.

00:09:01:05 - 00:09:23:11
Taylor Calmus
And that gave me a lot of flexibility to go on auditions and also make do dev videos and then the guy that owned our building decided to sell the building and the new company came in with all their own people and kicked us out. They were like, you know, they already had people hired. They didn't want us there because they wanted to pay their people less, you know, which less.

00:09:23:11 - 00:09:48:07
Taylor Calmus
We made $500 a month and we got free housing, you know, so we weren't exactly rolling in it. But now all of a sudden, I didn't have a job and we didn't have a house anymore or a home, so we had to move. I had to start finding a way to make money. So I started work in set construction and I was doing that several days a week, 12 hour days, like swinging a hammer, building sets.

00:09:48:16 - 00:10:13:21
Taylor Calmus
And then Heidi quit her job and got a higher paying nonprofit job to make a little bit more money. But still nonprofit still had huge money. And we had a one year old and then we found out we were pregnant, which, you know, our girl. Yeah. And so this whole time I'm still trying to audition, still trying to make do plays.

00:10:14:00 - 00:10:33:07
Taylor Calmus
And it was like way too much. And I finally broke down to Heidi and I was like, I can't I can't do all this. I have to quit something. There's too much on my plate. And without any hesitation, she looked at me and said, You can't quit. Do Dad? And at the time we hadn't made any money off of it.

00:10:33:07 - 00:10:56:03
Taylor Calmus
Not a dime, you know. But she knew that there was something more to it, and we didn't really have a following at the time. It was still like 2000 followers or something like. But she knew that there was something more to it and that it was important, even if we can make money off it. So she sort of believed in me when I didn't and kept me going.

00:10:56:03 - 00:11:18:03
Taylor Calmus
But like her. And it was almost like I didn't I don't think I even really I think I started auditioning less at that point, but I didn't like it wasn't like she gave me that permission and then I just stopped doing something else and slacking. She just gave me the permission is okay to spend all this time working on this thing.

00:11:18:21 - 00:11:40:06
Taylor Calmus
That was a dream. And I think just that permission alone gave me the energy to keep moving forward and and find a way to make it work, you know, because if she had any doubts, if she was like, you know, because she could it's very easily been like, you need to get a real job and support your family.

00:11:40:15 - 00:11:51:06
Taylor Calmus
I'd be doing that, you know, but she didn't. And now I'm doing this and I'm so much happier and so grateful that she allowed me to keep going. And now she's like a huge part of it.

00:11:51:06 - 00:12:11:04
Matthew Krekeler
So yeah, that's an awesome story. And I think, you know, for anyone out there that like has a dream to start something like no matter how small, if it doesn't make a profit. But you know, if you're passionate about it, like people really latch on to that passion and yeah, you can find that community anywhere for sure.

00:12:11:04 - 00:12:28:02
Taylor Calmus
And I think I mean, for me, the the lesson is that, you know, if if there's people around you that are, you know, throwing themselves into something and you believe in them, you know, tell them because they might not know it and they might be about to quit and you might be the reason that they don't.

00:12:28:22 - 00:12:41:22
Matthew Krekeler
That's awesome. Now, I want to transition a little bit to ask you about when you had your daughter, Juno, how did your life change at that point?

00:12:41:22 - 00:12:48:01
Taylor Calmus
Yeah, like just like. Yeah, because she's my first and only girl, you know? Yeah.

00:12:48:02 - 00:12:50:07
Matthew Krekeler
I'm in the middle between two boys, so.

00:12:50:07 - 00:12:50:14
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:12:50:20 - 00:13:09:02
Taylor Calmus
Yeah. And at first, like, you know, like I grew up with brother that was two years older than me. So in my head I'm imagining my childhood is going be like my childhood and that Theo is going to get a younger brother. We're going to have these two boys that are going to do everything together, and that's now all we got.

00:13:09:02 - 00:13:26:11
Taylor Calmus
We got a boy and then a girl. So and they do do a lot of stuff together. They play together a lot, but they also fight a lot. But, you know, it's one of those things like you know, until you have a girl, you don't as a as a man, you just don't know what that is. You don't know those things.

00:13:28:08 - 00:13:50:16
Taylor Calmus
And you're kind of like, oh, okay. But then she's born and you're like, Oh my God, I wouldn't have it any other way, you know? And I don't even know if I can really explain why, you know, but I think it's just because you inherently love who they are and are just excited about them. And then you get to learn like Jesus, she is first off, she's hilarious.

00:13:52:09 - 00:14:23:09
Taylor Calmus
She's very funny and goofy and clumsy and like, but she's very creative. I think she's got that side from me that she's likes to color and draw on her face and is just a goof, but but she's also very inherently a girl. Like you didn't have to teach her to want to wear dresses. She just wants to wear dresses sometimes several dresses.

00:14:24:09 - 00:14:43:15
Taylor Calmus
Yeah, very eclectic. So, I don't know. That's that's yeah. I mean, it just kind of opens up a whole new world of experiences that you get to learn from her. And she's extremely thoughtful and sweet and in a ways that her brother definitely is not, you know? So yeah.

00:14:45:03 - 00:14:45:21
Matthew Krekeler
That's really great.

00:14:46:18 - 00:14:50:04
Taylor Calmus
Yeah, I know, I know. But it's just a, you know, thing. Or if it's a little girl thing, you know?

00:14:51:09 - 00:15:14:07
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. Well, how you described her reminds me so much of my daughters, too, in the way that they're just so sweet, and they'll, like, play with me and they'll be, like, rough and stuff, but, like, I grew up with just one brother, and so my experience was just that. So yeah, having daughters, it's kind of this whole new world by it, but I'm loving it and it's, it's awesome.

00:15:14:07 - 00:15:20:18
Matthew Krekeler
And there's ways that they're creative and they inspire me and they'll say things that are funny.

00:15:20:18 - 00:15:23:09
Speaker 3
And yeah.

00:15:23:09 - 00:15:48:02
Taylor Calmus
Absolutely. Yeah. And they're like, like, Juno's very thoughtful. Like, we can be like, hey, it's, you know, Christmas is coming up. Let's go out and get your brother's a gift. And she's like, oh, my gosh, yes. As we all excited and go out and be like shopping for them, right? Yeah. My son out were like, let's go out and get your sister and your brother a gift to be like, well, what am I going to get?

00:15:48:17 - 00:15:57:05
Taylor Calmus
What if we get them that what do I get? Where's mine? You know, like, yeah, I'll like, just stop thinking about you for a second, you know?

00:15:58:12 - 00:15:59:05
Speaker 3
Yeah, totally.

00:16:00:00 - 00:16:22:22
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. And then. Yeah, just recently and yeah, I had the pleasure of meeting you and your wife, Heidi, at Tattered Cover, which was awesome for your new book. So yeah, you have a book for new dads called A Dudes Guide to Baby Size Habit. Yeah. So yeah, tell me a little bit about the book and what inspired you write A Baby Guide for Dads?

00:16:22:22 - 00:16:44:16
Taylor Calmus
Yeah, well, I mean, I think, you know, a lot of men enter into fatherhood in just kind of this like they don't know what resources are out there for them. A lot of stuff is written for women and, you know, their life is going through pregnancy and they're just sort of on the sidelines like, well, what do you need?

00:16:44:16 - 00:17:13:09
Taylor Calmus
You know? So I wanted to write something that sort of like helped guide men through that process and guide them through it, but help them embrace it as the most, you know, life changing, fun experience. It is, you know, because it is a little crazy. But like, yeah, if you just embrace it, like it can be pretty rewarding as well and just get you in the right mindset that to, you know, to what's to come.

00:17:13:09 - 00:17:37:03
Taylor Calmus
And I think that's what most of the book is, is like there's a set up. So first off, the premise a dudes guide to baby size. So instead of comparing your child to, you know, your unborn child size two fruits and vegetables like most mommy books deal. I compare it to things that men would know because, you know, reality is I don't know how big a stack of broccoli is.

00:17:37:16 - 00:18:17:15
Taylor Calmus
And I also have no idea what to come. Quote is. So instead of comparing your unborn child to fruits and vegetables, I went with things that men would know. Like ten milliliters, sock it, a baseball, a £3 brisket, you know, things that men would know. But then it uses that object each chapter to jump off into a larger talking point, whether it's a, you know, a life lesson that I've learned as a father or, you know, like a story from from my childhood that I think there's a take away moment from and within every chapter also, like just gets you up to date and like what's happening with your wife?

00:18:17:15 - 00:18:22:04
Taylor Calmus
What's that going to baby? And then it goes into a story that's great.

00:18:22:04 - 00:18:25:23
Matthew Krekeler
And yeah, my wife and I are expecting it right now, so I've been going through this book.

00:18:26:10 - 00:18:27:15
Taylor Calmus
Oh, that's awesome. How far?

00:18:27:15 - 00:18:32:23
Matthew Krekeler
Like 25 weeks, which is a bowl of Olive Garden soup and breadsticks.

00:18:33:08 - 00:18:42:01
Taylor Calmus
Absolutely. That's a that's a good one. We we've partaken in many cups of Olive Garden soup and breadsticks.

00:18:43:06 - 00:18:44:15
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:18:44:15 - 00:18:55:02
Matthew Krekeler
And then. Yeah, next week, baseball glove. So. Yeah. So, Taylor, with your book, is there a favorite chapter or piece of advice that you have in there?

00:18:56:00 - 00:19:22:07
Taylor Calmus
Yes. Oh, there's so many. Hold on. Let me grab a button. Remember, I'm going to say that my favorite chapters are the ones where I talk about my own parents and my experiences, like things that like I learned about being a parent from my parents when I was really, really young and didn't even realize what I was learning.

00:19:22:07 - 00:20:03:15
Taylor Calmus
You know, it was like took me two decades to appreciate what they had taught me that, you know. Yeah, so let's see, let's do the we'll do the Toolbox chapter. So the Toolbox chapter, week 40, your baby is now the size of a toolbox, so that the chapter is basically used as a toolbox, as a metaphor for parenting and how, you know, as a parent, you're going to need you're going to have a toolbox of, you know, parenting tools, you know, things that you use to parent with, right?

00:20:03:23 - 00:20:29:18
Taylor Calmus
And because each situation and each child calls for a different tool, a different approach, right? Like because every every single kid is sort of designed differently, too. So, like, you know, one of your kids might be metric and one might be standard. Like, you might just have to approach situations differently with them in order to get the result that you want.

00:20:29:18 - 00:20:48:22
Taylor Calmus
For instance, like if you are, if you are changing a faucet, right? Like, yeah, the hammer is not the best tool to use. Like hammer is great for pounding nails and like pulling out nails and like banging things into place. But if you try to change your faucet with it, you're probably going to need a new faucet and a whole bunch of towels.

00:20:50:16 - 00:21:14:16
Taylor Calmus
So my mom was great at this and there was one day in particular when I was little. I had like woken up. She's in a really bad mood. I was just grumpy. I was mad at the world. I, you know, it kept snowballing and getting worse until I missed my bus. So now my mom has to drive me seven miles into town to school, and I'm just mad.

00:21:14:23 - 00:21:35:23
Taylor Calmus
I'm just upset. I don't know what. Why I was in this funk, but I'm just sitting in the passenger seat, just grumpy and just, frankly, being a little shit. But then my mom did something that I didn't expect, so we passed the corner that she needed to take to go to my school. And I was like, Oh, where?

00:21:35:23 - 00:22:11:12
Taylor Calmus
What's going on? Where she taking me? Is she going to throw me in a lake? What's happening right now? And she took me downtown to our little donut shop and took me inside to get a donut and a chocolate milk. And I just remember that that meant so much to me because I didn't deserve it. And she could have very easily used the hammer on me that day, but instead she used the level and I came down to my level, leveled out my topsy turvy energy, and showed me Grace.

00:22:12:09 - 00:22:22:19
Taylor Calmus
And I went to school that day late, but with a new perspective. Yeah, so that's that's one of my favorite stories from the book.

00:22:24:05 - 00:22:25:04
Matthew Krekeler
That's a great story.

00:22:26:00 - 00:22:51:22
Taylor Calmus
Yeah. But it's something to keep in mind with your kids because I've definitely had those moments with my kids where, you know, they're upset. I'm upset. It's only getting worse, you know? And they're now at the point where I have to do something drastic to just pull them out of that funk so that we can then have a conversation to potentially learn something.

00:22:51:22 - 00:23:09:05
Taylor Calmus
You know what I mean? Yeah. And sometimes, you know, like The Hammer just doesn't always work, you know? Sometimes it does. Sometimes you need the hammer, but you also need a level. You also need a stud finder. You also need a screwdriver. You know?

00:23:09:05 - 00:23:13:05
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, I'd say my wife is the stud finder.

00:23:13:05 - 00:23:18:06
Taylor Calmus
Oh, God. Okay, Matthew.

00:23:18:06 - 00:23:41:16
Matthew Krekeler
But yeah, I think a lot of times dads are seen as like the enforcer, like putting the foot down or being the hammer or whatever. Yeah, but yeah, it's really interesting. Like whole girl damnation thing, like the sweetness that you talked about. Like I approach my daughters maybe a little bit differently than I would like. Sons. Yeah, but I think that that's cool.

00:23:41:16 - 00:24:15:01
Matthew Krekeler
And in different situations, like you said, it's like you can offer something that is not just like the punishment, the enforcer, like the justice kind of thing. And I think in parenting, one thing that I've been trying to do more is you have areas of justice like, you know, there's consequences, but moments where you can extend mercy to in ways that like we hope that we should lead, like just with each other too, in our adult lives, like to extend mercy to others as well.

00:24:15:18 - 00:24:51:05
Matthew Krekeler
But I think that's like such a powerful tool. And it's really sweet too, when you have multiple kids and the way that they interact together. Because I might I might say to like my oldest, like, no, you don't deserve this snack because you weren't good. And then I give a snack to the sister. And so, like, justice is kind of there, but then she'll extend mercy like she is given this full snack, but she'll share some of her fruit snacks with the sister that, like, didn't rightfully, like, deserve it.

00:24:51:17 - 00:24:58:21
Matthew Krekeler
And so I think it's like those kind of beautiful moments just in life and in parenting are really cool. They kind of for sure, like done.

00:24:59:15 - 00:25:03:04
Taylor Calmus
I mean, I think they follow our examples better than our rules, you know?

00:25:03:07 - 00:25:03:15
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah.

00:25:04:00 - 00:25:29:15
Taylor Calmus
So the more that like Heidi I've talked about that, I'm like, okay, how do we get our kid to do this? And I'm like, I think we literally need to just start setting examples for them. Like, literally be like, like sharing, for instance, like how do we stop our kid from being so greedy? So now, like, Heidi and I will be like, Hey, do you mind if I have some of that, you know, toast?

00:25:29:15 - 00:25:36:04
Taylor Calmus
You just made sure I would love to share some with you. You know, like just making it. Really?

00:25:36:04 - 00:25:36:22
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, absolutely.

00:25:36:22 - 00:25:50:06
Taylor Calmus
Blatantly obvious in front of them. Not like showing them. I mean. Yeah, showing them, but, like, just being like a little presentational with that and just seeing if we can get them to catch on, you know what I mean.

00:25:50:22 - 00:25:53:11
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, that's great. And we, we try to do that to share.

00:25:53:11 - 00:25:54:19
Taylor Calmus
Is it. Yeah. Yeah.

00:25:55:05 - 00:25:55:10
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:25:57:10 - 00:25:58:01
Matthew Krekeler
That's awesome.

00:25:58:05 - 00:25:59:10
Taylor Calmus
I'll let you know if it works.

00:26:01:06 - 00:26:02:01
Matthew Krekeler
I'm still learning.

00:26:02:01 - 00:26:05:11
Taylor Calmus
So we all are.

00:26:05:11 - 00:26:13:13
Matthew Krekeler
And then final question and I ask all of my guests this and you can answer. I know you have three kids, but yeah, you can.

00:26:13:21 - 00:26:21:00
Taylor Calmus
Actually went, yeah, this isn't this is probably not coming out right away. Yeah, we were expecting it for us.

00:26:22:01 - 00:26:24:01
Matthew Krekeler
Oh, wow. Congratulations.

00:26:24:01 - 00:26:30:13
Taylor Calmus
Yeah. So there you go. There you have it. We got number four coming in March. March.

00:26:31:06 - 00:26:35:06
Matthew Krekeler
That's amazing. Has it been like public yet?

00:26:35:17 - 00:26:37:09
Taylor Calmus
Nope, it will be tomorrow.

00:26:38:01 - 00:26:41:19
Matthew Krekeler
Okay, cool. I'm not going to be uploading it that fast, so.

00:26:41:19 - 00:26:44:16
Taylor Calmus
I kind of figured some, like, it should be safe to say this.

00:26:45:08 - 00:26:47:09
Matthew Krekeler
Okay. Awesome. Congratulations.

00:26:47:16 - 00:26:48:06
Taylor Calmus
Thank you.

00:26:48:20 - 00:26:54:17
Matthew Krekeler
Okay. Can I ask you now have do you find out before or do you wait, too, for it to be a surprise on.

00:26:54:18 - 00:26:55:17
Taylor Calmus
The gender we'll find?

00:26:55:17 - 00:26:56:22
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. Okay.

00:26:57:16 - 00:27:09:04
Taylor Calmus
Yeah, we, we try to wait with our first one and then the doctor told us a week before the birth and just ruined it. So then since then he's been like, I'm finding out. And I was like, All right, cool. I'm going to make a video out of it.

00:27:09:22 - 00:27:16:08
Matthew Krekeler
Okay, great. I've kind of been doing an unofficial poll. Yeah, we're expecting another daughter in November.

00:27:16:21 - 00:27:17:08
Taylor Calmus
Oh, wow.

00:27:17:12 - 00:27:20:06
Matthew Krekeler
So, yeah, we're staying on brand with girl dad now.

00:27:20:18 - 00:27:23:11
Taylor Calmus
There you go. That's awesome.

00:27:23:22 - 00:27:37:15
Matthew Krekeler
But yeah, I kind of like to know a little bit, and we both were like, There's a lot of other surprises, a lot of other things we have to figure out. So at least that's something that we can kind of plan around a little bit more. But everyone has different opinions on that.

00:27:37:15 - 00:27:46:17
Taylor Calmus
So I heard that you're 70, like whatever gender you just had, you're 75% more likely to have that gender again.

00:27:47:07 - 00:27:47:18
Matthew Krekeler
Okay.

00:27:48:02 - 00:28:01:17
Taylor Calmus
I don't know why that's a thing, but that's what I was told. I'm like, okay, that's interesting. So we'll see. I mean, as it were for us, because we went, boy, girl, boy. So it's like a little bit different every single time. So I don't know.

00:28:02:21 - 00:28:15:18
Matthew Krekeler
Cool. Well, yeah. Congratulations. That's so exciting. Thank you. So you could answer this collectively for all your kids or individually, but yes, I wanted to give you the opportunity. If there's one thing that you would tell your kids directly.

00:28:19:09 - 00:28:47:04
Taylor Calmus
That they can do hard things. And I think I, I do try to instill that in them. But I think somebody asked me just in the last podcast, which was they asked it slightly different. They said, what do you want your kids to know? And I think I just want them to know that they can do hard things and not to be scared of hard things, you know, that that they are capable and they're they're capable of doing hard things.

00:28:47:04 - 00:29:00:08
Taylor Calmus
They're capable of going above and beyond expectation. And that, you know, rules and records really are written to be broken, you know? So yeah. Yeah.

00:29:01:21 - 00:29:06:09
Matthew Krekeler
That's really great. Awesome. Well, Taylor, thank you so much for being on the show.

00:29:07:02 - 00:29:13:06
Taylor Calmus
Thanks for having me, Matt. Guy down.

00:29:17:15 - 00:29:18:21
Speaker 3
As you guy.

00:29:20:10 - 00:29:42:19
Matthew Krekeler
Thank you to Taylor for being on the show and being part of Girl Dad Nation. It's awesome to see the creativity and passion surrounding family life. If you haven't yet, do yourself a huge favor and go follow dude dad on YouTube and Instagram. I always get so inspired by their videos and pick up a copy of Taylor's new book, A Dude's Guide to Baby Size.

00:29:43:06 - 00:30:05:20
Matthew Krekeler
Even if you're a seasoned dad, there's still some great life lessons, and you can pass on the book to someone becoming a new dad. Sharing lessons and encouragement is key. I am so thankful to all of my listeners. If you enjoyed these conversations, please follow and share with three new people. Together we can promote authentic fatherhood. There is no greater joy than being a dad.