Ep. 391: 2025 Wrap-Up: Our Biggest Laughs, Struggles and What We Didn’t See Coming

As 2025 comes to an end, Laura and Shanna reflect on their last 12 months of parenting with honesty, humor and insight in the special segment "Year in Review." As they look back on 2025, they share their biggest laughs, unexpected wins and surprising realizations, including the hilarious thing Laura's kids taught her this year, the shocking incident that sums up the vibe of Shanna's year, their favorite shows of 2025 and more! Also, Laura reports on her family's recent trip to Hawaii, and Shanna talks about how she got her kids involved in Thanksgiving meal prep. Finally, they share their BFPs or BFNs for the week. Shanna's kids are 6.5 and 9.5 years old, and Laura’s kids are 6.5 years old and 4.5 years old.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Taking a family trip with kids (the good, the chaotic and the realistic expectations)
• Thanksgiving routines that feel doable instead of overwhelming
• Letting kids help more at home, especially during the holidays, and why that matters
• "Mommy Magic" and making the invisible work visible for our kids
• Looking back at 2025 and reflecting on what this year actually felt like
• Small parenting wins that didn’t feel like a big deal at the time
• Things our kids taught us this year (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not)
• Finding ways to have fun again as adults, not just planning fun for our kids
• Navigating change, transitions and feeling pulled in a million directions
• Media, shows and pop culture that brought comfort, laughter or escape
• Looking ahead to the new year with intentions about how we want to feel
• A vacation activity that will create a core memory
• A fun board game to play with your family

Products, links, resources mentioned in this episode:

-Pasadena's Celebration of the Young Child

-"Your Friend, Nate Bargatze" special on Netflix

-Lita the dog on TikTok

-Clara Batten on TikTok

-Perimenopause

-Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (aka Frequency Illusion)

-Rainbow Baby

-"Five Nights at Freddy's"

-"Ordinary" by Alex Warren

-"Severance"

-"The Chair Company"

-"The Carpool Detectives"

-Snorkle Bob's

-Humuhumunukunukuapua'a fish

-Telestrations

Past BFP episodes mentioned in this episode:

-Ep. 362 - (Shanna gets a concussion from a soccer ball)

-Ep. 381 - (Laura hosts a booth at the Pasadena Celebration of the Young Child)

-Ep. 221 - (Shanna and Laura go to a rage room)

-Ep. 378 - (Laura adopts her new kitten, Pumpkin)

-Ep. 355 - (Shanna tells her daughter about the Leprechaun and Santa)

-Ep. 356 - (Where Shanna tells her daughter about being a "Rainbow Baby")

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Big Fat Positive: A Pregnancy and Parenting Journey is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko and Steve Yager.

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