Natty woke up in the middle of the night, sad about the state of the world, and emotional that his kids are growing up in record time. There aren’t a lot of laughs in this episode, just a lot of talky-talk. Be nice to one another.
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About This Episode
In this introspective episode, Natty Bumpercar shares his emotional reflections as his youngest son Ollie prepares for pre-K graduation after eight years at the same daycare. Natty discusses the importance of celebrating children's achievements, defending participation trophies and letting kids feel special during milestone moments. He recounts a touching moment with his older son Emerson on his last day of school, emphasizing how crucial it is to tell loved ones they're appreciated. While grappling with difficult world events, Natty advocates for kindness, compassion, and remembering that everyone deserves respect—even when perspectives differ. This rare solo episode showcases a more vulnerable side of the usually comedic puppet host.
Memorable Quotes
“People get trophies for participating that's cool that's awesome you guess what you did something you participated and now you get to feel good about it.”
— Natty Bumpercar
“I need you to look at me… buddy, I want you to know how proud we are of you, that you made it through this year and you did such an amazing job.”
— Natty Bumpercar
“When you do nice things, it'll make you feel better, too. You're doing the nice thing because it'll make you feel better.”
— Natty Bumpercar
Topics: #graduation #parenting #childhoodmilestones #kindness #compassion #perspective #family #growingup
Featuring: Natty Bumpercar
Full Transcript
Natty Bumpercar: hey everybody it's me natty bumper car and I am in a bit of a mood today I guess a lot of there's a lot of things happening right there's a lot of stuff going on in the world this could be i'm super excited about that and i'm giving a speech at the graduation and when i gave i gave a little talk at emerson's graduation a few years ago and and i cried like i've never cried before in my life in front of a an auditorium full of people i was on the microphone and i was hyperventilating and uh i was it was it was quite the scene and and now for ollie's this is my last little kid and this is i've been at this this pre-k this daycare for eight years and and and i'm giving a little talk i've got it all nice and written out i have to i still have to print it and i i like to go what i do is i type it and then i print it and then i go through and i kind of mark it up and then i retype it with those uh the markup edits and um and then that's my final copy and uh so i got a tiny bit of work to do and um today i went in and uh and they've started like they took the uh by the hooks where you hang the bags every morning uh they took down the little name plates they took down a little the little stickers and uh so it's just wild wild west there's bags everywhere it's it's crazy um and it's it's it's it's an interesting hard thing uh where you know people like oh pre-k graduation why are we even celebrating this why does everybody get a trophy and it's just it's like stop just stop it like we don't have we're better than you're better than that i would assume like people get trophies for participating that's cool that's awesome you guess what you did something you participated and now you get to feel good about it we don't have to be like uh you know A seven-year-old's like, hey, you didn't win the tournament, so you don't get a trophy. What's the point of that? Oh, yeah, okay, I guess you could say, oh, well, it's going to make them stronger people. It's going to make them strive to do better next time. They're kids. Just let them have fun and let them get their trophy and let them go home feeling great. Right? Because there's going to be a lot of points in their life when they don't feel great. So let's let them feel great as much as they can whenever they can is my way of thinking. And so a pre-K graduation, you know, the kids don't really know what's going on, but they know that it's exciting. And they know the spotlight is on them. They know that it's their special day, that they're turning a chapter in their lives, in the little book of their lives. They're very short lives at this point. And but this is like a momentous thing where from when they're babies, they're with these people. And then after this day, they're going to go off to new schools and they're not all going to be together. And the ramifications, they don't know about all that stuff. They don't care about that. Like, oh, I might I might not see you, you know, whatever. But they they know, like, hey, this is a big deal. Like we did it. And in it, what did we do? We turned five and we became the legal age to go to kindergarten. But that was good for you. You got to a point where now you're going to move on to the next step. And that's great. And so hurray for kids, hurray for for them. And so we're going through all this stuff with with Ali. You know, there's field trips. There's like I think there were three field trips, which is a lot of field trips. There's his graduation. And then Emerson, you know, he's getting bigger, too. Like I took a picture of today. It's his last day of school and he's at the top of the stairs. And he's such a big guy. And I'm just like, who who are you people in my house, in my life? You're like my little pals, my little buddies. Like, I can go see movies with Emerson. I can go see The Incredibles, whatever. I can I can hang out. Neither of us can have popcorn because I've got my Invisalign and he's got his orthodontist. Sure. So, you know. We're going through that at the same time, too. It's nice. And then you look around at the rest of the world. Right. And what's going on? And I'm not going to get into things because that's not what this show is. And I don't know if there's kids listening. Hey, kids, are you out there? Are you listening? You're awesome. Good for you. I had to go back for a second. Today was Emerson's last day of school and we were late because I was putting together. I made these pictures. For in frames for his teachers. We were wrapping them. So we got there a couple of minutes late, but he was he was desperate to run in the school. He wanted to get in the school. He wanted to be there for morning care so that he could hang out with his friends for the last day of the school year. But we were late, which he was kind of upset about. You wanted to run in and I had to grab him before he ran in. And I got this right into his little face and I said, I need you to look at me. And he was like, OK, and he doesn't like he gets rude. He's really embarrassed with this kind of stuff because we're out in public. But I looked at him, I was holding his little face and I said, buddy, I want you to know how proud we are of you, that you you made it through this year and you did such an amazing job. You're such a wonderful kid and everyone loves you and everyone's so, so amazed at how well you're doing and and we're all excited for everything that you're going to do. Now, get in there and have a great day. Have a great day. And his little eyes like blinked, like blink, blink, blink. And he said, OK, dad. And he ran in. And I don't think people tell kids this type of stuff often enough. Like you go through your day to day. You're you got to. Oh, I got to go get gas. Oh, then I got to go return this box and then I got to go get this other box. And then, you know, I got to take this thing out of this box. I got to put this thing together. Oh, then I got to do this. There's just so much. There's so much stuff like minutiae in life, especially these days from when you wake up until when you go to bed. You can even pretend that like, oh, I got to put up, you know, five tweets today and I got to make sure that my social media metrics are good, whatever that is. Or, you know, you're staring at your phone and that you feel like you're almost accomplishing something because you're staring at your phone. On top of all, like, oh, I've actually got to go to the grocery store. I've got to make this food. I've got whatever. I've got to feed the dog. I've got. But there's so much minutiae that you can mask the rest of your life with that. I think it's important to people used to say, hey, stop and smell the roses. Yes, stop to stop and, you know, grab people that are important to you and tell them that they're important to you and tell them why they're important to you and say something to make them feel better. I am. On a daily basis, an embarrassment to my family because I like to talk to people. I talk to people in line at checkout. I talk to people at the restaurant, people I don't know, strangers. And I try to say nice things to them. Right. Just to make this random nice thing to say to people. Right. Because what you'll see is when you say nice things to people, if you do nice things for people. A lot of times they'll recognize it. They'll internalize it and they feel better. And then that's great. Sometimes they don't acknowledge it. They just kind of go about their life because they're in their own headspace. And that's fine, too, because it's not it's not about you're not doing the thing, the nice thing to get recognition for it. You're doing the nice thing because when you do nice things, it'll make you feel better, too. And. I don't want to. I'm not going to get into again because there's I think there's there's probably kids listening, but there's scary, bad things happening in the world around us. And when I look at my kids and I look at the privilege that they have and how lucky they are with their lives and where they are right now. And then I think about where other people are in the world. And it's it's heartbreaking and it's it's it's soul wrenching and it's just I don't know what to do. And I don't I don't feel sometimes I don't feel good about feeling good because there's these other people that are going through really bad stuff. And this is a comedy podcast. Right. Yeah. Pigs usually here. Rufus T. Rufus. Robot. Everybody. But I we had an episode a while ago about when I was sad. It was for different stuff. It was for different reasons. But I think it's important to realize that there's other people in different positions in life and it's all your perspective and how you see them. But you got to understand that every single person is a person and they deserve rights. They deserve respect. They deserve compassion and love. And, you know, if their political bent doesn't rhyme with yours or their religious affiliation or whatever their views are. They're still people. And. I think for the world to continue to work. We have to help people. And it's like I'm I'm I'm kind of I'm stammering. I'm laboring because I don't know the answers. I don't know how to make this better, but I just know that I don't feel good about what's happening in the world right now. And I don't know how you could feel good about what's happening in the world right now. And I made a comment the other day on some post and someone's like, oh, Natty Bumpergar is getting political. And it's like all I can do these days not to climb to the highest mountain and just scream like anguish scream because I don't understand how we are, where we are right now, how we got to this place.
Unknown: And.
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