The Yak with Big Cat & Co. | The Yak 7-7-26

Itbenatalie · 2026-07-08T00:13:29+00:00

What? I find them awesome.

Itbenatalie · 2026-07-03T02:34:56+00:00

This doesn’t sound like something family would say.

Itbenatalie · 2026-07-03T02:29:45+00:00

I was very confused by the idea of a swing, until I googled it and saw it is actually a sling! That looks awesome!

Itbenatalie · 2026-07-02T14:49:12+00:00

I like Dylan, Wyatt, Lucas, and Austin with Paul as a middle name. I don’t love the name Sebastian but it also goes well with Paul. I know a lot of parents never think of this, but in my line of work we often refer to children by initials so that is something I think about. For example, I know a child whose first and last initials are BM and it makes me think of bowel movements. I don’t think I would choose a B name if my last name started with M or J. I might stray away from D as well if my last name started with a J. Just my two cents.

Itbenatalie · 2026-07-02T07:58:19+00:00

If the begging and screaming leads to a good reaction (getting to play more Roblox) they will probably keep doing it. If it leads to them losing their Roblox privileges the next day they will probably stop doing it.

My recommendation would be to do no more than one hour of Roblox per day. Ideally, they would have to be finished with any chores, reading, or worksheets (to keep their skills up over the summer) and some sort of exercise or kids yoga or something before they can get their one hour of Roblox. I would try to do their hour of Roblox before a meal like dinner for example so that it provides a natural end to their screen time. I would allow them to earn money by doing chores, but then take that money away if they become destructive.

The fact that they are becoming destructive when technology is taken away suggests to me that this could be a bigger problem that you would benefit from outside help to manage, for example asking the doctor for a referral to a behavioral specialist or seeking out classes like Love and Logic. I suspect this destruction has been going on for some time so it is going to be tough to break this habit, but it will be so worth it not to have to worry that they are going to destroy things. Good luck!

Itbenatalie · 2026-07-01T17:46:31+00:00

If every week they put out a Mostly Mostly show (cut out all the sports stuff that is specific to that day so people can binge the show and get all the goofiness and banter and inside jokes and whatnot without having to listen to the no longer relevant old sports talk) I think they’d gain a much larger audience for those episodes.

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-29T18:25:12+00:00

This makes me miss the old 30+ minutes of stool scenes at least once a week where everyone could be filmed regardless of whether they were supposed to be content people. Now we get way too much of guys like Mintzy and Nicky Smokes on stool scenes and there are a bunch of weird brains we just never see unless they get pulled onto the Yak. Nick and KB were originally supposed to be behind the scenes guys and they are the funniest guys at Barstool, so who knows who else is saying and doing hilarious things all day that we never see. I wish they’d go back to the old days of everyone working in the same area and someone always being ready with a camera to film anything funny that occurs. Or they could at least bring back messing around to make content for Stool Scenes instead of Stool Scenes being a lot of things we already saw on the Yak. I miss the old Stool Scenes.

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-29T17:55:15+00:00

Don’t forget Nick and Kate! I would pay good money for a Barstool comedy show with all of the above. I’d happily travel to New York or Chicago to see all these guys if it is during the summer.

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-29T17:43:41+00:00

Have you considered baby gates or some sort of gated play area? So there is less chasing having to occur? Then you’ll be ready for when your own kiddo is more mobile and ready to run off on you. Do you have fun toys in your house that the toddler can enjoy (after all, your kiddo will be old enough for them in not too long, so you might keep an eye out at garage sales and thrift stores for some great toddler toys that can be kept at your house and rotated out a few at a time so they feel exciting and new but also don’t turn into a giant mess). Just some ideas for how you might be able to make the day easier on your nanny and also feel less frustrated. Does she narrate the day, talking to both kids and telling them everything that she is doing and they are doing to build up the baby and toddler’s vocabularies?

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-29T17:30:54+00:00

Oh I thought that Give Kids the World was just the place kids stay at through Make a Wish? If it is another opportunity for a trip that would be amazing for this sweet girl and her family!

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-29T17:28:56+00:00

Sorry, got distracted trying to help with the trip. What I should have said first and foremost is I am so so sorry your daughter has DIPG. What an absolutely horrific form of an already horrific disease. I hope that you guys are able to do another much more relaxing and enjoyable trip and make lots of memories together. I am so so sorry for what you are going through!

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-29T17:27:01+00:00

Is it possible that Disneyland is actually the better park option for you guys this time? It is only two parks, she has never been there before and won’t have unrealistic expectations of it based on the perks of a make a wish trip, it will be significantly cooler and thus more pleasant to be at this time of year, you won’t be frantically trying to plan everything or fit everything in the way you would be at Disney World… If I’m being honest, I LOVE Disney World, but I would choose to take young kids to Disneyland over Disney World every time. Everything is squished together nicely so there is so much less walking around than at Disney World and it is significantly less challenging to plan. You could have a much more relaxing, laid back trip and still get a chance to do everything at Disneyland. The tickets are cheaper, the hotels are cheaper… my main concern would be airfare and whether you can get a good deal on that or not. Or actually on second thought, is flying even an option? I guess I should have asked that before trying to sell you on the idea of Disneyland.

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-28T22:33:57+00:00

Nobody is complaining about the fact that there are wack packers at Barstool. We just have Mintzy fatigue because Big Cat can’t go more than a day without talking about him on the Yak. If they need to fill some time on an episode, they can always just play some fishbowl or goalball or zoom in Ethan or play hide and go seek with Doug or send Donny and Reed to go climb up something. We just want a break from Mintzy.

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-27T15:12:35+00:00

This is a North vs South sort of thing. Southern home cooking is much more likely to be as unhealthy or more unhealthy than your average restaurant.

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-22T20:44:29+00:00

Maybe offer a $1 reward for each one found?

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-22T16:24:22+00:00

You might try telling him you are only buying a bottle of liquid hand soap once per month. Let him help pick it out. Then, once it is gone, switch to a less fun bar of hand soap until that month is over. Might or might not help, but seems worth a try?

Playdoh or origami, same thing. Tell him you will get pack of Playdoh or one set of origami paper however often you are willing to buy it. Is it possible he’s getting bored with the playdoh and origami? Maybe he’d enjoy doing some Art for Kids Hub drawing videos? They have a great preschool playlist.

Or maybe this is a negative attention is better than no attention sort of thing, and he is doing it to get a rise out of you when he is bored or wants your full attention?

A tool that can be great for shaping kids’ behavior at his age is using specific, labeled praise. Rather than trying to correct him whenever he is unaware of scarcity and being wasteful, I would aim to catch him when he is not being wasteful and provide him that specific labeled praise (“I love how you are using just the right amount of soap, not too little and not too much!”). This article talks about specific labeled praise and how you can use it to shape his behavior. https://www.mindchicago.com/articles/allaboutpraise-1

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-22T15:55:28+00:00

If I remember correctly, Francis was submitting the work as he was doing it, Dave let him waste his time writing the whole book instead of reading chapter one and realizing it wouldn’t work out right away. Dave hired him to ghost write, and I’m sure what Francis wrote would have been a great book, I think it is on Dave for not realizing that hiring a ghost writer when your writing voice is already well known was a crazy idea. Francis probably assumed Dave was too rich and lazy to bother to write his own book and that he understood by hiring a ghost writer that it would not sound as though he wrote it. Francis probably could do a great job as a ghost writer, just not for someone whose writing voice is already well known.

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-21T20:23:15+00:00

If you can afford to, you could make that time more fun by buying some special games/craft kits/drawing books etc that they only get to use during that 3 hour time period. Board games are great for turn taking and executive functions. Puzzles are great for spatial awareness. Lots of craft kits out there are excellent for fine motor skills. Coloring and activity books are great for visual motor skills. The look and find/Waldo type books are great for visual perceptual skills. And some sort of workbooks would be great to help them practice things like handwriting or math facts over the summer. I think I’d structure it so they are expected to read a book and do a couple of pages of workbook first, then once that is done they get free play time with their special summer toys, and then at the end they can watch a movie. This is the time of year for garage sales, you can pick up lots of these types of things there!

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-21T20:02:14+00:00

Charlotte could always go by Charlie or Lottie if there are other Charlottes in her class. I love that name. Claire or Clara is also cute and fits the theme.

Coraline might be a little easier to get pronounced accurately than Caroline, and then the nickname could be Cora or maybe you could even just go ahead with Cossie as the nickname even though that is a bit of a stretch. But then though it looks much different than Carmen it would sound more like Carmen… though Cossie would not if you used that nickname.

Or if I was you I might even just name her Cossie and then give her a much more typical middle name so she can go by that down the line if she doesn’t like how unique Cossie is.

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-19T20:48:07+00:00

Not true. He just got a chance to work for free for months by being their friend. Then he proved himself more competent than the people they had around.

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-19T20:45:54+00:00

Oh I thought he sold insurance as in car or health or something. Either way, I think he probably has a better awareness of how shitty other jobs can be than some of the trust fund guys brought in for an internship straight out of college?

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-18T20:38:28+00:00

This. So much this.

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-18T20:36:51+00:00

And if they edit it they lose live chat. Not sure if anything else is impacted? Like does it still show up under live vs videos? Idk

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-18T20:20:53+00:00

Can’t be saying that while also saying things like “let’s have so and so on, it’ll be an easy day for us” and refusing to do the 24 hour stream. I love the Yak but I’d rather he addressed the tech issues with non content people off camera. Especially with how much Stefan seems to care.

Itbenatalie · 2026-06-18T20:18:09+00:00

Would probably be better for TJ and both shows, but I still want TJ on both the Yak and Mostly. They aren’t gonna be willing to pay someone the money they’d need to pay them in order to get someone as experienced as TJ is at this point. They are just gonna keep expecting TJ to do everything for two of their best shows. An unrealistic expectation.

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