Our Thoughts on Teaching, School Safety, & Why Moms Need Joy & Laughter

With Valerie Probstfeld, from To Mom Is To Love

You heard it here first: Laughter counts as a love language (and yes, meme exchanges totally qualify). In this episode, we’re getting real with Valerie Probstfeld—host of To Mom Is To Love—about parenting fails, Back to the Future obsessions, and why school safety shouldn’t be a political debate. And like always, you’ll feel like you’re hangin’ with your funniest mom friends.

What You Get From This Episode

1. Laughter as Love: Why meme swaps and inside jokes are the glue of friendships (and parenting sanity).

2. Humbling Parenting Moments: Like forgetting to mention that shots hurt to your kid…

3. School Safety Without Politics: Actionable steps all sides can agree on (because kids deserve to come home).

4. Nostalgia Wins: Why Back to the Future costumes and Smokey and the Bandit references are millennial parenting essentials.

5. Valerie’s Wisdom: How to embrace being an “imperfect mom” (and why love is the only thing you can control).

Listen Here

Explore our episode on school safety, laughter, and parenting with Valerie Probstfeld. Discover how school safety and laughter unite us all.

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When Laughter Becomes a Love Language: A Chat with Valerie Probstfeld

On Teaching, School Safety, and Laughter

Turns out, memes count as self-care.

In our latest episode, we sat down with Valerie Probstfeld (host of To Mom Is To Love) for a conversation that was equal parts hilarious and heartfelt—just like parenting itself. Here’s the scoop on what we covered (and why you’ll want to listen while hiding in your car with a stolen snack).

How Two Teachers Became Podcasting Partners

Remember quarantine? Yeah, we try not to either. But here’s the silver lining: Our podcast was born from those endless phone calls where we:

• Debated the merits of Tiger King (while Jenny’s husband pretended to be a rock star in the background)

• Discovered you can remove toilet seats to clean them (game-changer)

• Realized no one teaches you this adulting stuff, so we decided to

The TL;DR: If we could laugh through 2020 while folding laundry, we figured other grown-ups might want in on the fun.

Laughter: The Love Language Nobody Talks About

Forget gifts or quality time—our real love language is:

• Sending 15 memes in a row with zero context

• The instant reconnection when you laugh together after weeks apart

• Using Back to the Future references as personality tests (RIP anyone who doesn’t get them)

As Caitlin put it: "Laughter is the duct tape of friendships—it holds everything together when life gets messy."

Motherhood: The Ultimate Humble Pie

We got real about how parenting changed us:

• Caitlin: Went from "I’ve got this" to "Why did no one warn me about the anxiety?" (Pro tip: Nurses know best—one told her: "Babies are the candy bar; moms are the wrapper.")

• Jenny: Prepped her kid for shots… but forgot to mention they’d hurt. Parenting win?

School Safety Without the Screaming Matches

Here’s our take: You can be pro-gun rights, anti-gun, or somewhere in between—but we all want kids to come home safe. We shared practical steps for school safety (no politics, just common sense) that anyone can get behind.

Final Thoughts

Parenting is hard. Teaching is hard. Adulting is definitely hard. But as Valerie reminded us: Love is the only thing we can control.

Tag your mom friend who needs this reminder: Laughter counts as self-care.

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Make good choices,

Caitlin & Jenny

PS: We still don’t know why cow udders became ‘moobs’... or why it makes so much sense...

Valerie Probstfeld

Sources for this episode

• Valerie’s podcast: To Mom Is To Love

• School safety episode: Take Action for School Safety

• Meme accounts we love: @OpenlyGayAnimals, @iamthirtyaf

• Back to the Future trivia (for your next parenting costume crisis)

Tag us @CKandGKPodcast with your #WorstParentingWin—we’ve all got ‘em!

Who We Are

Caitlin & Jenny: Current and former educators, current chaos wranglers, and co-hosts of How to Be a Grownup. We’ve survived tantrums (kid + adult), quarantine teaching, and DIY haircuts, proving laughter is the best coping mechanism.