That's My Secret Cap, I'm Always Angry - Processing Holiday Frustrations

In this reflective post-Thanksgiving episode, Robbie shares a candid update on the evolving direction of The Unhinged Father podcast, including changes to past episodes and the launch of “TUF Plus.” He opens up about the personal challenges of maintaining balance during the chaotic holiday season, from managing work frustrations to dealing with holiday prep stress.

Robbie dives into his struggle with anger, the importance of processing frustration, and his desire to create joyful, magical memories for his family—despite the mounting responsibilities. He offers a relatable message for anyone feeling overwhelmed, encouraging listeners to acknowledge their emotions, give themselves grace, and find moments of peace during the busiest time of the year.

Tune in for an honest, unfiltered glimpse into the holiday struggles of a modern dad striving to stay grounded amidst the chaos.

Keywords for SEO: holiday season stress, podcast update, dealing with anger, managing holiday chaos, dad life, holiday frustration, family traditions, work stress, holiday parenting challenges, The Unhinged Father.

Transcript

Robbie (00:00)
Welcome to the show everyone. Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Got a quick short episode for you today. And some of you may have noticed on the podcast feed that there's been like new episodes popping up. I'm kind of fucking around with the different episodes and stuff. Just a quick disclaimer You know, I've started to notice that there have been a lot of people that have started to listen to the podcast. The Instagram has grown and the people that are listening are growing. They're getting listeners in different areas of the country.

But one of the things that I've noticed is that a lot of people start at like the first episodes of the podcast, which really doesn't give a true representation of what the podcast has become, what it's evolved into. And so for now, what I've done is I've gone ahead and just kind of unpublished a lot of those. And I had to republish a couple that I wanted to keep on. Eventually, the way that I'm have it set up is that some of those older episodes are going to be behind like a paywall exclusive stuff. And then I'll probably start doing bonus episodes and shit like that to add to.

your normally scheduled podcast. But as of right now, I've just taken down a lot of the older episodes, pretty much most of season one, just because a lot of people were starting there, starting with these really rough, unorganized, completely raw episodes that I did when I was first starting this and really didn't know what the hell I was doing. And so I want people as they're entering into, you know, the Unhinged Father podcast, if they are interested in listening and hearing what I have to say and

what other people have to say that I bring onto the pod that they're starting with some of the newer episodes. And then eventually they can work their way back and listen to how shitty I sounded or how terrible some of my ideas were, just how raw and unfiltered the audio was. It's definitely something I don't want to get rid of, but at the same time, I don't want that to be the first thing that people listen to when they're just getting into the podcast. So if you've seen a couple of new episodes pop up or it's saying like, there's a couple of new things on your notifications.

Some of them are older episodes. I apologize when I was going through and screwing things around if you unpublish and republish They come straight to the top. Anyways, that's technical stuff who gives a shit. I'm sure you don't care I just wanted to let some of you know that if you're seeing that that's what's going on And if you see that some of the episodes have disappeared It's because I'm going to eventually put them behind what I'm gonna be lovingly called tough plus the unhinged father plus which

No one is probably going to subscribe to that because why the hell would you pay money for this shit? It's just a way for me to get some of those episodes unloaded. Anyways, speaking of just completely off the wall, unfiltered, bra, unorganized, don't know what the hell's going on. That's pretty much me after the holiday came back from Thanksgiving. Luckily was able to get a week away, spent time with the family and it was good time. It was more.

organized than we normally have. We had events planned. We got to see a lot of family. It was a good time. My kids had a good time. Me and my wife were absolutely exhausted going on vacation. We always joke that we need a vacation from our vacation, but it was good. We had a good Thanksgiving. Lot to be thankful, lot to be grateful for, but just trying to jump back into quote unquote normalcy. But there is no normalcy. Once you hit that holiday stride,

It's just completely utter chaos as you're going through. We've got my birthday coming up here pretty soon. Baby showers that we're throwing. Christmas, New Year's, my youngest birthday. There's just a ton of shit that's going to be going on. And on top of all that, I want to stay consistent and put a podcast out every week. So I'm saying all that not to complain, not to say that my life is shit, but just to anyone else out there that's having a rough time or you just feel like you're

on the gas nonstop. I am right there beside you pulling my hair out the little bit that I've got left and just trying to figure out how I'm going to get this shit done. That being said, I am recording this very late. I don't have a big plan for it, but there's just something that's creeping up within my life and something that I've noticed. And it's just the amount of anger and frustration that I've been feeling as things get more and more.

busy as we've got more things to do, more responsibilities. The kids are getting older, they're talking back, they've got personalities. Wife's pissed off about something that I promised I would fix six months ago and it's still fucking broken. Christmas lights from last year not working, so you gotta go and get a couple of extra strands. And then when you buy the extra strands, even though they say that they're exact same fucking thing, is it? Warm white LED bulbs.

They're just slightly different because they're slightly different brands. So it's like, I don't want to spend another couple hundred dollars on strands for my entire fucking house. I just needed a couple of replacement strands. Of course they look a little different and everyone else may not notice it, but I do. Anyways, these are the things that have just been popping up for me, things that I've been noticing and it's caused me to have a much shorter fuse, not only with myself or with

society, but with my family, with my wife, with my kids, I do a pretty good job of holding things down because I'm a very naturally angry person and I have no problem just kind of letting things come out as I feel them. But with my family, I've learned to try to hold things in, try not to let that frustration boil over to where I'm, you know, causing harm or damage to my family, to my kids, to my wife, friends, family, all that stuff.

But as we get deeper and deeper into the holiday season, that fuse seems like it's getting shorter and shorter. And it's harder for me to hold in a lot of those emotions, a lot of the things that I'm feeling. I've just been reflecting a little bit on the fact that this has been happening. I've been getting more angry. Fuck, last night I was just so angry. had to do with work. Someone really fucked me over. And it was while I was out on vacation. Came back, someone.

It's hard to explain, essentially someone took credit for a lot of the work that I did. They're giving me some of the credit, but they took like a huge majority of it in my world. It's like, I'm always the person who's willing to help other people out to do things for them and not ask for anything in return. And it's just really shitty to have someone else who doesn't sit next to me, who doesn't know me, doesn't know my family struggles, doesn't know any of that stuff to take credit for it. Not only that, it's not only credit for it, it's also money.

out of my pocket. It's commission out of my pocket. And that's money that we could use during this holiday season when things are so tight, when we're strapped for cash, when we're trying to give a good holiday for our kids, we got bills to pay taxes to pay. It's expensive to live. So I spent most of the first hour of me trying to fall asleep, which is completely outside of my character. I usually can fall asleep within two seconds, but I was just sitting there stewing super pissed off.

thinking about these people that fucked me over and what they did wrong and how I wanted to just tell them off and get in their face and yell at them and be like, dude, you guys are shitheads. This is crappy what you did to me. Why would you do that? And even if I'm not going to change something, I just wanted to get that frustration out there. But I only tell you this story as, like I said, more of a reflection of me looking back and seeing that

because I've got so many other things going on in my life that the anger is really bubbling to the surface. The frustration is bubbling to the surface and it is spilling out in ways that I don't necessarily see on a consistent basis that I don't see regularly. And I just wanted to get this message out there, not even necessarily a message, just kind of a rant for anyone else sees themselves during the holiday season having a much shorter fuse and

It's really shitty because as I mentioned before last week, I love the holidays. Christmas is a magical time. I want nothing more than to wake up on Christmas morning, go get the cinnamon rolls, make the coffee, have the Christmas music playing, turn the Christmas lights on, Christmas tree glowing presents all around the trees and then just see my kids face as they come out and they are so excited. Santa's come and we're listening to Christmas music, having our breakfast, drinking our coffee, just a nice

family time, no real big agenda except for letting the kids eat breakfast, open presents, have fun. Just it's a time that I really, I really enjoyed when I was a kid and I want my kids to have those same great memories that I had. I also know that now as an adult, there's so many other things that we have to do constantly. It's my job to create these lasting memories. Me and my wife's job, obviously I don't do everything. I'm a fucking dad and I'm a.

pretty much useless most of the time. That's not really true. I'm just being facetious, but you know what I'm saying? It's my job and my wife's job to ensure that we're providing these memories and like helping create this magical moment for our kids. Not that we have to kids will be fine even if they don't have it, but I want to do that. I want to give my kids what I was given as a kid and hopefully progress that along a little bit of joy.

during their life while they're, you magical, magical joy. You know, there should be joy and happiness throughout their childhood, but just this is a special time of the season that you can provide this quote unquote magical experience for them. And I don't want my anger to get in the way. I don't want my frustration to boil over. I don't want to continue to get angry at them. And not only that, even if I'm not getting directly angry at them, it's really difficult for me to hide some of that frustration, for me to hide that anger and

I don't want that to take over during this season. so as I mentioned, this is really just more of like a rant episode. It's going to be relatively short. wanted to give an explanation for some of the episodes that are re popping up on your feed and giving you those notifications. and I also just wanted to stay, consistent by releasing an episode each week, even when I don't have the time for it, even if it's not necessarily my best work this episode.

I just wanted to acknowledge my anger, my frustration that it bubbles up during this time of year and that it's something that I really need to keep an eye on to ensure that I'm not having a negative impact on other people, but also a negative impact on myself. That anger, if it just stays within and just kind of festers, it's not doing me any good either. it doesn't feel good. I don't like it. I don't like not being able to fall asleep and just thinking about two shitheads from my company that I don't give a fuck about. Right.

It doesn't do me any good. It doesn't do my kids any good. And I just hope that all of you, as you're busy, as you're getting plans on, as you're trying to move through this season, that you can sit back, look at that anger, acknowledge it, process it, and then try to let it go. Even if it's really hard, I understand that I have a hard time with it, but process it, let it go and enjoy the holiday season, whether that's with your kids or your family or friends or just having fun by yourself, you know?

whatever it is, I hope that you get to enjoy this time. Try not to get too angry. Give yourself some grace when you do get angry and frustrated, but acknowledge it, process it, and move on. And that's gonna do it for this week's episode. Short one, my kid's gonna jump in the room here really quick, so I hope that you all have a fantastic rest of the week, and talk to you soon.