Big Fat Positive: Pregnancy and Parenting (BFP)

Big Fat Positive borrows its name from the slang for a positive pregnancy test, and its full title carries the words Pregnancy and Parenting. In the episodes sampled here, though, the children in the stories are well past babyhood. The titles show the range: 'Mom Hacks for Homework, Laundry, Lost Keys and More!', 'ADHD in Kids and Parents', 'Can I Get My Kids to Do Chores?' and 'Tooth Talk, Jump Scares and FOMO'. Co-hosts Shanna and Laura take most of their material from their own homes. That is what drives the show. A check-in can be as small as a school pickup. Laura describes collecting her son Augie, 'seven going on 17' by her account, who refuses the park, wants to go home and then asks for the Percy Jackson soundtrack in the car. From there the talk drifts happily to the series itself, which Laura recommends and Shanna has not seen. Useful tips come the same way, secondhand and personal. Shanna brings a grease-stain tip from a cleaning subreddit because it made her think of Laura, and Laura answers with a cheerfully self-deprecating theory about why her shirts keep catching dinner. The same easy voice handles heavier subjects. On ADHD, Shanna starts by asking why her kids still struggle with morning and bedtime routines as they get older. Laura adds that it runs in her family too, and recalls her mother's early hunch about Augie and a toddler bedtime ritual of high-stepping laps around his room. Elsewhere, one host describes a decision she calls 'going solo' and another mother's prediction that it would cost her twelve solid hours of crying. She asks whether skipping the tears would make her a bad mom, and her co-host suggests jealousy as the likelier motive. The lighter moments can be plain silly, as when the hosts puzzle over a batch of kids' photos posted to an app, every face mysteriously wrinkled, until they realize an old-person filter was involved. Special segments look outward at parenting culture online. Internet Insanity takes on toxic mom groups and unusual baby names. Just You Wait, which Laura credits partly to memes she had seen, starts from the gloomy forecasts that parents of older kids tend to offer. The talk is chatty and warm, with the odd salty word. Several episodes open with a request to text a friend or post a favorite episode in a due-date subreddit. They close by pointing to BFP Community, a private Facebook group. For a first listen, 'ADHD in Kids and Parents' shows the candid side, and 'Mom Hacks for Homework, Laundry, Lost Keys and More!' shows the playful one.