Episode #61: Unpopular Opinions

Emma: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast today, we’re doing an unpopular opinions episode. So it’s about to get controversial up in here, but controversial about very trivial things like microwaves and candy corn. We hope you enjoy it.

Elsie: All right. So as with many episodes, I thought I would start off with a little disclaimer.

Emma: Yeah, we love disclaimers.

Elsie: We love disclaimers. But since this is an unpopular opinions episode, I feel like if we let ourselves we could do disclaimers through the whole episode and be like, sorry, sorry, sorry if you like it. Oh, I’m sorry. If you like it, that’s great for you. So we’re just going to do one up in the front and say, like, this is just for fun. Please don’t make it weird. Please don’t take it too seriously or personally. This is totally just like silly…

Emma: If you feel like you’re our personal friends, which, by the way, you are if you listen to our Podcast…

Elsie: You are.

Emma: …we can have different opinions about these very trivial things we’re about to talk about so don’t worry! (laughs)

Elsie: Right. Love what you love. Only God can judge you. And we might sound a little bit like judgy jerkos, a little bit…

Emma: Ooh, jerkos!

Elsie: But (laughs) OK, this is my favorite Amy Poehler quote. I’m saying it like daily now. “Good for you, not for me.”

Emma: Mm hmm.

Elsie: It’s great.

Emma: Amy Poehler is awesome.

Elsie: Oh. And also I wanted to acknowledge I have this horrible curse and you can tell me if you have it too.

Emma: This is the best thing about Elsie that I love to troll her about the most.

Elsie: There’s so many things I hate about myself, and this is one of many.

Emma: (laughs)

Elsie: Ok, so I have this curse where if I, like, go really hard on hating something, then like a year or maybe two years later, all of a sudden it’s like my new obsession that I love and I hate that about myself. So now I try to like, not be very vocal about my judgy opinions because it will turn around and bite me in the ass later.

Emma: Yeah, it’s the universe humbling you over and over again.

Elsie: It is.

Emma: Yeah, it gets all of us. But boy, is it funny when it gets you, because I’m like you said last year, that you said this was awful!

Elsie: It’s because I change my mind so much and so fast and everyone’s always calling me out for it. So yeah, all of this stuff can change. And…

Emma: Probably will.

Elsie: That’s why I don’t have a career in politics, because I would be like the ultimate flip-flopper on literally everything.

Emma: You know, what’s wrong with changing your mind sometimes? Maybe that’s called growth. Anyway, let’s do it!

Elsie: I love it.

Emma: Elsie. What is your first unpopular opinion?

Elsie: OK, (laughs) this is so fun. I’m so excited about the episode. All right. So my first unpopular opinion, this is going to, like, make everyone furious and hate me and I’m so excited, so I hate it/don’t feel like I really need microwaves and dishwashers.

Emma: Uhuh.

Elsie: And so microwaves, obviously, like I never had a microwave until recently this year we moved into a house that already had one. It came with it and we just left it there. And I’ll use it for, like, just melting butter or, you know, I’ll use it like once a month.

Emma: I’ve used it every day since I’ve been here.

Elsie: Augh! Yeah.

Emma: I’m always like, where’s your microwave? Gosh!

Elsie: I’m a bit like afraid of microwaves in a way that’s kind of weird. Like if my kid tries to walk close to it, when it’s on, I’ll be like, move out of the way! And I don’t want it to be a daily used thing, but I do understand that, like especially for baking, it is like kind of nice to just have one once in a while.

Emma: Melting butter. Melting chocolate. Yeah. It’s kind of nice. Oh. Warming up your coffee.

Elsie: And then my thing with Dishwasher’s I feel like is even more off-putting because people love dishwashers, like I read blogs, I love blogs and people love their freakin dishwashers.

Emma: Right. Right.

Elsie: And here’s what’s ironic. Our new home has not one, not two. It has three dishwashers.

Emma: Gosh, what a rich person…ugh. (laughs)

Elsie: Oh yeah. And it’s totally wasted on me because one of my petty marriage fights is that I don’t want Jeremy to put stuff in the dishwasher. I just like to hand wash things quickly as we go. Like, I love hand washing dishes are kind of my like, you know, everyone has like a chore they don’t mind it’s kind of weird. Like dishes is mine. I like it.

Emma: Mine’s laundry.

Elsie: I like to, like, wash the dishes and set them there and then wait five minutes and then dry them off a little and put them away. And I just like I just love that. And I like to do it really quickly. And we tend to use the same dishes over and over, you know, like the one-pot that you used to cook mac and cheese and the coffee mugs and the kids’ stuff like that stuff we use over and over and over. So if it goes into the dishwasher, it will just be there still tomorrow. But like gross and smelly and just like crusty. And then I have to take it out and wash it so I could totally live without a dishwasher and even with one if I lived by myself and I was single, I would only use it like, every once in a great while or…

Emma: Like when you have people over which obviously this year.

Elsie: Yeah. Like if you had a big Thanksgiving or something, like, I understand why you need it that day, but on a regular day, I just wouldn’t need it.

Emma: Yeah. I mean, I’m currently living alone and I don’t use the dishwasher at the holiday house. I just wash them by hand because it’s easier.

Elsie: It’s a small, weird dishwasher there.

Emma: That’s true. It’s like a little apartment dishwasher.

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: And I just don’t make enough dishes by myself to really…

Elsie: But yeah. I don’t want…well I know that so many people wish they had a dishwasher. I’ll just say that. And like I get it…

Emma: We already did our disclaimer!

Elsie: OK.

Emma: Stop right now!

Elsie: Ok, ok, ok. I just don’t. Yeah. I just don’t feel like I need one…

Emma: You don’t like it.

Elsie: …and I don’t use it at all.

Emma: Yeah.

Elsie: And they are smelly and gross and I think that the soap makes my dishes smell weird and I don’t like the little spots. I just like it hand washed.

Emma: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. I like microwaves and dishwashers most of the time but definitely microwaves. So I really always disagreed with you on those.

Elsie: OK, this is funny. So there’s two dishwashers in our kitchen and like somebody when we renovate we’ll probably just have one and then there’s one, we have this like little pantry type of room. That’s a separate room. It’s near the breakfast nook and there’s a dishwasher in there. And I cannot wait for the day that I get to renovate that space because I’m going to make it into a trash can. Because it actually really needs a trash can. And we would use that.

Emma: Are you going to do the compacter trash can or just like a pull out just a hidden trash can?

Elsie: I was thinking just a regular trash can. Yeah, like the recycle slash trash.

Emma: Right. Right. That makes sense.

Elsie: So anyway,OK, what’s your first unpopular opinion?

Emma: My first unpopular opinion is, so as listeners might know, I’ve been kind of house shopping for a couple of years now, which is kind of on hold at the moment. But one thing I’ve learned is I don’t really like mid-century houses and I feel like they’re so popular, probably especially among people in like, I don’t know, “my crowd”, like people who like blogs and things.

Elsie: Yeah.

Emma: But I just…

Elsie: And she lives in the mid century house now!

Emma: Yeah, well yeah. I mean, I don’t at the exact moment but but generally. Yes. And there are I mean I don’t know, they’re fairly common-ish where I live in the middle of the country. I just, here’s what…it’s kind of two things. I feel like a little boxed in, you know, décor wise with a house that’s very mid-century because I just feel like it’s hard to do a more eclectic style. I really like houses that are more of a blank slate and you can decide what type of look you want to do. Whereas if your house is very mid-century, I feel like it’s kind of telling you what you need to do. And I don’t know. I don’t like that. I guess I’m a rebel.

Elsie: That’s totally a thing. In mid century houses, people can be very judgmental that you need to, like, be era-appropriate.

Emma: Well, I don’t care so much what people think, but I…it feels weird to try to it feels like you’re trying to force it. If you don’t go with what your house is, it feels like you’re kind of…

Elsie: I agree with that.

Emma: So that and then also some people love a very mid-century house mid-century modern house. And I love Mad Men. I loved that show. I love mid century modern. But I just to me it feels a little costumey, a little bit too much like a TV or a movie set and it just doesn’t feel like home to me. So I just don’t love super mid-century houses. I feel like I tend to kind of shy away from those when I see them, even though they they are really cool. It was a cool era and a lot of people love them, but I just, I don’t know. I just don’t. So there you have it. (laughs)

Elsie: Ok, I totally get that. I’ve been in both stages in life where I was like, I want this like truly mid century like theme, everything is like inspired by Frank Sinatra. And then I’ve had times when I was like, pass. I think I want to be able to have a tufted sofa if I want to a tufted sofa.

Emma: Right. Yeah. Or just certain rugs, certain types of things. I don’t know. I just, I don’t like feeling boxed in. I like to be able to kind of be eclectic or change things.

Elsie: I can’t wait to see what else you pick next and how you decorate it, because I do feel like you’ve been like gearing up for it for so long that it’s going to be so amazing.

Emma: It’s really a lot of pressure at this point because this has been so long. I mean, you’ve lapped me a couple of times now with your moving (laughs).

Elsie: That is not a compliment, though. OK, my next one is so controversial.

Emma: Everyone’s going to hate Elsie after this.

Elsie: Buckle up. All right. I hate a farmhouse mansion.

Emma: She does.

Elsie: And here’s where we draw the line. I love a historic home. I love a historic farmhouse. I love a cute little affordable house that you got really into fixer upper and you made it your own with a farmhouse style and a lot of the Chip and Joanna stuff from Target. All of that is great. But where I live, there are a lot, you would be surprised a lot of two and three million dollar homes, that are farm house and I hate them. And here’s why. The OK, the reason why is because I feel like it’s like this..it is a trend. It just is.

Emma: It is.

Elsie: And where do you go from there after you get a little bit more over just this…and it’s very templated. I also will say, you know, there’s some people I follow on Instagram. I’ll put a couple of links in the show notes who make the farmhouse style like kind of unique and interesting.

Elsie: Right.

Emma: But when I see the mansions, they’re not unique and interesting. They’re like the same thing over and over and over. And it just feels like very much, very much boring. Mommy doesn’t like it.

Elsie: That’s kind of the same thing as my not loving the mid century modern is it’s just kind of a don’t like to be boxed in.

Emma: It’s a hard look. And yeah, I feel like you kind of have to stay with it.

Elsie: And the other thing that was weird is that when we were, when we said we were moving a few months back, we had already like picked our house and stuff at that point. But like some realtors started sending me some farm house mansions, (laughs) they were like, oh, this is perfect for you. This is perfect for you. And it was…

Emma: And you were like, excuse me?!

Elsie: I took it kind of personally, yeah! (laughs) I was like, in what universe is this perfect for me? So anyway…

Emma: That was a little snobby, but that’s funny.

Elsie: Good for you, not for me. I just think that it shouldn’t it be a three million dollar. Like if you’re going to do a three million dollar mansion, I beg of you pick a different style. If you’re going to rehab a seventy thousand dollar house, go for it. You know, go for it on the farmhouse. That’s my opinion.

Emma: I like it. I mean, why not? Ok, well, my next one is the one where everyone’s going to hate me.

Elsie: Everyone forget about the farmhouse thing and get ready to hate Emma.

Emma: Get ready!

Elsie: It’s Emma’s turn.

Emma: So because there’s two reasons you’re going to hate me. One, I’m about to tell you a parenting opinion, and I’m not really a parent, right? Ooh!

Elsie: Oh, no! OK.

Emma: And then two, I think a lot of people are just going to disagree with me.

Elsie: I am, actually. Go for it!

Emma: So here’s my unpopular opinion about parenting. When I’m not even a parent, I don’t understand, or I feel like it doesn’t make sense to do like these big elaborate traveling vacations with very, very small kids. Now, let me explain. I feel like if you’re under five or six or whatever, you probably aren’t going to remember a lot of things like you just are at an age where you don’t really remember.

Elsie: Which is true.

Emma: That doesn’t mean your childhood doesn’t matter. But I just feel like when it comes to spending a lot of money on travel, maybe that doesn’t, you know, totally compute. I also feel like it’s more difficult to travel with very small kids. There’s a lot of accessories I see parents have to, like, drag through the airports and all those things. And I also feel like sometimes in our culture and maybe this is true in other cultures, I don’t really know. But I feel like people aren’t given the permission to still just be adults and have their own adult trips or their own adult hobbies whenever they have small children. It’s like your whole life has to be dedicated to your child and all of your money and all of your time has to go to your child. And I just don’t I really think people should give themselves a little more permission. Like if you only get one vacation a year, maybe it’s OK if you go just you and your partner and leave the kid at grandma’s house, you know, because grandma’s house is still really fun. And of course, it matters like at what exact age your kid is because you wouldn’t necessarily leave a newborn, of course. But I don’t know. I just feel like maybe there should be a little more permission for people to vacation without their children, because sometimes you need a break. And also, you know, when you’re an adult, it’s not like you stop caring— I love travel. If you didn’t know, like, that’s one of my big things in my life and probably the thing I spend the most money on outside of home stuff is traveling, obviously not this year. But I think that’s part of it for me is I have a hard time thinking, oh, there’s going to be this decade or more of my life where it’s only about somebody else and not at all about me with this thing that I love, travel. And so I don’t know, that’s kind of where my head is at on it. Obviously, this doesn’t mean I think if you want to take your small child on a trip, I mean, do it, do whatever you want. But I just. Feel like there isn’t a lot of permission for parents to do things without their children, like travel and I don’t know, I just don’t totally agree with that point of view.

Elsie: Yeah, I mean, I definitely agree with you that people should do what they want to do and not feel guilty and not be driven by guilt. Right. And like next year is our 10 year anniversary. And we’re if we can, 100 percent going to go on a trip without our kids, just the two of us, something like very, un-kid friendly is what we’re planning. But OK, from my perspective, I have to say, like, since I’ve been a mom and it’s just so wonderful. It’s just so wonderful. And I know I can feel how fast it’s going by. I just all I want to do right now is go to Disney with my kids over and over. And that’s just like what’s fun for me. So that’s my defense of it is like if you I don’t know, sometimes it’s just like and I like if I went to Paris right now, I would want to take my kids with me. Just I just would, you know, and it’s like if you want to have, like, a more difficult trip with your kiddos with you and like, I know that Goldie wouldn’t remember it, but I feel like I would maybe want to do it for myself. So I don’t know. I just think it’s definitely both. Don’t feel guilty. But also like if it makes you happy to do these little excruciating, excruciating trips like I took we went to China last year with Nova…

Emma: But that was, you were adopting her little sister. So I don’t know. I feel like that one’s a little different than just…that’s not really a vacation. That’s yeah. A different.

Elsie: That’s true.

Emma: Yeah. But…

Elsie: Well, I’ll say if you want to go to Disney every year for five years and it’s like the best five years of your life, you go get those churros. And if you want to go by yourself to Paris with your husband and leave your kids with grandma, then, you know, you go do that, get those baguettes. Yeah. Either way…

Emma: It’s all about the food!

Elsie: I think I gave you a disclaimer, but I was just trying to say my opinion. But you get to have your opinion. And like, I actually think that’s a very, it is a big controversy.

Emma: Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, yeah, people can disagree. We set our disclaimer at the beginning. It’s cool. All right. Let’s move on to a couple more lighthearted ones now. Let’s stop let’s stop hating Emma and Elsie for a second. Let’s move on to just something simple. (laughs)

Elsie: OK. This is so simple. Candy corn is disgusting. I hate candy corn! And I know that it is the most polarized candy. It is.

Emma: It probably is.

Elsie: It’s like you either love it or you hate it. Like, I think it is like a little piece of wax and it’s so cute and I like to get them and like put them in bowls and like consider them a decoration. We put them in our chexmix and then I pick around them and don’t eat them like I just like hate candy corn so much.

Emma: But you like the look.

Elsie: It’s adorable. Yeah.

Emma: I like the pumpkin ones.

Elsie: Augh! They taste the same.

Emma: I feel like you get less of the waxiness because it’s a bigger piece of candy. I like the pumpkins but I don’t really like candy corn. I’m with you on that. It’s take it or leave it for me.

Elsie: It is. Like, Reese’s is my fall candy so I like…Yeah. Anyway, hate candy corn. But here’s what I love that I think a lot of people hate. I love eggnog. I think it’s so good, so delicious. And an eggnog latte is my special once your latte way above for me, all the other Starbucks seasonal like drinks. It’s like the one and I only get it once a year. I usually get it on our way home from Christmas.

Emma: Oh!

Elsie: Like it’s like a driving…

Emma: Last of the Christmas.

Elsie: It’s the end of. Yeah it’s like a little bookend.

Emma: Mmhmm. Yeah.

Elsie: So what do you feel about eggnog?

Emma: I like an eggnog latte. I can’t say that I ever really wanted to drink just eggnog.

Elsie: What about eggnog with rum in it?

Emma: Yeah I would drink that. Yeah. I drink most things with rum in it to be fair.

Elsie: I don’t usually like a milky cocktail but…

Emma: I can only have one. It’s not a thing you can drink a lot of but.

Elsie: Right. Right.

Emma: But yeah. Well my controversial food thing is that I hate sushi/raw fish.

Elsie: Mm.

Emma: I just never liked it. I yeah. And it’s just the sushi that’s…

Elsie: I love sushi!

Emma: Yeah. Raw fish like real sushi. I’ll eat like a sushi roll that has something cooked or if it’s like a deep fried one I’ll eat that and I’ll eat at sushi restaurants if they have other things. But I just hate sushi. I’ve never really liked it.

Elsie: Emma always orders like salmon with broccoli like teriyaki salmon that’s what she always orders when we go.

Emma: Which is more like hibachi. It’s more like Japanese food. Really.

Elsie: Yeah, it’s definitely not sushi.

Emma: Yeah. I just don’t, I’ve never liked raw fish it really grosses me out the texture of it, so I’m just one of those uncool people that I don’t like sushi at all. If friends want to get it, I’m happy to go because there’s always something else on the menu. But I do not like sushi. Ugh.

Elsie: Well, you should live in Nashville because it’s famously not known for great sushi.

Emma: (laughs) OK.

Elsie: Well, I hope that you guys enjoy that episode and you feel like it’s like fun, like it’s a fun version of hating, and we want to hear your opinions. So come on. The show notes abeautifulmess.com/podcast and let us know which ones you strongly agree and strongly disagree with. And as long as you don’t call us a bad mom or any names, then we’ll all have a fun discussion. Womp, womp. OK, thank you so much for sharing our podcast with your friends and for leaving us reviews like this one from Spilled Milk Designs it is entitled “Podcast Virgin”. “So I never actually listened or even had the desire to listen to a podcast until this one came along. I absolutely love listening to Elsie and Emma while I’m working at night.”Aw! “They’re fun, lighthearted and so inspiring. It would be so fun to sit down with you both over a cup of coffee or tea some day, and this is definitely the next best thing. Also, the Nova plugs are just so good.” Thank you so much and have a great week.

Emma: Bye!