That This American Lifethe mother of podcasts, still ‘at the top of their game‘, the March 7 episode proves 175: Babysitting† The stories are about what happens when parents are not at home – drinking Coke, sleeping in regular clothes instead of pajamas, going to bed late, piles of popcorn and disregarding the concept of ‘screen time’.
Part three of this episode is the highlight (starts at 33 minutes): Carol and Myron Jones, brother and sister, talk about how as teenagers they invented a nanny family, The McCrearys, as an excuse to be away from home for hours. When you hear what their mother said to Carol and Myron—that she regrets not sending them to an orphanage after their father passed away—you understand why they didn’t like being home. An episode with a smile and a big tear at the end.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 9 April 2022
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of April 9, 2022