00:08:10.420And he went drinking with his friends. Like it was it was the married with children life of misery, of misery, of complete feeling alone, feeling the burden of everything. And like when a problem arose and I felt like, oh, well, I have a partner. Let me turn to him. It was like, well, I don't really know what to do. And then it wasn't. It just was not ideal. It was not. It's not it was not the dream that it was sold to me that it was going to be.
00:08:36.740And then, of course, everybody says, oh, well, you guys are young, he'll mature.
00:09:13.000I was the one who made the appointments, took care of the bills.0.95
00:09:16.980And it was miserable, miserable, miserable, miserable, miserable.
00:09:22.780And so talk to me about what happened when you guys split up.
00:09:28.520So my story is really intertwined with like touches of domestic violence.
00:09:36.100the ending of our marriage was not fun it still is five years post-divorce we're
00:09:46.140still battling it out in the courts all the time it's when you give up so much of autonomy in a
00:09:52.700marriage and i was married for 10 years when you give up so much of your personal autonomy control
00:09:58.080everything decision making because a good wife is submissive and quiet and serves her family and0.97
00:10:04.360You give up. You give it up to your husband. He's the leader of the home. Like the structure is God0.98
00:10:09.780first, then the man of the house, then the woman, then the children. And shit rolls downhill. Like1.00
00:10:16.360the kids always get the shit end of everything, the worst version of everybody. They get pushed1.00
00:10:21.580aside, pushed in corners because everybody has more important things to do, like argue and
00:10:28.340stress about bills and money. It was his world and everybody else was living in it,
00:10:33.280including me and my children. And that just got hard. So I was like, OK, how about you just live
00:10:37.440your life and I'll live my life and we can just share the kids and that'll be it. But somebody
00:10:41.300like you have to think entering a relationship with somebody who wants that much control and wants
00:10:48.300and is OK with you giving up so much autonomy. What are they going to be like when you don't
00:10:53.900want to participate anymore? When you're like, hey, this this doesn't really suit my feelings
00:10:58.380anymore. You know, that's not usually going to be well received because now you're saying, hey,
00:11:05.220on top of working and earning the income, now I want you to also help me at home and do some of
00:11:09.980these domestic chores. And I want to do a little bit of what you're doing. I want to kind of mix
00:11:14.340it all up. That's not usually well received. And so when you try to leave, it's not well received
00:11:19.920either. You know, like they're not going to like that. They're not going to like that. No, no.
00:11:28.380And then the people who are posting and making it look aesthetically beautiful are so harmful to our community and society, like, at large.
00:11:39.480It's so harmful. And what I think makes it even more harmful is that you have these tradwives on social media who are trying to make it look so unattainably beautiful.1.00
00:11:54.460in a way that I do think is very persuasive to young women who are looking for answers about0.93
00:12:02.960how to be in the world. Yes. I think a lot of little girls are raised, women and little girls
00:12:08.980are raised to have this fear of the world. Like it's a man's world. It's a dog eat dog world.0.92
00:12:14.780It's rough. It's wild. You, you're so precious and pretty. Just sit here while us men go take
00:12:21.960care of everything and we'll take care of you too but this is not the fucking middle ages when he0.99
00:12:27.700gets bored of this fucking life because it's it's not as a single mother now i can tell you0.97
00:12:31.980it's really fucking hard to have the burden of being the one to provide for a large group of0.99
00:12:36.320people so a lot of the chadwives don't even want to imagine the thought that their husband could0.98
00:12:41.500cheat on them no not mine okay well what if he dies like their structure just makes no sense
00:12:48.420and then it's putting people in danger because when you have to pick up the pieces of your life
00:12:55.260it's it just sucks to be on the other end you know what i mean i would love to see those women
00:13:00.240on the other end in a few years i sometimes i actually a lot of them that i follow it's kind
00:13:05.420of like i hate watch because i'm like i can't wait i'm watching to watch the demise i cannot
00:13:10.520wait to see the video where you say i'm like the ace family i don't know if you know about them
00:13:15.000the YouTube family? No, tell me about the ace family. I love it when people tell me tell me
00:13:19.500about influencers. I don't know because the world of influencers is large. Pro Joe, you're going to
00:13:24.380love this one because the ace family, you're you if you catch them now, you get to catch you get
00:13:30.540to binge all their all of it, including the blow up of the end. They're now getting a divorce.
00:13:34.640They were just this like really cute couple on YouTube and they posted like pranks and fun stuff.
00:13:39.240They actually got in trouble because they shut down the city of L.A. doing like an unauthorized
00:13:44.040parade. And because they like called out their ace family to come out and like support them for
00:13:49.340something. So they've been huge on YouTube and they're this little family. And then as soon as
00:13:52.840they started having kids, she started, you know, like I heard in your episode, how every kid,
00:13:57.780you know, kind of starts to boost your numbers. And so now they have three kids and they just
00:14:02.260announced that they're getting a divorce. And they're like, after these years, blah, blah,
00:14:05.720blah. This just isn't, you know, fulfilling for blah, blah, blah. Just whatever bullshit ass story
00:14:11.960to be like yeah this sucks the traditional you know shit doesn't work it's not fun for anybody1.00
00:14:18.980and it's usually fake the people who are posting on social media know the fuck they're not as happy1.00
00:14:24.540as they act like they're no no they're not no no they're not no they're not it's fake it's very0.98
00:14:29.720fake and you know it's a i i want we talk about this a lot on the show uh but it's performance
00:14:37.400things that we see on social media are performance and that's okay but we have to realize that we
00:14:44.620can't think that we're just getting this weird voyeuristic window into people's lives absolutely
00:14:52.400like i kind of i kind of think of my content as like the anti-trad wife content like that's why
00:14:57.680i will post a picture of me sitting in the food stamps office i was just annoyed that i knew what
00:15:02.580was going on. The phone list was down. I can tell my story in a way that makes it, you know, that
00:15:07.900kind of turns it one way like, and now he's living with another woman. Yeah, well, I left him. I'm a
00:15:12.600single mom by choice. I did it because I'm happy. I have had to apply for food stamps because I lost
00:15:17.760my bartending job. I just want you to know that the trad wife life is literally becoming a domestic1.00
00:15:22.940slave. It's misery. And when everybody says, oh, she's having a midlife crisis. No, she had her1.00
00:15:28.940midlife crisis in her 20s she had a quarter year crisis and was like oh my god everybody else is0.99
00:15:33.740getting married everybody out my biological clock is ticking she made some some rash decisions based
00:15:39.160in fear and now at 40 she's a little more comfortable in her skin she's got some senses
00:15:44.980about her she's like okay we're gonna start over because i'm good on all that yeah yeah i i love
00:15:52.100that i love that we are going to take a quick break here and when we get back i want to talk
00:15:57.100about life on the other side of being a trad wife. And you are what we're now calling an
00:16:04.220anti-trad wife. And I want to hear a little bit more about what that is and what you want to say1.00
00:16:11.140to the women who want to be trad wives, the aspiring trad wives, the soft girls,
00:16:17.000the stay-at-home girlfriends. But we'll do all of that after a quick break.
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00:18:25.500and we're back we are back talking about anti-trad wives on social media of which you1.00
00:18:38.920of which you are one of which i feel like you're the queen actually you are the queen of the anti-trad
00:18:43.540wives i will proudly wear that crown thank you yes yes so talk to me about your life on the other
00:18:50.860side of this. You have four kids and you are figuring out how to support them, how to support
00:19:01.320yourself. And what is that like for you? It was hard at first because I literally look at it like
00:19:11.060a seed. You are going to enter the darkest part of your life and you are kind of surrounded by
00:19:18.540this hard shell because you are so confused at everything you don't you can't even trust yourself
00:19:24.480because you thought you made the right decision by picking that religion or that husband or that
00:19:29.500lifestyle like you are faced with having to change your upside down your entire life and so it's like
00:19:36.520a little seed in the darkest place and so I've been divorced for five going on five years this
00:19:41.920year will be five years and that milestone just feels so good to me for some reason um but I was
00:19:47.240married. I did the trad wife life for 10 years. I've been a single mom by choice now for five0.58
00:19:52.920years. And it, it's just been amazing. I mean, and I mean, instantly, like the minute I was like,
00:20:01.420I'm done. This is over. We're splitting up. That first night that I cooked dinner for just me and
00:20:09.500my kids, the fact that we could sit there and eat dinner and not, there was no eggshells anymore.
00:20:16.260we swept up all the eggshells it was there was just such a an instant tension release
00:20:21.960and you know it was a journey the shell had to come off like the little seed
00:20:27.260the little plant had to start sprouting and it had to grow and you know um and now five years0.90
00:20:34.960later I've done a lot of therapy um even if you don't think you're if you were in a trad wife0.56
00:20:40.720situation there probably was some domestic there was at least financial abuse because you were
00:20:44.760stuck with no money and he had all the money so that piece alone you can contact a domestic
00:20:48.980violence shelter and get therapy usually for free because it's people that are trying to get their
00:20:53.800degrees that are that are providing their services to the domestic violence shelter so you know
00:21:00.260everybody wins you get free therapy they get their their hour their clinical hours done
00:21:04.100and everybody wins um so i did a lot of therapy and now it's just amazing i just have you know
00:21:11.400when you're living the trad wave life and you're getting in some arguments with your husband and
00:21:14.600you know, things are, you're not happy. Like I've had to become a lot more vulnerable with my kids.
00:21:19.800Like I can't just hide away and cry because they need lunch and they need dinner. So I have to kind
00:21:24.140of show them my humanity while living life. And isn't that what we're supposed to do as mothers
00:21:29.100anyway? Like our job isn't to make their life perfect. Our job is to show them how to live
00:21:34.780life and get through it well. And problems, it's not our job to like clear the path for them and
00:21:42.720make everything perfect. One day we're not going to be there. It's our job to just teach them and
00:21:46.840live life alongside them and bring them along. And you get that opportunity when you're no longer
00:21:55.480distracted by baking someone's fucking bread and cleaning their toilet and getting his lunch ready0.99
00:22:00.660so he can go to work because he's the most important one because he's the one that earns0.99
00:22:03.380the money. And half the time, he's not even earning enough money. Life is scary. And I think
00:22:08.240that's why a lot of women choose the trad wife life because they're like, well, I'll just hide0.99
00:22:11.160behind this and he's going to take care of me and if I could just you know cover my eyes and1.00
00:22:15.780la la la la and pretend like everything's okay but like life is going to come at you and you know
00:22:23.000whether you whether you choose to believe it or not life happens and when life happens
00:22:29.540yeah I did to quote Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park life finds a way yeah yeah and you can't
00:22:37.540hide in life forever. And it is scary. It's just pick your scary, pick your hard. I would so much,
00:22:43.260I would so much rather be at the food stamps office than sleeping next to a man that I know
00:22:48.540doesn't love me and doesn't support me. I'm here to serve him. And I'm only as good. I'm only as,
00:22:54.280you know, valuable to him as much as I can serve him. That's why I'm annoying when I'm sick and I
00:22:58.860don't get taken care of. That's why so many women get left when they receive a cancer diagnosis1.00
00:23:04.180because you weren't loved you were you were an employee an unpaid servant and you gave your life0.97
00:23:12.240for that your life you had life you were a little girl you had dreams you had goals before the world
00:23:19.180got to you you you know you did other things that barbie movie like i could watch it every day it
00:23:26.520just the billy eilish song that you know what was i made for i my whole family knows change a song
00:23:33.400if that comes on because mommy instantly starts crying because oh it's just and I'm right I have
00:23:40.720three little girls and one little boy and so the weight of like decisions that I made influencing
00:23:48.580them like I'm always like you know you don't have to be a mom I know that mommy's a mom but you don't
00:23:51.960have to be a mom you can also be these other things you know I want to take a look at some
00:23:57.420of the comments that you've gotten on your TikTok because they're really supportive they're really0.52
00:24:02.900supportive and they're very anti-trad wife. But I don't think that those thoughts float to the top
00:24:09.420in social media because social media keeps pushing the trad wife life on the algorithm.
00:24:15.860It has two million views about being an anti-trad wife saying, look, this is hard. I'm on my own.
00:24:24.760I've got four kids. I'm getting food stamps. And the comments on this were very positive for the
00:24:33.400most part. I want to read some of them, actually, because they are beautiful. So, you know, we've
00:24:39.220got one. The struggle is real. I did the same thing you're doing 29 years ago. There's no shame.
00:24:45.700You've got to do what's best for you and your kids. And then there's mine being like, hello,
00:24:50.080I'm Joe Piazza. Would you like to come on my podcast? This is another one from a woman named
00:24:54.100Jane. This was me, four kids, no education, no career. We were married 17 years. After 10 years,
00:25:02.680I'm finally on my feet and comfortable. Another one, this one, just, oh my God. My ex tried and
00:25:09.760my ex tried to force me to stay at home. I would not. I still managed to climb the ladder while
00:25:16.920doing all of that trad wife stuff. Thankful that I fought to keep working because I'm divorced.0.80
00:25:24.100good for her. And again, like just more and more and more. This has happened to so many women that
00:25:31.120I know. So many women saying, hey, hey, it happened to me. It happened to me. But you know what?0.97
00:25:39.580That story is not beautiful enough to usually go viral on social media, especially not on
00:25:48.160Instagram. I see so much crap on social media that this is nice to see women supporting other0.97
00:25:55.140women, which we do not see nearly enough. One last thing. What is your advice for any woman0.98
00:26:01.940who is in this, is in the thick of it and wants out? What would you tell her?
00:26:08.260It's just such a horrible, horrible, you are just prey. You're just sitting prey as a trad wife. And1.00
00:26:16.380it just feels so empowering on the other side. That's all we have for today, friends. Thank you
00:26:21.460so much for being here. I loved this conversation. It is so incredibly inspiring. And Anitza is very
00:26:30.560brave. If you love this show, please leave us a review, send it to a friend, all of the things
00:26:36.760help. And as always, if you pre-order the book of the summer, The Sicilian Inheritance, you will get
00:26:43.240a free lifetime subscription to my newsletter, Over the Influence.
00:26:47.580Have a great day and do something nice for yourself.