Public Radio Twin Mom: Always put your keys in the refrigerator

Let me explain.

It’s something that’s happened to all public radio reporters. You’re getting the perfect, emotional interview in someone’s kitchen and just at the critical moment when their cadences are slow and you can hear a pin drop as you wait for the next thought… the refrigerator clicks on. And it’s loud and sputtering and ruins the mood and the tape. The solution, of course, is that you always unplug a refrigerator before recording an interview at someone’s home. And the outcome more often than not is that you forget to re-plug it in when you leave. Whoooops. Unhappy interview subject calls the next day about rotting milk. Not ideal.

The solution is simple. Any audio producer worth their salt (or fresh milk) knows that you DO unplug the fridge but you put your car keys in there at the same time. That way you have to return to the fridge before leaving and inevitably remember to plug it back in.

Being a twin mom is like needing to remember to re-plug in every appliance in the house before leaving. Sometimes “always put your keys in the refrigerator” is literal for the mommy me. Like when it’s vitally important I remembered bottles of milk. Put your keys in the fridge next to them and you’re not going to leave without those bottles.

Sometimes it’s more figurative. Say I’m driving and I take my cell phone out so I can hear it better. If I just throw it on the seat next to me, it’s probably going to stay there when I scramble to get out. So I make sure to put it on top of my coat or scarf, so it’ll at least go flying when I grab that.

It’s a great lesson to extrapolate from.