We Are to Our Parents as They Are to Our Grandparents

At first it may be frustrating, but it’ll become more obvious with time

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - $1,000 Home Cleaning Shopping Spree

The Ultra High End - Teabloom Collection

The Superpremium - M2M Bakery

The Premium Core - Ducky Tran Insulated Coffee Mug (10oz)

The Accessible Core - We Are to Our Parents as They Are to Our Grandparents

The Affordable Luxury - Quote for Dad

The Everyday Luxury - A Recent Winner

The Bespoke

Click on the banner to enter The Bespoke Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $1,000 Home Cleaning Shopping Spree [ARV $1,000]

• Odds: For every 130 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) Shopping Spree

• Contest Period: May 29, 2024 at 10 AM CST to July 2, 2024 at 10 PM CST

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winner

The winner of Issue 28 contest is TAYLOR from RICHARDSON, TEXAS! Here’s her submission for “a hobby or skill you’ve picked up in the last 5 years”:

Congratulations TAYLOR, make sure to take some friends out with your new $150 Escape Room Gift Card!

Check out the other submissions:

I can relate to a lot of these skills everyone submitted. I need to vamp up my food critic skills though. Need to find those hidden gems.

This Week’s Contest

Click on the banner to enter The Ultra High End Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: Teabloom Collection [ARV $85]

• Odds: For every 60 Ducky Tran premium members by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) Teabloom Collection Set

• Contest Period: June 5, 2024 at 10 AM CST to June 11, 2024 at 10 PM CST

This week’s focus is mental wealth and research have shown that tea can relieve stress and calm the mind. Through aroma-therapy as well as providing a warm, soothing drink, a warm cup of tea can help your recovery from daily stressors.

This week I’m giving out Teabloom’s World Pyramid Tea Collection with a Double Wall Glass Mug with Infuser so you can try some of the most unique teas from around the world.

Even if you don’t drink tea, this collection would make a wonderful gift, especially for a tea-drinking dad for Father’s Day.

The collection is beautiful and the cup can be used for other drink once you’ve gone through your 24 teas. If you need a way to de-stress, then submit so you can win this collection of world teas that can relive your stress.

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is M2M Bakery in Richardson, Texas. I don’t have a sweet tooth, but the cakes from this bakery will change that in an instant. They make cupcakes, egg tarts, custom cakes, and a few other items; however, I don’t recommend any of the fancy, custom stuff. Truthfully, most of their “themed” cakes are decorated to a 3 of 5 level.

BUT — if you just get their standard cakes, Pandan-Coconut, Taro, Durian, etc. They are to die for, especially if you’re like me and don’t normally eat too much sweets. They have perfected the sweetness in the frosting and layering cream so that you can eat the entire cake without feeling a sugar rush. At the same time, there’s enough sugar and fresh fruit/ingredients to make you come back for more.

Every negative review online about them was about timeliness of custom cake orders and the M2M staff decorating the cake when the customer shows up. I’ve ordered from M2M probably 10-20 times now, and they do every time. It’s to keep the freshness of the fruits and so the moisture doesn’t destroy the look of the cake. If it were not for these negative reviews that do not understand the purpose of decorating as you pick it up, M2M would have perfect ratings.

You know they’re good when even the negative reviews laud M2M’s flavors and taste. I can’t speak highly enough about this place, especially about their cakes. The cupcakes are similar to their cakes, but you’ll end up eating a box of 6 all by yourself anyways so just get the cake.

Their quality and freshness come with a price. They are a bit pricey when it comes to the cake industry; however, I would say they are underpriced for the quality and consistency that they have perfected over the years.

If you’re in the area or want to try durian on a cake, check out M2M Bakery in Richardson, Texas, you won’t regret it!

The Premium Core

Like I mentioned in the Ultra High End section, drinking warm tea can relieve stress. But many members are coffee drinkers or do not drink hot drinks. This week, I’m providing a discount code on a Ducky Tran steel insulated mug with a lid, that will allow you do drink your hot or cold drinks in style.

This mug is also a great gift, especially if you have a mug collector in your family. This is one of my favorite items that the Ducky Tran shop carries, because I like metal mugs more than ceramic or plastic cups.

Deal #1: I’m offering a discount on my $28 steel insulated mug at shop.duckytran.com. At checkout use the code issue29 for a $18 discount! Yes, that’s right a $28 metal mug will only be $10 for this week. There will be 10 available and the price should include shipping!

The Accessible Core

We Are to Our Parents as They Are to Our Grandparents

I’m sure we see it all the time, it happens to us too, but why hasn’t it changed?

This is what I’m talking about:

1. Children don’t understand parents’ style, taste, logic, or actions.

2. Parents don’t understand why children won’t listen even though they know eventually they’ll understand.

3. Children become older and vows to never be like their parents.

4. Children become parents and adopts their parents’ style, taste, logic, and actions.

5. Now their own children don’t understand the parents’ newly-adopted norms.

6. Their children love the grandparents though, and the grandparents just spoil the children unlike the way they spoiled the parents (as children).

7. The parents tell the grandparents to don’t do certain things that “aren’t safe”, “isn’t healthy”, or “times has changed”.

8. Then when their children have children, the parents (now grandparents) do the same thing that their parents (now great-grandparents) did to their children.

You see the loop yet? So why does it keep happening and what can we learn from this loop?

I’m glad you asked! There are many lessons that we can learn from simply realizing that the past repeats itself all the time. And in parenthood, this is even more obvious as you may see multiple generations in your lifetime. But let’s first answer, why does it keep happening?

This occurrence where humankind seems to never learn from its previous mistake is simple. We can only live our life from our perspective. Being able to see values and actions from another perspective is a skill many people never learn or will learn in adulthood.

As children, we wonder the world trying to learn new things, so when our parents tell us to do something it feels “fixated” and not exciting. As adults, we become more stable and realize the consistency in things become more valuable. We then realize we adopt the traits we initially go against.

So, what lessons can we learn from this?

1. As children or young adults, remember that consistency is more important as you get older because it allows you to plan your life, such as vacation, work, food, education, and fun. But for now, have fun and live your life to the fullest while you have little responsibilities.

2. As adults, remember that we were once kids and children need fun and exploration to become satisfied adults. Don’t deprive them those things as children or they will seek them as adults and will not become settled. Enjoy the journey you get to go through with your children, don’t let it be a dull, monotonous one. Be in their lives, don’t control it.

3. As humankind, remember that you can only live your life and through your perspective. It is the constant, repetition of mistakes that make us human. You can strive for it, but don’t expect perfection. When something is “perfect”, it’s boring.

The number of steps, the damaged steps, the slippery steps, and the missing steps are memorable than the first or last step in a staircase. So, take one step at a time, have fun, make mistakes, but do it together.

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 28 Community Poll Results

This last week’s poll results had many ties:

1. It was a three-way tie for what is stressing you out the most between work, money, and parents. Oh, the joys of life. Work and money may change over time, but parents, never (that’s a good thing).

2. It was a tie between sleep/rest or time away from the stressor to help relieve stress. I’m surprised food wasn’t anyone’s vice for stress. I think that would be mine, salty and spicy junk food.

3. Thank you for everyone that submitted prompts for the upcoming contests. I have many more now I can utilize for the next few months.

This Week’s Community Poll

Here are this week’s poll questions:

The Everyday Luxury

(The referral program is only viewable on the email version of the newsletter.)

One of our members that won recently! She chose the cash prize, congrats!

Visit shop.duckytran.com with the weekly password: teabloom