Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #19: Why It’s Important To Get Your Kids Outside

Transcript

#19: Why It’s Important To Get Your Kids Outside · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

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  Speaker 1: It's a Happy Families podcast with doctor Justin Kilson where
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  Speaker 1: Luke and Susie parents of three little boys, and this
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  Speaker 1: is the podcast for those of us who are time
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  Speaker 1: for parents, but just one answers. Now.
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  Speaker 2: It's no secret that Australia has been named one of
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  Speaker 2: the most obese countries in the world, which is you know,
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  Speaker 2: little people like us keep talking about it's a little
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  Speaker 2: wonder in a country where we are quite fortunate we
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  Speaker 2: have access to all of this food and goodness. We
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  Speaker 2: also have access to the outdoors, but we don't use
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  Speaker 2: it and our kids aren't using it. To talk about
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  Speaker 2: this with us, doctor Justin Coilson from Happy Families dot
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  Speaker 2: com dot au. Time to change because when I was
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  Speaker 2: a kid, we spent all our time outdoors and now
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  Speaker 2: the Internet's arrived.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've got we've got screen ages, haven't we. We've
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  Speaker 3: got kids that are are streaming instead of dreaming at
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  Speaker 3: night time and then they're sitting in front of screens.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, research is telling us really clearly that kids
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  Speaker 3: are spending way too much time in front of screens.
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  Speaker 3: And I came across a study, Suzie that was done
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  Speaker 3: in Canada looking at something like what was it thirty
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  Speaker 3: seven thirty eight countries and Australian children in terms of
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  Speaker 3: their overall physical activity. Australian children get a D minus
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  Speaker 3: D minus as in ABCD.
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  Speaker 2: Getting a D minus for anything would have horrified me
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  Speaker 2: when I was a student. We're talking about the importance
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  Speaker 2: of getting outdoors, Doctor Justin Coulson. It is The Happy
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  Speaker 2: Family's podcast. More next.
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  Speaker 4: Family life is pretty tough going sometimes. Most days are
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: a struggle between strong willed children and frazzled parents. And
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: while no parent wakes up in the morning saying today's
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  Speaker 4: the day I'm going to ruin everyone's lives, it sometimes
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  Speaker 4: feels like that by the end of the day. Twenty
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: one Days to a Happier Family is the number one
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  Speaker 4: parenting book by doctor Justin Coulson for parents who want
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  Speaker 4: their kids to be better, themselves, to be calmer, and
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  Speaker 4: their family to be happier Now. The book is also
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: available as an online video course. In the program, you'll
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: find specific strategies to help you be at your best,
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  Speaker 4: evidence based ideas to strengthen your relationship with your children,
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  Speaker 4: research proven practices to improve understanding between you and your child,
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• 2:17
  Speaker 4: punishment and more tips to make your family happier. And
• 2:20
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• 2:29
  Speaker 4: video course by doctor Justin Coulson. Get it now from
• 2:33
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  Speaker 2: It's a Happy Family's podcast with doctor Justin Coulson and
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  Speaker 2: we're talking about getting outdoors today after a little bit
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  Speaker 2: of a study showed that Australia gets a D minus
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to our outdoor time with kids.
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  Speaker 1: What is it uniquely about Australa Because the incident's gone
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  Speaker 1: everywhere and screens have gone everywhere. Why have we sort
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  Speaker 1: of adapted so much from being the outdoor play kids
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  Speaker 1: to the screen kids.
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  Speaker 3: Well, there's a few. There's the issue of active play.
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  Speaker 3: It seems that when it comes to Australia, we are
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  Speaker 3: all the way down, all the way down the list.
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  Speaker 3: We just don't do a lot of active play.
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  Speaker 4: Now.
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  Speaker 3: I know a lot of people are probably listen to
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  Speaker 3: have ain't going. Yeah, we do, but as a general
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  Speaker 3: rule we don't. Another big one is that we don't
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  Speaker 3: do active transportation. You know, I remember when we used
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  Speaker 3: to walk to school or ride our bikes to school.
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  Speaker 3: We've got so many studies now to show that that's
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  Speaker 3: just not happening anymore. The research also tells us that
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  Speaker 3: in terms of ossie kids, we get a D minus
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  Speaker 3: because of all the sedentary behaviors that we have that
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  Speaker 3: as we sit on our backsides when we stare at screens,
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  Speaker 3: we don't do too bad. With family and peers and
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  Speaker 3: getting out in about we got a C plus there.
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  Speaker 3: Our school environment's okay as well. But you know, one
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  Speaker 3: of the things that should be in our favor and
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  Speaker 3: you already touched on it, Suzzy, is our community and
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  Speaker 3: our environment is designed to be outside. I mean, we're
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  Speaker 3: in such a great country for it, but we just
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  Speaker 3: we don't make you of it. And one one big
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  Speaker 3: issue at least in the report that I came across,
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  Speaker 3: indicated that government, government initiatives and government strategies and government
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  Speaker 3: investments may be part of what's letting this down. You know,
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  Speaker 3: we're not we're not involved in the organized sport as
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  Speaker 3: much because that's so expensive now and people want their
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  Speaker 3: saturdays to just have a life because we're so busy
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  Speaker 3: during the week, and then the lack of really great
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  Speaker 3: public spaces. In this report, we basically got to fail.
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  Speaker 3: Compared to the countries like Switzerland and Denmark and Norway
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  Speaker 3: and Belgium and a lot of the European countries and
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  Speaker 3: even New Zealand who who have really invested heavily in
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  Speaker 3: getting people outside and giving them reasons to be outside,
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  Speaker 3: We're just we're just not making the grade.
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  Speaker 1: It's such an interesting thing. We know that we've just
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  Speaker 1: moved house because the house we're in we didn't have
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  Speaker 1: a yard and a space for our kids to play,
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  Speaker 1: and we found that we saw difference when we went
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  Speaker 1: camping or when we went on holidays and they were
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  Speaker 1: outside different though they were. So we've moved house to
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  Speaker 1: be in a space where we can have yards of
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  Speaker 1: a swimming pool and things so that we want to
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  Speaker 1: get them outside because it's better for the way they
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  Speaker 1: function in the rest of their life.
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  Speaker 3: I've just done the same thing, and unfortunately in Australia
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  Speaker 3: we're going the other way, particularly out of major cities.
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  Speaker 3: There's more and more and more of a push to
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  Speaker 3: get people into high identity housing. Look, that's not necessarily
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  Speaker 3: the be all and end, although, because you've got a
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  Speaker 3: lot of the European countries where there's very high identity
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  Speaker 3: housing and you've got people with two and three and
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  Speaker 3: four kids living in apartments. But again in those places,
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  Speaker 3: they'll usually have a high level of green space, they'll
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  Speaker 3: have fabulous bike cards, they encourage people to be outside,
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  Speaker 3: and they really do with their lives outside. The apartment
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  Speaker 3: is just for eating and sleeping.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an interesting thing to think about, and I
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  Speaker 2: guess if we're conscious of it, we can do something
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  Speaker 2: differently as far as in engaging our children different to
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  Speaker 2: get outside, and we need to as adults as well
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  Speaker 2: to model that.
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  Speaker 3: That's the big one, Susi. I was going to say,
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  Speaker 3: if you're looking for a couple of tips for how
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  Speaker 3: to get your kids active, the number one thing is
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  Speaker 3: to be an example yourself. The number two things is
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  Speaker 3: to make sure that they get enough to sleep, and
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  Speaker 3: the number three thing is to get them off their
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  Speaker 3: screen so they have a healthy digital diet and they
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  Speaker 3: have lots of physical activity and you have a whole
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  Speaker 3: unbalanced life.
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  Speaker 1: Getting them off their screens and getting them to have
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  Speaker 1: enough sleep sounds really easy. Yeah, two out of three
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  Speaker 1: ain't bad, right, Justin Doctor Justin Culson from Happy families
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  Speaker 1: dot com dot you thank you again for your.
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  Speaker 3: Time, great talking. Thanks Thanks Susi for.
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  Speaker 2: More info in all of Justin's books, podcasts, and programs.
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  Speaker 2: You can jump online to happy families dot com dot
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  Speaker 2: are you to find out how to have Justin speak
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  Speaker 2: at your school, or you can come along to your
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  Speaker 2: organization as well. Go to Justin Coulson dot com