Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / Teaching Kids About Friendship
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: If you speak to anyone that works with children, any
- 0:08Speaker 1: school leader, any school teacher, any psychologist, anyone any parents
- 0:12Speaker 1: involved with kids, whether they're at kindergarten or reception or
- 0:15Speaker 1: preschool or big school or high school. And if you
- 0:19Speaker 1: ask them what the most common challenge is that they
- 0:21Speaker 1: confront when they're dealing with kids, the answer is almost
- 0:25Speaker 1: always the same. It's friendships. There was a study done
- 0:29Speaker 1: in the nineteen eighties that outlines six key concepts that
- 0:35Speaker 1: make friendships work. Today, we dig into that study, have
- 0:40Speaker 1: a look at those six key concepts that make friendships
- 0:43Speaker 1: work and explore how we can help our kids have
- 0:45Speaker 1: better friendships. It's a doctor's desk episode of the Happy
- 0:49Speaker 1: Famili's podcast. Next, Hello, Welcome to the Happy Families podcast,
- 0:55Speaker 1: where you get real parenting solutions every single day. This
- 0:58Speaker 1: is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. Where Justin and Kylie
- 1:02Speaker 1: Colson were the parents have six daughters and Kylie. When
- 1:05Speaker 1: you think about the enriching elements of your life, people
- 1:08Speaker 1: are at the core of it all the time. But
- 1:10Speaker 1: how good is a great friendship? Like you think about
- 1:13Speaker 1: the people that matter most, and those friendships enrich and
- 1:17Speaker 1: enlarge our lives in such magnificent ways.
- 1:19Speaker 2: I was actually just reflecting about this the other day,
- 1:22Speaker 2: and I decided to do something about it. Because we've
- 1:25Speaker 2: moved so many times over our married life, I have
- 1:29Speaker 2: friends all over the place, not necessarily in my backyard
- 1:33Speaker 2: or down the road. And as I was reflecting about
- 1:37Speaker 2: the women in my life who have had the most
- 1:39Speaker 2: profound impact on me through their friendship, I went through
- 1:44Speaker 2: my photo role and I started pulling out photos and
- 1:47Speaker 2: printing them up, and I kind of created my wall
- 1:50Speaker 2: of friendship. Yeah, in my closet.
- 1:53Speaker 1: As I was doing the introal, I was hoping going
- 1:55Speaker 1: to refer to that because we didn't set this up,
- 1:56Speaker 1: but every time I walk into our wardrobe, now see
- 2:00Speaker 1: this wall of all of your best friends, photos of
- 2:02Speaker 1: you and your best friends. I'm like, I feel a
- 2:05Speaker 1: bit weird looking at all of your best friends. Although,
- 2:07Speaker 1: but there's such great people, such great people. Today a
- 2:10Speaker 1: conversation about friendships, why our kids struggle so much, and
- 2:14Speaker 1: the six constitutional elements, the six things that researchers have
- 2:19Speaker 1: discovered make friendships work. And it's worth pointing out that
- 2:23Speaker 1: friendships are at the very heart of our well being
- 2:26Speaker 1: and our distress. We've removed a couple of kids from
- 2:28Speaker 1: school because of friendship challenges. That's the distressing part where
- 2:32Speaker 1: things aren't working. And then there's, of course the joy
- 2:37Speaker 1: that comes from good quality friendships. A friend of mine,
- 2:39Speaker 1: she's been on the podcast a couple of times, researcher
- 2:41Speaker 1: in Melbourne, Kelly Ann Allen, talks about school belonging. She's
- 2:44Speaker 1: found that school belonging that is how much you feel
- 2:46Speaker 1: like you belong to the people at school you've got
- 2:48Speaker 1: those friendships. It's a predictor of everything from grades to
- 2:51Speaker 1: life satisfaction. Even life satisfaction a decade after school has ended.
- 2:57Speaker 1: The amount of time that you felt like you belonged
- 2:59Speaker 1: at school impacts ten years later after school, how much
- 3:03Speaker 1: life satisfaction you have. I think it's extraordinary. Whether it's
- 3:06Speaker 1: academic achievement or self concept, behavior thinking, they all improve
- 3:11Speaker 1: when kids feel like they belong.
- 3:14Speaker 2: So you've teased us, there's six things. What's number one?
- 3:18Speaker 1: Okay? So from British psychologists, really influential social psychologist Michael
- 3:24Speaker 1: Argyle and Minica Henderson, his collaborator, did a series of
- 3:27Speaker 1: studies identified these six things. This is the first one.
- 3:30Speaker 1: Real friends are loyal, they stand up for their friend
- 3:34Speaker 1: in their absence. Works is just such a powerful relationship builder,
- 3:38Speaker 1: And we can teach this at any age, including for adults.
- 3:43Speaker 1: Like there's a lot of us who are over eighteen
- 3:44Speaker 1: who struggle with that. If somebody's saying something that's not
- 3:47Speaker 1: very nice about our friend, do we lean and say, really,
- 3:50Speaker 1: I didn't know that about my friend, or do we
- 3:51Speaker 1: say hang on a sec That's not the Kylie Coulson
- 3:55Speaker 1: that I know.
- 3:56Speaker 2: As I've listened to our daughters over the last twenty
- 3:59Speaker 2: years of one of the things that often comes up
- 4:02Speaker 2: for me is I just don't want to be that
- 4:04Speaker 2: person's friend because they talk poorly about other people. Yeah,
- 4:08Speaker 2: and I think that deep down for all of us,
- 4:10Speaker 2: if somebody is willing to say something nasty about somebody
- 4:13Speaker 2: else that's not in the room, what are they saying
- 4:15Speaker 2: about me when I'm not in the room.
- 4:17Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the subconscious fear, isn't it. Yeah, if you
- 4:20Speaker 1: talk about them, what would you say about me if
- 4:22Speaker 1: I'm not there to defend myself.
- 4:23Speaker 2: In my personal experience, it has been quite rare that
- 4:27Speaker 2: I have found someone who has been willing to stand
- 4:31Speaker 2: up for me personally when I haven't been in the
- 4:33Speaker 2: room or.
- 4:34Speaker 1: Anybody, and yet, oh my goodness, it's so powerful. Like
- 4:38Speaker 1: if you're having a conversation with somebody and the conversation
- 4:42Speaker 1: sort of turns a little bit south someone starts saying
- 4:45Speaker 1: something negative about another person, when somebody is brave enough
- 4:48Speaker 1: to say, oh, actually, I don't think that's fair. She
- 4:51Speaker 1: wasn't even there, or I don't think that's there. They're
- 4:53Speaker 1: not here to defend themselves. We don't really know the
- 4:55Speaker 1: context here, but everything I know about them says that
- 4:57Speaker 1: that's not their normal behavior. This signal that that sends
- 5:01Speaker 1: as well, that puts everyone on alert. Oh Kylie is
- 5:04Speaker 1: the kind of person who will defend me, she'll stick
- 5:07Speaker 1: up for me. Like it's just such a I get
- 5:09Speaker 1: goosebumps talking about it. It's such a powerful way to
- 5:11Speaker 1: say I'm a trustworthy, reliable friend. I'm somebody that you
- 5:16Speaker 1: can look to and know that I've got your back.
- 5:19Speaker 1: And it's different to the thing that you'll hear boys
- 5:22Speaker 1: talk about don't dog the boys, don't rid out your mates.
- 5:24Speaker 1: It's not like that. It's just saying, unless you know
- 5:28Speaker 1: all the details, it's probably not appropriate to talk about
- 5:31Speaker 1: that because they're not here to defend themselves and everything
- 5:33Speaker 1: I know about them, they're just not the kind of
- 5:35Speaker 1: person that would do that. I don't think I'm going
- 5:38Speaker 1: to have to check with them and find out what
- 5:39Speaker 1: they would say, because that just doesn't feel right. Powerful,
- 5:42Speaker 1: powerful idea.
- 5:43Speaker 2: That's number two.
- 5:44Speaker 1: So the second idea that Argile and Henderson came up
- 5:47Speaker 1: with was this sharing important news with the friend. So
- 5:53Speaker 1: good friends keep each other in the loop. If your
- 5:55Speaker 1: child hears that a whole bunch of people are going
- 5:58Speaker 1: to go to the movies and someone's being left, then
- 6:00Speaker 1: they stand up for their friend. They encourage other people
- 6:02Speaker 1: to include them and to make sure that they include
- 6:05Speaker 1: them in things as well.
- 6:07Speaker 2: This is really powerful, this one, the idea that a
- 6:11Speaker 2: friend is inclusive.
- 6:13Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but I just had a thought, as you said,
- 6:16Speaker 1: that good friends also know what not to share. Like
- 6:19Speaker 1: I remember there was a girl that I interviewed for
- 6:21Speaker 1: my Misconnection book. She talked about how she had just
- 6:25Speaker 1: gone to the bathroom. It was the end of lunch
- 6:27Speaker 1: break at school, and as she was leaving the bathroom,
- 6:30Speaker 1: one of the girls from her friendship group walked into
- 6:32Speaker 1: the bathroom and sawry and goes, oh hey, and called
- 6:35Speaker 1: her by name. I can't remember her name now, but
- 6:37Speaker 1: she said, oh, hey, we were just talking about you,
- 6:40Speaker 1: and we've decided that you're the judgest person in our group.
- 6:45Speaker 1: So number one, no loyalty because everyone's talking about you.
- 6:49Speaker 1: But number two, all the girls are sitting around judging
- 6:51Speaker 1: whose judges, and they choose to judge the person who's
- 6:54Speaker 1: not there as the judges. And then this girl goes
- 6:56Speaker 1: and says, I thought i'd let you know you're the judgest, Like, congratulations,
- 6:59Speaker 1: you've won a prize. So knowing what to share and
- 7:02Speaker 1: what not to share and how to share those things,
- 7:04Speaker 1: it's kind of like that whole.
- 7:07Speaker 2: Like there's so much nuance in that though, and we're
- 7:09Speaker 2: asking our teenagers, whose brains are still developing to understand it.
- 7:15Speaker 2: But I think the easiest way to help our children
- 7:18Speaker 2: understand is what do you hope to achieve by sharing
- 7:21Speaker 2: this boom? Yes? Yes, So if you share that somebody
- 7:25Speaker 2: hates them and they've just said the most awful things
- 7:27Speaker 2: about them, what are you hoping that's going to achieve? Yeah? Yeah,
- 7:30Speaker 2: it's not elevating your friend, it's actually like completely destroying
- 7:34Speaker 2: her in one moment. And so yeah, I think that
- 7:38Speaker 2: that's a really powerful thing to help our kids understand.
- 7:41Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe a question to ask your child is would
- 7:44Speaker 1: you want to know this if the roles were reversed,
- 7:47Speaker 1: Like if everyone's talking about how stinky your breath is,
- 7:49Speaker 1: would you like somebody to come and tell you that
- 7:51Speaker 1: was what the conversation was or would it be better
- 7:53Speaker 1: to not know?
- 7:54Speaker 2: I think as teenagers, though, we often think we want
- 7:57Speaker 2: to know.
- 7:58Speaker 1: Yes, that's a good point.
- 7:59Speaker 2: We want, like, if you're talking about me, I want it.
- 8:01Speaker 1: I have to know.
- 8:02Speaker 2: Yeah, But why why do you want to know? Ye?
- 8:04Speaker 2: How does that impact how you feel about yourself? How
- 8:06Speaker 2: does that impact how you feel about other people? How
- 8:08Speaker 2: does it impact the way you interact.
- 8:11Speaker 1: There's a prace that I've used on the podcast once
- 8:14Speaker 1: or twice, and that is what other people think of you.
- 8:16Speaker 2: It's none of your business?
- 8:17Speaker 1: Is none of your business?
- 8:18Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 8:19Speaker 1: Yeah, it's their business. Okay, let's do the third one
- 8:21Speaker 1: and then we going to take a quick break provide
- 8:23Speaker 1: emotional support when it's needed. So I just should highlight
- 8:27Speaker 1: here this third element of great friendships does not mean
- 8:30Speaker 1: that we need to be therapist to our friends. In fact,
- 8:32Speaker 1: I think it's exactly the opposite. It just means that
- 8:34Speaker 1: we show up when they're having a hard time. Emotional
- 8:37Speaker 1: support means you're not emotion coaching. You're just sitting with
- 8:40Speaker 1: your friend because I've had a rough day and checking
- 8:42Speaker 1: in and saying sounds like it was a rough day.
- 8:45Speaker 1: That's what good friends do.
- 8:47Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just about holding space for big emotions, allowing
- 8:51Speaker 2: your friend to have event if they need to have event.
- 8:54Speaker 2: I was in a tricky situation for a number of years.
- 8:56Speaker 2: My four closest friends happened to all be sisters in law. Yes, yes,
- 9:03Speaker 2: and inevitably, family dynamics are challenging. They're tricky. Someone upsets,
- 9:08Speaker 2: somebody yet frustrated, and so I would be in this
- 9:11Speaker 2: position where I would often be sitting with one of
- 9:13Speaker 2: them and they would just vent. Yeah. And I like
- 9:17Speaker 2: to think that I was able to play the place
- 9:19Speaker 2: of Switzerland.
- 9:20Speaker 1: I just realized there were four brothers and you were
- 9:23Speaker 1: like really really tight with all four of their wives. Yes, yeah, yeah,
- 9:28Speaker 1: And you would come home and say, oh, there's some
- 9:32Speaker 1: stuff going on with that family at the moment, and
- 9:35Speaker 1: I'm just trying to be friends with all of them
- 9:38Speaker 1: and to defend them when they're not present and say
- 9:40Speaker 1: I know that must be tough, and well, it sounds
- 9:42Speaker 1: like you've had a rough day, like you were doing
- 9:43Speaker 1: all of the things, providing emotional support when it's needed,
- 9:45Speaker 1: sharing important news but not sharing the wrong stuff, and
- 9:49Speaker 1: standing up for the friend of their absence. That's why
- 9:51Speaker 1: people love you so much. Such a good friend. Hey,
- 9:53Speaker 1: we need to take a quick break. After the break,
- 9:55Speaker 1: the last three things that Michael Argyle and Minaic Henderson
- 9:58Speaker 1: found make the great friendships that we need to teach
- 10:02Speaker 1: our kids about. So they were We're back into the
- 10:12Speaker 1: Happy Families podcast as we count down six different things
- 10:15Speaker 1: that build strong friendships. Number four Okay, the fourth one
- 10:20Speaker 1: is trusting and confiding each other. So what our gyle
- 10:23Speaker 1: On Henderson found is that friendship deepens when there's sharing,
- 10:28Speaker 1: like when you share something real, something I was gonna
- 10:30Speaker 1: say vulnerable, but it's not even about vulnerability. Sometimes it
- 10:33Speaker 1: is once you get to a certain point, but just
- 10:35Speaker 1: sharing real things about yourself. I guess it feels a
- 10:38Speaker 1: little bit risky, and maybe for all the kids that
- 10:41Speaker 1: it is, but it unlocks deeper commitment and deeper relationship.
- 10:45Speaker 1: Like I was on a bike ride in the last
- 10:47Speaker 1: couple of days with a maid of mine, and while
- 10:49Speaker 1: we were talking, I just felt like our relationships reached
- 10:52Speaker 1: a point where I shared some stuff with him that
- 10:54Speaker 1: I probably wouldn't share with people that I know but
- 10:57Speaker 1: I am not friends with. But over time friendship deepens,
- 11:01Speaker 1: you start to reveal a bit more. I was thinking
- 11:03Speaker 1: about this recently. What's your take on that? Or I
- 11:07Speaker 1: had this challenge the other day and I'm not sure
- 11:09Speaker 1: if I dealt with it quite the right way. What
- 11:10Speaker 1: would you do in this situation? So you're not just
- 11:13Speaker 1: passing on information, You're actually opening yourself up to influence.
- 11:16Speaker 1: You're saying, I trust you with my feelings, my insecurities,
- 11:19Speaker 1: my challenges, my difficulties, And I think that there's real
- 11:22Speaker 1: power in trusting and confiding in the other person. It's
- 11:26Speaker 1: just that sometimes kids go there a little bit early,
- 11:28Speaker 1: and sometimes kids don't go there at all. And I
- 11:31Speaker 1: might add, this is your superpower. This is the bit
- 11:33Speaker 1: that you do so well, which is why you have
- 11:35Speaker 1: such red friendships.
- 11:36Speaker 2: What's number five?
- 11:37Speaker 1: Do you know what? This is what you do? I
- 11:40Speaker 1: think this one's your best one of all. This is
- 11:42Speaker 1: the one you do them all so well. But the
- 11:45Speaker 1: fifth one is volunteering help when it's required. If there's
- 11:48Speaker 1: one thing that I know about you, it's that you
- 11:50Speaker 1: just have this desire to serve other people like you
- 11:54Speaker 1: love people so much, and you look for opportunities to
- 11:57Speaker 1: serve them. You're always thinking about them. If you're in
- 11:58Speaker 1: the shops, you see something, you think, oh, that little trinket,
- 12:01Speaker 1: that little idea that would be so good for somebody.
- 12:04Speaker 1: And the keyword is volunteering rather than waiting to be asked.
- 12:06Speaker 1: Like a good friend notices when someone's struggling and they
- 12:09Speaker 1: offer help without being prompted. From a kid's point of view,
- 12:13Speaker 1: this is the child who sees a classmate struggling to
- 12:16Speaker 1: carry something and they say, hey, do you want some
- 12:18Speaker 1: help with that? Or let me get the door for you.
- 12:21Speaker 1: Just asking can I help, or stepping in and doing
- 12:25Speaker 1: the thing is one of friendship's core skills. And to me,
- 12:30Speaker 1: that is the thing that you do best of all.
- 12:32Speaker 2: I love making a positive difference in people's lives, but
- 12:35Speaker 2: it's not actually about me. It's about wanting to see
- 12:39Speaker 2: them happy, wanting to see them experience joy, even if
- 12:46Speaker 2: life is tough. Right now. The other night, I was
- 12:49Speaker 2: having a conversation with one of our daughters, and we
- 12:52Speaker 2: were just talking about as part of my wall in
- 12:55Speaker 2: my closet and talking about these women who've influenced us.
- 13:00Speaker 2: And she mentioned one of my friends and just said
- 13:04Speaker 2: that she was somebody who had really impacted her at
- 13:07Speaker 2: a time in her life when she was really struggling.
- 13:10Speaker 2: And I kind of just very imprompt you. I just
- 13:14Speaker 2: I grabbed my phone and I pulled up Marco Polo
- 13:17Speaker 2: and I pulled up my friend.
- 13:18Speaker 1: For those who are not familiar with Marco Polo, it's
- 13:20Speaker 1: kind of like a.
- 13:22Speaker 2: Snapchat for adults Snapchat for help.
- 13:24Speaker 1: It's a video messaging app where you record a video
- 13:26Speaker 1: of yourself and then you send it to your.
- 13:28Speaker 2: Friend and then and they listen to it when they've
- 13:30Speaker 2: got time.
- 13:30Speaker 1: Yeah, except some of your friends send you like forty
- 13:33Speaker 1: five minute long videos.
- 13:34Speaker 2: Because we sit in the car and we talk, but
- 13:35Speaker 2: we know that our timing doesn't connect with each other.
- 13:38Speaker 2: So it's great. But I picked it up and I said,
- 13:41Speaker 2: I'm putting my daughter on the spot. But she's just
- 13:43Speaker 2: shared something with me that's so important for you to
- 13:45Speaker 2: know right now. And she sent me a message back
- 13:48Speaker 2: she was bailing her eyes out. Did exactly what I
- 13:50Speaker 2: needed it to do and she just said thank you
- 13:53Speaker 2: for sharing that with me. She's gone through a really
- 13:55Speaker 2: hard time right now. She's feeling like she's just failing
- 13:59Speaker 2: in all the areas that matter. And to know that
- 14:03Speaker 2: just her small efforts to do something when she recognized
- 14:06Speaker 2: our daughter was having a hard time, has had such
- 14:08Speaker 2: a profound impact was powerful. I love it. It didn't cost anything,
- 14:12Speaker 2: it didn't take much time. But it's just recognizing that
- 14:17Speaker 2: people need to know how important they are in our lives,
- 14:20Speaker 2: and sometimes we just don't make the effort.
- 14:22Speaker 1: Here's the last one making an effort to make the
- 14:25Speaker 1: other person happy. So that's what you did there. You
- 14:30Speaker 1: saw an opportunity to send a message to a friend
- 14:33Speaker 1: that you knew would make a cry tears of joy,
- 14:36Speaker 1: the right kind of tears. It's when you remember your
- 14:39Speaker 1: friend's birthday, you remember something that's important to them. You
- 14:42Speaker 1: saved them a seat, You say I thought of you
- 14:45Speaker 1: when I saw this. You send them an image of
- 14:48Speaker 1: you at their favorite restaurant and say, wish you were
- 14:50Speaker 1: here with me right now. Maybe is that always friendly?
- 14:52Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 14:53Speaker 1: Sometimes that could be going. That sounded good when I
- 14:55Speaker 1: thought it. I'm not sure about it now, that I've
- 14:57Speaker 1: said it. Kids who grow up understanding that friendships require
- 15:03Speaker 1: active what's the word maintenance, development, input, ongoing, active consideration
- 15:14Speaker 1: are far better equipped to keep them. So our time
- 15:17Speaker 1: is well and truly up, Kylie, But I want to
- 15:19Speaker 1: walk through those six again and we'll put them into
- 15:21Speaker 1: the show notes. The six elements that make friendships flourish.
- 15:25Speaker 1: Standing up for the friend in their absence, sharing important
- 15:29Speaker 1: news with the friend, providing emotional support when it's needed,
- 15:33Speaker 1: trusting and confiding in each other, volunteering help when it's required,
- 15:38Speaker 1: and making an effort to make the other person happy.
- 15:44Speaker 1: And this study was done in the eighties, like this
- 15:46Speaker 1: is a forty plus year old study now, But those
- 15:50Speaker 1: six rules, they're still the right ones even in the
- 15:53Speaker 1: age of social media, the digital age, the age of AI.
- 15:56Speaker 1: Get the kids off character dot AI, get them off
- 15:59Speaker 1: social media and get them having genuine friendships where they
- 16:02Speaker 1: have these kinds of experiences, and they will, oh my goodness,
- 16:06Speaker 1: they they'll have such rich, enlarged lives.
- 16:10Speaker 2: And I think you can put a price tag on
- 16:12Speaker 2: a good friend, someone who will experience the highs and
- 16:16Speaker 2: lows of life with you. Just it makes life more meaningful.
- 16:21Speaker 1: In the show notes, we will link to the study
- 16:22Speaker 1: and those six elements that make friendships flourish. The Happy
- 16:26Speaker 1: Families Podcast Doctor's Desk episode, See you don't like the
- 16:29Speaker 1: Doctor's Desk episode and I've got you crying In this one,
- 16:31Speaker 1: I feel like I've just had the greatest victory of all.
- 16:34Speaker 1: The Doctor's Desk episode was produced by Justin Roland from
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- 16:39Speaker 1: support and if you'd like more offer to make your
- 16:41Speaker 1: family happier, visit us at Happy families dot com.
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