Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #234 Are We There Yet?

Transcript

#234 Are We There Yet? · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Now, all right, that's enough. I can't take it anymore.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: We have six daughters. This is not the example that
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: we want to be setting for them.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show, my mum
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and dad.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Oh my goodness.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I'm so excited about this podcast because I have been
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: through the pain that long car trips over the easter
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: break require of families.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, many times.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Yet Hello, this is doctor Justin Colson. I've written a
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: bunch of books about how to make your family happier.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Here with my wife and partner in podcasting, Kylie, we're
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: the parents of six children, and we've had some really
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: cool feedback coming through via podcasts at happy Families dot
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: com dot you. We love it when you get in
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: touch and tell us what's going on in your world
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: and how our podcast is affecting your family.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: Alisha wanted to thank us for a recent podcast we
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: did in highlighting the webinar that you did weeks ago.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: I've done a few. Was it pairing on the same page?
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Was it how to stop screaming at your kids?
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Was it both?
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: It could have been either one, but she just acknowledged
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: that she took the opportunity to speak with her husband
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: and asked for his input in a challenge that she
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: was having in her own parenting. And what she said
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: at the end of it was, thanks guys for sharing
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  Speaker 4: learning in the podcast that is in the webinars and
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: for not just giving parenting advice but marriage advice. You
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: are making a difference.
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  Speaker 3: Oh that's so nice. Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 2: We also got a five star rating and review that
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I'm going to read out really quickly from beck dot
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  Speaker 2: three six four seven, who said fabulous five stars. What
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  Speaker 2: a fantastic podcast. I find Justin and Khylie very easy
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: listen to and they provide easy to follow advice about parenting.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: That's what we're going to do today. Thank you Beck
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: for that review. Because as parents have six children and
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: coming from families ourselves car trips.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Did you remember a few.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Years ago we got the kids in the car, we
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  Speaker 2: were driving from Wollongong to Coff's Harbor and I said,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: no screens. We're going to have a family weekend. We're
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: going to spend good quality time together that we're not
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  Speaker 2: going to look at screens and that eight and a
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  Speaker 2: half hours in the car was just torture.
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  Speaker 4: I believe. But the next time we went and did
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: that same trip, we had actually installed screens behind each
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  Speaker 4: of the.
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  Speaker 2: Right Yeah, yeah, we had the head because that was
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I had the best trip ever back in the day
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: when you had to put DVD players in the car
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: because you couldn't just stream on your phone.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah we did.
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  Speaker 2: We had a good trip the second time because but
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't it be great if you could actually have some
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: good quality family time while you're driving with your kids.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: And we're not going to go militant about screens or
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: not screens. We're just going to share a bunch of
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: ideas with you about how you can have high quality
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: road trip time and enjoy being with your family. We're
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: dividing it up into two sections. I can't wait to
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: get section two because this is where we're going to
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: talk about music. But in the first section, we've just
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: got a whole lot of I guess talkie kind of games.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: Well, we put it out there on our Facebook page
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  Speaker 4: and asked everybody to kind of give us some ideas
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: of what they do to keep things moving along in
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: the car, and we had some really really great.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: So I see what you did there.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I know I talked over you, sorry, but you said
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  Speaker 2: keep things moving along in the car.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: That was really clever. We didn't even plan that. Well done.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: We've got a lot to get through.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: We're probably going to have to put these all in
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: the show notes, and we might even do a blog
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: about it, an article on the website, because you're not
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: going to hang onto all of these ideas. This is
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: the kind of episode that you want a bookmark and
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: come back to every time you've got a road trip planned,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: because we have got so many brilliant ideas. Let's do
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  Speaker 2: all the talkie kind of games and conversations first.
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: So a couple of weeks ago in I'll Do Better
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  Speaker 4: Tomorrow episode, we talked about two things that I had
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: done on a recent car trip car bingo, where we
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: just picked a whole heap of things that we might
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  Speaker 4: see on the road and the kids had to kind
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: of try and find, you know, five in a row
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  Speaker 4: of those.
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  Speaker 2: So you've got to find like a garbage truck or
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: an aeroplane flying over here, red letterbox, or a kangaroo
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  Speaker 2: or an emu or something like that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, cool.
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  Speaker 4: And then the second one was those conversation starters, little
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: cards that you can have that just give you a
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  Speaker 4: whole heap of just one sentence, one question, and you
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  Speaker 4: can ask each other those questions. Which is the fun.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because we get to explore stories of our lives
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: with our children and they love that. So what did
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: our Facebook followers have to say? We've got If you're
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: not on our Facebook page, by the way, I think
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  Speaker 2: we've got about one hundred and seventy five thousand Facebook followers,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: jump on become part of the community. It's a great
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  Speaker 2: group of people. It's a big group, but it's a
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  Speaker 2: great group of people. What do they have to say?
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  Speaker 4: Well, the number one number. There was two games that
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: were just the favorites. Were I Spy or Everybody Knows
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: I Spy. But there was a couple of variations to that.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: There might have been I Spy Yellow.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Or for younger kids right okay? And then Spoto.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the two most are going to sound like
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: I'm a real grump in the car both of those games.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't like Spotto because one of our
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: kids punches us every time we see a yellow car.
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  Speaker 3: Spott O.
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  Speaker 2: It's like we're not a hitting family, stop hitting me.
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  Speaker 2: I don't like being punched by my thirteen year old noll.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: What used to happen more than anything was no I
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: got that.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Do I saw it?
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: The fights, the fights over who saw the yellow car like?
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  Speaker 2: So be warned that if you're doing competitive stuff, it
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: can turn ugly. So if people don't know how to
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: play Spotto. By the way, it's pretty much every time
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: a yellow car goes past, the first person to say Spotto.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: Well, there's lots of variations. Some people had concrete trucks,
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: some people had Mini Coopers. It's really up to you
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  Speaker 4: whatever you want.
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  Speaker 2: And our kids have actually added a variation as well.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you know about this one, but
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  Speaker 2: every time a green car goes past, you know what
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: they say.
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  Speaker 3: It's not I'm so sorry to any green car drivers.
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  Speaker 3: We invented it all with your kids.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: Another family, every time a Mustang came past, it was.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Motto, that's great, I like that. Okay, let's do a
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: few others really quickly.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: What I went to the shops and I.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Brought Oh gosh, no Ah, that is the most brain numbing.
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  Speaker 3: It's actually really good for your memory.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: I get it, but I just it's like my grandmother
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: went to the shops and she bought I went on
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: holidays and I brought you be.
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  Speaker 4: Down.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm looking forward to the singing games. I just
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: like singing. I'm not very well. A couple of others.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: The Alphabet Game. We actually love playing this game as
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: the kids have gotten older. It's really good for emerging
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: readers to recognize their letters. And so the object is
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  Speaker 4: you literally are just collecting letters, whether it be from
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  Speaker 4: your number plates or from.
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  Speaker 2: Billboards, streets on you and it's got to be alphabeticalized.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: So you're looking for an A. So we'll be like
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  Speaker 2: A in Warhope. I don't know why I said wae
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  Speaker 2: a in Brisbane. So you've just got to find the
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: letter in a word or on a number plate, you know.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: I saw a V on that car going places, and
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  Speaker 2: you've got to do it in order, and it's kind
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: of a race. We've decided that if I'm driving, I
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: can't play that game because I get a bit competitive
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  Speaker 2: and stop watching the road. Really it's a very dangerous
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: game to play if you're driving.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: And a game that I've never played before, but you
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: used to play it as a kid.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: Car cricket car cricket.
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  Speaker 2: So my dad was a furniture removalist. Mum and dad
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: ran a furniture moving company when I was a kid,
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  Speaker 2: and I used to sit in the truck driving from
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  Speaker 2: the New South Walest Central Coast up to the Gold
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  Speaker 2: Coast or Brisbane. Every holiday, Dad and I would go
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: and do furniture removals, and I spent hours playing car cricket.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: And basically a car is worth one run, a car
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  Speaker 2: with the trailer is worth four, a car with a
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: caravan is worth six. And if you see any motorcycles
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: or any trucks or buses you're out. Of course, there's
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: ten wickets, so you've got to lose ten wickets, get
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: as many runs as you can. Then the other person's
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: in for their innings.
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  Speaker 4: You know, my head is hurting. Now, how am I
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  Speaker 4: supposed to remember?
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  Speaker 3: It's not hard? One, four, six, and then you're out
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  Speaker 3: with the other stock.
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  Speaker 2: What's for four a car with the trailer of course,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: with the caravan?
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: The answer yeah.
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  Speaker 2: But it's fun to play at night because there's lots
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: of trucks and you get out really fast, and sometimes
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: you only get two or three runs and all these trucks.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: Just so. The last time I'm going to share with
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: you came in from one of our followers and she
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: calls it truck, truck, car, bus okay, And the object
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  Speaker 4: is to just guess what the next four cars will be, Okay, well,
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: the next four vehicles, and so in this case, she's
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: guessing that the next four vehicles are going to be
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: a truck, truck, car, and a bus.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: So I'm if I'm on the freeway, I'm going to
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: say car ka car cars, because there's going to be
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: a whole bunch of cars and I'm probably going to
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: get that right.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Is that the idea? Yeah?
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: And the idea is you want to do it before
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: there's any cars in front of your there is any vehicle.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: So I would suggest that this is on a long
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: car trip where you're kind of dealing with long highway
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: stretches where you're not, you know, on busy freeways. I
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: don't think it would work as well.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Up next, we're going to play or talk about the
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: funnest games ever, the singing games.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: It's their Happy Families podcast.
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: Are Screens Creating Tension at home? Tweens, Teams and Screens
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: is a webinar to guide families to healthy, safe superscreen solutions.
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: Bye Today at happy families dot com dot au slash.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: Shop, it's the Happy Families podcast, the podcast for the
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: time poor parent who just wants answers now, and today
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: we are talking about how we deal with that question.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: Are we there yet?
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: So we've talked about all the talkie games. Now it's
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: signed for the singing games. Some families have really got
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: the whole singing thing down pat like the kids in Step.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: The Right Gang was Willy Nail at this time. Here
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: we go a wand a wanko three four bum.
• 9:14
  Speaker 6: She's got smile that it seems to me reminds me
• 9:19
  Speaker 6: of childhood.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Memories whereverything was as fresh as a bride.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Blue guy, how good are buddy? You're the oldest I'm
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: counting on you. Come on, she's got us the blue
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: wis guys.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: I can't take it because this is really hard to
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: listen to, because last time we tried singing the car
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: it sounded more like this.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: I've seen the lives.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: The place of idle and tell them ride.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Of Oh my goodness, we're not even in the same.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Galaxy of talent as anyway, So what are the singing games,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: because sing alongs are fun. But you've actually got some
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: games that have come through as suggestions.
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: Well, old McDonald for our younger kids. Oh McDonald farm,
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: especially when you're driving the countryside. You can find animals
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: as you go and add them to the equation. The
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: acknowledgment in one of the messages was just that they
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: might have ended up with a few dinosaurs in there
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: in their farm.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: Well why not that?
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: That just reminds me actually of you've probably heard of
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Well maybe you haven't heard of it, but there's a
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: group called the Go and a Gang and they're on
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Spotify and they've done a whole lot of kids stuff
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: and they just make song time in.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: The car with little kids loads of fun because you've
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: got stuff like this, and then there's build them up,
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: Build them U, build them.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: I remember that from play school our kids. It's a
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: lovely there eventually anyway, so there's all that sort of stuff.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: What what what McDonald? Yeap? Okay, next Bingo? What's Bingo?
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: I thought we were playing Bingo as a talking game.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: This is a song.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: his name. O b I ng O g I ng
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: o b I g o and Bingo was his name.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: But that's just a song. What's the point of that.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: Well, the idea is the next time we sing it,
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: we're going to take away the B and so we
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: have to clap and then do I G O and
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: then we're going to clap again for the third verse
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: and we're going to do B ng o.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Oh oh g okay, all right, So that's there's some coordination.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: That's great for kids, for little kids, what about for
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: bigger kids?
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: This is the song that never ends.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, this is the song that never ends. I
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: don't know the tune from.
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: M Yes, it goes on and on. My friends, some
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: people started singing and not knowing what it was. Why
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: are you laughing at me?
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: You've got a great voice. And then the continued singing
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: it forever, just because this is the song that never ends,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: and it starts all over again. It's torture. We're supposed
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: to be trying to help people have a nice card.
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: Well, absolute favorite over the last few years is Peel
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: the Avocado. I don't.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: Just came out and I was just like, what are
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: you doing?
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: And the YouTube clip is you have to watch it
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: if you've definitely look it up. It's worth a worth
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: a good laugh. But the highlight of all of the
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: comments that came through this would be my number one pick. Well,
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: it's actually ours because we had lots this one.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: Somebody said they play the fart game.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Which is really a word replacement game. What happens is
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: you find any song that has the word heart in
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: the title or in the lyrics, and you change it
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: to fart.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: So we did a little bit.
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: I think they must have a few boys in there.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: We did a.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Little bit of googling, and I thought, well, this would
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: be fun to sing.
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: Because if we're changing heart to fart that well, and
• 13:11
  Speaker 6: then if you if you don't want Selene because I
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: don't know, it doesn't work.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: And yeah, it's a bit dreary, and maybe we want
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: something a little bit old or something from the eighties.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: There's Elton John and Kiki d. Don't go breaking a what.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: I gave you my fart? This is so rude. I
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: gave you my fart, don't go breaking my fuck.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: I can't believe what have we become? What has this
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: podcast become?
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: I'm blaming Rebecca for this one.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: My favorite one of all of them, just while we're
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: being absolutely ridiculous, was rock set.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Listen to the fart?
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: All right, that's enough. I can't take it anymore. We
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: have six daughters. This is not the example that we
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: want to be setting for them. You want to have
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: fun on a car trip, this is the way to
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: do it, right.
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so the last one I'm going to
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: add it in. Okay, okay, Adam said stay quiet or else.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: That's a good game.
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: Let's just quiet game.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: See who can stay the quietness for the longest.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: So after we've had lots and lots of fun, that
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: might be one to just finish things off.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Just look out the window, kids, Just look out the
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: window and soak it in. If you're going on a
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: car trip, if you're heading away this easter. I hope
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: that that's been helpful. I don't know how many of
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: them we're really going to try. I actually think there's
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: some fun ideas there though. If the podcast made your day,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: If this podcast is helpful to you, we are so
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: grateful when you leave those five star ratings and reviews.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: It's those reviews that you leave.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: That help other people make their families happier, especially when
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: the kids are saying are we there yet? Thank you
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: to everyone who leaves those reviews. The Happy Families podcast
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: is produced by Justin Ruhland from Bridge Media, and our
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: executive producer is Craig Bruce. If you'd like more info
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: about making your family happier, just visit happy families dot com,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: dot