Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / Cheap Holidays That Kids Actually Love (Listener Q&A)

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Cheap Holidays That Kids Actually Love (Listener Q&A) · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

0:06
Speaker 1: Research tells us that looking forward to something makes life
0:10
Speaker 1: better and one of the coolest things. One of the
0:11
Speaker 1: most fun things to look forward to is a family holiday.
0:15
Speaker 1: The thing is, family holidays are expensive. Family holidays can
0:20
Speaker 1: be very inconvenient, and yet we still want to do them.
0:24
Speaker 1: Today a very tricky question from a mum who wants
0:28
Speaker 1: to know what she's supposed to do to get the
0:30
Speaker 1: family together on a holiday when it all costs so much.
0:32
Speaker 1: We've got six children, a family of eight, and now
0:35
Speaker 1: every now and again, every couple of years we go
0:37
Speaker 1: away with the extended family, which means that we have
0:39
Speaker 1: a couple of sons in law and we also have
0:42
Speaker 1: a granddaughter, so we're taking eleven people away. It costs
0:46
Speaker 1: a bomb, which is why we don't do it very often.
0:48
Speaker 1: In today's podcast, we answer you a tricky question about
0:51
Speaker 1: how to get holidays right. What are the things you
0:53
Speaker 1: need to focus on, what should you discard and ignore
0:57
Speaker 1: and how can you give everybody something to look forward to?
1:02
Speaker 1: Stay with us, Hello, Welcome to The Happy Family's podcast
1:06
Speaker 1: where you get real parenting solutions every single day. This
1:09
Speaker 1: is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast where Justin and Kylie
1:12
Speaker 1: Coulson where the parents have six kids, and we love
1:14
Speaker 1: answering your tricky questions, which is something that we do
1:16
Speaker 1: every Tuesday on the pod. Today we have a tricky
1:19
Speaker 1: question that is all about family holidays and in a
1:22
Speaker 1: cost of living crisis with interest rates going up and
1:24
Speaker 1: rent's going up, and budget treaty is asked us, happening
1:27
Speaker 1: all over the place, and war in Iran, and who
1:29
Speaker 1: knows what else. It's just expensive, so expensive to take
1:32
Speaker 1: family holiday. We will hear the question in just a sec.
1:35
Speaker 1: But if you have a question that you'd like to
1:36
Speaker 1: ask us, just jump online to Happy Families dot com
1:39
Speaker 1: dot A. You scroll down to where it says ask
1:41
Speaker 1: a question and let us know what it is that
1:45
Speaker 1: you want to talk about. It's a super simple system
1:48
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about anything like ask us anything, pretty
1:53
Speaker 1: much anything, almost anything. You can hit us up and
1:57
Speaker 1: we're really happy to answer your questions.
1:59
Speaker 2: We're asking my mission to say that, well, where you
2:01
Speaker 2: were headed?
2:01
Speaker 1: I just wondered where the boundary realize. Okay, let's get
2:05
Speaker 1: into today's tricky question. This is an absolutely delightful one
2:09
Speaker 1: from Marlene in Melbourne, who asked us the following Hi, justin.
2:14
Speaker 3: It's Marlene from Melbourne. We are a family of five.
2:19
Speaker 3: Trying to make memories and go on holidays is proving
2:24
Speaker 3: to be quite an expensive event. Some accommodations we actually
2:29
Speaker 3: have to purchase two rooms. Trying to stay in caravan
2:33
Speaker 3: parks is much cheaper. However, is still proving to be
2:38
Speaker 3: an expensive exercise. Just wondering if you had any tips
2:42
Speaker 3: and tricks of how you did that as a family,
2:47
Speaker 3: anything would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Bye.
2:52
Speaker 1: So I'm going to step in here really quickly, Kylie
2:53
Speaker 1: and just say it's expensive to have a big family.
2:56
Speaker 1: It's expensive to holiday as a family.
2:58
Speaker 2: I was about to say it's just in general it's
3:01
Speaker 2: expensive to holiday.
3:03
Speaker 3: Yeah.
3:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like we'll get a quote for something if we're
3:05
Speaker 1: going to go on a trip, and the first thing
3:07
Speaker 1: that I usually say when the quote comes in, I
3:09
Speaker 1: look at you and I say, oh, we're not doing this.
3:12
Speaker 2: There's a ridiculous How can they charge us as much?
3:15
Speaker 1: Let's just stay home. So you've got hotel rooms, they
3:19
Speaker 1: rarely cater for a family unless you've only got one
3:21
Speaker 1: or maybe two children. Airbnb that can be really expensive.
3:24
Speaker 1: Plus you're expected to tidy up after yourself when you leave,
3:26
Speaker 1: which is no fun because on holidays, the whole idea.
3:28
Speaker 2: Is you don't have to do anything.
3:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, car rental, eating out, entertainment, eating out. Honestly, Like,
3:35
Speaker 1: if you're going to go and buy breakfast at a
3:37
Speaker 1: cafe every day for a week and there are five
3:40
Speaker 1: of you, I'm sorry, but you're not getting out of
3:42
Speaker 1: it for less than maybe one hundred and twenty one
3:44
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty bucks for breakfast. Like we have a
3:46
Speaker 1: friend and when he would take his family on a holiday,
3:49
Speaker 1: they would go to the nearest grocery store when they
3:51
Speaker 1: landed wherever they were landing, and they'd do a shop.
3:53
Speaker 1: And they literally would go into hotel rooms with bags
3:56
Speaker 1: of groceries, and they would take peanut butter sandwiches in
3:59
Speaker 1: the car with them to them for lunch as they
4:00
Speaker 1: were doing their road trip or whatever. To me, that
4:03
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like fun.
4:04
Speaker 3: To me.
4:04
Speaker 1: That feels like doing everything that you already do at home,
4:08
Speaker 1: but now doing it in a place where you don't
4:10
Speaker 1: have any of the facilities and resources that you would
4:12
Speaker 1: have at home, which means that you're getting poor equality.
4:15
Speaker 1: It's inconvenient, it's messy, it's just too hard. That doesn't
4:19
Speaker 1: sound like a holiday to me. That sounds like a
4:21
Speaker 1: living hell. So we've got a bunch of ideas that
4:24
Speaker 1: can be helpful. Him, Aline, Kylie, you kick us off.
4:27
Speaker 1: I think.
4:28
Speaker 2: I think the first thing that's really important to get
4:31
Speaker 2: very clear about is what is the priority? Like, what
4:34
Speaker 2: is the purpose for going on a holiday?
4:36
Speaker 1: It's almost exactly what I wrote down. So you've got
4:38
Speaker 1: your notes, I've got mine. I wrote what are you
4:40
Speaker 1: trying to achieve?
4:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I'm going to be pretty frank from a
4:45
Speaker 2: mum's perspective, going on holiday with your family is not
4:51
Speaker 2: a holiday. I'm just gonna put it out there, Okay,
4:55
Speaker 2: So what is the priority? If you can be really
4:58
Speaker 2: clear on that, then you actually can make I think,
5:01
Speaker 2: some headway with everything that's going on for us. In
5:04
Speaker 2: the early days, with six young children, there was no
5:07
Speaker 2: way we could do a family holiday. We were going
5:11
Speaker 2: to your parents and sleeping down in the rumpus room.
5:14
Speaker 2: We were going to my parents and sleeping on the
5:16
Speaker 2: lound room floor. We were spending time with family and
5:21
Speaker 2: struggling through it because who wants to be in somebody
5:24
Speaker 2: else's space.
5:25
Speaker 1: We have not compared notes, but the next thing I
5:27
Speaker 1: wrote after what are You're trying to achieve? Was if
5:29
Speaker 1: you stay with family, is it even a holiday? Oh
5:31
Speaker 1: my goodness, sleeping on air mattresses or you're sleeping on
5:34
Speaker 1: a lounge, or you're sleeping on a fold out sofa. Bad,
5:37
Speaker 1: Like you guys sit there and go And I don't
5:39
Speaker 1: even like these people that much. I mean, I love
5:40
Speaker 1: my family, but do I really want to live with
5:42
Speaker 1: them again? It's not fun? And then you it's and.
5:46
Speaker 2: You've got all of the issues of you know, kind
5:47
Speaker 2: of dealing with the different ways that parenting styles I
5:50
Speaker 2: guess between the generations and you're in their space and
5:54
Speaker 2: you're feeling judged, like there's just so many factors that
5:57
Speaker 2: kind of come into that. So for us, family holidays
6:02
Speaker 2: was actually not so much about a holiday and more
6:06
Speaker 2: about creating memories and having time in with our kids.
6:09
Speaker 3: Yeah.
6:09
Speaker 1: So let me add the extension to that is we
6:12
Speaker 1: found that with a young family, the kids don't really
6:16
Speaker 1: care where you go so long as there's either a
6:18
Speaker 1: beach or a pool, Like if there's water, they're happy,
6:21
Speaker 1: or if they can ride their bikes play at the skatepark,
6:23
Speaker 1: that's it. They're done. They're good. This is very general.
6:27
Speaker 1: There are some people who really strongly disagree with me,
6:29
Speaker 1: but my general advice is until the kids are about
6:32
Speaker 1: fifteen or sixteen, don't spend any significant money on a
6:36
Speaker 1: family holiday because the kids are not going to remember
6:39
Speaker 1: it and they don't have the stamina or the curiosity
6:43
Speaker 1: to make it exciting. So if you want to go
6:44
Speaker 1: and do Europe, or if you want to go and
6:45
Speaker 1: do a tour through Thailand or Vietnam, or South America
6:50
Speaker 1: or New Zealand or the United States, just wait, wait
6:54
Speaker 1: until they're older, because they don't care. They just want
6:57
Speaker 1: to go and swim in the pool. Sorry. That I
6:59
Speaker 1: love to recount is when my parents took my family.
7:03
Speaker 1: I think I was the eldest child at the time,
7:05
Speaker 1: maybe I was twelve, and they took us over to
7:08
Speaker 1: America and we were driving up from California through the
7:13
Speaker 1: Grand Canyon. What's that in Nevada. We were driving up
7:16
Speaker 1: that way and we were supposed to go to the
7:19
Speaker 1: Grand Canyon. It was an hour and a half from
7:21
Speaker 1: the hotel that we were staying in, and Mom said, well,
7:23
Speaker 1: we've arrived at the hotel, we've checked in, Let's go
7:25
Speaker 1: over to the Grand canyon and we'd just done four
7:28
Speaker 1: or five or six hours in the car and we
7:29
Speaker 1: all looked at Mum and said, but there's a pool here.
7:33
Speaker 2: I didn't think you we want to tell that story.
7:34
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to tell a story about
7:36
Speaker 2: our friends who took their kids to America and they
7:39
Speaker 2: did all of these amazing things, and when they got home,
7:42
Speaker 2: they caught the.
7:43
Speaker 1: Bus yep from the the free bus around the city,
7:47
Speaker 1: the free bus around the city, and the school teacher said,
7:49
Speaker 1: what was your best part of the holiday? And the
7:50
Speaker 1: kids were like, the free bus yesterday in the city.
7:54
Speaker 1: So like the parents are going, we just spent all
7:56
Speaker 1: that money going to the US. So number one, we
7:58
Speaker 1: couldn't afford it, but number two, and if we could.
8:00
Speaker 1: What we have very much discovered is that the kids
8:02
Speaker 1: don't have the stamina or the curiosity, which means that
8:04
Speaker 1: if you want to go and have a really awesome holiday,
8:06
Speaker 1: leave the kids behind until they're about fifteen or sixteen.
8:10
Speaker 1: Some people would argue it's ten or twelve or fourteen.
8:12
Speaker 1: I think it's fifteen or sixteen. That's when they're really
8:15
Speaker 1: open to saying, oh, let's go and do the museum
8:19
Speaker 1: or let's go and check out the park, or let's
8:21
Speaker 1: go and do the sight seeing stuff.
8:23
Speaker 2: And even if they're not overly interested in it, they
8:26
Speaker 2: are at an age where they can respect that we're
8:29
Speaker 2: here and we're going to do something different.
8:31
Speaker 1: Right right. Their entertainment needs are also a little bit
8:33
Speaker 1: different as well. There's just a maturity about them that
8:36
Speaker 1: you don't get when they're younger. After the break, we're
8:39
Speaker 1: going to get real about exactly the kinds of things
8:41
Speaker 1: that you can do, since how advice so far is
8:45
Speaker 1: about what not to do. No family, no big holidays,
8:48
Speaker 1: just the beach, in the pool. Stay with us.
8:50
Speaker 2: It's next.
8:58
Speaker 3: We're back.
8:58
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to your Family's podcast.
9:00
Speaker 1: If you enjoy the pod, please share it with your friends,
9:03
Speaker 1: mums and your mum's group, dads and your dad's group, whoever,
9:06
Speaker 1: and say this is making my family happier, and I
9:08
Speaker 1: thought this was relevant for you. We'd love for you
9:10
Speaker 1: to share the pod and help other families to be
9:12
Speaker 1: happier as a result.
9:13
Speaker 2: I know you said that we've talked about all the
9:15
Speaker 2: things not to do, but I have one other thing,
9:17
Speaker 2: and I think it's really important. Stop scrolling socials and
9:22
Speaker 2: looking at everybody's amazing holidays. If you are a family
9:26
Speaker 2: who wants to do things with their family but does
9:29
Speaker 2: not have the means to have the forty fifty thousand
9:32
Speaker 2: dollar europe holiday, just get off. Socials don't look at it, you.
9:36
Speaker 1: Like, because because when you go camping in the backyard,
9:39
Speaker 1: it just doesn't quite feel the same as the Swiss
9:41
Speaker 1: outs does.
9:42
Speaker 2: It's so hard to have a positive attitude about a
9:44
Speaker 2: family holiday when you're like, you can't even keept, like
9:48
Speaker 2: there's just there's nothing you can't compete with that.
9:50
Speaker 1: I don't have any socials anymore, but I compile a
9:54
Speaker 1: list because all of these amazing holidays kept on coming up,
9:57
Speaker 1: and I'm really sad that I haven't done them all.
10:00
Speaker 1: Except they're not realistic, especially living in Australia. The cost
10:04
Speaker 1: is just exhorbitan, and especially if you want to take
10:05
Speaker 1: the kids, so kylie, no big trips. We've said until
10:09
Speaker 1: the kids are fifteen or sixteen, and then one child
10:11
Speaker 1: at a time. That's a tradition that we've created. But
10:13
Speaker 1: if you've got a young family and you really do
10:15
Speaker 1: want to have a family holiday, what are the top
10:18
Speaker 1: ideas that we've done or that you would recommend that
10:21
Speaker 1: you've heard about that you think really really meet the
10:25
Speaker 1: brief here.
10:26
Speaker 2: So my first one focus on experience is not a
10:29
Speaker 2: time frame. So one of the very first holidays we
10:32
Speaker 2: did where we went to your parents' house but then
10:35
Speaker 2: chose not to stay with them, was we hired a
10:39
Speaker 2: camp site on a horse ranch.
10:42
Speaker 3: Yeah.
10:42
Speaker 1: So my parents on the new Southwest Central Coast. There's
10:44
Speaker 1: a place there called Glenworth Valley. They've got like three
10:46
Speaker 1: hundred horses and they do. They've just got this huge
10:49
Speaker 1: area that you can camp pretty cheap, down by a
10:51
Speaker 1: little creek. It's beautiful.
10:52
Speaker 2: I think it was about seventy five or eighty dollars.
10:54
Speaker 2: This is a handful of years ago, so I have
10:56
Speaker 2: no idea what it would cost now.
10:57
Speaker 1: But has seven not sponsored.
10:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, seventy five or eighty dollars for us to camp
11:01
Speaker 2: on their land. And we had actually said to the
11:05
Speaker 2: kids there will be no horse riding, we can't afford that,
11:10
Speaker 2: but you can definitely pat the horses and feed them
11:13
Speaker 2: and you know, spend time in their space. We got
11:17
Speaker 2: there and our twelve year old at the time, she
11:19
Speaker 2: was our eldest, gave us puppy dog eyes and pled
11:22
Speaker 2: that she could have a ride, and so we made
11:24
Speaker 2: a decision that we'd stretch the budget just a little
11:27
Speaker 2: bit to get her on a horse, but we weren't
11:29
Speaker 2: sending her on her own, so I ended up going
11:31
Speaker 2: with her and on that trail ride, one of the
11:34
Speaker 2: workers came and talked to me and she said, how
11:37
Speaker 2: much time has your daughter spent on horses? She's unnatural.
11:40
Speaker 2: I said, she's had like one hour on a horse
11:43
Speaker 2: at a school camp. She said she should volunteer. We
11:47
Speaker 2: had no idea what volunteering is, but it meant for
11:48
Speaker 2: the rest of the week that we were there, she
11:51
Speaker 2: got up each morning, left us and was gone from
11:54
Speaker 2: about eight o'clock till five, scoop and poop, brushing down horses, saddling.
11:59
Speaker 1: Them up, and she loved it in her element.
12:03
Speaker 2: And as a result of that, that actually led to
12:06
Speaker 2: her volunteering on a regular basis there.
12:09
Speaker 1: During the school holidays, which meant that we got to
12:10
Speaker 1: take the rest of the family away on cheap holidays
12:12
Speaker 1: while she went and saved with the grandparents and looked
12:14
Speaker 1: after horses. Everyone was happy.
12:16
Speaker 2: It was such a delightful time, and that was it.
12:19
Speaker 2: That's all we did. Use your local attractions and have
12:23
Speaker 2: a staycation. I know you want to go away, but
12:27
Speaker 2: create an experience that you can like. The whole idea
12:33
Speaker 2: is memories, right. It's not about where you are, it's
12:35
Speaker 2: about what you do.
12:36
Speaker 1: Let me give a couple of quick examples here. If
12:38
Speaker 1: you live in Sydney or Brisbane and you think about
12:42
Speaker 1: how much it would cost for a holiday, stay home,
12:44
Speaker 1: but go and do the bridge climb, spend some time
12:48
Speaker 1: if you're in Sydney down at the Rocks. When we
12:50
Speaker 1: took the family to Sydney recently, we just walked up
12:53
Speaker 1: I think it was mcquarie Street or Elizabeth Street or
12:55
Speaker 1: one of those streets from the Botanical Gardens, from the
12:57
Speaker 1: oppera House. We walked up and we came across the
12:59
Speaker 1: High Barracks, which I've heard about a thousand times. But
13:02
Speaker 1: there's a museum there. Never knew, like I've driven past
13:06
Speaker 1: it a thousand times in my life or more, never
13:09
Speaker 1: knew that the hyph Parth Prares was a museum. We
13:10
Speaker 1: took the kids in there, including the young ones, and
13:12
Speaker 1: they were like, this is amazing. They thought that the
13:15
Speaker 1: government has done an incredible job curating this museum. It's
13:18
Speaker 1: fabulous and learning the history of Sydney was amazing. Brisbane
13:22
Speaker 1: has great history. Melbourne, this is so much to do
13:25
Speaker 1: within an hour of the CBD.
13:27
Speaker 2: But how often do we live in a place but
13:29
Speaker 2: we actually never explore it.
13:31
Speaker 1: That's right, because that's not the.
13:32
Speaker 2: Tourist about where we are in Australia. We are like
13:35
Speaker 2: one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world. People
13:37
Speaker 2: come to us all the time because of what we
13:40
Speaker 2: have to offer. So utilize what's in your area, local hikes,
13:43
Speaker 2: swimming holes, you know, day trips with other families. Just
13:47
Speaker 2: involve other people. It's about creating experiences together.
13:52
Speaker 1: I love it and I think the next thing.
13:54
Speaker 2: Adding on to that is novelty over price tag. So
13:58
Speaker 2: creating experiences just for the sake of an experience. So
14:02
Speaker 2: when we couldn't afford going on a holiday, I would
14:04
Speaker 2: invite all of the kids' friends over and we'd do
14:06
Speaker 2: craft days or have Easter fun days. We'd make gingerbread
14:10
Speaker 2: houses together, things where we can kind of come together.
14:13
Speaker 2: They're out of the norm, they're not the normal thing
14:15
Speaker 2: that we would do, but we bring other people in
14:18
Speaker 2: and we have so much fun doing it. Have a
14:20
Speaker 2: barbecue in the backyard. Chanelle and Jared, our eldest and
14:24
Speaker 2: her husband. They live in a street. Every Friday night,
14:27
Speaker 2: families come out of the woodwork they've had, you know,
14:30
Speaker 2: like it's let your hair out kind of time. They
14:32
Speaker 2: bring their meal, have a pot luck in the middle
14:35
Speaker 2: of the street. The kids run right, the adults get
14:39
Speaker 2: to have a chat because everyone's taking care of everyone.
14:42
Speaker 1: So two things on this. Relationships make holidays better and
14:46
Speaker 1: if you can't afford a holiday, that's staycation. But getting
14:50
Speaker 1: people involved in the activities that you've planned. When we
14:52
Speaker 1: lived in Wollongong, we did this a lot. This was
14:54
Speaker 1: when our family was probably the poorest because we were
14:57
Speaker 1: in the middle of me being a student and I've
14:59
Speaker 1: been a student for eight and a half years, and
15:02
Speaker 1: we had our whole family relying on well, there were
15:06
Speaker 1: no kids with jobs or anything like that. Like it
15:07
Speaker 1: was just it was you and I try to pull
15:10
Speaker 1: it all together and we would just plan these things,
15:13
Speaker 1: take some friends along. The kids were in their element,
15:16
Speaker 1: and it felt like we really were on holidays for
15:19
Speaker 1: that day or for that weekend, or for that four
15:21
Speaker 1: or five days where we had allocated. We actually have
15:24
Speaker 1: an itinerary like we're on holidays. But in Woollongong we
15:27
Speaker 1: were going down to Kyama to the Blowhole, we were
15:29
Speaker 1: going up to Fitzroy Falls and robertson the Southern Highlands.
15:34
Speaker 1: I think we went into Sydney. We went to the
15:35
Speaker 1: Blue Mountains. One day with some friends. We went and
15:38
Speaker 1: explored the Royal National Park to walk out to Little
15:42
Speaker 1: Marley Beach. All of these things literally are no cost
15:47
Speaker 1: or very low cost, and the kids, because they're with
15:50
Speaker 1: their friends and because we're just doing this activity, it
15:55
Speaker 1: really did feel like a holiday. Literally in our backyard.
15:59
Speaker 2: One year, we actually put our tent up inside our
16:02
Speaker 2: living room and the kids had a camp out there.
16:05
Speaker 2: Use your backyard, invite other families to use your backyard.
16:09
Speaker 2: We've got friends and they literally over the long weekend
16:12
Speaker 2: they had two or three families come and literally just
16:14
Speaker 2: camp on that backyard. And then the kids get to
16:18
Speaker 2: have all of those experiences without the price tag. One year,
16:22
Speaker 2: one of our kids actually was learning about carbon footprints,
16:25
Speaker 2: and we had big conversations in our home about what
16:28
Speaker 2: that looked like and how we could kind of just
16:31
Speaker 2: be more aware and conscious of how we utilize the
16:35
Speaker 2: resources that are available to us and so we decided
16:38
Speaker 2: to literally shut down the electricity for the weekend. So
16:43
Speaker 2: we brought out the candles, kids had torches, we put
16:46
Speaker 2: the campfire out. We cooked on the barbecue or the
16:49
Speaker 2: open fire without any electricity, and that was actually a
16:54
Speaker 2: really fun it was And the only other thing I'd
16:58
Speaker 2: probably highlight. If you've got old to kids and you're
17:01
Speaker 2: working towards a family holiday, maybe you don't go on
17:04
Speaker 2: a family holiday every year. Maybe you say to them,
17:07
Speaker 2: we really want to go to Bali, for instance, it's
17:09
Speaker 2: going to cost us this much. What are some of
17:12
Speaker 2: the things as a family we're willing to sacrifice to
17:15
Speaker 2: actually put money into the kitty. And so we've done
17:19
Speaker 2: that with the kids, and when the whole family's working together,
17:24
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, the kids go, oh, I really
17:26
Speaker 2: want that. I'm going to forego doing X, Y and Z,
17:29
Speaker 2: or I'm not going to get that treat this.
17:31
Speaker 1: Way, or I'm going to go and wash the neighbors
17:33
Speaker 1: cars and moy the neighbors lawns and earn some money
17:35
Speaker 1: or contribute my pocket money or whatever it is.
17:38
Speaker 2: And I just think that, like, it's about family, right,
17:41
Speaker 2: It's about time together, it's about creating memories. If that's
17:44
Speaker 2: the priority, then don't focus so much on what a
17:48
Speaker 2: traditional holiday looks like. Focus on the experiences that will
17:53
Speaker 2: create those memories.
17:54
Speaker 1: My favorite thing that you said is turn off social media.
17:57
Speaker 1: Stop looking at everyone else's holidays because it's just not real.
18:00
Speaker 1: You're seeing like, well it is, but no, no, but
18:03
Speaker 1: it's only real for the top one percent, that's right,
18:05
Speaker 1: or the people who aren't paying for it because they're
18:07
Speaker 1: influences and they've been able to wangle it for free.
18:10
Speaker 1: It's just it's not real for everybody else. And also
18:15
Speaker 1: just think outside the box, like it doesn't have to
18:18
Speaker 1: you said it. You just said it, Kylie. It doesn't
18:19
Speaker 1: have to be a traditional holiday. There's so many different
18:21
Speaker 1: ways that you can do this. All right, we need
18:23
Speaker 1: to wrap it up. Thank you so much for your question, Maline.
18:25
Speaker 1: If you have a tricky question for us, let us
18:27
Speaker 1: know via the super simple system at happy families dot
18:29
Speaker 1: com dot you, or just send us a voice note
18:31
Speaker 1: and ask us pretty much almost anything, as Kylie indicated
18:34
Speaker 1: the top of the pod. The Happy Family Podcast is
18:36
Speaker 1: produced by Justin ruland from Bridge Medium them Heaven's provides
18:39
Speaker 1: our admin and other support. Tomorrow, I can't wait to
18:41
Speaker 1: share this interview with you. I'm so excited. Aunt William's
18:44
Speaker 1: talking about his brand new book let It Be Hard.
18:46
Speaker 1: This is a conversation about resilience that I think you're
18:48
Speaker 1: going to love and if you're like more in photo
18:50
Speaker 1: Make your family Happier, visit happy families dot com dot au.