Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #11: Can you admit you were wrong?
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hello and welcome. This is episode eleven of the Happy
- 0:09Speaker 1: Families podcast. My name is doctor Justin Colson and this
- 0:13Speaker 1: is the podcast dedicated to making your family happier. I've
- 0:18Speaker 1: taken a few months, in fact, I've taken the best
- 0:20Speaker 1: part of a year away from the podcast, but it
- 0:22Speaker 1: is back and assuming everything goes well, you should now
- 0:25Speaker 1: be hearing from me every fortnight as we play around
- 0:28Speaker 1: with ideas for making your family happier. In this week's podcast,
- 0:33Speaker 1: do you know someone who's always right? They can't be
- 0:36Speaker 1: convinced otherwise even when they're absolutely wrong. Or to start
- 0:41Speaker 1: off this podcast, we're going to get a little bit
- 0:43Speaker 1: deep and we're going to investigate how we do this
- 0:45Speaker 1: as parents and what it does to our children. I
- 0:50Speaker 1: hope that you're open to exploring a little bit inside
- 0:53Speaker 1: yourself today and considering how you see the world, because
- 0:58Speaker 1: this one will be a little bit of a bit
- 1:00Speaker 1: of a challenge to look inside and have that level
- 1:02Speaker 1: of self awareness. Some tough stuff to consider. And do
- 1:06Speaker 1: you ever find yourself telling porky pies little lies to
- 1:10Speaker 1: your children? Well, one mum has told her daughter a
- 1:13Speaker 1: big one and she's asked me for some advice in
- 1:16Speaker 1: doctor Justin's three minute therapy. I'm going to talk about
- 1:20Speaker 1: why we should never lie to our children. Shortly plus,
- 1:24Speaker 1: since this podcast is all about making your family happier,
- 1:27Speaker 1: I'm going to share some ideas about how to have
- 1:29Speaker 1: more fun with the kids. Simple things that you can
- 1:32Speaker 1: do to have more fun that take minimal energy but
- 1:35Speaker 1: provide hopefully maximum joy. That's to wrap things up a
- 1:39Speaker 1: little later in the podcast, But next, let's take a
- 1:42Speaker 1: look at how open we are to the possibility that
- 1:45Speaker 1: we might be wrong as parents.
- 1:49Speaker 2: Are you endlessly nagging, shouting, pleading, threatening and demanding that
- 1:53Speaker 2: your children behave Do you live in a dictatorship where
- 1:56Speaker 2: the kids are in charge? Time Out is Not Your
- 1:59Speaker 2: Only is an ebook with discipline strategies and ideas that work,
- 2:04Speaker 2: and they work without you carrying a load of parental
- 2:06Speaker 2: guilt around all day. No more yelling, threatening, bribing or timeouts.
- 2:11Speaker 2: From day one, you'll notice the difference in your children,
- 2:14Speaker 2: and they'll notice the difference in you. Time Out is
- 2:16Speaker 2: Not Your Only Option by Doctor Justin Coulson, Available as
- 2:20Speaker 2: an ebook and an audiobook at Happyfamilies dot com dot au.
- 2:25Speaker 1: Some time ago, I coached a family that were really
- 2:27Speaker 1: struggling in their relationships. The two parents were at each
- 2:30Speaker 1: other constantly. The wife saw her husband as selfish and
- 2:35Speaker 1: aggressive and narcissistic, and look, the guy wasn't perfect. He
- 2:41Speaker 1: potentially was all of those three things. Interestingly, however, she
- 2:45Speaker 1: was not willing to see whether he might be something else.
- 2:50Speaker 1: So for a few weeks I watched as he did
- 2:52Speaker 1: absolutely everything that he could be, unselfish and patient and
- 2:56Speaker 1: focused on hearing his wife and responding to her needs,
- 2:59Speaker 1: and failed several times. There's no doubt, but from what
- 3:02Speaker 1: I saw there was genuine, marked improvement. But his wife
- 3:08Speaker 1: refused to see it because to do so would have
- 3:12Speaker 1: meant that she would no longer be justified in her
- 3:15Speaker 1: anger towards him. If he was changing, if he was
- 3:18Speaker 1: becoming better, then that meant that she had to be
- 3:20Speaker 1: in the wrong because she was still mad at him.
- 3:23Speaker 1: And there's something compelling about being angry, isn't there? If
- 3:26Speaker 1: he was changing or improving, it meant that she couldn't
- 3:30Speaker 1: hold herself up as the pinnacle of righteousness and goodness
- 3:34Speaker 1: and relational rightness. It meant that she would have to
- 3:38Speaker 1: reevaluate their relationship and the way that they interacted. But
- 3:43Speaker 1: she was getting so much mileage out of being right
- 3:46Speaker 1: and him being wrong, So our sessions together were full
- 3:50Speaker 1: of finger pointing, I'm right, he's wrong. There was no
- 3:53Speaker 1: acknowledgment of any of his efforts. There was no acknowledgment
- 3:55Speaker 1: of any of his improvements, because that would have meant
- 3:58Speaker 1: to her that she was giving up round. So instead
- 4:01Speaker 1: she'd say, well, that's fine, but what about when you
- 4:04Speaker 1: did this? And what about when you did that? And
- 4:06Speaker 1: she just couldn't get past it. She was not able
- 4:09Speaker 1: to prevent the mistakes that were derailing the relationship because
- 4:14Speaker 1: she was so attached to being right, to being justified
- 4:19Speaker 1: in her own behavior, and I guess also to being mad.
- 4:22Speaker 1: And I've seen this happen with parents as well, parents
- 4:25Speaker 1: of toddlers, parents of kids, parents of teenagers. It's particularly
- 4:30Speaker 1: true of parents of teenagers. We get annoyed at our
- 4:34Speaker 1: teen for something, we label them a nuisance. Our favorite
- 4:37Speaker 1: fun word in our family is a little punk. Stop
- 4:39Speaker 1: being a little punk. But we labeled them a little
- 4:41Speaker 1: punk or or something far worse than that. And once
- 4:45Speaker 1: we've labeled them and we've gotten involved in that process,
- 4:51Speaker 1: what happens then is that we insist on being right
- 4:55Speaker 1: about everything, and the teen gets something wrong in our
- 4:59Speaker 1: eyes and come down hard and fast because there's such rotten,
- 5:03Speaker 1: punky nuisances. I love this quote. It says why we
- 5:08Speaker 1: should all admit and embrace being wrong. Attachment to our
- 5:13Speaker 1: own rightness keeps us from preventing mistakes when we absolutely
- 5:17Speaker 1: need to, and it causes us to treat each other terribly.
- 5:21Speaker 1: It's by Catherine Schultz in something called on being Wrong.
- 5:24Speaker 1: Let me read it again because it needs a little
- 5:27Speaker 1: bit of thought. Why we should all admit and embrace
- 5:30Speaker 1: being wrong because attachment to our own rightness keeps us
- 5:36Speaker 1: from preventing mistakes when we absolutely need to and causes
- 5:41Speaker 1: us to treat each other terribly. Se we become so
- 5:44Speaker 1: attached to being right that we fail to see the
- 5:46Speaker 1: possibility that we could be wrong, and that's devastating to
- 5:49Speaker 1: family life. The husband who insists that the dishes have
- 5:53Speaker 1: to be cleaned a certain way, or the mother who
- 5:55Speaker 1: gets her children in trouble for doing something but won't
- 5:57Speaker 1: hear their side of the story. Maybe you've been there.
- 6:00Speaker 1: You start your pre prepared speech about how you children
- 6:04Speaker 1: never listen. I told you to do this, and I
- 6:06Speaker 1: told you to do that and you haven't done any
- 6:07Speaker 1: of it, And then oh, your oldest explains that they
- 6:11Speaker 1: stopped to help someone, or offers a beautiful explanation for
- 6:15Speaker 1: why your demands weren't carried out. When we can't admit
- 6:19Speaker 1: that we're wrong, we continue to make mistakes, we continue
- 6:23Speaker 1: to get caught up in defending our pride, and ultimately
- 6:26Speaker 1: we cause harm to the people that we're supposed to
- 6:30Speaker 1: love the most. So an insistence on being right leads
- 6:35Speaker 1: to us treating other people really, really badly. What can
- 6:38Speaker 1: we do instead, Well, I recommend a couple of things.
- 6:41Speaker 1: First of all, we can ask ourselves could I be wrong?
- 6:45Speaker 1: That one question changes everything. Second, let me recommend perspective taking.
- 6:51Speaker 1: When someone does something that we don't like, we could
- 6:54Speaker 1: pause and consider why they did it, what do they believe,
- 6:58Speaker 1: what's going on in their mind? And a titleer told
- 7:00Speaker 1: me the little girl kept on getting out of bed
- 7:02Speaker 1: to talk to her, but she wouldn't listen. She kept
- 7:04Speaker 1: just go to bed. You know, this title was supposed
- 7:07Speaker 1: to be in bed and asleep, And the little girl
- 7:09Speaker 1: just sobbed and sobbed. But Mum, in her mind, I'm right,
- 7:13Speaker 1: it's her bedtime. It's late, and so she used to
- 7:16Speaker 1: power in her authority to force her to bed, and
- 7:19Speaker 1: a short while later, this poor little toddler was sick
- 7:22Speaker 1: all over the pillow and the mattress and the douner
- 7:25Speaker 1: and the floor. But she was so scared of leaving
- 7:28Speaker 1: her room again that she stayed in the vomit all night.
- 7:32Speaker 1: And it wasn't until the next morning that this mother
- 7:34Speaker 1: walked into the room and saw what had happened, and
- 7:37Speaker 1: she felt terrible because suddenly she realized that she had
- 7:40Speaker 1: been wrong. The night before, there was a father of
- 7:43Speaker 1: a teenager. He had a fight with his daughter and
- 7:45Speaker 1: they screamed names at each other and slammed doors and
- 7:48Speaker 1: stomped feet, and the father actually got quite physical with
- 7:51Speaker 1: his daughter. He hit her, he pushed her against a wall,
- 7:54Speaker 1: and as we counseled together, I recommended that he'd do
- 7:57Speaker 1: whatever it takes to restore the relationship, and he refused.
- 8:01Speaker 1: He said, she started it with her attitude. She's the
- 8:04Speaker 1: one that needs to apologize to me. I'm right, she's wrong.
- 8:09Speaker 1: He needed her to refuse to apologize so that he
- 8:13Speaker 1: could continue to be angry and justify that anger. He
- 8:17Speaker 1: needed to wait for her to apologize or to refuse
- 8:19Speaker 1: to apologize, because that was why he was allowed to
- 8:23Speaker 1: be mad while ever she was doing the wrong thing.
- 8:26Speaker 1: He could feel good about himself because he was the
- 8:29Speaker 1: victim here. Hey, I'm not responsible.
- 8:30Speaker 2: She is.
- 8:31Speaker 1: She's the one that started it, and of course, as
- 8:34Speaker 1: the victim, he justifies himself in calling her names, being prideful,
- 8:38Speaker 1: and giving her the silent treatment because it's not his fault.
- 8:42Speaker 1: She started it, and what does that do to her? Well,
- 8:44Speaker 1: she feels victimized. He's my dad. Sure I did the
- 8:47Speaker 1: wrong thing, but you would too if he was always
- 8:49Speaker 1: treating you like that. And the cycle continues because she
- 8:52Speaker 1: feels like that she behaves badly. Because she's behaving badly,
- 8:55Speaker 1: he feels like that he behaves badly to her. She
- 8:57Speaker 1: feels horrible, so she behaves badly, and it goes on
- 9:00Speaker 1: and on and on. So let go of the attachment
- 9:03Speaker 1: to being right. Instead, be curious, be caring, and be compassionate.
- 9:11Speaker 1: After all, what matters most being right or having a
- 9:14Speaker 1: relationship with someone you love. I teach my kids that
- 9:17Speaker 1: there's four steps to every apology, and we should all
- 9:20Speaker 1: memorize them. First, say sorry. Second, explain why you're sorry. Third,
- 9:25Speaker 1: describe how your action affected someone. Fourth, ask forgiveness. Am
- 9:30Speaker 1: I go like this, I'm sorry. I got pig headed
- 9:33Speaker 1: and I refused to listen and it made you feel
- 9:35Speaker 1: like your feelings and your perspective didn't matter. Will you
- 9:38Speaker 1: forgive me? Apologizing isn't always about being right or being
- 9:42Speaker 1: wrong either, by the way, Sometimes it's about saying I
- 9:45Speaker 1: value this relationship more than I value my ego, and
- 9:48Speaker 1: I'm willing to do what it takes to make this
- 9:50Speaker 1: relationship right. It's amazing what statements like that can do
- 9:54Speaker 1: to make your family happier. And remember, be over to
- 9:57Speaker 1: the possibility. Like I said, that you might be wrong,
- 9:59Speaker 1: because if you like me, it happens more than you
- 10:02Speaker 1: might like to admit. Now, based on what we've just shared,
- 10:06Speaker 1: let me ask you a question. Does this inspire you
- 10:09Speaker 1: this idea or does this idea frighten you? Have you
- 10:12Speaker 1: ever thought about how your need to be justified means
- 10:15Speaker 1: that you can't be wrong It has to be the
- 10:17Speaker 1: other person. I know it's a kind of a heavy topic,
- 10:20Speaker 1: but I'd like to know what you think. Leave your
- 10:22Speaker 1: answer at Justinculson dot com, slash podcast, slash eleven. As
- 10:26Speaker 1: in the number eleven. I'm really interested to hear your
- 10:29Speaker 1: thoughts up next three minute therapy with a mum who
- 10:33Speaker 1: has told a big lie to her daughter.
- 10:37Speaker 3: Parenting is the most important thing we will ever do,
- 10:40Speaker 3: so it's important that we get it right. But with
- 10:43Speaker 3: so much pressure, demands and advice, it's hard to know
- 10:46Speaker 3: what our children really need. Using the very best scientific
- 10:49Speaker 3: research and then turning it into an easy to read
- 10:52Speaker 3: book and CD, What your Child Needs from You helps
- 10:55Speaker 3: you connect with, understand, and teach your children in meaningful ways.
- 10:59Speaker 3: What's your Child Needs from You by Doctor Justin Coulson
- 11:02Speaker 3: is the parenting book that offers the solutions to make
- 11:05Speaker 3: you a better parent and help your family to be happier.
- 11:08Speaker 3: Available in paperback or CD at Happyfamilies dot com dot AYU.
- 11:14Speaker 1: So in today's three minute Therapy, I've got an email
- 11:16Speaker 1: that well, it's a big challenge, a mum writes, Hi,
- 11:19Speaker 1: Doctor Justin. I'm divorced and my six year old lives
- 11:22Speaker 1: with her dad. He recently got married, but my daughter
- 11:25Speaker 1: does not know about our divorce. We live in different cities,
- 11:30Speaker 1: so we told her that we have jobs in different
- 11:32Speaker 1: cities and that's why we live separately. How can I
- 11:35Speaker 1: tell her about her second parent? She's so confused. What
- 11:39Speaker 1: should I explain to her? I'm so confused and upset
- 11:42Speaker 1: about how I can make her understand the whole situation.
- 11:44Speaker 1: My ex doesn't understand how to explain this to our child?
- 11:48Speaker 1: Please help? This is my response. It's a bit of
- 11:53Speaker 1: a tough one. First thing I thought as I read
- 11:55Speaker 1: this request was the famous couplet from Marmion. You may
- 11:59Speaker 1: be familiar with it. What a tangled web we weave
- 12:02Speaker 1: when first we practice to deceive. It seems that we
- 12:06Speaker 1: live in a world where people are well. I think
- 12:10Speaker 1: Doctor House said it best. You remember the House TV
- 12:12Speaker 1: show Everybody Lies. We live in a world where everybody's lying.
- 12:16Speaker 1: There's a regular deception everywhere we turn, and the reasons
- 12:18Speaker 1: are many and varied. But it seems to me that parents,
- 12:22Speaker 1: in particular, light of their kids a fair bit. The
- 12:24Speaker 1: reasons that I see parents like with their kids usually
- 12:27Speaker 1: fall into a handful of pretty obvious categories. We're trying
- 12:30Speaker 1: to protect our children from info that might hurt them,
- 12:33Speaker 1: or we're trying to manipulate their behavior. You know, if
- 12:36Speaker 1: you don't be a good boy, Sanda won't come that
- 12:37Speaker 1: sort of thing, or we're hiding things from them, like
- 12:40Speaker 1: when they ask what are you eating and we quickly
- 12:42Speaker 1: swallow the chocolate that we were sneaking and we say nothing,
- 12:45Speaker 1: I'm not eating anything at all. So these responses often,
- 12:49Speaker 1: not always, but often they're well meaning, but they're not
- 12:51Speaker 1: what our children need to hear from us as their parents.
- 12:55Speaker 1: So my suggestion is pretty simple, tell her the truth.
- 13:00Speaker 1: Here's five reasons that honest accounts. Number One, children whose
- 13:03Speaker 1: parents light to them are shown in research to be
- 13:05Speaker 1: significantly more likely to lie. We set the example monkey
- 13:08Speaker 1: see monkey do. Second, telling lies deprives children of the
- 13:13Speaker 1: opportunity to grow and develop through the adversity that we're
- 13:16Speaker 1: protecting them from by lying. Now, we don't need to
- 13:19Speaker 1: do a whole data dump and tell them the whole
- 13:22Speaker 1: truth about everything in one massive load. They need us
- 13:25Speaker 1: to deliver the truth in age appropriate ways, but they
- 13:28Speaker 1: need us to tell them the truth, and lying is
- 13:31Speaker 1: only going to offer short term relief. Third, lies can
- 13:35Speaker 1: actually create worse anxiety and pain for the child than
- 13:38Speaker 1: being told the truth. Let me put you in your
- 13:41Speaker 1: child's shoes for a moment. Motivation for this mum has
- 13:44Speaker 1: naturally been to protect her daughter. But how confusing has
- 13:47Speaker 1: this situation become? And when she does see one of
- 13:50Speaker 1: her parents being what she deems is unfaithful to the
- 13:53Speaker 1: other parent by spending time with the new spouse, what's
- 13:55Speaker 1: she going to be thinking. So while there might be
- 13:58Speaker 1: some sort of short term protection from dishonesty, ultimately truth
- 14:03Speaker 1: demands her dues. The anxiety and the confusion that come
- 14:07Speaker 1: from dishonesty bring a burden that I think is much
- 14:09Speaker 1: heavier than the short term alleviation of pain might justify. Okay,
- 14:15Speaker 1: here's the fourth reason that honesty counts. If your child
- 14:17Speaker 1: lied to you, then you would probably punish your child
- 14:20Speaker 1: for that dishonesty. So aside from the fact that research
- 14:23Speaker 1: shows that punishing children doesn't work, especially when we punish
- 14:26Speaker 1: them for lying, we expect our kids to tell the truth.
- 14:29Speaker 1: We need to do the same thing. We wouldn't accept
- 14:31Speaker 1: dishonesty from them. We should have the same standard applied
- 14:35Speaker 1: to ourselves. And finally, at fifth, and I think perhaps
- 14:38Speaker 1: the most poignant of all, When we lie to our children,
- 14:40Speaker 1: we're actually lying to ourselves. We might say I'm lying
- 14:44Speaker 1: to protect my child, but the truth is we're lying
- 14:48Speaker 1: to protect ourselves. We don't want to see the look
- 14:50Speaker 1: of pain in our child's eyes. We don't want to
- 14:52Speaker 1: see that look of betrayal as we tell them something
- 14:55Speaker 1: that we know is going to hurt them. So we're
- 14:57Speaker 1: acknowledging in the very essence of our lie that we
- 15:01Speaker 1: don't want to deal with the distress or the anger
- 15:03Speaker 1: or the confusion that they're going to feel if we're
- 15:05Speaker 1: honest with them. So our lives are actually betraying our
- 15:09Speaker 1: personal pride. They teach our children that it's not okay
- 15:12Speaker 1: to be vulnerable, they teach our children that they can't grow,
- 15:16Speaker 1: and they harm our children. So what do we do
- 15:19Speaker 1: about all of this? Well, our children don't need to
- 15:22Speaker 1: hear the full truth in all its uncensored glory for
- 15:27Speaker 1: every question that they have. They need us to be truthful,
- 15:31Speaker 1: but they need us to respond in an age appropriate way.
- 15:33Speaker 1: So let's say a couple is separating. Parents should be
- 15:37Speaker 1: truthful about this with their children, but the degree of
- 15:41Speaker 1: disclosure regarding the separation depends on how old the child is.
- 15:45Speaker 1: You probably don't want to discuss issues that might injure
- 15:47Speaker 1: a child's relationship with one parent or the other. If
- 15:50Speaker 1: infidelity or pornography or gambling or drugs are the cause
- 15:55Speaker 1: of the split, then the parents might divulge they're separating
- 16:00Speaker 1: because they didn't treat each other well and leave it
- 16:02Speaker 1: at that. The extent to which additional information is shared
- 16:06Speaker 1: might change as the child gets older. We don't have
- 16:09Speaker 1: to share everything with our kids. We just need to
- 16:13Speaker 1: tell them the truth in age appropriate ways. So I'd
- 16:17Speaker 1: like to hear from you. Go to Justin Coulson dot com,
- 16:19Speaker 1: slash podcast slash eleven, like the number eleven and tell
- 16:23Speaker 1: me do you agree with me? Should we always be
- 16:26Speaker 1: honest with our children in age appropriate ways? Or do
- 16:29Speaker 1: you think that it is okay to tell a few
- 16:30Speaker 1: white lives here and there are even a couple of
- 16:32Speaker 1: big porky pies to protect them. Leave your answer at
- 16:35Speaker 1: happy families dot com dot a U slash podcast slash eleven.
- 16:39Speaker 1: That's happy families dot com dot U slash podcast slash
- 16:42Speaker 1: eleven and I'll be back in a second with a
- 16:44Speaker 1: parenting idea for making your family happier and a couple
- 16:47Speaker 1: of really exciting announcements.
- 16:49Speaker 2: Doctor Justin Coulson is one of Australia's most respected parenting voices.
- 16:54Speaker 2: His seminars have equipped and empowered thousands of parents to
- 16:57Speaker 2: make their families happier. But sometimes getting to a parenting
- 17:01Speaker 2: seminar can be tough. There's work and other commitments. Then
- 17:04Speaker 2: there's the issue of the children and babysitters. Now you
- 17:08Speaker 2: can watch one of doctor Justin's seminars from the comfort
- 17:11Speaker 2: of your own home and at a time that works
- 17:13Speaker 2: for you. Sit in on one of doctor Justin's parenting
- 17:16Speaker 2: seminars as he takes you from confusion to clarity. You'll
- 17:21Speaker 2: learn how to build a strong connection with your children,
- 17:23Speaker 2: how to really understand them, and how to get discipline right.
- 17:27Speaker 2: What your child needs from you. A seminar from doctor
- 17:31Speaker 2: Justin Coulson. Download this ninety minute seminar now or purchase
- 17:34Speaker 2: the DVD at happy families dot com dot Au.
- 17:38Speaker 1: Okay, that's pretty much all there is for the podcast today,
- 17:40Speaker 1: but I do want to make mention of a couple
- 17:42Speaker 1: of quick announcements. First off, if you've got to happy
- 17:45Speaker 1: families dot com dot Au, you'll be able to check
- 17:48Speaker 1: out my brand new program and book, twenty one Days
- 17:51Speaker 1: to a Happier Family. You can download the book and
- 17:53Speaker 1: the program and get started right away on making your
- 17:56Speaker 1: family happier in twenty one days. If you just want
- 17:59Speaker 1: to get the book, it's available online, or you can
- 18:02Speaker 1: go into pretty much anywhere that sells books and get
- 18:05Speaker 1: a copy. It's published by HarperCollins and it is everywhere.
- 18:08Speaker 1: Exciting news as well is that it's being released in
- 18:10Speaker 1: the US and the UK later this year, so even
- 18:13Speaker 1: overseas people will be able to get hold of it.
- 18:15Speaker 1: Twenty one days to a Happier Family. It's my brand
- 18:18Speaker 1: new book and I'm thrilled to be able to tell
- 18:22Speaker 1: you about it. Plus the program all online at Happy
- 18:24Speaker 1: Families dot com dot IU. Second announcement. Throughout the next
- 18:28Speaker 1: couple of months, I'm going to be traveling and speaking
- 18:31Speaker 1: all over the place, off to New Zealand. I'm in Melbourne,
- 18:34Speaker 1: I'll be in Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, and a handful of
- 18:39Speaker 1: other places around around Australia. Lots of my seminars will
- 18:43Speaker 1: be open to the public, so check out my Facebook
- 18:45Speaker 1: page for updates if you'd like to see me live
- 18:48Speaker 1: and work out how to make your family happier, and
- 18:50Speaker 1: I'd love to come to your place as well. I
- 18:52Speaker 1: speak in schools and it functions all over the country,
- 18:54Speaker 1: so if you'd like me in your community chat with
- 18:57Speaker 1: the decision makers. Send me an email info at Justincoulson
- 19:01Speaker 1: dot com. I'd love to come and make an impact
- 19:03Speaker 1: speaking about parenting and wellbeing for staff, students and families. Okay,
- 19:08Speaker 1: let's wrap this up. I've got a fun and simple
- 19:10Speaker 1: idea for you to get more out of family time.
- 19:12Speaker 1: One of the things that my kids love to do
- 19:14Speaker 1: is go cardboard box sliding. It's really simple. We grab
- 19:18Speaker 1: a big cardboard box, we sit on it at the
- 19:21Speaker 1: top of a really big steep hill, and we slide
- 19:23Speaker 1: down the hill. Hill has got to be steep. If
- 19:25Speaker 1: it's not steep enough, then you'll pretty much just stay still.
- 19:28Speaker 1: Or you can put strips of cardboard on the grass
- 19:30Speaker 1: and slide your piece of cardboard over the top of
- 19:33Speaker 1: all of those pieces of cardboard. But a good steep
- 19:35Speaker 1: hill is best. You won't believe how much fun the
- 19:37Speaker 1: kids will have and you'll have fun as well. It
- 19:39Speaker 1: might be something that you can try this weekend. Well
- 19:43Speaker 1: that's pretty much all we've got time for this week.
- 19:45Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. If you have any questions that
- 19:47Speaker 1: you'd like answered, go to Happy Families dot com dot
- 19:50Speaker 1: you slash questions and I'll do my best to answer
- 19:52Speaker 1: you in an upcoming podcast. You can leave an email
- 19:56Speaker 1: there for me, And if you've enjoyed this episode, you
- 19:58Speaker 1: can find the outline and the resource li in the
- 20:00Speaker 1: show notes at happy families dot com dot. I use
- 20:02Speaker 1: slash podcast slash eleven as in the number eleven. And
- 20:07Speaker 1: if you think that the podcast has made your family happier,
- 20:11Speaker 1: or if you think it could make other people's family happier,
- 20:14Speaker 1: I'd be stoked. If you visit happy families dot com
- 20:17Speaker 1: dot I use slash podcast slash eleven, you'll find a
- 20:19Speaker 1: pre populated Twitter or Facebook post that you can share
- 20:21Speaker 1: with your friends and your followers, and you can get
- 20:24Speaker 1: the word out about the podcast, or you can rate
- 20:26Speaker 1: it on iTunes. It's your ratings that determine how likely
- 20:29Speaker 1: it is that people will discover the podcast. The ratings
- 20:32Speaker 1: at what increase the visibility of the podcast and help
- 20:35Speaker 1: other people to find out how I can help them
- 20:36Speaker 1: to make their families happier. And quite frankly, I want
- 20:40Speaker 1: to make this the best parenting podcast in the world.
- 20:42Speaker 1: I need your ratings on iTunes to be able to
- 20:44Speaker 1: do that. Please please do that and subscribe on iTunes
- 20:48Speaker 1: as well, well that's it for this week. I'll have
- 20:50Speaker 1: another podcast ready to go for you a bit in
- 20:52Speaker 1: a fortnight. We'll be talking about five ways to know
- 20:55Speaker 1: if your relationship with your children or anyone in the
- 20:57Speaker 1: family is in trouble. Till then, remember you don't have
- 21:01Speaker 1: to be the best parent in the world. You just
- 21:04Speaker 1: have to be the best parent in your children's world.