Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #656 I'll Do Better Tomorrow

Transcript

#656 I'll Do Better Tomorrow · 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 she's learned some valuable lessons. I don't have to
0:13
Speaker 2: spell them out. I don't have to rub her face
0:16
Speaker 2: in those lessons. Those lessons are pretty apparent. She's old
0:19
Speaker 2: enough to figure this stuff out, and she has.
0:21
Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show, my mom
0:24
Speaker 1: and Dad for.
0:25
Speaker 2: Today's I'll Do Better Tomorrow. It's the second last one
0:27
Speaker 2: of the year, twenty twenty two. It's really that close
0:30
Speaker 2: to being over now, I can't believe it. Kylie. We
0:32
Speaker 2: have a big older better Tomorrow to work through today
0:36
Speaker 2: as we focus on our parenting of the week. What's happened,
0:39
Speaker 2: what hasn't happened, what's gone well? What hasn't gone well?
0:42
Speaker 2: Where do you want to start? Because I've got a
0:44
Speaker 2: big story where you're going to look so good at
0:46
Speaker 2: the end of today's I'll Do a Better Tomorrow, You're
0:48
Speaker 2: going to look so good. Do you want to tell
0:51
Speaker 2: everyone how amazing you are? Or do you want to
0:52
Speaker 2: start somewhere else?
0:53
Speaker 3: No, we have to tell them Christmas came early to
0:55
Speaker 3: our house.
0:56
Speaker 2: Oh okay, so long as look at you you're grinning.
1:00
Speaker 2: I need to just backtrack here for a second. Emily,
1:02
Speaker 2: our eight year old, has been begging for a number
1:05
Speaker 2: of months now. It's been eighteen months since Benton died,
1:08
Speaker 2: our puppy dog, and Emily has been begging for several
1:12
Speaker 2: months now for a dog, just desperate for a dog.
1:15
Speaker 2: And so for Christmas, you thought, since it was at
1:18
Speaker 2: the top of her listen, it was the only thing
1:19
Speaker 2: she really wanted, And since I wasn't willing to get
1:22
Speaker 2: a snake or a goldfish for a pet, you decided
1:25
Speaker 2: that we had to have a dog. Well, even though
1:28
Speaker 2: you say you don't want one, but you are so
1:31
Speaker 2: like you are so in love with this dog. It's
1:33
Speaker 2: like your seventh Baby's unbelievable.
1:36
Speaker 3: She just sleeps in my arm.
1:38
Speaker 2: So I did some research and decided that if we
1:41
Speaker 2: were going to get a dog, it needed to be
1:42
Speaker 2: the right sized dog for our house and for our yard,
1:44
Speaker 2: and the right temperament for our family and all that
1:47
Speaker 2: sort of stuff. And so we decided to get a
1:49
Speaker 2: Rhodesian ridgeback. I'm just kidding. So I decided with your input,
1:54
Speaker 2: but it was essentially I really wanted to choose this one.
1:57
Speaker 2: Decided to get a Cavalier King chart Spaniel, which if
2:01
Speaker 2: you haven't seen these dogs, they are just the most beautiful, adorable,
2:06
Speaker 2: gorgeous little balls of fluff that you've ever seen, absolutely stunning.
2:11
Speaker 3: Well, this goes back to a conversation we had more
2:13
Speaker 3: than twenty years. I've always had talked to me about
2:16
Speaker 3: getting a dog, all the way back then. Yeah, and
2:18
Speaker 3: we had decided that if we ever got a dog,
2:20
Speaker 3: this was the kind of dog we would get.
2:21
Speaker 2: Yep, so I got I looked up found a cavey
2:24
Speaker 2: in Brisbane's Bayside suburbs on the South Side, and the
2:30
Speaker 2: dog was going to be at Christmas time, like twelve
2:32
Speaker 2: weeks old or something like that. But the little puppies,
2:35
Speaker 2: they grow so fast. And when I spoke to the
2:37
Speaker 2: person that we were buying the dog from, she was like,
2:39
Speaker 2: it's only a couple of weeks to Christmas, but this
2:42
Speaker 2: dog is growing fast. Are you sure you want to
2:44
Speaker 2: wait until Christmas? Eve? I said to you, Kylie, what
2:47
Speaker 2: do you think? And you said, why don't we go
2:48
Speaker 2: and have a look at it. And I knew as
2:49
Speaker 2: soon as you said that that we were coming home
2:51
Speaker 2: with a dog that day. There's no way you're going
2:53
Speaker 2: to leave it there for another two weeks? Am I right? No?
2:59
Speaker 2: Come on, you had no intention of leaving that every.
3:02
Speaker 3: Intention of taking it too. You just wanted to blame me,
3:04
Speaker 3: so you did not have a single opinion.
3:06
Speaker 2: I knew. I knew that if I had an opinion
3:09
Speaker 2: about it, I'd get in trouble, so I had to
3:10
Speaker 2: leave it to you. But I also knew that as
3:12
Speaker 2: soon as you said, let's go and have a look,
3:13
Speaker 2: that we were going to come home with a dog.
3:15
Speaker 2: So we went and had to look at the dog.
3:17
Speaker 2: And there were a couple of other pups that were
3:19
Speaker 2: still waiting to be picked up as well. And what
3:21
Speaker 2: happened to you as you sat there and held that dog.
3:25
Speaker 3: I went a bit gooey.
3:27
Speaker 2: You went to marsh literally on the lounge. You just
3:31
Speaker 2: turned into a complete marsh ball. This gorgeous while I
3:34
Speaker 2: was being.
3:34
Speaker 3: Mauled by six other puppies, I might add.
3:38
Speaker 2: So anyway, we've come home a couple of days ago.
3:42
Speaker 2: The kids were not expecting it. We've opened up the
3:44
Speaker 2: door and said to them, guess what, Christmas has come early?
3:47
Speaker 2: And they've seen the dog. And there were tears and
3:50
Speaker 2: there were laughter, and there was excitement and the dog
3:52
Speaker 2: has not been left alone for days. And it's just
3:57
Speaker 2: I think parents of the year right here. That's what
3:59
Speaker 2: it really is, isn't it Just by puppy you become
4:01
Speaker 2: the parent of the year.
4:03
Speaker 3: You've just got to keep loving it. That's the problem.
4:05
Speaker 1: Yeah.
4:06
Speaker 2: So the biggest issue that we have right now is
4:08
Speaker 2: that we don't have a name for our dog. So
4:10
Speaker 2: if you've got any ideas for a name for a dog, actually,
4:12
Speaker 2: you know what, I might pop it up on Facebook.
4:14
Speaker 2: I'll put a photo up and say, Christmas came early,
4:17
Speaker 2: we need a name for our dog. Let's get some help. Okay, well,
4:20
Speaker 2: we'll see if the Happy Family's audience can can name
4:23
Speaker 2: our puppy. Anyway, that's not our old do better tomorrow.
4:26
Speaker 2: That's just you showing off because you've got a dog
4:27
Speaker 2: that you're in love with and you wanted everyone to know. Correct.
4:29
Speaker 2: Maybe okay, I'll do better tomorrow. The idea is we
4:32
Speaker 2: look on the look back on the week that was
4:34
Speaker 2: and identify what we did well so we can do
4:36
Speaker 2: more of it, or what we're not doing well so
4:38
Speaker 2: that we can become better parents. Do you want to
4:40
Speaker 2: go first? I do you want me to oh, look,
4:42
Speaker 2: I'll go first, Okay, great stuff.
4:44
Speaker 3: So we had family Christmas over the weekend, which.
4:47
Speaker 2: We mentioned yesterday and for those of you who missed it,
4:50
Speaker 2: we were down at Kira with my extended family for
4:53
Speaker 2: like two or three nights and doing a whole lot
4:56
Speaker 2: of Christmasy stuff together.
4:58
Speaker 3: And so one of our daughters had driven down for
5:01
Speaker 3: the day. She had intended on staying the night, but
5:03
Speaker 3: just towards the end of it just really felt like
5:06
Speaker 3: she just wanted to be at home in her own bed.
5:08
Speaker 2: She had stuff to do the next day and just
5:09
Speaker 2: wanted to head.
5:10
Speaker 3: On home, and we didn't really want her to go,
5:13
Speaker 3: and she had to take my car and do it,
5:15
Speaker 3: and we.
5:16
Speaker 2: Encouraged her to stay, and she wouldn't listen. She was pretty.
5:19
Speaker 3: Adamant that that's what she wanted to do and making
5:21
Speaker 3: life miserable for everybody else around her. So we finally
5:24
Speaker 3: just said, okay, we'll drive safe and you know, let
5:26
Speaker 3: us know when you get home. So we fell asleep.
5:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was zonked at like maybe eight point thirty
5:34
Speaker 2: and the phone starts ringing. Now you know, once you've
5:37
Speaker 2: gone to bed at night, if the phone rings, it's
5:39
Speaker 2: never going to be good rights. That's the reality. The
5:41
Speaker 2: phone's just as a signal that something bad has happened.
5:45
Speaker 2: It was about ten o'clock ten fifteen. The phone rings,
5:47
Speaker 2: and you know when you well, I answered the phone
5:50
Speaker 2: and all.
5:50
Speaker 3: I could hear on the other end was unintelligible blubbering.
5:57
Speaker 3: I couldn't understand a word that was being said. That
5:59
Speaker 3: was just hysterics on the other end. And so I've
6:02
Speaker 3: woken up abruptly too. You and I both don't really
6:04
Speaker 3: deal well with be woken up.
6:07
Speaker 2: I really like my sleep, and.
6:10
Speaker 3: So I was struggling to work out why you'd answered
6:13
Speaker 3: the phone in the first place, and why I couldn't
6:15
Speaker 3: understand what was going on. My brain just was feeling
6:17
Speaker 3: very scrambled.
6:18
Speaker 1: YEP.
6:19
Speaker 3: As your conversation continued, I began to realize what was
6:23
Speaker 3: going on. Our daughter had been in a car accident.
6:25
Speaker 3: She'd hit a kangaroo doing one hundred and ten kilometers
6:29
Speaker 3: an hour.
6:29
Speaker 2: That's a fast kangaroo on the freeway.
6:31
Speaker 3: You're so.
6:33
Speaker 2: The kangaroo. Just just for clarification, the kangaroo wasn't doing
6:35
Speaker 2: one hundred year You probably was once it hit the
6:37
Speaker 2: bottom of the.
6:38
Speaker 3: Carry Anyway, you just said to her, where are you?
6:44
Speaker 3: You wanted to kind of get a picture of where
6:46
Speaker 3: she was, where she was on the road specifically, and
6:49
Speaker 3: whether or not she was safe. So she wasn't able
6:52
Speaker 3: to get completely over onto the shoulder. It as a
6:54
Speaker 3: very narrow shoulder.
6:55
Speaker 2: So she's on the Bruce Highway, the highway with cars
6:58
Speaker 2: and trucks going past her at ten o'clock night, like
7:00
Speaker 2: one hundred and ten kilometers an hour, and not everyone
7:03
Speaker 2: does one hundred and ten. People are going fast than that,
7:04
Speaker 2: so flying past her.
7:06
Speaker 3: And the car's actually that's right, the car is actually shaking.
7:08
Speaker 3: So she's she's feeling very scared and obviously overwhelmed and
7:14
Speaker 3: shocked and all of the emotions that you can imagine,
7:17
Speaker 3: and guilty on top of all of that, because of
7:19
Speaker 3: the conversations we'd had with her in the lead up
7:22
Speaker 3: to her leaving.
7:22
Speaker 2: And you know what I said to her, I told
7:24
Speaker 2: you not to go. I told you I didn't really.
7:26
Speaker 3: You didn't at all. And so we tried to encourage
7:30
Speaker 3: her to start the car and off, get off the highway,
7:34
Speaker 3: go up to the next exit and just get off
7:36
Speaker 3: the highway.
7:36
Speaker 2: But she starts that, she starts a car.
7:38
Speaker 3: And it's making all of this noises, and in my mind,
7:42
Speaker 3: I think, Okay, she's hit a kangaro. It's not the
7:44
Speaker 3: end of the world. We're okay, and yes, the car
7:47
Speaker 3: is gonna have a little bit of damage, but she
7:49
Speaker 3: should be fine. She can get herself home and everything
7:51
Speaker 3: will be okay. Well, the car is making all of
7:54
Speaker 3: these noises, so we've told her to turn it off,
7:56
Speaker 3: just give it a few minutes, and then turn it
7:58
Speaker 3: back on see if she can start driving again. The
8:00
Speaker 3: alarm's going off all over the place, and meantime she's
8:03
Speaker 3: still quite hysterical, and she's telling us that the car,
8:07
Speaker 3: the car, the car, the car really really worked up,
8:10
Speaker 3: because there was obviously some damage that we couldn't imagine
8:15
Speaker 3: that she could see. So the long and the short
8:17
Speaker 3: of it is, you had this ridiculously calm conversation with her,
8:23
Speaker 3: ridiculously calm, and once it became a parent that the
8:27
Speaker 3: car actually had significant damage, and knowing the conversation that
8:32
Speaker 3: we'd had with her, I kind of expected that you
8:35
Speaker 3: were going to get quite upset.
8:37
Speaker 2: Well, especially since she'd woke me up at ten fifteen
8:39
Speaker 2: in the evening, gosh ungodly hour and.
8:43
Speaker 3: Just to complicate everything. You have actually already just put
8:47
Speaker 3: in an insurance claim on our.
8:49
Speaker 2: Car Spaceline bicycle got ripped off the roof, off the
8:53
Speaker 2: roof for X when I drive into another cover.
8:54
Speaker 3: Car accident that you had and we had just had
8:58
Speaker 3: a phone call from the wreck. Is to let us
9:01
Speaker 3: know that the job we thought would happen this week
9:04
Speaker 3: will not happen until next mark.
9:06
Speaker 2: Because they can't get parts from the supplier because it's
9:10
Speaker 2: that bad because of COVID.
9:11
Speaker 3: The difference is that your small insurance claim means that
9:14
Speaker 3: your car is still completely driveable. The same car is
9:17
Speaker 3: now completely so.
9:19
Speaker 2: To put this into context, when she sent the photo
9:21
Speaker 2: through of the front end of the car, like the
9:22
Speaker 2: car is demolished. The car is absolutely demolished. I hope
9:26
Speaker 2: they write it off. If they don't, I'm going to
9:28
Speaker 2: be devastated that they're going to try and fix this thing.
9:30
Speaker 2: But it is just this kangaroo has destroyed the front
9:35
Speaker 2: of the car, completely destroyed of it. And I think, Kylie,
9:38
Speaker 2: I don't know if I said these exact words, but
9:40
Speaker 2: as Abby cried, I just do it. Abby, You're okay.
9:44
Speaker 2: People matter, things, don't Yeah, you did. The car's insured.
9:47
Speaker 2: I'm not worried about the car as so long as
9:49
Speaker 2: you're okay, And then you woke up and then I
9:54
Speaker 2: but in the end we had we had to ring
9:55
Speaker 2: tow trucks, and we had to ring insurers, and we
9:57
Speaker 2: had to ring the police to get them to go
9:58
Speaker 2: and block the freeway. Were doing a family friend look
10:01
Speaker 2: after her because she was two hours away from us
10:03
Speaker 2: and we couldn't go it like I think it was
10:06
Speaker 2: nearly midnight when we finally got back to bed and
10:11
Speaker 2: hang on, this is your ob do bet it' tomorrow
10:13
Speaker 2: or not mine?
10:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, you take over?
10:14
Speaker 2: Sorry, I'm sorry, Well it was That's my story. I'm
10:17
Speaker 2: gonna have to think of another one. So but the
10:20
Speaker 2: what's the sort of the take home message out of
10:21
Speaker 2: all of this?
10:22
Speaker 3: That phrase people matter, things don't It's just so powerful.
10:26
Speaker 3: Here was a kid on the side of the road.
10:27
Speaker 3: She knew that if she had of listened and stayed
10:32
Speaker 3: behind that this wouldn't have happened. But she also didn't
10:35
Speaker 3: do anything wrong. She's not at fault.
10:38
Speaker 2: She couldn't have tried tying out to ensure. Who's going
10:40
Speaker 2: to charge me the excess for an under twenty five
10:42
Speaker 2: year old driver? Holy cow, She.
10:44
Speaker 3: Couldn't have navigated that any differently, that situation any differently,
10:49
Speaker 3: and out of everything, just knowing that she was safe
10:53
Speaker 3: and that there was somebody there who could help her
10:56
Speaker 3: get home, and that we could have a conversation with
10:58
Speaker 3: her once things were calm, and for her to know that,
11:02
Speaker 3: unquestionably she was loved. There was no doubt that, no
11:07
Speaker 3: matter what, we love you and we'll work this out.
11:11
Speaker 2: There was a thought that went through my mind a
11:12
Speaker 2: number of times I was talking to her, and that
11:14
Speaker 2: was just she's having a bad night. Don't make it worse. Yeah,
11:17
Speaker 2: don't add to her suffering. Don't make tonight any more
11:19
Speaker 2: challenging than it already is. She's having a rough old time,
11:22
Speaker 2: and I kind of thinks she's learned some valuable lessons.
11:27
Speaker 2: I don't have to spell them out, Yeah, I don't
11:29
Speaker 2: have to rub her face in those lessons. Those lessons
11:32
Speaker 2: are pretty apparent. She's old enough to figure this stuff out,
11:34
Speaker 2: and she has. So that was kind of my main
11:37
Speaker 2: thing while I was talking to her. I just need
11:39
Speaker 2: to help her get through it. She's she's going to
11:41
Speaker 2: get through it, but she needs softness and gentleness. Now.
11:44
Speaker 2: She doesn't need the right act read to her right
11:47
Speaker 2: while she's in the middle of overcoming the trauma of
11:49
Speaker 2: killing that she was really worried about the kangaroo. Yeah,
11:52
Speaker 2: it's huge.
11:53
Speaker 3: I had a similar experience, just obviously not doing one
11:55
Speaker 3: hundred and ten k's and it was a tiny little wallabye,
11:57
Speaker 3: but it just came out of nowhere, And it's the
11:59
Speaker 3: worst feeling, absolutely, just awful knowing that you've hurt something.
12:03
Speaker 2: I thought you're gonna say that you've written off your
12:04
Speaker 2: dad's car. My poor Kia, my poor.
12:09
Speaker 3: Little Keia kangaroo, so my old hed better tomorrow. Is
12:13
Speaker 3: just an acknowledgment number one of how grateful I was
12:18
Speaker 3: for your calm and call and for your perspective in
12:21
Speaker 3: that moment, because I don't know if me on my
12:25
Speaker 3: own would have gone down that road, because I would
12:27
Speaker 3: have felt so helpless that I actually think that my
12:30
Speaker 3: panicked state would have actually brought out all of the
12:33
Speaker 3: things that she didn't need to hear. But your calm
12:37
Speaker 3: and just collective thought processing allowed her to stay calm,
12:43
Speaker 3: call and collected, and ultimately be safe because she could
12:46
Speaker 3: have made some very silly decisions in those moments. In
12:49
Speaker 3: those early moments, that could have put herself in more danger.
12:53
Speaker 3: Even so for me, it's just absolutely massive high five
12:58
Speaker 3: for Dad of the Year. I think it was pretty amazing.
13:02
Speaker 2: Thanks Hon. So let's dive into my Older Better Tomorrow.
13:08
Speaker 2: My one's going to be a pretty quick and the
13:09
Speaker 2: easy one across the weekend. The reality is, and I
13:13
Speaker 2: think that I can say this without upsetting anybody, but
13:17
Speaker 2: I'm going to say it and hopefully it will be okay.
13:20
Speaker 2: There are in big families, so I'm one of six,
13:22
Speaker 2: I'm the oldest of six kids, and when we got
13:25
Speaker 2: together for our Christmas weekend last weekend on the coast.
13:29
Speaker 2: The fact of the matter is that not everybody is
13:32
Speaker 2: always going to feel really great about getting together for
13:34
Speaker 2: a family event. Family events can be a little bit tricky.
13:37
Speaker 2: So my Older Better Tomorrow is actually all about you
13:40
Speaker 2: and the way that you approached the weekend. So what
13:44
Speaker 2: I loved, and this is a great hint for anybody
13:46
Speaker 2: who has some slightly challenging family relationships, or even if
13:50
Speaker 2: you don't, it's still just a brilliant What you did
13:53
Speaker 2: was I think genius. And I don't know if it
13:55
Speaker 2: was an intentional strategy or if it's just what struck
13:58
Speaker 2: you as being needed in the moment. So what Kylie
14:01
Speaker 2: did was when we got to the hotel where we
14:04
Speaker 2: were all staying for the weekend, Kylie sat down with
14:08
Speaker 2: the nieces and nephews with our kids cousins and said, hey, kids,
14:13
Speaker 2: let's play a game. And she pulled out our favorite
14:15
Speaker 2: card game at the moment, which is Cover your Assets,
14:17
Speaker 2: and said, let me teach you how to play this game.
14:19
Speaker 2: And so all of a sudden, Kylie has become the
14:21
Speaker 2: pied Piper, sitting down with a bunch of six year
14:25
Speaker 2: olds and eight year olds and ten year olds and
14:27
Speaker 2: teaching them how to play this card game. And all
14:30
Speaker 2: of the parents looked across and were like, Oh, how
14:32
Speaker 2: good's that the kids aren't watching TV. They don't require
14:35
Speaker 2: any supervision right now because there's an adult with them,
14:38
Speaker 2: and all of the adults got to kind of hang
14:40
Speaker 2: out and have their conversations and prepare their meals and
14:43
Speaker 2: do their thing. Kylie, you sat in the corner with
14:47
Speaker 2: the kids and played games, and you became the world's
14:50
Speaker 2: best auntie. Like all of the kids were like, oh,
14:53
Speaker 2: Kylie is the best. They all loved you like crazy.
14:56
Speaker 2: They loved the games that you played. They wanted to
14:58
Speaker 2: spend more time with you than in someone else. But
15:00
Speaker 2: you also became the favorite sister in law because all
15:03
Speaker 2: the parents are like, oh, Kyle is looking after the kids,
15:06
Speaker 2: and she's doing it so happily and so well, and
15:08
Speaker 2: the kids are delighted. And it was just this moment
15:11
Speaker 2: of genius really that made the entire weekend flow so
15:15
Speaker 2: much more nicely. But it also brought the kids together.
15:17
Speaker 2: It brought the cousins a level of I guess, unity
15:22
Speaker 2: and solidarity with everyone. It was just ace. And so
15:26
Speaker 2: you gave me a high five about Abby and the
15:28
Speaker 2: car crash, but I'm giving you high ten. Am I
15:33
Speaker 2: sounding a little bit old and weird and out of it,
15:34
Speaker 2: Like what do you call it? Instead of high five?
15:36
Speaker 2: It's like, give me ten and I'm giving you that,
15:39
Speaker 2: whatever that thing is, because it made the weekend amazing.
15:45
Speaker 2: Heads up for anyone who's got to do some family
15:47
Speaker 2: stuff that they're not that thrilled about. Work out a
15:49
Speaker 2: way that you can engage with the kids, with the
15:51
Speaker 2: nieces and the nephews, bring the cousins together, and watch
15:54
Speaker 2: how much everyone loves you for doing that, especially the kids.
15:58
Speaker 2: That to me was one of the best things that
16:01
Speaker 2: I might have ever seen.
16:03
Speaker 3: Well, you make it sound like it was really amazing.
16:05
Speaker 3: It really wasn't.
16:07
Speaker 2: It really was. It was so good.
16:10
Speaker 3: There are no gifts for the adults, and the kids
16:13
Speaker 3: each have a secret standard that they gift, and so
16:16
Speaker 3: one of our kids decided to give Cover Your Assets away.
16:20
Speaker 3: But I know what it's like when our kids get
16:21
Speaker 3: given a card game or a board game or something
16:24
Speaker 3: that we've never played before, and it kind of sits
16:26
Speaker 3: in the cupboard. It never gets used until somebody either
16:29
Speaker 3: comes along goes, oh, you've got that game. That's awesome,
16:31
Speaker 3: and then they show us how to play it, or
16:34
Speaker 3: we fumble our way through it, but there's never fun.
16:37
Speaker 3: So I just thought, if we're going to gift it
16:39
Speaker 3: to them, then they actually need to know how to
16:41
Speaker 3: play it. So that was my strategy. Just teach them
16:43
Speaker 3: how to play it so that when they actually open
16:45
Speaker 3: their gift, it's not like, oh, what's this, it's oh,
16:48
Speaker 3: that game. And so that's exactly what happened. But the
16:51
Speaker 3: reality was that the addition that we have and the
16:55
Speaker 3: addition I gifted is actually different. So then we got
16:58
Speaker 3: to learn new rules together. But they'd already look earned
17:00
Speaker 3: the basis of the game based on my edition before
17:03
Speaker 3: we added in the new rules. So by the time
17:05
Speaker 3: we left three days later, not only had they learned,
17:09
Speaker 3: but I'd learned a new game in the process. And
17:11
Speaker 3: it was just it was so much fun and it
17:14
Speaker 3: was so nice to see them excited. Because the reality
17:17
Speaker 3: is we all now live in different parts of the country.
17:20
Speaker 2: We never see each other.
17:21
Speaker 3: We hardly see each other, so the kids don't actually
17:23
Speaker 3: know us very well as auntie and uncle isn't There
17:27
Speaker 3: isn't strong connections there, and COVID has obviously exacerbated that
17:31
Speaker 3: a lot. So while we were in their lives in
17:33
Speaker 3: the very early stages, they're all now growing up and
17:36
Speaker 3: they're kind of looking at us going, I think I
17:38
Speaker 3: know you, but I don't know you. So it was
17:40
Speaker 3: really nice to be able to spend some time with
17:42
Speaker 3: them and just see their little personalities you open up
17:45
Speaker 3: and develop.
17:46
Speaker 2: Hope you've enjoyed this edition of the Old Do Better
17:49
Speaker 2: Tomorrow Happy Families podcast, which is produced by Justin Ruland
17:52
Speaker 2: from Bridge Media and Craig Bruce is our executive producer.
17:54
Speaker 2: For more and fo about making your family happier, please
17:56
Speaker 2: check out Happy families dot com, dot you, and we
17:59
Speaker 2: will be back next week for our final big week
18:01
Speaker 2: on the Happy Families Podcast, as we race towards Christmas
18:05
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two