Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #676 Road Tripping 101

Transcript

#676 Road Tripping 101 · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the.
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  Speaker 2: Time poor parent who just wants answers. Now.
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  Speaker 1: Hello, this is doctor Justin Colson, the founder of Happy
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  Speaker 1: Families dot com dou and the host of Channel Mine's
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  Speaker 1: hit TV show Parental Guidance. Did I say host? I
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  Speaker 1: just promoted myself. I'm the co host and I'm the
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  Speaker 1: parenting the expert on the show Parental Guidance Season two
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  Speaker 1: coming soon. I'm here with Kylie, my wife from Under
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  Speaker 1: Our six Kids and the author of the world famous
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  Speaker 1: Kylie's Corner on the Happy Families membership. Yes. Now, we've
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  Speaker 1: made a commitment for these school holidays that we are
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  Speaker 1: not going to be doing any road trips longer than
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  Speaker 1: two hours, and it's been really nice to not travel
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  Speaker 1: very far. But we have had to do a couple
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  Speaker 1: of road trips from the Sunshine Coast, for example, down
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  Speaker 1: to Brisbane Gold Coast, and we were fortunate enough to
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  Speaker 1: sneak across to Tangalooma on Morton Bay Island as well,
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  Speaker 1: which were Morton Island, I should say, which was which
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  Speaker 1: was so much fun. So we thought, if you've got
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  Speaker 1: any more road trips planned for the last couple of
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  Speaker 1: weeks of the school holidays, we should do a podcast
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  Speaker 1: to give you a few pointers, a few tips for
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  Speaker 1: getting through road trips with little kids, with big kids,
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  Speaker 1: and with grumpy partners and spousers who hate being on
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  Speaker 1: the road and get frustrated when other drivers don't drive
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  Speaker 1: the speed limit or when the freeway supposedly freeway is
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  Speaker 1: more like a car park. Why are you looking at
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  Speaker 1: me like that? Are you saying something with that glance
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  Speaker 1: at me?
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  Speaker 2: Like?
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  Speaker 1: Are you suggesting, missus coolson, that my driving is not
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  Speaker 1: great for road trips.
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  Speaker 2: I'm suggesting that if you wanted to review that for
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  Speaker 2: one of your New Year's resolutions, might be a really
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  Speaker 2: good place.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know what? I have been getting better and
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  Speaker 1: better at this. I know that I have my moments,
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  Speaker 1: But anyway, let's not go there right now. We're trying
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  Speaker 1: to minimize the road rage, especially inside the car. So
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  Speaker 1: tips for road trips with the little kids, big kids,
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  Speaker 1: and everyone in between. Where do you want to start?
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  Speaker 1: This is food? This is your specialty to be food.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, But we've got to be careful with
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  Speaker 1: the food, right because little kids, particularly but even big
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  Speaker 1: kids can sometimes make awful messes and then you've got
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  Speaker 1: to clean it up, get it out of the cracks
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  Speaker 1: of the car seats and that kind of thing. But food,
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  Speaker 1: food is food.
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  Speaker 2: Well, if there's something else in their mouth, they can't cry, right.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So you want to have treats and you also,
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  Speaker 1: you don't really want to be stopping every half an
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  Speaker 1: hour at the.
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  Speaker 2: Next supermarket of the next there's going to be enough
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  Speaker 2: toilet stops, so if you can limit the other stops.
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  Speaker 2: So make sure you've got enough water in the car.
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  Speaker 1: I'm that driver though, when you get on the road,
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to stop. You want to go to toile.
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  Speaker 1: All right, we'll stop at the next town and I
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  Speaker 1: say that name. The next town is like one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifteen.
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  Speaker 2: CA's or just well early enough.
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  Speaker 1: The kids, hold on, they do, that's right, just stretching
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  Speaker 1: their bladegead.
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  Speaker 2: We've had a couple of kids who we swear they
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  Speaker 2: just needed to test out every town.
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  Speaker 1: In the toilet andund oh gosh. So plan your trip,
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  Speaker 1: make sure you know where your stop's going to be,
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  Speaker 1: and have food and water on board so that you
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  Speaker 1: can minimize those stops, and so the kids can. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it's boring sit in the car. Let's be honest. Oh
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  Speaker 1: totally okay. Next one, pack.
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  Speaker 2: As light as you can without sacrificing the things that
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  Speaker 2: you need. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's been a couple of times where I've gotten
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  Speaker 1: that wrong and we've had to buy We've had to
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  Speaker 1: buy everything that we needed when we got there because
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  Speaker 1: we packed two well, and.
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  Speaker 2: Then we've got things wrong on the other end where
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  Speaker 2: we've taken so much stuff that there's just no room
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  Speaker 2: to move and it's very uncomfortable. So you want to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that the car's got enough space in it
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  Speaker 2: for everybody to kind of move without sacrificing the things
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  Speaker 2: that you actually need. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Next one.
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  Speaker 2: Music. Obviously, some families are not going to kind of
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  Speaker 2: jump up, up and down over this one, but music
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  Speaker 2: has played such a huge role in our kids' lives.
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  Speaker 2: There are so many different games that we've played with there.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just, you know, each person gets to be
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  Speaker 2: in charge of.
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  Speaker 1: The next play songs whatever.
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  Speaker 2: For you know, fifteen or twenty minutes or whatever it is.
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  Speaker 2: But then we play you know, name that tune where
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  Speaker 2: we hide the screen, the led screen at the front
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  Speaker 2: and they have to guess what the song is. The
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  Speaker 2: girls actually play what do you call it. It's kind
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  Speaker 2: of like the music alphabet.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they just play games with songs. You've got to
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  Speaker 1: come up with every song that you can think of
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  Speaker 1: that is about dreams, for example, that's about dancing, and
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  Speaker 1: it just song titles or song lyrics where that comes up.
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  Speaker 1: And that's kept them entertained for ages. Ages, but when
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  Speaker 1: they're little as well, I mean, let them, let them
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  Speaker 1: listen to their favorite music. It makes it so much
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  Speaker 1: more fun. Our favorite has our favorite one that we
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  Speaker 1: found that works really well for card trips. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know if I'm going to call her a favorite is
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  Speaker 1: on Spotify. If you just google the go On a Gang,
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  Speaker 1: and there's a whole lot of great Australian songs that
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  Speaker 1: the kids just love, They absolutely love, and you do
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  Speaker 1: get to a point where we've had enough wiggles, right,
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  Speaker 1: so the Go On a Gang is kind of like
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  Speaker 1: tolerable for a while. What's the next one?
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  Speaker 2: Podcasts and audio books?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there's such a large variety of things about
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  Speaker 2: for our kids these days, and sometimes when things have
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  Speaker 2: got really out of hand, we actually just put some
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  Speaker 2: really calm, classical music on to just calm everybody down.
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  Speaker 1: And well, I don't love it if you've got older kids.
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  Speaker 1: Every now and again, I think it's fine to just say, guys,
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  Speaker 1: put your headphones in. We're got to sit in silence
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  Speaker 1: for the next half hour or so. Just listen to
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  Speaker 1: something on your headphones, look at your phones, do whatever.
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  Speaker 1: I don't like doing that though, because sometimes it's hard
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  Speaker 1: to get them back out of it. They just think, well,
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  Speaker 1: this is now where I can live for the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the car trip. And I guess it depends on
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  Speaker 1: how long the car trip is. Short ones, I'm not
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  Speaker 1: a big fan of it at all. Long ones not
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  Speaker 1: such a big deal.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I know that you're really big on the kids
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  Speaker 2: not having a huge amount of screen time, but I
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  Speaker 2: do know in the early days we used to have
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  Speaker 2: they used to have the LED screens in the back
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  Speaker 2: of their head rests, and to be honest, it actually
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  Speaker 2: just made the trip that much more comfortable for everyone.
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  Speaker 2: The kids weren't distressed, they weren't upset because they were
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  Speaker 2: completely engaged in whatever they were watching, and it just
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  Speaker 2: made things a lot more comfortable for the whole car.
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  Speaker 1: And you remember those trips where I wouldn't let them
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  Speaker 1: do it.
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  Speaker 2: It was awful.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, it was awful.
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  Speaker 2: But in saying that, I often would do the Brisbane
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  Speaker 2: to Sydney trip on my own, so for all intents purpose,
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  Speaker 2: single parent with six kids in the car, and this
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  Speaker 2: actually just made it manageable. So if that's something that
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  Speaker 2: you've got available to you, I'm going to say, go
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  Speaker 2: for it.
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  Speaker 1: How many more have you got just one for little.
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  Speaker 2: Kids car packs, just packing a few little things that
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  Speaker 2: are specifically for them and them alone, and everyone's got
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  Speaker 2: their own means that they've got something of interest.
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  Speaker 1: Books, spinners, coloring in, whatever it is that'll get you through,
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  Speaker 1: and it will make the road trip bearable hopefully. And
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  Speaker 1: every now and again, you know what, sometimes I just
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  Speaker 1: got to stop the car, get them out of the car,
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  Speaker 1: put them on your knee and give them a great
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  Speaker 1: big hug. Say I know anyly there.
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  Speaker 2: After years and years and years of doing the Brisbane
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  Speaker 2: to Sydney road trips, we have multiple places along the
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  Speaker 2: road where we can go, oh that's the park that
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  Speaker 2: we stopped multiple times to just let the kids run
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  Speaker 2: themselves ragged for a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes you've actually got to stop and let them
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  Speaker 1: do that. So we hope that these ideas will be
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  Speaker 1: helpful if you have any further road trips to do
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  Speaker 1: during the holidays. Back tomorrow with a great conversation with
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  Speaker 1: Mayor Friedman. I can't wait to share that with you,
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  Speaker 1: And then we're going to arrest the tricky topic of
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  Speaker 1: sleepovers across the summer. That's Thursday's podcast. Looking forward to
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  Speaker 1: that one as well. It's the Happy Families Podcast summer
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  Speaker 1: series with Justin and Kylee