Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #780 Parental Guidance Recap - Payback for Bullies?
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast.
- 0:05Speaker 2: It's the podcast for the time poor parent who just
- 0:09Speaker 2: wants answers. Now two nights of amazing parenting television. How
- 0:14Speaker 2: much fun is French guidance. It's riveting, It's riveting. So
- 0:18Speaker 2: after episode one, the is.
- 0:20Speaker 3: Riveting for the whole family.
- 0:22Speaker 1: Our kids just love it.
- 0:23Speaker 2: The our Back Parents were voted as the family the
- 0:27Speaker 2: parents that everyone in the parental Guidance room wanted to
- 0:30Speaker 2: see more of. Last night we had an unexpected surprise
- 0:34Speaker 2: Kat our honest parent spoiler alert by the way, it
- 0:37Speaker 2: was voted through to the next round, eclipsing everybody else.
- 0:41Speaker 2: But there was some stuff to talk about from last night.
- 0:44Speaker 2: Holy cow.
- 0:45Speaker 3: After the first night, Yes, the out Back Parents.
- 0:48Speaker 2: Were, they were flying, they had their moment in.
- 0:50Speaker 3: The sun, but they kind of crashed last night.
- 0:52Speaker 2: And this is what I said, I think when we
- 0:54Speaker 2: spoke yesterday. I've had so many conversations about this now,
- 0:57Speaker 2: but the show highlights the strength same week. This is
- 1:00Speaker 2: of every style and that means everyone looks good, but
- 1:02Speaker 2: everyone also has a moment where they don't look great.
- 1:04Speaker 3: But isn't that real life?
- 1:05Speaker 2: I think it is every single day we do things
- 1:07Speaker 2: that look really good, and we do things that don't
- 1:10Speaker 2: look so well.
- 1:11Speaker 3: It's not even about the look as much as it is.
- 1:14Speaker 3: Some days it feels great and you feel like you're
- 1:17Speaker 3: on top of the mountain, you've literally nailed it, and
- 1:21Speaker 3: then the next breath, you've just completely messed it all up.
- 1:23Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, So we need to talk about
- 1:26Speaker 2: the conversation. So first off, the first major challenge. It
- 1:30Speaker 2: was really great TV, the bystander effect. You've got a child,
- 1:34Speaker 2: they're in a park, A couple of kids come into
- 1:36Speaker 2: the park, they're bullying each other, and then they try
- 1:39Speaker 2: to rope your child into do the bullying.
- 1:41Speaker 4: Just remember that we're looking at these incidences from a
- 1:43Speaker 4: bystander point of view too.
- 1:45Speaker 2: Your kids involved.
- 1:46Speaker 1: Are being bullied.
- 1:49Speaker 2: We want to see if these children have been taught
- 1:51Speaker 2: how to intervene and not be a bystander. So this
- 1:55Speaker 2: kid stolen the hat running around here, take the hat
- 1:56Speaker 2: run hey, I mean my hat back can help you cat.
- 2:07Speaker 3: I think it's why this was really heartening to watch.
- 2:11Speaker 3: These kids were.
- 2:12Speaker 2: Young, yeah, like five, six, seven years old.
- 2:14Speaker 3: Young kids, and yet each of them completely held their
- 2:18Speaker 3: own and didn't involve themselves, but also didn't leave anyone
- 2:23Speaker 3: feeling bad either. I just loved it.
- 2:26Speaker 2: You know. My favorite one was Levi from the Gentle Parents,
- 2:29Speaker 2: when the kids saying, she can't even do a cartwheel?
- 2:32Speaker 1: Neither, Isn't she a stupid baby? She does dumb thing
- 2:36Speaker 1: at school, she can't even do a cartwheel.
- 2:38Speaker 2: And then he questioned them, and yeah, I just thought
- 2:41Speaker 2: that was super strong, really really great stuff. But we
- 2:44Speaker 2: saw each of the families shine. Each of the families
- 2:47Speaker 2: had kids who were like, yeah, bullying's not cool, I'm
- 2:50Speaker 2: not part of this. Here's the hat back. I really
- 2:52Speaker 2: loved that. But there was a comment that came from
- 2:55Speaker 2: the outback parents that set the room a light.
- 3:00Speaker 5: As our back parents, we've always told them, if it
- 3:03Speaker 5: comes to it and they're putting their hands on you
- 3:06Speaker 5: and the teachers aren't doing anything, then you're allowed to retaliate.
- 3:12Speaker 5: Good smack in the face is going to pull them
- 3:14Speaker 5: up pretty quick.
- 3:15Speaker 2: I also found it really interesting the way the outback
- 3:17Speaker 2: dad defended this position. There's also a lot of young
- 3:21Speaker 2: boys that die from being king hit in the face.
- 3:23Speaker 6: If you run away, good chance you're going to get
- 3:25Speaker 6: king hit. If you stand up and face it, and
- 3:28Speaker 6: you stand up to that problem and you punch them
- 3:30Speaker 6: back in the face. While you're getting hit, You've got
- 3:32Speaker 6: a lot less chance of being hurt than what you
- 3:34Speaker 6: do sitting there cobbing it, getting kicked in the ribs
- 3:36Speaker 6: and stomping on the ground. If they're getting smacked in
- 3:38Speaker 6: the face, smack them back.
- 3:40Speaker 2: You see. To me, if you're running away, you're less
- 3:42Speaker 2: likely to get king hit. It's when you're either not
- 3:45Speaker 2: expecting it or you're facing up to somebody.
- 3:48Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not entirely sure I get that either, because
- 3:52Speaker 3: you plenty of times you turn your back and that's
- 3:55Speaker 3: when somebody kind of slogs you from behind.
- 3:57Speaker 2: We'll run fast. But I think the main thing that
- 4:00Speaker 2: we need to talk about here.
- 4:01Speaker 3: Is is it okay?
- 4:02Speaker 2: Yeah? Like this really divided the room. Getting your kids
- 4:05Speaker 2: to stick up for themselves. I mean, this is the
- 4:08Speaker 2: sort of thing that blows the Internet up. It blows
- 4:10Speaker 2: Facebook cup. This is that question if your child is
- 4:13Speaker 2: being bullied, there's physical altercations occurring, or it's just incessant
- 4:18Speaker 2: and nothing's working, does their cup point where it's okay
- 4:21Speaker 2: to say, hey, kiddo, you need to stick up for
- 4:23Speaker 2: yourself here. And sometimes the only way you can reason
- 4:26Speaker 2: with somebody is with your fists.
- 4:28Speaker 3: I got the impression, and clearly we'll never know, but
- 4:30Speaker 3: I got the impression that there were people in that
- 4:32Speaker 3: room who had experienced a level of bullying or been
- 4:37Speaker 3: on the other side of it.
- 4:39Speaker 1: And.
- 4:41Speaker 3: Just to listen to each person's perspective. And I don't
- 4:47Speaker 3: think it's a clean cut answer. I think that it's
- 4:50Speaker 3: very easy when you're sitting in your comfy chair in
- 4:53Speaker 3: your laund room and life is easy to think that
- 4:58Speaker 3: you have a black white answer. But I think that unfortunately,
- 5:03Speaker 3: this is not one of those challenges that necessarily has
- 5:07Speaker 3: a black and white answer.
- 5:08Speaker 2: So I'm firmly on the you don't hit so.
- 5:12Speaker 3: Much, I think one hundred percent.
- 5:14Speaker 2: But for I think context is really important and I'm
- 5:17Speaker 2: disinclined to say you never hit.
- 5:21Speaker 3: And I think that that's the difference that too many
- 5:23Speaker 3: times kids have been taught not to defend themselves and
- 5:27Speaker 3: end up stuck on the ground being beaten in the
- 5:30Speaker 3: billios out of.
- 5:32Speaker 2: But at the same time, you don't want your first
- 5:33Speaker 2: thing to be good.
- 5:34Speaker 5: Smack in the face is going to pull them up
- 5:36Speaker 5: pretty quick.
- 5:37Speaker 3: That's right. And the challenge we have is where trying
- 5:42Speaker 3: to teach this too, and immature inexperienced child. It's hard
- 5:48Speaker 3: enough for adults to know how to act in certain situations,
- 5:52Speaker 3: and yet we're expecting that our kids are going to
- 5:54Speaker 3: understand the nuance behind when it's appropriate and when it's not.
- 5:58Speaker 2: So I think we need some parental guidance to this
- 6:00Speaker 2: first half of our conversation because there's more to talk
- 6:03Speaker 2: about from the episode.
- 6:04Speaker 3: Well, from your perspective, is it okay?
- 6:09Speaker 2: No, except in the most extreme circumstances. No, like except yes?
- 6:16Speaker 2: And so if I was talking to a child about this,
- 6:18Speaker 2: and the likelihood that our children, I mean, we have
- 6:21Speaker 2: six daughters, this is not a typical thing. I know
- 6:24Speaker 2: that girls are being violent more now than they ever have,
- 6:27Speaker 2: but it's still really unusual, especially when you compare it
- 6:29Speaker 2: to the amount of times that boys will be violent
- 6:32Speaker 2: with one another. The position that I'm going to take
- 6:35Speaker 2: really clearly is we teach our kids that we look
- 6:37Speaker 2: for non violent responses in every case, but if there
- 6:42Speaker 2: is ever a real threat, option one is always to
- 6:45Speaker 2: get away. Option one is always to get away. But
- 6:49Speaker 2: if the threat remains real, or if the threat continues
- 6:52Speaker 2: day in and day out and we can't find any
- 6:55Speaker 2: kind of help. Then I'm chafing. I don't even want
- 6:59Speaker 2: to say it now, you know what interesting? No, No, I'm back.
- 7:03Speaker 2: I'm literally I want to wrestle with this and keep
- 7:05Speaker 2: the podcast going without any edits. I'm wrestling with it
- 7:09Speaker 2: because as soon as I was about to say, if
- 7:11Speaker 2: you have to punch them back, do it, I can't
- 7:14Speaker 2: say that because you know what happens the next day
- 7:17Speaker 2: the kid shows up with three friends, or you do
- 7:20Speaker 2: punch them back, but the kid is bigger and you
- 7:22Speaker 2: lose three teeth, or somebody gets king hit and they
- 7:26Speaker 2: get knocked out, or they hit their head on the concrete,
- 7:28Speaker 2: and I just have to come back to know. No,
- 7:30Speaker 2: I don't care if you live in the country. I
- 7:32Speaker 2: don't care if you live in the city. I don't
- 7:34Speaker 2: care what your context is or what your circumstances are.
- 7:37Speaker 2: There has to be a non violent way out of
- 7:39Speaker 2: this every time, and once you're out of the situation,
- 7:42Speaker 2: that's when you get the help that you need so
- 7:44Speaker 2: that it doesn't become an ongoing problem. We just have
- 7:47Speaker 2: to teach our kids that violence isn't the answer, because
- 7:50Speaker 2: if they do some real damage, they will be charged,
- 7:53Speaker 2: they will be in trouble for it. But if they
- 7:55Speaker 2: don't do a real damage, they may be the one
- 7:57Speaker 2: that gets damaged. And I'll tell you what if I
- 7:59Speaker 2: said to my one of my kids, if there's a
- 8:01Speaker 2: bully that's giving you a hard time, you just punch
- 8:03Speaker 2: them in the face. And my child did, and they
- 8:06Speaker 2: didn't do it hard enough to actually end the bullying.
- 8:09Speaker 2: If that bully then got stuck in my child and
- 8:12Speaker 2: broken arm or broken nose or chipped teeth, I couldn't
- 8:15Speaker 2: live with myself because my child would look at me
- 8:17Speaker 2: and say, I did what you said, Dad. I couldn't
- 8:19Speaker 2: take that.
- 8:20Speaker 1: No.
- 8:20Speaker 3: Why What interests me is how strong they are in
- 8:23Speaker 3: their stance and yet you I mean, obviously their boys
- 8:26Speaker 3: are quite young.
- 8:27Speaker 2: And the God they're such a good family.
- 8:30Speaker 3: And jellic kids, like there isn't a rough and tumble
- 8:34Speaker 3: bone in their body from what we've seen so far.
- 8:37Speaker 2: And to be really clear, David and Tensei are fantastic.
- 8:39Speaker 2: I love them. Every family on that show is really
- 8:41Speaker 2: really top notch. But this attitude divides people, so Kylie.
- 8:46Speaker 2: From a professional perspective, I'm going to say the outback
- 8:49Speaker 2: parents on this one are wrong and we have to
- 8:52Speaker 2: teach our children non violent responses, whether that means getting help,
- 8:56Speaker 2: whether that means calling mum, regardless. I mean, I have
- 9:00Speaker 2: a friend who had a thirteen to fourteen year old
- 9:02Speaker 2: son who was literally being bullied at school and then
- 9:04Speaker 2: chased home from school, and at one point the bullies
- 9:07Speaker 2: hung out out the front of the house. They weren't trespassing,
- 9:11Speaker 2: they were just hanging out on the footpath in front
- 9:13Speaker 2: of the house and taunting this kid and his family,
- 9:17Speaker 2: And so the family called the police, and in the end,
- 9:19Speaker 2: the boys were expelled from the school. Like it got nasty,
- 9:22Speaker 2: But the boy wisely chose not to retaliate with violence.
- 9:26Speaker 2: Had he retaliated to the bullies with his fists, I'm
- 9:30Speaker 2: sure he would have been hospitalized or worse. It's just
- 9:34Speaker 2: not the right way.
- 9:36Speaker 3: So to paint. I guess a different picture though. If
- 9:40Speaker 3: I'm in a situation as a woman and I'm attacked,
- 9:44Speaker 3: I'm not going to walk away. I'm going to do
- 9:46Speaker 3: everything I can to protect myself in spite of the
- 9:49Speaker 3: fact that i.
- 9:49Speaker 2: Am going to lose. So this is a different scenario.
- 9:51Speaker 3: Oh keep it, That's what I'm saying.
- 9:53Speaker 2: There's a difference between bullying and being attacked. So if
- 9:57Speaker 2: physical altercations begin, you can longer run away, You defend yourself,
- 10:01Speaker 2: You do what you have to. That's a totally different
- 10:03Speaker 2: class of scenario. I'm talking about the pushing, the shoving,
- 10:07Speaker 2: the cajoling, the name calling, the bullying, the hassling, the shoving,
- 10:11Speaker 2: the pushing up against the wall. Whilever you've got the
- 10:13Speaker 2: option to get away, you get away, of course. But
- 10:16Speaker 2: if it turns into a wrestle, if it turns into
- 10:18Speaker 2: hands on and you can't get away, you defend yourself.
- 10:21Speaker 2: And because at that point you're you're about to get
- 10:24Speaker 2: hurt anyway, so you do whatever you can to inflict
- 10:27Speaker 2: the image and get away.
- 10:27Speaker 3: And I guess that's where I'm coming from, and I
- 10:29Speaker 3: just want to make that really clip. I'm one hundred
- 10:31Speaker 3: percent behind you, and I have always been nonviolent.
- 10:34Speaker 2: So have I confused the issue now?
- 10:35Speaker 3: Maybe I'm just saying it's it's not black and white,
- 10:40Speaker 3: and I think that we need I don't know what
- 10:43Speaker 3: the answer is, but I'm not going to tell my
- 10:46Speaker 3: kid to stay on the ground and just continue to
- 10:49Speaker 3: be kicked in the head.
- 10:49Speaker 2: Of course, never of course, So my response nonviolent and
- 10:53Speaker 2: get away. But if it turns into a physical confrontation.
- 10:57Speaker 2: Defend yourself at all costs.
- 10:59Speaker 3: Thank you.
- 11:02Speaker 2: Let's talk about the second big issue. Now, there were
- 11:05Speaker 2: a lot of things that came out of this one,
- 11:07Speaker 2: but let's talk about the second big issue from episode
- 11:09Speaker 2: two of Parental Guidance.
- 11:11Speaker 3: Well, I've got lots and lots to say about lots
- 11:13Speaker 3: and lots of things, but I think we might actually
- 11:16Speaker 3: end up having to do an episode on Thursday to
- 11:18Speaker 3: talk about some of the things that just kind of
- 11:20Speaker 3: came out of the show as opposed to necessarily specifically
- 11:22Speaker 3: out of the challenges.
- 11:23Speaker 2: So let's do this one fairly briefly because our time
- 11:25Speaker 2: is getting away already.
- 11:26Speaker 3: Tomorrow, will do briefly.
- 11:28Speaker 2: Do you know what? I had so much to say
- 11:30Speaker 2: in the show, But I think I talked too much
- 11:32Speaker 2: because some of my great points just didn't make it
- 11:34Speaker 2: because I think I take too long to make them.
- 11:36Speaker 2: I need to be better for season three.
- 11:38Speaker 3: Well, we obviously they did the lost Child challenge.
- 11:41Speaker 2: Let's talk about that tomorrow. I want to talk about
- 11:43Speaker 2: facing fears.
- 11:43Speaker 3: But the thing that really stood out of this one,
- 11:45Speaker 3: outside of the bullying, was that challenge where they had
- 11:49Speaker 3: to have one kid face their fears and climb up
- 11:53Speaker 3: a pole.
- 11:54Speaker 6: How high is this?
- 11:55Speaker 2: This is twenty one meters.
- 11:56Speaker 1: If you food down there, would you die?
- 11:58Speaker 3: I don't know if you noticed. But different kids, because
- 12:02Speaker 3: they were obviously in different places, they were climbing up
- 12:05Speaker 3: different things. So one of the kids was only jumping
- 12:07Speaker 3: off ten meters, there was another kid jumping off twenty
- 12:11Speaker 3: five meters. And then you had a kid who was
- 12:13Speaker 3: not on a platform. He climbed up a telegraph pole. Yes,
- 12:17Speaker 3: now I've done that, and that scared the living daylights
- 12:21Speaker 3: out of me. So these kids, really they did something hard.
- 12:26Speaker 2: I want to play some audio. This is from the
- 12:28Speaker 2: gentle parents with little LEVI so scared to do this?
- 12:33Speaker 5: Do I have to?
- 12:35Speaker 1: I reckon, you can do it.
- 12:36Speaker 3: What do you think as a gentle parent, I'm not
- 12:38Speaker 3: going to force him and say you have to do this.
- 12:42Speaker 2: What do you think you have to help him feel safe?
- 12:46Speaker 5: I think you're probably going to have a harness and
- 12:49Speaker 5: be buckled in excited to.
- 12:50Speaker 4: Do the jump to day. Yes, maybe we're going to
- 12:55Speaker 4: put you in a harness. I'll go around your legs,
- 12:57Speaker 4: around your arm. You need to take one big step off,
- 13:00Speaker 4: fly all the way to the ground.
- 13:01Speaker 1: You could fly. Who else to fly?
- 13:05Speaker 2: Superman only? I'll fly.
- 13:08Speaker 1: That is pretty special. I've never flown like this before.
- 13:11Speaker 1: You're ready?
- 13:11Speaker 2: Should we go?
- 13:12Speaker 1: Get your arms?
- 13:13Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 13:14Speaker 3: So I'm not gonna lie. He literally had me in tears.
- 13:18Speaker 2: I didn't think he was going to do it, and
- 13:20Speaker 2: I was so excited when he did.
- 13:21Speaker 3: And it seemed effortless.
- 13:23Speaker 4: Oh yeah, you're ready for one.
- 13:25Speaker 2: You've got your flag. Very big step, big step, big step,
- 13:30Speaker 2: big step. Yeah, he lava.
- 13:35Speaker 1: You did it.
- 13:38Speaker 3: Once he set his mind to do it, it was
- 13:41Speaker 3: just done.
- 13:42Speaker 2: But that's their point, and it kind of lines up
- 13:44Speaker 2: really nicely with a lot of the principles that I teach.
- 13:46Speaker 2: When you give your kids autonomy, they'll make their own decisions,
- 13:50Speaker 2: and they make decisions and carry them out like that.
- 13:54Speaker 2: Autonomy support is so powerful. I also really enjoyed the
- 14:00Speaker 2: honest parent cat and the way that her little guy
- 14:04Speaker 2: Jesse neurodivergent, terrified, and then boom, I don't.
- 14:09Speaker 1: Want to do this. I don't want to do this, Jessie.
- 14:12Speaker 1: I'm so proud of you. You got this man both
- 14:16Speaker 1: hands on the blue YEP.
- 14:17Speaker 5: There.
- 14:35Speaker 2: That was awesome. So we need to talk about You've
- 14:39Speaker 2: already mentioned that the Lighthouse parents had that super scary approach,
- 14:43Speaker 2: and their autonomy support was first class. This I think
- 14:46Speaker 2: was the ultimate example of autonomy support that I've seen
- 14:49Speaker 2: in the entire show. Every step you take, these men
- 14:53Speaker 2: are watching you and ready to catch all.
- 14:55Speaker 3: Right, So what are you going to be today?
- 15:00Speaker 5: Good child?
- 15:06Speaker 1: She's amazing, feeling brave, Yeah, feeling strong. Yeah, you can
- 15:13Speaker 1: do this.
- 15:14Speaker 2: I know you can.
- 15:15Speaker 3: I love what mom did. Yeah, but holy smokes, Pepper,
- 15:20Speaker 3: she's knocked it out of the park. And the fact
- 15:23Speaker 3: that she was able to support her sibling in such
- 15:27Speaker 3: a beautiful and powerful way, it was just so heartening.
- 15:31Speaker 2: So let's talk about the Outback parents. I know that
- 15:34Speaker 2: I feel like we've given her a pretty hard time
- 15:35Speaker 2: in this podcast. Like I said, they're great people. I
- 15:38Speaker 2: really enjoyed getting a no David intense and they've got
- 15:40Speaker 2: gorgeous kids, and I think they're going to be just fine.
- 15:42Speaker 2: But we have to talk about what happened here.
- 15:46Speaker 1: Do you do it now? No more, I'm not going
- 16:00Speaker 1: to get hurt.
- 16:07Speaker 3: I could feel a bit of tension in the room.
- 16:09Speaker 2: You were sitting next to me, and you could feel
- 16:11Speaker 2: the tension of me. And I've already seen it. I
- 16:13Speaker 2: can feel the tension again now.
- 16:16Speaker 3: And you know, incomplete and utter honesty, I have been
- 16:20Speaker 3: that parent. I have been that parent. No shaping about
- 16:27Speaker 3: shaming them. But what a beautiful representation and contrast that
- 16:34Speaker 3: we saw in what worked out to be beautifully supportive
- 16:39Speaker 3: and what wasn't.
- 16:40Speaker 2: What I loved as well, though, was when they watched
- 16:41Speaker 2: it back, they said.
- 16:43Speaker 1: I think we've probably pushed a little bit too much.
- 16:46Speaker 2: It was hard to watch like they saw it, they
- 16:48Speaker 2: could feel it, they knew, And that's that's a.
- 16:51Speaker 3: Powerful and that's that's exactly right. While we're watching people's
- 16:55Speaker 3: pobles and their weaknesses come out so brave, it's it's
- 17:00Speaker 3: helping others, yes through the process because even though you
- 17:04Speaker 3: might not do that, you actually now see why you
- 17:06Speaker 3: wouldn't do that. You actually understand why you're doing things
- 17:10Speaker 3: in a totally different way. And if you are that
- 17:13Speaker 3: parent and you are in that space, then seeing it
- 17:17Speaker 3: played back to you is just powerful.
- 17:21Speaker 2: So some professional tips for how to know whether or
- 17:24Speaker 2: not to get your kids to face their fears and
- 17:27Speaker 2: place them under pressure.
- 17:28Speaker 3: My question is, how do we be discerning about how
- 17:34Speaker 3: far is too far to push our kids?
- 17:36Speaker 2: We've wrestled with this with six children now with all
- 17:39Speaker 2: kinds of activities. In fact, we're literally wrestling with it
- 17:41Speaker 2: right now with one of our children who wants to
- 17:43Speaker 2: stop swimming lessons. She's too young to stop. We've made
- 17:47Speaker 2: a commitment to all of our kids that we're going
- 17:49Speaker 2: to make sure that they can swim competently. Because we've had.
- 17:52Speaker 3: This discussion with fifteen year olds we're having with a
- 17:54Speaker 3: nine year olds.
- 17:55Speaker 2: Gosh, and we're like, no, no, no, not yet. And
- 17:59Speaker 2: so this is the pre suit. How hard do you push?
- 18:01Speaker 2: Why do you push? How do you explain your ration?
- 18:03Speaker 3: But this is a totally different conversation. These kids were
- 18:05Speaker 3: facing a fear as opposed.
- 18:07Speaker 2: To I supposed all lack of motivation. That's right, all right,
- 18:09Speaker 2: So when it comes to facing fears, do you know
- 18:11Speaker 2: what that line from Pepper? I think that that's a
- 18:16Speaker 2: powerful line for every parent to remember.
- 18:18Speaker 3: I wonder.
- 18:21Speaker 2: It's hard, isn't it. Well, I so I'm watching you
- 18:25Speaker 2: grapple with it, and I'm not sure what to say.
- 18:27Speaker 3: One of the things that I have tried really hard
- 18:30Speaker 3: to do is to show my kids that I'm willing
- 18:34Speaker 3: to try things even when I'm scared.
- 18:36Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 18:38Speaker 3: And to most people, the things that I'm scared of
- 18:40Speaker 3: are very silly scary. You recog so you know, jumping
- 18:44Speaker 3: from a five meter platform into the water is not
- 18:47Speaker 3: a big deal to a lot of people. But my
- 18:49Speaker 3: body literally freezes. And the kids know that, and they're
- 18:53Speaker 3: in the water and they're screaming at me to give
- 18:55Speaker 3: it a go. And it takes me a long time
- 18:58Speaker 3: to actually get to a point where I can let
- 19:00Speaker 3: go and actually do it. And no matter how many
- 19:03Speaker 3: times I do it, it's the same fear every single time.
- 19:06Speaker 3: The exposure therapy is not working for me, and I
- 19:09Speaker 3: will scream the bios out of it, and everybody says,
- 19:16Speaker 3: why do you have to scream? It scares me, but
- 19:19Speaker 3: I'm willing to do it because I want them to
- 19:22Speaker 3: see that I'm I'm not going to miss out just
- 19:26Speaker 3: because I'm scared. And I enjoy the process once I've
- 19:30Speaker 3: done it, but it's still I'm still scared.
- 19:33Speaker 2: Here's here's my take on it. We give the kids
- 19:35Speaker 2: the opportunity, We say, here, we are, this is what
- 19:38Speaker 2: we're doing. You don't have to join it if you want,
- 19:41Speaker 2: but I'm doing it, and we'd love for you to
- 19:43Speaker 2: be part of it. That's the approach we've taken with
- 19:45Speaker 2: most scary things, whether it's a roller coaster ride at
- 19:47Speaker 2: a theme park, whether it's jumping off some rocks at
- 19:49Speaker 2: a lagoon or a We have a.
- 19:51Speaker 3: Couple of really good rollers coaster photos.
- 19:54Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, over the years, we do. I'm thinking of
- 19:58Speaker 2: the time where we were at Poon up near Rockhampton
- 20:02Speaker 2: and we swam out to an island called Creek Rock
- 20:06Speaker 2: that was about ak and a half offshore and there
- 20:09Speaker 2: were stingrays and who knows what else in the water,
- 20:11Speaker 2: and it was terrifying, and we just said, kids, we're
- 20:15Speaker 2: going to do this. You don't have to do it.
- 20:17Speaker 2: And well, let's be fair, we didn't know what was
- 20:20Speaker 2: in the water until everybody told us. But the thing
- 20:24Speaker 2: is the kids came with us until they'd had enough,
- 20:26Speaker 2: and then some of them went back, and that was
- 20:29Speaker 2: just fine. There was no shame. It's like, Okay, well
- 20:31Speaker 2: we're giving a go, and I feel like that's the
- 20:33Speaker 2: right balance. We're doing it, we're excited to do it.
- 20:36Speaker 2: We'd love for you to join us. I guess the
- 20:38Speaker 2: only time that's an issue is when it's all of
- 20:42Speaker 2: us or none of us. That's the only time it
- 20:44Speaker 2: gets really tricky. And then I think you have to
- 20:45Speaker 2: let the person who was terrified actually make the determination.
- 20:49Speaker 2: It's not okay to traumatize somebody just because you want
- 20:51Speaker 2: to have a cheap thrill.
- 20:54Speaker 3: So what about the comments that were made that they
- 20:56Speaker 3: would regret this for the rest of our lives.
- 21:00Speaker 2: I don't know that anybody's going to regret not jumping
- 21:02Speaker 2: off a telegraph pole for the rest of their life. However,
- 21:04Speaker 2: what doing it does is it gives you a sense
- 21:06Speaker 2: of competence, that is that basic psychological need. It satisfies that,
- 21:11Speaker 2: it reinforces competence, and it builds confidence. And I really think,
- 21:17Speaker 2: I mean, we talk all the time about these three
- 21:19Speaker 2: basic psychological needs from my book The Pairing Revolution.
- 21:21Speaker 3: When am I going to feel competent?
- 21:23Speaker 2: We talk all the time about feeling competent. We need
- 21:27Speaker 2: to teach our kids about this, and we need to say,
- 21:29Speaker 2: if you do this, you're going to feel strong because
- 21:32Speaker 2: it's a hard thing. We've got that saying in our
- 21:35Speaker 2: family we do hard things.
- 21:36Speaker 3: Am I going to feel it when I jump off
- 21:38Speaker 3: ten meters instead of five? Is that when I'm supposed
- 21:40Speaker 3: to feel it?
- 21:41Speaker 2: Hey, we've gone way over time. We need to wrap
- 21:42Speaker 2: this up. I hope that's a helpful review. I hope
- 21:45Speaker 2: there's also a handful of useful parenting tips in there,
- 21:48Speaker 2: because this is the podcast for the time poor parent
- 21:50Speaker 2: who just wants answers now. Hopefully, while Parental Guidance is on,
- 21:53Speaker 2: you're not feeling quite so time poor because our episodes
- 21:56Speaker 2: are going to go over time every time. There's so
- 21:58Speaker 2: much to talk about. Tomorrow it's a big review episode
- 22:02Speaker 2: where we kind of talk about all the stuff that
- 22:03Speaker 2: we haven't had a chance to talk about because we
- 22:06Speaker 2: get a breather until next week. More episodes on the Telly.
- 22:09Speaker 2: Next week. Tomorrow we review all the stuff we haven't
- 22:11Speaker 2: talked about, because gosh, there's some heavy stuff on the
- 22:14Speaker 2: Happy Family podcast, which is produced by Justin Ruland from
- 22:17Speaker 2: Bridge Media. Craig Bruce is our executive producer. For more
- 22:20Speaker 2: information about French Guidance, well, you find it all over
- 22:22Speaker 2: the web or on our Facebook page, or just visit
- 22:25Speaker 2: Happy families dot com dot au to make your family happy.