Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #466 I'll Do Better Tomorrow
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
- 0:07Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers.
- 0:10Speaker 2: Now, sometimes as a parent, you can do the very
- 0:13Speaker 2: best you can and it just doesn't quite work. It
- 0:16Speaker 2: doesn't quite get you where you want to go.
- 0:19Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show, my mum
- 0:22Speaker 1: and dad.
- 0:23Speaker 2: Hello, this is doctor Justin Coulson. I'm the founder of
- 0:25Speaker 2: Happy Families dot com dot au and the author of
- 0:27Speaker 2: all those books about how to make your family happy.
- 0:30Speaker 2: I'm here with Kylie, my wife and mum to our
- 0:33Speaker 2: six kids. Well, when I say I'm here with Kylie,
- 0:35Speaker 2: the saga continues. Kylie. I had a conversation with somebody
- 0:38Speaker 2: the other day unexpectedly, and it kind of was a
- 0:41Speaker 2: little bit disconcerting. They said, hey, Justin, it's nice to
- 0:43Speaker 2: meet you. They recognized me, and I was having a
- 0:45Speaker 2: short chat with them and I said, oh, how do
- 0:48Speaker 2: you know me? And they said, oh, I followed you
- 0:52Speaker 2: on Facebook and Bendy webinars and I love I love
- 0:55Speaker 2: your podcasts. I said, oh, that's great, and then she said,
- 0:59Speaker 2: so how's the move going. I was like, sometimes I
- 1:02Speaker 2: think we might say a little bit too much on
- 1:04Speaker 2: this podcast. I'm lonely, and you're still there, and I'm
- 1:08Speaker 2: still here, and the house is still for sale. Well
- 1:10Speaker 2: it's only been for sale for a week, so let's
- 1:12Speaker 2: not get too carried away here. But there you are.
- 1:15Speaker 2: You're on the coast, and today's Friday, end of the week,
- 1:17Speaker 2: which means we do get to hang out for the weekend,
- 1:19Speaker 2: hanging for that. He's surviving.
- 1:22Speaker 3: I am just taking it one day at a.
- 1:24Speaker 2: Time, yeah, one hour at a time, one minute of
- 1:27Speaker 2: time now and again. It's really, really, really rough. Anyway,
- 1:31Speaker 2: This is not a pity party for us, and I'd
- 1:34Speaker 2: rather be in our situation than the situation. I read
- 1:36Speaker 2: something about Ukraine the other day on one of the
- 1:39Speaker 2: ABC news sites and it just hit me so hard.
- 1:45Speaker 2: Somebody was saying that the whole world is with us,
- 1:48Speaker 2: but nobody is beside us, and I thought, my goodness,
- 1:51Speaker 2: it must be so hard for them. So I'll take
- 1:53Speaker 2: our I'll take our move and our minor separation as
- 1:59Speaker 2: something that's pretty easy to deal with compared to what
- 2:01Speaker 2: some people in other parts of the world are going through.
- 2:03Speaker 3: I have that thought. Most days. I am blown away
- 2:07Speaker 3: with just the struggles and difficulties that are everywhere.
- 2:13Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so much speaking of struggles and difficulties. Every Friday,
- 2:18Speaker 2: we get to share a little bit about either the
- 2:20Speaker 2: ones that we overcome or the ones that we didn't
- 2:23Speaker 2: do so well with. Every Friday, the conversation on the
- 2:26Speaker 2: podcast is called I'll Do Better Tomorrow. Our main game here.
- 2:30Speaker 2: The focus is recognizing that sometimes family life is tricky
- 2:35Speaker 2: and we sometimes need a little bit of guidance to
- 2:38Speaker 2: get through things. So I'll Do Better Tomorrow is where
- 2:40Speaker 2: we look at what happened over the past week and
- 2:42Speaker 2: work out how we can do things better tomorrow. Kylie,
- 2:46Speaker 2: what has really struck you in terms of your parenting
- 2:49Speaker 2: and you're involvement with our kids this week? As you
- 2:53Speaker 2: consider what it is to do better tomorrow, how would
- 2:56Speaker 2: you like things to be better over the weekend or
- 2:58Speaker 2: next week based on where you've learned this week.
- 3:01Speaker 3: The girls started a new school at the beginning of
- 3:03Speaker 3: term and Miss seven is still you know, she's having
- 3:07Speaker 3: good days and she's having bad days as she navigates
- 3:10Speaker 3: this whole new process of new friends and new teachers
- 3:15Speaker 3: and new structures and routines, and she's.
- 3:19Speaker 2: Doing it all while she's living in a place that's
- 3:22Speaker 2: not ours. In fact, We've had to move airbnbs a
- 3:24Speaker 2: couple of times because of other people that have booked things,
- 3:26Speaker 2: and we didn't expect to be in this situation so long.
- 3:29Speaker 3: Yeah, and so she's been doing great, but she definitely
- 3:33Speaker 3: every couple of days we have a little bit of
- 3:35Speaker 3: a meltdown and we don't want to go to school
- 3:37Speaker 3: and we don't feel like we've got any friends, and
- 3:39Speaker 3: getting out the door on time in the mornings can
- 3:42Speaker 3: be really, really tricky, and over the last few weeks,
- 3:46Speaker 3: I've just decided to take the pressure off completely, and
- 3:50Speaker 3: so often I just explained to her that she doesn't
- 3:53Speaker 3: have to go to school right now. There is an
- 3:55Speaker 3: acknowledgment that she will go to school or that she
- 3:57Speaker 3: owned it's just she doesn't have to do it right now,
- 4:00Speaker 3: but that we have to actually get her big sister
- 4:02Speaker 3: to school on time. So she could just get into
- 4:04Speaker 3: the car in her pajamas, that's fine, and we drive
- 4:08Speaker 3: off to school. Well, I put her uniform in her bag,
- 4:11Speaker 3: and more times than not, I'll just put some music
- 4:14Speaker 3: on and she start singing along with us, and the
- 4:16Speaker 3: next thing I know, she's getting dressed all by herself.
- 4:19Speaker 3: And I found that that has just made my morning
- 4:23Speaker 3: so much better by just kind of allowing her to
- 4:26Speaker 3: have her little meltdown and acknowledging that what she wants
- 4:30Speaker 3: is to not go to school. She doesn't have to
- 4:31Speaker 3: go right now, but we've just got to get Lily
- 4:34Speaker 3: to school. But the other day I thought I had
- 4:37Speaker 3: it in the bag. She wanted to join the chess club. Right,
- 4:42Speaker 3: she's seven, let's just put this in perspective seven. But
- 4:45Speaker 3: she wanted to join the chess club. And so I
- 4:48Speaker 3: had so much weight with this chess club that on
- 4:51Speaker 3: Tuesday night, I said to her, if you don't go
- 4:53Speaker 3: to sleep, you're going to wake up really tired and
- 4:55Speaker 3: cranky because you've got to be to school early for chess.
- 4:59Speaker 3: She was so exc literally I think her head hit
- 5:01Speaker 3: the pillow and she was out in about two minutes flat.
- 5:05Speaker 3: And I thought, I've got this. I was so excited. Well,
- 5:08Speaker 3: the next morning, she woke up an absolute refusal. Did
- 5:12Speaker 3: not want to go to school, did not want to
- 5:14Speaker 3: go to chess club, did not want to do anything.
- 5:18Speaker 3: How did I get it so wrong?
- 5:20Speaker 2: What was the deal?
- 5:22Speaker 3: I think that she was scared. She didn't obviously acknowledge that,
- 5:26Speaker 3: but I think that she was scared about this new situation,
- 5:29Speaker 3: so did she go? Well, I took the pressure off again.
- 5:32Speaker 3: I said, it's okay, we don't have to go to
- 5:34Speaker 3: chess club, but let's get dressed for school, which she did,
- 5:37Speaker 3: and we got to school late. So chess club starts
- 5:40Speaker 3: at seven forty five in the morning. I didn't get
- 5:42Speaker 3: to school till quarter past eight. But because there was
- 5:45Speaker 3: a few minutes before the school, boll was going to go.
- 5:46Speaker 3: I said, we're here a little bit early. Do you
- 5:48Speaker 3: want to go and just check out chess club? Mom
- 5:50Speaker 3: will come with you, And she kind of looked at
- 5:52Speaker 3: me and she said okay. So we walked in very late.
- 5:55Speaker 3: She was one of eight children and she was the
- 5:58Speaker 3: youngest by far. And we sat down and she's listening
- 6:01Speaker 3: to all of these rules. My head is boggling as
- 6:04Speaker 3: I'm trying to follow all of these different rules for
- 6:07Speaker 3: all of these different pieces on the board.
- 6:09Speaker 2: Yeah, you're a checkers player, aren't you.
- 6:13Speaker 3: Yeah, nice colors is way okay. But by the end
- 6:19Speaker 3: of the five or so minutes that we sat there
- 6:21Speaker 3: with instruction, the teacher at the front of the room said,
- 6:24Speaker 3: all right, we're going to play a game. Now. We're
- 6:25Speaker 3: going to start our competition, and Emily was right in
- 6:28Speaker 3: there and I said, well, I might see you this
- 6:30Speaker 3: afternoon and she said, all right, mom, see you later.
- 6:32Speaker 1: Wow.
- 6:34Speaker 3: It was just I think that sometimes we kind of
- 6:37Speaker 3: think that we have to do things a certain way,
- 6:41Speaker 3: and for whatever reason, Emily was feeling a little bit
- 6:43Speaker 3: of anxiety around going to chess, and I just kind
- 6:45Speaker 3: of took the pressure off. Didn't really matter if we
- 6:47Speaker 3: got there on time or not. Yes, I'm paying for it,
- 6:49Speaker 3: and yes it would be better if she was there
- 6:50Speaker 3: at the beginning of the class. But for something so
- 6:53Speaker 3: new and for someone so young, giving her just the
- 6:56Speaker 3: space to do it at a pace that works for
- 6:59Speaker 3: her meant that I didn't actually end up having to
- 7:01Speaker 3: have any stress with her. We just did it a
- 7:05Speaker 3: bit later.
- 7:05Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 7:06Speaker 2: Fascinating now. Now, of course, this is some great advice
- 7:09Speaker 2: for parents who have got the flexibility to be able
- 7:11Speaker 2: to be a little bit late or to not have
- 7:13Speaker 2: to rush off to work or anything like that. But
- 7:15Speaker 2: the take home message that I'm hearing, regardless of your circumstances,
- 7:18Speaker 2: really is that if you take the pressure off and
- 7:20Speaker 2: just get them to do the next thing and have
- 7:23Speaker 2: that flexibility, like let's just jump in the car and
- 7:25Speaker 2: we'll sing some songs and see how you're feeling as
- 7:28Speaker 2: we're driving along. And you've got the uniform there, you
- 7:30Speaker 2: can get changed in the car park. I mean the
- 7:31Speaker 2: little kids, right, so nobody really cares if they're getting
- 7:34Speaker 2: changed in the car park before they run into school.
- 7:37Speaker 2: It takes, as you said, the pressure off and you
- 7:40Speaker 2: get to keep things moving forward. Up next in I'll
- 7:44Speaker 2: Do Better Tomorrow, The latest insight for the parenting expert
- 7:48Speaker 2: who may or may not be nailing it just now.
- 7:51Speaker 1: It's their Happy Families Podcasts.
- 7:54Speaker 4: Are Screens Creating tension at home betweens, teens and Screens
- 7:58Speaker 4: is a webinar to guide family to healthy, safe superscreen solutions.
- 8:03Speaker 4: Bye today at happy families dot com dot are you
- 8:06Speaker 4: slash shop?
- 8:08Speaker 3: It's the Happy Families podcast, the podcast for the time
- 8:10Speaker 3: poor parent who just wants answers. Now I'm wondering, did
- 8:13Speaker 3: you nail it?
- 8:14Speaker 2: No? No, it was a complete failure, total and failure.
- 8:18Speaker 2: In fact, this is the sort of thing that's been
- 8:19Speaker 2: building for a little while. And there's a fair bit
- 8:21Speaker 2: of disclosure here, and I want to be very very
- 8:23Speaker 2: sensitive because it doesn't just involve me, it involves one
- 8:25Speaker 2: of our kids. But I want to share this purely
- 8:29Speaker 2: because every parent will go through it one way or
- 8:31Speaker 2: another at some point, and for me, I'm going through
- 8:35Speaker 2: it with one of the kids at the moment, and
- 8:36Speaker 2: it's painful. And even when you're an expert, and even
- 8:40Speaker 2: when you've done all this stuff, written the books, gotten
- 8:42Speaker 2: the PhD, raised the kids, the whole lot, sometimes your
- 8:46Speaker 2: relationships are tricky no matter what. And we've got one
- 8:50Speaker 2: child at the moment, she's living with me while while
- 8:53Speaker 2: she works. She's an adult now, she's nineteen years old,
- 8:56Speaker 2: and it just seems that I can't put right. I
- 9:01Speaker 2: cannot say the right thing, I can't ask any questions.
- 9:05Speaker 2: I literally everything that I do is wrong. Everything that
- 9:08Speaker 2: I do is a mistake. I'm right now the adult
- 9:11Speaker 2: that knows nothing, while the nineteen year old knows everything.
- 9:15Speaker 2: And I know that it's actually not really about me.
- 9:18Speaker 2: I know that it's actually about her and she needs
- 9:20Speaker 2: to do a bit more growing and a bit more developing,
- 9:22Speaker 2: a bit more maturing. But I'll tell you what, as
- 9:25Speaker 2: a parent, as you watch your relationship with a child
- 9:28Speaker 2: that you absolutely love slowly but surely implode like a
- 9:33Speaker 2: slow motion grenade going off. It's just so devastating. It
- 9:38Speaker 2: so hard, especially when you know what to do, and
- 9:40Speaker 2: yet no matter what you try to do, to do
- 9:43Speaker 2: the stuff that you know you should do, it doesn't work.
- 9:46Speaker 2: So I'm trying to spend time trying to build connection,
- 9:49Speaker 2: trying to ask good questions, try to be present, and
- 9:53Speaker 2: all that stuff. It's not working. But whenever I start
- 9:57Speaker 2: to intervene or make a suggestion, worst dad ever, worst
- 10:01Speaker 2: dad in the world. And I'm not saying this to
- 10:03Speaker 2: demonize her, because this is just where she is right now.
- 10:06Speaker 2: But I think what it really illustrates is that sometimes
- 10:10Speaker 2: as a parent, you can do the very best you
- 10:13Speaker 2: can and it just doesn't quite work. It doesn't quite
- 10:17Speaker 2: get you where you want to go. Anyway, the other day,
- 10:21Speaker 2: she was on her way back from the shops, So
- 10:23Speaker 2: bear in mind, nineteen should be responsible, should be independent,
- 10:26Speaker 2: should be able to take care of things on our own. Needa,
- 10:29Speaker 2: some toilet paper was cranky because I hadn't bought any
- 10:33Speaker 2: toilet paper at the shops. Like I'm at the moment
- 10:35Speaker 2: I'm writing you, remember that conversation we had Kylie a
- 10:37Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago about I'm writing like four books
- 10:40Speaker 2: at the moment that conversation. Yeah, so I'm in the office.
- 10:45Speaker 2: I've given up cycling, I'm not surfing, I'm not doing
- 10:48Speaker 2: anything for me. I'm in the office.
- 10:50Speaker 3: Clearly, you've given up to doing a grocery shop as well.
- 10:52Speaker 2: I have given up grocery shopping. I'm in the office
- 10:55Speaker 2: between five and five fifteen every morning, and I'm working
- 10:59Speaker 2: until I don't know, six o'clock most nights, seven o'clock
- 11:02Speaker 2: some nights, and if i'm doing webinars or Q and
- 11:04Speaker 2: as for our Happy Families membership, I'm in the office
- 11:06Speaker 2: until late thirty nine o'clock at night. I mean, I'm
- 11:08Speaker 2: just working overtime. And she was cranky because I hadn't
- 11:12Speaker 2: gone done the shop. But when she went to the
- 11:15Speaker 2: shops to buy the toilet paper, she didn't buy anything else.
- 11:18Speaker 2: I mean, nineteen, she's got a brain, didn't buy anything else.
- 11:21Speaker 2: And I've had this frosty fruit craving for the last
- 11:23Speaker 2: few weeks. I've been eating far too many frosty fruits,
- 11:26Speaker 2: as you know, hashtag not sponsored by the way, I've
- 11:29Speaker 2: just got a thing at the moment, I like the
- 11:32Speaker 2: I'm into the frosty fruits. And I called her as
- 11:36Speaker 2: I took a quick break from work and said, Hey,
- 11:37Speaker 2: while you're at the shops, could you grab me a
- 11:39Speaker 2: packet of frosty fruits please? And I got in trouble
- 11:42Speaker 2: because she was actually three minutes out of the shops.
- 11:45Speaker 2: She was on her way home, and that meant she
- 11:47Speaker 2: had to turn around and go back and get frosty fruits.
- 11:49Speaker 2: And I hadn't paid it for the toilet paper, and
- 11:51Speaker 2: am I going to pay it for the frosty fruits?
- 11:53Speaker 2: Like it was a really big deal, oh, Kylie. And
- 11:57Speaker 2: I didn't respond well. I didn't risk well at all,
- 12:00Speaker 2: Like I'm still cooking her meals even though I'm working
- 12:03Speaker 2: forty three hours a day kind of thing, like I'm
- 12:07Speaker 2: still cooking her meals and all that sort of stuff,
- 12:09Speaker 2: and I don't want to turn this into a winge. Anyway,
- 12:13Speaker 2: it didn't go well, and then Kylie I did something.
- 12:15Speaker 2: When she got home. I walked over to her and
- 12:18Speaker 2: I apologized for not being more thoughtful and for not
- 12:23Speaker 2: being more patient and for all the things that I
- 12:27Speaker 2: do wrong as a dad, and I let her know
- 12:29Speaker 2: that I love her and that even though I'm clumsy,
- 12:31Speaker 2: and even though I make mistakes, and even though I
- 12:33Speaker 2: get it wrong in her eyes, I'm absolutely committed to
- 12:36Speaker 2: doing the very best that I can for her, and
- 12:39Speaker 2: that she'll never know the depths of my love for
- 12:41Speaker 2: her what she means to me. And just for a minute,
- 12:46Speaker 2: I saw this little girl again, you know, that little
- 12:49Speaker 2: cute kid that we used to look at and completely
- 12:52Speaker 2: fall in love with, the little girl who held our
- 12:54Speaker 2: heart in her hands. And I just saw this kid,
- 12:58Speaker 2: just this little lost girl, and realized she might be nineteen,
- 13:02Speaker 2: but her world's been turned upside down. She had some
- 13:05Speaker 2: big plans for this year, and now she's questioning those
- 13:07Speaker 2: plans in significant ways. She's got a family who's moving away,
- 13:13Speaker 2: she's got a job that's gone from permanent to casual,
- 13:16Speaker 2: and she's not quite sure what she wants to do
- 13:17Speaker 2: with her future. Now everything's up in the air. And
- 13:20Speaker 2: now she's got a dad who's giving her a hard
- 13:22Speaker 2: time because she's into him for a couple of bucks
- 13:25Speaker 2: for some toilet paper. And as I looked at her,
- 13:27Speaker 2: and as I told her what she meant to me,
- 13:31Speaker 2: I just realized that there's some stuff that matters and
- 13:34Speaker 2: some stuff that doesn't, and paying for toilet paper. Worrying
- 13:38Speaker 2: about cooking a meal or groceries not that big a
- 13:41Speaker 2: deal compared to getting this relationship right. So my I'll
- 13:45Speaker 2: do better tomorrow is actually a confession. I'm a parenting
- 13:49Speaker 2: expert who's got a relationship that's falling apart, or at
- 13:52Speaker 2: least when I say that, it's not where I want
- 13:54Speaker 2: it to be. It's not strong like it used to be,
- 13:56Speaker 2: and I've got some homework. I've got some real makeup
- 13:59Speaker 2: work to do to get it back where it needs
- 14:01Speaker 2: to be.
- 14:02Speaker 3: I had my own trip down memory lane just yesterday
- 14:06Speaker 3: with this same daughter and just remembering her doing her
- 14:10Speaker 3: cross country run as a lengthy seven year old who
- 14:13Speaker 3: was all legs, and just feeling exactly the same things,
- 14:18Speaker 3: remembering what it was like to be, you know, eighteen nineteen,
- 14:22Speaker 3: and knowing that I'm now an adult, but I really
- 14:24Speaker 3: still have no idea what it means to be an
- 14:27Speaker 3: adult and what I want to do with my life,
- 14:29Speaker 3: and you know where I want to be and how
- 14:33Speaker 3: I want to do life. And it just filled me
- 14:37Speaker 3: with all of the same feelings that you have shared here.
- 14:40Speaker 2: We just struggle, like we know what we want to do,
- 14:43Speaker 2: we know how we want the relationship to be, but
- 14:44Speaker 2: we also get caught up in that whole you should
- 14:47Speaker 2: know better and I've taught you better, and why aren't
- 14:49Speaker 2: you self sufficient? And why can't you do this? We
- 14:51Speaker 2: get caught up in that, and I don't know, Kylie, I.
- 14:54Speaker 3: Think that part of it too is that we have feelings.
- 14:56Speaker 2: Well with that's true, we do.
- 14:59Speaker 3: You know, our feeling matter and with our kids inexperience
- 15:05Speaker 3: and immaturity. So often some of the things that they
- 15:08Speaker 3: do and say are painful. They really really hurt us,
- 15:12Speaker 3: and it takes so much effort for us, as the
- 15:18Speaker 3: bigger person in the relationship to take a step back
- 15:21Speaker 3: and be able to take the perspective of them and
- 15:23Speaker 3: recognize that they're learning.
- 15:28Speaker 2: Well, they've still got their old plates on, even if
- 15:30Speaker 2: they're grown up in nineteen. I'll take our message today
- 15:33Speaker 2: really for you, Kylie, is to give the kids some
- 15:36Speaker 2: space and some breathing room and take them to school
- 15:38Speaker 2: and their armies. They can get changed in the car park.
- 15:41Speaker 2: For me, it's really about taking a step back and
- 15:44Speaker 2: seeing them as people who are trying to figure life
- 15:47Speaker 2: out at whatever age, and having that little extra bit
- 15:50Speaker 2: of compassion, that little extra bit of patience, that little
- 15:54Speaker 2: extra bit of perspective to help them. We really hope
- 15:58Speaker 2: that today's podcast has been helpful for you in whatever
- 16:00Speaker 2: challenges you're facing as a family. The Happy Families podcast
- 16:04Speaker 2: is produced by Justin Ruland from Bridge Media and Craig
- 16:06Speaker 2: Bruce is our executive producer. If you'd like more info
- 16:09Speaker 2: about making your family happy up, especially if you're raising
- 16:12Speaker 2: boys and wants to know how in the world to
- 16:14Speaker 2: navigate the progress from boyhood to manhood, we have got
- 16:20Speaker 2: the ultimate ultimate boys summit, Bringing Up Boys. All the
- 16:25Speaker 2: details are at happy families dot com dot au. Details
- 16:30Speaker 2: available right now.
- 16:31Speaker 1: Be quick