Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #1146 - Road Trip Sanity Savers

Transcript

#1146 - Road Trip Sanity Savers · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

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  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
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  Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers.
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  Speaker 2: Now, I'm justin your highly Happy Families dot com. Dou
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  Speaker 2: is where you find out more about who we are
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  Speaker 2: and what we do. Family road trips for the holidays.
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  Speaker 2: We know that there's a good chance there's a whole
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  Speaker 2: bunch of people who are going to be getting in
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  Speaker 2: the car and driving more than a couple of hours
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  Speaker 2: to spend time with relatives this summer. I have been
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  Speaker 2: through the pain that long car trips require of families
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  Speaker 2: many times. Yet did you remember a few years ago
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  Speaker 2: we got the kids in the car, we were driving
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  Speaker 2: from Woollongdong to Coff's Harbor, and I said, no screens.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to have a family weekend. We're going to
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  Speaker 2: spend good quality time together, that we're not going to
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  Speaker 2: look at screens. And that eight and a half hours
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  Speaker 2: in the car was just torture.
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  Speaker 1: I believe. By the next time we went and did
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  Speaker 1: that same trip, we had actually installed screens behind each
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  Speaker 1: of the that's right, yeah, yeah, yeah, we had, because
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  Speaker 1: that was we had the best trip ever.
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  Speaker 2: Back in the day when you had to put DVD
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  Speaker 2: players in the car because you couldn't just stream on
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  Speaker 2: your phone. Yeah we did. We had a good trip
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  Speaker 2: the second time because but but wouldn't it be great
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  Speaker 2: if you could actually have some good quality family time
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  Speaker 2: while you're driving with your kids. And we're not going
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  Speaker 2: to go militant about screens or not screens. We're just
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  Speaker 2: going to share a bunch of ideas with you about
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  Speaker 2: how you can have high quality road trip time and
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  Speaker 2: enjoy being with your family. We're dividing it up into
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  Speaker 2: two sections. I can't wait to get section two because
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  Speaker 2: this is where we're going to talk about music. But
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  Speaker 2: in the first section, we've just got a whole lot
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  Speaker 2: of I guess talking kind of games.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we put it out there on our Facebook page
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  Speaker 1: and asked everybody to kind of give us some ideas
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  Speaker 1: of what they do to keep things moving along in
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  Speaker 1: the car, and we had some really really great.
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  Speaker 2: So I see what you did there. I know I
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  Speaker 2: talked over you, sorry, but we said keep things moving
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  Speaker 2: along in the car. That was really clever. We didn't
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  Speaker 2: even plan that. Well done. We've got a lot to
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  Speaker 2: get through. We're probably going to have to put these
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  Speaker 2: all in the show notes, and we might even do
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  Speaker 2: a blog about it, an article on the website, because
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  Speaker 2: you're not going to hang onto all of these ideas.
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  Speaker 2: This is the kind of episode that you want a
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  Speaker 2: bookmark and come back to every time you've got a
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  Speaker 2: road trip planned. Because we have got so many brilliant ideas.
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  Speaker 2: Let's do all the talkie kind of games and conversations.
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  Speaker 1: First two things that I had done on a recent
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  Speaker 1: car trip car bingo, where we just picked a whole
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  Speaker 1: heap of things that we might see on the road,
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  Speaker 1: and the kids had to kind of try and find,
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  Speaker 1: you know, five in a row of those.
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  Speaker 2: So you've got to find like a garbage truck or
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  Speaker 2: an aeroplane flying overhead, a red letterbox, or a kangaroo
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  Speaker 2: or an emu or something like that. Yeah, yeah, cool.
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  Speaker 1: And then the second one was those conversation starters, little
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  Speaker 1: cards that you can have that just give you a
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  Speaker 1: whole heap of just one sentence, one question, and you
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  Speaker 1: can ask each other those questions, which is the fun.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because we get to explore stories of our lives
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  Speaker 2: with our children and they love that. So what did
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  Speaker 2: our Facebook followers have to say? We've got If you're
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  Speaker 2: not on our Facebook page, by the way jump on
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  Speaker 2: become part of the community. It's a great group of people.
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  Speaker 2: It's a big group, but it's a great group of people.
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  Speaker 1: What do they have to say, Well, the number one number.
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  Speaker 1: There was two games that were just the favorites, were
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  Speaker 1: I Spy or everybody Knows I Spy. But there was
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  Speaker 1: a couple of variations to that. There might have been
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  Speaker 1: I Spy yellow or for younger.
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  Speaker 2: Kids, right okay, and then spot Oh yeah, the two
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  Speaker 2: most A're going to sound like, I'm a real grump
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  Speaker 2: in the car both of those games. You know, I
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  Speaker 2: don't like Spotto because one of our kids punches us
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  Speaker 2: every time we see a yellow car. Spot O. It's like,
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  Speaker 2: we're not a hissing family. Stop hitting me. I don't
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  Speaker 2: like being punched by my thirteen year old.
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  Speaker 3: No.
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  Speaker 1: Well, what used to happen more than anything was no
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  Speaker 1: I got that spot.
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  Speaker 2: I saw it. The fights, the fights over who saw
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  Speaker 2: the yellow car? Like, So be warned that if you're
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  Speaker 2: doing competitive stuff, it can turn ugly. So if people
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  Speaker 2: don't know how to play Spotto. By the way, it's
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  Speaker 2: pretty much every time a yellow car goes past, the
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  Speaker 2: first person to say spot O.
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  Speaker 1: Well, there's lots of variations. Some people had concrete trucks,
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  Speaker 1: some people had mini Coopers. It's really up to you,
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  Speaker 1: whatever you want.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and our kids have actually added a variation as well.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if you know about this one, but
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  Speaker 2: every time a green car goes past, you know what
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  Speaker 2: they say, I'm so sorry to any green car drivers.
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  Speaker 1: We invented all the kids another family. Every time a
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  Speaker 1: Mustang came past, it was motto.
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  Speaker 2: That's great. I like that. Okay, let's do a few
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  Speaker 2: others really quickly. What else.
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  Speaker 1: I went to the shops and I brought.
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  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, no Ah, that is the most brain numbing.
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  Speaker 2: It's actually really good for your memory. I get it,
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  Speaker 2: but I just it's like my grandmother went to the
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  Speaker 2: shops and she bought I went on holidays and I
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  Speaker 2: brought you.
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  Speaker 1: To be downer.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm looking forward to the singing games. I just
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  Speaker 2: like singing. I'm not very well.
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  Speaker 1: A couple of others. The Alphabet game. We actually love
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  Speaker 1: playing this game. As the kids have gotten older. It's
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  Speaker 1: really good for emerging readers to recognize their letters. And
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  Speaker 1: so the object is you literally are just collecting letters,
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  Speaker 1: whether it be from plates or from billboards.
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  Speaker 2: Streets on you, and it's got to be alphabeticalized, so
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  Speaker 2: you're looking for an A. So we'll be like A
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  Speaker 2: in Warhope. I don't know why I said Warhape a
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  Speaker 2: in Brisbane. So you've just got to find the letter
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  Speaker 2: in a word or on a number plate.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 2: I saw a V on that car going plass and
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  Speaker 2: you've got to do it in order, and it's kind
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  Speaker 2: of a race. We've decided that if I'm driving, I
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  Speaker 2: can't play that game because I get a bit competitive
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  Speaker 2: and stop watching the road. It's a very dangerous game
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  Speaker 2: to play if you're driving.
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  Speaker 1: And a game that I've never played before, but you
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  Speaker 1: used to play it as a kid.
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  Speaker 2: Car cricket cricket. So my dad was a furniture removalist.
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  Speaker 2: Mum and dad ran a furniture moving company when I
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  Speaker 2: was a kid, and I used to sit in the
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  Speaker 2: truck driving from the New South Wales Central Coast up
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  Speaker 2: to the Gold Coast or Brisbane. Every holiday. Dad and
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  Speaker 2: I would go and do furniture removals and I spent
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  Speaker 2: hours playing car cricket And basically a car is worth
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  Speaker 2: one run, A car with the trailer is worth four.
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  Speaker 2: A car with a caravan is worth six, and if
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  Speaker 2: you see any motorcycles or any trucks buses, you're out.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, there's ten wickets, so you've got to lose
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  Speaker 2: ten wickets, get as many runs as you can. Then
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  Speaker 2: the other person's in for their innings.
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  Speaker 1: You know, my head is hurting. Now, how am I
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  Speaker 1: supposed to remember?
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  Speaker 2: It's not hard? One, four, six, and then you're out
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  Speaker 2: with the other store. What's before a car with the trailer?
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  Speaker 1: Of course the car no the answer.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, But it's fun to play at night because there's
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  Speaker 2: lots of trucks and you get out really fast, and
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  Speaker 2: sometimes you only get two or three runs and all
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  Speaker 2: these trucks.
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  Speaker 1: Just so the last time I'm going to share with
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  Speaker 1: you came in from one of our followers and she
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  Speaker 1: calls it truck truck car busy, and the object is
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  Speaker 1: to just guess what the next four cars will be. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: well the next four vehicles, and so in this case,
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  Speaker 1: she's guessing that the next four vehicles are going to
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  Speaker 1: be a truck, truck, car and a bus.
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  Speaker 2: So if I'm on the freeway, I'm going to say car, car, car, cars,
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  Speaker 2: because there's going to be a whole bunch of cars,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm probably going to get that right. Is that
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  Speaker 2: the idea?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah? And the idea is you want to do it
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  Speaker 1: before there's any cars in front of yours, there is
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  Speaker 1: any vehicle. So I would suggest that this is on
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  Speaker 1: a long car trip where you're kind of dealing with
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  Speaker 1: long highway stretches where you're not you know, I'm busy freeways.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think it would work as well.
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  Speaker 2: Up next, we're going to play or talk about the
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  Speaker 2: funnest games ever, the singing games.
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  Speaker 1: Today we are talking about how we deal with that question.
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  Speaker 1: Are we there yet?
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  Speaker 2: So we've talked about all the talkie games. Now it's
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  Speaker 2: signed for the singing games. Some families have really got
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  Speaker 2: the whole singing thing down pat like the kids in
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  Speaker 2: Step Brother. The Great Game was really nailed at this time.
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  Speaker 2: Here we go A one two, A one two, three four.
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  Speaker 3: She's got smile that it seems to me reminds me
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  Speaker 3: of childhood memories whereverything was as fresh as a ride.
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  Speaker 2: Boy, how good are you? You're the oldest I'm counting
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  Speaker 2: on you.
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  Speaker 3: Come on, she's got us.
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  Speaker 2: Where guy, oh good guy. I can't take it because
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  Speaker 2: this is really hard to listen to because last time
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  Speaker 2: we tried singing in the car it sounded more like this.
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  Speaker 1: The place.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, we're not even in the in the
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  Speaker 2: same galaxy of talent as the anyway, So what are
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  Speaker 2: the singing games? Because sing alongs are fun, But you've
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  Speaker 2: actually got some games that have come through as suggestions.
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  Speaker 1: Well old McDonald for our younger kids, McDonald farm. Especially
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  Speaker 1: when you're driving the countryside, you can find animals as
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  Speaker 1: you go and add them to the equation. The the
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  Speaker 1: acknowledgment in one of the messages was just that they
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  Speaker 1: might have ended up with a few dinosaurs in there
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  Speaker 1: in their farm.
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  Speaker 2: Well what why not that? That just reminds me actually
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  Speaker 2: of you've probably heard of Well maybe you haven't heard
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  Speaker 2: of it, but there's a group called the Go and
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  Speaker 2: a Gang and they're on Spotify and they've done a
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  Speaker 2: whole lot of kids stuff and they just make song
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  Speaker 2: time in the car with the little kids loads of
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  Speaker 2: fun because you've got stuff like this, and then there's
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: build him up, Build them up, Build them I remember
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  Speaker 2: that from play school our kids. It's a lovely yeah
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  Speaker 2: there eventually anyway, So there's all that sort of stuff
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  Speaker 2: what what what old McDonald?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, next bingo?
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  Speaker 2: What's bingo? I thought we were playing bingo as a
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  Speaker 2: talking game.
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  Speaker 1: This is a song. Okay, there was a farmer had
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  Speaker 1: a dog and Bingo was his name. O b I
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  Speaker 1: ng o, b I ng o, b i n g
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  Speaker 1: o and Bingo was his name.
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  Speaker 2: But that's just a song. What's the point of that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, the idea is the next time we sing it,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to take away the B and so we
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  Speaker 1: have to clap and then do I n g o,
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  Speaker 1: and then we're going to clap again for the third
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  Speaker 1: verse and we're going to do b ng o.
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  Speaker 2: Oh okay, all right, so that's there's some coordination. That's
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  Speaker 2: great for kids, for little kids, what about for bigger kids?
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  Speaker 1: This is the song that never ends.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, this is the song that never ends. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know the tune problem.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, it goes on and on. My friends, some people
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  Speaker 1: started singing and not knowing what it was. Why are
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  Speaker 1: you laughing at me?
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  Speaker 2: You've got a great voice. And then the continued singing
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  Speaker 2: it forever, just because this is the song that never ends,
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  Speaker 2: and it starts all over again. It's torture. We're supposed
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  Speaker 2: to be trying to help people have a nice card
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  Speaker 2: t Well, my absolute.
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  Speaker 1: Favorite over the last few years is Peel the Avocado.
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  Speaker 2: I don't have the void just came out and I
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: was like, what are you doing? And the YouTube clip
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  Speaker 2: is you have to watch it if you.
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  Speaker 1: Definitely look it up, it's worth a worth a good laugh.
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  Speaker 1: But the highlight of all of the comments that came
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  Speaker 1: through this would be my number one pick. Well, it's
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: actually ours because we had lots.
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  Speaker 2: We don't talk about this one.
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  Speaker 3: Yep.
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  Speaker 1: Somebody said they play the fart game.
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  Speaker 2: Which is really a word replacement game. What happens is
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  Speaker 2: you find any song that has the word heart in
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  Speaker 2: the title or in the lyrics and you change it
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  Speaker 2: too fart. So we did a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: I think they must have a few boys in there.
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  Speaker 2: We did a little bit of googling, and I thought, well,
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  Speaker 2: this this would be fun to sing because if we're
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  Speaker 2: changing heart to farts and then if you if you
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: don't want selene because I don't know, it doesn't work,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: and yeah, it's a bit dreary, and maybe we want
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  Speaker 2: something a little bit older, something from the eighties. There's
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  Speaker 2: Elton John and Kiki d don't go breaking.
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  Speaker 3: A what.
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  Speaker 2: I gave you by fart. This is so rude. I
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: gave you my fat don't go breaking the fus. I
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: can't believe what have we become? What has this podcast become?
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  Speaker 1: I'm blaming Rebecca for this one.
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  Speaker 2: My favorite one of all of them, just while we're
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  Speaker 2: being absolutely ridiculous was rock Set listen to the Fast.
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  Speaker 2: All right, that's enough. I can't take it anymore. We
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  Speaker 2: have six daughters. This is not the example that we
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  Speaker 2: want to be setting for them. You want to have
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  Speaker 2: fun on a car trip, this is the way to
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  Speaker 2: do it, right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. The last one I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: add it in. Okay, okay, Adam said stay quiet or else.
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  Speaker 2: That's a good game.
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  Speaker 1: Let's just quiet game.
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  Speaker 2: See who can stay the quietness for the longest.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So after we've had lots and lots of fun, that
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  Speaker 1: might be one to just finish things off.
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  Speaker 2: Just look out the window, kids, just look out the
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: window and soak it in if you're going on a
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: car trip. If I hope that that's been helpful. I
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: don't know how many of them we're really gonna try.
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  Speaker 2: I actually think there's some fun ideas there though. The
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin Roland from Bridge Media. Hey,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: just before we go, we wanted to mention if you've
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: been thinking about what you can get for Christmas for
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: somebody that you love. Can we recommend happy families dot
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: com dot a u as a place to go and
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: have a look. Light your family up with goodness and happiness.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Happy families dot com dot a u