Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / Teaching Kids About Friendship

Transcript

Teaching Kids About Friendship · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: If you speak to anyone that works with children, any
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: school leader, any school teacher, any psychologist, any parent involved
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: with kids, whether they're in kindergarten or reception or preschool
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: or big school or high school, and if you ask
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: them what the most common challenge is that they confront
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: when they're dealing with kids, the answer's almost always the same.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: It's friendships.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: There was a study done in the 1980s that outlines
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: six key concepts that make friendships work. Today, we dig
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: into that study, have a look at those six key
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: concepts that make friendships work, and explore how we can
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: help our kids have better friendships. It's a Doctor's Desk
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: episode of the Happy Families podcast next. Hello, welcome to
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the Happy Families podcast where you get real parenting solutions
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: every single day. This is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: where Justin and Kylie Coulson, we're the parents of six daughters.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: And Kylie, when you think about the enriching elements of
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: your life.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: People are at the core of it all the time.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: But how good is a great friendship?
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Like you think about the people that matter most and
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: those friendships enrich and enlarge our lives in such magnificent ways.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: I was actually just reflecting about this the other day
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: and I decided to do something about it. Because we've
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: moved so many times over our married life, I have
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: friends all over the place, not necessarily in my backyard
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: or down the road. And as I was reflecting about
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: the women in my life who have had the most
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: profound impact on me through their friendship, I went through
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: my photo roll and I started pulling out photos and
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: printing them up and I kind of created my wall
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: of friendship in my closet.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: As I was doing the intro, I was hoping you
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: were going to refer to that because we didn't set
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: this up, but every time I walk into our wardrobe now,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: I just see this wall of all of your best friends,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: photos of you and your best friends.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I feel a bit weird looking at all.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Of your best friends, but they're such great people, such
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: great people. Today, a conversation about friendships, why our kids
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: struggle so much, and the six constitutional elements, the six
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: things that that researchers have discovered make friendships work. And
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: it's worth pointing out that friendships are at the very
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: heart of our well-being and our distress. We've removed a
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: couple of kids from school because of friendship challenges. That's
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the distressing part where things aren't working. And then there's,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: of course, the joy that comes from good quality friendships.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: A friend of mine, she's been on the podcast a
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: couple of times, researcher in Melbourne, Kellyanne Allen, talks about
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: school belonging. She's found that school belonging, that is how
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: much you feel like you belong to the people at school,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: like you've got those friendships. It's a predictor of everything
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: from grades to life satisfaction, even life satisfaction a decade
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: after school has ended. The amount of time that you
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: felt like you belonged at school impacts 10 years later
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: after school, how much life satisfaction you have. I think
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: it's extraordinary, whether it's academic achievement or self-concept, behavior, thinking,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: they all improve when kids feel like they belong.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: So you've teased us. There's six things. What's number one? Okay.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: So from British social psychologist, really influential social psychologist, Michael
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Argyle and Monica Henderson, his collaborator, did a series of studies,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: identified these six things. This is the first one. Real
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: friends are loyal. They stand up for their friend in
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: their absence. Loyalty is just such a powerful relationship builder.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: And we can teach this at any age. Including for adults.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Like there's a lot of us who are over 18
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: who struggle with that. If somebody's saying something that's not
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: very nice about our friend, do we lean in and say, really?
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that about my friend. Or do we say,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: hang on a sec. That's not the Kylie Coulson that
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: As I've listened to our daughters over the last 20
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: years of parenting, one of the things that often comes
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: up for me is I just don't want to be
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: that person's friend because they talk poorly about other people.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: And I think that deep down for all of us,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: if somebody's willing to say something nasty about somebody else
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: that's not in the room, what are they saying about
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: me when I'm not in the room?
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the subconscious fear, isn't it?
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: If you talk about them, what would you say about
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: me if I'm not there to defend myself?
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: In my personal experience, it has been quite rare that
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: I have found someone who has been willing to stand
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: up for me personally when I haven't been in the room.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Or anybody.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: And yet, oh my goodness, it's so powerful. If You're
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: having a conversation with somebody and the conversation sort of
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: turns a little bit south. Someone starts saying something negative
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: about another person. When somebody is brave enough to say, oh, actually,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's fair.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: She wasn't even there.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Or I don't think that's there. They're not here to
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: defend themselves. We don't really know the context here. But
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: everything I know about them says that that's not their
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: normal behavior. The signal that that sends as well, that
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: puts everyone on alert. Oh, Kylie's the kind of person
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: who will defend me. She'll stick up for me. It's
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: just such a, I get goosebumps talking about it. It's
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: such a powerful way to say, I'm a trustworthy, reliable friend.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I'm somebody that you can look to and know that
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I've got your back. And it's different to the thing
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: that you'll hear boys talk about.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Don't dog the boys.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Don't red out your mates.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: It's not like that.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: It's just saying, unless you know all the details, it's
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: probably not appropriate to talk about that because they're not
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: here to defend themselves. And everything I know about them,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: they're just not the kind of person that would do that.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: I Don't think.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I'm going to have to check with them and find
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: out what they would say because that just doesn't feel right.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Powerful, powerful idea.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: What's number two?
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: So the second idea that Argyle and Henderson came up
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: with was this, sharing important news with the friend. So
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: good friends keep each other in the loop. If your
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: child hears that a whole bunch of people are going
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: to go to the movies and someone's being left out,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: then they stand up for their friend. They encourage other
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: people to include them and to make sure that they
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: include them in things as well.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: This is really powerful, this one, the idea that a
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: friend is inclusive. Yeah, yeah.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: But I just had a thought as you said that.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Good friends also know what not to share. I remember
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: there was a girl that I interviewed for my Miss
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Connection book. She talked about how she had just gone
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: to the bathroom.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: It was the end of lunch break at school.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: And as she was leaving the bathroom, one of the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: girls from her friendship group walked into the bathroom and
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: saw her and goes, oh, hey, and called her by name.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I can't remember her name now, but she said, oh, hey,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: we were just talking about you and we've decided that
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: you're the judgiest person in our group. So number one,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: no loyalty because everyone's talking about you. But number two,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: all the girls are sitting around judging who's judgiest and
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: they choose to judge the person who's not there as
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the judgiest. And then this girl goes and says, I
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: thought I'd let you know you're the judgiest.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Like, congratulations, you've won a prize.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: So knowing what to share and what not to share
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and how to share those things, it's kind of like
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: that whole, There's so much.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: Nuance in that though. And we're asking our teenagers whose
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: brains are still developing to understand it. But I think
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: the easiest way to help our children understand is what
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: do you hope to achieve by sharing this?
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Boom.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: Yes. Yes. So if you share that somebody hates them
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: and they've just said the most awful things about them,
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: what are you hoping that's going to achieve? Yeah. Yeah.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: What's the end?
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: It's not elevating your friend. It's actually like completely destroying
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: her in one moment.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: And so, yeah, I think that that's a really powerful
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: thing to help our kids understand. Yeah.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Maybe a question to ask your child is would you
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: want to know this if the roles were reversed? Like
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: if everyone's talking about how stinky your breath is, would
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: you like somebody to come and tell you that was
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: what the conversation was or would it be better to
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: not know?
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: I think as teenagers, though, we often think we want to.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Know it all. Yeah, that's a good point.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: Like if you're talking about me, I want to know.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: I have to know, yeah.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: But why? Why do you want to know?
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: How does that impact how you feel about yourself? How
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: does it impact how you feel about other people? How
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: does it impact the way you interact?
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: There's a phrase that I've used on the podcast once
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: or twice, and that is, what other people think of
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: you is none of your business. Yeah, it's their business. Okay,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: let's do the third one, and then we're going to
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: take a quick break. Provide emotional support when it's needed.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: So I just should highlight here, this third element of
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: great friendships does not mean that we need to be
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: therapists to our friends. In fact, I think it's exactly
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: the opposite. It just means that we show up when
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: they're having a hard time. Emotional support means you're not
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: emotion coaching. You're just sitting with your friend because they've
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: had a rough day and checking in and saying, sounds
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: like it was a rough day.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: That's what good friends do.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just about holding space for big emotions, allowing
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: your friend to have a vent if they need to
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: have a vent. I was in a tricky situation for
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: a number of years. My four closest friends happened to
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: all be sisters-in-law. Yes, yes. And inevitably, family dynamics are challenging, right?
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: They're tricky. Someone upsets somebody, you get frustrated. And so
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: I would be in this position where I would often
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: be sitting with one of them and they would just vent. Yeah.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: And I like to think that I was able to
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: play the place of Switzerland.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I just realized there were four brothers and you were
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: like really, really tight with all four of their wives.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: And you would come home and say- oh, there's some
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: stuff going on with that family at the moment and
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to be friends with all of them
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: and to defend them when they're not present and say,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: I know that must be tough and, well, it sounds
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: like you've had a rough day. Look, you were doing
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: all of the things, providing emotional support when it's needed,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: sharing important news but not sharing the wrong stuff.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: And standing up for the friend in their absence. That's
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: why people love you so much. Such a good friend. Hey,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: we need to take a quick break.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: After the break, the last three things that Michael Argyle
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and Monica Henderson found make the greatest friendships that we
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: need to teach our kids about.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Stay with us. We're back.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast as we count down six
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: different things that build strong friendships.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: Number four. Okay.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: The fourth one is trusting and confiding each other. So
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: what Argyle and Hedison found is that friendship deepens when
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: there's sharing.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Like when you share.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Something real, something, I was going to say vulnerable, but
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: it's not even about vulnerability. Sometimes it is once you
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: get to a certain point, but just sharing real things
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: about yourself. I guess it feels a little bit risky
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: and maybe for all the kids that it is, but
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: it unlocks deeper commitment. and deeper relationship. Like I was
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: on a bike ride in the last couple of days
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: with a mate of mine. And while we were talking,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I just felt like our relationships reached a point where
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I shared some stuff with him that I probably wouldn't
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: share with people that I know, but I'm not friends with.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: But over time, as that friendship deepens, you start to
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: reveal a bit more.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: I was thinking about this recently. What's your take on that?
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Or I had this challenge the other day and I'm
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: not sure if I dealt with it quite the right way.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: What would you do in this situation? So you're not
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: just passing on information. You're actually opening yourself up to influence.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: You're saying, I trust you with my feelings, my insecurities,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: my challenges, my difficulties. And I think that there's real
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: power in trusting and confiding in the other person. It's
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: just that sometimes kids go there a little bit early
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: and sometimes kids don't go there at all. And I
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: might add, this is your superpower. This is the bit
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: that you do so well, which is why you have
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: such rich friendships.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: What's number five?
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Do you know what?
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: This is what you do. I think this one's your
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: best one of all. This is the one, oh, you
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: do them all so well. But the fifth one is
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: volunteering help when it's required. If there's one thing that
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I know about you, it's that you just have this
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: desire to serve other people. Like you love people so
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: much and you look for opportunities to serve them. You're
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: always thinking about them. If you're in the shops, you
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: see something and think, oh, that little trinket, that little idea,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: that would be so good for somebody. And the key
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: word is volunteering rather than waiting to be asked. A
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: good friend notices when someone's struggling and they offer help
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: without being prompted. From a kid's point of view, this
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: is the child who sees a classmate struggling to carry
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: something and they say, hey, do you want some help
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: with that? Or let me get the door for you.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Just asking, can I help? Or stepping in and doing
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the thing is one of friendship's core skills. And to me,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: that is the thing that you do best of all.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: I love making a positive difference in people's lives, but
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: it's not actually about me. It's about wanting to see
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: them happy, wanting to see them experience joy, even if
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: life is tough right now. The other night I was
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: having a conversation with one of our daughters, and we
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: were just talking about, as part of my wall in
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: my closet, and talking about these women who have influenced
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: us for good. And she mentioned one of my friends
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: and just said that she was somebody who had really
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: impacted her at a time in her life when she
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: was really struggling. And I kind of just very impromptu,
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: I grabbed my phone and I pulled up Marco Polo
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: and I pulled up my friend.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: For those who are not familiar with Marco Polo, it's
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: kind of like a.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Snapchat for adults.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: It's Snapchat for adults, yeah.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: It's a video messaging app where you record a video
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: of yourself and then you send it to your friend
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: and then.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: They record it. And they listen to it when they've
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: got time.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, except some of your friends send you like 45
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: minute long videos.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Because we sit in the car and we talk, but
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: we know that our timing doesn't connect with each other.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: So it's great. But I picked it up and I said,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: I'm putting my daughter on the spot, but she's just
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: shared something with me that's so important for you to
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: know right now. And she sent me a message back.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: She was bawling her eyes out, did exactly what I
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: needed it to do. And she just said, thank you
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: for sharing that with me. She's going through a really
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: hard time right now. She's feeling like she's just failing
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: in all the areas that matter. And to know that
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: just her small efforts to do something when she recognized
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: our daughter was having a hard time has had such
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: a profound impact was powerful.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: It didn't cost anything. It didn't take much time. But
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: it's just recognizing that people need to know how important
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: they are in our lives. And sometimes we just don't
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: make the effort.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Here's the last one, making an effort to make the
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: other person happy. So that's what you did there. You
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: saw an opportunity to send a message to a friend
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: that you knew would make a cry, tears of joy,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the right kind of tears. It's when you remember your
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: friend's birthday, you remember something that's important to them. You
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: save them a seat. You're You say, I thought of
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: you when I saw this. You send them an image
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: of you at their favorite restaurant and say, wish you were.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Here with me right now. Is that always friendly?
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I could be going, it sounded good when I
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: thought it. I'm not sure about it now that I've
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: said it. Kids who grow up understanding that friendships require active.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: What's the word?
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Maintenance, development, input, ongoing, active considerations. are far better equipped
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: to keep them. So our time is well and truly up, Kylie,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: but I want to walk through those six again and
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: we'll put them into the show notes. The six elements
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: that make friendships flourish. Standing up for the friend in
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: their absence. Sharing important news with the friend. Providing emotional
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: support when it's needed. Trusting and confiding in each other.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Volunteering help when it's required. And making an effort to
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: make the other person happy. And this study was done
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: in the 80s. Like, this is a 40-plus-year-old study now.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: But those six rules, they're still the right ones, even
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: in the age of social media, the digital age, the
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: age of AI. Get the kids off character.ai. Get them
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: off social media and get them having genuine friendships where
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: they have these kinds of experiences. And they will, oh,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: my goodness, they'll have such rich, enlarged lives.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: I don't think you can put a price tag on
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: a good friend. someone who will experience the highs and
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: lows of life with you. Just, it makes life more meaningful.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: In the show notes, we will link to the study
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and those six elements that make friendships flourish. The Happy
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Families podcast, Doctor's Desk episode. See, you don't like Doctor's
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Desk episode and I've got you crying in this one.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: I feel like I've just had the greatest victory of all.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: The Doctor's Desk episode was produced by Justin Rulon from
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Bridge Media. Mim Hammonds provides our admin and other support.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: And if you'd like more info to make your family happier,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Visit us at happyfamilies.com.au