Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #870 White Line Fever

Transcript

#870 White Line Fever · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: The time poor parent who just wants answers.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Now. Hello, this is doctor Justin Colson. I'm excited to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: talk to Shona Henley, journalist, mum and provocateur, somebody who
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: writes a whole lot of articles regularly for the Fairfax,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: prayers for the ABC and whoever else will take her
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: writing talking about parenting observations. I'm going to start today's
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: interview with Shona by sharing a story showna I'm going
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to be a little bit indulgent. We're going to make
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: this about me as much as you for just a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: sec go for it. Some years ago, one of my kids,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: my eldest daughter, probably ten years ago now, was playing netball.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: She was in the middle of this very high stakes game.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, this game mattered a great deal. I was there,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I was cheering for her, and what I noticed, Shona,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: was that the referee, with her two eyes, could not
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: see what was going on nearly as well as I
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: could with my one eye, if you know what I mean,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Because supporters are so often one eye. Do you know
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: where I'm going there? And I found myself. Bear in
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: mind when you're watching fourteen year old girls playing netball.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: The people who are running up and down beside the court.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: The referees are generally, I don't know, age somewhere between
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: fourteen and seventeen, usually just pretty young kids themselves. And
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I heard myself saying, come on, ref or, are you serious?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Are you going to like I started giving some coaching
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: tips to the referees on how they might do a
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: better job. And I don't know, maybe maybe halfway through
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the game, I heard myself and I realized what I
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: was doing. Maybe it was the fact that a couple
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of people looked at me because I was perhaps getting
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: atle bit too vocal, and fortunately for me, I guess
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I held it together. I pulled it back, and I
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: just started cheering for my daughter and for the other
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: team when they did something well as well, because frankly,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: they were playing very very well. Your article just a
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago in the Fairfax Press, sitting on
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a herald, and the age was all about sports parents,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and at this time of year, as seasons are ending
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: and seasons are beginning and parents are starting to get
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: ready for spring and summer sports rather than the winter sports,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I just thought it might be interesting to talk to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: you about your article and about whether or not parents
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: are like me or worse, or I don't know, whatever
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: your observations are. I loved your article and that's why
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I wanted to get you on The Happy Family's podcast.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Tell me what you've seen as you've observed parents on
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the sidelines of sporting fields.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Well, firstly, I totally agree with you. You can get
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: so into it and then you don't realize what you're doing.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: I think that's like completely natural, and I think I've
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: also been there, so.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: In fact, your voice sounds a little horse because you've
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: been cheering.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: That's right, That's what it is.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, being in Victoria where every cold is going around
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: that it's all right. But yeah, it's so easy to
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: do it, and I think it's so natural as a parent,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: So you know, I think everyone's being there. But my article,
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: we're sort of focusing on the positives more than the negatives,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: which is a new for me as a critic of
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: all people. But yeah, it was just looking at the
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: fact that sports parents get quite a bad rap. So
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: you know, you hear a lot about the things parents
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: can do wrong, like a soccer mom, like the Karen
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: of the parents that's out there and knows best, to
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: the referee, to the coach, to other kids, their kids,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: like you know, they've you know, all their dreams that
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: were never fulfilled are being pushed on to everybody else.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: But my article is sort of just looking at how
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: it's not really the case for the majority I think
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: out there.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: And that really.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Sports parents are pretty good and they're pretty dedicated as well.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: So I want to talk about those good dedicated parents shortly,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: but we can't have a conversation like this without talking
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: about the elephant in the room, the fact that there
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: are so many parents who do those things that you've
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: just described, Yeah, as an observer rather than a psychologist,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: as somebody who is paid to take note of what's
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: going on. What do things going on? In terms of
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: this whole pushing things onto the kids? Where do you
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: think that comes from? What have you observed? Maybe even
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: with your own kids, maybe you've experienced it.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think really just want your child to do
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: the best, and I think most of the time it
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: comes from a good place. You know, maybe when you
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: were younger, you could have tried harder in a particular element,
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: and you have that regret so you don't want your
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: child to go you know, the same way. But other
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: times I think maybe there's people that are definitely super
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: competitive and that also comes through infiltrates into their children
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: That's right, I have competitive so my kid better, Dan
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: will be Yeah, that's right. So I want to be
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: a little bit provocative here and challenge you. And in
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: some ways this is unfair because you're not necessarily saying
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: these things, but I want to bounce the idea off
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: you and get your take on it. Why do you
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: think that so many parents say, I just want my
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: kids to do their best? Like, why is doing your
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: best so important on the sod field or the cricket
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: field or the netball field or the whatever whatever it
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: is that the kids are playing this weekend? Why is
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: doing your best so important?
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Well?
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  Speaker 3: I think for some people, maybe doing your best is winning.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, winning matters even more sometimes than doing your best, Right, that's.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: It, because you know, if you're trying your best but
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: you're still lack suck. So for some parents it's probably
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: not going to be enough. But I think it's probably
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: really personal. But you know, I think you want to
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: see your child succeed as well. Like you want their
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: team to win, like you don't want them coming off
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: like my daughter plays a netball two team. Yeah, they're
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: not really good anyway, terrible. I don't know, and listens
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: to this.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I hate to go but there are a
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: lot of people that listen to this. I'm just just
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: letting you know.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: Well, sorry you do try. But you know what, they
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: like always have a lot of fun, Like my daughter
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: comes off smiling all the time. The fact that I
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: think the other week it was like twenty to zero. Wow,
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: yes it wasn't great, But they're also like nine and
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: under us, so you know they're still just learning. But
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: no one there is like getting upset with their kid
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: for their team, you know, only having zero, and the
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: other team that's getting twenty as well aren't like, you know,
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: like super pumped and rubbing it in either.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: So I don't know if I've really answered your question
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: there or not.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Well here's my I guess the back end of my
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: provocation because I've thought about this a lot. I remember
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: some years ago one of my kids got a report
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: card and the report card was pretty good. But I
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: don't really look at our kids' reports, and it's because
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: of this thoughder that I don't. But as I went through,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I said, you know what, I don't really mind what
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: grades you get. What I care about is that you're
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: trying hard, that you're getting recognized for your effort. And
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: we got to one of her subjects and she got
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: a C for effort, and so I pulled her up
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: on it and said, well, what's the deal with this.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: You're not doing your best here obviously the teachers say,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: and you only got to see for effort. She burst
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: into tears and she said, Daddy, I failed trying. I
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: tried so hard, but I failed trying hardrat And I
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: just thought, Hm, Since then, I've thought about this idea.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I want my kids to fulfill their potential. I want
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: them to be their best, do their best. And I've
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: kind of shifted, well I haven't kind of, I've clearly shifted.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I don't care if they do their best. I just
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: want them to love it. I just want them to
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: develop their competence, to develop relationships, and to come off
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: that field or that court or whatever it is that
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: they're doing and go, ah, jee, I'm so glad. I
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: can't wait for next week.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I want them to love it. And it seems like
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: when we have these parents behaving badly on the sideline stories,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: it strikes me that they're not going to love it
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: if we keep that up. Because the constant coaching, the
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: constant berating, the constant derogation of the referee or the coach,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: all that does is make the kids feel like they
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: can't do a good enough job, they're unworthy. It's no
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: fun when you're getting told that you're not good enough.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Actually, when I was looking into this, I remember
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: reading some comments from kids one another story from years ago,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: and one person said, my favorite thing about sport was
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: when it was time to go home, and that was
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: based purely on like, yeah, that sort of behavior. And
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: I think it's you know, definitely can come from parents,
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: but yeah, it can come with from coaches and that
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: sort of thing too. And I think for girls especially,
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: you know, obviously being parents of girls, both of us,
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: it's in sports they drop out, like the rate is
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: pretty high. And for me, like, I think I probably
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: was one of them, like about year nine for myself.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: So I want my girls to keep going and doing
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: it all, you know, for as long as they possibly can,
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: so enjoyment. You know, is definitely a priority because there's
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: all those other skills that you build along the way
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: with sports that have nothing to do with sports, you know,
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: and I think they're probably the most important ones in
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: the end that wrestler.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Right now, Shona, we've watched each of our children around
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: you said grade nine, we're seeing it happen around grade seven,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: grade eight, and statistically we see that it's just a cliff.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Kids participating in organized sports, especially girls, literally just stops
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: from around about that age of thirteen fourteen. That there
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: are body image issues, there's obviously hormonal stuff, there are periods,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: there's the fact that people are watching them. Sometimes the
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: clothing that girls are expected to wear makes them very,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: very uncomfortable, But there's also just that feeling of competence.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: So one of my kids loves acrobatics, and for the
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: last couple of years, she has last year or so,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: she's been in heaven. But at the moment, as she's
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: getting older and her body's changing, her upper body strength,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: which is so important for acrobatics, is well, it's just
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: not there like it used to be. As her body's
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: shifting and as her confidence falls, her desire to participate
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: is dropping. And what we're finding is those two things,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the ability to get better at something and the ability
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: to have good relationships while you're doing it. They're at
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the court. Let's talk about the good stuff that you've observed.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: And this is what I did love about your article.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Your article was actually an ode to I felt like
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: it was kind of fitting. It came out a couple
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: of weeks after the Matilda's and the World Cup of Soccer,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and everyone's talking about how great these kids are, and
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: it felt to me like it was an ode to
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the parents, an ode to the parents who were waking
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: up at four point thirty in the morning to get
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: their kids to squad training or taking their kids down
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to dance or down to nippers at the beach or
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: whatever it is, at crazy hours, multiple days a week.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: The enormous sacrifice of parents. Tell me about what you
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: observed and how you wrote it up.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I sort of just looked into the research
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: to start off with, and there was a bit out
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: there about the sheer amount of hours that parents devote
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: to sports, just specifically, that's aside from everything else that
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: or anything else that your child does, you know, school related,
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: or any other extracurricular activity is and I think from
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: them it was something like eight hundred and something a
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: year per child. So depending on how many you have
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: and then how many sports they have, obviously there's it's
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: a lot. I'm not a mass person, but it's a
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: lot of hours, you know, Like you know, we have
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: a lot of things to do as parents, and you
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: know self care is important too, but from training to
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: competitions to camps everything else that is involved with sports
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: these days social events as well. Like it's it's a
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: lot of hours that then that's just taking them there.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: So this is this is what you said, and i'll
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: quote you directly to you, Australian parents each spend roughly
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: eight hundred and forty eight hours annually.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Eight hundred and forty eight hours. That's enormous.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: It's a lot.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: One point zero eight billion hours across Australia are spent
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: annually as parents support their kids involvement in sports. And
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the other figure that struck me, especially in this time
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: of high inflation and financial challenge, you said, darted from
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the Transports Commissions os PLAY survey show a family's average
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: spend last year on sports for children aged fourteen and
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: under was a touch under twelve hundred dollars per child.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it, and that's obviously any like you've raised
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: that issue, I came across a few pieces as well
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: where a lot of parents are choosing now to either
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: pull their children out of sport or reduce the amount
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: of sport that they're doing because of just the cost
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: of living as well, which is like it's a whole
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: other issue. But you know a lot of them have
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: said they know how important that is for their kids
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: and that they want them to stay in sport as well.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: So it's definitely something that's valued, you know, and that's
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: shown through time, shown through money, and it's so shown
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: through effort as well, like volunteering that you know, the
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: majority of us do, whether we want to or not,
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: in their kid's sport as well.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: When I think of a life well lived, the characteristics
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: or attributes of those who live great lives, so much
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: of what children's sport offers satisfies those things. So there's
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the skill building and the competence, there's the relationships and
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the community building, the sense of being a part of
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: something bigger than yourself. There's the purpose, there's the motivational aspects.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: There's being for many, if not all, of the sports,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: certainly for many of them, there's being outside. There's being
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: in nature, the handi coordination, the movement sports and physical activity.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: When I hear you say what you've just said, it
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: makes me get very, very frustrated that we have a
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Victorian government that's just blown close to four hundred million
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: dollars to not have the common Wealth Games. And I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: think about that four hundred million dollars and imagine it
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: being infused into children's and youth sports across this country.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to be honest, it makes me pretty
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: damn angry that we have governments that are so so
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: wasteful with our money. When I look at the world
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: being benefits, we're dealing with a mental health crisis literally
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: when it comes to our young people. Statistically, we've never
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: had so many young people who are struggling with so
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: many mental health challenges. And this is an undeniable lever
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: that we can pull to satisfy and support mental health needs,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: and yet the government's not doing it. It's an infuriating,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: infuriating conversation.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: Yes, I'm Victorians, and I'm also from the regions where
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: all these things are supposed to take place. So you know,
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: for us, there's an interesting comment from someone from the
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: commerce head of Commerce Ballarat yesterday. I'm from Ballarat and
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: he was just really angry about the lack of communication
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: around that and what an issue that was. And yeah,
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: basically the same thing. It was just a wasted opportunity.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: It could have totally worked, but you know, it was
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: just not communicated well and coordinated well.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: But the downstream effects in terms of the inspiration that
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: kids can take from seeing the games, the money that
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: could have been invested into children's spport was mental health
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: benefiting as a result. It just it's really enraging. Let's
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: go back to the good news. I want to quote
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: you again one more time. This is the last time
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do it to you, but I just
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I love how you said this because it's so real
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: and every parent has been in this kind of situation
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: you said for me. This was highlighted at a recent
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: weekend long swimming competition that my daughter attended. Families had
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: traveled from across Victoria to a regional town and crammed
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: into a space nowhere near large enough to accommodate the crowd.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: It was hot and stuffy, with chlorine thick in the air,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: yet hardly anyone complained. Instead, parents helped out in any
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: way they could. One grabbed a camera and took photos,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: another took a clipboard and heard it swimmers to the
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: marshaling checkpoint, while another checked in with everyone, offering coffees
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: and snacks as the races were conducted. Parents cheered on
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: not only their own kids, but all the kids.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it was.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: It was really good to see as much as as
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: hot and stuffy as it was, because it really was.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: It.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was just really good to see.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: And that was the moment where I was like I
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: need to write about this because you know, here you've
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: got like parents from all over Victoria. They're to support
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: their kids and their kids' teammates, and it's quite individual
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: sports swimming as well, so it could be quite easy
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: to get insular with it. But it was the opposite,
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: like the parents were just yet up there offering to
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: do something in any way they could. Whether you've been
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: a member of the club long, whether you're an official
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: person on a committee or not, or whether you just
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: saw someone that needed help with something people worked just
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: volunteering to do that, and you know it was just
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: to help this event that all of their kids were
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: a part of run as best as it could and
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: for them to have a good time.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: His to old parents who are doing such a great job,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: and to you, Shanna, thanks for writing such a positive
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: and uplifting article about the great work that parents are
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: doing and supporting their kids for their mental health, their
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: physical health and so on. Great to talk to you again.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Really appreciate it.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: It was good. Thank you.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Shona Henley is a freelance writer for the ABC, for
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the Fairfax Press and pretty much everyone else as well,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and she wrote a fabulous, fabulous article just recently all
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: about sports parents, the good and the bad, well actually
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: only about the three percent who are bad. The Happy
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Family podcast is produced by Justin Rowl from Bridge Media.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Craig Bruce is our executive producer. If you're heading up
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: with the kids in the next few days or over
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: the weekend so that they can get involved with sports,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: thanks for what you're doing. Keep being awesome and enjoy
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: that time on the sidelines. I hope that kids love
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: the sport. If you'd like more information about making your
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: family Happy and visit happy families dot com. Do you