Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #1023 - 10 Fights Worth Having
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, well, it's not an adult to adult conversation, and
- 0:12Speaker 2: I would say welcome to parent Who, because we do
- 0:15Speaker 2: talk to Webb blue in the face and the kids
- 0:17Speaker 2: really do think that they know better. Well, I mean,
- 0:19Speaker 2: I'm astounded at how much our eight year old really
- 0:22Speaker 2: thinks that she knows compared to us.
- 0:24Speaker 3: She knows everything.
- 0:25Speaker 1: And now here's the stars of our show, my mum
- 0:28Speaker 1: and dad.
- 0:29Speaker 3: Gooday, this is.
- 0:29Speaker 2: Doctor Justin Coulson, the founder of Happy Families dot com.
- 0:32Speaker 2: Do you and that to six kids? I'm here with Kylie,
- 0:35Speaker 2: my wife and mum to those six kids as well,
- 0:38Speaker 2: and Kylie. Today a conversation that we're going to have
- 0:41Speaker 2: a courtesy of Craig Bruce, our executive producer. He said,
- 0:45Speaker 2: you guys need to talk about the fights that you
- 0:47Speaker 2: have to have with your kids, ten fights that parents
- 0:50Speaker 2: have got to have with their kids, because it's worth
- 0:52Speaker 2: fighting about this stuff.
- 0:55Speaker 3: So that's what we're going to do.
- 0:56Speaker 4: I don't really know where to go with this one
- 0:58Speaker 4: because I am so over fighting with our kids.
- 1:03Speaker 3: I would love what do you mean, what do you mean,
- 1:05Speaker 3: missus happy families. We don't fight with our children.
- 1:07Speaker 4: I would love to think that we could come up
- 1:09Speaker 4: with something better than a fight.
- 1:11Speaker 2: I'm the author of all these books about how to
- 1:13Speaker 2: not fight with your kids, but how to have a
- 1:14Speaker 2: happy family. What do you mean, I don't know what
- 1:16Speaker 2: you're talking about. Hang on a sec I just need
- 1:19Speaker 2: to go and put my head back in the sand
- 1:21Speaker 2: while you do this podcast on your own.
- 1:23Speaker 4: Well, I was about to say, anyone who has a
- 1:26Speaker 4: child a they don't even need to have six. Yeah,
- 1:30Speaker 4: we'd know that this is a conversation that you're going
- 1:32Speaker 4: to have over and over again.
- 1:34Speaker 2: The reality is, if you're in relationship with someone, anyone,
- 1:38Speaker 2: if you're in relationship with somebody, you are going to
- 1:40Speaker 2: have disputes. There's going to be conflict, There's going to
- 1:43Speaker 2: be disagreement. There are all different ways that we can
- 1:46Speaker 2: deal with those disagreements and those conflicts. But there will
- 1:49Speaker 2: be preferences that one person holds that are not consistent
- 1:53Speaker 2: with the preferences that the other person holds. And if
- 1:56Speaker 2: that person, the other person in the relationship, that's not.
- 1:59Speaker 4: You, happens to be twelve.
- 2:01Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say twelve months, But it
- 2:04Speaker 2: doesn't really matter. They're going to have a different opinion.
- 2:07Speaker 2: They're going to see the world differently, different perspective, different preferences,
- 2:10Speaker 2: and so on, and the conflict is bound to an issue.
- 2:13Speaker 2: And when they're younger, they're also fairly clumsy in the
- 2:18Speaker 2: way that they express their preferences and the way they
- 2:21Speaker 2: try to.
- 2:22Speaker 4: I don't think that that is just for the young.
- 2:26Speaker 2: No, of course not. I mean, your mum, did I
- 2:29Speaker 2: just say that? Oh my goodness, I can't believe I
- 2:30Speaker 2: just said that. We need to bleep that out. I'm
- 2:33Speaker 2: just kidding.
- 2:33Speaker 3: Let's move on.
- 2:34Speaker 2: So let's talk about these ten fights that you absolutely
- 2:36Speaker 2: have to have. We've made lists, folks, We've made a list,
- 2:39Speaker 2: but we're only going to spend about one second on
- 2:42Speaker 2: each of them because we feel like there's a more
- 2:44Speaker 2: important conversation to be had than what the actual content
- 2:47Speaker 2: or topics of the fights are. Let's start and we'll
- 2:51Speaker 2: go through them in age order. Okay, So from the
- 2:54Speaker 2: youngest age, when do the fights start and what are
- 2:57Speaker 2: they about?
- 2:57Speaker 3: Through to middle childhood and then through to adulthood.
- 3:00Speaker 4: As soon as that baby lands in your arms. There's
- 3:03Speaker 4: fights about sleeping and eating.
- 3:06Speaker 2: And yeah, and it gets worse as they get older, right,
- 3:08Speaker 2: I mean, the reality is you're probably not going to
- 3:10Speaker 2: fight with them when they're little. You just, in a
- 3:13Speaker 2: perfect world, you will give them whatever they want. They
- 3:15Speaker 2: scream and you bend over backwards to make sure that
- 3:18Speaker 2: they're satisfied. I'm screaming that their needs are met. That
- 3:22Speaker 2: scream is a really effective way of making sure that
- 3:24Speaker 2: people pay attention and give me what I want. But
- 3:26Speaker 2: as they get older, the sleep conversation and the food conversation,
- 3:31Speaker 2: I mean, if we're unlucky, it can go for years.
- 3:35Speaker 4: Well, as they get older than we start talking about friends,
- 3:38Speaker 4: right and parties and sleepovers.
- 3:40Speaker 3: Yeah oh yeah, yeah, these these.
- 3:42Speaker 4: Become really big challenging issues as our kids start to
- 3:46Speaker 4: gain a little bit of independence and they just get bigger.
- 3:50Speaker 2: You didn't mention, you didn't mention the fights in early
- 3:53Speaker 2: childhood about it's time to leave the park, or you've
- 3:56Speaker 2: got to wear your seat.
- 3:58Speaker 4: Belt, or no, I'm not going to buy you something
- 4:00Speaker 4: every time I go to the shop.
- 4:01Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, Or I know that everyone's probably anticipating
- 4:04Speaker 2: that we're going to say that the screen time fights
- 4:06Speaker 2: start when they're teenagers, but hello, have you ever taken
- 4:09Speaker 2: the screen off a two year old?
- 4:11Speaker 3: I mean that starts at the very beginning. I've lost count.
- 4:14Speaker 2: There's a lot of fights that we could potentially have
- 4:16Speaker 2: with our kids, and as parents, by the way, let's
- 4:20Speaker 2: let's finish the list by the time the kids are
- 4:21Speaker 2: in their teen years.
- 4:22Speaker 3: We've got things like.
- 4:23Speaker 4: Social media, alcohol and drugs, intimacy, sex and pornography, resect, resect, respect,
- 4:30Speaker 4: rect respect, consideration of others, and I've actually put dress
- 4:35Speaker 4: on there. I think that there's, you know, some really
- 4:38Speaker 4: important conversations we need to have with our kids around
- 4:40Speaker 4: self respect and you.
- 4:42Speaker 3: Know, I guess how we display ourselves, yeah, and how the.
- 4:45Speaker 4: World sees us as a result. I'm not suggesting for
- 4:47Speaker 4: a second that we kind of dress for other people.
- 4:50Speaker 2: You're on the kind of ground here where some people
- 4:53Speaker 2: could get quite upset. But let's be honest. When we've
- 4:55Speaker 2: got a thirteen or a fourteen year old walking around
- 4:59Speaker 2: sending specific messages to the people around him or her
- 5:03Speaker 2: through the way that they're dressing, it can have an
- 5:05Speaker 2: impact on any number of things. So I think that
- 5:07Speaker 2: it's definitely worth a conversation. And there are going to
- 5:09Speaker 2: be some families who will think not at all, and
- 5:11Speaker 2: other families who are right there beside you on that one.
- 5:14Speaker 4: So I guess the conversation really is not so much
- 5:17Speaker 4: about how do we have these fights with our kids,
- 5:19Speaker 4: because any parent would suggest that the last thing they
- 5:23Speaker 4: want to do is have another fight.
- 5:24Speaker 2: But every single one of these things is a he'll
- 5:26Speaker 2: to die on from a parent point of view and
- 5:28Speaker 2: definitely from a child point of view.
- 5:30Speaker 3: And ultimately this comes down to this conversation about control.
- 5:33Speaker 3: As a parent. Some parents would say, let's go to
- 5:36Speaker 3: the clothing issue.
- 5:37Speaker 2: I will not let you leave the house looking like that,
- 5:40Speaker 2: or the alcohol issue. You're not going to that party
- 5:43Speaker 2: if there's going to be alcohol there, full stop, end
- 5:45Speaker 2: of story. You're twelve, or you're sixteen, or you're whatever.
- 5:49Speaker 2: And some parents will say, you're not leaving the table
- 5:51Speaker 2: until you've eaten all four of those peace.
- 5:53Speaker 3: Four of them. It's only four peace.
- 5:55Speaker 2: And you need to have something green, and you need
- 5:57Speaker 2: to have And so as parents, we see these things
- 5:59Speaker 2: as critically important and things that have to be controlled.
- 6:03Speaker 4: Why we see ourselves as being kind of in charge
- 6:06Speaker 4: of our kids' safety and they're well being.
- 6:08Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're trying to protect them. It was more
- 6:11Speaker 2: of a rhetorical question, but I'm glad you answered it. Yeah,
- 6:13Speaker 2: it's about saying I want you to grow up healthy
- 6:15Speaker 2: and strong.
- 6:16Speaker 5: And safe, and that's happy, and yeah, what happy can
- 6:20Speaker 5: Yet we spend so much time fighting. But the difficulty is,
- 6:24Speaker 5: even though each of these things matters, and matters a
- 6:27Speaker 5: great deal and is worth engaging in some level of
- 6:31Speaker 5: conflict over, it's how we have the conflict. And I
- 6:36Speaker 5: don't know that anything is really worth well, A couple
- 6:38Speaker 5: of things are.
- 6:39Speaker 2: It's definitely worth highlighting. It is worth having a fight
- 6:44Speaker 2: if your child's safety is at risk. There are sometimes
- 6:48Speaker 2: where we as a parent simply need to say no,
- 6:52Speaker 2: and I will stand my ground on this one. But
- 6:55Speaker 2: there are very few, not nearly as many of those
- 6:58Speaker 2: things as we often make out that there could be
- 7:02Speaker 2: very very few. In fact, when I think about the
- 7:04Speaker 2: last twenty three twenty four years of child wearing that
- 7:07Speaker 2: you and I have been through, I can really only
- 7:09Speaker 2: think of a couple of times in my life where
- 7:13Speaker 2: I have stood there and said I'm your father, and
- 7:15Speaker 2: I forbid it. It will not happen. I'm getting very
- 7:18Speaker 2: serious about this. I've got my cranky face on. No,
- 7:21Speaker 2: it just doesn't happen because we can usually work it
- 7:23Speaker 2: out without having to have a full blown battle with
- 7:27Speaker 2: our kids. So after the break, let's talk about how
- 7:30Speaker 2: we avoid the conflict but still get to work through
- 7:33Speaker 2: these tough things to keep our kids safe and help
- 7:36Speaker 2: them to make healthy decisions for their lives. Neurodiverse children
- 7:44Speaker 2: are beautiful, but they also bring unique challenges for parents
- 7:47Speaker 2: and educators. The world does not always accommodate them easily
- 7:52Speaker 2: or well. Communication, affection, behavior, learning, and almost every other
- 7:57Speaker 2: aspect of life can be challenging for the child and
- 8:00Speaker 2: their families. The webinar A Parent's Guide to Autism by
- 8:04Speaker 2: leaving autism expert Michelle Garnett, can help parents and educators
- 8:08Speaker 2: strengthen the bond with their autistic children for better outcomes
- 8:12Speaker 2: for children and families. A Parent's Guide to Autism is
- 8:15Speaker 2: available at Happy Families dot com dot au.
- 8:18Speaker 4: It's the Happy Families podcast, the podcast with a time
- 8:21Speaker 4: poor parent who just wants answers now. And I'm sure
- 8:24Speaker 4: that everyone is wanting to hear how we have a
- 8:28Speaker 4: conversation that doesn't lead to conflict with their kids.
- 8:31Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So let's just put this out there typically,
- 8:35Speaker 2: if your child wants to do something, whether they're two
- 8:37Speaker 2: or twenty two, or let's say two or eighteen, because
- 8:40Speaker 2: once they're past eighteen, you've got limited input really in
- 8:44Speaker 2: what's going on.
- 8:45Speaker 3: But as we're raising these kids, when.
- 8:47Speaker 2: They want something that we're not willing to give them,
- 8:51Speaker 2: they will usually have a dead set, fared income, full
- 8:55Speaker 2: blown dummy spit and completely lose the plot before we
- 9:00Speaker 2: get to have a conversation with them. We had this
- 9:02Speaker 2: happened in the last few weeks in our home. We
- 9:04Speaker 2: were dealing with the screen issue all over again. We
- 9:07Speaker 2: said to one of the kids, we really need to
- 9:08Speaker 2: sit down and have a conversation. We don't want to
- 9:10Speaker 2: have a big battle of we don't have a big war.
- 9:12Speaker 2: You're big enough to have this conversation, so let's just.
- 9:14Speaker 3: Chat it through.
- 9:16Speaker 2: And instead of chatting it through, she lost the plot.
- 9:18Speaker 2: She slammed the door. She did, I'm not talking any
- 9:20Speaker 2: of the other boys parents in the world. This is
- 9:22Speaker 2: so unfair and just totally blew up. But later on
- 9:25Speaker 2: that night we were able to sit down and while
- 9:27Speaker 2: she was still not the most excited participant in the conversation,
- 9:31Speaker 2: we got to have the conversation, and there.
- 9:34Speaker 3: Was no conflict.
- 9:36Speaker 2: As we walked through that conversation, she'd calm down, she
- 9:38Speaker 2: knew that the conversation needed to be had, and we
- 9:40Speaker 2: were able to work things through reasonably well. And well,
- 9:43Speaker 2: we haven't had perfect compliance subsequent to the conversation, we've
- 9:46Speaker 2: been able to see vast improvements.
- 9:49Speaker 4: What was interesting in that specific context was just the
- 9:53Speaker 4: realization that, in spite of all of the conversations we've had,
- 9:58Speaker 4: she was still oblivious to what our concerns were.
- 10:02Speaker 2: And that's such an important thing for us to highlight.
- 10:04Speaker 2: If you're a parent and you think because I've had
- 10:06Speaker 2: the conversation it's done, think again. It doesn't go in
- 10:11Speaker 2: like honestly, You've got to have the conversation multiple times.
- 10:15Speaker 2: There's just no such thing as a one off. It's
- 10:17Speaker 2: an ongoing conversation. And I think that's why we as
- 10:20Speaker 2: parents get so frustrated because it is so exhausting.
- 10:25Speaker 3: It's such a.
- 10:28Speaker 2: I don't even know what the word is that I'm
- 10:29Speaker 2: looking for. It's just so tiring all the time. So
- 10:34Speaker 2: I reckon, there's a couple of things that we can
- 10:35Speaker 2: do to frame this well. The first is, you know,
- 10:38Speaker 2: my ladder of life metaphor. I use it all the time, yep,
- 10:41Speaker 2: And the kids roll their eyes when they hear it.
- 10:43Speaker 2: But it's a good metaphor.
- 10:45Speaker 4: Only because you're on top.
- 10:46Speaker 3: Well.
- 10:47Speaker 2: They will have the chance to do that in their
- 10:48Speaker 2: own lives at some point. But here's the metaphor. I
- 10:52Speaker 2: like to frame these conversations with the kids by saying,
- 10:55Speaker 2: life is like climbing a ladder, and I've climbed, and
- 10:58Speaker 2: then I say how many.
- 10:59Speaker 3: Rungs of the ladder I've climbed?
- 11:01Speaker 1: Two?
- 11:01Speaker 2: Come on, I've climbed nearly fifty rungs, like forty six,
- 11:06Speaker 2: forty seven rungs up this ladder of life. And the
- 11:09Speaker 2: view from forty seven rungs up, I can see a
- 11:13Speaker 2: long way into the distance. I can see a lot
- 11:14Speaker 2: of stuff that's coming. And it's my job, as the
- 11:17Speaker 2: person higher up the ladder to warn the people lower
- 11:19Speaker 2: down the ladder that there's stuff coming.
- 11:21Speaker 3: Now, here's the difference.
- 11:22Speaker 2: When you're low on the ladder, like you're twelve, or
- 11:25Speaker 2: you're fifteen, or you're three or four, you can't see
- 11:28Speaker 2: very far at all, but but you think you can, yeah,
- 11:31Speaker 2: because you can see further now than you've ever been
- 11:32Speaker 2: able to see you above the trees.
- 11:34Speaker 5: Right.
- 11:34Speaker 4: You're above the tree line now and you can actually
- 11:36Speaker 4: see and it looks like you can see the.
- 11:39Speaker 3: World right right.
- 11:41Speaker 2: The other thing about being further down the ladder, though,
- 11:43Speaker 2: and I explained this to the kids, is you get
- 11:45Speaker 2: to see all the detail. I can't see the detail
- 11:48Speaker 2: from up here. I'm pretty high up. I can see
- 11:50Speaker 2: stuff that's coming, but I'm not in the thick of it.
- 11:52Speaker 2: I'm not down in the mutin and the leaves and
- 11:55Speaker 2: in the trees and in the ground. I can't see
- 11:57Speaker 2: and hear what the kids at score are actually saying.
- 12:00Speaker 2: I'm not looking at the chats that you're involved in.
- 12:03Speaker 2: If we're talking about screens and social media, for example,
- 12:06Speaker 2: I don't know exactly what's going on there. I just
- 12:08Speaker 2: know because I'm so high up, I can see the
- 12:10Speaker 2: trouble that's coming. And therefore, while you know more detail,
- 12:15Speaker 2: I have more of this big picture of you. And
- 12:17Speaker 2: as your parent, it's my job to warn you about
- 12:19Speaker 2: what's coming and work out with you how we can
- 12:22Speaker 2: keep you safe, because you're going to be stuck in
- 12:24Speaker 2: the actual warfare.
- 12:26Speaker 3: That happens lower down the ladder.
- 12:28Speaker 2: Now that metaphor is a framing for a conversation, is
- 12:31Speaker 2: actually a pretty powerful way to help kids become open
- 12:34Speaker 2: to an alternative perspective, perspective that they're not real flash
- 12:38Speaker 2: on hearing otherwise.
- 12:39Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 12:39Speaker 4: So what happens though, if you use that metaphor and
- 12:43Speaker 4: it doesn't work any magic. Your kid looks at you
- 12:46Speaker 4: like you have no clue what you're talking about. They're
- 12:49Speaker 4: not willing to meet you anywhere close to the middle
- 12:52Speaker 4: to be able to have what you would consider an
- 12:55Speaker 4: adult to adult conversation.
- 12:57Speaker 2: Well, it's not an adult to adult conversation. And I
- 12:59Speaker 2: would say welcome to parenthood, because we do talk to
- 13:02Speaker 2: web blue in the face and the kids really do
- 13:04Speaker 2: think that they know better. Well, I mean, I'm aststoundard
- 13:06Speaker 2: at how much our eight year old really thinks that
- 13:08Speaker 2: she knows compared to us. She knows everything, absolutely, But
- 13:13Speaker 2: it's not about having an adult to adult conversation. This
- 13:17Speaker 2: is a parent to child conversation. And I think the
- 13:20Speaker 2: second thing that I would encourage with the framing, which
- 13:22Speaker 2: kind of answers this question, is to let your child
- 13:25Speaker 2: know this is a really big challenge for us, whether
- 13:28Speaker 2: it's going to bed on time or whether it's eating
- 13:30Speaker 2: good food, or whether it's choosing good friends or pick
- 13:34Speaker 2: your issue, all the way through to the screens and
- 13:35Speaker 2: the alcohol and the heavy stuff of the adolescent years,
- 13:38Speaker 2: the relationship will always come first. I love you no
- 13:42Speaker 2: matter what you choose. I love you no matter whether
- 13:45Speaker 2: you follow my requests and my preferences or not.
- 13:52Speaker 3: But what's going to.
- 13:53Speaker 2: Make you happier and healthier, what's going to keep you safer,
- 13:57Speaker 2: is for us to work together on this and find
- 13:58Speaker 2: a solution that we can both.
- 13:59Speaker 3: Feel good about. And just by making the relationship primary,
- 14:03Speaker 3: it actually.
- 14:03Speaker 2: Draws kids to us. It helps them to recognize that
- 14:06Speaker 2: we're there now. This is not well, I'm going to
- 14:08Speaker 2: be really soft on you and let you do whatever
- 14:09Speaker 2: you want.
- 14:10Speaker 3: It's not that it's.
- 14:11Speaker 2: Letting them know I value the relationship. It's absolutely critical.
- 14:17Speaker 2: There's a third thing that I want to highlight, and
- 14:19Speaker 2: that is that it's not worth going to war over preferences.
- 14:25Speaker 2: There are some principles, some values that it actually is.
- 14:29Speaker 3: Worth going to war on.
- 14:31Speaker 2: It really is worth having the battle, and that might
- 14:33Speaker 2: be things to do with the genuine safety and health
- 14:36Speaker 2: and protection of your child.
- 14:38Speaker 3: If they've got preferences about.
- 14:39Speaker 2: Music and you don't like the music, or if they've
- 14:42Speaker 2: got preferences.
- 14:43Speaker 3: Around what foods they do and don't like.
- 14:44Speaker 2: I mean, we've all got preferences, and it's just that
- 14:48Speaker 2: we're the grown ups, and so we get to we
- 14:51Speaker 2: just get to think that our preferences are normal and
- 14:53Speaker 2: everybody should toe the line with our preferences. But that's
- 14:56Speaker 2: not how it is at all. So preferences versus principles.
- 14:59Speaker 2: Preferences go easy. Principles, that's the stuff where you say, actually,
- 15:04Speaker 2: as a matter of principle, this is just a big
- 15:07Speaker 2: fat no. And again you won't have to do it
- 15:10Speaker 2: very often.
- 15:11Speaker 4: So I guess we've got a couple of take home
- 15:12Speaker 4: messages from today's conversation. There are going to be a
- 15:16Speaker 4: bajillion conversations that are worth having, right but hopefully if
- 15:20Speaker 4: we take the right approach that they don't actually need
- 15:23Speaker 4: to become fights. There might be some contention as you
- 15:28Speaker 4: start to work things through, but I guess that number
- 15:31Speaker 4: one take home would be that the relationship comes first
- 15:34Speaker 4: no matter what, and letting your child know that you
- 15:37Speaker 4: love them no matter what choices they make. But these
- 15:40Speaker 4: things are important, and we want to try and work
- 15:42Speaker 4: with them, not against them.
- 15:44Speaker 2: And I want to add to that, I always frame
- 15:46Speaker 2: with our kids that this is about being healthy and
- 15:50Speaker 2: about being safe, and about being wise. I don't ever
- 15:54Speaker 2: frame it in terms of what's right and wrong or
- 15:56Speaker 2: what's good and bad, because.
- 15:58Speaker 3: They really resist our morale.
- 16:01Speaker 2: And you can argue about what's good and bad based
- 16:03Speaker 2: on any number of other factors and judgments.
- 16:06Speaker 4: I don't have your life experience, so you saying that
- 16:09Speaker 4: social media is bad based on your knowledge and experience
- 16:13Speaker 4: doesn't equate to what they're seeing.
- 16:15Speaker 3: Yeah, their experiences.
- 16:16Speaker 2: No, it's not bad, and everyone's on it and this
- 16:18Speaker 2: is my life. Whereas if we talk about safety and
- 16:20Speaker 2: being healthy and making wise choices, there's no moral contaminant
- 16:25Speaker 2: in there, and it's much harder to argue against that.
- 16:28Speaker 2: It's just better footing. That doesn't mean that as a
- 16:30Speaker 2: parent you don't believe that there's good and bad, right
- 16:32Speaker 2: and wrong. It just means that the conversations go smoother
- 16:36Speaker 2: when we remove the moral element and focus instead on
- 16:39Speaker 2: what's healthy, what's safe, and what's wise.
- 16:44Speaker 4: And I think lastly, the latter metaphor that you use
- 16:47Speaker 4: is really powerful to show perspective. And you know, if
- 16:51Speaker 4: you wanted to take it to the extreme, go and
- 16:53Speaker 4: climb a ladder together. Yeah, ask them what they see
- 16:56Speaker 4: from their rung three rungs up and your rung ten
- 16:59Speaker 4: rung up? What can they see and what's the difference.
- 17:02Speaker 3: Yeah, and you don't even need a ladder.
- 17:04Speaker 2: You can stand in the upstairs window versus the downstairs
- 17:08Speaker 2: window and just look at the different perspective, or put
- 17:10Speaker 2: someone on the roof, like, massive, massive difference is there.
- 17:15Speaker 2: I just want to highlight as well though. Expect contention,
- 17:17Speaker 2: expect hardship, Expect some sort of a challenge because the
- 17:20Speaker 2: kids do get annoyed. They want their perspectives to be
- 17:22Speaker 2: heard and they want their own way. So hopefully this
- 17:25Speaker 2: has been a helpful conversation about how you can navigate
- 17:27Speaker 2: those challenges. The Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin
- 17:30Speaker 2: Ruland for Bridge Media, with Craig Bruce as our executive producer.
- 17:34Speaker 2: If you'd like more info about making your family happy,
- 17:36Speaker 2: please join us at Happy families dot com. Do AU