Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / Parental Anxiety and Exhaustion at Christmas [with Rebecca Dredge]

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Parental Anxiety and Exhaustion at Christmas [with Rebecca Dredge] · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Christmas can be a time of well, celebration and excitement
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: of course, but also anxiety, frustration, and stress for a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: whole lot of parents. Joining me for a conversation about
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the I guess the negative, the downside. I've a bit
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: of a down up. But it's real right about Christmas
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: holidays kids and the just the challenges associated with kids
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: having six weeks off school and what we're supposed to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: do about it. Is Rebecca Dredge. Rebecca is the CEO
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: of the Kiddo App, and I'm really grateful that she
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  Speaker 1: takes us some time out of her extraordinarily busy schedule
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  Speaker 1: to have a chat with me right now about why
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  Speaker 1: ouzsie parents are feeling anxious about the school holidays. Hey, Beck,
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  Speaker 1: nice to have you along tell me about this survey.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me justin So the Kiddo App, we've
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  Speaker 2: got such a big community. We've got twenty three thousand
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  Speaker 2: people that use our app, so we really wanted to
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  Speaker 2: dive in and understand you know, what parents are feeling.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: We all know the school's coming to an end. Some parents,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: it's about starting the new year. It's orientation days, it's
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  Speaker 2: Christmas shopping, it's putting up the trees, you know. So
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  Speaker 2: we just wanted to understand how parents actually felt, and
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  Speaker 2: it's quite alarming. You know. There's a lot of us
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  Speaker 2: that look forward to the holidays for some quality downtime
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  Speaker 2: with our children. But at the same time, up to
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  Speaker 2: a third of parents are really having that anxiety about
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  Speaker 2: worrying what they're going to do on the school holidays,
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  Speaker 2: how they're going to juggle work and entertaining the kids.
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  Speaker 3: So, yeah, it's a lot for parents.
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  Speaker 1: I remember some years ago when we started to have
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  Speaker 1: to deal with this ourselves, and we've got six kids, right,
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  Speaker 1: maybe ten twelve years ago, we kind of went hang
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  Speaker 1: on school holidays is meant to be fun, except we're
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: juggling work, and we're juggling the financial commitments, and we're
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  Speaker 1: juggling Now we've got to like entertain the kids and
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  Speaker 1: we don't want to leave them staring at the screen
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  Speaker 1: all day. When you've got other commitments that are not flexible,
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  Speaker 1: it becomes a stressful time.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it really is.
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  Speaker 2: I mean I talked to a lot of mums and
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  Speaker 2: there's mums that have literally got Excel spreadsheets for the
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  Speaker 2: six weeks and it's you know, husband's got these three
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  Speaker 2: days off, Grandma can do these two days.
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  Speaker 3: You know, this week is you know.
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  Speaker 2: Osh at school, we've got time off then, and then
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  Speaker 2: what are we going to do in that time off?
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, it is it's a real straining time.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you had the pressure of and we're
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  Speaker 1: having the family Christmas party at our place in the
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  Speaker 1: morning from ten thirty till two. But then we've got
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  Speaker 1: to go to the in laws for their one from
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  Speaker 1: a three till seven, and we've got to do all
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  Speaker 1: the cleanup and the tidy up and the setup and
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  Speaker 1: the backdown and the all the money that's got to
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  Speaker 1: be spent. I mean, it really is pretty hard core. So, Beck,
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  Speaker 1: when you looked at this data two and five, forty
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  Speaker 1: three percent of Australian parents really do love school holidays
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  Speaker 1: and love getting quality time with their kids. But like
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  Speaker 1: you said, more than a third almost the same about
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  Speaker 1: thirty five percent say no, this is this is hard work.
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  Speaker 1: There's anxiety around this, there's a lot to juggle. What
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  Speaker 1: what do you think parents, when you look at what
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  Speaker 1: they told you, what seems to be useful for parents
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  Speaker 1: so that they can get the balance right, so that
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  Speaker 1: it actually feels nice to have Christmas, even with all
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: of the pressure that's on so many families.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, look, it's about prioritizing what you need
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  Speaker 2: to do, trying not to get too overwhelmed with everything.
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  Speaker 3: If there are.
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  Speaker 2: Things that you don't need to do, just say no,
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  Speaker 2: Like if there's just you know, if there's too many commitments,
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  Speaker 2: say no.
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  Speaker 1: The power of no is enormous, and so often we
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  Speaker 1: forget that is an option.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: We feel completely obligated to go to the neighborhood Christmas
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  Speaker 1: party and the surf club or the Scout group or
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  Speaker 1: the church or the whatever community thing that you're involved,
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  Speaker 1: and you've got to go to there one as well.
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  Speaker 1: And then there's the work one plus your partner's work one,
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  Speaker 1: and there's like, there are so many events, there's so
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  Speaker 1: much to do. It's okay to say no.
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  Speaker 2: It's okay to say no, and it's okay just to prioritize,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and you kiddo's there if you need a babysitter,
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  Speaker 2: but it is you know, outsourcing and just it can
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  Speaker 2: even be stressful having to ask family to babysit during
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: this time because that's another add of pressure. Then you
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  Speaker 2: go oh, then I've got parents in law staying for
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  Speaker 2: a night. So it is about, you know, saying no
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  Speaker 2: limiting the amount of invites.
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  Speaker 3: You put on your fridge.
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  Speaker 2: You know, your freage doesn't have to be clutted with
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  Speaker 2: every single invite, with every event that's happening. An outsource
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  Speaker 2: where possible, so us parents, you know, we don't burn out,
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  Speaker 2: we don't all get sick, and we're not you know,
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  Speaker 2: we need to enjoy ourselves as well and be there
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  Speaker 2: for our kids, not completely and utterly exhausted.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to add another couple of things to this
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  Speaker 1: and feel free to fill in around the edges if
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  Speaker 1: I miss anything. But in our family, what Kylie, my
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  Speaker 1: wife has done, is essentially pulled together the calendar and
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  Speaker 1: just jot down literally organize the day to day. Here's
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  Speaker 1: what we're doing on this day. We're going to make
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  Speaker 1: sure that we've got quality family time two or three
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  Speaker 1: times this week. It might be a morning, it might
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  Speaker 1: be an evening, it could be on the weekend. But
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  Speaker 1: we're just putting in this stuff that really matters, and
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: then we can fill in around it with the other
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  Speaker 1: stuff if it fits. But we're going to do the
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  Speaker 1: stuff that matters for us. First, that organization. The intention
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  Speaker 1: around that I've been so impressed with is she's done that,
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  Speaker 1: and I love that. I love your point about booking
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  Speaker 1: a babysitter in laws. But we just had a podcast
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  Speaker 1: go out last week on Thursday about the challenges that
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  Speaker 1: come with that. Do you have any I mean, maybe
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  Speaker 1: there's an opportunity to give Kitto a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a plug. Tell me what Kiddo does and how that
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  Speaker 1: can help in that in that vein.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so kiddo. Look, we're an app. We're there are
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  Speaker 2: twenty four to seven. You can download Kiddo from the
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  Speaker 2: app store. You simply input the time and date you
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  Speaker 2: need a babysitter for nanny, and we'll show you who's available.
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  Speaker 2: So there's no having to go backwards and forwards to
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  Speaker 2: being asked someone can help and then be rejected. You
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  Speaker 2: simply log on, input your time and date. You can
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  Speaker 2: preview profiles and book in the app. You can do
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  Speaker 2: this at ten thirty at night. Is you know it's
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  Speaker 2: the last thing on your mind and you're, oh, I
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  Speaker 2: need to organize care for that Friday night and sit
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: there and you know doesn't matter if it's ten thirty night.
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  Speaker 2: You can do that and that request will go across
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  Speaker 2: to that babysitter and that wake up and they can
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  Speaker 2: you know, confirm it for you. But it's just a
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  Speaker 2: great go to, a great resource to just quietly go
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  Speaker 2: and book some care if that's what you need to
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  Speaker 2: get through the next few weeks to get through to Christmas.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, sounds great. And we'll link to the Kiddo
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  Speaker 1: app in our show notes for this. One last question
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  Speaker 1: for you, how are you going to deal with the
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  Speaker 1: stress and the challenge. I mean, you're running a business,
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  Speaker 1: You've got all of your commitments across Christmas. How are
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  Speaker 1: you going to get through it yourself?
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  Speaker 2: Quite literally, I have prioritized normally, you know, I do
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  Speaker 2: a big Christmas event. This year, I've just said, you
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  Speaker 2: know what, I can't do it. We've had a big
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  Speaker 2: year at Kiddo, We've gone national. I just can't do
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  Speaker 2: too many things. You've got to look after your health.
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  Speaker 2: You've got to look after number one. You've got to
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  Speaker 2: be in great shape for your kids. Yeah, so it's prioritizing.
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  Speaker 2: I've booked some babysitters so I've got that peace of
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  Speaker 2: mind knowing Yep, I've got that extra sed of hands
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  Speaker 2: when I need them, and I'm.
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  Speaker 3: Just going to guide in Christmas Day and really enjoy it.
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  Speaker 1: I love that work. I'm going to glide into Christmas Day.
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  Speaker 1: That has just become my brand new goal. Fingers cross,
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  Speaker 1: fingers cross. We can all glide through the next week,
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  Speaker 1: Bie and all have it.
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  Speaker 3: Cheers Christmas morning, go and we made it and we
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  Speaker 3: feel good.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, sounds great. Rebecca Dritch, CEO of kiddoapp dot com
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  Speaker 1: dot AU, really appreciate your sharing what you found from
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  Speaker 1: your community of twenty three thousand parents about Christmas holiday anxiety.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining me on the Happy Families podcast.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. Merry Christmas.
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  Speaker 1: Merry Christmas to you too. The Happy Families Podcast is
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  Speaker 1: produced by Justin Ruland from Bridge Media, and as always,
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  Speaker 1: if you'd like more info about what we've talked about,
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  Speaker 1: check the show notes for today's episode and visit us
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  Speaker 1: at Happy Families dot com dot a