Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #593 Tween Tensions
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast.
- 0:05Speaker 2: It's the podcast for.
- 0:07Speaker 3: The time poor parent who just wants answers. Now, you
- 0:10Speaker 3: get to a point where often you actually stop seeing
- 0:14Speaker 3: your child as a child and you just see them
- 0:17Speaker 3: as a combination of problems, and that's what you actually
- 0:22Speaker 3: start to focus.
- 0:23Speaker 2: On that's going to affect you related to this need one.
- 0:26Speaker 3: And now here's the stars of our show, my mum
- 0:29Speaker 3: and dad.
- 0:30Speaker 1: Hello, this is doctor Justin Coleson, the founder of Happy
- 0:32Speaker 1: Families dot com, dot you, and the parenting expert and
- 0:34Speaker 1: co host of channel Lines Parental Guidance. I'm here with Kylie,
- 0:37Speaker 1: mum to our six kids, and my wife person who
- 0:40Speaker 1: I just love puzzling over parenting with Kylie. Every now
- 0:44Speaker 1: and then, well most tuesdays, we encounter a listener dilemma,
- 0:47Speaker 1: and today we have.
- 0:49Speaker 2: Got a doozy.
- 0:50Speaker 1: I'm actually not sure where to go with this one
- 0:51Speaker 1: at this point, but I'm sure we'll figure it out
- 0:52Speaker 1: as we go. This person by the name of Allison
- 0:56Speaker 1: has just said help help. Our tween daughter eleven or
- 1:00Speaker 1: twelve is pushing boundaries. At the moment, she's seeing how
- 1:03Speaker 1: far she can push before getting ready to leave the
- 1:06Speaker 1: house for school or for fun things. When we enforce
- 1:09Speaker 1: boundaries and rules, she gets frustrated and acts out or
- 1:13Speaker 1: bursts into anger. We've talked to her and tried to
- 1:16Speaker 1: understand what's going on for her and reflected on how
- 1:19Speaker 1: she felt, how we felt, and how her brother feels
- 1:22Speaker 1: when she gets out of control on slam's doors, kicks
- 1:24Speaker 1: the walls, etc.
- 1:26Speaker 2: Any tips would be appreciated and.
- 1:27Speaker 1: Where we as parents can go when we feel like
- 1:29Speaker 1: we've got nothing left in the toolbox. Well, tough question, Allison. Fortunately,
- 1:36Speaker 1: Kylie is here to answer your question and to help
- 1:39Speaker 1: you to deal with your twin daughter. We have had
- 1:42Speaker 1: five of them at that age now, and I think
- 1:43Speaker 1: we've been through it more than once.
- 1:45Speaker 3: I think we're going through it right now.
- 1:49Speaker 1: So Kylie, I mean, I've always got a handful of
- 1:51Speaker 1: ideas here, but this one is tricky because it sounds
- 1:53Speaker 1: like Alison and her husband having really thoughtful conversations with
- 1:58Speaker 1: their kiddo. They're trying to work through things in a
- 2:01Speaker 1: patient and autonomy supportive way, but it just doesn't seem
- 2:05Speaker 1: to be working.
- 2:07Speaker 3: One of the things that I've recognized time and time
- 2:09Speaker 3: again as each of our children have displayed challenging behavior
- 2:14Speaker 3: is that it is a symptom of something much deeper.
- 2:18Speaker 3: I think about my experiences as a teenager and just,
- 2:21Speaker 3: you know, kind of when I have smart mouth or
- 2:24Speaker 3: you know, kind of just gave my parents a really
- 2:26Speaker 3: hard time.
- 2:26Speaker 1: I can't imagine you're having a smart mouth or giving
- 2:28Speaker 1: your parents a hard time. You seem to me like
- 2:30Speaker 1: you would have been just the golden child.
- 2:33Speaker 3: You're too kind. But without fail, there was something else
- 2:37Speaker 3: going on in my life that I couldn't either articulate, yes,
- 2:41Speaker 3: or I didn't understand right, and I didn't have the
- 2:46Speaker 3: skills to be able to work through it in a
- 2:51Speaker 3: more appropriate way.
- 2:52Speaker 1: I was going to go in a different direction, but
- 2:54Speaker 1: land in the same place. When I hear a story
- 2:57Speaker 1: about this, one of the things that I immediately think
- 3:00Speaker 1: is when we sit down with an.
- 3:01Speaker 2: Eleven year old or a four year old, or even.
- 3:04Speaker 1: Sometimes a seven even sometimes with our husband wife partner,
- 3:07Speaker 1: and we ask them to articulate what's going on. Sometimes
- 3:10Speaker 1: it's just too hard. Sometimes there's a lack of self awareness,
- 3:13Speaker 1: or there's a lack of insight. Sometimes they just don't know.
- 3:17Speaker 1: Sometimes you just feel lousy, you feel like everything's going wrong.
- 3:20Speaker 1: But as I was looking at this, I'm thinking there
- 3:24Speaker 1: are three basic psychological needs that we all have, and
- 3:26Speaker 1: we flourish, we thrive, We just do so well when
- 3:29Speaker 1: these needs are being met. When they're not, when we're
- 3:32Speaker 1: in an environment that thwarts or frustrates those needs, then
- 3:37Speaker 1: we see motivation drop, we see well being drop, we
- 3:39Speaker 1: see the kinds of challenging behaviors that Allison's describing in
- 3:43Speaker 1: her daughter. So those three basic psychological needs are a
- 3:47Speaker 1: need for relatedness, high quality relationships, a sense of belonging connection.
- 3:53Speaker 1: They're a need for competence, like it's nice when you've
- 3:57Speaker 1: got mastery over your environment, and eleven year olds don't
- 4:00Speaker 1: usually feel like they have a whole lot of mastery.
- 4:04Speaker 1: But there's also the desire for control or autonomy. I
- 4:07Speaker 1: want to live and act volitionally, and our kids really
- 4:11Speaker 1: do prize that, perhaps more than anything else. So my
- 4:14Speaker 1: initial thoughts are, Alison, I'm curious to know whether or
- 4:18Speaker 1: not relationships are good at school, at home, in any
- 4:21Speaker 1: other context. Is there something that's happened in a relationship
- 4:24Speaker 1: that's undermining your ability to all get along, And is
- 4:28Speaker 1: your parenting the way that you're responding to her potentially
- 4:30Speaker 1: making her feel like the relationship is at risk. Is
- 4:33Speaker 1: there what psychologists call conditional parental regard happening where kids
- 4:37Speaker 1: get this really strong sense, oh yeah, yeah, you love
- 4:40Speaker 1: me when I do what you ask me to do,
- 4:42Speaker 1: but when I don't do the stuff that you ask
- 4:45Speaker 1: I kind of feel like you withhold you love. That's
- 4:47Speaker 1: called conditional parental regard, and that can really upset that
- 4:50Speaker 1: support for relatedness belonging needs.
- 4:54Speaker 3: I feel like I've actually gone through this process with
- 4:58Speaker 3: each of the children multiple times day front ages, and
- 5:01Speaker 3: you get to a point where often you actually stop
- 5:05Speaker 3: seeing your child as a child and you just see
- 5:08Speaker 3: them as a combination of problems. They're the back chatter,
- 5:12Speaker 3: or they've always got to have the last say, or
- 5:15Speaker 3: whatever it is they slammed all the time, and that's
- 5:17Speaker 3: what you actually start to focus on. And as humans,
- 5:20Speaker 3: I think that we're all similar in that regard, and
- 5:24Speaker 3: so God.
- 5:24Speaker 2: That's going to affect your related this need.
- 5:26Speaker 3: One hundred percent. And while ever I focus on the
- 5:30Speaker 3: problems that I see, I never am able to show
- 5:34Speaker 3: up as the parent I want to show up. I
- 5:36Speaker 3: actually have to let go of all of that and
- 5:39Speaker 3: recognize that at the core of the behavior I'm seeing
- 5:43Speaker 3: is a child who is hurting.
- 5:46Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 5:47Speaker 1: I have had more stories come to me than I
- 5:50Speaker 1: can count from parents who have been going through exactly this,
- 5:53Speaker 1: and I've just said to them, let's work on the
- 5:55Speaker 1: relatedst need.
- 5:56Speaker 2: And the parents will say, as I'm sure Alison would.
- 5:58Speaker 3: I'm doing everything.
- 6:00Speaker 1: So committed, and I tell her that I love her,
- 6:02Speaker 1: and I spend time with her, and we spend money
- 6:04Speaker 1: on her, and we do things together, and nothing seems
- 6:07Speaker 1: to work, at which point I would pause and say,
- 6:11Speaker 1: how much correction and direction is in the relationship? How
- 6:13Speaker 1: much does she feel unconditionally accepted When parents change their
- 6:19Speaker 1: view of the child, change their labels on the child,
- 6:21Speaker 1: when they start to focus on the child's strengths, and
- 6:24Speaker 1: when they start to really build the relationship from a
- 6:26Speaker 1: point of view that they essentially say to the child,
- 6:29Speaker 1: even when you're mad, I love you, even when you're
- 6:32Speaker 1: kicking the wall or slamming the door.
- 6:34Speaker 2: I still love you. Even when you.
- 6:37Speaker 1: Yell at your brother and you say unkind things to me.
- 6:42Speaker 2: Or your dad. I still love you. I always will.
- 6:45Speaker 2: I love you no matter what.
- 6:47Speaker 1: When we have that kind of a conversation with that child,
- 6:49Speaker 1: not usually in the middle of the slamming of the
- 6:50Speaker 1: door by.
- 6:51Speaker 2: The way, because that doesn't work so well.
- 6:53Speaker 1: But when they've calmed down half an hour later, when
- 6:55Speaker 1: they start to experience unconditional parental regard, that unconditionality doesn't
- 7:00Speaker 1: mean that we're accepting what they're doing. We're still going
- 7:02Speaker 1: to have to work that out, but we're saying, you
- 7:05Speaker 1: are so valuable to me, you are so worthy in
- 7:08Speaker 1: my eyes. There's nothing that you can do that will
- 7:10Speaker 1: change the way I feel about you. When they feel
- 7:14Speaker 1: like that, and they really believe it in their bones,
- 7:17Speaker 1: they start to change.
- 7:18Speaker 3: And I've noticed that especially there's one week in a
- 7:22Speaker 3: month in our house where everything goes, hey, wife for
- 7:25Speaker 3: a little while.
- 7:26Speaker 1: What week would that be, Kylie? A house of how
- 7:29Speaker 1: many how many females?
- 7:31Speaker 2: Five right? Five men?
- 7:34Speaker 3: Females in a week and it can actually get really
- 7:37Speaker 3: full on.
- 7:38Speaker 2: And during that week, you know what I do. I
- 7:40Speaker 2: don't know if you've noticed what I do? You disappear,
- 7:43Speaker 2: I no, I do not I hug. You do a lot.
- 7:49Speaker 1: You do everyone all the time, no matter what happens.
- 7:54Speaker 1: There's an unconditional, unquestionable love that just because you're in
- 8:00Speaker 1: a bad mood doesn't mean that.
- 8:01Speaker 3: I like you, and I think you've been a wonderful
- 8:03Speaker 3: role model of doing that, because I feel like it's
- 8:06Speaker 3: something that I have started to take on board as
- 8:08Speaker 3: well as I am able to just again take that
- 8:13Speaker 3: step back and go. Things are pretty tough for this
- 8:18Speaker 3: this kiddo at the moment, and you know, just where
- 8:21Speaker 3: I would normally actually withdraw, not so much my love,
- 8:25Speaker 3: my presence, I just I just withdraw. It's like this
- 8:27Speaker 3: is I don't want to go into the lion's den
- 8:29Speaker 3: right now. I actually am seeking opportunities to just connect,
- 8:36Speaker 3: and more cases than not, it's literally just I don't
- 8:38Speaker 3: even say anything. I just go up and I grab
- 8:40Speaker 3: them into a hug, and before I know it, I
- 8:43Speaker 3: just feel the melt. That hard exteria disappears and things
- 8:48Speaker 3: just keep, you.
- 8:49Speaker 2: Know, kind of going.
- 8:49Speaker 3: And sometimes I want to talk to me about things,
- 8:51Speaker 3: and other times they don't. Sometimes they understand what's going
- 8:54Speaker 3: on and they're able to articulate it once I kind
- 8:56Speaker 3: of calm them down. Other times they have no idea
- 8:59Speaker 3: and it's like it's okay. Sometimes I have days like
- 9:02Speaker 3: that too.
- 9:03Speaker 1: Yeah, last night one of our kids was absolutely losing it.
- 9:05Speaker 1: I'm a major footbine tantrum, and when I walked into
- 9:09Speaker 1: the room, she looked at me and screamed, get out.
- 9:11Speaker 2: It was pretty hostile. I felt like I was about
- 9:13Speaker 2: to be intact.
- 9:14Speaker 1: I said, okay, I'm leaving, and as I walked out,
- 9:16Speaker 1: I said, but I would really love to hug you
- 9:18Speaker 1: and help you to feel better. So when you're ready
- 9:20Speaker 1: for a hug, you let me know, and I reckon.
- 9:23Speaker 1: It was thirty seconds later she called out to me
- 9:26Speaker 1: and said, Dad, I need a hug. And I went
- 9:28Speaker 1: and laid down on the bed with her and hugged her,
- 9:29Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, okay. So she's still going
- 9:32Speaker 1: to be explosive because she's a kid, and she's immature,
- 9:34Speaker 1: and she's irrational, and she doesn't know how to control
- 9:36Speaker 1: her and regulate her emotions and her behaviors. But her
- 9:39Speaker 1: knowing that the unconditional support that she needs is right
- 9:43Speaker 1: there means that she can pull it together.
- 9:45Speaker 2: Pretty darn quick.
- 9:47Speaker 1: And it is volatile, it is hostile, but it's short lived,
- 9:49Speaker 1: and then there's repair and restoration really fast. So that's
- 9:53Speaker 1: the first thing, Allison that we want to talk about
- 9:55Speaker 1: building that connection. The second and third things coming up
- 9:58Speaker 1: right off the break. Imagine a relationship where you felt seen,
- 10:05Speaker 1: heard and valued. One where as your partner enters the
- 10:09Speaker 1: front door, they see you and their eyes light up.
- 10:13Speaker 1: A relationship like that is a gift. If you don't
- 10:16Speaker 1: have it now you can. The Happy Family's webinar Better
- 10:19Speaker 1: Together gives you the insight, tools and support you need
- 10:23Speaker 1: to have a happier relationship. Available now at The Happy
- 10:26Speaker 1: Family's web shop.
- 10:29Speaker 3: It's the Happy Families Podcast, the podcast for the time
- 10:31Speaker 3: poor parent who just wants answers. Now, what other tips
- 10:34Speaker 3: have you got? Doctor Colson?
- 10:35Speaker 1: Okay, So the second issue that I think could be
- 10:37Speaker 1: happening here in terms of thwarted or frustrated needs is
- 10:41Speaker 1: this need for competence. It sort of sounds a little
- 10:44Speaker 1: bit weird to say that an eleven year old might
- 10:45Speaker 1: be feeling incompetent, but that's kind of how they live
- 10:48Speaker 1: their lives. They go to school all day and they
- 10:49Speaker 1: feel incompetent. They have friendship challenges and they feel incompetent.
- 10:53Speaker 1: They come home, they get told they didn't make the
- 10:54Speaker 1: bed properly, or they didn't pick up their shoes, they
- 10:56Speaker 1: didn't put their jumper away, they've left bed bag in
- 10:58Speaker 1: the wrong place, or they can't find their swimming gold
- 11:00Speaker 1: or whatever it is. And there's all these reminders consistently
- 11:03Speaker 1: that they're incompetent, and then they struggle to regulate their
- 11:06Speaker 1: emotions and their behaviors and they can't do that.
- 11:08Speaker 2: And then we sit down and say, well, you've got
- 11:09Speaker 2: to do this better, and what's going on?
- 11:10Speaker 1: And there's a consistent theme, consistent message that I'm not capable.
- 11:16Speaker 1: I'm not mastering the stuff that's required. My parents they've
- 11:18Speaker 1: got it all together. They don't know our personal struggles.
- 11:21Speaker 1: They think that we've got it all together, so we
- 11:23Speaker 1: seem competent. They're surrounded by competent people, but they feel
- 11:26Speaker 1: so incompetent, and that can lead them to have outbursts
- 11:29Speaker 1: and feel disregulated and really feel upset.
- 11:33Speaker 3: Do you think that sense of a lack of control
- 11:36Speaker 3: plays into this feeling of incompetence well, or is it
- 11:39Speaker 3: two totally separate things.
- 11:41Speaker 1: That's actually really closely linked to what I'm talking about here.
- 11:44Speaker 1: When you've got a child who is having emotional meltdowns,
- 11:47Speaker 1: they now don't even feel competent in their capacity to
- 11:50Speaker 1: maintain regulation of their emotions and their behaviors. They feel like, oh,
- 11:54Speaker 1: my goodness, I can't even do this right. And then
- 11:55Speaker 1: when we as parents step in and say, you really
- 11:58Speaker 1: need to stop having these tantrums. Really got a hold together.
- 12:01Speaker 1: This is getting out of control. It's ruining our lives.
- 12:04Speaker 1: Not that Allison's saying it like that, of course, but
- 12:07Speaker 1: sometimes when we have those conversations, the kids go, yeah,
- 12:10Speaker 1: but I can't. I just don't know what's going on.
- 12:12Speaker 1: This is too much for me. It's too big.
- 12:15Speaker 2: Our job, therefore, is to help our children to develop.
- 12:17Speaker 1: A sense of competence and give them experiences at not
- 12:22Speaker 1: getting in trouble, at not getting things wrong, or if
- 12:25Speaker 1: they do get things wrong, not feeling like we have
- 12:27Speaker 1: to correct and direct every single thing. So I've had
- 12:30Speaker 1: a really big insight. This is one of my biggest
- 12:31Speaker 1: parenting insights of the year. When the kids do something
- 12:34Speaker 1: that's not right, I don't correct them anymore. Like if
- 12:38Speaker 1: they come into the kitchen and they're cleaning the dishes
- 12:40Speaker 1: and they don't do it properly, or they I don't know,
- 12:43Speaker 1: they set the table poorly, or they don't make their
- 12:45Speaker 1: bed properly, I don't worry about correcting them. I'm just
- 12:48Speaker 1: glad that they were there and that they gave it
- 12:49Speaker 1: a go because over time, the more they do it,
- 12:53Speaker 1: the more they practice it, the better they get at it.
- 12:55Speaker 1: And it's the same with regulating their emotions. They can't
- 12:57Speaker 1: regulate their emotions, so they're feeling competent. I'm not going
- 12:59Speaker 1: to go correcting them for it. I'm just going to
- 13:01Speaker 1: love them and let them know that they're having a
- 13:03Speaker 1: tough time but they're getting better and I'm there for
- 13:06Speaker 1: them and.
- 13:07Speaker 2: We'll figure it all out.
- 13:08Speaker 1: So competence needs to be satisfied. It takes so much
- 13:12Speaker 1: effort on our part to help them to feel safe
- 13:17Speaker 1: and to feel competent. But that's I think potentially what's
- 13:20Speaker 1: going on. Maybe she's just feeling like she's no good
- 13:22Speaker 1: at things. You think about it, when you're not feeling
- 13:24Speaker 1: competent in life, like you just you feel lousy and
- 13:28Speaker 1: you want to lash out and it doesn't feel good.
- 13:30Speaker 1: Motivations low well, beings low well.
- 13:32Speaker 3: And the worst thing is that you then lash out
- 13:34Speaker 3: and then you feel even worse about it because you've.
- 13:36Speaker 1: Just demonstrated you're incompetence. Yeah, and now you've ruptured relationships
- 13:40Speaker 1: as well. And this ties in with the third need
- 13:43Speaker 1: I mean all three of these, they're inseparably connected. And
- 13:45Speaker 1: the third one is a sense of volition, a sense
- 13:48Speaker 1: of autonomy, control over your own life. And so when
- 13:51Speaker 1: you are lashing out, you feel like you're out of control.
- 13:54Speaker 1: There's a part of you that feels like I'm doing
- 13:56Speaker 1: this on purpose. I'm lashing out because I'm so angry
- 13:58Speaker 1: and I'm in control here, and this is my way
- 13:59Speaker 1: of making control. But there's a deep part of our
- 14:02Speaker 1: psyche that understands that we are now out of control.
- 14:05Speaker 1: We have no control whatsoever. We're feeling completely controlled by
- 14:07Speaker 1: the situation, which is why we've lashed out in an
- 14:10Speaker 1: attempt to regain control. But that attempt to regain control is.
- 14:13Speaker 2: A complete loss of a complete loss.
- 14:15Speaker 1: Of control, and it demonstrates how out of control we are,
- 14:19Speaker 1: how lacking in control and volition we are, because we're
- 14:22Speaker 1: lashing out because we don't have it. And so when
- 14:25Speaker 1: you've got an eleven year old, she wants to control everything.
- 14:27Speaker 1: She probably wants to be on social media, and she
- 14:28Speaker 1: wants to be in charge of the TV remote, and
- 14:30Speaker 1: she wants to be able to ride her bike whenever
- 14:31Speaker 1: she wants, or eat as much ice cream or junk
- 14:34Speaker 1: food as she wants. She wants control over how much
- 14:36Speaker 1: homework she does, what books she read, when she comes
- 14:38Speaker 1: to the table, when she goes to bed.
- 14:39Speaker 2: This is what kids.
- 14:40Speaker 1: They want control over their lives, and as parents, we're
- 14:42Speaker 1: constantly taking that control away. So how do we meet
- 14:46Speaker 1: these basic psychological needs?
- 14:48Speaker 2: Alison?
- 14:49Speaker 1: The advice that I would give to any parent in
- 14:51Speaker 1: this situation is we continue the conversations that you're having,
- 14:55Speaker 1: but focus less on coming up with solutions and focus
- 14:59Speaker 1: more on love. So explore what's going on. You're really
- 15:02Speaker 1: having a hard time. Here's what we're seeing. What are
- 15:05Speaker 1: we missing? Recognizing she might not have the insight, and
- 15:09Speaker 1: you might say to her, we have some expectations. We
- 15:12Speaker 1: need to put some structure in place so that you
- 15:13Speaker 1: can be safe and healthy and so that you can
- 15:15Speaker 1: behave in helpful ways. And then you problem solve together
- 15:18Speaker 1: what structures can we put in place and what should
- 15:20Speaker 1: we do when things do go wrong? But more than anything,
- 15:23Speaker 1: unconditionality from your end is.
- 15:26Speaker 2: Going to make the biggest difference.
- 15:27Speaker 1: I don't know if that's a satisfying podcast response, Allison,
- 15:31Speaker 1: but that's the direction I'm inclined to go.
- 15:34Speaker 3: So what happens though, when you're doing all of this
- 15:38Speaker 3: stuff and your kids are still doing the wrong thing.
- 15:41Speaker 1: So I listened to a parenting podcast just the other
- 15:42Speaker 1: day from a highly regarded United States psychologist who said,
- 15:47Speaker 1: we need to use our parental power to change the environment.
- 15:50Speaker 1: Let them know if they're going to behave in certain
- 15:52Speaker 1: ways that they just cannot have certain privileges. To me,
- 15:57Speaker 1: that reinforces our children competence, It ruptures the relationship, and
- 16:01Speaker 1: it takes control and autonomy away from them. That means
- 16:04Speaker 1: that it undermines their basic psychological needs. It creates shame in
- 16:07Speaker 1: our child, which increases their anxiety, their feelings of unworthiness,
- 16:10Speaker 1: their worries, which often leads to them acting in even
- 16:13Speaker 1: more anti social ways, and can reinforce and repeat the
- 16:17Speaker 1: cycle every now and again. We do need to step
- 16:19Speaker 1: in with some level of control as parents. We can't
- 16:21Speaker 1: let the kids run roughshot over the family. But the
- 16:23Speaker 1: way we do it is critically important, and it really
- 16:26Speaker 1: requires us to sit down and essentially go through that
- 16:28Speaker 1: process where we explore their work, we explain our expectations,
- 16:31Speaker 1: and we come up with solutions together and if they
- 16:33Speaker 1: can't get it together after we've done that we say, well,
- 16:35Speaker 1: I guess we need to do this again.
- 16:38Speaker 2: And here's what we know, Kylie, because we've.
- 16:40Speaker 1: Now got three adult children and another one who's fifteen, right,
- 16:44Speaker 1: I mean, she's only three years off being an adult
- 16:46Speaker 1: as well. What we know is that this process is hard,
- 16:49Speaker 1: it's laborious, it's time consuming, but it works.
- 16:53Speaker 3: It really does. I think about, literally, in the last
- 16:56Speaker 3: few weeks, having had a couple of key conversations with
- 16:59Speaker 3: a you of our children, and the impact that it's
- 17:02Speaker 3: made on our entire family as a result. Was I
- 17:05Speaker 3: ready to have the conversation. No? Did I have the
- 17:07Speaker 3: time to have the conversation?
- 17:09Speaker 2: No?
- 17:10Speaker 3: Was I exhausted and just wanted to go to bed? Yes,
- 17:13Speaker 3: But those conversations matter. And what I've seen as a
- 17:18Speaker 3: result is two kids who were just really struggling, and
- 17:21Speaker 3: they're still struggling to get it right, but they're trying,
- 17:24Speaker 3: and I can see it in both of them.
- 17:26Speaker 1: And I guess there's one other thing that I'd say
- 17:28Speaker 1: in wrapping up this whole conversation. It might sound glib,
- 17:31Speaker 1: but it's not meant to. It's actually a considered response,
- 17:34Speaker 1: and that is that sometimes you just need to ignore it.
- 17:37Speaker 1: Sometimes there's stuff that's going on, the kids are challenging,
- 17:40Speaker 1: they're dealing with their own stuff, and all you do
- 17:43Speaker 1: is say, yeah, you have a rough day.
- 17:44Speaker 2: We'll talk about it later, kick.
- 17:46Speaker 1: It down the road, deal with it on Saturday when
- 17:49Speaker 1: you're having breakfast or having a milkshake or something like that.
- 17:51Speaker 1: Just let it go, because if we turn every single
- 17:55Speaker 1: infraction into another conversation that we need to have, all
- 17:59Speaker 1: a does is burdens our child. Now, I don't want
- 18:02Speaker 1: it to sound like I'm being dismissive here. Like I said,
- 18:04Speaker 1: this is a considered response. I'm not saying just ignore
- 18:06Speaker 1: it and it'll be fine. That's that's what I'm saying.
- 18:09Speaker 1: What I'm suggesting is choose your times to intervene, be
- 18:14Speaker 1: really intentional about it, and if you can, sometimes it's
- 18:17Speaker 1: easier just to let it go and then maybe pick
- 18:20Speaker 1: it up again tomorrow and say, hey, what happened last
- 18:22Speaker 1: night was a bit of a challenge. I got my
- 18:25Speaker 1: arm around you right now. I love you like crazy,
- 18:27Speaker 1: but we got to do better. What can I do
- 18:29Speaker 1: to help by being really intentional about when you step in,
- 18:32Speaker 1: about when you offer the guidance, about when you explore,
- 18:34Speaker 1: explain and empower about when you get involved, create structures
- 18:38Speaker 1: and support their autonomy and go through that process, you
- 18:41Speaker 1: just get better outcomes.
- 18:43Speaker 3: I love that question. How can I help? Yeah, just
- 18:46Speaker 3: you know that acknowledgment that I am here to help
- 18:49Speaker 3: you succeed.
- 18:50Speaker 1: So how can we help? If you've got any parenting questions,
- 18:53Speaker 1: anything burning through your parenting conscience and you'd like some guidance,
- 18:58Speaker 1: you can email us podcasts at happy families dot com
- 19:01Speaker 1: dot au. We would love to hear from you, and
- 19:02Speaker 1: we'd love to be as helpful as possible in making
- 19:04Speaker 1: your family happier. We really appreciate the work of Justin
- 19:07Speaker 1: Ruland from Bridge Media.
- 19:08Speaker 2: He's our producer. Craig Bruce is our executive producer.
- 19:11Speaker 1: And if you'd like more information about getting your family
- 19:13Speaker 1: on track making your family happier, please check out our
- 19:16Speaker 1: Happy Families memberships at happy families dot com dot au