Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #659 Parental Anxiety at Christmas with Rebecca Dredge

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#659 Parental Anxiety at Christmas with Rebecca Dredge · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

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  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast.
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  Speaker 2: It's the podcast for the.
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  Speaker 1: Time poor parent who just once answers Now, Christmas can
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  Speaker 1: be a time of well, celebration and excitement, of course,
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  Speaker 1: but also anxiety, frustration, and stress for a whole lot
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  Speaker 1: of parents. Joining me for a conversation about the I
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  Speaker 1: guess the negative, the downside, a bit of a downer,
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  Speaker 1: but it's real right about Christmas holidays, kids and the
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  Speaker 1: just the challenges associated with kids having six weeks off
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  Speaker 1: school and what we're supposed to do about it. Is
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  Speaker 1: Rebecca Dredge. Rebecca is the CEO of the Kiddo App,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm really grateful that she takes us some time
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  Speaker 1: out of her extraordinarily busy schedule to have a chat
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  Speaker 1: with me right now about why Ozzie parents are feeling
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  Speaker 1: anxious about the school holidays. Hey, Beck, nice to have
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  Speaker 1: 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 want to
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  Speaker 2: to dive in and understand, you know, what parents are feeling.
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  Speaker 2: We all know the school's coming to an end for
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  Speaker 2: some parents. It's about starting the new year, it's orientation days,
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  Speaker 2: it's Christmas shopping, it's putting up the trees, you know.
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  Speaker 2: So we just wanted to understand how parents actually felt.
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  Speaker 2: And it's quite alarming. You know. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: us that look forward to the holidays for some quality
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  Speaker 2: downtime with our children. But at the same time, up
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  Speaker 2: to a third of parents are really having that anxiety
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  Speaker 2: about 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: and three of them have now finished school, but maybe
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  Speaker 1: ten twelve years ago we kind of went hang on
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  Speaker 1: school holidays is meant to be fun, except we're juggling work,
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  Speaker 1: and we're juggling the financial commitments, and we're juggling now
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  Speaker 1: we've got to like editain the kids, and we don't
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  Speaker 1: want to leave them staring at the screen all day.
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  Speaker 1: When you've got other commitments that are not flexible, it
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  Speaker 1: 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: next six weeks and it's you know, husband's got these
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  Speaker 2: three days off.
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  Speaker 3: Grandma can do these two days. You know, this week
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  Speaker 3: is you.
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  Speaker 2: Know, osh at school, we've got time off then, and
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  Speaker 2: then 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 clean up and the tidy up and the setup
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  Speaker 1: and the backdown and the all the money that's got
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  Speaker 1: to 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 the this is
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  Speaker 1: hard work. There's anxiety around this, there's a lot to juggle.
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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
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  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 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
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  Speaker 2: this time, because that's another add of pressure. Then you go, oh,
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  Speaker 2: then I've got parents in law staying for a night.
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  Speaker 2: So it is about, you know, saying no limiting the
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  Speaker 2: amount of invites you put on your fridge. You know,
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  Speaker 2: your fridge doesn't have to be clutted with every single invite,
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  Speaker 2: with every event that's happening, and outsource where possible. So
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  Speaker 2: us parents, you know, we don't burn out, we don't
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  Speaker 2: all get sick, and we're not you know, we need
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  Speaker 2: to enjoy ourselves as well and be there for our kids,
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  Speaker 2: 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: time times this week. It might be a morning, it
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  Speaker 1: might be an evening, it could be on the weekend,
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  Speaker 1: but we're just putting in this stuff that really matters,
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  Speaker 1: and then we can fill in around it with the
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  Speaker 1: other stuff if it fits. But we're going to do
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  Speaker 1: the stuff that matters for us first. That organization, the
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  Speaker 1: intention around that I've been so impressed with as she's
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  Speaker 1: done that, and I love that. I love your point
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  Speaker 1: about booking a babysitter in laws. But we just had
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  Speaker 1: a podcast go out last week on Thursday about the
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  Speaker 1: challenges that come with that. Do you have any I mean,
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  Speaker 1: maybe there's an opportunity to give Kitto a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of a plug. Tell me what Kiddo does and how
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  Speaker 1: that can help in that in that vein.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so kiddo. Look, we're an app. We're there twenty
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  Speaker 2: four to seven. You can download Kiddo from the app store.
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  Speaker 2: You simply input the time and date you need a
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  Speaker 2: babysitter for nanny, and we'll show you who's available. So
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  Speaker 2: there's no having to go backwards and forwards to being
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  Speaker 2: asked someone can help and then be rejected. You simply
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  Speaker 2: log on, input your time and date. You can preview
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  Speaker 2: profiles and book in the app. You can do this
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  Speaker 2: at ten thirty at night if you know it's the
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  Speaker 2: last thing on your mind. And you're, ah, I need
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  Speaker 2: to organize care for that Friday night. You can sit
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  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 set of hands
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  Speaker 2: when I need them. And I'm just going to glide
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  Speaker 2: into Christmas Day and really enjoy it.
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  Speaker 1: I love that word. 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: gide and.
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  Speaker 2: 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 Drench, CEO of kiddoapp dot com
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  Speaker 1: dot A. You really appreciate your sharing what you found
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  Speaker 1: from your community of twenty three thousand parents about Christmas
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  Speaker 1: holiday anxiety. 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. Craig Bruce is
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  Speaker 1: our executive producer and as always, if you'd like more
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  Speaker 1: info about what we've talked about, check the show notes
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  Speaker 1: for today's episode and visit us at Happy Families dot
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  Speaker 1: com dot A. You