Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #224 Parenting on the Same Page
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast.
- 0:05Speaker 2: It's the podcast for the time poor parent who just
- 0:09Speaker 2: wants answers.
- 0:10Speaker 3: Now you know what it's going to be twenty three
- 0:12Speaker 3: years this weekend. I'm just saying, I don't know if
- 0:14Speaker 3: you knew that or not, But do I get Browning
- 0:16Speaker 3: points for knowing that?
- 0:17Speaker 1: You? Sure I do? What are we doing this weekend?
- 0:21Speaker 1: That's for me to know and you to find out?
- 0:23Speaker 1: Is that? Okay, can I organize it? Since you obviously
- 0:25Speaker 1: haven't because you're asking what we're doing?
- 0:28Speaker 2: And now here's the stars of our show, my mum
- 0:31Speaker 2: and daddy.
- 0:32Speaker 3: This is doctor Justin Colson, the founder of Happy Families
- 0:35Speaker 3: dot com dot au. I'm here with my wife, missus.
- 0:38Speaker 3: Happy Family is kylie My. I was going to say
- 0:41Speaker 3: love with my life, But does that sound just way
- 0:43Speaker 3: too cheesy for a podcast where there's tens of thousands
- 0:45Speaker 3: of people listening to every episode.
- 0:47Speaker 1: It kind of does, doesn't it.
- 0:48Speaker 2: I love it so much more than life Partner.
- 0:51Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that does sound a little bit light, doesn't it.
- 0:55Speaker 3: Speaking of making things sound awesome, we got some really
- 0:58Speaker 3: big news, Yes we did.
- 1:01Speaker 1: So.
- 1:01Speaker 3: There's all sorts of podcast charts that are out there,
- 1:04Speaker 3: and you can look them up all over Google and
- 1:05Speaker 3: they give you all kinds of different information. But there's
- 1:08Speaker 3: only one in Australia that really counts. It's called the
- 1:10Speaker 3: Australian Podcast Tracker. It's the one that looks at the
- 1:14Speaker 3: biggest podcast in the country and ranks them once a month.
- 1:17Speaker 3: And well, the news is, thank you very much to you,
- 1:20Speaker 3: our Happy Families listeners. As a result of the number
- 1:23Speaker 3: of you who are now listening to the Happy Families podcast,
- 1:26Speaker 3: according to the Australian Podcast Tracker, this podcast is now
- 1:31Speaker 3: the number one perenning podcast in the country.
- 1:36Speaker 1: Isn't that fantastic?
- 1:38Speaker 3: So exciting, mainly because what that means is that we're
- 1:42Speaker 3: sharing this stuff with you and it's helping you to
- 1:44Speaker 3: make your family happier, and you're telling people about it.
- 1:46Speaker 3: You're leaving those ratings, those reviews, and more and more
- 1:49Speaker 3: people are listening to the podcast, which means that we
- 1:52Speaker 3: get to help more people and that, more than anything
- 1:55Speaker 3: matters to us. Don't really care what number we are,
- 1:57Speaker 3: And in fairness to some of the other people who
- 1:59Speaker 3: are doing some extraordinarily good work, not every podcast in
- 2:03Speaker 3: the country gets ranked on the Australian Podcast Tracker. So
- 2:07Speaker 3: there may be some other people out there who are
- 2:08Speaker 3: doing great stuff as well, and we don't want to
- 2:10Speaker 3: take away from what they're doing.
- 2:11Speaker 1: But it's official.
- 2:12Speaker 3: Okay, we are number one in parenting and family because
- 2:15Speaker 3: we are on that tracker and it's looking great. Hey,
- 2:18Speaker 3: let's talk about tonight and the Happy Families membership webinar
- 2:22Speaker 3: that's happening.
- 2:23Speaker 1: You don't have to be a member.
- 2:24Speaker 3: You can pay thirty bucks and participate in the webinar tonight,
- 2:26Speaker 3: or you can become a member for seventeen dollars a month.
- 2:29Speaker 3: That's much cheaper and get tonight's webinar. I can't wait
- 2:32Speaker 3: for what I'm going to be talking about.
- 2:35Speaker 2: So tonight we're talking about parenting on this same page.
- 2:39Speaker 2: I think this is probably one of the number one
- 2:42Speaker 2: things that people want to know on Facebook, on your
- 2:47Speaker 2: Instagram pages is just this idea of how do we
- 2:50Speaker 2: how do we come together?
- 2:51Speaker 3: Yeah, and when I look at the messages that come through,
- 2:55Speaker 3: almost all of them, literally almost all of them come
- 2:57Speaker 3: from mums who are saying, I just want my husband
- 3:01Speaker 3: to listen. I want my husband to be open. And
- 3:03Speaker 3: that's what I love about the podcast. By the way,
- 3:04Speaker 3: we're getting messages from people all the time who are saying,
- 3:07Speaker 3: dads are listening. You know what wives are saying to
- 3:09Speaker 3: their husbands, You've got to listen to these guys, and
- 3:11Speaker 3: dads are actually listening. So all the dads are listening.
- 3:13Speaker 3: Thank you so much for actually getting on the same page.
- 3:16Speaker 3: But there are some parents, some mums particularly, who are
- 3:18Speaker 3: just desperate for a dad, for a husband to consider
- 3:23Speaker 3: that there might be better ways to raise their kids.
- 3:25Speaker 3: There's a great quote that I love from Epictetters. He says,
- 3:28Speaker 3: you can't teach a man what he thinks he already knows.
- 3:30Speaker 3: And I think it's interesting that he doesn't say you
- 3:32Speaker 3: can't teach a woman what she thinks she already knows.
- 3:35Speaker 3: He says, you can't teach a man what he thinks
- 3:38Speaker 3: he already knows. And that's I think the really big challenge,
- 3:42Speaker 3: isn't it. We think we know parenting. We think we
- 3:45Speaker 3: were raised fine, and we think if we raise our
- 3:47Speaker 3: kids the way we think they should be raised, that's it.
- 3:49Speaker 3: And what does our partner really think telling us how
- 3:52Speaker 3: to raise these kids of ours.
- 3:56Speaker 2: When we were dating.
- 3:58Speaker 1: Back in prehistoric times, yes, you did.
- 4:00Speaker 2: Something really different. I had dated a few different guys,
- 4:04Speaker 2: and I had never experienced this before.
- 4:06Speaker 3: I was.
- 4:07Speaker 1: I was one of a kind guy, wasn't I? You were?
- 4:11Speaker 2: But you used to. We used to as we drive around,
- 4:14Speaker 2: we would watch other couples in their cars and they
- 4:17Speaker 2: would be steering out the window in different directions, or
- 4:20Speaker 2: just you know, sitting in silence, and you and I
- 4:23Speaker 2: just looked at each other and are like, what are
- 4:25Speaker 2: they doing?
- 4:26Speaker 3: There's so much to talk about, But that's fine. Some
- 4:28Speaker 3: people are introverted, some people are quiet. Not every couple
- 4:31Speaker 3: has to be very conversational.
- 4:33Speaker 2: Well, we just didn't stop talking, and part of that
- 4:36Speaker 2: was because you did this crazy thing. You used to
- 4:39Speaker 2: ask me all of these hypothetical questions, literally like what
- 4:43Speaker 2: would you do if you're sixteen year olds taking drugs?
- 4:46Speaker 2: Or what would you do if I don't know your
- 4:50Speaker 2: two year old paints pooh.
- 4:51Speaker 1: On the walls.
- 4:52Speaker 2: You just asked me all of these like random, crazy
- 4:56Speaker 2: questions about life.
- 4:58Speaker 1: Well, that's how you get to know somebody. It was
- 5:00Speaker 1: really intentional.
- 5:01Speaker 3: We haven't shared this on the podcast, and this is
- 5:03Speaker 3: not the podcast for it, but I'm going to share
- 5:06Speaker 3: a fifteen second version of it. I was really intentional
- 5:09Speaker 3: about dating I reached a point in my life where
- 5:11Speaker 3: I knew that I wanted to get married. I was
- 5:13Speaker 3: still very young, but I just knew that I wanted
- 5:14Speaker 3: to get married.
- 5:15Speaker 1: I wanted to get on.
- 5:15Speaker 3: With the next stage of my life, and so I
- 5:18Speaker 3: literally approached dating in a methodical way where I thought,
- 5:22Speaker 3: I'm going to go on these platonic dates with as
- 5:24Speaker 3: many girls as I can, and I'm going to learn
- 5:27Speaker 3: everything that I can about them, which meant that I
- 5:28Speaker 3: had to ask lots of questions. And the best way
- 5:30Speaker 3: to ask questions is to try to get people to
- 5:32Speaker 3: predict their futures by saying, what would you do in
- 5:34Speaker 3: this situation? How many kids do you think that you
- 5:36Speaker 3: want to have? Not that I was talking about white
- 5:38Speaker 3: picket fences and kids on first dates with everybody, but
- 5:41Speaker 3: it was about that hypothetical thing.
- 5:42Speaker 1: So it helps to.
- 5:44Speaker 3: Create a level of alignment and a level of certainty
- 5:47Speaker 3: as that dating progresses into a relationship that's going to
- 5:51Speaker 3: ultimately form a marriage.
- 5:53Speaker 1: In our case, in our.
- 5:54Speaker 2: Time together as husband and wife, I often think back
- 5:58Speaker 2: to those conversations you know.
- 5:59Speaker 3: What it's going to be twenty three years this weekend.
- 6:02Speaker 3: I'm just saying I don't know if you knew that
- 6:04Speaker 3: or not. But do I get branding points for knowing that.
- 6:06Speaker 1: You sure do? What are we doing this weekend? That's
- 6:10Speaker 1: for me to know and you to find out, is that, Okay,
- 6:12Speaker 1: can I organize it?
- 6:13Speaker 3: Since you obviously haven't because you're asking what we're doing?
- 6:18Speaker 1: I love it. Maybe I know and maybe I don't.
- 6:23Speaker 2: But I often think back to those conversations and I
- 6:26Speaker 2: think about the fact that at the time I thought
- 6:30Speaker 2: I knew all the answers. Yeah, I had so much
- 6:33Speaker 2: clarity about how I would respond to all of those
- 6:37Speaker 2: different scenarios and difficulties that seemed to challenge everyone else.
- 6:43Speaker 2: But in my nineteen year old mind thought that there
- 6:47Speaker 2: was no way I was going to be stumped by
- 6:49Speaker 2: all of these things. And as we've matured and developed
- 6:54Speaker 2: as a husband and wife and as a challenge, not
- 6:57Speaker 2: only have our answers all changed, but we don't actually
- 6:59Speaker 2: have behind this.
- 7:00Speaker 1: Yeah, we were.
- 7:02Speaker 3: We were pretty well aligned before we had children. And
- 7:05Speaker 3: what the research tells us is that when it comes
- 7:08Speaker 3: to couples and being on the same page, ninety percent
- 7:11Speaker 3: of couples have more arguments after they have children, and
- 7:15Speaker 3: they argue about so much stuff. The research says that
- 7:19Speaker 3: they argue, I'm surprised that men have as much to
- 7:22Speaker 3: say about many of these things that they do, since
- 7:24Speaker 3: they affect mums so much more. But they argue about
- 7:28Speaker 3: bottle or breast, They argue about cloth or disposable. They
- 7:30Speaker 3: argue about co sleeping versus sleeping in their own bed.
- 7:33Speaker 3: As the kids get older, they argue about how many
- 7:35Speaker 3: extracurricular activities there are going to be or what school
- 7:38Speaker 3: the kids are going to go to, the biggest the
- 7:41Speaker 3: biggest argument, what do you think it would be about.
- 7:45Speaker 1: It's all about discipline.
- 7:47Speaker 3: So when we come back after the break, let's talk
- 7:49Speaker 3: about tonight's webinar and specifically a couple of things that
- 7:54Speaker 3: parents can do to get on the same page, it's.
- 7:57Speaker 1: Their Happy Famili's podcast.
- 8:00Speaker 2: For a happier family, Try a Happy Families membership, because
- 8:04Speaker 2: a happy family doesn't just happen.
- 8:06Speaker 3: Details at happyfamilies dot com dot au.
- 8:10Speaker 2: It's the Happy Families podcast, the podcast for the time
- 8:13Speaker 2: poor parent who just wants answers now. And we've been
- 8:16Speaker 2: giving you a little bit of a sneak peek at
- 8:18Speaker 2: tonight's webinar. Parenting on the same page.
- 8:22Speaker 3: So the webinar is for all of our Happy Famili's members.
- 8:25Speaker 3: If you are not a Happy Family's member, you've got
- 8:27Speaker 3: to get on it. So the webinar normally costs thirty dollars.
- 8:29Speaker 3: You can buy it in the Happy Family's shop right now.
- 8:31Speaker 3: But if you're a member of the Happy Family's family,
- 8:34Speaker 3: you know that if you've got a Happy Family's membership,
- 8:37Speaker 3: it's twelve dollars a month or seventeen dollars a month
- 8:39Speaker 3: for premium members. You save a whole lot of money
- 8:41Speaker 3: and you get a monthly webinar and loads of other
- 8:43Speaker 3: features that the membership brings you so much value, so
- 8:46Speaker 3: cheap Tonight's webinar. As you said, Kylie, parenting on the
- 8:50Speaker 3: same page.
- 8:50Speaker 1: There are eight.
- 8:51Speaker 3: Different things that I'm going to share with parents to
- 8:53Speaker 3: get on the same page. Not to mention a whole
- 8:55Speaker 3: lot of research about why we're not on the same
- 8:58Speaker 3: page and what's going wrong.
- 9:00Speaker 1: But I reckon if in.
- 9:02Speaker 3: The time that we've got now, if we can share
- 9:04Speaker 3: two or three, maybe four of those ideas, maybe we
- 9:07Speaker 3: can help some people who are not Happy Family members
- 9:09Speaker 3: to at least get some alignment in their relationship and
- 9:12Speaker 3: their parenting.
- 9:12Speaker 2: Well, I picked my three favorites.
- 9:15Speaker 1: Okay, I'm ready.
- 9:16Speaker 2: So the first one. You can't change your spouse, don't
- 9:20Speaker 2: we wish we could? Sometimes?
- 9:22Speaker 3: Yeah, John Gotman did this. John Gotman is like the
- 9:24Speaker 3: marriage guru of the globe. Nobody knows marriage like Gotman.
- 9:28Speaker 3: He's just got this reputation of being extraordinary. And what
- 9:31Speaker 3: Gotman's research shows is that when you this sounds really bad,
- 9:35Speaker 3: I'm saying. I don't know if he says it like this,
- 9:36Speaker 3: but the way I say it is when you marry somebody,
- 9:39Speaker 3: you actually marry a set of problems.
- 9:42Speaker 1: Now, some people are like people relieve.
- 9:43Speaker 2: Their socks under the kitchen table.
- 9:46Speaker 1: You do, and to leave the toilet.
- 9:47Speaker 3: See, though, you want to be really careful about the
- 9:51Speaker 3: set of problems that you choose, because nobody is perfect.
- 9:54Speaker 3: Everybody brings with them a set of problems.
- 9:56Speaker 1: And I think my.
- 9:56Speaker 2: Dad warned you about mine, didn't it.
- 9:59Speaker 3: I'm going to I'm going to ignore that and just
- 10:02Speaker 3: keep on talking. And what happens is that not only
- 10:06Speaker 3: do you marry a set of problems, but so does
- 10:07Speaker 3: your spouse. In other words, you become a set of
- 10:11Speaker 3: problems to somebody else, as well as them being becoming
- 10:14Speaker 3: a set of problems to you. And Gotman's research also
- 10:17Speaker 3: shows that about seventy percent of the problems in your
- 10:19Speaker 3: spouse will never change. Some will, some won't, But the
- 10:25Speaker 3: ones that do change, they change because your spouse wants
- 10:29Speaker 3: to change them, not because you pestered them and hassle
- 10:32Speaker 3: them and harangue them and tell them that they need
- 10:33Speaker 3: to be better and they're not quite who you thought
- 10:35Speaker 3: they were when you married them. And the more you
- 10:37Speaker 3: try to change your spouse, the more they dig their
- 10:40Speaker 3: heels in, the harder they are to work with to
- 10:45Speaker 3: get on the same page, to have any sort of
- 10:46Speaker 3: alignment with it. Like it's a personal affront when you
- 10:49Speaker 3: keep on saying you need to stop doing that, you're
- 10:50Speaker 3: not good enough, change this, change that people don't like
- 10:53Speaker 3: being around you when you do that.
- 10:55Speaker 2: It's really tricky when your spouse has or your partner has,
- 10:59Speaker 2: you know a t's right that it really kind of
- 11:02Speaker 2: just rubs you up the wrong way, though it's really
- 11:05Speaker 2: hard to kind of work through that. So number two
- 11:09Speaker 2: is build your relationship, And I think that this kind
- 11:13Speaker 2: of can help us in that process.
- 11:15Speaker 3: One of the things that happens when couples get out
- 11:17Speaker 3: of alignment. It's kind of like, can you imagine being
- 11:20Speaker 3: in a kayak or a canoe and trying to paddle
- 11:22Speaker 3: in one direction while your paddling partner is pushing in
- 11:27Speaker 3: a different direction. You go nowhere, or the person who's
- 11:31Speaker 3: got more energy just overpowers the other one, and it's
- 11:35Speaker 3: a miserable experience for everybody. That's what happens in a
- 11:38Speaker 3: relationship when there's no alignment, when you can't get on
- 11:40Speaker 3: the same page, and it's such a waste of energy.
- 11:44Speaker 3: But if we can build our relationship, what happens then
- 11:46Speaker 3: is we start to understand one another better, We start
- 11:48Speaker 3: to work together, we start to be interested in one
- 11:51Speaker 3: another again. You build the relationship by investing in what
- 11:55Speaker 3: I call the emotional bank account, that is your kind
- 11:58Speaker 3: to one another. You listen, you take influence from one another,
- 12:02Speaker 3: You develop a sense of trust, and as that trust builds,
- 12:06Speaker 3: you start to influence one another in hopefully positive ways.
- 12:09Speaker 2: Isn't that what happens when you date and you know you're.
- 12:12Speaker 1: Well in the perfect world, yes, courtship, and.
- 12:14Speaker 2: Yet somewhere along the line, we kind of lose sight
- 12:18Speaker 2: of all of those, you know, things that we would
- 12:20Speaker 2: do to build a relationship because life takes over.
- 12:24Speaker 3: Yeah, and as the relationship deteriorates, trust is undermined and
- 12:27Speaker 3: influence goes out the window. It's so so important to
- 12:31Speaker 3: be able to say to your partner, I trust you,
- 12:34Speaker 3: I back you if this is the way that you
- 12:35Speaker 3: think that we should go that I'm open to that.
- 12:37Speaker 3: I'm willing to take influence from you, but I would
- 12:40Speaker 3: love to know that if I feel strongly about something,
- 12:43Speaker 3: that you might do that as well.
- 12:45Speaker 1: It's about give and take.
- 12:46Speaker 3: And the research again shows that in the relationships where
- 12:48Speaker 3: we get this right, we have much higher relationship satisfaction.
- 12:52Speaker 3: The research also shows that we have much higher sexual
- 12:54Speaker 3: satisfaction and we also do better as parents.
- 13:00Speaker 2: And the last one you've actually just touched on briefly
- 13:03Speaker 2: is being open to influence. Now, this is probably the
- 13:06Speaker 2: area where you know, as I read between the lines
- 13:09Speaker 2: often and some of the comments, I feel like mums
- 13:13Speaker 2: find particular struggles with their partners not wanting to take
- 13:21Speaker 2: you influence or direction or guidance or even collaboration from them.
- 13:26Speaker 2: They kind of see something one way and that's the
- 13:28Speaker 2: only way that they're going to kind of move forward.
- 13:30Speaker 2: So how do we work through that when we're open
- 13:35Speaker 2: to it but our partner's not.
- 13:37Speaker 3: Often we think we're open to it so long as
- 13:39Speaker 3: they're willing to do what we say. So I might say,
- 13:42Speaker 3: of course, I'm open to your influence. This is what
- 13:43Speaker 3: I think we should do, and then I wait for
- 13:45Speaker 3: you to agree, so I can say that I've been
- 13:47Speaker 3: open to your influence because when you agree with me
- 13:49Speaker 3: that I'm open to your influence. And I see that
- 13:50Speaker 3: happening a lot, not just with dads but with mums
- 13:52Speaker 3: as well, we get really fixed, we get really rigid.
- 13:55Speaker 1: We're pretty sure that.
- 13:56Speaker 3: The values that we're bringing to the situation are the
- 13:59Speaker 3: right ones, and everyone should just bow down to what
- 14:01Speaker 3: we're saying. So I would say to both partners, but
- 14:04Speaker 3: especially to any dads who are listening every now and again,
- 14:06Speaker 3: just pause and instead of saying this is what we're
- 14:08Speaker 3: going to do, or you never listen to me and
- 14:11Speaker 3: this is how it's got to be, I would say,
- 14:13Speaker 3: I'm really curious, what do you think. There's something that
- 14:16Speaker 3: is just so powerful about saying to your partner, what
- 14:19Speaker 3: do you think? And that's different to saying, oh, look,
- 14:21Speaker 3: I don't care, figure it out for yourself, which many
- 14:24Speaker 3: people will do because they become apathetic. And often one
- 14:28Speaker 3: parent will say you look after the kids and I'll
- 14:30Speaker 3: look after this, or you know that kind of thing.
- 14:32Speaker 3: That's not what I'm saying. When you can really get alignment,
- 14:35Speaker 3: you sit down and talk about an issue and say
- 14:37Speaker 3: I'm really struggling with this and this is what I
- 14:39Speaker 3: think we should do.
- 14:40Speaker 1: But what do you think? What way would you like
- 14:42Speaker 1: to go?
- 14:43Speaker 2: Same Page Parenting webinar tonight. For those of you who
- 14:46Speaker 2: are members, you have access to that. For those of
- 14:49Speaker 2: you who are not, you can grab your tickets at
- 14:52Speaker 2: Happy families dot com.
- 14:53Speaker 3: Dot you, or you can just become a member of
- 14:55Speaker 3: the Happy Families family. If you do that, you get
- 14:58Speaker 3: the membership, you get a whole lot of other stuf,
- 15:00Speaker 3: and it's all yours for as little as twelve dollars
- 15:02Speaker 3: per month. We really hope that you've enjoyed the Same
- 15:04Speaker 3: Page Parenting podcast. I only said webinar that's tonight. If
- 15:08Speaker 3: you did enjoy the podcast, please leave a rating and
- 15:11Speaker 3: review because those ratings and reviews help other people to
- 15:13Speaker 3: find out about the podcast and make their families happier.
- 15:17Speaker 3: We did receive a response from Valentina, who said, I
- 15:20Speaker 3: just wanted to send you a short thank you for
- 15:22Speaker 3: your amazing podcast. I've been listening for a few years now.
- 15:25Speaker 3: I'm a mum to one daughter who's just turned six,
- 15:27Speaker 3: and I've honestly struggled with getting my head around it
- 15:29Speaker 3: all because as soon as I do it, changes are
- 15:32Speaker 3: juggling dropping the balls of life with kids. I find
- 15:35Speaker 3: so much value from your offerings, and I'm loving the
- 15:36Speaker 3: new format with Kylie and Justin together. I've laughed, cried,
- 15:40Speaker 3: nodded with enthusiasm as everything you discussed really resonates and
- 15:42Speaker 3: transfers to my own world. Thank you again, Val Well, Val.
- 15:46Speaker 3: We really appreciate the feedback, five star ratings and reviews
- 15:49Speaker 3: wherever you listen to your podcasts or send us an email.
- 15:51Speaker 3: Podcasts at Happy Families dot com dot Au really appreciate
- 15:55Speaker 3: the work of Justin Rulan from Bridge Media, and our
- 15:58Speaker 3: executive producer is Craig Brew. If you'd like more information
- 16:01Speaker 3: about making your family happier, including those memberships, you can
- 16:04Speaker 3: get it all at Happy families dot com dot Au.