Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #366 Best Of - Bedtime is the Right Time
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Hello. This is doctor Justin Coulson, the author of a
- 0:05Speaker 1: bunch of books about how your family can be happier,
- 0:08Speaker 1: The dad to six kids. That well, that I share,
- 0:11Speaker 1: that I approcreated with, that we had together. Please you
- 0:14Speaker 1: want to stop?
- 0:15Speaker 2: Please?
- 0:15Speaker 1: What have I done?
- 0:17Speaker 2: Oh?
- 0:17Speaker 1: Gosh, school holidays?
- 0:19Speaker 3: We have six children together?
- 0:21Speaker 1: Thank you? Well, we do from the same coupling, the
- 0:24Speaker 1: same pairing. A lot of people like, really, are they
- 0:26Speaker 1: all yours?
- 0:27Speaker 3: We do get that question a lot, don't.
- 0:28Speaker 1: We they're all ours? Did you know how? Yes, we did.
- 0:31Speaker 1: You're kylie unjusticed.
- 0:32Speaker 3: They only have to look into each of those children's faces.
- 0:36Speaker 1: The family genetic resemblance runs pretty darn deep, doesn't it.
- 0:41Speaker 1: Got So many people look at these poor girls and say,
- 0:43Speaker 1: you look just like your dad. I'm like, oh, don't
- 0:45Speaker 1: say that to them. That's so unkind.
- 0:47Speaker 2: The kids have a little chuckle because it depends who
- 0:49Speaker 2: people know better, because if they know you better, spitting
- 0:54Speaker 2: and they will always tell the girls they look like you.
- 0:57Speaker 1: When they know you though, they're like, oh my goodness,
- 0:59Speaker 1: you are you.
- 1:00Speaker 3: I think we've got a really good mix.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, me too, A mix of six girls, six daughters. Hey,
- 1:06Speaker 1: the school holidays for the Eastern Sea Boarder coming to
- 1:09Speaker 1: a close. For many of us, we're just so exhausted
- 1:12Speaker 1: and so over it, Thank goodness.
- 1:13Speaker 3: I don't think it's been long enough really.
- 1:15Speaker 1: And then there's the other alternative, and I'm kind of
- 1:18Speaker 1: feeling a bit like that as well. But to move
- 1:21Speaker 1: into our final day rather than doing an old do
- 1:23Speaker 1: better tomorrow, I mean, we could do a bit of
- 1:25Speaker 1: a recap on the holidays, but I thought what we
- 1:27Speaker 1: might do instead is just talk about bedtime and getting
- 1:30Speaker 1: back into routines because with the kids going back to
- 1:31Speaker 1: school and with the hours of daylight extending now I
- 1:35Speaker 1: mean daylight savings. Hello, we're into October at least unless
- 1:39Speaker 1: you live in Queensland, because the curtains will fade with
- 1:42Speaker 1: that extra hour of sunlight. Bedtime it can be a
- 1:46Speaker 1: bit of a challenge, but it also can be a
- 1:49Speaker 1: really nice way to close the day out. And if
- 1:51Speaker 1: you're struggling to get those kids to sleep, today, we're
- 1:54Speaker 1: going to talk to you about five questions to ask
- 1:55Speaker 1: your kids which will make their bedtime experience and yours
- 1:59Speaker 1: really special.
- 2:03Speaker 4: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
- 2:06Speaker 4: time poor parent who just wants answers now.
- 2:10Speaker 1: Plenty of research over the last couple of decades has
- 2:12Speaker 1: highlighted that when we give children the opportunity to develop gratitude,
- 2:15Speaker 1: they do better in life.
- 2:17Speaker 4: And now here's the stars of our show. My mum
- 2:20Speaker 4: and dad good.
- 2:21Speaker 1: This is Justin and Kylie Colson. We have the parents
- 2:24Speaker 1: of six daughters. Our youngest is in grade one, our
- 2:28Speaker 1: eldest has moved out and married. We have three teenage
- 2:31Speaker 1: girls right now, we're two still to come. No wonder
- 2:34Speaker 1: we're tired.
- 2:35Speaker 3: I don't have anything to say to that.
- 2:37Speaker 1: You're too tired to thinking about it. And I'm the
- 2:39Speaker 1: founder of Happy Families dot com dot You've written a
- 2:41Speaker 1: bunch of books about how to make your family happier. Today,
- 2:44Speaker 1: we wanted to do something really nice to follow on
- 2:47Speaker 1: from our conversation on Tuesday about a three year old
- 2:51Speaker 1: that wants to go to bed late because she spat
- 2:54Speaker 1: the dummy time to give up the dummy. But this
- 2:57Speaker 1: time we're not going to talk about dummies. We're going
- 2:59Speaker 1: to talk about how to create that really high quality
- 3:02Speaker 1: nighttime nurture, the kind of conversations, the kind of closeness
- 3:07Speaker 1: that we want our children to experience when it's bedtime,
- 3:11Speaker 1: and we're gonna go through five questions that you can
- 3:15Speaker 1: ask your kids to have really nice conversations at bedtime
- 3:20Speaker 1: because parents always say to me, cannot get the kids
- 3:23Speaker 1: to go to talk to me like the kids are
- 3:25Speaker 1: just we ask them a question, don't answer he was
- 3:28Speaker 1: school fine, They don't say anything. But most parents will
- 3:32Speaker 1: agree that bedtime is the time to have high quality conversations.
- 3:38Speaker 2: We actually talked about this in book club last term.
- 3:41Speaker 1: And so for those of you who are not familiar,
- 3:43Speaker 1: sorry to cut you off, Honeymoon, but book club for
- 3:45Speaker 1: all of our happy families, I did on the podcast.
- 3:49Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. Is that okay with you?
- 3:51Speaker 3: That's fine with me?
- 3:52Speaker 2: Okay, all right, I'm still that there is a whole
- 3:56Speaker 2: heap of people out there that are rolling eyes.
- 3:57Speaker 1: Though, I just it's it's in there. We're not taking
- 4:01Speaker 1: it out now. So like I said, Honeybun, the book club,
- 4:06Speaker 1: I cut you off, and you cut me off, and
- 4:08Speaker 1: now I'm completely lost. The book club thing that we
- 4:10Speaker 1: do is part of the happy Families membership. Whether you're a.
- 4:12Speaker 3: Book club thing, I don't believe you just said that.
- 4:16Speaker 1: The book club thing that we do every term our
- 4:19Speaker 1: Happy Families members go through one of our books, one
- 4:22Speaker 1: of the books that I've written about making family Happy.
- 4:24Speaker 1: You run book club for us and if you're a
- 4:26Speaker 1: Happy Famili's member, four consecutive weeks during term we go
- 4:29Speaker 1: through one of the books. And last term we went
- 4:32Speaker 1: through the book Ten Things Every Parent Needs to Know,
- 4:36Speaker 1: and chapter.
- 4:36Speaker 2: Nine we talked about feeling joy and one of the
- 4:38Speaker 2: things that we discussed was bedtime routines because for a
- 4:43Speaker 2: lot of parents, that's not a place where we would
- 4:45Speaker 2: typically suggest that we feel joy.
- 4:48Speaker 1: In a lot of houses at nighttime, things are kind
- 4:51Speaker 1: of chaotic and crazy, and what we really want to
- 4:53Speaker 1: do is create high quality nighttime nurture experiences so that
- 4:57Speaker 1: we can feel the just the awesomeness of what it
- 5:00Speaker 1: is to be a parent instead of the exhaustion of
- 5:02Speaker 1: what it is to be a parent.
- 5:03Speaker 2: And I have to admit, I definitely know the feeling
- 5:08Speaker 2: of stressful nighttime routines.
- 5:11Speaker 3: We have had our fair share of.
- 5:12Speaker 1: Those last night, just saying.
- 5:16Speaker 2: But generally speaking, nighttime routine it's literally one of my
- 5:21Speaker 2: most favorite times with the kids.
- 5:24Speaker 3: We're all a little bit sleepy, where you.
- 5:27Speaker 2: Starting to wind down and just that opportunity to connect
- 5:30Speaker 2: and have those extra snuggles and read a bedtime story, which,
- 5:34Speaker 2: like we talked about a few weeks ago, has completely
- 5:36Speaker 2: changed for me and Emily. I'm not reading those soft, warm,
- 5:39Speaker 2: fuzzy feeling books anymore, bring.
- 5:41Speaker 1: Science textbooks to our seven years.
- 5:43Speaker 3: But I just love that time.
- 5:46Speaker 2: There's just a softness that kind of comes over our
- 5:49Speaker 2: children as they're going to bed most of the time.
- 5:53Speaker 1: So five questions to ask your kids at bedtime so
- 5:57Speaker 1: that you can have those conversations that bring you closer together.
- 6:00Speaker 2: So we actually have our first conversation at the dinner table,
- 6:03Speaker 2: we do. That's where it starts.
- 6:05Speaker 1: And usually not every night, but usually we'll say what'll
- 6:09Speaker 1: be grateful for today? It's that simple. And the beautiful
- 6:12Speaker 1: thing about a question like that is that it well,
- 6:15Speaker 1: it teaches kids gratitude, but it also helps to create
- 6:20Speaker 1: a sense of reflection, a sense of the world is good,
- 6:23Speaker 1: good things happen, and I can expect that if good
- 6:26Speaker 1: things happened today, that tomorrow more good things will happen,
- 6:30Speaker 1: more things that I can be grateful for.
- 6:33Speaker 2: We had one of the cousins sleepover during the holidays,
- 6:36Speaker 2: and when we asked the question. She said, I don't
- 6:38Speaker 2: know what I'm grateful for.
- 6:40Speaker 1: Yeah, seven years old And she's like, I don't know.
- 6:44Speaker 2: And I said to her, do you remember when you
- 6:46Speaker 2: said thank you today? And she looked at me and
- 6:48Speaker 2: she said, she said, I thank mummy because she let
- 6:51Speaker 2: me stay with you.
- 6:52Speaker 1: Yeah. And I said, oh, that's gratitude.
- 6:54Speaker 2: Maybe that's what you're grateful for today, that you get
- 6:56Speaker 2: to spend time with your cousins. And she was like yeah.
- 6:59Speaker 2: And it's changing the words to help us help the
- 7:02Speaker 2: children understand what it actually means to be grateful.
- 7:05Speaker 1: Plenty of research over the last couple of decades is
- 7:07Speaker 1: highlighted that when we give children the opportunity to develop gratitude,
- 7:11Speaker 1: they do better in life. It's good for their relationships,
- 7:14Speaker 1: it's good for their well being. It's surprisingly remarkably, it's
- 7:17Speaker 1: even correlated. As gratitude goes up, so to do things
- 7:21Speaker 1: like self regulation and exercise and school grades. Satisfaction with life.
- 7:27Speaker 1: Gratitude is a powerful way to inoculate kids against depression.
- 7:30Speaker 1: You'll note that if you're ever talking to somebody who's
- 7:33Speaker 1: genuinely depressed and you say, well, is this something in
- 7:36Speaker 1: your life that you're grateful for. They will say no
- 7:39Speaker 1: because they can't find that thing to be grateful for.
- 7:42Speaker 1: So really important question, and it's also beautiful to hear
- 7:46Speaker 1: the things that they are grateful for, to hear the
- 7:47Speaker 1: little conversations.
- 7:49Speaker 2: Well, one of the things I love about around the
- 7:50Speaker 2: dinner table is if you've had a hard day and
- 7:52Speaker 2: it's hard to find something to be grateful for, listening
- 7:54Speaker 2: to what other people are grateful for kind of triggers
- 7:56Speaker 2: your understanding a memory of things that may have happened
- 8:00Speaker 2: that you could be grateful for, but because you're in
- 8:01Speaker 2: a funk, it's hard to see them in that moment.
- 8:03Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the second question?
- 8:06Speaker 3: What are you looking forward to?
- 8:07Speaker 1: Okay, so this follows directly on from what are you
- 8:10Speaker 1: grateful for? And the reason this one's an important one is,
- 8:13Speaker 1: just like gratitude helps to inoculate against depression, looking forward
- 8:17Speaker 1: to something, being optimistic about the future, having hope that
- 8:20Speaker 1: tomorrow is going to be a good day is a
- 8:22Speaker 1: wonderful way to inoculate kids against anxiety. If you're looking
- 8:26Speaker 1: forward to something, so anxiety is feeling fearful or apprehensive
- 8:29Speaker 1: or worried about what's coming in the future. And if
- 8:32Speaker 1: you can talk to your kids about what they're looking
- 8:34Speaker 1: forward to tomorrow. That means that any fear or apprehension
- 8:37Speaker 1: or worry can be diminished because there are things to
- 8:39Speaker 1: look forward to. Now. It may be that tomorrow they're
- 8:41Speaker 1: going to the dentist and having four feelings and they're
- 8:44Speaker 1: not looking forward to that at all. But if there
- 8:46Speaker 1: is something that they're looking forward to, then that may
- 8:49Speaker 1: be what it takes to help get them through the
- 8:51Speaker 1: thing that they're nervous about.
- 8:53Speaker 2: Well, I think too often what we've found is that
- 8:55Speaker 2: our kids actually may be excited about something, but there's
- 8:57Speaker 2: an anxiety associated with that they're looking.
- 9:00Speaker 3: Forward to as well.
- 9:01Speaker 2: Nervous anticipation, yeah, and so being able to have those
- 9:04Speaker 2: conversations really helpful as well to help them recognize that
- 9:07Speaker 2: you can feel too completely opposite emotions in the same
- 9:10Speaker 2: space and work through them.
- 9:13Speaker 1: Up next, the final three questions to ask every night
- 9:16Speaker 1: with your kids to help make family life a joy.
- 9:20Speaker 4: In the evenings, it's their Happy Families podcast.
- 9:24Speaker 2: For a happier family, try a Happy Families membership, because
- 9:27Speaker 2: a happy family doesn't just happen.
- 9:30Speaker 1: Details at happy families dot com dot au.
- 9:33Speaker 2: It's the Happy Families podcast, the podcast for the time
- 9:35Speaker 2: Poor Parent who Just Wants Answers Now, And today we're
- 9:38Speaker 2: talking about bedtime conversations. Five questions that we can ask
- 9:43Speaker 2: our children before they go to bed.
- 9:44Speaker 1: First one, what are you grateful for? Second one, what
- 9:46Speaker 1: are you looking forward to? What's the third one?
- 9:50Speaker 3: This one's a great one because it's so open ended.
- 9:52Speaker 3: But is there anything you want to talk to me about?
- 9:55Speaker 1: Hi?
- 9:55Speaker 2: Are you worried about anything? Is there anything that you
- 9:58Speaker 2: just want to share with me?
- 10:00Speaker 1: It's amazing what happens. You asked that question when the
- 10:03Speaker 1: kids get in the car after school or when they
- 10:05Speaker 1: walk in the door, and they kind of go, huh,
- 10:09Speaker 1: what a bizarre question to ask. No, of course there's not.
- 10:13Speaker 1: But once they're lying flat on their back, it's just
- 10:16Speaker 1: beautiful what comes out of their mouths. If you can
- 10:18Speaker 1: be patient, just lay there with them.
- 10:20Speaker 2: We don't have this kind of routine with our older
- 10:23Speaker 2: kids anymore. But even last night we got to knock
- 10:25Speaker 2: on the door.
- 10:25Speaker 3: Lights were out, we were we were ready to just
- 10:28Speaker 3: you know.
- 10:29Speaker 1: The lights were literally out at what time was it
- 10:31Speaker 1: like five to nine? Because I get up at four
- 10:35Speaker 1: thirty for a bike ride ride, so I'm exhausted at
- 10:37Speaker 1: nine o'clock and i'd locked the.
- 10:39Speaker 2: Door, so nobody came in, and we had a knock
- 10:41Speaker 2: on the door, and we're like.
- 10:42Speaker 1: Yes, what do you want?
- 10:44Speaker 3: And she said, I just want to come in. We're like,
- 10:46Speaker 3: we're going to bed, and she says, but I want
- 10:48Speaker 3: to talk to you.
- 10:50Speaker 1: So you got up. So I got up, opened the.
- 10:52Speaker 3: Door, unlocked the door. She came in.
- 10:54Speaker 1: Did she talk to us? She did, and I fall asleep.
- 10:57Speaker 1: I think I might have I do remember the knock
- 11:00Speaker 1: on the door. I have no recollection of the conversation.
- 11:04Speaker 3: Poor kid.
- 11:05Speaker 2: Honestly, if it's not me falling asleep in interviews, it's
- 11:08Speaker 2: you're falling asleep when they're actually trying to connect.
- 11:11Speaker 1: I can't believe that I just said that on the podcast. Gosh,
- 11:14Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not perfect. I've never made any
- 11:15Speaker 1: claims to parenting perfection. I love talking to the kids,
- 11:18Speaker 1: But you try to talk to me at nine o'clock
- 11:20Speaker 1: at night. It's curtains, forget it. The match sticks can't
- 11:24Speaker 1: hold up the what do you call these things in
- 11:26Speaker 1: your eyes? Your eyelids. Yeah, the eyelids are closing no
- 11:29Speaker 1: matter what. I can't believe I forgot what that was
- 11:31Speaker 1: called as well. I'm feeling so embarrassed. Now, did she
- 11:33Speaker 1: have a good conversation with us with me?
- 11:36Speaker 3: Yes, she did, she did. But I just love it.
- 11:40Speaker 2: And there is something wonderful about nighttime and just this
- 11:45Speaker 2: sense of being able to open up.
- 11:46Speaker 1: Yeah. One of our favorite things to do. We've got
- 11:48Speaker 1: a new brazier because the last one died, and we
- 11:50Speaker 1: just throw a couple of bits of wood in there
- 11:52Speaker 1: and light it up and sit around there and have
- 11:54Speaker 1: a couple of marshmallows or a hot chocolate and the kids.
- 11:57Speaker 1: The kids get real talky, don't they. They really love
- 12:00Speaker 1: to chat.
- 12:01Speaker 2: The last two aren't really questions, but they're conversations that
- 12:04Speaker 2: are wonderful ways to end your day.
- 12:07Speaker 1: Sure.
- 12:07Speaker 2: The first one is if there's been anything in the
- 12:09Speaker 2: day that hasn't gone so well, an apology, you know,
- 12:13Speaker 2: acknowledging we got it wrong today and I'm really sorry
- 12:15Speaker 2: for the part that I played in it.
- 12:17Speaker 1: Yeah, one of my favorite things is to apologize to
- 12:19Speaker 1: my kids. I know that sounds really weird, but I
- 12:22Speaker 1: just love it. I love being able to sit with
- 12:23Speaker 1: the kids and say I'm flawed, I'm full of mistakes.
- 12:27Speaker 1: I fell asleep on your last night when you were
- 12:29Speaker 1: trying to talk to me when you intrude it into
- 12:30Speaker 1: my bedroom at nine o'clock. I'm really sorry about that.
- 12:33Speaker 1: Would you like to talk to me? There's just something
- 12:36Speaker 1: that draws you closer when you have the opportunity to
- 12:39Speaker 1: repair through asking forgiveness and apologizing. Not that I'm suggesting
- 12:44Speaker 1: that parents should be doing that never endingly, Like we
- 12:46Speaker 1: don't want to be relentlessly repenting of our relationship ruptures,
- 12:51Speaker 1: but when there has been one, we need to and
- 12:53Speaker 1: the nighttime seems to be a really nice time to
- 12:56Speaker 1: do it so that the next morning everyone wakes up
- 12:57Speaker 1: and they feel close.
- 12:58Speaker 3: Yeah. I love that.
- 13:00Speaker 2: I just I think there's something beautiful about it. And
- 13:02Speaker 2: the last one is just those endearing acknowledgments of love.
- 13:06Speaker 1: Yeah, those three magic words, I love you, gosh, thanks honey.
- 13:12Speaker 1: You know I say this all the time that they
- 13:14Speaker 1: are the three second most important words that our kids
- 13:17Speaker 1: need to hear.
- 13:18Speaker 3: The last who are no matter what?
- 13:21Speaker 1: That's three words. You know. There's four kinds of people
- 13:24Speaker 1: in the world, those who can count and those who can't. Ah, Really,
- 13:30Speaker 1: I love you no matter what, even if you can't
- 13:33Speaker 1: do maths. I'm still crazy about you, and kids just
- 13:36Speaker 1: love hearing that. In fact, the soppier and the cheesy
- 13:39Speaker 1: you can be, especially when they're young, the better.
- 13:42Speaker 2: My favorite, all time favorite bedtime story is Guess how
- 13:46Speaker 2: much I Love.
- 13:47Speaker 1: You, Sam mcbradney.
- 13:48Speaker 2: The kids just love trying to come up with a
- 13:51Speaker 2: bigger concept of love.
- 13:54Speaker 1: I love you infinity, I love you to the moon.
- 13:56Speaker 3: I like you difinity plus infinity.
- 13:58Speaker 1: That's right, infinity times infinity. Brilliant stuff. So we hope
- 14:02Speaker 1: that those five conversations are helpful for creating some nighttime
- 14:07Speaker 1: nurture in your home tonight. The quick recap, what are
- 14:10Speaker 1: you grateful for? What are you looking forward to?
- 14:13Speaker 2: Is there anything you want to talk to me about?
- 14:15Speaker 2: I'm sorry and I love you, and don't forget there
- 14:18Speaker 2: has to be an abundance of snuggles.
- 14:20Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, We really hope you've enjoyed the podcasts today.
- 14:23Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. Oh, by the way, it's
- 14:26Speaker 1: been a while since I've mentioned this, but we just
- 14:28Speaker 1: love getting your reviews on Apple Podcasts. Five star reviews
- 14:32Speaker 1: and ratings make all the difference in terms of helping
- 14:35Speaker 1: us to know that you're loving the podcast, but also
- 14:37Speaker 1: getting the podcast out to other people.
- 14:39Speaker 3: We got the best one the other day.
- 14:42Speaker 1: Fill me in. I must have missed it.
- 14:43Speaker 2: I love this podcast. I find myself giggling out loud
- 14:46Speaker 2: many times. It feels like I'm having a coffee with
- 14:49Speaker 2: friends and a good laugh over parenting fails.
- 14:51Speaker 1: Oh, every time we get it wrong, everyone feels better.
- 14:55Speaker 2: I love I learned so much from this podcast.
- 14:58Speaker 3: Thank you.
- 14:59Speaker 1: Oh that's great. Who is that that was from? I
- 15:00Speaker 1: can't read it from here?
- 15:02Speaker 4: Lee?
- 15:02Speaker 1: Well, thank you Kiara e Lee. So again, those podcasts,
- 15:05Speaker 1: ratings and reviews help people to find the podcast to
- 15:07Speaker 1: make their family happier. We really appreciate it when you
- 15:09Speaker 1: do that. The podcast is produced by Justin rolland from
- 15:13Speaker 1: Bridge Media, and Craig Bruce is our executive producer. If
- 15:16Speaker 1: you'd like more information about how to make your family
- 15:18Speaker 1: happier and you don't think the podcast is enough, you
- 15:21Speaker 1: can find everything you need at happy families dot com
- 15:24Speaker 1: dot a