January 16, 2025 • 14 mins
Can a little “selfishness” make you a better parent? Join Kylie and Justin as they share relatable parenting mishaps, with a reminder that taking care of yourself is a gift to everyone around you.
Key Points:
- The value of a "do nothing" holiday
- Finding permission for personal time
- How parenting changes across different children
- The impact of slowing down
Quote of the Episode: "We've been trained for so long to believe that taking time out for ourselves is selfish. And we've got to change the narrative." - Kylie Coulson
Key Insights:
- Younger children often get different versions of their parents
- Taking time for yourself makes you better for everyone else
- Growth and maturity in parenting benefit all children differently
- Sometimes doing nothing is exactly what families need
Action Steps:
- Give yourself permission for personal time
- Recognize different seasons of parenting
- Look for ways to connect with older children
- Create space for new family traditions
Resources Mentioned:
- happyfamilies.com.au
- Emma McKeon interview (upcoming weekend content)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the Happy Families podcast, Real parenting solutions every
day on Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. I've justin. I'm
here with Kylie, my wife, mum to our six kids,
and Kylie. Today's to day I'll Do Better Tomorrow, where
we reflect on the week that was and highlight what's
working and what's not. And we haven't done this for
weeks and.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Weeks, and it's interesting. We're sitting here and I'm actually wondering,
what have we got to talk about. We did nothing
these holidays? We did nothing.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, Yeah, I like the whole idea of the first
one back is let's talk about what we did over
the last month or so. And the answer is cost
of living. We're not going anywhere. It's a staycation. Our
backyard has become the new bali because it's a lot
cheaper than going to plane and sitting over there in
the sweltering heat. And oh gosh, it's been extremely quiet.
Having said that, we still need to make sure that
(00:55):
we have something that we're working on to do better tomorrow.
The Christmas break was very quiet. I had a funny
interaction with one of our kids. She said to me
that she went to the shops and bought some ice cream,
and when she pulled the ice cream out of the bag,
she pulled out two boxes of ice creams. And I said,
hang on, why have you got two boxes of ice creams?
This is not a joke, by the way, this is true.
You looking at me like I'm winding up for a punchline.
(01:16):
And she said, well, Dad, the ice cream was half price,
and so I thought I really should buy two because
technically I'm getting one for free. And then she looked
at me and she did the little hashtag with the
fingers two hands, four fingers hashtag and goes hashtag girl math.
So we spent twice as much as we needed to
(01:38):
because we could have had just one box. We could
have had all the ice cream we needed for half
the price, but instead we still spent the full price
and got twice as much ice cream.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
She's not the only one who gets it wrong. I
decided I was going to buy some Cornetto's, and I
had to.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
We're trying to stop snacking and get rid of all
this junk food from our home, and here you are
buying cornetto We had.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
People coming over for dinner and it was a really
easy dessert and I needed ten, and so I looked
at it and I was like, okay, I need three
boxes because there's four in each box.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
That's twelve, right, Well, I can't buy I would have
just gone but that's okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But then I decided that Buller crunches were half price
and so that it would be much better for me
to buy those. But I didn't continue to do the mass.
I just went, oh, I'll just get three boxes. Because
I was getting three boxes.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Why we had all the Buller ice cream in the
freezer and when I got.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Home and we couldn't fit them all in, I was
trying to work out what I've done wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
It's like eight in a pack, so you bought the
splits had ten in a pack, so you bought like
thirty ice creams for the ten that we needed. That
explains why I've been ining to ice blocks every single
day and they just don't seem to disappear. We have
a lot of ice cream in the freezer and we're
trying not to snack. We're trying to be healthy. That's
the New Year's there, Really you're not. I need to
(02:54):
get rid of the sugar. So that we don't have
any sugar to snack on.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Clearly you have a problem.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
What's your old do better tomorrow, missus happy families? What
is it that you have done this week that you
either need to improve on to be bet at tomorrow
or you've done this week that you've just nailed and
you want to keep doing it because it'll help you
to be bet at tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So a hanful of years ago, we moved to the
Sunshine Coast and I literally lived the best nine months
I can remember ever living.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So for those of you who missed the story, it's
three years ago this month, pretty much three years ago
this week, we had our house in Brisbane. You came
up and we got an Airbnb short term rental while
we looked for a house and got our house in
Brisbane sold, but that took a bit longer than we
thought it would take, and you ended up living essentially
beachside at Malula Bar, like two hundred meters from the
(03:45):
beach for six months while I commuted from the Sunny
Coast to Brisbane whenever I could so that I could
see you guys most weekends and got the house. I
lived my best line because I was gone the beach. Okay,
I see where this is going.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
But obviously, once we brought a house and we started
to settle down and settle into our new lifestyle, things
quickly changed and I found myself running faster than I
wanted to. And for the last couple of years it
has been really intense. You've been traveling more than normal,
and we took homeschooling on last year, so things have
just been a lot for a long time. And towards
(04:24):
the end of last year, I really, I honestly, I
just wanted to throw life out the window. I wanted
to throw every component out and start with a fresh slate.
But that meant getting rid of you and the six
kids and the grand baby. And it's not very realistic,
is it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's not like you haven't you regret about saying that.
I just couldn't actually do it, tried I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I just wanted to curl up in a ball and
hid in a big dark hole until everybody disappeared.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, yeah, I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
But as there was result of that, obviously we've acknowledged
that we didn't do much over the holidays.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
We've literally stopped we did a big fact nothing. I've
read about six books this year already, and I've read too. Yeah,
it's been beautiful.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And it got me thinking about that gorgeous nine months
that I had and knowing that I can't live in
a holiday home and I have to live a real life.
Was looking at the components that made up the goodness
in that period of time. And one of the things
that was just so instrumental and such an integral part
(05:38):
to the goodness that I experienced over those nine months
was having time for me each morning. But as our
lives have gotten busier and there's been so many more
moving parts, and I've now got children at home twenty
four to seven, struggling to find or actually it's not
even struggling to find, it's actually struggling to give myself
a mission to take that time for me. And so
(06:01):
with the new year coming in, I don't know what
it is. I reckon that there's some psychological phenomenon going on.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Fresh Starts, Fresh Starts talked about it on Monday. Feels good.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It just feels good. And so, in spite of the
fact that I wasn't actually thinking about setting any goals
as such, two days before New Year's hit, I was
in that headspace what do I want next year to
look like? And what do I want to let go of?
And I just just started writing like it just started
flowing out of me. And by the time I got
(06:32):
to the end of it, I looked at it and
I just went, that's it, That's what I want. And
the biggest thing for me was learning that it's okay
to take time for me. I keep having to learn
this every mom does. Life gets so busy, and there's
so many things that you think you have to say yes.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
To, all essential, it's all necessary.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yes, and so your needs get pushed to the side
because you think that in order to be a good mom,
a good wife, a good friend, a good sister, that
you need to say yes to all of these things.
But you end up saying no to you in the process.
And so this week I have said yes to me
every morning and it has felt amazing. It has felt
(07:14):
so good to have that time to sit and have
introspection and look at who I'm becoming and who I
want to become, to read other people's amazing, intelligent, well
structured thoughts and try to implement that thinking into my
own space, and to be appy, to document my life
(07:36):
as it's happening. They're all things that are so important
to me, but they just got left out last year.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
The take home message, the real parenting solution.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Is give yourself permission.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Can I say it a little bit crassley, It's okay
to be a little bit selfish now, and then like
give yourself that little bit each day where you say no, no, no,
I need to do this for me so that I
can actually be there for you one dred percent. A
little bit of selfishness may end up being quite so
it's not selfishness, no, because it makes you better for
everyone else.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
But we've been trained for so long to believe that
taking time out for ourselves is selfish. Now we've got
to change the narrative.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Okay, well, my older better Tomorrow is a continuation of
a theme that I picked up the end of last
year for those of you who might have missed it
because you're on holidays or not listening to the pod.
After a couple of years of me begging, begging, oh no, no, begging, Yeah,
I'm not going to change that, begging our youngest daughter
Emily to come surfing. I just want to teach. I've
(08:40):
asked all of our kids to learn to surf and
have been unsuccessful in getting any of them interested it all.
And a couple of years ago Emily did come surfing,
but the water was cold and she got dumped by
a way and she said, I'm never doing it again.
And so every couple of months I've said, hey, I'm
going surfing, or hey, I'd love to take your surfing,
and she's just been vehement in her refusal. I'm not going.
I'm never surfing. I hate the ocean. I don't want
(09:01):
to go. But for Christmas, because she couldn't afford a gift,
she told me that she'd let me take her surfing,
and so I did not let that opportunity pass. I
took to the beach. She loved it. And we've been
going to the beach most days. We can't quite get
there every day for any number of reasons, and sometimes
it's just that the conditions are wrong. Yeah, but every
day the conditions have been good. We've gotten down to
(09:23):
the beach and spent between half an hour and maybe
up to three hours catching waves. And this kid is
surfing and she has I'm not going to say she's
fully got the bug, but she's well on her way.
There's no pushback, there's no resistance. She's finally starting to
experience it beautifully. And I'm just I'm loving the joy
(09:43):
that's on her face when she's in the ocean, the
confidence that comes as she catches the wave or paddles
back out without getting hit by too many waves. It's
such a joyful thing to watch. I had an insight, though,
and I guess I've had this a few times in
a few different ways, but for older but it's Moorrow.
What I really want to emphasize is your youngest kids,
especially when you have a big family like us and
(10:05):
spread them across fifteen years. With those six kids, our
youngest children certainly get the best of us, and our
youngest daughter particularly gets the best of us. We're old,
we're wiser, but we also have less pressure and less
demands on us now than we did when the first
ones were being raised and growing up, and so with
different levels of time and even financial resources, I'm watching
(10:27):
our youngest get a better version of me than our
older kids got. So my older bit tomorrow is actually this.
The awareness makes it possible for me to make that
up in some small way for each of our older kids.
So I'm consistently looking for ways that I can connect,
reach out, touch, share, listen, engage with involve myself in
(10:51):
the things that matter to our older kids. And while
sometimes I do it better and other times I don't
do it very well at all, the awareness of the
need for that connection is driving me. And it's the
time spend in the ocean with Emily that's made me
more acutely, more poignantly aware of it.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
So I'm not going to disagree with anything you've said.
I think that all of it is true, especially from
our experience, but I am going to suggest that it's
not necessarily that they get the best of us. At
the other end, I think so much of it's about timing.
If you had the time that you now have as
a young dad, do you think that our children would
(11:29):
have experienced a different version of you.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
We still spend a lot of time with our kids,
make that mistake. I mean, we were off, we had
super saturdays, we'd go on outings. We've always worked super
super hard to get that investment. But I feel like
there's a different quality of character and connection. I feel
like I'm a different person. I feel like I'm a
different dad you are, and she's getting the she's getting
(11:52):
the I mean, our eldest daughter is in her mid
twenties with her own child now, and our youngest daughter
is reaping the bed benefits of our experience with the
five kids older than her, where we have connected in
ways that perhaps weren't quite as effective or weren't quite
as wonderful or perfect.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And yet in spite of that, our eldest daughter is
a better parent than we ever were.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yes, yes, at her age.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And so I don't know, it's just a beautiful, beautiful
reality that we are doing the very best we can
with what we have in any given moment. And it's
not really I don't think the folcus should be on
the fact that our elder kids missed out and our
younger kids are getting more. I think it's a beautiful
acknowledgment that we're growing and maturing and learning as individuals
(12:41):
and specifically as parents, and our kids benefit from that
over time.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
We hope this conversation helps you to do better tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, something brand new that we've never done
the pod before. We're going to start launching when we
can full length interviews of the wonderful people that we
get to talk to on the pod tomorrow. Australia's most
decorated Olympian ever, Emma McKean, chatting with me for about
thirty minutes about all of the life lessons she's learned
(13:07):
being raised by a champion swimming father and coach and
then going on to Olympic glory. We're going to talk
about what the parenting lessons are that we can pick
up from her Olympic journey. That's Emma McKeon on the
Happy Families podcast for your weekend listening pleasure. The Happy
Family podcast is produced by Justin Ruland from Bridge Media.
We would be so grateful if you would jump online
(13:30):
and leave us a five star rating and review. When
you leave those ratings and reviews, it helps other people
to find the podcast. I don't know how the algorithm
works exactly, but trust me, if you give us a
five star rating and review, more people will be able
to listen to make their families happier. Could you take
thirty seconds to do that? We'd be so grateful. More
information and more resources to make your family happier can
be found at Happy families, dot com, dot a, u OH,
(13:52):
and on Monday, My twenty twenty five parenting Predictions
Welcome to the Happy Families podcast, Real parenting solutions every
day on Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. I've justin. I'm
here with Kylie, my wife, mum to our six kids,
and Kylie. Today's to day I'll Do Better Tomorrow, where
we reflect on the week that was and highlight what's
working and what's not. And we haven't done this for
weeks and.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Weeks, and it's interesting. We're sitting here and I'm actually wondering,
what have we got to talk about. We did nothing
these holidays? We did nothing.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, Yeah, I like the whole idea of the first
one back is let's talk about what we did over
the last month or so. And the answer is cost
of living. We're not going anywhere. It's a staycation. Our
backyard has become the new bali because it's a lot
cheaper than going to plane and sitting over there in
the sweltering heat. And oh gosh, it's been extremely quiet.
Having said that, we still need to make sure that
(00:55):
we have something that we're working on to do better tomorrow.
The Christmas break was very quiet. I had a funny
interaction with one of our kids. She said to me
that she went to the shops and bought some ice cream,
and when she pulled the ice cream out of the bag,
she pulled out two boxes of ice creams. And I said,
hang on, why have you got two boxes of ice creams?
This is not a joke, by the way, this is true.
You looking at me like I'm winding up for a punchline.
(01:16):
And she said, well, Dad, the ice cream was half price,
and so I thought I really should buy two because
technically I'm getting one for free. And then she looked
at me and she did the little hashtag with the
fingers two hands, four fingers hashtag and goes hashtag girl math.
So we spent twice as much as we needed to
(01:38):
because we could have had just one box. We could
have had all the ice cream we needed for half
the price, but instead we still spent the full price
and got twice as much ice cream.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
She's not the only one who gets it wrong. I
decided I was going to buy some Cornetto's, and I
had to.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
We're trying to stop snacking and get rid of all
this junk food from our home, and here you are
buying cornetto We had.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
People coming over for dinner and it was a really
easy dessert and I needed ten, and so I looked
at it and I was like, okay, I need three
boxes because there's four in each box.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
That's twelve, right, Well, I can't buy I would have
just gone but that's okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But then I decided that Buller crunches were half price
and so that it would be much better for me
to buy those. But I didn't continue to do the mass.
I just went, oh, I'll just get three boxes. Because
I was getting three boxes.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Why we had all the Buller ice cream in the
freezer and when I got.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Home and we couldn't fit them all in, I was
trying to work out what I've done wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
It's like eight in a pack, so you bought the
splits had ten in a pack, so you bought like
thirty ice creams for the ten that we needed. That
explains why I've been ining to ice blocks every single
day and they just don't seem to disappear. We have
a lot of ice cream in the freezer and we're
trying not to snack. We're trying to be healthy. That's
the New Year's there, Really you're not. I need to
(02:54):
get rid of the sugar. So that we don't have
any sugar to snack on.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Clearly you have a problem.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
What's your old do better tomorrow, missus happy families? What
is it that you have done this week that you
either need to improve on to be bet at tomorrow
or you've done this week that you've just nailed and
you want to keep doing it because it'll help you
to be bet at tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
So a hanful of years ago, we moved to the
Sunshine Coast and I literally lived the best nine months
I can remember ever living.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So for those of you who missed the story, it's
three years ago this month, pretty much three years ago
this week, we had our house in Brisbane. You came
up and we got an Airbnb short term rental while
we looked for a house and got our house in
Brisbane sold, but that took a bit longer than we
thought it would take, and you ended up living essentially
beachside at Malula Bar, like two hundred meters from the
(03:45):
beach for six months while I commuted from the Sunny
Coast to Brisbane whenever I could so that I could
see you guys most weekends and got the house. I
lived my best line because I was gone the beach. Okay,
I see where this is going.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
But obviously, once we brought a house and we started
to settle down and settle into our new lifestyle, things
quickly changed and I found myself running faster than I
wanted to. And for the last couple of years it
has been really intense. You've been traveling more than normal,
and we took homeschooling on last year, so things have
just been a lot for a long time. And towards
(04:24):
the end of last year, I really, I honestly, I
just wanted to throw life out the window. I wanted
to throw every component out and start with a fresh slate.
But that meant getting rid of you and the six
kids and the grand baby. And it's not very realistic,
is it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's not like you haven't you regret about saying that.
I just couldn't actually do it, tried I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I just wanted to curl up in a ball and
hid in a big dark hole until everybody disappeared.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, yeah, I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
But as there was result of that, obviously we've acknowledged
that we didn't do much over the holidays.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
We've literally stopped we did a big fact nothing. I've
read about six books this year already, and I've read too. Yeah,
it's been beautiful.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
And it got me thinking about that gorgeous nine months
that I had and knowing that I can't live in
a holiday home and I have to live a real life.
Was looking at the components that made up the goodness
in that period of time. And one of the things
that was just so instrumental and such an integral part
(05:38):
to the goodness that I experienced over those nine months
was having time for me each morning. But as our
lives have gotten busier and there's been so many more
moving parts, and I've now got children at home twenty
four to seven, struggling to find or actually it's not
even struggling to find, it's actually struggling to give myself
a mission to take that time for me. And so
(06:01):
with the new year coming in, I don't know what
it is. I reckon that there's some psychological phenomenon going on.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Fresh Starts, Fresh Starts talked about it on Monday. Feels good.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It just feels good. And so, in spite of the
fact that I wasn't actually thinking about setting any goals
as such, two days before New Year's hit, I was
in that headspace what do I want next year to
look like? And what do I want to let go of?
And I just just started writing like it just started
flowing out of me. And by the time I got
(06:32):
to the end of it, I looked at it and
I just went, that's it, That's what I want. And
the biggest thing for me was learning that it's okay
to take time for me. I keep having to learn
this every mom does. Life gets so busy, and there's
so many things that you think you have to say yes.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
To, all essential, it's all necessary.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yes, and so your needs get pushed to the side
because you think that in order to be a good mom,
a good wife, a good friend, a good sister, that
you need to say yes to all of these things.
But you end up saying no to you in the process.
And so this week I have said yes to me
every morning and it has felt amazing. It has felt
(07:14):
so good to have that time to sit and have
introspection and look at who I'm becoming and who I
want to become, to read other people's amazing, intelligent, well
structured thoughts and try to implement that thinking into my
own space, and to be appy, to document my life
(07:36):
as it's happening. They're all things that are so important
to me, but they just got left out last year.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
The take home message, the real parenting solution.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Is give yourself permission.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Can I say it a little bit crassley, It's okay
to be a little bit selfish now, and then like
give yourself that little bit each day where you say no, no, no,
I need to do this for me so that I
can actually be there for you one dred percent. A
little bit of selfishness may end up being quite so
it's not selfishness, no, because it makes you better for
everyone else.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
But we've been trained for so long to believe that
taking time out for ourselves is selfish. Now we've got
to change the narrative.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Okay, well, my older better Tomorrow is a continuation of
a theme that I picked up the end of last
year for those of you who might have missed it
because you're on holidays or not listening to the pod.
After a couple of years of me begging, begging, oh no, no, begging, Yeah,
I'm not going to change that, begging our youngest daughter
Emily to come surfing. I just want to teach. I've
(08:40):
asked all of our kids to learn to surf and
have been unsuccessful in getting any of them interested it all.
And a couple of years ago Emily did come surfing,
but the water was cold and she got dumped by
a way and she said, I'm never doing it again.
And so every couple of months I've said, hey, I'm
going surfing, or hey, I'd love to take your surfing,
and she's just been vehement in her refusal. I'm not going.
I'm never surfing. I hate the ocean. I don't want
(09:01):
to go. But for Christmas, because she couldn't afford a gift,
she told me that she'd let me take her surfing,
and so I did not let that opportunity pass. I
took to the beach. She loved it. And we've been
going to the beach most days. We can't quite get
there every day for any number of reasons, and sometimes
it's just that the conditions are wrong. Yeah, but every
day the conditions have been good. We've gotten down to
(09:23):
the beach and spent between half an hour and maybe
up to three hours catching waves. And this kid is
surfing and she has I'm not going to say she's
fully got the bug, but she's well on her way.
There's no pushback, there's no resistance. She's finally starting to
experience it beautifully. And I'm just I'm loving the joy
(09:43):
that's on her face when she's in the ocean, the
confidence that comes as she catches the wave or paddles
back out without getting hit by too many waves. It's
such a joyful thing to watch. I had an insight, though,
and I guess I've had this a few times in
a few different ways, but for older but it's Moorrow.
What I really want to emphasize is your youngest kids,
especially when you have a big family like us and
(10:05):
spread them across fifteen years. With those six kids, our
youngest children certainly get the best of us, and our
youngest daughter particularly gets the best of us. We're old,
we're wiser, but we also have less pressure and less
demands on us now than we did when the first
ones were being raised and growing up, and so with
different levels of time and even financial resources, I'm watching
(10:27):
our youngest get a better version of me than our
older kids got. So my older bit tomorrow is actually this.
The awareness makes it possible for me to make that
up in some small way for each of our older kids.
So I'm consistently looking for ways that I can connect,
reach out, touch, share, listen, engage with involve myself in
(10:51):
the things that matter to our older kids. And while
sometimes I do it better and other times I don't
do it very well at all, the awareness of the
need for that connection is driving me. And it's the
time spend in the ocean with Emily that's made me
more acutely, more poignantly aware of it.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
So I'm not going to disagree with anything you've said.
I think that all of it is true, especially from
our experience, but I am going to suggest that it's
not necessarily that they get the best of us. At
the other end, I think so much of it's about timing.
If you had the time that you now have as
a young dad, do you think that our children would
(11:29):
have experienced a different version of you.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
We still spend a lot of time with our kids,
make that mistake. I mean, we were off, we had
super saturdays, we'd go on outings. We've always worked super
super hard to get that investment. But I feel like
there's a different quality of character and connection. I feel
like I'm a different person. I feel like I'm a
different dad you are, and she's getting the she's getting
(11:52):
the I mean, our eldest daughter is in her mid
twenties with her own child now, and our youngest daughter
is reaping the bed benefits of our experience with the
five kids older than her, where we have connected in
ways that perhaps weren't quite as effective or weren't quite
as wonderful or perfect.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And yet in spite of that, our eldest daughter is
a better parent than we ever were.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yes, yes, at her age.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
And so I don't know, it's just a beautiful, beautiful
reality that we are doing the very best we can
with what we have in any given moment. And it's
not really I don't think the folcus should be on
the fact that our elder kids missed out and our
younger kids are getting more. I think it's a beautiful
acknowledgment that we're growing and maturing and learning as individuals
(12:41):
and specifically as parents, and our kids benefit from that
over time.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
We hope this conversation helps you to do better tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, something brand new that we've never done
the pod before. We're going to start launching when we
can full length interviews of the wonderful people that we
get to talk to on the pod tomorrow. Australia's most
decorated Olympian ever, Emma McKean, chatting with me for about
thirty minutes about all of the life lessons she's learned
(13:07):
being raised by a champion swimming father and coach and
then going on to Olympic glory. We're going to talk
about what the parenting lessons are that we can pick
up from her Olympic journey. That's Emma McKeon on the
Happy Families podcast for your weekend listening pleasure. The Happy
Family podcast is produced by Justin Ruland from Bridge Media.
We would be so grateful if you would jump online
(13:30):
and leave us a five star rating and review. When
you leave those ratings and reviews, it helps other people
to find the podcast. I don't know how the algorithm
works exactly, but trust me, if you give us a
five star rating and review, more people will be able
to listen to make their families happier. Could you take
thirty seconds to do that? We'd be so grateful. More
information and more resources to make your family happier can
be found at Happy families, dot com, dot a, u OH,
(13:52):
and on Monday, My twenty twenty five parenting Predictions
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