October 16, 2025 • 20 mins
What happens when you pour condensed milk instead of coconut milk into your family curry? Justin’s kitchen disaster could’ve ended in chaos—but instead, it became a story of laughter, grace, and doing better tomorrow.
In this heartwarming (and hilarious) episode, Justin and Kylie share their biggest parenting fails—from theme park terrors to dinner gone wrong—and reveal the secret ingredient that makes family life truly happy.
KEY POINTS
- Why laughter is essential for a happy home
- How to turn small failures into powerful family memories
- The psychology of fear (and what a rollercoaster taught Kylie about courage)
- Justin’s sweet-but-sour curry disaster: a lesson in humility and humour
- The real reason “doing better tomorrow” matters more than getting it right today
QUOTE OF THE EPISODE
“If you want to have a happy family, you’ve got to laugh. Laughter makes family life happy.” — Dr Justin Coulson
RESOURCES MENTIONED
- Happy Families Podcast: Why Exam Results Don’t Define Your Child — or Their Future
- Article: The Exam Pressure Trap: How to Help Your Teen Without Adding to Their Stress
- Justin Coulson’s Book: 10 Things Every Parent Needs to Know
ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS
- Find the funny — When family life feels messy, look for a reason to laugh.
- Model grace — Mistakes are moments to connect, not criticise.
- Try again tomorrow — The best families aren’t perfect; they just keep showing up.
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 (00:05):
Hello and welcome to a Happy Famili's podcast, Real Parenting Solutions,
every single day on Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. Today,
we put ourselves under the microscope, as we do every Friday,
and share ways that we can be more intentional trying
to get it right. My story the biggest fail I
have ever had in my efforts to make our family happier.
You're laughing because you know what's coming. Oh my goodness,
(00:28):
did I get this wrong?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Like, it's so wrong. What's your one? I don't know
what you're going to talk about today.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm going to talk about real love.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Huh And you're saying with a smile on your face,
which makes me think that it's something else.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
We've got a couple of big news items as well
coming up right after the break. Stay with us. Hello,
Thanks so much for joining us on the Happy Families podcast,
Real Pairing Solutions every single day. It's Australia's most downloaded
parenting podcast. If you knew here, we really appreciate you
being with us. Every Friday, we put ourselves under the microscope.
We have a close look at everything we've done ideally right,
(01:01):
but frankly quite often wrong and try to be better tomorrow.
Hence the title of our Friday podcast, I'll do Better Tomorrow, Kylie,
before we crack on with our stories, yours and mine.
New South Wales HSC exams they started today I think,
or maybe it was yesterday, one of the two. Anyway,
New South Wales HSC exams Year twelve. It's on like
(01:22):
Donkey Kong, and next week and the week after other
states fall into line and start to put the year
twelve students under the pub We did an awesome podcast
on Monday morning about the year twelve exam season, What matters,
what doesn't, how to survive it if you've got older
kids or kids that are maybe heading there next year.
This is definitely worth a listen right now though we
(01:44):
need to talk about Oh sorry, there's one more bit
of news. This is so exciting. The other week on
I'll Do Better Tomorrow, you were talking about how our
eldest daughter has started reading my books. She pick up
Relationship Rules, started reading it, decided that she needed to
put some more water in the role relationship bucket, not
that she has with her daughter, but that she has
with her husband. Just as good as far as I'm concerned.
(02:05):
Then her whole friendship group started to get into the
whole relationship bucket thing and started talking about it. I
didn't know this, but I found out just the other
night when Chanelle and Jared came over for dinner with Indy.
That's our daughter and son in law and our granddaughter.
For those who are new to the pod, turns out
that Jared's gym buddy, bodybuilder Nathan, is a Happy Family's
(02:27):
podcast listener, and apparently last week you made him cry.
You literally got him weepy as you were telling that.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Sorry, Nathan.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
So Nathan, I mean, this guy's like huge. You can
imagine standing there doing bicep curls and trying you as
he listens to your story in the gym. Nathan was
so sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's terrible.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And also, we've had some landscaping done in our yard
just recently, and it's.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Not very often I get stopped, but you got stopped.
I've been away and I came in. I drove in
the driveway and one of the lands escapers came up
to me and he said, I just have to come
and thank you. And I'm looking at and going we
haven't even met. What have I done?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
You're paying my wages for the week, and we've got
a job landscaping things.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
So I'm looking at the gardens thinking what have I done?
And he said, he said, I've been listening to your
podcast for a couple of years here now, and he said,
the work that you and Justin do has literally changed
the relationships I had with my children and my wife.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
How did he know it was you? Did he recognize
you from the photo and the image on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
He read the name on the job sheet and he
was like, no, way right. He was so excited to
come here.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah. Well, I gave him a couple of books and
one of the other guys as well, Ned, So Ned
and Will were working in our yard and Ned said
that Will has got him onto the podcast. So Ned
and we love what you did in our garden. Thank you.
We love it and we hope that you enjoy the books. Hey,
while we're on this as well, it was my fiftieth
birthday in the last week or so. I've lost count
of the days. It was like eight or nine days
(03:53):
ago or something like that. And you, with the help
of Mim Hammonds who looks after all of it, admin
and research and other support for the pod, got a
hold of a whole bunch of Happy Families listeners and
Happy Families members and asked them to say nice things
about me, and they did. And it was so nice
to sit around the dining table as you read out
everybody's messages about how the podcast and how the work
that we do has made an impact in their lives.
(04:16):
What a treat. I mean, a life well lived has
nothing to do with where you live, or what kind
of car you drive, or even the holidays you take
or what your bank balance is. It comes down to
relationships and the people that you're able to influence an effect.
And I sat there and I felt a little bit
funny hearing all of these people saying nice things about me,
But most of all, I just sat there and felt
so grateful. What a privilege, what a gift it is
(04:37):
to be able to do this podcast to make a
difference in people's lives. So to everyone who's listening, we
really appreciate that you give us your time each day
so that we can try to make your family happier.
It makes our life feel like it's a life well lived.
Oh and I've got to quickly mention over the last
couple of weeks. I have done a lot of travel.
I've been home for the last few days, but my goodness,
I was in Kratha, i was in Perth for a
(04:59):
couple of days. I was in regional New South Wales.
I've kind of been all over the place and it's
just been so much I love going to the regions.
Like being in Karatha. There's all these people coming up
to me who are saying, nobody ever comes to a
place like Kartha. That's like Western Australia's equivalent of Townsville.
It's just so far up north and it was thirty
nine degrees when I've got off the plane. But people
(05:20):
were so excited to come along and listen and participate.
Podcast listeners there as well, So a huge thank you
to everybody there. Kylie, we've done too much news. Let's
hear your story. You're older, but it's tomorrow your true
love story. What's going on here? I have no idea
where we're going with this. So our kids have.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Cousins from New South Wales and their holidays extended past
our holiday.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, there's always that one week overlap and then one
week we're there.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, and your mum had come up to spend some
time with the cousins, and she invited Emily to come
down to the theme parks. We've got annual passes and
it makes it so easy for them to all to
get together and play and worth highlighting.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Though two hours, it's a solid two hour drive from
the Sunshine Coast to the first available theme park.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well, when I told Emily what we were doing, she said,
how long do I have to sit in the car?
And when I told her, she looked at me with
kind of like pain in her face. She was like,
this is such a hard choice. Just had two hours
snapped to sit in the cup of two hours, but
I want to see my cousins. Anyway, she braved it.
We got in the car, we drove down and we
(06:30):
managed to convince your mom, who has never gone on
a ride with the kids before.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
My mom is terrified. We went forward driving once with
my mum and I.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Think I still have the scars on my shoe.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
She literally put her nails into your arms as she
held on to you and were just driving along the
sandy track. It's not like we were doing real full driving,
and she was like screaming ahead off So to get
my mum on a ride other than what the teacups,
which is like you sit there and it's a little oh.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
That spins around and makes you feel really great.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
That was too much for my mum. Yeah, I agree, Yep,
she won't. She won't do dodge and cars. She won't.
She won't do any kind of ride that has any
thrill at all. What do you call it? The carousel?
The carousel is as far as she'll go, where you
sit on the horse and you bob up and down
as you slowly spin around in that circle and hear
the music.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well knowing bad, she did amazing because one of the
first rides the kids decided to go on was the
log ride. And I'm not a big ride person, but
I love the log ride. And it was so hot.
It was eleven o'clock. It was really hot, and I
was like, I'm going to go on that log ride
because I'm hoping I am going to get completely drenched.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
H Queensland Spring, welcome to it.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, and shemmed an Ard and the kids. As soon
as I said I really think you should come on it.
You should have seen the kid's faces just like light up.
They then were you so excited? To think that she
would come, and when she finally agreed to it, they
were just they were speechless, like they really couldn't put
(07:55):
into words how excited they were that she was going
to join us.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
And this is five grandkids age between like what eight
and twelve, eight and thirteen something like that. Yeah, just
jumping out of the skin. I wasn't there, but like,
I know how unusual it would be for my mum
to say that, So I can imagine.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So a log ride takes eight people, and there was
two girls behind us, your mum's in front of them,
and the entire they had an entire mouthful. The entire time,
your mum was talking and screaming and squealing and saying,
you know, I can't believe you're making me do this.
This is the worst. And we were going through the
smooth bit at that point, but she had already seen
(08:32):
obviously the big crash that happens when you go down
the big slide coming out of the mountain, and we
got to that point and oh my gosh, she just
screamed the log log all the way down the hill.
But the kids just loved it, and at the end
of it, she said, okay, it wasn't It wasn't as
bad as I remember it. And she did it again, right,
(08:52):
she actually did it again.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
The problem was, I'm trying to work out how this
ties in with your audio. But tomorrow your incredible loving
sacrifice other than that you stood in line at Warner
Brothers movie World.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well that was the sponsored That was the preface because because.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I did that, like I think, I got three rides
in five hours when I did it last Holidays with them, I.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
It was a really big deal for you, mum. But
halfway through the day the kids, a few of the
kids decided they wanted to go on the Joker.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
The Joker is the best, the best ride. It is
so much fun.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So there's four kids, but only three want to go,
and nobody wants to ride next to a stranger. And
the kid who doesn't want to go rue he says, Annie, Kylie,
I think you should go on it. And I looked
at it and I said, oh, you have no idea.
There is no way I'm going on that ride. And
he said, Nan went on the.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Log ride, the log Ride of the Joker. They're not
even in the same universe.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
They're not. But to him it was like Nan did it,
so you have to. Okay, I said, I'll make you
a deal. If you go on the Joker, I'll go too,
and he went, no way, not doing it anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So twelve years old, three twelve.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, so we've still got three kids wanting to go
on a ride and one of them has to have
somebody else to go with them. And my mother in
law looked at me and she just said, you better
do it. So I stood in that line for probably
an hour, and the entire time I thought I was
going to vomit. I honestly, Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
This is exactly like. This is literally it's the way
our psychology works. We tell ourselves these stories, we get
ourselves worked up. It's all in your head. You rang me.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
The kids are laughing at me the whole time. They
can see like I have no color in my face.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah. No, I rang you. I was asking what you're
up to, and you said I'm five minutes from dying.
You had like there were three more rides and it
was going to be you on the Joker, and you
said I'm going to be dead soon. It's been nice
knowing you, or something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
No, I said, if I don't make it out alive.
I just want you to know you were the best
thing that ever happened to me.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I should have said that better, because that is a really,
really beautiful thing to say.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And you told me to ring you back after the.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Back and tell me how much you enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah, you'd be.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Great, Yeah, so amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I didn't ring you back, and you might have run
me three times before I finally picked up.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yes, and you picked up and you made it sound
like an answering machine.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
And I may have said something along the lines of
This is a recording of Kylie Coulson. I died on
the Joker. I'm done, I'm done, And you cracked up,
you laughed, you made fun of me all afternoon.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
How much fun is the Joker?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It was so bad? So I actually looked up because
your mum went on the log ride and then she
did actually go on the Flight of the Wicked Witch.
That ride goes at sixty seven kilometers an hour.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
The log ride would be like thirty five, Yeah, crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
The Joker at maximum speed one hundred and fifteen kilometers
per hour. That thing flies. And you know how like
on the old roller coasters you used to have the
kind of like lulls in the ride. You'd have these
big corkscrews or you know, you do the loop, but
then there'd be a little bit of time where you
kind of adjusted. No, yes, this thing just doesn't stop.
(12:11):
It was so fast.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
You know that you drive fast than that on the freeway.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, don't turn upside down and.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Oh my gosh, and my bum kept lifting off the seats.
I actually said to the lady as she locked me in,
I said, how many people die on this thing?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So what's your take on message? Missus? Happy families, because
this has been the longest story you've ever told. It
was clearly it was clearly a big deal for you.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
It was a really big deal for me. You know,
ultimately everything we do is about our kids, right, And
I actually really really don't like going on rides.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
It makes me feel we got that. Yeah, we definitely
got that.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
But seeing those kids' faces light up, yeah because I
did something, and listening to them constantly giving me the
pep talk. I believe in you, Artie, Kaylie, you can
do It was just such a beautiful bonding experience. I
will never go on that thing ever again, but they'll
have the memory that I did do it nice.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
After the break, the biggest disaster that I have ever
been in charge of. Find out more ever, Yeah, stay
with us, Okay, it's time for my I'll do better tomorrow.
I can actually do this one fairly quickly. I have
(13:37):
decided that because I'm traveling a little bit less for
the next few weeks, that I want to contribute a
whole lot more around the house. I finished the manuscript
for my book. That feels really good. So I've got
a little bit of margin, not heaps, but I've got
a little bit of margin where I can get involved
in the kitchen and start doing a bit of the
stuff that really means a lot to me, like helping
you with the stuff that you would normally do under
our typical division of labor, and spending more time with
the kids. So I can't remember what day it was
(13:59):
or why, but I was cooking. Oh it was the
day you're at theme parks, that's right, And I said,
I've got dinner. Don't worry, I'm really looking forward to it.
What time we be home. You're gonna be home at
seven o'clock. Fantastic, It'll be ready at seven. I spent
two to two and a half hours cooking this red
tie curry. There's the recipe in the book. I was
so busy in the office that I got our twenty
one year old daughter Ella to read out the recipe,
(14:21):
go through the cupboard and the fridge, make sure we
had everything, and just give me a shopping list of
what we didn't have. I raced out of the shops,
I grabbed what I needed. There was one item on
the list that wasn't properly written. She wrote two cans
of unsweetened and then she didn't write what needed to
be unsweetened, two cans of unsweetened something. And I had
(14:42):
no idea what it was. And so I gave her
a quick call and I said, what, what do I need?
Two cans of unsweetened what? And she said, hang on
a second check. And she came back to me like
four seconds later and said condensed milk. And I was like, okay.
I went into the condensed milk aisle and I'm looking
for unsweetened condensed milk. I'm thinking that doesn't make sense.
Condensed milk is sweet anyway. I pick up two cans
(15:04):
of sweet and condensed milk because there was no one
sweetened condensed milk. I came home totally on autopilot and
just started cooking this mealk. Lots and lots of preparation.
This takes a long time to prepare this curry. And
I remember as I was tipping the condensed milk into
the curry, I was just so much on an autopole.
I was annoyed that it wasn't coming out fast enough.
So I got the spatchelor and spooned all the condensed
(15:25):
milk into the curry. I've got all the vegetables cooking,
I've got just the stock, the whole thing. It was perfect.
And then just before you walked in the door, like
whenever you put any milk into something that you cook
on the stove, if it boils, you get this curd
all effect and it's really horrible. And unfortunately, because I
was trying to do too many things, I curdled the
milk and I was just so so upset and it
(15:48):
looked horrendous. But while I'm washing my hands and getting
ready to come in for dinner, you are having a
little chat with the kids.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I've looked at this thing. I have never seen like
curdled like it was. This. This looked like when you
have baking.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
It looks like somebody had vomited. That's what it looked
like when you've got.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Baking soda and you add it to your butter mix
and it blows up and gets all puffy and then
just kind of settles. It was like really foamy. And
I've looked at it and I've said to the girls,
dad's tried really hard on dinner. It looks disgusting. He's
absolutely destroyed it, and we are going to eat it
(16:27):
with a smile on our face. And they looked at
me and they were like, okay, mom, yep, we've got this.
I said, it looks terrible, but it will taste fine.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
It literally looked it looked like vomit. It was horrendous.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
But so I've put it into the bowls and we've
sat down, We've said a prayer, and I've taken my
first bites and it tasted like chicken dessert. It was
carrot and so sweet. I thought I was going to
be sick, like it was so.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Sweet cans of Condon's milk, and what do you think you?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
And I looked at it. I was trying so hard
because I wanted to pump you up and I looked
at you, and I said, how much sugar did you
put in this?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And I said, and you.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Said, I didn't put any sugar in it. I just
put two cans of condensed milk. I just about spat
my food out onto the plate, and I've got up
just khacking. I mean, honestly, I've walked over to the
recipe to think, how on earth milk from coconut milk?
(17:34):
And I couldn't read condensed anywhere. There was no condensed nothing.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And then I saw coconut milk, and I went, oh,
we're having pizza tonight.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
But you know what was so great about this story? Honestly,
I don't think our family has laughed as much as
we did that night. It could have been a disaster.
You could have been up in arms and all frustrated
and angry, and it could have just been an absolute nightmare.
It was just hilarious. And I grew up in a
home where that wouldn't have happened, Like we wouldn't have
(18:05):
laughed about that. And I was just at the end
of the night, after having the massive day that I
had where I almost died, and coming home to your
experience of destroying dinner I just thought, how awesome, how
awesome that, in spite of it all, we can sit
down and we can just have a really good laugh
about how terrible that was. You know, that was one
(18:27):
of our favorite dinners until you cooked it.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yeah, yep. But because this episode's called I'd be better tomorrow.
On the next night, I cooked it again, and this
time I did coconut milk, and everyone ede it and
no one complained and I didn't even hurdle it. I
got it right, which my take on message means is
that if we keep on trying, we can eventually get
it right. We've gone way over time on this podcast,
(18:50):
but we're so glad that you listen, and we hope
that it gave you some entertainment. We hope that it
gave you some inspiration for just connecting better with your
kids and with your partner and wife loved ones. Family
life is so messy. Family life is so hard, and
family life requires so many sacrifices, and yet if you
want to have a happy family, I've actually worked out
(19:12):
that it's taken me this many years. But if you
want to have a happy family, you've got to laugh.
Laughter makes family life happy. If you're not laughing, then
it's just not nearly as happy. So when you do
ruin dinner tonight or tomorrow night, or when one of
the kids does do something stupid, when you have to
make a sacrifice that you find really uncomfortable, if you
can find a way to laugh about it and then
you can do better tomorrow, it's amazing, Like it just
(19:32):
becomes so enriching, so soul stretching and soul enlarging, and gosh,
I just feel like I could wax lyrical about it,
the meaning of life and the purpose of life and
joy in life, but that's really it. The Happy Families
podcast is produced by Justin Rulan from Bridge Media. Mimhammonds
provides additional admin and research and other support. If you'd
(19:52):
like more information about making your family happier, visit happy
families dot com dot au and we will be back
on Monday talking about what you should do when the
kids break something but they didn't mean it. How do
you keep them accountable? What's there when it's not their fault.
(20:14):
That's coming up Monday on the Happy Families Podcast.
Hello and welcome to a Happy Famili's podcast, Real Parenting Solutions,
every single day on Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. Today,
we put ourselves under the microscope, as we do every Friday,
and share ways that we can be more intentional trying
to get it right. My story the biggest fail I
have ever had in my efforts to make our family happier.
You're laughing because you know what's coming. Oh my goodness,
(00:28):
did I get this wrong?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Like, it's so wrong. What's your one? I don't know
what you're going to talk about today.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm going to talk about real love.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Huh And you're saying with a smile on your face,
which makes me think that it's something else.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
We've got a couple of big news items as well
coming up right after the break. Stay with us. Hello,
Thanks so much for joining us on the Happy Families podcast,
Real Pairing Solutions every single day. It's Australia's most downloaded
parenting podcast. If you knew here, we really appreciate you
being with us. Every Friday, we put ourselves under the microscope.
We have a close look at everything we've done ideally right,
(01:01):
but frankly quite often wrong and try to be better tomorrow.
Hence the title of our Friday podcast, I'll do Better Tomorrow, Kylie,
before we crack on with our stories, yours and mine.
New South Wales HSC exams they started today I think,
or maybe it was yesterday, one of the two. Anyway,
New South Wales HSC exams Year twelve. It's on like
(01:22):
Donkey Kong, and next week and the week after other
states fall into line and start to put the year
twelve students under the pub We did an awesome podcast
on Monday morning about the year twelve exam season, What matters,
what doesn't, how to survive it if you've got older
kids or kids that are maybe heading there next year.
This is definitely worth a listen right now though we
(01:44):
need to talk about Oh sorry, there's one more bit
of news. This is so exciting. The other week on
I'll Do Better Tomorrow, you were talking about how our
eldest daughter has started reading my books. She pick up
Relationship Rules, started reading it, decided that she needed to
put some more water in the role relationship bucket, not
that she has with her daughter, but that she has
with her husband. Just as good as far as I'm concerned.
(02:05):
Then her whole friendship group started to get into the
whole relationship bucket thing and started talking about it. I
didn't know this, but I found out just the other
night when Chanelle and Jared came over for dinner with Indy.
That's our daughter and son in law and our granddaughter.
For those who are new to the pod, turns out
that Jared's gym buddy, bodybuilder Nathan, is a Happy Family's
(02:27):
podcast listener, and apparently last week you made him cry.
You literally got him weepy as you were telling that.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Sorry, Nathan.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
So Nathan, I mean, this guy's like huge. You can
imagine standing there doing bicep curls and trying you as
he listens to your story in the gym. Nathan was
so sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's terrible.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And also, we've had some landscaping done in our yard
just recently, and it's.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Not very often I get stopped, but you got stopped.
I've been away and I came in. I drove in
the driveway and one of the lands escapers came up
to me and he said, I just have to come
and thank you. And I'm looking at and going we
haven't even met. What have I done?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
You're paying my wages for the week, and we've got
a job landscaping things.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
So I'm looking at the gardens thinking what have I done?
And he said, he said, I've been listening to your
podcast for a couple of years here now, and he said,
the work that you and Justin do has literally changed
the relationships I had with my children and my wife.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
How did he know it was you? Did he recognize
you from the photo and the image on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
He read the name on the job sheet and he
was like, no, way right. He was so excited to
come here.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah. Well, I gave him a couple of books and
one of the other guys as well, Ned, So Ned
and Will were working in our yard and Ned said
that Will has got him onto the podcast. So Ned
and we love what you did in our garden. Thank you.
We love it and we hope that you enjoy the books. Hey,
while we're on this as well, it was my fiftieth
birthday in the last week or so. I've lost count
of the days. It was like eight or nine days
(03:53):
ago or something like that. And you, with the help
of Mim Hammonds who looks after all of it, admin
and research and other support for the pod, got a
hold of a whole bunch of Happy Families listeners and
Happy Families members and asked them to say nice things
about me, and they did. And it was so nice
to sit around the dining table as you read out
everybody's messages about how the podcast and how the work
that we do has made an impact in their lives.
(04:16):
What a treat. I mean, a life well lived has
nothing to do with where you live, or what kind
of car you drive, or even the holidays you take
or what your bank balance is. It comes down to
relationships and the people that you're able to influence an effect.
And I sat there and I felt a little bit
funny hearing all of these people saying nice things about me,
But most of all, I just sat there and felt
so grateful. What a privilege, what a gift it is
(04:37):
to be able to do this podcast to make a
difference in people's lives. So to everyone who's listening, we
really appreciate that you give us your time each day
so that we can try to make your family happier.
It makes our life feel like it's a life well lived.
Oh and I've got to quickly mention over the last
couple of weeks. I have done a lot of travel.
I've been home for the last few days, but my goodness,
I was in Kratha, i was in Perth for a
(04:59):
couple of days. I was in regional New South Wales.
I've kind of been all over the place and it's
just been so much I love going to the regions.
Like being in Karatha. There's all these people coming up
to me who are saying, nobody ever comes to a
place like Kartha. That's like Western Australia's equivalent of Townsville.
It's just so far up north and it was thirty
nine degrees when I've got off the plane. But people
(05:20):
were so excited to come along and listen and participate.
Podcast listeners there as well, So a huge thank you
to everybody there. Kylie, we've done too much news. Let's
hear your story. You're older, but it's tomorrow your true
love story. What's going on here? I have no idea
where we're going with this. So our kids have.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Cousins from New South Wales and their holidays extended past
our holiday.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, there's always that one week overlap and then one
week we're there.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, and your mum had come up to spend some
time with the cousins, and she invited Emily to come
down to the theme parks. We've got annual passes and
it makes it so easy for them to all to
get together and play and worth highlighting.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Though two hours, it's a solid two hour drive from
the Sunshine Coast to the first available theme park.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well, when I told Emily what we were doing, she said,
how long do I have to sit in the car?
And when I told her, she looked at me with
kind of like pain in her face. She was like,
this is such a hard choice. Just had two hours
snapped to sit in the cup of two hours, but
I want to see my cousins. Anyway, she braved it.
We got in the car, we drove down and we
(06:30):
managed to convince your mom, who has never gone on
a ride with the kids before.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
My mom is terrified. We went forward driving once with
my mum and I.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Think I still have the scars on my shoe.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
She literally put her nails into your arms as she
held on to you and were just driving along the
sandy track. It's not like we were doing real full driving,
and she was like screaming ahead off So to get
my mum on a ride other than what the teacups,
which is like you sit there and it's a little oh.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
That spins around and makes you feel really great.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
That was too much for my mum. Yeah, I agree, Yep,
she won't. She won't do dodge and cars. She won't.
She won't do any kind of ride that has any
thrill at all. What do you call it? The carousel?
The carousel is as far as she'll go, where you
sit on the horse and you bob up and down
as you slowly spin around in that circle and hear
the music.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well knowing bad, she did amazing because one of the
first rides the kids decided to go on was the
log ride. And I'm not a big ride person, but
I love the log ride. And it was so hot.
It was eleven o'clock. It was really hot, and I
was like, I'm going to go on that log ride
because I'm hoping I am going to get completely drenched.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
H Queensland Spring, welcome to it.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, and shemmed an Ard and the kids. As soon
as I said I really think you should come on it.
You should have seen the kid's faces just like light up.
They then were you so excited? To think that she
would come, and when she finally agreed to it, they
were just they were speechless, like they really couldn't put
(07:55):
into words how excited they were that she was going
to join us.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
And this is five grandkids age between like what eight
and twelve, eight and thirteen something like that. Yeah, just
jumping out of the skin. I wasn't there, but like,
I know how unusual it would be for my mum
to say that, So I can imagine.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So a log ride takes eight people, and there was
two girls behind us, your mum's in front of them,
and the entire they had an entire mouthful. The entire time,
your mum was talking and screaming and squealing and saying,
you know, I can't believe you're making me do this.
This is the worst. And we were going through the
smooth bit at that point, but she had already seen
(08:32):
obviously the big crash that happens when you go down
the big slide coming out of the mountain, and we
got to that point and oh my gosh, she just
screamed the log log all the way down the hill.
But the kids just loved it, and at the end
of it, she said, okay, it wasn't It wasn't as
bad as I remember it. And she did it again, right,
(08:52):
she actually did it again.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
The problem was, I'm trying to work out how this
ties in with your audio. But tomorrow your incredible loving
sacrifice other than that you stood in line at Warner
Brothers movie World.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well that was the sponsored That was the preface because because.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I did that, like I think, I got three rides
in five hours when I did it last Holidays with them, I.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
It was a really big deal for you, mum. But
halfway through the day the kids, a few of the
kids decided they wanted to go on the Joker.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
The Joker is the best, the best ride. It is
so much fun.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So there's four kids, but only three want to go,
and nobody wants to ride next to a stranger. And
the kid who doesn't want to go rue he says, Annie, Kylie,
I think you should go on it. And I looked
at it and I said, oh, you have no idea.
There is no way I'm going on that ride. And
he said, Nan went on the.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Log ride, the log Ride of the Joker. They're not
even in the same universe.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
They're not. But to him it was like Nan did it,
so you have to. Okay, I said, I'll make you
a deal. If you go on the Joker, I'll go too,
and he went, no way, not doing it anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So twelve years old, three twelve.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, so we've still got three kids wanting to go
on a ride and one of them has to have
somebody else to go with them. And my mother in
law looked at me and she just said, you better
do it. So I stood in that line for probably
an hour, and the entire time I thought I was
going to vomit. I honestly, Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
This is exactly like. This is literally it's the way
our psychology works. We tell ourselves these stories, we get
ourselves worked up. It's all in your head. You rang me.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
The kids are laughing at me the whole time. They
can see like I have no color in my face.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah. No, I rang you. I was asking what you're
up to, and you said I'm five minutes from dying.
You had like there were three more rides and it
was going to be you on the Joker, and you
said I'm going to be dead soon. It's been nice
knowing you, or something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
No, I said, if I don't make it out alive.
I just want you to know you were the best
thing that ever happened to me.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I should have said that better, because that is a really,
really beautiful thing to say.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And you told me to ring you back after the.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Back and tell me how much you enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah, you'd be.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Great, Yeah, so amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I didn't ring you back, and you might have run
me three times before I finally picked up.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yes, and you picked up and you made it sound
like an answering machine.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
And I may have said something along the lines of
This is a recording of Kylie Coulson. I died on
the Joker. I'm done, I'm done, And you cracked up,
you laughed, you made fun of me all afternoon.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
How much fun is the Joker?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It was so bad? So I actually looked up because
your mum went on the log ride and then she
did actually go on the Flight of the Wicked Witch.
That ride goes at sixty seven kilometers an hour.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
The log ride would be like thirty five, Yeah, crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
The Joker at maximum speed one hundred and fifteen kilometers
per hour. That thing flies. And you know how like
on the old roller coasters you used to have the
kind of like lulls in the ride. You'd have these
big corkscrews or you know, you do the loop, but
then there'd be a little bit of time where you
kind of adjusted. No, yes, this thing just doesn't stop.
(12:11):
It was so fast.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
You know that you drive fast than that on the freeway.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, don't turn upside down and.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Oh my gosh, and my bum kept lifting off the seats.
I actually said to the lady as she locked me in,
I said, how many people die on this thing?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So what's your take on message? Missus? Happy families, because
this has been the longest story you've ever told. It
was clearly it was clearly a big deal for you.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
It was a really big deal for me. You know,
ultimately everything we do is about our kids, right, And
I actually really really don't like going on rides.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
It makes me feel we got that. Yeah, we definitely
got that.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
But seeing those kids' faces light up, yeah because I
did something, and listening to them constantly giving me the
pep talk. I believe in you, Artie, Kaylie, you can
do It was just such a beautiful bonding experience. I
will never go on that thing ever again, but they'll
have the memory that I did do it nice.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
After the break, the biggest disaster that I have ever
been in charge of. Find out more ever, Yeah, stay
with us, Okay, it's time for my I'll do better tomorrow.
I can actually do this one fairly quickly. I have
(13:37):
decided that because I'm traveling a little bit less for
the next few weeks, that I want to contribute a
whole lot more around the house. I finished the manuscript
for my book. That feels really good. So I've got
a little bit of margin, not heaps, but I've got
a little bit of margin where I can get involved
in the kitchen and start doing a bit of the
stuff that really means a lot to me, like helping
you with the stuff that you would normally do under
our typical division of labor, and spending more time with
the kids. So I can't remember what day it was
(13:59):
or why, but I was cooking. Oh it was the
day you're at theme parks, that's right, And I said,
I've got dinner. Don't worry, I'm really looking forward to it.
What time we be home. You're gonna be home at
seven o'clock. Fantastic, It'll be ready at seven. I spent
two to two and a half hours cooking this red
tie curry. There's the recipe in the book. I was
so busy in the office that I got our twenty
one year old daughter Ella to read out the recipe,
(14:21):
go through the cupboard and the fridge, make sure we
had everything, and just give me a shopping list of
what we didn't have. I raced out of the shops,
I grabbed what I needed. There was one item on
the list that wasn't properly written. She wrote two cans
of unsweetened and then she didn't write what needed to
be unsweetened, two cans of unsweetened something. And I had
(14:42):
no idea what it was. And so I gave her
a quick call and I said, what, what do I need?
Two cans of unsweetened what? And she said, hang on
a second check. And she came back to me like
four seconds later and said condensed milk. And I was like, okay.
I went into the condensed milk aisle and I'm looking
for unsweetened condensed milk. I'm thinking that doesn't make sense.
Condensed milk is sweet anyway. I pick up two cans
(15:04):
of sweet and condensed milk because there was no one
sweetened condensed milk. I came home totally on autopilot and
just started cooking this mealk. Lots and lots of preparation.
This takes a long time to prepare this curry. And
I remember as I was tipping the condensed milk into
the curry, I was just so much on an autopole.
I was annoyed that it wasn't coming out fast enough.
So I got the spatchelor and spooned all the condensed
(15:25):
milk into the curry. I've got all the vegetables cooking,
I've got just the stock, the whole thing. It was perfect.
And then just before you walked in the door, like
whenever you put any milk into something that you cook
on the stove, if it boils, you get this curd
all effect and it's really horrible. And unfortunately, because I
was trying to do too many things, I curdled the
milk and I was just so so upset and it
(15:48):
looked horrendous. But while I'm washing my hands and getting
ready to come in for dinner, you are having a
little chat with the kids.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I've looked at this thing. I have never seen like
curdled like it was. This. This looked like when you
have baking.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
It looks like somebody had vomited. That's what it looked
like when you've got.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Baking soda and you add it to your butter mix
and it blows up and gets all puffy and then
just kind of settles. It was like really foamy. And
I've looked at it and I've said to the girls,
dad's tried really hard on dinner. It looks disgusting. He's
absolutely destroyed it, and we are going to eat it
(16:27):
with a smile on our face. And they looked at
me and they were like, okay, mom, yep, we've got this.
I said, it looks terrible, but it will taste fine.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
It literally looked it looked like vomit. It was horrendous.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
But so I've put it into the bowls and we've
sat down, We've said a prayer, and I've taken my
first bites and it tasted like chicken dessert. It was
carrot and so sweet. I thought I was going to
be sick, like it was so.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Sweet cans of Condon's milk, and what do you think you?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
And I looked at it. I was trying so hard
because I wanted to pump you up and I looked
at you, and I said, how much sugar did you
put in this?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And I said, and you.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Said, I didn't put any sugar in it. I just
put two cans of condensed milk. I just about spat
my food out onto the plate, and I've got up
just khacking. I mean, honestly, I've walked over to the
recipe to think, how on earth milk from coconut milk?
(17:34):
And I couldn't read condensed anywhere. There was no condensed nothing.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And then I saw coconut milk, and I went, oh,
we're having pizza tonight.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
But you know what was so great about this story? Honestly,
I don't think our family has laughed as much as
we did that night. It could have been a disaster.
You could have been up in arms and all frustrated
and angry, and it could have just been an absolute nightmare.
It was just hilarious. And I grew up in a
home where that wouldn't have happened, Like we wouldn't have
(18:05):
laughed about that. And I was just at the end
of the night, after having the massive day that I
had where I almost died, and coming home to your
experience of destroying dinner I just thought, how awesome, how
awesome that, in spite of it all, we can sit
down and we can just have a really good laugh
about how terrible that was. You know, that was one
(18:27):
of our favorite dinners until you cooked it.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yeah, yep. But because this episode's called I'd be better tomorrow.
On the next night, I cooked it again, and this
time I did coconut milk, and everyone ede it and
no one complained and I didn't even hurdle it. I
got it right, which my take on message means is
that if we keep on trying, we can eventually get
it right. We've gone way over time on this podcast,
(18:50):
but we're so glad that you listen, and we hope
that it gave you some entertainment. We hope that it
gave you some inspiration for just connecting better with your
kids and with your partner and wife loved ones. Family
life is so messy. Family life is so hard, and
family life requires so many sacrifices, and yet if you
want to have a happy family, I've actually worked out
(19:12):
that it's taken me this many years. But if you
want to have a happy family, you've got to laugh.
Laughter makes family life happy. If you're not laughing, then
it's just not nearly as happy. So when you do
ruin dinner tonight or tomorrow night, or when one of
the kids does do something stupid, when you have to
make a sacrifice that you find really uncomfortable, if you
can find a way to laugh about it and then
you can do better tomorrow, it's amazing, Like it just
(19:32):
becomes so enriching, so soul stretching and soul enlarging, and gosh,
I just feel like I could wax lyrical about it,
the meaning of life and the purpose of life and
joy in life, but that's really it. The Happy Families
podcast is produced by Justin Rulan from Bridge Media. Mimhammonds
provides additional admin and research and other support. If you'd
(19:52):
like more information about making your family happier, visit happy
families dot com dot au and we will be back
on Monday talking about what you should do when the
kids break something but they didn't mean it. How do
you keep them accountable? What's there when it's not their fault.
(20:14):
That's coming up Monday on the Happy Families Podcast.
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