July 24, 2025 • 11 mins
What kind of parent willingly gives up a peaceful beach day… for four hours of standing in theme park lines? In this episode, Justin shares the story of his most "Father of the Year" moment — and Kylie reveals how she did something even braver. If you’ve ever had to choose between comfort and connection, this one’s for you.
KEY POINTS:
Why showing up — even when it’s uncomfortable — creates lasting memories for our kids.The unexpected benefits of shared boredom (like standing in line together!).How doing things you hate can still bring joy — to both you and your kids.The value of modelling courage, humour, and presence (even on the Kansas Twister).Why it’s often the hard, inconvenient moments that matter most in family life.
QUOTE OF THE EPISODE:
“Do the hard things. The joy it brings your kids — seeing you squeal, be scared, and do it anyway — you can’t put a price on that.”
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
HappyFamilies.com.au — for more parenting inspiration and tools.
ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS:
- Say Yes to the Hard Thing – Whether it’s a dreaded ride, a messy game, or a long conversation, lean in.
- Model Being Brave – Let your kids see you doing things outside your comfort zone.
- Find Joy in the Chaos – Embrace the mess, the lines, and the noise as chances to connect.
- Reflect and Celebrate – Share the story with your kids afterwards. Celebrate effort, not perfection.
- Plan Your Own "Hard Thing" – Ask yourself: What’s one thing I can do this week that puts my kids first, even if it’s uncomfortable?
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):
Today I'm the Happy Families Podcast. The thing that I
did that makes me Father of the Year. I'm convinced
of it. Kylie, I have done something that no other
parent in their right mind would do. You're hilarious and
I think that i'd do. Is I reckon I was
that right? Well, I've told you what I'm talking about.
I have no idea where you're going. Hello and welcome
to The Happy Families Podcast. Real Parenting Solutions every Day.
(00:26):
This is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. We are Justin
and Kylie Colson. Every Friday on the pod, we unpack
the stuff that worked with the stuff that didn't in
the week that was, so that we can hopefully inspire
you to be a better parent. You can learn from
our mistakes, or you can, I don't know, take inspiration
from our awesomeness when we finally do manage to get
it right. I'm going first. I've been in Perth for
(00:47):
the last several days running workshops and presentations, and so
my old bed tomorrow is from a couple of weeks
ago when the school holidays were happening. Because I haven't
seen the kids since Sunday. That's just the life of
me and what I have to do sometimes. So Kylie,
here is my older better tomorrow. A couple of weeks ago,
(01:07):
my mum came up to the Gold Coast. We live
on the Sunny Coast, so it's a couple of hours south.
Mom came up to the Gold Coast from the New
South Wales Central Coast and she brought one of our kids, cousins, Emma,
who's like eleven years old. So Emily our eleven year old.
She doesn't get to see Emma very much. And Mom said,
I'm coming up for three or four days. Let's get
the kids together. Actually it was your suggestion that they
(01:29):
that they do it, and they did. And Mum said
to me, here's what's going to happen on Saturday. It
was the Saturday where the Queensland school holidays ended, and
it was halfway through the New South Wales school holidays,
so everyone's on holidays. Mum said, I'll meet you at
Warner Brothers Movie World. You can drop off Emily. I'll
(01:50):
have Emma and I'll just take the two kids in
the movie World and you can have a day off.
And you know what I thought to myself, Yeah, babe,
I'm doing it. I'm doing it. I need this, like
I really really need some time off. I've been working
extremely hard. I'm shattered. It's been school holidays. I've been
working mega hours, haven't even seen the kids. And I
can't think of anything that I'd rather avoid than a
(02:12):
school holiday Warner Brothers Movie World. I just don't want
to be there. I don't care about the lines, a
lone of interest in the rides. No, And so my
mum said, I'll take the two kids and you can
have the day off. I said, okay, I'm in. What
I forgot was that our fifteen year old daughter was
also with my mum because she'd been staying down on
the Central Coast for some time, and so it was
actually mum and the two kids. But I dropped Emily
(02:37):
at the theme park entrance. I said hi to my
mum and my other daughter, our other daughter, and then
I got in the car and started to drive towards
the beach, where I was going to have a nice
relaxing day reading a book and eating in a cafe
and just chilling like a villain. When my conscience got
the better of me, I was ten minutes down the
(02:58):
road and I rang Mum and said, I can't let
you take the kids to the theme park and just
abrogate my parental responsibility. I think I need to be there.
I also knew that Mum wouldn't go on any of
the rides, and I just, I don't know. It didn't
feel right. Plus it was odd numbers. If Mum doesn't
go on the rides and there's three of them, I
just my conscience got the better of me. So Kylie,
(03:19):
I turned around and I went back to Warner Brothers
Movie World. And this is a hashtag not sponsored post
because I hate the place and I'm not going to
say anything good about it because you know what happened.
I got there. By the time I got in, it
was about eleven o'clock. This is a Saturday. We lined
up for an hour to go on the Flash. Then
we lined up for two hours to go on the
(03:39):
Superman ride. Two hours for a forty five second ride.
Mum actually went and bought lunch for us and brought
it to us in line, two hours in line. Once
we finished that line, then we lined up for about
forty five minutes to go on the Joker. So I'd
been at the theme park for four hours for three rides.
And at that point I said, I'm gonna go and
(04:00):
sit in the car and the car park, I'm going
to read my book. I'm done. I'm over it. So
I don't know if that's a winner or lost. I
don't know. I don't actually know You're going really good
until the end. The takeo message, just don't go to
those theme parks. What a charge you a squillion dollars
for three rides in four hours. I'm actually fuming. My
older better tomorrow is stay away from the place. What joke.
(04:23):
But I've got to get Brandie points for actually being
the dad that hung out with the kids in line
and kept them entertained for hour after hour after hour
while we did nothing except stand there. What's your reaction
do you want? Do you want my old do better tomorrow?
(04:44):
Let's do that after break? All right, Kylie, what's your
older better tomorrow? Because you reckon, you can beat my
horror story? Can you just give me a pat on
the back? Can you just it's like that's what dads
are supposed to do, or you're awesome or something like that.
(05:04):
I mean, it was brutal.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I actually am going to give you a pat on
the back because you were on the phone to me
when you had that realization, not because of anything I said.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
You.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
You literally came to your own realization that you you
wanted to be with the kids.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I was chatting with you and saying, I'm going to
go and read a book, We're going to go and
hang out the beach, and you said, enjoy the day,
like you were so supportive of me doing it, you
know how worn out I am. Yep, And instead I
was the one that reversed the story and you I
don't even remember what you said. I think you just said, okay,
if that's what you think you should do, Like, are
you not nuck?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Are you nuts?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah? That's exactly what I was thinking, all right, So
what's your old about it? Tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, if one day at the theme parks wasn't enough,
I may have ended up there two days later.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah you did, that's right. So I had to bring
one of the kids back on Monday, and you went
to the theme park on that I stay down for it.
So you're still in my older better tomorrow boy? No, no, no,
not at.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Okay, But but I will say I actually hate rides.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
You're not used to go on them.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Not I don't mind being there. I actually physically get
sick going on rights.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And is that it's in my head kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
No, because I used to really love rides when I
was younger, but having had children, it has it has
changed my makeup.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Can I say something really bizarre right now? I reckon
the two hours in line for the Superman ride was
almost worth it. That ride is so much fun.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Well, it was no better two days later because the
kids didn't even bother lining up. It was that long.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Wow. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
So we had extra cousins this time, and again an
odd number. Five Your mom came and.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So there's five cousins plus you and mum.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Well there was actually six cousins, but one of them
was teeny tiny, so she couldn't come on the big rides.
So it's five big kids. And I had just kind
of prefaced with them the acknowledgment that there was an
odd number and so they were gonna have to take
turns in being the odd person out and not having
a partner.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And it's so weird sitting next to a stranger on
a ride, like when I did the Joker, I was
sitting are some random kid, and I so badly wanted
to fist pump him a gun. How was was that?
But he was just looking the other side and wouldn't
make eye contact. I was like, Yeah, I'm some random weirdo.
You're a weirdo.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Anyway, So we got there, and just the whole excitement
of being there, the kids wanted to go straight to
the Wizard of Odds rides, and before I knew it,
I was being dragged along with the inertia of their
excitement that I found myself in line getting ready to
go on this ride. I went on it.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Yeah, which one was it? Uh?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
The Twister, the Kansas Twister.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Oh, that's one of the kids rides.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
You're so funny.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
One of the kids' rides that's like for eights and
under that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That was a big deal. They go backwards. It took
me half a day just to recover.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Oh, you're such an awesome mum, You're so funny.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
So at the end of the day they went off.
They had an absolute ball. I was the bag carrier
and kept in touch with them and had to go
between kids because some wanted to go on the scary
ride and the other ones didn't. And all of that,
and your mum looked after a little snowy. But at
the end of the day there was one more ride.
They decided they wanted to go back on the Kansas Twister,
(08:26):
and so they dragged me along again. Come on, Nie,
you can come. And I ended up sitting next to
our nephew Rue, and he.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Was like, and how he's thirteen.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And he was a little bit scared.
He was like, oh, I don't know about this. I'm
a little bit scared. And I said, oh. And they
had decided that no one was allowed to scream. Everyone
had to have the hands in the air and no
one was allowed to scream. And I just looked at
them and said, well, oh, scream for all of you.
So we got in and I screamed, and Rue spent
(08:56):
the entire time laughing at me. He couldn't believe, number one,
that I did it, because he I was really nervous,
but he just loved the fact that I was so expressive.
And I punched him and I squeezed his leg every
time it got a bit too scary, and he just
thought it was awesome. And what I love, what I love.
I actually loved the day. What I don't like being lines.
(09:19):
I don't like lots of people.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Don't like the expense.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
But I loved watching these kids just lap it up.
They didn't care about the way. Yeah, they didn't care
about the way, and the conversations they got to have
together while they stood in line for an hour and
a half. Who does that an hour and a half?
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, Like I said, hashtag not sponsored. But I feel
like I have a new mission in life, and that's
to get you on the joker.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I told them I would to do it, but the
line was so long.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I reckon, I reckon, I can bribe you. Yeah, I reckon,
I can get you on there, diamond glittering. All right,
take home message.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Do the hard things it really honestly, I don't like rides.
They actually scare me a lot and I feel physically
ill at the end. And by the time I got
in the car after that last ride, it was hard
driving home. But the joy that it brought to the
kids seeing me squeal and be scared and do it anyway,
I just you can't, you can't pay, like, there's not
(10:20):
a price for that.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
All right, Well, because of my mum's generosity, we've got
an in your past, so a little bit back. Yeah,
it's still not sponsored and I still don't like the place,
but got to get some value out of that in
your past. We are really grateful that you choose to
listen to the Happy Families podcast. We hope that there's
some inspo there for you about doing the hard things
and spending the time with the kids, even when there's
other stuff that you'd rather be doing, because that's what
parenting's about, right, That's how you do it, and that's
(10:42):
how you make your family thrive and flourish. It's all
about time to a child lover spelt tea I am,
have a great weekend spending that tea I AM with
your kids. If you would like more inspo, more ideas
to make your family happy, it checks out at Happy
families dot com, dot you or visit our social pages
and a huge thanks to Justin rule On from Bridge Media,
who produces the podcast, and Mim Hammonds who provides research,
(11:04):
admin and other support. We will be back on Monday
to talk about what to do when kids talk back
those sassy kids coming up Monday morning on the Happy
Families Podcasts
Today I'm the Happy Families Podcast. The thing that I
did that makes me Father of the Year. I'm convinced
of it. Kylie, I have done something that no other
parent in their right mind would do. You're hilarious and
I think that i'd do. Is I reckon I was
that right? Well, I've told you what I'm talking about.
I have no idea where you're going. Hello and welcome
to The Happy Families Podcast. Real Parenting Solutions every Day.
(00:26):
This is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. We are Justin
and Kylie Colson. Every Friday on the pod, we unpack
the stuff that worked with the stuff that didn't in
the week that was, so that we can hopefully inspire
you to be a better parent. You can learn from
our mistakes, or you can, I don't know, take inspiration
from our awesomeness when we finally do manage to get
it right. I'm going first. I've been in Perth for
(00:47):
the last several days running workshops and presentations, and so
my old bed tomorrow is from a couple of weeks
ago when the school holidays were happening. Because I haven't
seen the kids since Sunday. That's just the life of
me and what I have to do sometimes. So Kylie,
here is my older better tomorrow. A couple of weeks ago,
(01:07):
my mum came up to the Gold Coast. We live
on the Sunny Coast, so it's a couple of hours south.
Mom came up to the Gold Coast from the New
South Wales Central Coast and she brought one of our kids, cousins, Emma,
who's like eleven years old. So Emily our eleven year old.
She doesn't get to see Emma very much. And Mom said,
I'm coming up for three or four days. Let's get
the kids together. Actually it was your suggestion that they
(01:29):
that they do it, and they did. And Mum said
to me, here's what's going to happen on Saturday. It
was the Saturday where the Queensland school holidays ended, and
it was halfway through the New South Wales school holidays,
so everyone's on holidays. Mum said, I'll meet you at
Warner Brothers Movie World. You can drop off Emily. I'll
(01:50):
have Emma and I'll just take the two kids in
the movie World and you can have a day off.
And you know what I thought to myself, Yeah, babe,
I'm doing it. I'm doing it. I need this, like
I really really need some time off. I've been working
extremely hard. I'm shattered. It's been school holidays. I've been
working mega hours, haven't even seen the kids. And I
can't think of anything that I'd rather avoid than a
(02:12):
school holiday Warner Brothers Movie World. I just don't want
to be there. I don't care about the lines, a
lone of interest in the rides. No, And so my
mum said, I'll take the two kids and you can
have the day off. I said, okay, I'm in. What
I forgot was that our fifteen year old daughter was
also with my mum because she'd been staying down on
the Central Coast for some time, and so it was
actually mum and the two kids. But I dropped Emily
(02:37):
at the theme park entrance. I said hi to my
mum and my other daughter, our other daughter, and then
I got in the car and started to drive towards
the beach, where I was going to have a nice
relaxing day reading a book and eating in a cafe
and just chilling like a villain. When my conscience got
the better of me, I was ten minutes down the
(02:58):
road and I rang Mum and said, I can't let
you take the kids to the theme park and just
abrogate my parental responsibility. I think I need to be there.
I also knew that Mum wouldn't go on any of
the rides, and I just, I don't know. It didn't
feel right. Plus it was odd numbers. If Mum doesn't
go on the rides and there's three of them, I
just my conscience got the better of me. So Kylie,
(03:19):
I turned around and I went back to Warner Brothers
Movie World. And this is a hashtag not sponsored post
because I hate the place and I'm not going to
say anything good about it because you know what happened.
I got there. By the time I got in, it
was about eleven o'clock. This is a Saturday. We lined
up for an hour to go on the Flash. Then
we lined up for two hours to go on the
(03:39):
Superman ride. Two hours for a forty five second ride.
Mum actually went and bought lunch for us and brought
it to us in line, two hours in line. Once
we finished that line, then we lined up for about
forty five minutes to go on the Joker. So I'd
been at the theme park for four hours for three rides.
And at that point I said, I'm gonna go and
(04:00):
sit in the car and the car park, I'm going
to read my book. I'm done. I'm over it. So
I don't know if that's a winner or lost. I
don't know. I don't actually know You're going really good
until the end. The takeo message, just don't go to
those theme parks. What a charge you a squillion dollars
for three rides in four hours. I'm actually fuming. My
older better tomorrow is stay away from the place. What joke.
(04:23):
But I've got to get Brandie points for actually being
the dad that hung out with the kids in line
and kept them entertained for hour after hour after hour
while we did nothing except stand there. What's your reaction
do you want? Do you want my old do better tomorrow?
(04:44):
Let's do that after break? All right, Kylie, what's your
older better tomorrow? Because you reckon, you can beat my
horror story? Can you just give me a pat on
the back? Can you just it's like that's what dads
are supposed to do, or you're awesome or something like that.
(05:04):
I mean, it was brutal.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I actually am going to give you a pat on
the back because you were on the phone to me
when you had that realization, not because of anything I said.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
You.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
You literally came to your own realization that you you
wanted to be with the kids.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I was chatting with you and saying, I'm going to
go and read a book, We're going to go and
hang out the beach, and you said, enjoy the day,
like you were so supportive of me doing it, you
know how worn out I am. Yep, And instead I
was the one that reversed the story and you I
don't even remember what you said. I think you just said, okay,
if that's what you think you should do, Like, are
you not nuck?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Are you nuts?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah? That's exactly what I was thinking, all right, So
what's your old about it? Tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, if one day at the theme parks wasn't enough,
I may have ended up there two days later.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah you did, that's right. So I had to bring
one of the kids back on Monday, and you went
to the theme park on that I stay down for it.
So you're still in my older better tomorrow boy? No, no, no,
not at.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Okay, But but I will say I actually hate rides.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
You're not used to go on them.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Not I don't mind being there. I actually physically get
sick going on rights.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And is that it's in my head kind of thing?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
No, because I used to really love rides when I
was younger, but having had children, it has it has
changed my makeup.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Can I say something really bizarre right now? I reckon
the two hours in line for the Superman ride was
almost worth it. That ride is so much fun.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Well, it was no better two days later because the
kids didn't even bother lining up. It was that long.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Wow. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
So we had extra cousins this time, and again an
odd number. Five Your mom came and.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So there's five cousins plus you and mum.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Well there was actually six cousins, but one of them
was teeny tiny, so she couldn't come on the big rides.
So it's five big kids. And I had just kind
of prefaced with them the acknowledgment that there was an
odd number and so they were gonna have to take
turns in being the odd person out and not having
a partner.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And it's so weird sitting next to a stranger on
a ride, like when I did the Joker, I was
sitting are some random kid, and I so badly wanted
to fist pump him a gun. How was was that?
But he was just looking the other side and wouldn't
make eye contact. I was like, Yeah, I'm some random weirdo.
You're a weirdo.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Anyway, So we got there, and just the whole excitement
of being there, the kids wanted to go straight to
the Wizard of Odds rides, and before I knew it,
I was being dragged along with the inertia of their
excitement that I found myself in line getting ready to
go on this ride. I went on it.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Yeah, which one was it? Uh?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
The Twister, the Kansas Twister.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Oh, that's one of the kids rides.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
You're so funny.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
One of the kids' rides that's like for eights and
under that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That was a big deal. They go backwards. It took
me half a day just to recover.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Oh, you're such an awesome mum, You're so funny.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
So at the end of the day they went off.
They had an absolute ball. I was the bag carrier
and kept in touch with them and had to go
between kids because some wanted to go on the scary
ride and the other ones didn't. And all of that,
and your mum looked after a little snowy. But at
the end of the day there was one more ride.
They decided they wanted to go back on the Kansas Twister,
(08:26):
and so they dragged me along again. Come on, Nie,
you can come. And I ended up sitting next to
our nephew Rue, and he.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Was like, and how he's thirteen.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And he was a little bit scared.
He was like, oh, I don't know about this. I'm
a little bit scared. And I said, oh. And they
had decided that no one was allowed to scream. Everyone
had to have the hands in the air and no
one was allowed to scream. And I just looked at
them and said, well, oh, scream for all of you.
So we got in and I screamed, and Rue spent
(08:56):
the entire time laughing at me. He couldn't believe, number one,
that I did it, because he I was really nervous,
but he just loved the fact that I was so expressive.
And I punched him and I squeezed his leg every
time it got a bit too scary, and he just
thought it was awesome. And what I love, what I love.
I actually loved the day. What I don't like being lines.
(09:19):
I don't like lots of people.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Don't like the expense.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
But I loved watching these kids just lap it up.
They didn't care about the way. Yeah, they didn't care
about the way, and the conversations they got to have
together while they stood in line for an hour and
a half. Who does that an hour and a half?
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, Like I said, hashtag not sponsored. But I feel
like I have a new mission in life, and that's
to get you on the joker.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I told them I would to do it, but the
line was so long.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I reckon, I reckon, I can bribe you. Yeah, I reckon,
I can get you on there, diamond glittering. All right,
take home message.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Do the hard things it really honestly, I don't like rides.
They actually scare me a lot and I feel physically
ill at the end. And by the time I got
in the car after that last ride, it was hard
driving home. But the joy that it brought to the
kids seeing me squeal and be scared and do it anyway,
I just you can't, you can't pay, like, there's not
(10:20):
a price for that.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
All right, Well, because of my mum's generosity, we've got
an in your past, so a little bit back. Yeah,
it's still not sponsored and I still don't like the place,
but got to get some value out of that in
your past. We are really grateful that you choose to
listen to the Happy Families podcast. We hope that there's
some inspo there for you about doing the hard things
and spending the time with the kids, even when there's
other stuff that you'd rather be doing, because that's what
parenting's about, right, That's how you do it, and that's
(10:42):
how you make your family thrive and flourish. It's all
about time to a child lover spelt tea I am,
have a great weekend spending that tea I AM with
your kids. If you would like more inspo, more ideas
to make your family happy, it checks out at Happy
families dot com, dot you or visit our social pages
and a huge thanks to Justin rule On from Bridge Media,
who produces the podcast, and Mim Hammonds who provides research,
(11:04):
admin and other support. We will be back on Monday
to talk about what to do when kids talk back
those sassy kids coming up Monday morning on the Happy
Families Podcasts
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com