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Speaker 1: What are the things that drove you crazy then as

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Speaker 1: a parent, But it breaks your heart a bit now

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Speaker 1: that that moment has gone. The kids grow up so fast. Hello.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Happy Families Podcast, Real parenting solutions every

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Speaker 1: day on Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. We are Justin

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Speaker 1: and Kylie Coulson Today. A little bit of nostalgia, a

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Speaker 1: little bit of is reverie the right word? Some reflection,

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Speaker 1: an opportunity to look back on the things that make

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Speaker 1: parenting so hard and yet make it so meaningful and purposeful. Kylie,

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Speaker 1: I jumped onto Facebook and asked this question recently. You

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Speaker 1: know what everyone said? Pretty much every single answer we had.

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Speaker 2: This pretty much. Toddley is, Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 1: I miss I missed when I was exhausted. I missed

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Speaker 1: when my children were biting, kicking, scratching, when they wouldn't

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Speaker 1: eat the food and threw stuff all over the floor.

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Speaker 1: I miss those days. I miss the stinking I'm reading

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Speaker 1: going Nah.

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Speaker 2: No, there were some great ones. There was reading the

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Speaker 2: same book over and over again. Yeah, I missed that

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Speaker 2: bedtime routine where you're going through the motions and trying

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Speaker 2: so desperately to have everything calm and your kids are

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Speaker 2: bouncing on the bed and just having a ball. And

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Speaker 2: you know the sass and the sticky fingers, the dolllet training,

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Speaker 2: oh my gosh, toilet training. You know, lying with your

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Speaker 2: children when you're trying to pat them to sleep and

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Speaker 2: you've got to try and hide from them, or trying

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Speaker 2: to work out where the creaky floorboard is that you

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Speaker 2: don't stomp on it as you walk out the door. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I get some of the nostalgia with some

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Speaker 1: of those, but for most of them, I'm just glad

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Speaker 1: that we're not dealing with it anymore now that we've

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Speaker 1: got a granddaughter. I love not having to deal with

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Speaker 1: most of this stuff. I just love the cuddles and

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Speaker 1: the fun stuff. But I already loved that, and I'm

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Speaker 1: literally asking the question, what did drive you crazy? But

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Speaker 1: now you miss it? And I love some of the

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Speaker 1: answers that you gave. Is there anything for you?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: There is.

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Speaker 2: There's a couple. The first one is that curious toddler

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Speaker 2: who wants to know why as as a young parent

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Speaker 2: who felt so time poor and so frazzled most of

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Speaker 2: the time. Another why just often would send me over

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Speaker 2: the edge and yet I think back to those years

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Speaker 2: and what was so beautiful about that was our kid's

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Speaker 2: desperate desire for connection and curiosity. They want to understand

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Speaker 2: the world around them, firstly, but they trust that you've

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Speaker 2: got the answers. And now we've got teenagers who number.

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Speaker 1: One, they know everything. They're not curious about there at all.

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Speaker 2: And we definitely don't have all the answers. So I

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Speaker 2: do I really miss those times and how no one

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Speaker 2: how much easier their questions were that secondly, their desire

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Speaker 2: to connect.

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Speaker 1: I've got one for you. This is going to be

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Speaker 1: weird because I complained about it incessantly, and I think

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Speaker 1: if I had to start doing it again, which we

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Speaker 1: won't because our kids are older, but if I had

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Speaker 1: to start doing it again, I would complain again. And

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Speaker 1: yet it's still one of my favorite memories, and those

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Speaker 1: when our children wouldn't go to sleep, and I would

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Speaker 1: have to go into the bedroom and I would lay

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Speaker 1: on the floor and put my arm up and through

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Speaker 1: the bars of the cot and I would pat them

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Speaker 1: off to sleep, and usually I would fall asleep on

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Speaker 1: the floor beside them and wake up at I don't know,

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Speaker 1: eleven thirty or one am, and you wouldn't come and

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Speaker 1: get me because you were so exhausted that you would

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Speaker 1: fall asleep waiting for me to finish patting them off

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Speaker 1: and come to bed. So I'd just wake up with

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Speaker 1: a crick in my neck and having slept on the carpet,

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Speaker 1: having slept on the floor for an hour or two

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Speaker 1: or three or four. For some reason, as much as

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Speaker 1: I hated that, I kind of it breaks my heart

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Speaker 1: that I don't get to lay on the floor and

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Speaker 1: pat my kids off to sleep anymore. But is that weird?

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Speaker 1: It feels weird saying it, and yet it's how I feel.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't really miss that at all. I'm very

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Speaker 2: grateful to be sleeping in my own bed again, But

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Speaker 2: I did used to get really really frustrated with the

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Speaker 2: kids coming into our bed at three am or whatever time.

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Speaker 1: And I don't miss that.

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Speaker 2: They'd kick you in the back, and they'd sleep sideways

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Speaker 2: and you'd end up with a bum in your face,

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Speaker 2: like all the things. And again, I guess for me,

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Speaker 2: it's just the acknowledgment that they knew and felt so

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Speaker 2: safe with us, and again just knew that when they

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Speaker 2: needed reassurance, there was a safe place to go. I

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Speaker 2: love that they knew that, but at the time I

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Speaker 2: absolutely hated it.

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Speaker 1: I got one more for you, one more, and I

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Speaker 1: think you're going to think this is a weird one.

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Speaker 1: But now that our children are older, so our youngest

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Speaker 1: is eleven, our oldest in him mid twenties, we often

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Speaker 1: now I shouldn't say often, but with a lot more

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Speaker 1: regularity than ever before. We have the house to ourselves

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Speaker 1: some evenings, maybe one maybe two nights a week. The

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Speaker 1: kids are all out and one child's running another child

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Speaker 1: who doesn't have a license around the place, and we

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Speaker 1: can delegate that responsibility and they're happy to be out

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Speaker 1: and driving, listen to music in the car and driving

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Speaker 1: their siblings around, and so we'll be at home. We

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Speaker 1: get to have dinner alone once or twice a week,

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Speaker 1: maybe what's a week no kids. I know that when

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Speaker 1: we go out for dinner or when we get to

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Speaker 1: have a date night and we look at each other

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Speaker 1: and go, oh the piece and quiet, how good is it?

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Speaker 1: But it's kind of different when you have an event

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Speaker 1: where you go out and have dinner versus you're sitting

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Speaker 1: at home and it's just the two of you without

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Speaker 1: the kids. There's no noise, there's no conversation, there's no

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Speaker 1: discussion about it.

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Speaker 2: Sounds like heaven to me, I might have a few

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Speaker 2: more years before I'm going to be in the same

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Speaker 2: position you're Maybe that's because for me, I still feel

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Speaker 2: like I'm very much actively parenting.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess so. And we are making it hard

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Speaker 1: for ourselves because we had six kids and there's only

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Speaker 1: with a fifteen year age gap, our youngest being eleven.

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Speaker 1: We've got an almost two year old granddaughter running around

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Speaker 1: the place as well, so the house is starting to

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Speaker 1: get that toddlery feel again. We've had to lift everything

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Speaker 1: off the bottom shelves and there's toddled toys around. But

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Speaker 1: I know it's just the noise.

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Speaker 2: The noise.

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Speaker 1: We don't get it, and.

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Speaker 2: You clearly are away way too much because there is

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Speaker 2: noise in our house.

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Speaker 1: I miss it, like I.

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Speaker 2: Think the nighbors sometimes seeing someone's being murdered and that's

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Speaker 2: when they're singing. Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 1: So that's kind of me. Is there anything else that's

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Speaker 1: on you? This might be the world's shortest podcast we've

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Speaker 1: ever done. Is there anything else from you?

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Speaker 2: The last one for me is play Dates in the Park,

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Speaker 2: I used to really really struggle with going along to

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Speaker 2: the park and letting the kids play and just kind

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Speaker 2: of being present, because I would literally be doing a

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Speaker 2: mental take of what I still had to do when

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Speaker 2: I got home. And often those playdates would last for hours.

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Speaker 2: Because we're all stay at home mums, we were looking

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Speaker 2: for something to keep our kids occupied so they weren't

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Speaker 2: destroying the house or we weren't having to deal with

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Speaker 2: the ongoing challenge on our own. And while there were

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Speaker 2: moments where I really appreciated it, for the most part,

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Speaker 2: I actually resented it because there were so many other

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Speaker 2: things I would have liked to have been doing. But now,

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Speaker 2: as a woman in my mid forties, I recognize the

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Speaker 2: absolute privilege and blessing it is to have women in

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Speaker 2: your village. I think that with the changes that have

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Speaker 2: occurred in society in general, most families have two incomes

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Speaker 2: mums working as well as dad, it's getting harder and

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Speaker 2: harder for women to come together and spend time together

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Speaker 2: building that village, building that community, and I miss it.

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Speaker 1: And it's also the downtime righte like so much focus

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Speaker 1: on efficiency and getting stuff done. Imagine being able to

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Speaker 1: just go and sit in the park and enjoy it

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Speaker 1: and watch the kids and not have that feeling of pressure.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. And when I think about that specifically, one

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Speaker 2: of your followers actually said something so profound in relation

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Speaker 2: to that post. She said, I wish I loved it

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Speaker 2: more when I was in it, but I just didn't

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Speaker 2: have the perspective. And I remember so many times, older,

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Speaker 2: more mature parents would see us struggling up to our

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Speaker 2: elbows in mess and kids and sass and the whole thing,

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Speaker 2: and they would look at us with fondness and say,

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Speaker 2: one day you'll miss it. You'll miss it, but your

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Speaker 2: wish that you'd loved it, And we would both look

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Speaker 2: at each other and go, they have no idea what

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Speaker 2: they're talking about. But the reality is there is a

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Speaker 2: part of me that deeply, deeply wishes that I recognized

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Speaker 2: it and appreciated it for what it was in the moment.

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Speaker 1: Well, normally, I've got to take home message. The key takeaway,

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Speaker 1: I think you've just nailed it. Soak up the moments,

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Speaker 1: even the hard ones, be present. One day you look

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Speaker 1: back and you'll miss even the stuff that you can't

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Speaker 1: believe that you that you would miss, the happy families

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Speaker 1: podcast is produced by Justin Rouland from Bridge Media.

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Speaker 2: If you'd like more

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Speaker 1: Information and more resources to make your family happier, we'd

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Speaker 1: love for you to visit us at happy Families dot

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Speaker 1: com dot au and we'll link to that Facebook post

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Speaker 1: in the shows