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Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the

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Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers.

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Speaker 2: Now, when I think about the person that he was

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Speaker 2: for me, he was a person who didn't condemn. He

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Speaker 2: met people where they were at no matter their circumstances.

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Speaker 2: He was found with the people, and he lifted and

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Speaker 2: he loved and I just I love that. And so

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Speaker 2: for me in my life, everything I try to do

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Speaker 2: is about just meeting people where there are. And now

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Speaker 2: here's the stars of our show, my mom and dad.

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Speaker 3: You know how we're living a part of the moment

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Speaker 3: missus Happy Families.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I do.

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Speaker 1: Ultimately, I'm aware of that. I'm still with you. It's

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Speaker 1: Monday morning.

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Speaker 3: We're recording the podcast very very early, and we're doing

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Speaker 3: it together using the iPhone. I have no idea how

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Speaker 3: this is going to work. We're used to sitting there

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Speaker 3: with all the fancy equipment. But I couldn't leave. I

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Speaker 3: just had to stay for one more night so that

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Speaker 3: I could be with you and the kids. And it's

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Speaker 3: a big day for us today. Kids are starting their

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Speaker 3: brand new school on the coast. It's all happening, and

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Speaker 3: I wanted to be here to support you. And support

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Speaker 3: the kids. So happy Monday, everybody. We've got a lot

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Speaker 3: to talk about today and a podcast that's a little

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Speaker 3: bit different to normal. Normally, we pick a topic and

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Speaker 3: we chat about it and give you a bunch of tips.

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Speaker 1: But there has been so much in the news.

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Speaker 3: Lately, so many big stories that relate to parenting and

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Speaker 3: just make us think about our lives generally, that we

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Speaker 3: decided that today we're going to talk about the big issues,

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Speaker 3: the big issues missus happy families.

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Speaker 2: Well, if we're going to talk big issues, I don't

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Speaker 2: think we can go past. Last night sixty minutes report

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Speaker 2: on Cleo.

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Speaker 3: Clear got onto the phone and she's like, come on me,

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Speaker 3: and I was like, maybe this is such a beautiful moment.

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Speaker 3: Cleo Smith, after being disappeared, kidnapped for nearly two weeks,

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Speaker 3: found I mean, what an incredible story.

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Speaker 2: This would have to be literally a parent's worst nightmare.

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Speaker 2: I can't, I can't. Even my mind actually will not

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Speaker 2: allow me to go there, to think what it would

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Speaker 2: feel like to be in their position.

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Speaker 1: It was nothing that I ever want anyone to feel.

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Speaker 3: I didn't know where my baby was, and while saying that,

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Speaker 3: I also knew someone had.

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Speaker 1: Taken her a fascinating, an extraordinary story.

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Speaker 2: Our greatest hope would just be that Cleo is safe

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Speaker 2: and that she's getting the help that she needs to

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Speaker 2: kind of move forward in positive ways in her life,

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Speaker 2: and that the family have got the support that they need.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say exactly the same thing.

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Speaker 1: How is Cleo going right now? She's she's okay. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: every day is a new day. Yeah, she has RUPs

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Speaker 1: and downs every day. Yeah, every day and night is different.

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Speaker 1: But she's okay. So that's one big story now.

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Speaker 3: The second and big big story of the last week

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Speaker 3: has been CityPoint Christian College in Brisbane. The school has

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Speaker 3: been reported to the regulator and Human Rights Commission accused

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Speaker 3: of discrimination. But this is a school whose principles sent

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Speaker 3: out a document that basically said if you want to

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Speaker 3: be part of the school, we need to sign this.

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Speaker 3: And it was a statement that said that the school

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Speaker 3: was firmly against anything related to children showing up to

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Speaker 3: school with any gender identity other than the gender identity

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Speaker 3: with which they were born. So if you were born

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Speaker 3: with male anatomy, that you must shop up to the

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Speaker 3: school with male anatomy. But also a prohibition on homosexuality.

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Speaker 3: But further than that, they compared if I've read the

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Speaker 3: news reports accurately, and I haven't seen the document, but

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Speaker 3: if I've read the news reports accurately, they compared homosexuality

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Speaker 3: to beast reality and pedophilia, which I mean. So you

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Speaker 3: and I have got a Christian faith and a deep one.

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Speaker 3: We go to church every Sunday. We really really feel

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Speaker 3: strongly about about our faith. But kylie deeply, deeply uncomfortable

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Speaker 3: with a school sending out an email like this and

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Speaker 3: asking people in the school community to sign it or

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Speaker 3: to not come back to school, which is how I'm

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Speaker 3: essentially reading this.

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Speaker 2: It's interesting. I think that when you look at the

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Speaker 2: way the world is evolving and changing, we are dealing

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Speaker 2: with challenges that were never ever talked about. We're never

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Speaker 2: in the limelight, we're never kind of out in the open.

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Speaker 3: That's certainly not like to talk scripturally for a moment.

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Speaker 3: I listened to a podcast just a few weeks ago.

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Speaker 3: It was fascinating. They said, the idea of homosexuality didn't

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Speaker 3: really exist two thousand years ago. So when our Bible,

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Speaker 3: when our New Testament was written about two thousand years ago,

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Speaker 3: that concept didn't actually exist. People men specifically would be

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Speaker 3: engaged in homosexual acts, but it wasn't part of their identity.

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Speaker 3: They didn't identify as gay or as male lovers. It

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Speaker 3: was simply an activity in the same way that I

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Speaker 3: would kiss you, or go and kick a ball with

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Speaker 3: the kids, or it was just something that I did.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't part of my identity.

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Speaker 3: And we're in a completely different cultural context. We're in

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Speaker 3: a completely different way of seeing the world, a completely

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Speaker 3: different way of being now. And I just those issues

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Speaker 3: of gender identity and homosexuality. They're far from clear scripturally

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Speaker 3: as it is, but the context then compared to today,

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Speaker 3: I think that we run the risk of missing the

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Speaker 3: whole point of what a Christian faith is about when

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Speaker 3: we get caught up on this stuff.

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Speaker 2: For me, I look at who I believe in no

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Speaker 2: Christ to be, and when I think about the person

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Speaker 2: that He was, for me, he was a person who

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Speaker 2: didn't condemn He met people where they were at no

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Speaker 2: matter their circumstances. He was found with the people, and

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Speaker 2: he lifted and he loved and I just I love that.

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Speaker 2: And so for me in my life, everything I try

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Speaker 2: to do is about just meeting people where they're at.

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Speaker 2: It's not my job to judge them. It's my job

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Speaker 2: to love them. That's my job. And I think the

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Speaker 2: biggest thing that's come out of this is just this

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Speaker 2: acknowledgement when did school become about sex and sexual preference?

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Speaker 1: Schools are about education and.

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Speaker 2: An opportunity for our children to learn in a safe environment.

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Speaker 3: Kylie, that's really all said. I'm deeply discomforted by what

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Speaker 3: were sent out. I think that any organization has is

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Speaker 3: well within its rights to set boundaries and standards around

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Speaker 3: what it values and what's important. And it's also worth

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Speaker 3: mentioning we've had our kids in Christian schools and in

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Speaker 3: private schools and in public schools, and every school has

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Speaker 3: its own set standards, and many schools that we've sent

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Speaker 3: our kids to, they actually ask you to sign a

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Speaker 3: statement of belief or a statement of intent or a

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Speaker 3: statement of it where you agree to stick with what

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Speaker 3: they're all about.

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Speaker 2: Well that you'll support the school's ethos and whatever it

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Speaker 2: is they believe. And there have been plenty of times

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Speaker 2: where we haven't agreed necessarily with everything on that list.

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Speaker 2: But we also recognize as parents, our job is to

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Speaker 2: teach our children and our own homes, and.

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Speaker 3: We're choosing that school because of the values that, because

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Speaker 3: of the values that or the environment or whatever it is.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we've seen Islamic kids going to Christian schools,

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Speaker 3: and we've seen and those same families they're signing that

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Speaker 3: document because they're saying, do you know what, we generally

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Speaker 3: agree with what's going on here, and we want the

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Speaker 3: kids to be there because their friends are there, and

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Speaker 3: we like the environment they've created. My feeling, though, is

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Speaker 3: that it's one thing to set boundaries and make standards

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Speaker 3: around what's important.

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Speaker 1: But read the room. City point.

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Speaker 3: No offense to anybody who really takes this firmly, But

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Speaker 3: I just feel like they're waving a red flag at

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Speaker 3: a ball.

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Speaker 1: Haven't read the room?

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Speaker 3: And more sensitivity and more may I dare say, as

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Speaker 3: somebody who has a Christian faith myself, more Christianity in

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Speaker 3: the way that they interact with others may have actually

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Speaker 3: helped here. Anyway, Two big, heavy topics, a little bit unusual,

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Speaker 3: not what we normally talk about, but we just felt

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Speaker 3: like we wanted to highlight our deep discomfort with that

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Speaker 3: letter and to celebrate the Cleo Smith story, a big

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Speaker 3: good news story coming up right after the break from

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Speaker 3: a former AFL great who has just about made the

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Speaker 3: nation weep.

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Speaker 1: It's their Happy Families podcast.

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Speaker 4: Our Screens Creating tension at home betweens, teens and Screens

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Speaker 4: is a webinar to guide families to healthy, safe superscreen solutions.

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Speaker 4: Bye today at happy families dot com dot are you

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Speaker 4: slash shop?

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Speaker 2: It's the Happy Families Podcast, the podcast for the time

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Speaker 2: poor parent who just wants answers.

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Speaker 1: Now we're stirring the pot a bit today.

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Speaker 2: I'm nervous, Well you are because you actually haven't gone home. No,

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Speaker 2: that's right, staring the pod in lots of ways today.

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Speaker 1: No idea how, no idea how today is going to go.

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Speaker 1: Today's a big day.

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Speaker 3: It's first day of school for our four kids that

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Speaker 3: are still at school.

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Speaker 2: And we have one of our children's starting high school.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, big deal for.

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Speaker 3: Her grade seven. For Lily, Ella is in grade twelve.

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Speaker 3: We've got Emily Studd grade two, and Annie who was

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Speaker 3: starting grade nine. Thank you, Holy smokes. There's just so

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Speaker 3: much going on. And we caught something from Ryan Fitzgerald,

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Speaker 3: former AFL great who is now a radio announcer in

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Speaker 3: I think.

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Speaker 1: It's Adelaide from memory, and he did.

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Speaker 3: This really cool thing with his son. Houston dropped him

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Speaker 3: off at school. Mum and him had written a little

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Speaker 3: note and said, mate, just before we jump out of

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Speaker 3: the car, read this.

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Speaker 1: I just said how proud they were. And here's what happened.

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Speaker 1: I can't read it. You read it when you're at school, ok.

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Speaker 4: But all of these we just want to say how

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Speaker 4: proud we are of you and we love you so much, buddy.

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Speaker 2: Okay, you know I watched this footage and I teared

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Speaker 2: up as well.

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Speaker 1: It just it's so beautiful.

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Speaker 2: I think what stood out to me the most was

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Speaker 2: here was this young boy who obviously is full of

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Speaker 2: first day fears and nerves, and he just was overwhelmed

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Speaker 2: by the fact that his parents are taken the time

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Speaker 2: to just acknowledge that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that was what really stood out to me.

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Speaker 3: Beautiful, beautiful, and I love the emotion. I love the

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Speaker 3: emotion from both Houston and Fitzy. Yeah, just beautiful. Our

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Speaker 3: kids off to school today, are you going to write?

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Speaker 1: I haven't written them a lattery.

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Speaker 3: Yet, but I'm inspired too, and I think we've still

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Speaker 3: got time. We probably need to hop out of bed

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Speaker 3: and go and look after the I don't know if

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Speaker 3: for everybody who's listening, you might have been able to

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Speaker 3: hear a bit of racket in the room next door.

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Speaker 1: We're staying in this tiny, little three bedroom unit without

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Speaker 1: a lock on the door, a lock on.

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Speaker 3: The door, with only one bathroom, and we're on the coast,

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Speaker 3: try to figure out where we're going to live and

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Speaker 3: all that sort of stuff, and.

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Speaker 1: We're two minutes from the beach. But the kids, the

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Speaker 1: kids are not doing very well.

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Speaker 3: So we're going to get out of here and go

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Speaker 3: and get these kids ready for school. Maybe write a

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Speaker 3: note I think we should, or maybe we could just

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Speaker 3: have some hugs and some time together. It might be

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Speaker 3: a bit late for a note.

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Speaker 1: What do you reckon? You've left it too late, my

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Speaker 1: honey better.

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Speaker 3: I'm so glad that we've been able to share these

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Speaker 3: ideas with you today. Hopefully this has been a podcast

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Speaker 3: that's given you a bit of food for thought. We

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Speaker 3: welcome your feedback always. Podcasts at happy families dot com

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Speaker 3: dot au. That's podcasts with an s at happyfamilies.

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Speaker 1: Dot com dot au.

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Speaker 3: The Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin Rouland from

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Speaker 3: Bridge Media. Craig Bruce is our executive producer and if

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Speaker 3: you like more info about making your family happier, we

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Speaker 3: would love for you to join us at happy families

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Speaker 3: dot com dot au or on our Facebook page doctor

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Speaker 3: Justin Colson's Happy Families