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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. Now Gooday. This

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Speaker 1: is doctor Justin Colson, the founder of Happy Families dot com,

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Speaker 1: dot au dades six, daughter's husband to one wife, and

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Speaker 1: the parenting expert and co host on chan Lyne's Parental Guidance.

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Speaker 1: Also the host of this podcast, That Be Families Podcast.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening and allowing me into

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Speaker 1: your life to hopefully be useful in making your family happier.

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Speaker 1: Today a lightning round with one of the most famous

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Speaker 1: authors in the world, Daniel H. Pink. Dan Pink is

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Speaker 1: the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including his

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Speaker 1: latest book, which I absolutely love, The Power of Regret,

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Speaker 1: and my other favorite of Dan's is Drive. Dan has

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Speaker 1: won a billion awards, had his books translated into a

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Speaker 1: million lang book forty two languages, and has sold literally

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Speaker 1: millions of copies of his books around the world. He

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Speaker 1: lives in Washington, d C. With his family, and Dan

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Speaker 1: joins me for a lightning round A lot to have

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Speaker 1: you hit, Dan. You know the rules, quick, simple, snappy answers,

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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of questions. All right, let's talk about it.

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Speaker 2: I'm a little I approach this with some I fear

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Speaker 2: I could have some regrets about agreeing to do this.

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Speaker 1: But later on, tell me how many kids you have

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Speaker 1: and how old they are?

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Speaker 2: I have three kids. I have a nineteen year old,

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Speaker 2: a twenty three year old, and a twenty six year old.

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Speaker 1: And do you have a favorite child? Dan? I do not.

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Speaker 1: Are you saying that because you have to say that

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Speaker 1: or is it really true?

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Speaker 2: No? I truly do not. It reminds me a little

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Speaker 2: bit of people ask me whether I have a favorite book,

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Speaker 2: and I try to explain that I don't have a

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Speaker 2: favorite book of mine. I just because I love all

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Speaker 2: my books and the way I love all my children.

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Speaker 1: Okay, well that was my next question. So that's that's counted.

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Speaker 2: Okay, great, so we got so so this is a real,

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Speaker 2: real rapid fire because'm knocking up questions for the one

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Speaker 2: answer love it.

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Speaker 1: Next question, who do you love most? And I think

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Speaker 1: we can draw on some science here. Who do you

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Speaker 1: love most? Your your wife or your kids?

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Speaker 2: Yes?

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Speaker 1: Very good. I don't know. I'm of kids.

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Speaker 2: Whatever for me, whatever people want. I don't think there

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Speaker 2: is an ideal number. For some people. It's like like

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Speaker 2: crazy people like you, it's a it's a half dozen

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Speaker 2: for a sensible person like me, it's three for many

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Speaker 2: sensible people at zero.

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Speaker 1: Favorite podcast, Dan, all podcasts. If you can't narrow out down.

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Speaker 2: To one besides this one, I would say I like

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Speaker 2: the Happiness Lab by Lori Santos. I like Hidden Brain

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Speaker 2: with chankraved Antem. And I'm a big fan of something

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Speaker 2: called Autumn au d M, which is an which is

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Speaker 2: audio articles from magazines.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna look that one up. The other two

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Speaker 1: are on my list every week. I love listening to

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Speaker 1: them as well. You've done a lot of research in

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Speaker 1: the psychological sciences. How do you write yourself as a

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Speaker 1: parent average?

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Speaker 2: I think, I'm I think, i'm I think I'm in

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Speaker 2: the median. I think that half the world is better

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Speaker 2: than me, and half the world is beneath me.

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Speaker 1: Dan, what's something absolutely great that your parents did that

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Speaker 1: you've tried to continue in your dating.

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Speaker 2: That I tried to continue. That's interesting because the best

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Speaker 2: thing my parents did was let me go to the library,

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Speaker 2: and so I lived. I lived in a community where

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Speaker 2: that had a very robust public library system, fortunately for me,

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Speaker 2: and that was a that was a transformative part of

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Speaker 2: my childhood. Now and I think what I've done with

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Speaker 2: with our kids is sort of let them try to

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Speaker 2: let them explore. It doesn't necessarily mean in a public library,

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Speaker 2: because we're now in the world of the internet, but

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Speaker 2: but but leave them alone and let them explore whatever

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Speaker 2: strikes their fancy at a particular moment in their childhood.

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Speaker 1: One of the disadvantages of a lightning round is sometimes

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Speaker 1: I really want to dig and poke and praud, But

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Speaker 1: I'm going to lay that, babe, because it's such a

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Speaker 1: wonderful answer, a fun one. Who's the better parent you

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Speaker 1: or your wife?

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Speaker 2: Wife? Not even close?

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Speaker 1: And what's the hardest thing about being a parent?

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Speaker 2: Seeing your kids struggle even though you know the struggle

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Speaker 2: is ultimately going to be good for them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that is hard. That is hard. Imagine you could

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Speaker 1: spend an hour with your children at any age of

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Speaker 1: their life. Dan. You could go back and hold them

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Speaker 1: as newborns for an hour, or you could have them

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Speaker 1: as fifty year olds or anything in between. What age

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Speaker 1: would you choose to spend an hour with your kids?

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Speaker 1: And why?

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Speaker 2: It's a great question. I would say probably, first of all,

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Speaker 2: I would take if that offer is on the table.

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Speaker 2: I'll take any I'll take any age in the past. Okay,

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Speaker 2: So I'm not even going to negotiate that one if

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Speaker 2: that's if that's a real possibility. But yeah, if you,

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Speaker 2: if you push me to the wall, I would say

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Speaker 2: about age four or five for all of my kids,

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Speaker 2: because around age four or five kids are able to

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Speaker 2: really express themselves and are just so incredibly and beautifully unabashed.

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Speaker 1: So I would like to I would like to see that, Dan,

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Speaker 1: I've asked this question of so many people. That's my

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Speaker 1: favorite answer in both cases. But I love that you

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Speaker 1: said any age. I just that's melted my heart. You've

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Speaker 1: become my favorite interviewee. Ever, I'm sorry to hear that.

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Speaker 1: What's the ultimate joy for you as a parent.

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Speaker 2: Seeing your kids become independent?

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Speaker 1: What's the correct age for kids to have a cell phone?

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Speaker 1: I get this question all the time. Draws me crazy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's an interesting question because when my kids

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Speaker 2: were kids, cell phones were evolved over time. So I

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Speaker 2: think we had in our house very different answers for

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Speaker 2: different kids, partly because of what self how important cell

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Speaker 2: phones were. So I'll make up an I'll make up

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Speaker 2: a number I'll make up a number ten. You got

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Speaker 2: to have double digits before you get a cell phone.

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Speaker 1: Okay, you're the lowest of everyone I've ever interviewed.

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Speaker 2: Dan.

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Speaker 1: My estimation of your Yeah, my estimation has just dropped

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Speaker 1: off you again. I'm so sorry. What are you reading

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Speaker 1: right now?

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Speaker 2: What am I reading right now?

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Speaker 1: I am you know what?

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Speaker 2: Curiously enough, it's about kids. I'm just I mean literally,

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Speaker 2: it's the galleys of a book coming out next year

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Speaker 2: called a Minor Revolution. It's by a professor here in

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Speaker 2: the United States. It's about sort of how we should

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Speaker 2: reorient public policy toward prioritizing kids. That what we don't

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Speaker 2: do enough in our public policy, especially here in the States,

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Speaker 2: put kids at the center of our public policy. And

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Speaker 2: if we do that over time, that takes care of

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Speaker 2: all these other kinds of problems that we're trying to solve.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I say it all the time. Society is not

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Speaker 1: kid friendly. What's your children now that they're older? What's

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Speaker 1: your children's favorite thing to do with you?

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Speaker 2: Depends on the kid. I think that our favorite thing

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Speaker 2: as a family, all five of us, is is just

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Speaker 2: to eat together. We sometimes have the funniest conversations where

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Speaker 2: we just gathered around eating, you know, not you know,

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Speaker 2: not like going on some fancification or anything like that,

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Speaker 2: but just simply gathering around the table and seeing what

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Speaker 2: crazy stuff comes up.

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Speaker 1: When you think about what's in the future, what are

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Speaker 1: you looking most forward to as a parent, Dan.

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Speaker 2: You know it's weird. I guess what I'm looking forward

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Speaker 2: to is being a spectator, cheering on the sidelines as

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Speaker 2: I watch our kids find their path.

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Speaker 1: If you could go back to you as a young dad,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you've written a book called The Power of Regrets,

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Speaker 1: so this is a young dad. Yeah, this is the

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Speaker 1: perfect question for you. Go back to you as a

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Speaker 1: young dad. You're having one of those really tough moments

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Speaker 1: you're experienced. You got these kids running around, you don't

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Speaker 1: know what to do. What advice would you give yourself?

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Speaker 2: Freak out way less. Most of this stuff doesn't matter.

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Speaker 2: Don't get so blown out of proportion about like small

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Speaker 2: things about something spilling or someone not being ready or

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Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. That kind of stuff doesn't matter.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, great stuff. And the last question of our lightning round,

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Speaker 1: Daniel Pink, what's been your biggest win as a dad that.

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Speaker 2: My kids still talk to? Me, even though they're moving

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Speaker 2: on in their adult lives.

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Speaker 1: I kind of want to say that's a really low bar.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, having a daughter who's moved

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Speaker 1: out and married, I actually get what you mean there.

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Speaker 1: There's something so delightful about when they come back right

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Speaker 1: that they want to come back right.

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Speaker 2: I agree with that.

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Speaker 1: Dan Pink, thanks so much for joining on A Happy

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Speaker 1: Family's lightning Round.

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Speaker 2: What a pleasure I enjoyed it.

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Speaker 1: The Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin Roland from

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Speaker 1: Bridge Media, and Craig Bruce is our executive producer. If

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Speaker 1: you want more information about making your family happy about

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Speaker 1: visit us at happy families dot com dot you, or

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Speaker 1: check out our Facebook page Doctor Justin Colson's Happy Families