# Teaching Kids About Friendship

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 23 Sep 2026, 17 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/ea82b6b3-d612-4e30-b4de-b4c60021e48a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

Friendship drama is one of the biggest sources of stress for kids — and heartbreak for parents. In this episode, Justin and Kylie unpack the six powerful habits that create strong, lasting friendships and explain how parents can help children build healthier relationships from the very beginning. From loyalty and inclusion to emotional support and trust, these simple but profound friendship skills can shape your child’s confidence, wellbeing, and sense of belonging for years to come. If your child is struggling socially, feeling left out, or constantly caught in friendship ups and downs, this conversation will help you guide them with clarity and compassion. KEY POINTS: • The six friendship habits linked to stronger relationships • Why loyalty matters more than popularity • How gossip quietly destroys trust • The difference between emotional support and “fixing” • Why belonging at school impacts lifelong wellbeing • How small acts of kindness deepen friendships • What parents can teach kids about inclusion and empathy SIX ELEMENTS TO MAKE FRIENDSHIPS FLOURISH: • Standing up for a friend in their absence • Sharing important news • Providing emotional support • Trusting and confiding in each other • Volunteering help when required • Making an effort to make the other person happy QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: “Kids who understand that friendships require active care are far better equipped to keep them.” RESOURCES MENTIONED: • Research by Michael Argyle and Monika Henderson on friendship • Dr Kelly-Ann Allen’s work on school belonging ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS: • Talk with your child about what loyalty looks like in friendship • Encourage them to include others and notice who gets left out • Teach them to pause before sharing hurtful information • Model emotional support by listening without trying to fix everything • Help them look for small ways to encourage and serve friends • Remind them that good friendships need effort, kindness, and consistency See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:06] Speaker 1: If you speak to anyone that works with children, any
[0:08] Speaker 1: school leader, any school teacher, any psychologist, any parent involved
[0:12] Speaker 1: with kids, whether they're in kindergarten or reception or preschool
[0:16] Speaker 1: or big school or high school, and if you ask
[0:19] Speaker 1: them what the most common challenge is that they confront
[0:22] Speaker 1: when they're dealing with kids, the answer's almost always the same.
[0:26] Speaker 2: It's friendships.
[0:28] Speaker 1: There was a study done in the 1980s that outlines
[0:32] Speaker 1: six key concepts that make friendships work. Today, we dig
[0:39] Speaker 1: into that study, have a look at those six key
[0:42] Speaker 1: concepts that make friendships work, and explore how we can
[0:45] Speaker 1: help our kids have better friendships. It's a Doctor's Desk
[0:48] Speaker 1: episode of the Happy Families podcast next. Hello, welcome to
[0:54] Speaker 1: the Happy Families podcast where you get real parenting solutions
[0:57] Speaker 1: every single day. This is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast
[1:00] Speaker 1: where Justin and Kylie Coulson, we're the parents of six daughters.
[1:04] Speaker 1: And Kylie, when you think about the enriching elements of
[1:08] Speaker 1: your life.
[1:08] Speaker 2: People are at the core of it all the time.
[1:10] Speaker 2: But how good is a great friendship?
[1:12] Speaker 1: Like you think about the people that matter most and
[1:15] Speaker 1: those friendships enrich and enlarge our lives in such magnificent ways.
[1:19] Speaker 3: I was actually just reflecting about this the other day
[1:21] Speaker 3: and I decided to do something about it. Because we've
[1:25] Speaker 3: moved so many times over our married life, I have
[1:29] Speaker 3: friends all over the place, not necessarily in my backyard
[1:33] Speaker 3: or down the road. And as I was reflecting about
[1:37] Speaker 3: the women in my life who have had the most
[1:39] Speaker 3: profound impact on me through their friendship, I went through
[1:44] Speaker 3: my photo roll and I started pulling out photos and
[1:47] Speaker 3: printing them up and I kind of created my wall
[1:50] Speaker 3: of friendship in my closet.
[1:53] Speaker 1: As I was doing the intro, I was hoping you
[1:54] Speaker 1: were going to refer to that because we didn't set
[1:56] Speaker 1: this up, but every time I walk into our wardrobe now,
[1:59] Speaker 1: I just see this wall of all of your best friends,
[2:01] Speaker 1: photos of you and your best friends.
[2:03] Speaker 2: I'm like, I feel a bit weird looking at all.
[2:06] Speaker 1: Of your best friends, but they're such great people, such
[2:09] Speaker 1: great people. Today, a conversation about friendships, why our kids
[2:13] Speaker 1: struggle so much, and the six constitutional elements, the six
[2:17] Speaker 1: things that that researchers have discovered make friendships work. And
[2:22] Speaker 1: it's worth pointing out that friendships are at the very
[2:25] Speaker 1: heart of our well-being and our distress. We've removed a
[2:28] Speaker 1: couple of kids from school because of friendship challenges. That's
[2:31] Speaker 1: the distressing part where things aren't working. And then there's,
[2:34] Speaker 1: of course, the joy that comes from good quality friendships.
[2:39] Speaker 1: A friend of mine, she's been on the podcast a
[2:40] Speaker 1: couple of times, researcher in Melbourne, Kellyanne Allen, talks about
[2:43] Speaker 1: school belonging. She's found that school belonging, that is how
[2:46] Speaker 1: much you feel like you belong to the people at school,
[2:48] Speaker 1: like you've got those friendships. It's a predictor of everything
[2:50] Speaker 1: from grades to life satisfaction, even life satisfaction a decade
[2:55] Speaker 1: after school has ended. The amount of time that you
[2:59] Speaker 1: felt like you belonged at school impacts 10 years later
[3:02] Speaker 1: after school, how much life satisfaction you have. I think
[3:04] Speaker 1: it's extraordinary, whether it's academic achievement or self-concept, behavior, thinking,
[3:10] Speaker 1: they all improve when kids feel like they belong.
[3:14] Speaker 3: So you've teased us. There's six things. What's number one? Okay.
[3:18] Speaker 1: So from British social psychologist, really influential social psychologist, Michael
[3:24] Speaker 1: Argyle and Monica Henderson, his collaborator, did a series of studies,
[3:28] Speaker 1: identified these six things. This is the first one. Real
[3:30] Speaker 1: friends are loyal. They stand up for their friend in
[3:34] Speaker 1: their absence. Loyalty is just such a powerful relationship builder.
[3:39] Speaker 2: And we can teach this at any age. Including for adults.
[3:43] Speaker 1: Like there's a lot of us who are over 18
[3:45] Speaker 1: who struggle with that. If somebody's saying something that's not
[3:46] Speaker 1: very nice about our friend, do we lean in and say, really?
[3:50] Speaker 1: I didn't know that about my friend. Or do we say,
[3:52] Speaker 1: hang on a sec. That's not the Kylie Coulson that
[3:55] Speaker 1: I know.
[3:56] Speaker 3: As I've listened to our daughters over the last 20
[3:58] Speaker 3: years of parenting, one of the things that often comes
[4:02] Speaker 3: up for me is I just don't want to be
[4:04] Speaker 3: that person's friend because they talk poorly about other people.
[4:07] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[4:08] Speaker 3: And I think that deep down for all of us,
[4:10] Speaker 3: if somebody's willing to say something nasty about somebody else
[4:14] Speaker 3: that's not in the room, what are they saying about
[4:16] Speaker 3: me when I'm not in the room?
[4:17] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the subconscious fear, isn't it?
[4:19] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[4:19] Speaker 1: If you talk about them, what would you say about
[4:21] Speaker 1: me if I'm not there to defend myself?
[4:23] Speaker 3: In my personal experience, it has been quite rare that
[4:27] Speaker 3: I have found someone who has been willing to stand
[4:31] Speaker 3: up for me personally when I haven't been in the room.
[4:34] Speaker 2: Or anybody.
[4:35] Speaker 1: And yet, oh my goodness, it's so powerful. If You're
[4:39] Speaker 1: having a conversation with somebody and the conversation sort of
[4:42] Speaker 1: turns a little bit south. Someone starts saying something negative
[4:45] Speaker 1: about another person. When somebody is brave enough to say, oh, actually,
[4:50] Speaker 1: I don't think that's fair.
[4:51] Speaker 2: She wasn't even there.
[4:52] Speaker 1: Or I don't think that's there. They're not here to
[4:53] Speaker 1: defend themselves. We don't really know the context here. But
[4:56] Speaker 1: everything I know about them says that that's not their
[4:58] Speaker 1: normal behavior. The signal that that sends as well, that
[5:02] Speaker 1: puts everyone on alert. Oh, Kylie's the kind of person
[5:05] Speaker 1: who will defend me. She'll stick up for me. It's
[5:08] Speaker 1: just such a, I get goosebumps talking about it. It's
[5:10] Speaker 1: such a powerful way to say, I'm a trustworthy, reliable friend.
[5:15] Speaker 1: I'm somebody that you can look to and know that
[5:17] Speaker 1: I've got your back. And it's different to the thing
[5:21] Speaker 1: that you'll hear boys talk about.
[5:22] Speaker 2: Don't dog the boys.
[5:23] Speaker 1: Don't red out your mates.
[5:24] Speaker 2: It's not like that.
[5:26] Speaker 1: It's just saying, unless you know all the details, it's
[5:29] Speaker 1: probably not appropriate to talk about that because they're not
[5:31] Speaker 1: here to defend themselves. And everything I know about them,
[5:34] Speaker 1: they're just not the kind of person that would do that.
[5:36] Speaker 2: I Don't think.
[5:37] Speaker 1: I'm going to have to check with them and find
[5:39] Speaker 1: out what they would say because that just doesn't feel right.
[5:41] Speaker 2: Powerful, powerful idea.
[5:43] Speaker 3: What's number two?
[5:44] Speaker 1: So the second idea that Argyle and Henderson came up
[5:47] Speaker 1: with was this, sharing important news with the friend. So
[5:53] Speaker 1: good friends keep each other in the loop. If your
[5:55] Speaker 1: child hears that a whole bunch of people are going
[5:58] Speaker 1: to go to the movies and someone's being left out,
[6:00] Speaker 1: then they stand up for their friend. They encourage other
[6:02] Speaker 1: people to include them and to make sure that they
[6:05] Speaker 1: include them in things as well.
[6:07] Speaker 3: This is really powerful, this one, the idea that a
[6:11] Speaker 3: friend is inclusive. Yeah, yeah.
[6:14] Speaker 1: But I just had a thought as you said that.
[6:16] Speaker 1: Good friends also know what not to share. I remember
[6:20] Speaker 1: there was a girl that I interviewed for my Miss
[6:22] Speaker 1: Connection book. She talked about how she had just gone
[6:25] Speaker 1: to the bathroom.
[6:26] Speaker 2: It was the end of lunch break at school.
[6:28] Speaker 1: And as she was leaving the bathroom, one of the
[6:30] Speaker 1: girls from her friendship group walked into the bathroom and
[6:32] Speaker 1: saw her and goes, oh, hey, and called her by name.
[6:36] Speaker 1: I can't remember her name now, but she said, oh, hey,
[6:39] Speaker 1: we were just talking about you and we've decided that
[6:41] Speaker 1: you're the judgiest person in our group. So number one,
[6:47] Speaker 1: no loyalty because everyone's talking about you. But number two,
[6:50] Speaker 1: all the girls are sitting around judging who's judgiest and
[6:52] Speaker 1: they choose to judge the person who's not there as
[6:54] Speaker 1: the judgiest. And then this girl goes and says, I
[6:56] Speaker 1: thought I'd let you know you're the judgiest.
[6:58] Speaker 2: Like, congratulations, you've won a prize.
[7:00] Speaker 1: So knowing what to share and what not to share
[7:03] Speaker 1: and how to share those things, it's kind of like
[7:05] Speaker 1: that whole, There's so much.
[7:08] Speaker 3: Nuance in that though. And we're asking our teenagers whose
[7:12] Speaker 3: brains are still developing to understand it. But I think
[7:15] Speaker 3: the easiest way to help our children understand is what
[7:20] Speaker 3: do you hope to achieve by sharing this?
[7:21] Speaker 2: Boom.
[7:22] Speaker 3: Yes. Yes. So if you share that somebody hates them
[7:25] Speaker 3: and they've just said the most awful things about them,
[7:27] Speaker 3: what are you hoping that's going to achieve? Yeah. Yeah.
[7:30] Speaker 2: What's the end?
[7:30] Speaker 3: It's not elevating your friend. It's actually like completely destroying
[7:34] Speaker 3: her in one moment.
[7:35] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[7:37] Speaker 3: And so, yeah, I think that that's a really powerful
[7:39] Speaker 3: thing to help our kids understand. Yeah.
[7:42] Speaker 1: Maybe a question to ask your child is would you
[7:44] Speaker 1: want to know this if the roles were reversed? Like
[7:47] Speaker 1: if everyone's talking about how stinky your breath is, would
[7:49] Speaker 1: you like somebody to come and tell you that was
[7:51] Speaker 1: what the conversation was or would it be better to
[7:53] Speaker 1: not know?
[7:53] Speaker 3: I think as teenagers, though, we often think we want to.
[7:57] Speaker 2: Know it all. Yeah, that's a good point.
[7:59] Speaker 3: Like if you're talking about me, I want to know.
[8:01] Speaker 2: I have to know, yeah.
[8:02] Speaker 3: But why? Why do you want to know?
[8:03] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[8:04] Speaker 3: How does that impact how you feel about yourself? How
[8:06] Speaker 3: does it impact how you feel about other people? How
[8:08] Speaker 3: does it impact the way you interact?
[8:11] Speaker 1: There's a phrase that I've used on the podcast once
[8:13] Speaker 1: or twice, and that is, what other people think of
[8:16] Speaker 1: you is none of your business. Yeah, it's their business. Okay,
[8:20] Speaker 1: let's do the third one, and then we're going to
[8:22] Speaker 1: take a quick break. Provide emotional support when it's needed.
[8:25] Speaker 1: So I just should highlight here, this third element of
[8:29] Speaker 1: great friendships does not mean that we need to be
[8:31] Speaker 1: therapists to our friends. In fact, I think it's exactly
[8:33] Speaker 1: the opposite. It just means that we show up when
[8:35] Speaker 1: they're having a hard time. Emotional support means you're not
[8:39] Speaker 1: emotion coaching. You're just sitting with your friend because they've
[8:41] Speaker 1: had a rough day and checking in and saying, sounds
[8:44] Speaker 1: like it was a rough day.
[8:45] Speaker 2: That's what good friends do.
[8:47] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just about holding space for big emotions, allowing
[8:51] Speaker 3: your friend to have a vent if they need to
[8:53] Speaker 3: have a vent. I was in a tricky situation for
[8:56] Speaker 3: a number of years. My four closest friends happened to
[8:59] Speaker 3: all be sisters-in-law. Yes, yes. And inevitably, family dynamics are challenging, right?
[9:06] Speaker 3: They're tricky. Someone upsets somebody, you get frustrated. And so
[9:10] Speaker 3: I would be in this position where I would often
[9:12] Speaker 3: be sitting with one of them and they would just vent. Yeah.
[9:16] Speaker 3: And I like to think that I was able to
[9:18] Speaker 3: play the place of Switzerland.
[9:19] Speaker 1: I just realized there were four brothers and you were
[9:23] Speaker 1: like really, really tight with all four of their wives.
[9:26] Speaker 3: Yes.
[9:27] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
[9:28] Speaker 1: And you would come home and say- oh, there's some
[9:32] Speaker 1: stuff going on with that family at the moment and
[9:35] Speaker 1: I'm just trying to be friends with all of them
[9:38] Speaker 1: and to defend them when they're not present and say,
[9:40] Speaker 1: I know that must be tough and, well, it sounds
[9:42] Speaker 1: like you've had a rough day. Look, you were doing
[9:43] Speaker 1: all of the things, providing emotional support when it's needed,
[9:45] Speaker 1: sharing important news but not sharing the wrong stuff.
[9:49] Speaker 2: And standing up for the friend in their absence. That's
[9:51] Speaker 2: why people love you so much. Such a good friend. Hey,
[9:53] Speaker 2: we need to take a quick break.
[9:54] Speaker 1: After the break, the last three things that Michael Argyle
[9:57] Speaker 1: and Monica Henderson found make the greatest friendships that we
[10:01] Speaker 1: need to teach our kids about.
[10:03] Speaker 2: Stay with us. We're back.
[10:12] Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast as we count down six
[10:14] Speaker 1: different things that build strong friendships.
[10:18] Speaker 3: Number four. Okay.
[10:19] Speaker 1: The fourth one is trusting and confiding each other. So
[10:22] Speaker 1: what Argyle and Hedison found is that friendship deepens when
[10:26] Speaker 1: there's sharing.
[10:28] Speaker 2: Like when you share.
[10:28] Speaker 1: Something real, something, I was going to say vulnerable, but
[10:31] Speaker 1: it's not even about vulnerability. Sometimes it is once you
[10:33] Speaker 1: get to a certain point, but just sharing real things
[10:36] Speaker 1: about yourself. I guess it feels a little bit risky
[10:39] Speaker 1: and maybe for all the kids that it is, but
[10:42] Speaker 1: it unlocks deeper commitment. and deeper relationship. Like I was
[10:45] Speaker 1: on a bike ride in the last couple of days
[10:47] Speaker 1: with a mate of mine. And while we were talking,
[10:50] Speaker 1: I just felt like our relationships reached a point where
[10:53] Speaker 1: I shared some stuff with him that I probably wouldn't
[10:55] Speaker 1: share with people that I know, but I'm not friends with.
[10:59] Speaker 1: But over time, as that friendship deepens, you start to
[11:02] Speaker 1: reveal a bit more.
[11:03] Speaker 2: I was thinking about this recently. What's your take on that?
[11:06] Speaker 1: Or I had this challenge the other day and I'm
[11:08] Speaker 1: not sure if I dealt with it quite the right way.
[11:10] Speaker 1: What would you do in this situation? So you're not
[11:12] Speaker 1: just passing on information. You're actually opening yourself up to influence.
[11:16] Speaker 1: You're saying, I trust you with my feelings, my insecurities,
[11:19] Speaker 1: my challenges, my difficulties. And I think that there's real
[11:22] Speaker 1: power in trusting and confiding in the other person. It's
[11:25] Speaker 1: just that sometimes kids go there a little bit early
[11:28] Speaker 1: and sometimes kids don't go there at all. And I
[11:31] Speaker 1: might add, this is your superpower. This is the bit
[11:33] Speaker 1: that you do so well, which is why you have
[11:35] Speaker 1: such rich friendships.
[11:36] Speaker 3: What's number five?
[11:37] Speaker 2: Do you know what?
[11:38] Speaker 1: This is what you do. I think this one's your
[11:40] Speaker 1: best one of all. This is the one, oh, you
[11:43] Speaker 1: do them all so well. But the fifth one is
[11:46] Speaker 1: volunteering help when it's required. If there's one thing that
[11:49] Speaker 1: I know about you, it's that you just have this
[11:52] Speaker 1: desire to serve other people. Like you love people so
[11:55] Speaker 1: much and you look for opportunities to serve them. You're
[11:57] Speaker 1: always thinking about them. If you're in the shops, you
[11:59] Speaker 1: see something and think, oh, that little trinket, that little idea,
[12:02] Speaker 1: that would be so good for somebody. And the key
[12:04] Speaker 1: word is volunteering rather than waiting to be asked. A
[12:06] Speaker 1: good friend notices when someone's struggling and they offer help
[12:09] Speaker 1: without being prompted. From a kid's point of view, this
[12:13] Speaker 1: is the child who sees a classmate struggling to carry
[12:17] Speaker 1: something and they say, hey, do you want some help
[12:18] Speaker 1: with that? Or let me get the door for you.
[12:21] Speaker 1: Just asking, can I help? Or stepping in and doing
[12:25] Speaker 1: the thing is one of friendship's core skills. And to me,
[12:30] Speaker 1: that is the thing that you do best of all.
[12:32] Speaker 3: I love making a positive difference in people's lives, but
[12:35] Speaker 3: it's not actually about me. It's about wanting to see
[12:39] Speaker 3: them happy, wanting to see them experience joy, even if
[12:46] Speaker 3: life is tough right now. The other night I was
[12:49] Speaker 3: having a conversation with one of our daughters, and we
[12:52] Speaker 3: were just talking about, as part of my wall in
[12:55] Speaker 3: my closet, and talking about these women who have influenced
[12:59] Speaker 3: us for good. And she mentioned one of my friends
[13:02] Speaker 3: and just said that she was somebody who had really
[13:06] Speaker 3: impacted her at a time in her life when she
[13:08] Speaker 3: was really struggling. And I kind of just very impromptu,
[13:14] Speaker 3: I grabbed my phone and I pulled up Marco Polo
[13:17] Speaker 3: and I pulled up my friend.
[13:18] Speaker 1: For those who are not familiar with Marco Polo, it's
[13:20] Speaker 1: kind of like a.
[13:22] Speaker 3: Snapchat for adults.
[13:23] Speaker 2: It's Snapchat for adults, yeah.
[13:24] Speaker 1: It's a video messaging app where you record a video
[13:26] Speaker 1: of yourself and then you send it to your friend
[13:28] Speaker 1: and then.
[13:28] Speaker 3: They record it. And they listen to it when they've
[13:30] Speaker 3: got time.
[13:30] Speaker 1: Yeah, except some of your friends send you like 45
[13:33] Speaker 1: minute long videos.
[13:34] Speaker 3: Because we sit in the car and we talk, but
[13:35] Speaker 3: we know that our timing doesn't connect with each other.
[13:38] Speaker 3: So it's great. But I picked it up and I said,
[13:41] Speaker 3: I'm putting my daughter on the spot, but she's just
[13:43] Speaker 3: shared something with me that's so important for you to
[13:45] Speaker 3: know right now. And she sent me a message back.
[13:48] Speaker 3: She was bawling her eyes out, did exactly what I
[13:50] Speaker 3: needed it to do. And she just said, thank you
[13:53] Speaker 3: for sharing that with me. She's going through a really
[13:55] Speaker 3: hard time right now. She's feeling like she's just failing
[13:59] Speaker 3: in all the areas that matter. And to know that
[14:03] Speaker 3: just her small efforts to do something when she recognized
[14:06] Speaker 3: our daughter was having a hard time has had such
[14:09] Speaker 3: a profound impact was powerful.
[14:11] Speaker 2: I love it.
[14:11] Speaker 3: It didn't cost anything. It didn't take much time. But
[14:15] Speaker 3: it's just recognizing that people need to know how important
[14:19] Speaker 3: they are in our lives. And sometimes we just don't
[14:21] Speaker 3: make the effort.
[14:22] Speaker 1: Here's the last one, making an effort to make the
[14:25] Speaker 1: other person happy. So that's what you did there. You
[14:30] Speaker 1: saw an opportunity to send a message to a friend
[14:33] Speaker 1: that you knew would make a cry, tears of joy,
[14:36] Speaker 1: the right kind of tears. It's when you remember your
[14:39] Speaker 1: friend's birthday, you remember something that's important to them. You
[14:42] Speaker 1: save them a seat. You're You say, I thought of
[14:45] Speaker 1: you when I saw this. You send them an image
[14:48] Speaker 1: of you at their favorite restaurant and say, wish you were.
[14:50] Speaker 2: Here with me right now. Is that always friendly?
[14:52] Speaker 3: I don't know.
[14:53] Speaker 1: Sometimes I could be going, it sounded good when I
[14:55] Speaker 1: thought it. I'm not sure about it now that I've
[14:57] Speaker 1: said it. Kids who grow up understanding that friendships require active.
[15:06] Speaker 2: What's the word?
[15:06] Speaker 1: Maintenance, development, input, ongoing, active considerations. are far better equipped
[15:15] Speaker 1: to keep them. So our time is well and truly up, Kylie,
[15:18] Speaker 1: but I want to walk through those six again and
[15:20] Speaker 1: we'll put them into the show notes. The six elements
[15:22] Speaker 1: that make friendships flourish. Standing up for the friend in
[15:26] Speaker 1: their absence. Sharing important news with the friend. Providing emotional
[15:31] Speaker 1: support when it's needed. Trusting and confiding in each other.
[15:36] Speaker 1: Volunteering help when it's required. And making an effort to
[15:40] Speaker 1: make the other person happy. And this study was done
[15:45] Speaker 1: in the 80s. Like, this is a 40-plus-year-old study now.
[15:49] Speaker 1: But those six rules, they're still the right ones, even
[15:53] Speaker 1: in the age of social media, the digital age, the
[15:55] Speaker 1: age of AI. Get the kids off character.ai. Get them
[15:58] Speaker 1: off social media and get them having genuine friendships where
[16:02] Speaker 1: they have these kinds of experiences. And they will, oh,
[16:05] Speaker 1: my goodness, they'll have such rich, enlarged lives.
[16:10] Speaker 3: I don't think you can put a price tag on
[16:12] Speaker 3: a good friend. someone who will experience the highs and
[16:16] Speaker 3: lows of life with you. Just, it makes life more meaningful.
[16:21] Speaker 1: In the show notes, we will link to the study
[16:22] Speaker 1: and those six elements that make friendships flourish. The Happy
[16:26] Speaker 1: Families podcast, Doctor's Desk episode. See, you don't like Doctor's
[16:29] Speaker 1: Desk episode and I've got you crying in this one.
[16:32] Speaker 2: I feel like I've just had the greatest victory of all.
[16:34] Speaker 1: The Doctor's Desk episode was produced by Justin Rulon from
[16:37] Speaker 1: Bridge Media. Mim Hammonds provides our admin and other support.
[16:40] Speaker 1: And if you'd like more info to make your family happier,
[16:42] Speaker 1: Visit us at happyfamilies.com.au

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