# Cheap Holidays That Kids Actually Love (Listener Q&A)

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 25 May 2026, 19 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/2cee0cba-60b4-4b93-891d-b44e00c686ff/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

Family holidays are supposed to create magical memories… so why do they often leave parents exhausted, stressed, and financially stretched? In this episode, Justin and Kylie respond to a mum asking how families can still enjoy meaningful holidays during a cost-of-living crisis — especially when accommodation, food, and travel prices keep climbing. They share the surprising truth about what kids actually remember from holidays, why expensive trips often aren’t worth it for young children, and the low-cost experiences that brought their own family the most joy. If you’ve ever felt guilty for not being able to afford the “Instagram version” of family travel, this conversation will help you rethink what really matters. KEY POINTS • Why most young kids care more about pools and friends than expensive destinations • The hidden pressure social media creates around family holidays • How to create unforgettable memories without leaving your city • Why experiences matter more than luxury • Simple staycation ideas that genuinely feel special • The power of involving kids in planning and saving for holidays • How family connection matters more than the destination QUOTE OF THE EPISODE “Don’t focus so much on what a traditional holiday looks like. Focus on the experiences that create the memories.” ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS • Plan one low-cost “novelty day” your kids wouldn’t normally experience • Explore a local attraction you’ve never visited before • Stop comparing your family holidays to social media highlights • Prioritise connection and shared experiences over expensive travel • Create a family savings goal together for a future holiday adventure See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:06] Speaker 1: Research tells us that looking forward to something makes life
[0:10] Speaker 1: better and one of the coolest things. One of the
[0:11] Speaker 1: most fun things to look forward to is a family holiday.
[0:15] Speaker 1: The thing is, family holidays are expensive. Family holidays can
[0:20] Speaker 1: be very inconvenient, and yet we still want to do them.
[0:24] Speaker 1: Today a very tricky question from a mum who wants
[0:28] Speaker 1: to know what she's supposed to do to get the
[0:30] Speaker 1: family together on a holiday when it all costs so much.
[0:32] Speaker 1: We've got six children, a family of eight, and now
[0:35] Speaker 1: every now and again, every couple of years we go
[0:37] Speaker 1: away with the extended family, which means that we have
[0:39] Speaker 1: a couple of sons in law and we also have
[0:42] Speaker 1: a granddaughter, so we're taking eleven people away. It costs
[0:46] Speaker 1: a bomb, which is why we don't do it very often.
[0:48] Speaker 1: In today's podcast, we answer you a tricky question about
[0:51] Speaker 1: how to get holidays right. What are the things you
[0:53] Speaker 1: need to focus on, what should you discard and ignore
[0:57] Speaker 1: and how can you give everybody something to look forward to?
[1:02] Speaker 1: Stay with us, Hello, Welcome to The Happy Family's podcast
[1:06] Speaker 1: where you get real parenting solutions every single day. This
[1:09] Speaker 1: is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast where Justin and Kylie
[1:12] Speaker 1: Coulson where the parents have six kids, and we love
[1:14] Speaker 1: answering your tricky questions, which is something that we do
[1:16] Speaker 1: every Tuesday on the pod. Today we have a tricky
[1:19] Speaker 1: question that is all about family holidays and in a
[1:22] Speaker 1: cost of living crisis with interest rates going up and
[1:24] Speaker 1: rent's going up, and budget treaty is asked us, happening
[1:27] Speaker 1: all over the place, and war in Iran, and who
[1:29] Speaker 1: knows what else. It's just expensive, so expensive to take
[1:32] Speaker 1: family holiday. We will hear the question in just a sec.
[1:35] Speaker 1: But if you have a question that you'd like to
[1:36] Speaker 1: ask us, just jump online to Happy Families dot com
[1:39] Speaker 1: dot A. You scroll down to where it says ask
[1:41] Speaker 1: a question and let us know what it is that
[1:45] Speaker 1: you want to talk about. It's a super simple system
[1:48] Speaker 1: and we'll talk about anything like ask us anything, pretty
[1:53] Speaker 1: much anything, almost anything. You can hit us up and
[1:57] Speaker 1: we're really happy to answer your questions.
[1:59] Speaker 2: We're asking my mission to say that, well, where you
[2:01] Speaker 2: were headed?
[2:01] Speaker 1: I just wondered where the boundary realize. Okay, let's get
[2:05] Speaker 1: into today's tricky question. This is an absolutely delightful one
[2:09] Speaker 1: from Marlene in Melbourne, who asked us the following Hi, justin.
[2:14] Speaker 3: It's Marlene from Melbourne. We are a family of five.
[2:19] Speaker 3: Trying to make memories and go on holidays is proving
[2:24] Speaker 3: to be quite an expensive event. Some accommodations we actually
[2:29] Speaker 3: have to purchase two rooms. Trying to stay in caravan
[2:33] Speaker 3: parks is much cheaper. However, is still proving to be
[2:38] Speaker 3: an expensive exercise. Just wondering if you had any tips
[2:42] Speaker 3: and tricks of how you did that as a family,
[2:47] Speaker 3: anything would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Bye.
[2:52] Speaker 1: So I'm going to step in here really quickly, Kylie
[2:53] Speaker 1: and just say it's expensive to have a big family.
[2:56] Speaker 1: It's expensive to holiday as a family.
[2:58] Speaker 2: I was about to say it's just in general it's
[3:01] Speaker 2: expensive to holiday.
[3:03] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[3:03] Speaker 1: Yeah, Like we'll get a quote for something if we're
[3:05] Speaker 1: going to go on a trip, and the first thing
[3:07] Speaker 1: that I usually say when the quote comes in, I
[3:09] Speaker 1: look at you and I say, oh, we're not doing this.
[3:12] Speaker 2: There's a ridiculous How can they charge us as much?
[3:15] Speaker 1: Let's just stay home. So you've got hotel rooms, they
[3:19] Speaker 1: rarely cater for a family unless you've only got one
[3:21] Speaker 1: or maybe two children. Airbnb that can be really expensive.
[3:24] Speaker 1: Plus you're expected to tidy up after yourself when you leave,
[3:26] Speaker 1: which is no fun because on holidays, the whole idea.
[3:28] Speaker 2: Is you don't have to do anything.
[3:30] Speaker 1: Yeah, car rental, eating out, entertainment, eating out. Honestly, Like,
[3:35] Speaker 1: if you're going to go and buy breakfast at a
[3:37] Speaker 1: cafe every day for a week and there are five
[3:40] Speaker 1: of you, I'm sorry, but you're not getting out of
[3:42] Speaker 1: it for less than maybe one hundred and twenty one
[3:44] Speaker 1: hundred and thirty bucks for breakfast. Like we have a
[3:46] Speaker 1: friend and when he would take his family on a holiday,
[3:49] Speaker 1: they would go to the nearest grocery store when they
[3:51] Speaker 1: landed wherever they were landing, and they'd do a shop.
[3:53] Speaker 1: And they literally would go into hotel rooms with bags
[3:56] Speaker 1: of groceries, and they would take peanut butter sandwiches in
[3:59] Speaker 1: the car with them to them for lunch as they
[4:00] Speaker 1: were doing their road trip or whatever. To me, that
[4:03] Speaker 1: doesn't feel like fun.
[4:04] Speaker 3: To me.
[4:04] Speaker 1: That feels like doing everything that you already do at home,
[4:08] Speaker 1: but now doing it in a place where you don't
[4:10] Speaker 1: have any of the facilities and resources that you would
[4:12] Speaker 1: have at home, which means that you're getting poor equality.
[4:15] Speaker 1: It's inconvenient, it's messy, it's just too hard. That doesn't
[4:19] Speaker 1: sound like a holiday to me. That sounds like a
[4:21] Speaker 1: living hell. So we've got a bunch of ideas that
[4:24] Speaker 1: can be helpful. Him, Aline, Kylie, you kick us off.
[4:27] Speaker 1: I think.
[4:28] Speaker 2: I think the first thing that's really important to get
[4:31] Speaker 2: very clear about is what is the priority? Like, what
[4:34] Speaker 2: is the purpose for going on a holiday?
[4:36] Speaker 1: It's almost exactly what I wrote down. So you've got
[4:38] Speaker 1: your notes, I've got mine. I wrote what are you
[4:40] Speaker 1: trying to achieve?
[4:41] Speaker 2: Yeah, because I'm going to be pretty frank from a
[4:45] Speaker 2: mum's perspective, going on holiday with your family is not
[4:51] Speaker 2: a holiday. I'm just gonna put it out there, Okay,
[4:55] Speaker 2: So what is the priority? If you can be really
[4:58] Speaker 2: clear on that, then you actually can make I think,
[5:01] Speaker 2: some headway with everything that's going on for us. In
[5:04] Speaker 2: the early days, with six young children, there was no
[5:07] Speaker 2: way we could do a family holiday. We were going
[5:11] Speaker 2: to your parents and sleeping down in the rumpus room.
[5:14] Speaker 2: We were going to my parents and sleeping on the
[5:16] Speaker 2: lound room floor. We were spending time with family and
[5:21] Speaker 2: struggling through it because who wants to be in somebody
[5:24] Speaker 2: else's space.
[5:25] Speaker 1: We have not compared notes, but the next thing I
[5:27] Speaker 1: wrote after what are You're trying to achieve? Was if
[5:29] Speaker 1: you stay with family, is it even a holiday? Oh
[5:31] Speaker 1: my goodness, sleeping on air mattresses or you're sleeping on
[5:34] Speaker 1: a lounge, or you're sleeping on a fold out sofa. Bad,
[5:37] Speaker 1: Like you guys sit there and go And I don't
[5:39] Speaker 1: even like these people that much. I mean, I love
[5:40] Speaker 1: my family, but do I really want to live with
[5:42] Speaker 1: them again? It's not fun? And then you it's and.
[5:46] Speaker 2: You've got all of the issues of you know, kind
[5:47] Speaker 2: of dealing with the different ways that parenting styles I
[5:50] Speaker 2: guess between the generations and you're in their space and
[5:54] Speaker 2: you're feeling judged, like there's just so many factors that
[5:57] Speaker 2: kind of come into that. So for us, family holidays
[6:02] Speaker 2: was actually not so much about a holiday and more
[6:06] Speaker 2: about creating memories and having time in with our kids.
[6:09] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[6:09] Speaker 1: So let me add the extension to that is we
[6:12] Speaker 1: found that with a young family, the kids don't really
[6:16] Speaker 1: care where you go so long as there's either a
[6:18] Speaker 1: beach or a pool, Like if there's water, they're happy,
[6:21] Speaker 1: or if they can ride their bikes play at the skatepark,
[6:23] Speaker 1: that's it. They're done. They're good. This is very general.
[6:27] Speaker 1: There are some people who really strongly disagree with me,
[6:29] Speaker 1: but my general advice is until the kids are about
[6:32] Speaker 1: fifteen or sixteen, don't spend any significant money on a
[6:36] Speaker 1: family holiday because the kids are not going to remember
[6:39] Speaker 1: it and they don't have the stamina or the curiosity
[6:43] Speaker 1: to make it exciting. So if you want to go
[6:44] Speaker 1: and do Europe, or if you want to go and
[6:45] Speaker 1: do a tour through Thailand or Vietnam, or South America
[6:50] Speaker 1: or New Zealand or the United States, just wait, wait
[6:54] Speaker 1: until they're older, because they don't care. They just want
[6:57] Speaker 1: to go and swim in the pool. Sorry. That I
[6:59] Speaker 1: love to recount is when my parents took my family.
[7:03] Speaker 1: I think I was the eldest child at the time,
[7:05] Speaker 1: maybe I was twelve, and they took us over to
[7:08] Speaker 1: America and we were driving up from California through the
[7:13] Speaker 1: Grand Canyon. What's that in Nevada. We were driving up
[7:16] Speaker 1: that way and we were supposed to go to the
[7:19] Speaker 1: Grand Canyon. It was an hour and a half from
[7:21] Speaker 1: the hotel that we were staying in, and Mom said, well,
[7:23] Speaker 1: we've arrived at the hotel, we've checked in, Let's go
[7:25] Speaker 1: over to the Grand canyon and we'd just done four
[7:28] Speaker 1: or five or six hours in the car and we
[7:29] Speaker 1: all looked at Mum and said, but there's a pool here.
[7:33] Speaker 2: I didn't think you we want to tell that story.
[7:34] Speaker 2: I thought you were going to tell a story about
[7:36] Speaker 2: our friends who took their kids to America and they
[7:39] Speaker 2: did all of these amazing things, and when they got home,
[7:42] Speaker 2: they caught the.
[7:43] Speaker 1: Bus yep from the the free bus around the city,
[7:47] Speaker 1: the free bus around the city, and the school teacher said,
[7:49] Speaker 1: what was your best part of the holiday? And the
[7:50] Speaker 1: kids were like, the free bus yesterday in the city.
[7:54] Speaker 1: So like the parents are going, we just spent all
[7:56] Speaker 1: that money going to the US. So number one, we
[7:58] Speaker 1: couldn't afford it, but number two, and if we could.
[8:00] Speaker 1: What we have very much discovered is that the kids
[8:02] Speaker 1: don't have the stamina or the curiosity, which means that
[8:04] Speaker 1: if you want to go and have a really awesome holiday,
[8:06] Speaker 1: leave the kids behind until they're about fifteen or sixteen.
[8:10] Speaker 1: Some people would argue it's ten or twelve or fourteen.
[8:12] Speaker 1: I think it's fifteen or sixteen. That's when they're really
[8:15] Speaker 1: open to saying, oh, let's go and do the museum
[8:19] Speaker 1: or let's go and check out the park, or let's
[8:21] Speaker 1: go and do the sight seeing stuff.
[8:23] Speaker 2: And even if they're not overly interested in it, they
[8:26] Speaker 2: are at an age where they can respect that we're
[8:29] Speaker 2: here and we're going to do something different.
[8:31] Speaker 1: Right right. Their entertainment needs are also a little bit
[8:33] Speaker 1: different as well. There's just a maturity about them that
[8:36] Speaker 1: you don't get when they're younger. After the break, we're
[8:39] Speaker 1: going to get real about exactly the kinds of things
[8:41] Speaker 1: that you can do, since how advice so far is
[8:45] Speaker 1: about what not to do. No family, no big holidays,
[8:48] Speaker 1: just the beach, in the pool. Stay with us.
[8:50] Speaker 2: It's next.
[8:58] Speaker 3: We're back.
[8:58] Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to your Family's podcast.
[9:00] Speaker 1: If you enjoy the pod, please share it with your friends,
[9:03] Speaker 1: mums and your mum's group, dads and your dad's group, whoever,
[9:06] Speaker 1: and say this is making my family happier, and I
[9:08] Speaker 1: thought this was relevant for you. We'd love for you
[9:10] Speaker 1: to share the pod and help other families to be
[9:12] Speaker 1: happier as a result.
[9:13] Speaker 2: I know you said that we've talked about all the
[9:15] Speaker 2: things not to do, but I have one other thing,
[9:17] Speaker 2: and I think it's really important. Stop scrolling socials and
[9:22] Speaker 2: looking at everybody's amazing holidays. If you are a family
[9:26] Speaker 2: who wants to do things with their family but does
[9:29] Speaker 2: not have the means to have the forty fifty thousand
[9:32] Speaker 2: dollar europe holiday, just get off. Socials don't look at it, you.
[9:36] Speaker 1: Like, because because when you go camping in the backyard,
[9:39] Speaker 1: it just doesn't quite feel the same as the Swiss
[9:41] Speaker 1: outs does.
[9:42] Speaker 2: It's so hard to have a positive attitude about a
[9:44] Speaker 2: family holiday when you're like, you can't even keept, like
[9:48] Speaker 2: there's just there's nothing you can't compete with that.
[9:50] Speaker 1: I don't have any socials anymore, but I compile a
[9:54] Speaker 1: list because all of these amazing holidays kept on coming up,
[9:57] Speaker 1: and I'm really sad that I haven't done them all.
[10:00] Speaker 1: Except they're not realistic, especially living in Australia. The cost
[10:04] Speaker 1: is just exhorbitan, and especially if you want to take
[10:05] Speaker 1: the kids, so kylie, no big trips. We've said until
[10:09] Speaker 1: the kids are fifteen or sixteen, and then one child
[10:11] Speaker 1: at a time. That's a tradition that we've created. But
[10:13] Speaker 1: if you've got a young family and you really do
[10:15] Speaker 1: want to have a family holiday, what are the top
[10:18] Speaker 1: ideas that we've done or that you would recommend that
[10:21] Speaker 1: you've heard about that you think really really meet the
[10:25] Speaker 1: brief here.
[10:26] Speaker 2: So my first one focus on experience is not a
[10:29] Speaker 2: time frame. So one of the very first holidays we
[10:32] Speaker 2: did where we went to your parents' house but then
[10:35] Speaker 2: chose not to stay with them, was we hired a
[10:39] Speaker 2: camp site on a horse ranch.
[10:42] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[10:42] Speaker 1: So my parents on the new Southwest Central Coast. There's
[10:44] Speaker 1: a place there called Glenworth Valley. They've got like three
[10:46] Speaker 1: hundred horses and they do. They've just got this huge
[10:49] Speaker 1: area that you can camp pretty cheap, down by a
[10:51] Speaker 1: little creek. It's beautiful.
[10:52] Speaker 2: I think it was about seventy five or eighty dollars.
[10:54] Speaker 2: This is a handful of years ago, so I have
[10:56] Speaker 2: no idea what it would cost now.
[10:57] Speaker 1: But has seven not sponsored.
[10:58] Speaker 2: Yeah, seventy five or eighty dollars for us to camp
[11:01] Speaker 2: on their land. And we had actually said to the
[11:05] Speaker 2: kids there will be no horse riding, we can't afford that,
[11:10] Speaker 2: but you can definitely pat the horses and feed them
[11:13] Speaker 2: and you know, spend time in their space. We got
[11:17] Speaker 2: there and our twelve year old at the time, she
[11:19] Speaker 2: was our eldest, gave us puppy dog eyes and pled
[11:22] Speaker 2: that she could have a ride, and so we made
[11:24] Speaker 2: a decision that we'd stretch the budget just a little
[11:27] Speaker 2: bit to get her on a horse, but we weren't
[11:29] Speaker 2: sending her on her own, so I ended up going
[11:31] Speaker 2: with her and on that trail ride, one of the
[11:34] Speaker 2: workers came and talked to me and she said, how
[11:37] Speaker 2: much time has your daughter spent on horses? She's unnatural.
[11:40] Speaker 2: I said, she's had like one hour on a horse
[11:43] Speaker 2: at a school camp. She said she should volunteer. We
[11:47] Speaker 2: had no idea what volunteering is, but it meant for
[11:48] Speaker 2: the rest of the week that we were there, she
[11:51] Speaker 2: got up each morning, left us and was gone from
[11:54] Speaker 2: about eight o'clock till five, scoop and poop, brushing down horses, saddling.
[11:59] Speaker 1: Them up, and she loved it in her element.
[12:03] Speaker 2: And as a result of that, that actually led to
[12:06] Speaker 2: her volunteering on a regular basis there.
[12:09] Speaker 1: During the school holidays, which meant that we got to
[12:10] Speaker 1: take the rest of the family away on cheap holidays
[12:12] Speaker 1: while she went and saved with the grandparents and looked
[12:14] Speaker 1: after horses. Everyone was happy.
[12:16] Speaker 2: It was such a delightful time, and that was it.
[12:19] Speaker 2: That's all we did. Use your local attractions and have
[12:23] Speaker 2: a staycation. I know you want to go away, but
[12:27] Speaker 2: create an experience that you can like. The whole idea
[12:33] Speaker 2: is memories, right. It's not about where you are, it's
[12:35] Speaker 2: about what you do.
[12:36] Speaker 1: Let me give a couple of quick examples here. If
[12:38] Speaker 1: you live in Sydney or Brisbane and you think about
[12:42] Speaker 1: how much it would cost for a holiday, stay home,
[12:44] Speaker 1: but go and do the bridge climb, spend some time
[12:48] Speaker 1: if you're in Sydney down at the Rocks. When we
[12:50] Speaker 1: took the family to Sydney recently, we just walked up
[12:53] Speaker 1: I think it was mcquarie Street or Elizabeth Street or
[12:55] Speaker 1: one of those streets from the Botanical Gardens, from the
[12:57] Speaker 1: oppera House. We walked up and we came across the
[12:59] Speaker 1: High Barracks, which I've heard about a thousand times. But
[13:02] Speaker 1: there's a museum there. Never knew, like I've driven past
[13:06] Speaker 1: it a thousand times in my life or more, never
[13:09] Speaker 1: knew that the hyph Parth Prares was a museum. We
[13:10] Speaker 1: took the kids in there, including the young ones, and
[13:12] Speaker 1: they were like, this is amazing. They thought that the
[13:15] Speaker 1: government has done an incredible job curating this museum. It's
[13:18] Speaker 1: fabulous and learning the history of Sydney was amazing. Brisbane
[13:22] Speaker 1: has great history. Melbourne, this is so much to do
[13:25] Speaker 1: within an hour of the CBD.
[13:27] Speaker 2: But how often do we live in a place but
[13:29] Speaker 2: we actually never explore it.
[13:31] Speaker 1: That's right, because that's not the.
[13:32] Speaker 2: Tourist about where we are in Australia. We are like
[13:35] Speaker 2: one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world. People
[13:37] Speaker 2: come to us all the time because of what we
[13:40] Speaker 2: have to offer. So utilize what's in your area, local hikes,
[13:43] Speaker 2: swimming holes, you know, day trips with other families. Just
[13:47] Speaker 2: involve other people. It's about creating experiences together.
[13:52] Speaker 1: I love it and I think the next thing.
[13:54] Speaker 2: Adding on to that is novelty over price tag. So
[13:58] Speaker 2: creating experiences just for the sake of an experience. So
[14:02] Speaker 2: when we couldn't afford going on a holiday, I would
[14:04] Speaker 2: invite all of the kids' friends over and we'd do
[14:06] Speaker 2: craft days or have Easter fun days. We'd make gingerbread
[14:10] Speaker 2: houses together, things where we can kind of come together.
[14:13] Speaker 2: They're out of the norm, they're not the normal thing
[14:15] Speaker 2: that we would do, but we bring other people in
[14:18] Speaker 2: and we have so much fun doing it. Have a
[14:20] Speaker 2: barbecue in the backyard. Chanelle and Jared, our eldest and
[14:24] Speaker 2: her husband. They live in a street. Every Friday night,
[14:27] Speaker 2: families come out of the woodwork they've had, you know,
[14:30] Speaker 2: like it's let your hair out kind of time. They
[14:32] Speaker 2: bring their meal, have a pot luck in the middle
[14:35] Speaker 2: of the street. The kids run right, the adults get
[14:39] Speaker 2: to have a chat because everyone's taking care of everyone.
[14:42] Speaker 1: So two things on this. Relationships make holidays better and
[14:46] Speaker 1: if you can't afford a holiday, that's staycation. But getting
[14:50] Speaker 1: people involved in the activities that you've planned. When we
[14:52] Speaker 1: lived in Wollongong, we did this a lot. This was
[14:54] Speaker 1: when our family was probably the poorest because we were
[14:57] Speaker 1: in the middle of me being a student and I've
[14:59] Speaker 1: been a student for eight and a half years, and
[15:02] Speaker 1: we had our whole family relying on well, there were
[15:06] Speaker 1: no kids with jobs or anything like that. Like it
[15:07] Speaker 1: was just it was you and I try to pull
[15:10] Speaker 1: it all together and we would just plan these things,
[15:13] Speaker 1: take some friends along. The kids were in their element,
[15:16] Speaker 1: and it felt like we really were on holidays for
[15:19] Speaker 1: that day or for that weekend, or for that four
[15:21] Speaker 1: or five days where we had allocated. We actually have
[15:24] Speaker 1: an itinerary like we're on holidays. But in Woollongong we
[15:27] Speaker 1: were going down to Kyama to the Blowhole, we were
[15:29] Speaker 1: going up to Fitzroy Falls and robertson the Southern Highlands.
[15:34] Speaker 1: I think we went into Sydney. We went to the
[15:35] Speaker 1: Blue Mountains. One day with some friends. We went and
[15:38] Speaker 1: explored the Royal National Park to walk out to Little
[15:42] Speaker 1: Marley Beach. All of these things literally are no cost
[15:47] Speaker 1: or very low cost, and the kids, because they're with
[15:50] Speaker 1: their friends and because we're just doing this activity, it
[15:55] Speaker 1: really did feel like a holiday. Literally in our backyard.
[15:59] Speaker 2: One year, we actually put our tent up inside our
[16:02] Speaker 2: living room and the kids had a camp out there.
[16:05] Speaker 2: Use your backyard, invite other families to use your backyard.
[16:09] Speaker 2: We've got friends and they literally over the long weekend
[16:12] Speaker 2: they had two or three families come and literally just
[16:14] Speaker 2: camp on that backyard. And then the kids get to
[16:18] Speaker 2: have all of those experiences without the price tag. One year,
[16:22] Speaker 2: one of our kids actually was learning about carbon footprints,
[16:25] Speaker 2: and we had big conversations in our home about what
[16:28] Speaker 2: that looked like and how we could kind of just
[16:31] Speaker 2: be more aware and conscious of how we utilize the
[16:35] Speaker 2: resources that are available to us and so we decided
[16:38] Speaker 2: to literally shut down the electricity for the weekend. So
[16:43] Speaker 2: we brought out the candles, kids had torches, we put
[16:46] Speaker 2: the campfire out. We cooked on the barbecue or the
[16:49] Speaker 2: open fire without any electricity, and that was actually a
[16:54] Speaker 2: really fun it was And the only other thing I'd
[16:58] Speaker 2: probably highlight. If you've got old to kids and you're
[17:01] Speaker 2: working towards a family holiday, maybe you don't go on
[17:04] Speaker 2: a family holiday every year. Maybe you say to them,
[17:07] Speaker 2: we really want to go to Bali, for instance, it's
[17:09] Speaker 2: going to cost us this much. What are some of
[17:12] Speaker 2: the things as a family we're willing to sacrifice to
[17:15] Speaker 2: actually put money into the kitty. And so we've done
[17:19] Speaker 2: that with the kids, and when the whole family's working together,
[17:24] Speaker 2: all of a sudden, the kids go, oh, I really
[17:26] Speaker 2: want that. I'm going to forego doing X, Y and Z,
[17:29] Speaker 2: or I'm not going to get that treat this.
[17:31] Speaker 1: Way, or I'm going to go and wash the neighbors
[17:33] Speaker 1: cars and moy the neighbors lawns and earn some money
[17:35] Speaker 1: or contribute my pocket money or whatever it is.
[17:38] Speaker 2: And I just think that, like, it's about family, right,
[17:41] Speaker 2: It's about time together, it's about creating memories. If that's
[17:44] Speaker 2: the priority, then don't focus so much on what a
[17:48] Speaker 2: traditional holiday looks like. Focus on the experiences that will
[17:53] Speaker 2: create those memories.
[17:54] Speaker 1: My favorite thing that you said is turn off social media.
[17:57] Speaker 1: Stop looking at everyone else's holidays because it's just not real.
[18:00] Speaker 1: You're seeing like, well it is, but no, no, but
[18:03] Speaker 1: it's only real for the top one percent, that's right,
[18:05] Speaker 1: or the people who aren't paying for it because they're
[18:07] Speaker 1: influences and they've been able to wangle it for free.
[18:10] Speaker 1: It's just it's not real for everybody else. And also
[18:15] Speaker 1: just think outside the box, like it doesn't have to
[18:18] Speaker 1: you said it. You just said it, Kylie. It doesn't
[18:19] Speaker 1: have to be a traditional holiday. There's so many different
[18:21] Speaker 1: ways that you can do this. All right, we need
[18:23] Speaker 1: to wrap it up. Thank you so much for your question, Maline.
[18:25] Speaker 1: If you have a tricky question for us, let us
[18:27] Speaker 1: know via the super simple system at happy families dot
[18:29] Speaker 1: com dot you, or just send us a voice note
[18:31] Speaker 1: and ask us pretty much almost anything, as Kylie indicated
[18:34] Speaker 1: the top of the pod. The Happy Family Podcast is
[18:36] Speaker 1: produced by Justin ruland from Bridge Medium them Heaven's provides
[18:39] Speaker 1: our admin and other support. Tomorrow, I can't wait to
[18:41] Speaker 1: share this interview with you. I'm so excited. Aunt William's
[18:44] Speaker 1: talking about his brand new book let It Be Hard.
[18:46] Speaker 1: This is a conversation about resilience that I think you're
[18:48] Speaker 1: going to love and if you're like more in photo
[18:50] Speaker 1: Make your family Happier, visit happy families dot com dot au.

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