Episode Transcript
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2:00
Once you see these patterns, you see them
2:03
in the office. They're often very obvious with
2:05
children at a very young age. Like they're
2:07
really kind of easy to spot once you
2:09
notice the pattern. And so what's great about
2:11
that is that then you can harness
2:14
that in order to achieve an aim,
2:16
whether for yourself or for somebody else, instead of getting
2:18
lost in this thing of like, well, one
2:20
person's right or one person has the better way.
2:23
It's like, well, we can all
2:25
learn from each other, but maybe if this doesn't work for
2:27
you, what are some other ways to try it? Understanding
2:31
people who are different from us, understanding
2:34
our kids who are different
2:37
from us, is one of the hardest things in life.
2:40
If you're like me, there's a certain way you go about the
2:42
world. So for me, I tend to
2:44
kind of like rules. I like knowing what's
2:46
expected from me and I have expectations for
2:48
myself. And when people tell
2:51
me, hey, I'd like you to do something,
2:53
as long as it's reasonable, I'm happy to
2:55
oblige. I'm actually happy to know what they
2:57
expect. Well, I know I have a kid
2:59
and I have certain friends who
3:01
are completely different. Like, why are you
3:03
asking so many questions? It's not that
3:05
complicated. And one
3:07
of the things I've recently unpacked
3:10
was a new way to understand these
3:12
differences. And it has been mind-blowingly helpful
3:15
to me. And I can't wait to
3:17
share it with you. Today
3:19
on the pod, I'm talking to Gretchen
3:21
Rubin. She is one
3:23
of today's most influential and thought-provoking observers
3:26
of happiness and human nature. She's
3:28
the author of many New York Times
3:30
bestselling books, and she hosts
3:33
the Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast.
3:36
I can't wait for you to hear our
3:38
discussion on the different tendencies people have and
3:40
how to use that information in a very
3:43
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8:00
keep a New Year's resolution or your
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own desire to get better at diving.
8:05
So depending on whether we meet
8:07
or resist, outer and inner
8:09
expectations, that's what makes us an
8:11
upholder, a questioner, an obliger, or
8:13
a rebel. So when you
8:15
look at someone who's an upholder, they
8:18
readily meet outer and inner expectations. So
8:20
these are the people who meet the
8:22
school deadline and remember to pack their
8:24
gym clothes without much fuss. They wanna
8:26
know what other people expect from them,
8:28
but their expectations for themselves are just
8:30
as important. So their motto is,
8:32
discipline is my freedom. So this is
8:34
like Hermione Granger. Then
8:36
there are questioners. Questioners question all
8:39
expectations. They do something if they
8:41
think it makes sense. So they
8:43
resist anything arbitrary, ineffective, unjustified, that
8:46
doesn't have a purpose. They tend
8:48
to love to customize. They're
8:50
very focused on reason. So these are
8:52
the people, you know, you're like, Hugh
8:54
has too many questions, because what's
8:57
happening is if it meets their inner standard, if
8:59
it makes sense to them, they will do it
9:01
no problem. But if it fails their inner standard,
9:03
they'll push back. So their motto
9:06
is, I'll comply if you
9:08
convince me why. Then
9:11
there are obligers. Obligers are people who
9:13
readily meet outer expectations, but they struggle
9:15
to meet inner expectations. And I'll just
9:18
say, this is the biggest tendency for
9:20
both men and women. This
9:22
is the biggest tendency. You either are an obliger,
9:24
you have many obligers in your life. So these
9:27
are people who are like, why can I keep
9:29
my promises to other people, but I can't keep
9:31
my promises to myself? These are people who are
9:33
really good with external expectations, but when it comes
9:35
to something that they want to do for themselves,
9:38
they struggle. They're really great at going the
9:40
extra mile for other people, but
9:43
they often become very frustrated with themselves.
9:45
And the secret for them is to
9:47
create outer accountability, even for something that's
9:49
an inner expectation. And so
9:51
their motto is, you can
9:54
count on me, and I'm counting on you to
9:56
count on me. And
9:58
then finally, rebels, rebels resist. all
10:00
expectations outer and inner alike. And Becky, I have
10:02
to say, I was thinking about the Rebel Tendency
10:04
some episodes of years ago because somebody was describing
10:06
a child and I'm like, that might
10:08
be a Rebel child. So Rebels do
10:10
what they wanna do in their own
10:12
way, in their own time. They can
10:14
do anything they want to do, anything
10:16
they choose to do, but
10:19
if you ask or tell them to do something,
10:21
they're very likely to resist. And typically they don't tell
10:23
themselves what to do. They're like, I'm not gonna sign
10:25
up for a 10 a.m. swim class on Saturday because
10:28
just the fact that somebody's gonna expect me to show
10:30
up is gonna annoy me. And I don't know what
10:32
I'm gonna feel like doing on Saturday anyway. So
10:35
their motto is, you can't make me and
10:37
neither can I. And
10:39
then when you know these tendencies, it
10:41
really can help you be a more
10:44
effective parent and more effective at managing
10:46
yourself because I mean, and you talk
10:48
about this all the time, people are
10:50
different and to manage ourselves, we
10:52
have to know ourselves. There's
10:55
so many things I wanna jump into. One of the things
10:57
I love and I love about your site and I love
10:59
the way you profile also other people and you do this
11:01
in the book is you don't
11:03
have judgment. You're not like, everyone should
11:05
be this. Absolutely. We have our tendencies,
11:07
there are pros and cons. And to
11:09
me, actually, I often say this to
11:11
friends, my favorite adult friends are
11:14
just the people who know themselves and they can
11:16
kind of have levity with themselves, they can talk
11:18
about that. Obviously I
11:20
believe we can change, but to some degree,
11:22
it's like, hey, this is me. And I'm
11:24
also curious about myself and non-defensive, but
11:27
I love that your book takes that approach,
11:29
which for everyone listening, you should
11:31
know there's like no shame. Like you will actually
11:33
just be like, wow, this is really useful as
11:35
a framework and then set of strategies, no one's
11:37
trying to change me. I'm just gonna become like
11:40
a more effective me. Well,
11:42
absolutely. And that's one thing I tell people over,
11:44
because people are like, well, what's the best tendency
11:46
or the most successful tendency? I'm like, it's
11:49
not that one tendency is better than the others
11:51
because they all have strengths and weaknesses and the
11:53
strengths are the weaknesses, right? They go together. Always.
11:56
But it's the people who know themselves and they're like, well,
11:58
I know what I need. to
12:00
succeed or I know what is likely to trip me
12:02
up and therefore I'm gonna set up my circumstances and
12:04
my schedule and my surroundings in a way that's gonna
12:06
help me achieve my aim. And one of the things
12:08
that's nice about the tendencies is I think a lot
12:10
of times people feel very, they
12:13
feel very discouraged or they feel like, why is
12:15
it that other people can be adults? And like,
12:18
I just can't like, everybody else can
12:20
just get up and go for a run every morning. Why can't
12:22
I do that? Like what's wrong with me? And it's like, oh,
12:24
a lot of people are in the same boat. There's
12:26
so many solutions that people have come up
12:28
with. You do not need to change. This
12:31
is just a thing. There's good aspects to it. There's bad
12:33
aspect. And now you can focus on like, how
12:36
to move forward to get what you want instead of feeling like
12:38
there's something wrong with you. Love that. I had a harness. So
12:40
let's jump into one of these tendencies, the obligers. I hear about
12:42
this group a lot. I hear about a lot of from moms.
12:45
I have the PTA meeting. I have my
12:48
kids soccer practice. I have carpools planned out
12:50
in my calendar to the wazoo and forever.
12:52
I've told myself one day a week, I
12:54
wanna take a walk around my
12:56
neighborhood without my kid. Or
12:59
I want to meet a friend. Like there's
13:01
something for me and why can't I do
13:03
it? And I feel
13:05
like this might be a bludger ask. Yes.
13:08
Yes. So from your framework, yeah,
13:11
like can you walk through this a little
13:13
bit or how, I've kind of said the
13:15
things you figured out could help this person
13:17
harness their strengths to get what they want.
13:20
Yes. So
13:22
what you described is like exactly what obligers
13:24
will express. They often say, I can't draw
13:26
boundaries. I'm really bad at self care. I
13:28
come through for other people, but why can't
13:30
I like take time for myself or whatever
13:33
it might be? So the key
13:35
to remember is that you need to create
13:37
outer accountability, even for an inner
13:39
expectation. So you can't think about self care or
13:41
priorities or putting yourself first. You have to think
13:43
about, well, how can I create outer accountability? So
13:45
let's say you wanna go for a walk in
13:47
the park. How would you create outer accountability for
13:49
that? You might go with a friend who'll be
13:51
disappointed if you don't show up. You might take your
13:54
dog who's gonna be really disappointed because it's a highlight
13:56
of your dog's day. You might think of your duty
13:58
to your future self if you come to the... end
14:00
of the year and you haven't been doing this, you're
14:02
going to be really disappointed with yourself. Maybe you're not
14:04
going to have those benefits that you would have had
14:06
in terms of mood regulation, energy, being out in the
14:09
sunshine, all these things. You might think of your duty
14:11
to be a role model for someone else. I want
14:13
to show my children, I want to show the people
14:15
around me what it looks like to take time for
14:18
yourself. If I don't do it, then they're going to
14:20
think, talk away but actions are louder than words and
14:22
I don't see you doing that. I need to model
14:24
the behavior. You talk a lot about modeling behavior. I
14:26
need to model the behavior that I'm talking about. In
14:29
these ways, you create outer accountability even for
14:31
an inner expectation. Sometimes, I'm like, just feel
14:34
like it's somehow weak that
14:36
they shouldn't need to rely on outer
14:38
accountability. I'm like, you're the biggest group.
14:40
There's a ton of people who need
14:42
outer accountability. There's nothing wrong with that.
14:44
Just figure out what works for you.
14:46
Because for some people taking a
14:48
class is a really great way to get outer
14:51
accountability. For some people, that doesn't work. So you
14:53
really have to tinker it to yourself, but realizing
14:55
that the outer accountability is what is needed even
14:57
for an inner expectation. There's
14:59
two things that come to mind. Number one is there's
15:02
no morality. There's no morality here. There's no
15:04
better, there's no morality. Something
15:06
I say to parents a lot when they're stuck with their kids, and
15:08
it just made me think of this, is the
15:11
solution is always in the problem. My
15:14
kid is always saying, boop, boop, boop at the table.
15:16
I'm like, stop. Well, what if I just told them,
15:18
let's go to the bathroom and say, boop, boop, boop.
15:21
Feel free, say it all you want. I'll say it
15:23
too, and then we'll get that out of our system.
15:26
The solution is in the problem. What
15:28
you're saying is if someone's saying, my
15:30
problem is I can't engage in self-care,
15:32
I'm so good at doing things for
15:34
other people and bad for myself, I
15:36
love the light bulb of like, wait
15:38
a second, I just heard what I'm
15:40
good at. So maybe that's my solution.
15:42
The impact on my body, whether I
15:44
take a walk because I've just
15:46
said, I deserve it, or I take
15:48
a walk because I told my friend I wanted to,
15:50
and I made them text me to get it done.
15:53
That's great. The walk is
15:55
the walk. My body doesn't
15:57
feel that different. a
16:00
means to an end and the idea that
16:02
we, you're saying like, obligers have natural
16:06
ability, a tendency
16:08
ability to get
16:10
certain things done. Let's use that for your
16:13
benefit. Absolutely. So my
16:15
type is upholder. That's
16:17
the one that readily meets outer and inner expectations and
16:19
there's pros to that and cons to that. But we
16:21
often give each other bad advice because we're coming from
16:24
our own tendency. So it used to be that obligers
16:26
would say to me things like, well,
16:28
now I exercise because I know I need to stay
16:30
healthy for my kids. I would be
16:32
like, well, don't do it for your kids, do it
16:34
for you because this is important for you. You don't
16:36
need to bring somebody else into it. But I realized
16:38
that's actually a really good pattern of thinking for
16:40
obligers that's really helping them to do
16:43
something for themselves because they're invoking that
16:45
outer accountability. So who am I to
16:47
tell somebody that what they're doing is
16:49
wrong? It works for them. So again,
16:51
it's like people are often
16:54
being like, well, you shouldn't do that or you should do
16:56
that. It's like, well, maybe you should or maybe you shouldn't
16:58
because you might be coming from a very different place. You
17:00
know, I think that's pointing out like
17:03
a really big blind spot for me too because,
17:06
okay, reveal, I am also an upholder. I
17:11
kind of thought that. I have to
17:13
say, I suspected that. You know
17:15
what? I feel like I
17:17
have parts of others. I don't have that big of
17:19
a part of an obliger. I'm going to be honest,
17:22
that part's not that big. It used to be, but
17:25
I definitely have a part of me. Maybe that's
17:27
not a rebel, but I definitely have a questioning
17:29
part of me. But, you know, I was actually
17:31
talking about my husband. He's like, that motto, discipline
17:33
is my freedom. He's like, Becky, that is literally
17:35
you. Like that is exactly you. Right. So I
17:38
talk about self care a lot. And to me, one of the
17:40
key things our kids need is a parent
17:42
who feels sturdy and that to me
17:44
always involves tapping into our non-caregiver parts.
17:46
If the only part of us left
17:49
is caregiving of others, that
17:51
always gets in our way. Ironically, of being a good caregiver
17:53
because we're so overwhelmed and depleted, et cetera. And one of
17:55
the things I say a lot is people will say to
17:58
me, I go out to dinner with my friends. because
18:00
it's really good for my kids
18:02
to see. And hearing you say
18:04
this, I think my natural reaction would
18:06
be like, I'd feel like I need to
18:08
motivate them. Like, what? Like, you just deserve
18:10
dinner. Like, you just, you know. But I
18:12
love what you're saying. That's like very Becky
18:15
centric. Like, okay, Becky, you're just speaking
18:17
to yourself. Like, you're not speaking to
18:19
a mirror. You're speaking to someone different
18:21
from you and maybe respect that this
18:24
is their framework and that's useful. And
18:26
like, who am I to change that
18:28
narrative? Well, and when I was
18:30
writing about happiness, like I was always struck by
18:32
people who would just, something that
18:35
would seem easy to me would be a struggle
18:37
for them or they would have a completely different
18:39
approach to it. And then finally I started to
18:41
see that there were these patterns. And once you
18:43
see these patterns, you see them in the office.
18:45
They're often very obvious with children at a very
18:47
young age. Like, they're really kind of
18:50
easy to spot once you notice the pattern.
18:52
And so what's great about that is that
18:54
then you can harness that in
18:56
order to achieve an aim, whether for yourself
18:58
or for somebody else, instead of getting lost
19:00
in this thing of like, well,
19:03
one person's right or one person has the better
19:05
way. It's like, well, we can
19:07
all learn from each other, but maybe if this doesn't
19:09
work for you, what are some other ways to try
19:11
it? So let's move to kids. Let's, you know, I
19:13
don't know, your kid, I said, why do
19:15
I have to, why do I have to? Why do I
19:17
have to? Like, you know, I'm knocking at cavities,
19:19
right? Like we have these like difficult moments. I'm
19:22
wondering if kids, if those are questioners,
19:24
like I want to do what I want to
19:26
do and you better convince me, you know,
19:28
or if those are rebels or like, let's
19:31
walk through some like difficult parenting moments with
19:33
kids in terms of the tendencies. Yes.
19:35
So if you have an upholder child, these children
19:38
are pretty easy and like, they are the ones
19:40
that are going to be focused on getting their
19:42
homework on time and like feeding their fish. One
19:45
thing you will see kind of negative, that can
19:47
be negative for upholders is they can get like
19:49
really uptight. Like the teacher says that I
19:51
have to read for half an hour tonight. And yeah, we went
19:53
to see grandma and grandpa and it's
19:56
11 30 at night, but I need to read because
19:58
my teacher says I have to. It's hard for them
20:00
sometimes to. understand when rules need
20:02
to be adjusted. The teacher will
20:04
never know. So
20:06
you as an adult need to frame it. But
20:09
the thing is you don't want to say things
20:11
like the teacher will never know. That's not reassuring
20:13
to an upholder. An upholder is like, we are
20:15
respecting the expectation and say, the teacher will understand
20:17
that if you are exhausted, you will not be
20:20
able to learn in class tomorrow. I promise you
20:22
that if you ask your teacher what she would
20:24
think you should do, she would say, get a
20:26
good night's sleep and then you'll be, you
20:29
want to frame it in what resonates with
20:31
them. Because a rebel parent might be like,
20:34
oh, it's great. Like, who cares? Like, let's stick it
20:36
to the teacher. And it's like, to an upholder, they'd
20:38
be like, oh my gosh. I can't, you know, they
20:40
can't handle that. And then they can also sometimes be
20:42
like, it's hard for them to like, schedules change. They
20:44
can be rigid, even as children,
20:46
certainly as adults, I'll say that as an
20:49
upholder. So for them, they're
20:51
the ones that are pretty easy to
20:53
manage in terms of meeting outer and
20:55
inner expectations because that's, you
20:57
want to make sure that they don't sort of get
20:59
too hard on themselves. Too rigid and too hard. Too
21:01
rigid and too hard on themselves. And you want to
21:04
give them like a lot of like notice, like this
21:06
is what's going to happen this weekend. Like they tend
21:08
to really respond well to that. Questioners need reasons. They
21:10
need to have a reason for what
21:12
they're doing. And if they understand the reason, they will get
21:14
on board. If they don't have a reason, they will not
21:16
get on board. And a very poignant example I heard of
21:18
this was a questioner man was telling
21:21
me how when he was young, he was on the
21:23
soccer team and he loved soccer. He played goalie and
21:25
he had a great coach. Then they got
21:27
a new coach and the coach was like, okay, I have
21:29
all these, you know, all these drills that everybody's going to
21:31
do. And this kid went up
21:33
to him and said, hey, I don't think
21:35
I should do those drills because I'm a goalie and I have
21:37
such a different position that I'm playing. And the coach was like,
21:40
listen, kid, I'm the coach. Everybody does
21:42
these drills. And the kid quit
21:44
because he's like, that doesn't make any sense. But
21:47
if the coach had said to him, hey, I get
21:49
it. It seems like you really have a
21:51
different position, but I've studied the training of
21:54
all the best teams and they show that
21:56
accuracy and speed and endurance are important no
21:58
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learning program out there at the
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best price. examples
34:00
I heard of a rebel child is, so I have
34:02
a podcast happier with Gretchen Rubin, and sometimes people have
34:04
questions. And a woman said, I'm an
34:06
upholder. I have a little, little kid who is a
34:08
rebel. How do I get her to understand that there
34:11
are some things you just have to do? Like you
34:13
have to wash your hands after you use the potty.
34:16
And my answer to her was like, you don't have
34:18
to wash your hands after you use the potty. You
34:21
don't. And your little girl has figured this out, and you cannot
34:23
stand by her side for the next 75 years
34:25
and make her do it. So you're going to have
34:27
to help her as a rebel decide that for her
34:29
own reasons, this is what she wants to do. It's
34:32
part of her identity. It's part of consequences, whatever. So
34:35
the interesting thing though is she emailed back
34:37
and she said, oh, that was really helpful
34:39
to me as an upholder dealing with rebel.
34:42
But here's how it played out. So this
34:44
mother and daughter had gone to the mother's
34:46
grandmother. So this was the little girl's great
34:49
grandmother's house who was very, very frail and
34:51
had just gotten out of the hospital. And
34:54
her daughter was running around and
34:56
she said, I realized I couldn't say to my daughter,
34:58
you have to stop running. I
35:00
can't make her stop running. And so she said to her little
35:03
girl, great grandma is so
35:05
frail. It would be so terrible if she
35:07
fell or something bad happened to her. She
35:09
needs her protectors. Can you
35:11
be one of her protectors? And
35:13
the little girl said, yes, I
35:16
can be one of her protectors. And then she
35:18
was so gentle with her great grandmother because it
35:20
went to this idea of identity and choice. This
35:22
is who this little girl wanted to be. It's
35:24
what she chose. She was from
35:27
freedom and choice. She was choosing
35:29
to act in a certain way,
35:31
but just ordering them kind
35:34
of ignites the spirit of resistance. And so that
35:36
can be really hard as a parent because we
35:38
spend a lot of times telling our kids what
35:40
to do. Yes. And I don't
35:42
know if one of my kids is full
35:44
rebel, but definitely has that. And to me,
35:47
saying to him, I wonder how we can
35:49
solve this problem. I wonder
35:52
if anyone in this room has an idea.
35:54
It's very different. Exactly is choice. That's exactly
35:56
right. Yeah.
35:58
So with rebels, what helps? is you give them choice
36:01
and freedom. So do you want to do it now
36:03
or later? Do you want this one or that one?
36:05
Part of it is identity. Oh, you're an animal lover.
36:08
You're a musician. You're so creative.
36:10
Like you're an athlete because then
36:13
actions follow identity. You can help them as a
36:16
parent, like lean into an identity. Or you give
36:18
them information consequences choice, which is like, if
36:20
we leave by 8 a.m., you won't get in
36:22
trouble. If we leave after 8 a.m., you will
36:24
get in trouble. It's up to you. Do
36:27
you feel like those kids though? Because I feel like those
36:29
kids, you give them those consequences and they
36:31
kind of like put their finger up at you. They're like,
36:33
I don't care. I remember my youngest
36:35
being like, it was not my proudest moment as parents.
36:38
Definitely not what I stand for. Not because I think
36:40
it doesn't feel good for kids. Because I actually think
36:42
long term it doesn't, it's not effective.
36:44
But I remember saying to him, it was something like,
36:47
I am going to take away all of your stuffed animals
36:49
if you don't, you know. And it's not like they were
36:51
comfort objects, but you freaking loved his stuffed animals. And
36:54
I will never forget Gretchen. I think he
36:56
was four. He walked
36:59
into his room, this child, my third child. He
37:01
opens his closet. I'm witnessing this. He pushes
37:04
a stool, like a little step
37:06
stool there, steps on it, takes
37:08
down a mini suitcase, puts
37:11
all of his stuffed animals in it, zips
37:13
it, and wheels it to me. And
37:15
he goes, here you go. I
37:17
was like, wow, I just got played. Oh my goodness, I
37:19
just got played. He was like, oh, you want to take
37:22
away my stuffed animals? I will just,
37:24
I will make that easier for you
37:26
to show you how much you do
37:28
not exert any power over me
37:30
in that way, right? That
37:33
is such a compelling
37:35
example. Wow. He
37:37
was four? Four. I mean, this child, I can't
37:39
even tell you, is, I mean, is my third.
37:41
So he gets less, he is
37:43
just so competent. Like, he doesn't ask for
37:45
help with anything. He's like, his life story
37:47
is like, I can figure this out by
37:49
myself. And he can in a way that
37:51
he sometimes like prepares breakfast for his 12-year-old
37:53
brother, like literally, but at the same time,
37:55
because that is such a part of his
37:58
identity, his competence. Yes. Where.
38:00
Like, here, to me, even,
38:02
like, I don't like these threats of punishments.
38:04
Like, I just think there's better ways. But
38:07
I have found with him, where my older
38:09
one, my upholder, he's so guilt-prone that the
38:11
threat of, it's not the punishment. He just
38:13
would be so upset that I'd be disappointed
38:16
in him that he'd want to avoid that
38:18
distress, but not good later
38:20
on, people-pleasing stuff. But, right, like, for
38:22
my youngest, a rebel, like, I
38:25
don't even think it would work. I've seen it
38:27
not work. But here's the thing, though, that's the
38:29
difference between punishments and consequences. So, taking away his
38:31
stuffed animals is a punishment. But a consequence is
38:33
like, this is just the natural thing that is
38:35
gonna happen. If you are late, you will be
38:37
in trouble, because your coach says everybody has to
38:39
be there on time. Got it. Not like, I'm
38:41
making you in trouble. Like, if you get late,
38:43
your coach might not start. Like, just that's information
38:45
for you to digest. Right. It's like, if you
38:47
don't hand in your book report, then
38:49
you're gonna get a really bad grade. And if you get
38:52
a really bad grade, then you're not gonna be able to,
38:54
like, go on the class trip. It's like, and then you
38:56
can't rescue. You know what I mean? I
38:58
mean, it's something where, like, a lot of times, we want to swoop in
39:00
at the last time. Like, okay, honey, you can stay up until 10.30, finishing
39:03
it, because I know it's really important. And it's like, no,
39:06
because you had a week to do it, and
39:08
part of the assignment was to, like, partner, you
39:10
know, to do it along the way. Whatever. So,
39:13
we can't rescue. That's what
39:15
adult rebels will say. Do not
39:17
rescue a rebel child. They
39:19
learn consequences as they
39:22
happen. And if you protect them
39:24
from consequences, well, then that works for them
39:26
great. And
39:28
I think that is so right, and this is helping me
39:30
put so much more context to things that I have figured
39:32
out with my youngest, like, are really helpful. And
39:35
what's interesting, though, Gretchen, is I really do
39:37
see this softening of that tendency. So, that's
39:39
why, like, you and I could have many
39:41
more discussions out there. I really do feel
39:43
like what happened at four, like, even that
39:45
hardening, it's really not there in
39:48
the same way. He's still him, and I'm
39:50
obsessed with him, because he's gonna be a
39:52
leader one day, right? But one of the
39:54
lines, especially when he was younger, that always
39:56
helped. He'd be like, let's say, you
39:58
know, I don't know.
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