May 5, 2025
Cool Parents or Cringe Parents? | We Are the Hansons
In this hilarious and heartwarming episode of We Are the Hansons, we dive into the age-old debate: are we totally rad parents or just a walking cringe compilation? From dad jokes to mom’s TikTok attempts, we explore the fine line between bonding and embarrassing, with real stories, family confessions, and laugh-out-loud moments. Tune in for relatable parenting chaos, teen eye-rolls, and the beauty of not taking yourself too seriously.
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Hi, friends, and welcome back to We Are the Hansens.
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I'm your host, Maya Hansen, mam of thirteen, white and
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passionate believer that parenting should be equal parts meaningful and hilarious.
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Today's episode is all about a question that creeps up
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when you're jamming to your old school playlist in the car,
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or when you try to relate to your teen and
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get that look. Are we cool parents or are we
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just totally cringe. We're unpacking what it means to be
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a cool parent in twenty twenty five, how we measure
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or that, and most importantly, why cringe might actually be
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the goal. Let's jump in. Let's start with a dose
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of reality. The other day, one of my teens caught
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me trying to use the phrase that slaps to describe
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a dinner I made, and you would have thought I
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committed a felony eye roll, headshake, walk away. I thought
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I was being fun, relatable. Nope, cringe. And then there
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was that moment when I attempted to show off a
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TikTok dance. I saw my youngest literally screamed, mom stop,
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and that's when it hit me. I've officially crossed into
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cringe territory. But here's the thing I was trying. I
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was trying to connect, to be present. That has to
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count for something. Right after I recovered from the dance incident,
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I asked a few of our kids what actually makes
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a parent cool. Their answers were not what I expected.
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It wasn't about being trendy, it was about being available.
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They said things like, you let us be weird without
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freaking out. You actually care about what I like. You
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don't judge me for having one hundred tabs open in
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my brain. Apparently I'm cool because I watched scary movies
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with them, because I try their music, even if I
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don't always get it. Being cool, it turns out, is
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about showing up and staying interested even when we don't
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understand every trend. So let's talk about embracing the cringe.
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Every generation has their awkward face, and every set of
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parents ends up doing something their kids find mortifying. I
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remember my parents dancing to disco music or using outdated
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slang like groovy. I cringed. Then I get it now.
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The truth is your kids are teasing you for your
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quarks and your goofy moments. That's a good sign. It
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means they feel safe enough to joke. It means they
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know you're not perfect and they love you anyway. Cringe
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is a side effect of connection. If you're never a
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little awkward with your kids, are you even really engaging?
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So yes, I will keep singing too loud on road trips.
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I'll keep wearing sneakers they hate because that's who I
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am and I want them to feel free to be
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exactly who they are too. Now let's flip the mirror around.
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Where do you land on the cool verse cringe scale?
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Here are some questions to think about. Do you let
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your kids lead conversations sometimes? Do you listen without always correcting?
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Do you laugh at your own parenting fails? If you said, yes, congratulations,
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you're cool in the ways that matter. Because cool isn't style,
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it's a relationship. Cringe is just proof that we're trying.
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And I'd rather be cringey and connected than cool and distant.
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Letting the kids decide anonymous, vote cool or cringe. Our
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dance moves at home or in public, be honest slang
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we've tried to use and failed. Do our kids actually
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like our music playlist? Well? Guess what I know? My
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kids love my music playlist because I listen to everything.
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I can listen to heavy metal, rock, rap, Christian music
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that is my favorite, country, R and B, you know,
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hip hop. I can go through and listen to any
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of them. So my kids love the music I listened to,
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so that, I guess makes me cool. When we try
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to relate by mentioning TikTok trends, sometimes it's too late
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because our kids have already mastered those fashion moments. Our
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mom jeans and dad socks in or out. I think
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I wear my clothes the same as my children. I
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think my husband does. Sometimes he gets a little goofy
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with his clothes and his style, but that's besides the point.
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And no, my kids don't always like my style. That's
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why they choose their own clothes. I make sure it's
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not too discreet. They need to have proper clothing, no
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belly shirts, stuff like that, no really short shorts. But
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other than that, they do pretty good about picking out
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their clothes. I would have to say that my husband, Jeremy,
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is the one who am embarrasses the kids more and
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how most of the time it is in front of
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either their boyfriends or in public. And for the older kids,
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if it's a boyfriend or girlfriend, he will tell embarrassing
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stories about when they were little, or this or that.
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If we're in a store, he will pass gas and
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take off and leave them standing there, or he'll just
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act goofy and the kids usually just walk away. Are
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parenting rules wise or way outdated? I think that we
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have a mixture of both. Why I say that is
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because we learned from our parents. Jeremy's parents have taught
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him and my parents have taught me. And I use
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some of my parent parenting rules from when I was little,
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and Jeremy uses some of his from when he was little.
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So yeah, our kids may say they're outdated, we still
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go off of those. One time we actually impressed our
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kids and just by different things, and they're like, wow,
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mom and dad, that's impressive. Sometimes we do try too
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hard and we're just being ourselves. I always have told
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my kids, you know, sing like nobody's listening, and dance
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like nobody's watching, because you know what, in the end,
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who cares what people think? So I guess my kids
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have really learned from that, and I'm glad because I
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want them to be themselves. I myself, and yeah, I
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might be cool, or they may say I'm cringe, but
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I am who I am. I've noticed that most of
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my kids have followed that footstep because we don't care
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what people think. We don't care if they think we're cool.
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We don't care if they think we're crazy. We don't care.
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So I guess that, you know, is a good thing.
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My kids think I'm cringe because we always clean before
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we have company. You know, I don't want my company
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coming here and seeing a messy house. They should be
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able to come to my house and see it nice
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and clean. I'm going to talk about the time that
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I tried to dress like a younger version because my
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kids wanted me to and totally miss the mark. My
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kids looked at me and they're like, Mom, you need
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to go change. You are not being seen in public
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with us like that. And I'm like, why because that
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shirt is out of style. Frankly, I liked it. Now.
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They do say that to their dad as well, because
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sometimes he tends to wear clothes that make him look
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way older than what he is. My kids always tease
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us also about how we react to celebrity gossip. It
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may be relatable or totally out of touch. You know,
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we don't sit there and dig in, which my kids do,
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because they have to be up on everything, especially if
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it's a celebrity that they follow. Sometimes we call their
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friends by the wrong name again, not meaning to it,
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and they'll be like, would you stop calling them that?
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That is not their name. You are calling them somebody
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else that ain't who that is. It happens. They have
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a lot of friends. We get them mixed up. It's
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fine when we volunteer at school, proud moment or please
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stay in the car. My kids always want me to
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be the one to volunteer because Dad says stuff when
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they're at school, and I guess it embarrasses them, especially
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the younger ones like Maddie Torn and Anna, and they
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always want mom to go. Also, we have let the
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kids give us makeovers. Do we dare? Yeah, if we do.
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I've let Maddie, Torn, Anna and Morgan all give me
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a makeover. I am not a big fan of a
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lot of makeup. Sometimes I'll wear just eyeliner. Most of
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the time I wear just eyeliner, blush and cover up.
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That's it. That's my thing. The kids always want to
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have me wear you know, mass SCAA and all this
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different fancy stuff, and I can even tell you I
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don't even own half the stuff that they want me
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to wear, so they think I'm not cool because of that,
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and that's okay. So where do I land? A little
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bit cool, a lot of bit cringe, and I'm fully
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okay with that. Parenting is messy and weird and filled
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with moments that make you want to face ponem. But
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it's also full of laughter, learning and love. Thanks for
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hanging out with me today. We are the Hansens. If
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this made you smile or think, share it with another parent.
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You can go over and subscribe to our We are
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the Hanson's YouTube channel. You can message me on our
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We are the Hanson's Facebook page or send me a
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email on our We are thee. Hansen's Show at gmail
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dot com. What's the cringiest thing you've done lately? Until
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next time, keep showing up, keep laughing, and remember being
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real is the coolest thing you can be. Def
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00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:30.360
121
00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:37.080
122
00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:41.840
123
00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:47.399
124
00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:51.639
125
00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:59.559
126
00:10:59.559 --> 00:11:04.679
127
00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:07.320
128
00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:11.519
129
00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:16.600
130
00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:19.360
131
00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:26.519
132
00:11:27.159 --> 00:11:30.360
133
00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:35.480
134
00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:40.080
135
00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:44.799
136
00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:50.720
137
00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:54.840
138
00:11:55.559 --> 00:12:00.480
139
00:12:00.519 --> 00:12:07.000
140
00:12:07.039 --> 00:12:15.080
141
00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:20.720
142
00:12:21.320 --> 00:12:24.720
143
00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:30.960
144
00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:34.840
145
00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:37.639
146
00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:41.879
147
00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:47.200
148
00:12:47.240 --> 00:12:52.960
149
00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:57.159
150
00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:02.759
151
00:13:03.559 --> 00:13:08.559
152
00:13:08.600 --> 00:13:12.480
153
00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:18.240
154
00:13:19.799 --> 00:13:23.399
155
00:13:23.399 --> 00:13:26.639
156
00:13:26.679 --> 00:13:30.519
157
00:13:31.240 --> 00:13:35.039
158
00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:42.200
159
00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:46.879
160
00:13:47.000 --> 00:14:13.559
