Dec. 26, 2024

We Are The Hansons Addressing Society's Misconception or judgment

We Are The Hansons Addressing Society's Misconception or judgment

We Are The Hansons is a heartfelt and empowering podcast that challenges society's misconception and judgments about young motherhood, blended families, and adoption. Through honest storytelling, the Hanson's share their journey of resilience, love, and growth-starting with the challenges of being a teen mom. facing societal stigma, and navigating life with a large family of 13 children and how people judged them.

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Welcome to We Are the Hansons, the podcast where we

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embrace the unique dynamic of a large family with pride, love,

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and deep commitment to the values that bind us together.

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In today's world, being part of a big family often

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comes with its fair share of misconception and judgments. As

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the Hansons, we've lived and thrived in the household where

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the number of kids doesn't define us. It's the love,

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the support, and the bond that matter most. We want

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to break down the myths and misconceptions that surround large

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families and share help. Being part of big, diverse family

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creates opportunity for growth, learning, and deeper connections. Thank you

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for joining me today. I'm your host, Maya Hanson, and

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I'm here to tell you that us, as a big family,

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we do get judged a lot for how many children

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we have, and that's okay because we don't care. We

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are a big family of love and we enjoy it.

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I mean, it's something that we love the most. Having

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a big family is best, to be honest. I was

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raised in a family with my mom and dad and

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my five siblings. At that time, we thought we had

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a big family. But now that I have my own

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family and thirteen kids with my husband. It is amazing.

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So I want to go over a few different things.

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We as a big family, we emphasize the power of

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family bonds. I'm going to go over a little bit

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of that with you. Our family is close knit team.

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We support each other in ways that smaller families might

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not have to. The bond we share is very unique

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and something we cherish very deeply. Reject negative stereotypes. We

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reject the negative stereotypes because, like I said, we just

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don't care what people think of how many children we have.

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I mean, sometimes we walked into stores, we see people

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counting with their head how many kids that we have

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with us in the store, and we just smile and

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wave or just you know, we shrug it off. We

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just don't care. My thing is managing a big family size.

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Every family is different, and we have found that our

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family works because we prioritize love, communication, and togetherness. A

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big family can be just as joyful as any other.

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I've seen a ton of families that are smaller than ours.

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They're happy and enjoying life. We can do the same

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thing as a big family. I mean, our kids are

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always happy, never have a dull moment. It's fun. I mean,

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we enjoy it the benefits of diversity. With so many

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different personalities in our home and perspectives, there's always something

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new that we learn about each other. I mean there's

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never that we don't learn something new. Every day we're

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learning something new. We advocate value of personal choice, and

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what I mean by that is our decision to have

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a large family is based on what feels right for us.

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It's a personal choice, just like any family's decision about

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how many children to have. We believe in value of

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family and that's what matters most our kids. We value

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how big our family is. We love it. I cannot

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express how much I enjoy the big family. We can

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go places we don't need to invite a lot of

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people because we have a lot of people in our family,

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and it's still as fun as just inviting a whole

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bunch of friends over and just enjoying life. We respond

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to humor and confidence, and what I mean by that is, yes,

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our family is big, but we're also big on love,

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fun and togetherness. I think of it. You know they

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say it takes a village to raise a family. Let

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me tell you when I think of responding with humor.

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I think it takes a village, and we're proud to

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be that village. We have the village. We don't need

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nobody else. Another one is we model positive role modeling

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for others. What I mean by that is we hope

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that by showing how happy and healthy our family is,

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we can inspire others to embrace their own choices. Whether

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that's small or large family, it doesn't matter. Every family

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is unique. They deserve to be respected for their individual choice.

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I can go to any store or any church no

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matter if they're they have one child, maybe they don't

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have any child. We can still get along and be

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respectful to them, and they respect us just as much.

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So you don't have to have a large family to

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be respected. But that's your personal choice. Nobody else is.

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So if anybody out there has a large family like ours,

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or even a little bit smaller than ours, don't be embarrassed.

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Don't care what anybody else thinks of you or your family.

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I get a lot of like people saying, oh my god,

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how can you have so many kids? That's crazy? No,

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what's crazy is you think it's crazy? Nobody else thinks

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it's crazy. You think it's crazy, and it doesn't matter

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what you think. It doesn't matter what anybody thinks. That's

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our personal choice. And if we choose to live with

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a large family, what if we wanted more children. If

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I wanted more children, I'd go out and have more children.

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I don't care what people think or say about us,

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nor does my husband. And I have gotten my kids

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down to where they do not care what people think

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of them either. Another thing that I wanted to touch on

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is we show case our large famili's responsibility. Each member

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of our family plays an important role, helping with the

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younger siblings, or pitching in with chores, or whatever it

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may be. Everyone contributes in our home. Our kids grow

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up learning responsibility, teamwork, and leadership. And I will continue

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to teach my children that because I'm telling you from

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the thirty year old all the way down to our

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seven year old, they've got teamwork ingrained in them. They've

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got responsibility, they have leadership. Every one of my children

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know that they have responsibilities to take care of. They

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are supposed to participate at home or at work, or

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wherever they are. If somebody needs help, jump in and help.

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It's a team effort. Usually I don't have to tell

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my kids that. Obviously, the younger ones to need reminding,

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but the older ones, Nope, not at all. I look

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at them every day and I see each of them

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doing something to help one another. And I really enjoyed

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the close bond our kids have because, especially on holidays,

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the little ones get toys and they got to be

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put together, and they will go to one of the

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older siblings and say, hey, can you please help me

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put my toy together? And not one of them will

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tell them no. They always jump in to help. Like

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I said, stereotypes people do stereotype families with large mounta kids.

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I feel like our family gets hit almost on a

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daily when we go out in public with all of

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our children. Like I said, there are people like, wow,

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are these all your kids? Yep, they are. Wow. Sometimes

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we get the people that will say that's awesome. I

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can't believe it. But a lot of times people judge

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us and they're like, how do you afford to raise

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that many kids? Well, we do it. It might be

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tight sometimes, but we always enjoy. You know, we don't

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go out to the movies a lot or stuff like that,

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but we always do something else that may not cost

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a lot of money. We go fishing a lot, We

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go to the beach a lot, we go to the

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creek a lot. We go places that we don't have

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to spend a fortune to go, and guess what, my

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kids still enjoy doing that kind of stuff. My kids

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are not, Oh, well, that's a bummer. We got to

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go here because we don't have the money here. No,

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my kids never complain as long as they're able to

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spend time with their family and we're doing something. Every

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now and then, the little ones will say, oh, if

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we want to do this or we want to do that,

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and it's just not in the cards to do, so

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we find something else to make up that, and my

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kids are okay with it. All the older ones they understand.

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It's the littler ones that sometimes will say that, and

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then once we explain it to them, they're okay with it.

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The other thing is we go to a restaurant or

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something and we have a big table and the waitresses

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will come up and be like, wow, are these all

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your kids? Yep, And they're usually like, wow, that's so awesome.

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You know, I wish I had a big family. Those

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are the times or they ask us questions, and we're

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okay to answer those. You always have that one person

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that will sit there and judge you in public. We

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smile and show them that our family doesn't care what

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they think. We are going to be who we are.

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That's just us. I've tried to tell every one of

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our kids it doesn't matter what others think of you.

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As long as you're doing the best you can. You

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are working hard, and you are doing the right thing.

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You don't need to care what they think. It is

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your choice, your decisions. You live your life how you

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want to live your life. And I pray to God

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that all my children grow up teaching their children the

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same stuff. I even tell my granddaughter she's little, I

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always say, who cares what people thinks? GiMA says, who cares?

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You don't have to care, you know, because people are like, oh,

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she's a chunky baby, Well so what, she's a baby?

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She will run that off. We don't care what you say.

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It's always somebody's negativity that they try and tear you down,

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and you cannot let them tear you down. You just

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keep living life like you want to live life. I

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just wanted to get on here and discuss that because

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I've had a lot of people say something about just

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us having a big family. It was really weighing on

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me to get on here and tell people, regardless of

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how many kids you have or how many kids you

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don't have, don't worry about what others think or say.

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Just keep living life and be happy, love your family,

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and enjoy that. I can't stress that enough. I hope

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that when you guys listen to this podcast and you're

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sitting there, you might not always see the judgment right away,

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but you start to notice after a while. I was

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not even thinking. One day, we were walking through a

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store and my daughter had said to me, Mom, did

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you see them people staring at us? I guess I

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maybe blocked that out. I don't know. After she said that,

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I was like, you know what, I think I did

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see them like nodding their head, counting how many kids

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we had. And I looked at her and I said,

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it doesn't matter what people think. If they want to

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stare and they want to judge, that's on them, because

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in the end of the day, they don't have to

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live my life or our life. They have to live

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in their own world. If they're going to sit here

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and judge somebody else. They better look in the mirror

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and start looking at maybe what other people think of

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their family or their life, because we just don't care.

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So that's all I wanted to talk about today. If

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you guys have any questions or any concerns, or you

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want to hear anything about our family, you can reach

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out to us on we are the Hansen's Facebook page

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send us a message, or you can also reach out

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to we Are the Hansen's Show at gmail dot com

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and I will try and address any questions you have,

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or maybe do a podcast you want us to do

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or something. If you have anything, you can send us

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an email or send us a message on Facebook. I

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appreciate you all being here with me today, and just

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remember who cares what people say or think about you

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and your family. Keep living life and enjoying yourselves. Thank you,