Parenting and Personalities

Have you ever forgotten something so obvious that all you could do was laugh and wondered whether your greatest frustrations might actually be the flip side of your greatest strengths?  Kate Mason flies solo and bravely opens the door to life inside her spontaneous, flexible, perceiving brain.  After 30 years of teaching personality, Kate shares her most memorable mistakes: leading the wrong child...

You don’t need to be opposites to attract. Sometimes two very like-minded people with like-personalities people find mutual attraction. But it does seem odd that it’s often two people are not the same in many, many ways who find attraction. For example, why does the introvert find attraction in the extravert? Do they help them learn to speak up more and join the party? And why does the extravert f...

What if the exhaustion and lost sense of self in early motherhood aren't signs you're failing but signs you're being remade?  Kate Mason welcomes Benita Bensch, author, certified Motherhood Studies Practitioner, clarity coach, farmer, and mum of four boys, for a warm, honest conversation about matrescence, the profound identity shift of becoming a mother.  Benita shares her own jour...

This is an episode originally published in August 2024. It is one of my most popular. Have you ever wondered what builds resilience in us and our children? In this episode, Kate chats with Tania Johnson, co-founder of the Institute of Child Psychology. Tania shares her journey, from fostering four First Nations children to her academic accomplishments and her profound insights into attachment theo...

Have you ever walked away from a disagreement with your partner absolutely certain of what was said…only to have them remember it completely differently? What if that isn't manipulation at all, but simply the way human memory actually works? Kate Mason welcomes back Associate Professor Celine Vangolde from the University of Sydney, whose research explores memory, trauma, child testimony, and...

What if the secret to raising happier children wasn't about perfect parenting techniques…but about the quality of the relationship between you and your parenting partner?  Kate Mason is joined by author, family therapist, and family systems expert Dr. Jenny Brown for a return visit that builds beautifully on their first conversation.  Jenny brings decades of clinical experience alongside her...

Modern life is fraying us. But we can learn how to come back to ourselves.   In this thoughtful and deeply relatable episode Kate welcomes back educator, social worker, author, and speaker Stephanie Malia Krauss to explore why so many parents, teachers, carers, and children feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and disconnected.  Drawing from her book How We Thrive: Caring for Kids and Ourselves in a Chang...

Your memory might feel certain, but it is not a recording.  In this fascinating episode of Parenting and Personalities , Kate speaks with Associate Professor Celine Vangolde from the University of Sydney about how memory really works, especially in children.  Celine explains why two people can live through the same moment and remember it differently, why memories are reconstructed rather than repl...

This is an episode originally published in November 2024. It is one of my most popular.  Are you raising resilient children? In this episode, Kate Mason and Tania Johnson dive into the importance of building resilience and emotional strength in both parents and children. From the benefits of play to the power of independent problem-solving, they explore how cultural differences impact our approach...

What if the reason you and your partner drive each other absolutely crazy over the washing, the cushions, or even the toilet paper roll has nothing to do with bad habits and everything to do with personality? Kate Mason takes a warm, witty, and surprisingly eye-opening dive into the everyday irritations that quietly shape our closest relationships.  Drawing on the melancholic and phlegmatic temper...

What if the real challenge in parenting is not about doing more, but about understanding how we show up?  In this conversation, Kate Mason speaks with family therapist Dr Jenny Brown about the quiet pressure many parents carry to get everything right and the self-doubt that often follows.  With decades of experience and a foundation in Bowen family systems theory, Jenny explores how a parent’s emo...

What if the "right" path to parenthood looked nothing like the one you imagined and turned out to be exactly the one you were meant to take?  Kate Mason sits down with Lorena Otes, author of Solo Mum By Choice, dance teacher, and mother who made one of the most courageous choices a woman can make: to become a parent entirely on her own terms.  Lorena opens up about navigating 12 rounds o...

What if the hard weeks…the ones where nothing is catastrophically wrong, but everything still feels completely overwhelming…are actually telling you something important about yourself?  Kate Mason invites you into one of those weeks.  A solo episode unlike any other, Kate shares the real, raw, and sometimes messy experience of a family illness unfolding over Easter. Sick grandchildren, worried par...

What if the overwhelm you feel as a parent isn't a personal failing but a signal that something deeply human is missing from your family's life?  Kate Mason sits down with Stephanie Malia Krauss, an educator, social worker, author, and mother of teenage boys, to explore the revolutionary idea of "re-humaning": reclaiming the connections, love, and belonging that modern life has...

What if the moment your child stops believing isn't an ending… but the beginning of something even more meaningful?  Kate Mason takes a warmlook at one of family life's most tender rituals: Easter traditions.  From the egg hunts of her own Adelaide childhood to the night her son Jack and daughter Cassie discovered the truth behind the Easter Bunnyand the beautiful reframe that followed,K...

What if the biggest barriers to your autistic child's progress aren't the ones anyone told you about… and the solutions are already backed by science?  Kate Mason welcomes back Theresa Lyons, PhD, scientist, autism researcher, and founder of navigating AWEtism, for a conversation that goes beyond the diagnosis and into the biology.  Theresa unpacks three powerful areas that functional me...

What if the most powerful personality lesson of your life came not from a book or a podcast…but from a train in Tokyo?  Kate Mason shares warm, witty, and surprisingly profound reflections from her holiday in Japan.  Travelling with her family, Kate finds herself using the four temperaments:  sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic, to make sense of everything from Tokyo's train etiqu...

What if the words you use every day…without even realising it…are quietly shaping who your children believe they can become?  Kate Mason sits down with communications expert, author, and mother of two boys, Kate Mason, to explore the hidden power of gendered language in parenting.  From "be careful" on the playground to "give grandma a kiss," the two Kates unpack the subtle, ev...

Parenting isn’t a performance, it’s a relationship, and the messiest moments might be your best clues.  Kate talks with family therapist and educator Lisa Taylor about her new book The Perfect Parent Trap and why “losing it” doesn’t mean you’re failing. It may mean an old, tender part of you is getting “ignited.”  They explore Lisa’s “heartprint” framework (the deep beliefs we carry, like “I’m not...

What if the anger you feel as a mother isn't a character flaw…but a signal worth listening to?  Kate Mason sits down with Lauren Novak, award-winning journalist, mother of two, and author of the groundbreaking new book Meltdown: Why Motherhood Makes Us Angry and What to Do About It.  Lauren brings her two decades of investigative journalism to bear on one of motherhood's most taboo subje...

What if the mood swings, the sleepless nights, the sudden irritation, and the loss of joy aren't signs that something is wrong with you… but signals that your biology is quietly staging a dramatic takeover?  Kate Mason sits down with Dr. Joanna Bruce, GP of over 25 years, clinical director of Myma Health, and passionate advocate for women's hormonal wellbeing, to talk openly about perime...

What if an autism diagnosis could actually open doors instead of closing them?  Kate Mason speaks with Dr. Theresa Lyons—a Yale-trained chemist and autism expert—about how her daughter’s diagnosis completely transformed her personal and professional life.  Drawing on her background in pharmaceutical research and medical strategy, Theresa refused to accept outdated assumptions and instead turned to...

What if the key to being heard isn’t changing who you are but learning how to be powerfully likeable without apology? Kate Mason sits down with another Kate Mason—executive communications coach, world champion debater, and author of Powerfully Likeable, to unpack the invisible dynamics of communication, particularly for women navigating work, parenting, and presence.  Together, they explore why wo...

What happens when a baby changes everything... except one partner's life? Kate Mason welcomes Amy Taylor-Kabbaz, author of Mama Rising, for a raw, insightful dive into the invisible shifts parenthood brings to relationships.  Amy unpacks the silent resentment many new mothers feel when their worlds are upended while their partners’ routines stay largely intact. Together, they explore the ment...

Burnout does not arrive with a bang. It whispers until your body screams.  Kate sits down with Sinja Hallam to explore what it really means to move from surviving to thriving.  Sinja shares her remarkable journey from Germany to South Africa to Australia, her rise through high pressure global leadership roles, and the moment her body forced her to stop.  Through stories of career success, motherho...