The Juggling Act

Matty J and Laura Byrne met on The Bachelor in 2017, and have since gone on to get engaged and have two little girls – Marli-Mae who is 2 next month, and little Lola who was born in Feb. The loved-up couple join us to laugh about the shock of going from one kid to two, how they've become the most relatable parents on Instagram (cute holiday bath shot anyone?) and they reveal details of their upcom...

Masterchef Australia is back with 24 contestants vying it out in the kitchen for the title. Landscape Architect and mum to three-year-old twin boys, Jess Hodge, is hoping her supportive family and tiny cheer squad will help her take out the top spot and change their lives. She joins us to chat about the hardest thing about the show and how her boys react to seeing her on TV. See omnystudio.com/lis...

Fleur Marks has now battled two chronic illnesses, one non-curable, and with that has had to learn that your role as a mum changes significantly when you get sick. Many people, including Fleur, have struggled with this, to the point where she feels unworthy of celebrating Mother’s Day because she wasn’t being the mother she wanted to be once her health deteriorated. Fleur is now a known wellbeing...

A mum recently revealed to us that she's heard her husband telling their child that he loves him more than she does because they get along better.  How would you react? Sarah and Mel share their thoughts and open up about their own experiences around parents picking a favourite child. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Sarah and Mel chat about the random accidents our kids have and the things that happened to us growing up. Speaking of accidents, 'Accidental Weatherman' from Sunrise Sam Mac reveals he can’t wait to be a dad! Finance expert Renae Vercoe shares tips to juggling the complicated world of health insurance and getting the most out of it for your family. Melissa Doyle is in the studio and ad...

We’re almost midway through the year, can you believe it? And we are in need of some downtime. Anyone else? You’re in luck because today’s guest is a world-renowned mindfulness expert, transformative educator and director of The Mindfulness Clinic. Charlotte Thaarup is here to help us all ditch the anxiety, relax and enjoy family life more. And she says we can do it in just ten minutes a day. See...

Nothing highlights the passing of time more than children who constantly ask how old you are and how old they’re going to be. That combined with pressure from society around aging can be tough! Today’s guest, journalist and TV / radio host Melissa Doyle, knows that feeling all too well. She turned 50 the year that she left TV and realised that she felt freer. So together with her bestie Naima (who...

You don’t have to get health insurance in Australia, but it can have implications come tax time. So how do you know if you’ve got the right coverage for your family and make sure you’re getting the most of it? Renae Vercoe – Founder of Money Mode - joins us with some brilliant advice to navigating this complex world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Around 7 years ago now, Mel worked on a TV show for Channel TEN called Wake Up. The roving reporter was a young guy who showed a bit of promise. His name? Sam Mac. Sam went onto score one of the most coveted roles in TV, the weather guy on Sunrise. He’s now somehow found time to write a book called 'Accidental Weatherman', about the impact changing weather patterns have on the number of accidents...

How many times have you been to the ER with your kids? It's a shame we don't get membership points for frequent visits. They just seem to do the most random things! Sarah and Mel open up about the strange incidents that have happened to their children and to them growing up! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we catch up with the delightful Jimmy Rees about how COVID has completely changed his career. Tanya Hennessy joins us to chat about how she’s inspiring our tween girls. The founder of The Babes Project opens up about the personal reason she’s making sure vulnerable new mums have more support. We chat with a childcare educator about the crucial role early learning plays in a child's life...

Juggling work, pick up and drop-offs, lunchboxes, extra-curricula activities, dinner, bath and bedtime when your child starts school, is a lot! Then throw homework in the mix and it feels like there's just not enough minutes in the day. By the time you get home, cook dinner, eat, and get ready for bed, where is the time to fit it in? Sarah and Mel talk about whether or not homework is even needed...

Sending your child to childcare can come with mixed emotions - often with a sprinkling of guilt. But once they start you can quickly see the incredible role that the educators and centres play in their development. We're joined by Helen Bailey from Goodstart Early Learning to tell us about the crucial role early learning plays in a child's life and how parents can best work with educators. See omn...

It can be so overwhelming when you first fall pregnant. The exhaustion, the strange changes to your body, the worry of whether you're going to be a good mum. Imagine juggling all that and the stress of whether you're going to have enough money to care for them or whether your partner would hurt you - or the baby. During COVID there's been an increase in peri-natal depression and domestic violence,...

Our tweens are growing up in such a different world to us, and it can be hard to know how to help them thrive. During comedian Tanya Hennessy’s career, she found herself unexpectedly becoming an inspiration to young girls. So she wanted to try and find a way to help them, show them how to be more confident, tenacious and resilient. She’s written a kids' book called ‘Drum Roll Please … It's Stevie...

We know him as Jimmy Giggle after hours spent watching Giggle and Hoot on the ABC (sometimes after the kids have left the room). But after finishing up with the ABC before the pandemic, Jimmy has been working hard to establish himself as an entertainer outside of his famous role. During COVID, he started creating hilarious videos taking the piss out of each Australian state and their reaction, as...

This week, Sarah and Mel open up about how you feel about your body after having a baby… Singer Kevin Mitchell (aka Bob Evans) reveals how losing his dad as a teen has changed the way he parents. We chat with a former childcare worker about the things she would like parents to know! We’re joined by an expert who claims feelings of hatred for your children can actually enrich the maternal love you...

If you could tell your mum anything at all, what would it be? It’s a massive question and one that's hard to answer off the top of your head. Actor and author Samuel Johnson – who first burst onto our screens in The Secret Life of Us, before winning the hearts of Australia with his charity work with his sister Connie, Love Your Sister – has asked some of the biggest names in the country that very...

Have you ever had one of those days where you're just not loving this whole motherhood thing? It’s not that we’re ungrateful, or that we hate our child, but sometimes you hate being a parent. Today’s guest knows this feeling all too well. Dr Margo Lowy is a psychotherapist with a special interest in maternal ambivalence – an often taboo topic. Margo has a book out which explores this idea. It's ca...

When Mel sent her first child to daycare and made it into work, she sat in the toilet and cried. It felt so unnatural leaving a child with total strangers surrounded by other strange children. Would she eat? Would she sleep? Would they cuddle her if she cried? Was I the worst mother in the world?! To reassure you if you’re feeling any of the same things, we’ve found a former childcare worker who h...

Everyone is loving Pink’s new song Cover Me In Sunshine right now, it’s just the sunny joy that we all need right now. And that’s something Aussie singer Bob Evans aka Jebediah frontman Kevin Mitchell wanted to tap into with his new song Concrete Heart. Bob is also a dad of two and joins us to chat about how his work has been impacted by COVID and how losing his dad when he was a teenager has chan...

When you're pregnant your body goes through incredible and often bizarre changes (pigmentation anyone?). You are growing a human after all. From stretch marks to saggy boobs, after you've had the baby, things are often not the way they once were! Mel and Sarah discuss the changes they experienced and how they feel about their bodies after having a baby. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info...

This week, former Detective Gary Jubelin – who worked on the William Tyrell case – opens up about the huge toll catching killers has taken on his family life. Dr Sarah Woodhouse joins us to talk about trauma and says we could be passing our own experiences onto our children. You’ll need a cup of tea to process this one. Jules Sebastian is with us and opens up about why she's talking about the bigg...

Do you remember running away as a child? Feels like a right of passage. But it doesn't seem as sweet when your own child does it. Mel opens up about how her daughter has run away a couple of times and how stressful it is, while asking how it should be handled and what the consequences should be. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sonia Bestulic has just a few balls in the air. She’s a speech pathologist and the founder of a clinic called Talking Heads. She’s also an award-nominated children’s author and host of the Chatabout Children podcast. And somehow, she manages to juggle all that plus three children just 2.5 years apart! Sonia joins us to reveal just how she does it and the powerful lesson she's learnt about self-car...