The Juggling Act

We’re spicing things up on the pod today, meeting a mum who started an erotic fiction website while breastfeeding her second child. Siobhan Fitzgerald started The Good Bits with her friend Carol who she met through her son’s daycare. She joins us to talk about how she got in the mood to start a new business and shares her tips for reigniting the fire (when you're covered in other people's bodily f...

Today's guest is one of the country’s most loved children’s authors. Andy Griffiths Is the writer of the bestselling Treehouse series which is now in its 10th year! The next book in the series, The 130-Storey Treehouse, has just come out and Andy joins us to talk about his love of all things silly and why kids can't get enough of his books. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Burnout for a working mum, is so common. Especially with the year that we’ve had. And it can be hard to transition from work stress into mum mode, without taking it out on your kids. Don't worry, we've got some help! Psychologist Belinda Williams from The Bumpy Road joins us with some practical tips to shaking off a bad day.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, and one mum who knows that heartbreak all too well is Australian actress and filmmaker Tahyna MacManus (nee Tozzi).  She’s attempting to open up a conversation that normalises pregnancy loss with her new documentary 'Misunderstandings of Miscarriage', which follows her on her four-year experience of pregnancy and miscarriage with her husband, S...

This week, Sarah asks whether it’s okay to cut your kid’s hair at home… I have strong feelings about this one! In a rare interview about his daughter Ruby, Rove McManus opens up about how she's changed his view of the world and his favourite book character voice (it's not what you'd expect!) The Project host Gorgi Coglan talks about why women can totally juggle family and be driven in their career...

Today's guest is the internationally bestselling author of 12 books which have sold over 750,000 copies globally.  On top of that, Joanne Fedler’s book Things Without A Name has been optioned for the big screen! Super impressive. She has a new book out called Unbecoming - a hilarious but heartbreaking look at what happens to women when their identities have been defined by motherhood and marriage....

Today's guest had an impressive AFL career with Collingwood and Carlton, before retiring at the end of last year, and now he's taken on a project his school teachers would be shocked by! Solo dad Dale ‘Daisy’ Thomas can now be found enthusiastically singing along to Frozen with his daughter, Tilly and writing children’s stories about toilet training. He saved all his best dad / toilet jokes for us...

Today's guest is a country girl at heart… she lives with her husband and nine-year-old daughter Molly-Rose on a hobby farm in Ballarat - when she’s not hosting The Project or blowing people away with her incredible voice on The Masked Singer. Gorgi Coghlan has now signed on for a national challenge called ‘Water Night’ on October 22. She opens up about the judgement around only having one child, t...

I was a total bookworm growing up – my mum would find me curled up in some hidden spot in the sun reading for hours and hours – and I want to instil that love of books in my kids. Today's guest is also passionate about books, having written a few himself! Rove McManus is dad to daughter Ruby with his wife Tasma Walton, and while he made his name on the small screen and the comedy circuit, its draw...

Ah Covid, it's had us doing some unusual things (homeschooling, we're looking at you). One of the things Sarah has turned to is cutting her kid's hair at home. It's kinda cute right? Even if you butcher it? $30 can be a lot to fork out for something that takes 2 minutes and you have to do again in 6 weeks time. Or, is it cruel to have your kids getting around looking like they've been attacked by...

This week, Sarah and Mel discuss what age you should leave a child for a playdate with a family you don't know. It’s a complicated one… We meet the woman who is saving the mental health of Melburnians, while nutritionist Shelley Judge joins us to chat about dealing with school lunchbox envy and why kids need to constantly snack… (never ends!). Author Naomi Lambert has written a book on how to teac...

Ah little girls, they keep us on our toes! My 8 year-old is now becoming much more aware of her appearance and those around her - ie. me. She makes comments about my body that can be unintentionally hurtful, and while I don't react because I want her to know that every body is different and amazing, it does sometimes get to me! So how do we create a positive body image for our children and how sho...

Teaching kids to be kind can sometimes feel like pushing water up a hill - like you’re never getting anywhere. By design, they’re narcissistic little things and sometimes our messaging must be pretty confusing – so that kid took a toy offyou,well you need to share! If someone snatched my wine off me as an adult – LOOK OUT. Well, author Naomi Lambert is trying to make it a little bit easier for par...

We are into the FINAL term of school – whoop! And that means only a few more weeks left of trying to get creative with school lunchboxes. Most parents have shortcuts, I make two days worth of sandwiches each day and freeze the other one, it’s just a little thing but it does help that second morning. It can be hard to stay motivated with lunches AND find something that they eat, especially when you...

Mental health has been a big topic since Covid hit, especially in Melbourne who have endured two long periods of lockdown. Erika Cramer, is an international confidence coach known as The Queen of Confidence. She’s based in Melbourne with her husband and two sons, and has been changing the lives of women who have turned to her for help. She shares some of the incredible stories of survival with us....

It can be exciting when your child gets invited to their first playdate, but things get more complicated if you don't know the family very well. So how do you navigate it and how do you have those conversations? Mel and Sarah share their experiences and find out how to make playdates fun for everyone involved!   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Sarah and I talked about birthday party etiquette and how to navigate it – can’t we just go back to the days of a bowl of cheezles, an ice cream cake and a trampoline?! ‘Friends’ star Jane Sibbett reveals she started work on the hit TV show just TWO days after giving birth… (I couldn’t even walk out of the hospital five days later). Lisa Hollinshead opens up about being stranded in Spai...

I didn’t love maths and science when I was at school (words not numbers), but if I’d had a teacher like today's guest - I think that would have been a different story.  Science expert, engineer, space guru and mum-of-one Emily Calandrelli pitched science shows to TV networks for years and was constantly knocked back, told that male audiences won’t relate to a female host. Yup, apparently that’s wh...

Before I had kids, I could never understand why kids were always dirty. Like, is it really that hard to wash their clothes and keep them clean, naive me would think (to myself, luckily). Well pre-kids me, the answer is yes. Yes, it is that hard to wash clothes and keep them clean. I try to let them wear things for a couple of days in a row – unless they’re really filthy – because I don’t like wash...

In March this year, Lisa Hollinshead and her son landed in Spain to spend time with her mum and granny. Only two days after arriving, the European lockdown hit Spain and they were housebound with flights home to Australia cancelled. After the initial panic and fear, she realised how lucky they were to be safe in her mother’s home, but how difficult this whole experience was proving to be for so ma...

I struggled to walk out of the hospital five days after giving birth, let alone heading back to work. But that’s what actress Jane Sibbett did when she got the call to star in 'Friends' – one of the most popular TV comedies of all time (now streaming on Binge). Jane had just given birth to her second son, Kai, after a 24-hour labour, when producers called and asked her to take on the role of Ross’...

Ah children's birthday parties, so much fun for the kids, so much stress for parents! There's pressure around who to invite, where to have it, food intolerances, THE CAKE! Pass. The. Wine. Sarah and I talk about whether there's a certain etiquette when it comes to kid's parties and reminisce about the days our parents chucked a box of cheezles in a bowl, threw an ice cream cake on the table and BO...

This week, we chatted about how to know if it’s time to walk away from your marriage or find a way to work through it…We’re joined by inspirational mum-of-two Turia Pitt who opens up about her definition of happiness and how to try and savour the moments with your kids, even on the days being a parent totally sucks. The fabulous Maggie Dent joins us with her no-nonsense, compassionate advice on ra...

We all know what a struggle this year has been for our kids… The world has completely changed and they don’t really understand why. Resilience is the number one skill they need at the moment and there’s a lot we can do as parents to help them build on that important life skill. We are joined by Susie Mogg, the Founder and CEO of Resilience in... with her do's and don'ts for helping our children ha...

Our guest today is a nutritionist, Little Étoile Organic Ambassador and mum of two with AFL player Scott Pendlebury. Alex Pendlebury is currently juggling work from the AFL bubble in QLD, an experience which the kids are loving! She opens up about the importance of supporting women when they return to work and her secret to a happy marriage.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.