Ready or Not

DEAR READY OR NOT: Welcome back to Dear Ready or Not , our weekly Q&A where you send us your questions on work, motherhood and everything in between, and we answer them honestly. This week you’re asking us:  Help! I need some advice for looking for a job on maternity leave.  How to cope when you’re let down by the support in your family (in this case my mum) gives us.  How do I posi...

Welcome back to Ready or Not, the show where Loz and Lu try to figure out how to make work, work alongside motherhood.  Today on the show: Is AI quietly becoming the new parenting village? And, are you grieving a stage of motherhood that hasn’t even ended yet? Us too. Let’s talk about it.  ( Read Jodi Wilson's piece here ) — Thanks for listening! If you liked the show, please tell your f...

Welcome back to Dear Ready or Not , our weekly Q&A where you send us your questions on work, motherhood and everything in between, and we answer them honestly. This week you’re asking us:  What’s one motherhood and one work/career hack that you swear by at the moment? How have mums felt about their career after having a child? I don't want to be a stay at home mum but I also don't feel 100% d...

Today we’re bringing you a bonus episode, all about childcare. In this chat, we've teamed up with Care for Kids to cover: What the three-day guarantee actually means and who it impacts. Why waitlists are more competitive than you think, especially for under twos. The truth about daily fees and what you’ll pay out of pocket. How the childcare subsidy works for second children and school-aged kids....

Welcome back to Ready or Not, the show where Loz and Lu try to figure out how to make work, work alongside motherhood.  Today on the show: In the age of social media and constant hot takes, is the definition of the “good mother” constantly changing, or does society still favour one version of motherhood above all? And, as promised, Loz and Lu go more in depth about what their week to week log...

Welcome back to Dear Ready or Not , our weekly Q&A where you send us your questions on work, motherhood and everything in between, and we answer them honestly. This week you’re asking us:  When should you ask for flexible work arrangements, now or closer to your return? Compressed work weeks are being removed from my workplace. What do I say to management to advocate for myself and those who...

Chantella Perera was familiar with the juggle before motherhood ever entered the picture.  Before motherhood, she was working two jobs as a professional athlete playing WNBL and AFLW, because women's sport alone would never cut it as a pay check. And then, when becoming a mum, it became the double shift – navigating the paid work alongside what society dubs the world’s biggest job.  And...

Welcome back to Ready or Not, the show where Loz and Lu try to figure out how to make work, work alongside motherhood.  Today on the show: How early is too early to put your name on a childcare waitlist? And then,  Flexibility for mums is great, but can we start talking about flexibility for dads, too? Plus, here’s the Rana Hussain article that Lu referred to — Thanks for listening! If y...

Welcome to Dear Ready or Not , our weekly Q&A where you send us your questions on work, motherhood and everything in between, and we answer them honestly. This week, you’re asking us: Should you stick it out in a job you don’t love if you’re planning to have another baby. How to let go of perfectionism when you’re already stretched and thinking about another baby. And how to actually prepare for s...

Welcome back to Ready or Not, the show where Loz and Lu try to figure out how to make work, work alongside motherhood.  Today on the show: What does seeing me work all the time do to my kids? We go deep on that piece on The Cut that’s gone viral. Then: “I’ve lost my ambition, and I’m okay with it…”: Amil Niazi is the author of a new book called Life After Ambition: A Good Enough Memoir, and s...

Welcome back to Dear Ready or Not , our weekly Q&A where you send us your questions on work, motherhood and everything in between, and we answer them honestly. This week you’re asking us:  How to do a full-time job in four days. How long to take off for baby number two without derailing your career. What to do when work wants you in the office more, even though it clearly makes life harder, n...

Welcome back to Ready or Not, the show where Loz and Lu try to figure out how to make work, work alongside motherhood.  Today on the show: Loz goes deep on the fascinating research that tells us how mums start the new year, and just a hint, it’s not “new year new me” and, How to go back to work at a job that makes you feel hollow. This is a brilliant post I stumbled upon on Instagram, and for...

Welcome back to Witching Hour – the show where two mums and sort of cousins figure out how to make work, work. This week on Witching Hour, we flipped the script and answered your questions, the ones flooding our DMs every week about career, parenting, and everything in between.  Some of the questions we chat about include: Can you get promoted part-time? How do I handle work guilt when my chi...

Sophie Cachia is coming into her own in her mid thirties, and she’s been on quite the journey to get there. She had her first baby at 23, at a time when her career wasn’t certain and people assumed that pregnancy and motherhood would mean the end of it, and just last year, as a successful businesswoman in her mid thirties, her youngest baby entered her family – a family that, as Sophie will tell y...

Welcome back to Witching Hour – the show where two mums and sort of cousins figure out how to make work, work. Today on the show: Australia’s most toxic companies  Why are we still acting like flexibility for working mums is a favour?  — Thanks for listening! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram: @readyornot.pod @...

Happy New Year! We’ve got some big things happening in 2026 and a few changes as requested by you. You can expect a little bit more of Loz and Lu this year - we hope you’re as excited as we are! — Thanks for listening! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram: @readyornot.pod @laurentreweek_ @lucindamckimm_ This month, Ready or...

Welcome back to Witching Hour – the show where two mums and sort-of cousins figure out how to make work, work. Today on the show: We look back at last year’s New Year’s resolutions and give ourselves a very honest report card. We unpack what stuck, what didn’t, and what we actually learned. Loz and Lu also set their intentions for the year ahead… let’s see what actually sticks! In this episode we...

Welcome back to Witching Hour – the show where two mums and sort of cousins figure out how to make work, work. Except for today, where Loz answers a whole heap of questions with producer Kitch!   — Thanks for listening! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram: @readyornot.pod @laurentreweek_ @lucindamckimm_ This mont...

Welcome back to Ask Ready or Not! It’s Ready or Not’s tip-based episode, landing in your ears every Friday. This week, Loz is talking about feeling stuck at work after maternity leave. A listener who returned to work three years ago has written in, she's feeling underpaid, overwhelmed by job hunting, and unsure of her next move. In this episode, Loz shares a step-by-step plan to get clear on what’...

Welcome back to Witching Hour – the show where two mums and sort of cousins figure out how to make work, work. Except for today, where Lu answers a whole heap of your listener questions with producer Kitch! Next week, you’ll hear from Loz.  — Thanks for listening! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram: @readyornot.pod @...

Welcome back to Ask Ready or Not! It’s Ready or Not’s tip-based episode, landing in your ears every Friday. This week, Loz is talking about how to negotiate a more flexible working situation that works for you. — Thanks for listening! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram: @readyornot.pod @laurentreweek_ @lucindamckimm_ — Th...

Frances Bilbao founded Mums Matter Psychology when her oldest child was just three months old, and now, alongside raising three children her  practice has grown into a social enterprise supporting more than 4,000 families each year with over 120 clinicians nationwide. So, as you might’ve guessed, she’s learned a lot of what parents need. And I love hearing from parents that are also psycholog...

Welcome back to Witching Hour, the show where two mums and sort-of cousins figure out how to make work work. This week, we answer your biggest Christmas and end-of-year questions, including: • Are we all doing Christmas Day wrong by visiting multiple houses • What’s the actual etiquette for daycare and teacher gifts when budgets are tight • How to survive working through school holidays without dr...

Welcome back to Ask Ready or Not! It’s Ready or Not’s tip-based episode, landing in your ears every Friday. This week, Loz shares her best tips on what to do if you're made redundant on maternity leave. — Thanks for listening! If you liked the show, please tell your friends, subscribe or write a review. You can also find us on Instagram: @readyornot.pod @laurentreweek_ @lucindamckimm_ — This podca...

Stephanie Vizard has thought and written a lot about parenting, relationships, and work. Her first novel, The Love Contract, was directly inspired by maternity leave and in her most recent release, A Smart Girl’s Guide to Second Chances, Steph explores the dynamics between mothers and daughters, and how their relationship is impacted by really different attitudes to work, ambition, and parenting....