Speaker 1: Matt good Day, probably wondering why we're here, and I
Speaker 1: have a burning question for you, my guy, are you
Speaker 1: still considering a third child?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: No, Maybe I don't know, Ash. Depends depends what time
Speaker 3: of day you ask me.
Speaker 1: Well, we're here today with a bonus episode, a boner
Speaker 1: with a booner with a bonus episode with Lara Pitt,
Speaker 1: who happens to have.
Speaker 2: Three children.
Speaker 1: Maybe this will convince you either way. But I think
Speaker 1: one more child would kill.
Speaker 3: Us, kill us all. Lara Pitt good friend of yours.
Speaker 1: Ash, good good friend of mine. I was actually at
Speaker 1: the football not with Lara for the State of Origin,
Speaker 1: with us with my brother in law, and Lara Pitt
Speaker 1: walked into the isle in front of me with a
Speaker 1: whole beautiful family.
Speaker 3: And she was at working notes.
Speaker 2: She was enjoying.
Speaker 3: She was there with Lachlan Cooper Hamish.
Speaker 1: Yes, and her husband. And the guy next to me,
Speaker 1: who I did not know, was pumped to see her.
Speaker 2: She was like, Oh my god, this's like told he's kid.
Speaker 2: There's Lara Pitt.
Speaker 3: She's a fan favorite.
Speaker 1: She is a Fox journal and commentator and that's where
Speaker 1: people would mostly know her from. But she's a pioneer
Speaker 1: in that space, I would say for the female journalist
Speaker 1: amongst the big bonehead footballers.
Speaker 3: She's also been fortunate enough to be interviewed by the
Speaker 3: one and only Ashwicks before. This is her second time
Speaker 3: being interviewed.
Speaker 1: That's the third time, fourth time being interviewed actually by me.
Speaker 2: Gosh, it's funny. She sat down and she's like, where
Speaker 2: are you not?
Speaker 1: I was like no, and she's like I expected nothing less.
Speaker 3: Also a family friend of ours, her kid plays football
Speaker 3: with my sister's kid.
Speaker 1: Oh, she's a small world in my plays football with
Speaker 1: my dog's sister's cousin's best friend.
Speaker 3: Actually I knew Lara's husband in her previous life back in.
Speaker 2: The day and halfway through.
Speaker 1: This don't give it away as we do how that
Speaker 1: came about and Matt's face.
Speaker 2: Is red again.
Speaker 3: Let's get into it.
Speaker 4: Enjoy.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to two doting dads and one doting mum.
Speaker 3: I'm Mattie Jay, I'm Ash and.
Speaker 5: I'm Fox Leagues Lara Pitch more famous as Mama or
Speaker 5: Darles at Home.
Speaker 3: This is a podcast all about parenting. It is the good,
Speaker 3: it is the bad, and the relatable And if you've
Speaker 3: come for any advice, Ash and I will never ever
Speaker 3: deliver it never, I guess seem to though good, no pressure, No,
Speaker 3: you don't have to give advice. But at the same time,
Speaker 3: if not for the listeners, for Ash and myself we
Speaker 3: could use some help.
Speaker 6: I'm going to hopefully be able to deliver some nuggets
Speaker 6: of gold.
Speaker 3: I agree nuggets.
Speaker 2: Specifically.
Speaker 3: Thank you normally whenever we see the last few times.
Speaker 3: For me it was Vegas. Ye, we're dressed as Dad's normally,
Speaker 3: with like a drink in hand. You last saw Ash
Speaker 3: in Brisbane. I did so the magic round. I can
Speaker 3: only imagine what kind of stake he was in.
Speaker 5: It was pretty good, Yes, you were pretty good, better
Speaker 5: than Vegas, but it was only Yeah.
Speaker 6: I think Vegas was a longer stint.
Speaker 1: It was like seven nights y pretty gay by the
Speaker 1: end of that, Like I was actually had to do
Speaker 1: some work in Brisbane.
Speaker 2: I feel like in Vegas we were just like.
Speaker 5: Splitting it there right, you're splitting it in Vegas you
Speaker 5: want a magic crown.
Speaker 6: So he had to do all the It.
Speaker 3: Must be strange to see us in the most professional
Speaker 3: environment so far.
Speaker 5: This professional not in the sheds for manly singing. The
Speaker 5: team song, which how on earth did that happen?
Speaker 1: We just had child and side note Charlie and Matt
Speaker 1: Veach here on Wednesday the Cat the Fox guys doing
Speaker 1: We did like an intro for that segment.
Speaker 6: Okay, I did.
Speaker 3: Hear mainly have had a few looks at their processes
Speaker 3: internally for security.
Speaker 2: Off the back of they blocked me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like hell.
Speaker 6: To all places, so amazing.
Speaker 2: I was in the tunnel actually to start off with.
Speaker 2: As they were coming off.
Speaker 6: I saw the vision a lot of it was it daily,
Speaker 6: the bigs.
Speaker 5: The cuddles, like big cuddles after that game, like, guys,
Speaker 5: you beat them, You've opened the season with the wind,
Speaker 5: I'm here for you.
Speaker 2: Got to be the greatest day of my life.
Speaker 3: It started off with shakes that would take a handshake
Speaker 3: on the back Croger. I was like like ashes trying
Speaker 3: to French kiss the players and they're coming off the field.
Speaker 2: I was like, someone's going to do it, Someone's got
Speaker 2: to do it.
Speaker 6: Almost almost make me want to like manly.
Speaker 5: But everyone could be everyone.
Speaker 2: We love that everyone hates us, that's the that's the joke.
Speaker 6: Do you know what?
Speaker 5: I used to hate them, But then when you start
Speaker 5: doing what I do, and you get to interview the
Speaker 5: traboy bitches and even Daily Lovely.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Lara, when you were a young girl.
Speaker 6: I'm still young, but yes, young young girl, young girl.
Speaker 3: Primary school. Let's say, yeah, what type of girl were you?
Speaker 3: I can't decide if you were someone who liked Barbie
Speaker 3: dolls and pink dresses or if you were someone who
Speaker 3: was quitting other boys in a headlock and like killing
Speaker 3: fish down the pawn.
Speaker 6: I think I had a collection of Barbie Dolls. Definitely.
Speaker 5: I had two big brothers, so I was definitely capable
Speaker 5: of getting in a scrap if need be.
Speaker 6: But I would say it was a tomboy.
Speaker 5: Going through my teenagers, I think as a little girl,
Speaker 5: Barbie Dolls. For sure did ballet because that's what you
Speaker 5: did when you were five or six, and that's what
Speaker 5: Mum got me into. But then as I got through
Speaker 5: to my teenagers, I felt awkward being too feminine, so
Speaker 5: I used to borrow my brothers. Like I'd wear my
Speaker 5: brother's clothes. I'd wear like Trackie acts and like be real,
Speaker 5: and my girlfriends.
Speaker 6: Were just like what.
Speaker 3: Friday Night.
Speaker 5: I did go through a stage where we'd go to
Speaker 5: the remember Kappa there was dance parties where you'd wear pants.
Speaker 6: My god, you're too young anyway, But yeah, I feel
Speaker 6: like I were going to fashion sense. I wasn't prepared.
Speaker 3: It's it's like the football brand.
Speaker 5: Oh yes, k A p p A with your terrible
Speaker 5: fashion sense as a.
Speaker 2: Teenager, two girls back to back, the.
Speaker 6: Pants have the stud So I went through a stage.
Speaker 6: Oh this is awful. Why am I talking about this anyway?
Speaker 2: It was this was actually the whole show.
Speaker 6: There was an awkward part in the teenage.
Speaker 5: Yes, we're going through those dance parties and having a
Speaker 5: good time and wearing like crop tops with trackie acts
Speaker 5: and dancing badly, but thinking it was really good. My
Speaker 5: best friend and I would have a great time going
Speaker 5: to those.
Speaker 3: I'm going to ask for some photos if you could
Speaker 3: submit them.
Speaker 6: I just don't know if I have any.
Speaker 3: But yes, it's gonna sound really dumb. But on the weekends,
Speaker 3: if you're say thirteen fourteen, and you guys, can you know,
Speaker 3: have free time?
Speaker 6: Yeap?
Speaker 3: Would your brothers go off and leave you alone? Or
Speaker 3: were you under their wing?
Speaker 5: So I should probably say my brothers were nine and
Speaker 5: ten years older than me, so right, it was not
Speaker 5: a mistake.
Speaker 6: I promise. It has been told to me many a time.
Speaker 2: I was surprised.
Speaker 6: I was a best surprise ever. And I was a girl.
Speaker 5: So after two boys, my mom and dad, you know,
Speaker 5: they're happy to say that my brothers were hand for
Speaker 5: compared to me. So nine and ten years old are
Speaker 5: my memories of being thirteen and fourteen.
Speaker 6: By then they'd left the nest, so I was almost
Speaker 6: like an early child.
Speaker 5: But when I was five or six and they were
Speaker 5: teenage boys, they you know, they looked after me.
Speaker 6: You know, they've always looked after me. I'm like the
Speaker 6: little sister.
Speaker 5: I remember them picking me up from school when they
Speaker 5: got their license. One of my brother, one of my brothers,
Speaker 5: both of them actually were quite cheeky of them had
Speaker 5: a motorbike.
Speaker 6: So I even got picked up in the motor.
Speaker 3: Your girlfriends like, oh my god.
Speaker 5: I think my dad was like absolutely not that thing.
Speaker 6: But yeah, they were older.
Speaker 5: There were perks to that because I don't know, they
Speaker 5: taught me everything. I think I learned things probably before
Speaker 5: my years that they were doing and they were getting
Speaker 5: up to. It's pretty good at dabbing on them. Because
Speaker 5: I was so little.
Speaker 6: My brother stole my parents' car once and the famous story.
Speaker 2: Is that.
Speaker 6: Was turned to me and go who did it?
Speaker 5: And I went, Johnny did it? And my brother told
Speaker 5: that in my wedding speech that you know, I was
Speaker 5: the sweet one and you know never meant to get
Speaker 5: him in trouble, but I was just being honest. Yeah,
Speaker 5: so we were very close, but age a big factor
Speaker 5: and we're still very close, very close.
Speaker 1: Family was family, like, were you I mean you work
Speaker 1: in you know, in the sports industry.
Speaker 2: Now, were you a big sports family?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 5: So my dad is European Hungarian, came here fresh off
Speaker 5: the bolt, as we thought we'd grew up hearing the story.
Speaker 5: Came to Australia from Hungary with just a little satchel,
Speaker 5: no speaking to English, and.
Speaker 2: Just a packed lunch and nothing.
Speaker 6: Not even that.
Speaker 5: Came here with nothing. No, his mom stayed back in
Speaker 5: Hungry for a bit. And anyway, so.
Speaker 3: Why did he come over?
Speaker 6: He wanted to escape because it was a communist country.
Speaker 5: He'd had a terror, like he would say, a hard
Speaker 5: life growing up until eighteen, and his mum wanted him
Speaker 5: to have a better life. And so yeah, he has
Speaker 5: an amazing story. My dad his inspiration for all of us.
Speaker 6: He came here self made, but yeah, the journey was hard.
Speaker 5: He had to learn English and get a degree and
Speaker 5: all of those things. But the reason I go back
Speaker 5: to that is he brought the soccer round ball influence
Speaker 5: into all of our lives. He met my mum, an
Speaker 5: Ossie country girl. Don't know how that worked, Like could
Speaker 5: not be any more different to each other, like just
Speaker 5: an Aussie girl meets his Hungarian.
Speaker 3: And sometimes we find, like Laura's dad a similar scenario.
Speaker 3: He come from Italy, but he tried to remove the
Speaker 3: Italian heritage. With your dad, did he celebrate the Hungarian heritage? Yeah?
Speaker 5: I think he also wanted like he had no family,
Speaker 5: So I think for my dad, he's very proud of
Speaker 5: his heritage for sure, but he.
Speaker 6: Was about making the proudest thing for dad.
Speaker 5: Now we have we had a beautiful photo actually only
Speaker 5: in March, and it's our whole family and we look
Speaker 5: at it and he looks at it and he just goes, well,
Speaker 5: that's just so amazing. There's like about fifteen sixteen seventeen goosebumps. Yeah,
Speaker 5: he's got great grandchildren now, he's you know, he came
Speaker 5: here and my mum had family obviously being Australian, but
Speaker 5: she was the youngest and had older siblings, so similar story.
Speaker 5: The age gaps, but yeah, I think for dad always
Speaker 5: shared his story, super proud of his heritage.
Speaker 3: Any like Hungarian traditions.
Speaker 6: He not had Hungarian food?
Speaker 2: No, maybe accidentally gulash?
Speaker 5: Have you not had gulash paprika chicken ncoli? Oh my
Speaker 5: gosh did my beautiful grandma who's no longer with us,
Speaker 5: but she Yeah, it was an amazing Hungarian cook. My
Speaker 5: mom learned tried to learn Hungarian when she met my father. Unfortunately,
Speaker 5: it's a really hard language, apparently one of the hardest
Speaker 5: to learn, so I think she would love to have
Speaker 5: learned so she could teach it as the primary care.
Speaker 5: Give it to me and my brothers. That didn't happen.
Speaker 5: I know swear words.
Speaker 1: Give us a couple of swear words. Why don't you
Speaker 1: give us the swear word and we'll guess what it is.
Speaker 5: I know there's one that I really don't want to
Speaker 5: say because it's it's so offensive.
Speaker 6: Like, yeah, I just I think from memory as.
Speaker 2: To put your fires, that's fuck you.
Speaker 5: I think it might be it could be like it
Speaker 5: could be like it could be like, oh my god,
Speaker 5: but like a worst version of that. But then is
Speaker 5: another one that I know if I ever said it back,
Speaker 5: it would get me into big trouble.
Speaker 6: But I'm like, well, you're saying it.
Speaker 5: He used to say when he would get frustrated, he
Speaker 5: could swear in Hungarians.
Speaker 3: But you couldn't you could.
Speaker 5: I'd be like, Okay, I know that's a bad one.
Speaker 1: I feel like like any swear word in any language
Speaker 1: is always like aggressive more than every other world quite.
Speaker 6: Like full on.
Speaker 2: Loud.
Speaker 5: Yeah, my dad sneezes loud, like guilty. No, no, he'll
Speaker 5: sneeze and.
Speaker 6: Like people around the street will be like, holy moly's man.
Speaker 2: Okay, he's a real man.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's almost annoying.
Speaker 3: Was it ever tough? Though? Because he came from nothing?
Speaker 3: And so did he ever try and build resilience in you?
Speaker 5: And one hundred that's where it comes from from me.
Speaker 5: My work effic comes from Mum and dad And yeah,
Speaker 5: we've we sat down for his eightieth and wrote a book.
Speaker 5: To his book, he wrote his biography, which I think
Speaker 5: is really important for all of us to remember to
Speaker 5: have forever about just the jobs that he had to
Speaker 5: do when he got here because he didn't have the qualifications,
Speaker 5: he didn't speak English. But he's the complete example of
Speaker 5: someone who was never going to just sit on his hands.
Speaker 6: Like he had multiple jobs.
Speaker 5: He studied accounting at night, eventually was qualified and then
Speaker 5: just in his I think it wasn't until his thirties
Speaker 5: did he find his calling in real estate. And he
Speaker 5: was a salesman, like he could talk to anyone and
Speaker 5: this man, you know, again with an accent, and just
Speaker 5: saw Australia as a land of opportunity like he. If
Speaker 5: you want to hear someone talk about how amazing Australia is,
Speaker 5: you just talk to Dad. Because he grew up in
Speaker 5: communists hungry where life was hard, it was cold, it
Speaker 5: was poor, he didn't have food like you know, grew
Speaker 5: up during the war.
Speaker 6: And was very good.
Speaker 3: Ask you to mow the lawn and you're like, I
Speaker 3: can't be bothered. He's like, let me remind you.
Speaker 2: True, but talk about how struggle.
Speaker 5: But you know it's accurate because now when there are
Speaker 5: struggles in anyone's life, he'll he'll often say it's not
Speaker 5: real struggle, you know, And sometimes I have to remind him, Dad,
Speaker 5: I understand not everyone went through the trauma and the
Speaker 5: horrible stuff that you did, which we all need to appreciate,
Speaker 5: was really awful, like he lost his dad in the
Speaker 5: war and all of that, but you go, it makes
Speaker 5: it's made us all more resilient understanding what real suffering
Speaker 5: and what real hard times look like.
Speaker 6: Our version in Australia.
Speaker 5: Is such a drama.
Speaker 6: Like COVID.
Speaker 7: He was like, oh, ridiculous, Like I can't see you,
Speaker 7: Like this's so stupid, like no one's even got it,
Speaker 7: you know, and you know, so everything is all right
Speaker 7: and amazing here.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so yes, the round ball.
Speaker 5: So he uh he My memories of growing up his
Speaker 5: dad in the middle of the night, I could hear
Speaker 5: him listening to like you you're you know you wait
Speaker 5: for Champions League in the middle of night, or cheering
Speaker 5: on Liverpool or just watching soccer all my life, I
Speaker 5: could hear him. So then he became involved with soccer
Speaker 5: administration growing up. So back then it was called the NSL,
Speaker 5: the National Soccer League, And I have memories, really early
Speaker 5: memories as a five or six year old going to
Speaker 5: es marks Field where that was played, and he would
Speaker 5: take me with him. He'd be in his suit because
Speaker 5: he was in the back office, but he was watching
Speaker 5: and I remember going in the sheds with him as
Speaker 5: a little girl, and that smell and that I was
Speaker 5: there for the hot chips.
Speaker 6: Right like I didn't know what I was going for.
Speaker 5: I didn't really watch, but it's just a funny story
Speaker 5: because then ultimately that's where I'm hanging out around smelly footballers.
Speaker 5: So I think, you know, I always loved sport. I
Speaker 5: grew up playing sport. I didn't go to a sporty school.
Speaker 5: I wasn't particularly.
Speaker 6: Gifted at sport, but loved the thrill, the drama.
Speaker 1: Everything about real time drama is unmatched amazing.
Speaker 3: So your dad do you think planted the seed?
Speaker 6: Dad planned it, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5: And brothers as well, Like I was dragged around to
Speaker 5: watch them play so rugby, league, rugby. I watched football
Speaker 5: with them on the weekends on the TV.
Speaker 3: When did journalism come in to play that?
Speaker 5: I honestly don't think it was really legitimately an idea
Speaker 5: until I finished my first degree. So I went to
Speaker 5: UNI at eighteen did commerce marketing. Thought I'll go into
Speaker 5: event management, like I don't know, and then it was
Speaker 5: only until I sort of sat back when I'm not
Speaker 5: really happy doing this?
Speaker 6: What do I want to do? I loved writing.
Speaker 5: I always did well at school in writing, and I
Speaker 5: was going to the footy all the time.
Speaker 6: I you know.
Speaker 5: Anyway, I just basically made a huge decision to change
Speaker 5: careers at about twenty two, twenty three, I just finished
Speaker 5: a four year degree.
Speaker 1: It's also, like you always hear that story. Its like
Speaker 1: I started accounting and now I'm a car salesman, Like
Speaker 1: like I studied something for so long to realize that
Speaker 1: I don't want.
Speaker 2: To do that.
Speaker 6: Of course, how good?
Speaker 5: And then I thought, great, my beautiful Hungarian dad and
Speaker 5: mum are going to really.
Speaker 6: Love that conversation, like I'm going back to study again.
Speaker 6: And it was fine. I think because I had a plan.
Speaker 5: I had to have it all laid out. I said,
Speaker 5: I'm going to work in the day. I'm going to
Speaker 5: do this fire correspondence. I'm going to get jobs everywhere
Speaker 5: I can. I'm going to get my foot in the door. Like,
Speaker 5: no worries as long as you've you know, you've got
Speaker 5: a path and you know what your endgame is. And
Speaker 5: I think they saw in me that I was very determined,
Speaker 5: and yeah, I did. I think when you know what
Speaker 5: your dream is, and you can set your sights on it.
Speaker 5: I think if I was airy fairy about it, I
Speaker 5: just want to go back and study and have a
Speaker 5: plan and live off you, they'd be like, absolutely.
Speaker 3: Notmin It was always going to be journalism within sports.
Speaker 5: Yes, I always wanted to do sports, So I went
Speaker 5: and worked in every actually spent a year working at
Speaker 5: the Footy Show back in two thousand six.
Speaker 6: So that tells you how old I am now twelve
Speaker 6: me too, Yeah, let's not go there.
Speaker 5: But I was a production assistant back then with Maddie
Speaker 5: was on the show Stlow, Maddie and the Chief. So
Speaker 5: it was the original group because not the original but.
Speaker 3: The back back then the show was enormous. Yeah, like
Speaker 3: it was.
Speaker 2: Massive and it was just men.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So I did a year on that and the only
Speaker 5: female on the show was Lady Luck.
Speaker 6: I don't even remember Lady Luck.
Speaker 5: Because again would Yeah, and this week the beautiful Alik
Speaker 5: Greuzleskie I think or Natalie was on.
Speaker 6: Remember that because it was probably four.
Speaker 2: I was six.
Speaker 3: I was just coming in.
Speaker 2: I was full transparency. I was sixteen.
Speaker 5: Okay, well, so you probably won't watch of my life.
Speaker 5: You were going a good time. You probably went watching
Speaker 5: the footy show every Thursday. But my job there was
Speaker 5: to organize stuff for the skits and to get the
Speaker 5: food for Thursday show and then also get some archive vision,
Speaker 5: which was the part I actually really enjoyed, going into
Speaker 5: the wide world of sports like archive and like back
Speaker 5: then it was all on tapes.
Speaker 6: It's very different now. And you know, I just loved
Speaker 6: rugby league.
Speaker 5: But what I probably realized then was whilst I loved
Speaker 5: that year, it was so fun, I wanted to be
Speaker 5: a part of the conversation. I wanted to talk footy,
Speaker 5: I wanted to It just honed the fact that I
Speaker 5: wanted to be part of the sports broadcasting, not Lady Luck,
Speaker 5: like no disrespect, but there wasn't anyone other than Lady
Speaker 5: Luck in a female role. And then it was that
Speaker 5: year that Fox Sports News launched, so at that time
Speaker 5: I looked tried to get a job there, but it
Speaker 5: was really like tricky. Everyone wanted to work there. And
Speaker 5: I got a job in Fox Sports in the logging department,
Speaker 5: which is basically like watching sport and logging every moment.
Speaker 3: That sounds great, Yeah, I know have heard That's what
Speaker 3: I did because.
Speaker 1: Being I mean, being a female trying to get your
Speaker 1: foot into such a it's dominated by men. Like it's
Speaker 1: so obvious and like it's so great now like that
Speaker 1: there's all these different women reporters and you know, giving
Speaker 1: an analysis on the game, like trying to get in back.
Speaker 2: Then give us an idea of what that was like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think into the newsroom not such an issue
Speaker 5: because there were so many women already qualified and wanting
Speaker 5: to be in the sports newsroom, like a number of
Speaker 5: them now is still all over in sports roles like
Speaker 5: Jessica Yates, is there, Sarah Jones in Melbourne and AFL.
Speaker 5: So getting into sport not such a big thing. But
Speaker 5: getting into rugby league, I guess initially yes, not as
Speaker 5: many of us. Now it has changed a lot. Most
Speaker 5: of our hosts on Fox League of women. Yeah, so
Speaker 5: that probably shows you how much it has changed in
Speaker 5: the eighteen years that I've been at Fox Sports.
Speaker 6: Again, I started when I was twelve, remember.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've been there a very long time. But yeah,
Speaker 5: for sure at the beginning, of course, there's difficulty, but
Speaker 5: I don't think it's because, of course there's a natural
Speaker 5: thing to say, Oh, there wasn't a place for women.
Speaker 5: There would have been people, and I probably just didn't
Speaker 5: want to give them airtime. In my own head, that thought,
Speaker 5: oh what place does a woman have? I had my
Speaker 5: sight set on doing it and that was just going
Speaker 5: to be me. I'm going to try my hardest and
Speaker 5: prove my worth and show that I have the credentials.
Speaker 5: But I think if you focus on those people too.
Speaker 6: Much, you're not going to get there.
Speaker 5: But ultimately it had to change because if you want
Speaker 5: to reflect the fan base and reflect where society's at,
Speaker 5: it was just going to be a natural passage of time.
Speaker 5: And there was a lot of women already doing media
Speaker 5: coverage in the papers, in radio. They just hadn't conquered
Speaker 5: the TV.
Speaker 1: But on your boys and the husband, can we go
Speaker 1: back to how you met your husband?
Speaker 6: Have you had any recent on this?
Speaker 2: Maybe? Maybe not?
Speaker 3: You telling we've been speaking to Anthony during the weeks,
Speaker 3: giving us a lot of information.
Speaker 5: Can I can I introduce Anthony with something? Oh so,
Speaker 5: I wouldn't be a journalist if I didn't bring something.
Speaker 2: You are prepared just for those listings.
Speaker 6: Remember what I said to you when we met you
Speaker 6: in Vegas?
Speaker 2: Do you know who is.
Speaker 5: Can you recognize that for people on the podcast. Laras
Speaker 5: just revealed a beautiful modeling image.
Speaker 2: This is Matthew Johnson. No tea, Matthew Johnson.
Speaker 6: You can take it out. There's actually a second one
Speaker 6: that I think is a little even the same. It's
Speaker 6: the same photo. But what's happening with.
Speaker 5: Just to explain, this is my husband's business, the Academy brand,
Speaker 5: and back in the day when the business first started,
Speaker 5: Maddie was one of the very first models.
Speaker 6: And when you approached me in Vegas.
Speaker 5: I was like, Maddie the model and Maddie wasn't that I.
Speaker 1: Forgot about that whole conversation when we were interviewing you.
Speaker 6: You're about to interview me the Maddie.
Speaker 5: You probably don't know me or remember me, but you
Speaker 5: were one of my husband's very first models for his
Speaker 5: floating business.
Speaker 2: You've got a little Reese Maston about you, the.
Speaker 5: Long hair into the ruins that catal the campaign into
Speaker 5: the ruins. I'm just like, because there's something you can.
Speaker 2: Do with that, very good.
Speaker 6: I love you had to bring.
Speaker 5: Something to get you on because it's not all about me,
Speaker 5: it's you guys.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sorry, we'll make sure this is onus. Thank you
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 1: I've got some old photos of many j that I've
Speaker 1: got stored away that I've done some deep diving onto,
Speaker 1: and you've just added to it, add to that your husband.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so Avian, I I think you've called child sweet arts.
Speaker 5: We meant we met after school, but it's a long
Speaker 5: time ago, so I feel like we're almost child with sweethearts.
Speaker 5: But we have a great story. We tell the kids that,
Speaker 5: of course he liked me, I didn't like him. He
Speaker 5: wore a brown leather jacket when I first met him.
Speaker 8: Therefore, and yeah he looked like a creep, so like him,
Speaker 8: and the kids like that.
Speaker 6: You know, that's the story.
Speaker 5: You know, Mum liked dad, Dad, No, Dad like Mummum
Speaker 5: didn't like dad.
Speaker 3: Is that true?
Speaker 1: Though?
Speaker 6: It is true? I liked like I liked There was
Speaker 6: a spark there for sure. He was funny. Is funny?
Speaker 3: What was holding you back?
Speaker 2: Fashion sense?
Speaker 6: Definitely?
Speaker 5: Seriously seriously but he will laugh at this. He was
Speaker 5: super confident. He is super confident. He wore clothes like
Speaker 5: no one else would wear them. He was very fashion
Speaker 5: forward and he was a trailblazer. He was and but
Speaker 5: also like the most affable, easygoing, confident guy, and I
Speaker 5: think purely he was interested in me made me not
Speaker 5: interested in.
Speaker 6: Him because I'm so young.
Speaker 5: And he kept asking me for coffee and I was like, coffee,
Speaker 5: you were nineteen.
Speaker 1: Give me a goon bag and I'll be the good fortune.
Speaker 5: Ultimately, a year later, he stopped being interested and went
Speaker 5: on a trip to Greece with his mates, and I went, oh,
Speaker 5: come back, and he did come back, and he looked
Speaker 5: hot because he was brown and amazing, and suddenly I
Speaker 5: liked him. And I think I sent a really awkward
Speaker 5: text message, but reading through the lines, he was like, Okay,
Speaker 5: she likes me and I don't.
Speaker 3: Want to say it.
Speaker 2: Come on, yeah, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 3: Now this is a terrible like for anyone who's single
Speaker 3: and going, how can I get that guy?
Speaker 2: Do it?
Speaker 3: Just write this message?
Speaker 6: I just know I don't want to come on. I
Speaker 6: think it's not a big deal. It's over.
Speaker 5: I think I just said something like my other tables.
Speaker 5: See this is the oversharing.
Speaker 6: I did not want to do anyway, but that was
Speaker 6: all and then I turned.
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 5: I turned it off for like a day.
Speaker 6: I was on a shift.
Speaker 5: I used to work at a bar, and I sent
Speaker 5: it and went on shift turned it off, and I
Speaker 5: was so frightened because I just put it all out there,
Speaker 5: like that's all I said.
Speaker 2: But that was it, and then.
Speaker 6: I didn't Yeah that's so bad. It worked, that was it?
Speaker 5: So yeah that and it was pretty like straight up
Speaker 5: serious from then on, Like I went traveling after UNI
Speaker 5: and we were apart for that time, but pretty.
Speaker 6: Much after that we've been together since we were really young.
Speaker 6: And yeah, got married.
Speaker 5: I did make him wait for everything though, like I
Speaker 5: was not ready to get married and we got married.
Speaker 5: Then I wasn't ready to have kids, you know, I
Speaker 5: was happy with you know, I wanted to career.
Speaker 6: I was very career driven.
Speaker 3: And there was Anthony pushing kids. Initially I was too.
Speaker 5: Like I wanted always wanted a family, but it got
Speaker 5: to the point where he's like, Okay, what's happening with that?
Speaker 5: And also over involved hungarian father, what's happening with that?
Speaker 6: Love your dad?
Speaker 5: But I think mostly when people then pushed me in
Speaker 5: one direction, I would always go the other way. So
Speaker 5: I think I was like, well, it's about when I'm ready,
Speaker 5: it's not about when everyone else is ready.
Speaker 3: So then when do you figure out when the right
Speaker 3: time is then with your career.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think there wasn't probably ever going to be
Speaker 5: a right time. You just needed to be ready to
Speaker 5: take a break and also if you can time it
Speaker 5: in the off season, which worked well with the first two.
Speaker 5: The third it was by then I was like, whatever
Speaker 5: happens happened. So we had Lockie he's nine now, and
Speaker 5: then Cooper he was two years just under two years later,
Speaker 5: and then Hamish was a COVID baby, and yeah, he's
Speaker 5: he's the best. I mean they're all the best, but
Speaker 5: you know, the third's always the big one. Are you
Speaker 5: going to do the third? And absolutely no regrets. He's
Speaker 5: a firecracker and hilarious and complex family.
Speaker 3: How old now?
Speaker 6: Four?
Speaker 2: Four? Okay, yeah, so you've got nine seven seven four?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Three?
Speaker 3: How three boys? I think I asked this question and
Speaker 3: think about Laura, who was someone who really struggles to
Speaker 3: stop working every second of the day, whether it be
Speaker 3: during the evening, weekend, it's no difference. She's always working.
Speaker 3: And I imagine that you're cut from the same cloth.
Speaker 3: So when you're having to take time off to have
Speaker 3: the baby, how did you deal with that?
Speaker 5: I found it hard. I didn't want to have like
Speaker 5: a year off. That was just how I was. I
Speaker 5: probably think back on it now and I probably would
Speaker 5: say that I should have had more of a break.
Speaker 6: We always do that to ourselves.
Speaker 5: Though, and also knowing who he is now, Oh, I
Speaker 5: think he probably could have done with me being one
Speaker 5: hundred percent committed to being home twenty four to seven.
Speaker 5: My husband will hate that I'm blaming myself for anything,
Speaker 5: and I'm not, but I just think, you know, you
Speaker 5: always think as a parent how you could do things differently,
Speaker 5: but I wasn't. I wasn't gone seven days or anything
Speaker 5: when I had him in January. I think the season
Speaker 5: started in March obviously, and I was initially only doing
Speaker 5: like one and a half days a week, so you know,
Speaker 5: that's not I don't think a lot. I may have
Speaker 5: mentally been checked out more than if I was at
Speaker 5: home full time. Then with Cooper, he was born in November,
Speaker 5: so I had from November to March off.
Speaker 6: Still doesn't sound like a long time.
Speaker 1: I picked my like my wife had both twelve months
Speaker 1: since off for both of that years, and like that's
Speaker 1: fairly common, like six to twelve months, but to go
Speaker 1: back after if you break that down into weeks. It's
Speaker 1: not that much like you're I mean, my sister went
Speaker 1: back to work ten weeks after because she's a business owner,
Speaker 1: so and I could see how disheveled she was, how
Speaker 1: how it didn't benefit her or so I can imagine
Speaker 1: it's you wanted to go back to work, then it
Speaker 1: must be really hard thinking is this the right or
Speaker 1: the wrong decision?
Speaker 5: I also think you go, there's got to be a
Speaker 5: part of you that goes well. I don't want to
Speaker 5: lose where I was. And that's not no pressure from work,
Speaker 5: because Fox have been absolutely amazing and supportive. It's it's
Speaker 5: just internal where you go. Of course, I want to
Speaker 5: keep doing what I was doing, and if I'm out
Speaker 5: of sight, I'm out of mind, and maybe I won't
Speaker 5: come back to the same job. And again that's all
Speaker 5: self inflicted.
Speaker 2: You don't want to.
Speaker 1: You think, oh, I don't want to miss an opportunity
Speaker 1: as well, like you never know, things can happen, things
Speaker 1: can change all the time, and you think, Okay, if.
Speaker 2: I'm not there, then someone else is going to get
Speaker 2: the opportunity.
Speaker 3: And I know that.
Speaker 5: Of course, the baby stage and the newborn stage, you
Speaker 5: should absolutely be there for every single moment if you can.
Speaker 5: But I actually will say it gets harder. Like the
Speaker 5: older they get, the more they need you. I know
Speaker 5: that a newborn needs you a hunt, but right now,
Speaker 5: like just pure logistics, three of them right now, it's
Speaker 5: and the emotional stuff it continues and other challenges as
Speaker 5: they get over.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: If I'm with babies, you're like, okay, it needs to
Speaker 1: be fed, needs to be changed, needs to sleep, we
Speaker 1: need to get that into a routine. But as they
Speaker 1: get older, it's like they need to be they need
Speaker 1: to be fed, we need to put them to bed,
Speaker 1: need to have them a bath, to make sure that
Speaker 1: they're emotionally okay, physically okay, yeah, they're learning, they're you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're behaving there that you know, there's so much
Speaker 1: more to it does get harder. I can't imagine, you know,
Speaker 1: nine and seven, I'm like, oh.
Speaker 6: Definitely, yeah, just different challenges though.
Speaker 5: I think every time we go, I mean I have
Speaker 5: my I have a number of mum friends and my
Speaker 5: two closest girlfriends who will often have conversations and it's
Speaker 5: like what's the latest stuff, Like after school drop off,
Speaker 5: there's something to talk about.
Speaker 6: Nearly every day about what's happened that morning.
Speaker 2: It's pretty much podcast.
Speaker 5: Yeah, what happened to you today was the biggest meltdown
Speaker 5: in your house or so?
Speaker 3: Yeah, then how do you manage that with Anthony? I
Speaker 3: think it's always the biggest unknown with couples going into
Speaker 3: having kids is how you share the responsibilities. Some men
Speaker 3: are great, others require a bit more work. I initially
Speaker 3: was a bit shit.
Speaker 2: And I heard you dance around. Some need a little
Speaker 2: bit more work, some of hopeless. Yeah that's better.
Speaker 6: It depends what your dynamic is that right? Like somehow
Speaker 6: how was.
Speaker 3: Your dynamic with Anthony pre kids and then having kids?
Speaker 5: I think he knew that he was going to what
Speaker 5: was in for well, yeah, I think he knew he
Speaker 5: was going to be hands on. That was who he was.
Speaker 5: That's who I fell in love with. I think a
Speaker 5: very family oriented person who loved children. And also he
Speaker 5: knew I had a job and work, so it was
Speaker 5: going to be a juggle. I don't think we completely
Speaker 5: knew at all how it was going to feel a
Speaker 5: look but uh, I often joke that he's the better
Speaker 5: half of our half. Don't know how you sit on
Speaker 5: your relationship, but he's like the funny guy, the outgoing guy,
Speaker 5: can handle everything.
Speaker 6: I'm like the frazzled person. A lot going on with you.
Speaker 3: Probably our wives will disagree.
Speaker 6: Are you the better half of your half?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 6: I'm happy to give him arout. Yeah.
Speaker 5: No, he's a really hands on dad. I feel like
Speaker 5: this is my moment to give him credit because he
Speaker 5: doesn't get it often enough. At home, he is very invested,
Speaker 5: and the reason why it doesn't get enough credit is
Speaker 5: because I feel that he should be and he's married
Speaker 5: someone that wants that and wants that for the children
Speaker 5: and for him to be hands on. I think the
Speaker 5: part that is still a huge struggle. I don't know
Speaker 5: if it's the same for your partners, but the women
Speaker 5: in my mind still carry a lot of the mental load.
Speaker 5: So and then he's hugely hands on, like in every
Speaker 5: physical aspect with the boy's connect it in and gets
Speaker 5: them everywhere, But in terms of logistics and needing to
Speaker 5: know where they're going, what uniform, what permission slip, whose birthday,
Speaker 5: who's getting the present, whose social diary is doing what like,
Speaker 5: that's still a part that in my in my opinion,
Speaker 5: the mum usually he's across all those extra details so that's.
Speaker 1: Exactly like my dynamic Abril. I wouldn't know where we're
Speaker 1: going tomorrow, yeah, but she does. I'll just get us there.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So like Saturday, well this week, any weekend, I'm
Speaker 5: usually on the road for footy, so I'll still we'll
Speaker 5: still have to have those conversations about the logistics and
Speaker 5: what's happening and where we got you know, and you know,
Speaker 5: and that's totally fine, but there's that like that the
Speaker 5: mouse on the wheel, like constantly thinking about what's the
Speaker 5: next thing.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of moms listening will probably want
Speaker 3: to know how do they get their husband to be
Speaker 3: more like Anthony? Did you have to did you have
Speaker 3: to train him to be? Like what's that program looking like?
Speaker 6: Can you give a shout out to my mother in law?
Speaker 3: Or do that's just the way that he was?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I think so that's the I think that's the
Speaker 6: way he was dynamic.
Speaker 2: So few of us, there is so few of us.
Speaker 5: He wants to be hands on. He wants me well,
Speaker 5: but you know, like there's always a bit of training.
Speaker 5: When we first moved in together, he needed a few
Speaker 5: kicks up the pick up your towel please, I'm not
Speaker 5: on the bed, the garbage out. That's your job, not
Speaker 5: doing that. I'll do a lot of the jobs. He
Speaker 5: still doesn't, you know what, I've painted him to be
Speaker 5: perfect washing he doesn't like, do you do loads of
Speaker 5: washing and drying and hanging out and stuff. That's one
Speaker 5: thing he still doesn't. So sorry, he's not perfect. There's
Speaker 5: plenty I can you want me to just some dirt.
Speaker 6: I got some.
Speaker 1: We we do because there's a lot of petty stories
Speaker 1: that come out of it, like, oh, wash my stuff
Speaker 1: and not apriles if she has annoyed me, Matt hangoutt Matt, was.
Speaker 2: It you hang out your stuff only? We definitely both
Speaker 2: do laundry April, that's true. It is easy.
Speaker 5: You need to come and chat to him, because that's
Speaker 5: far that we still haven't conquered. He finds that too hard.
Speaker 1: Lau is within your control, I find and if it's
Speaker 1: within your control, you can manage it.
Speaker 3: I would rather do laundry than feed a toddler.
Speaker 6: Yeah, no, he does all the he's good with that, cooking,
Speaker 6: feeding and all of that.
Speaker 5: But yeah, that's fine. You got to pick your battles.
Speaker 5: Like some of the things. I'm like, Okay, that's in
Speaker 5: my lane. But recycling garbage all that, I don't care
Speaker 5: if it's overflowing.
Speaker 3: That is your job, does it? How is it for you? Then?
Speaker 3: As a as a mum speaking to other mums where
Speaker 3: your dynamic is quite different to the norm, do you
Speaker 3: have that internalized mum guilt.
Speaker 5: About the dynamic of Anthony and I or working mum.
Speaker 3: I guess you're if you're comparing kind of war stories
Speaker 3: as a parent and your stories are a bit different because
Speaker 3: you weren't running to the football on the weekend for
Speaker 3: your boys. You were working on the weekend.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, I think there's a balance, right.
Speaker 5: So I've also got my work down pat where part
Speaker 5: of the weekend I'm available, so I make sure that
Speaker 5: I'm not completely missing because that would be the worst.
Speaker 5: That's when the mum gelt would one hundred percent takeover.
Speaker 5: So some days I'm off, I've made sure that that's
Speaker 5: a day that I can be there.
Speaker 6: For that's when they play rugby league, so it's quite
Speaker 6: a good day to have off.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I think all my mum friends have a
Speaker 5: different dynamic at home. Some of them are working moms,
Speaker 5: some of them are full time stay at home moms.
Speaker 6: But we've all got issues going on, and we all
Speaker 6: relate on that.
Speaker 5: Like everyone has got stuff on their plate trying to
Speaker 5: navigate problems with the kids or dramas or school issues, social,
Speaker 5: So it's it doesn't matter what your dynamic is. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I don't feel I don't feel like it's any different.
Speaker 5: I think, you know, of course, like my work takes
Speaker 5: me away from stuff.
Speaker 3: So how do you deal with those situations where there
Speaker 3: is an event when they be daycare or yeah that's school.
Speaker 6: Yeah, like Saturday, all the mum's caught up for lunch.
Speaker 5: I miss the mom's lunch, you know, like just a
Speaker 5: bit of social time with the mums. Yeah, I find
Speaker 5: that I'm just going to miss out on things. But
Speaker 5: that's pretty much the way it is from February to October.
Speaker 5: And then you know, my summers are pretty good and
Speaker 5: I can hopefully squish in as much quality time.
Speaker 3: It's like, mom, enough, are you?
Speaker 1: I mean when they are teenagers they'll probably be a
Speaker 1: bit more like that, But now, I mean, especially with boys,
Speaker 1: like I have one boy. He is mummy's little boy. Yes,
Speaker 1: I can imagine having three mummies little boys. April is
Speaker 1: the default parent as we jo. It's a lot and
Speaker 1: they must hang off.
Speaker 2: Here as well when you're around.
Speaker 6: So is your boy like, how would you describe his demeanor?
Speaker 6: Is he alpha?
Speaker 1: Is he he's scared of his own shadow? Yeah, but
Speaker 1: he you know, he can be quite strong willed, but
Speaker 1: a lot of the time he's he's shy.
Speaker 3: But at the same time.
Speaker 2: He is, Well, you're trying to kidnap him, long star.
Speaker 6: It's a long start because you are clearly enamored with him, to.
Speaker 3: Down with him by growing down. I tried to drag
Speaker 3: him into a room.
Speaker 2: A hotel room on a boat, and he.
Speaker 3: Didn't go down. Well, he is I'd say he is
Speaker 3: an introvert. He plays like the way that he plays.
Speaker 3: He was like, I feel like he would in the pool,
Speaker 3: for example, he'd be trying to flip in the pool.
Speaker 3: And he loves that rough play.
Speaker 1: Yeah he does, but he's he's quite timid as well.
Speaker 5: So come to my house and see seriously, like every
Speaker 5: day is just like pick your own adventure. This morning
Speaker 5: husband got up, Anthony went to play golf this morning. Actually,
Speaker 5: So whether you want to give that a tick or
Speaker 5: a cross, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Condoned golf. So the mother's out there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a long hobby to have.
Speaker 2: Anyway, I feel like that's.
Speaker 6: Anyway.
Speaker 5: The point is he went to golf. So I got
Speaker 5: up a six thirty, jumped in the shower. The three
Speaker 5: of them were in my room. I was like, hey,
Speaker 5: your close are there, go start getting ready. All I
Speaker 5: hear is can you smell.
Speaker 6: My you know? And I'm like, oh fuck. And then
Speaker 6: there's just it.
Speaker 5: You know, someone's ends up punching someone because they've just
Speaker 5: started rumbling and it's physical.
Speaker 3: It only stops when someone gets hurt.
Speaker 6: Yes, it's.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we know how to wind ourselves back down again.
Speaker 5: We're just winding ourselves up for the day.
Speaker 3: So you had many trips to the emergency room.
Speaker 5: Do you know what, We've been super lucky, Absolutely remarkably lucky.
Speaker 5: I don't know how we've avoided it. But every day
Speaker 5: is like flirting with that for sure. I'm not joking.
Speaker 5: Every every toy can be a weapon, Every door can
Speaker 5: become a finger for issue. You know, my son's just
Speaker 5: stairs in your house, stairs falling downstairs.
Speaker 6: They're bouncy and they the kids.
Speaker 5: Are stairs, like imagine when when you see them falling over,
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, my god, I'd be my back would.
Speaker 2: Be out down the stairs out for a month.
Speaker 6: You would have snapped up. They know, they just bounced back.
Speaker 5: We haven't had a lot of we haven't got any
Speaker 5: dramatic trips that which would touchwood.
Speaker 6: But yeah, just constant battle.
Speaker 5: Like in the morning they get out of the car
Speaker 5: and I'm like, how did it like assaulted my senses
Speaker 5: for the.
Speaker 6: Hour that they were after they woke up.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I think talking about boys, initially you have
Speaker 5: them and the baby and they're.
Speaker 6: Like you know that.
Speaker 5: But then they become these little crazy people and and
Speaker 5: that's when I had to start reading and sort of
Speaker 5: getting informed about why they're so different to girls. And
Speaker 5: I know that that sounds ridiculous. I feel silly even
Speaker 5: saying it.
Speaker 3: But we get a lot of people who asked that question,
Speaker 3: how do you pairent boys and girls differently?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So do you know Maggie Dent? Have you heard of
Speaker 5: Maggie Dent? She's a not read her mothering.
Speaker 3: She's a big fan of her work.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, I've brought the book so you can read. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I've got for all this stuff. I know, I love, love.
Speaker 5: Brought stuff mothering our boys it's it just explains the
Speaker 5: dynamic and how different boys are to girls in me.
Speaker 6: So there's rooster boy or a lamb.
Speaker 2: Boy, right, it's so confused.
Speaker 5: So a rooster boys very alpha, very like in your face.
Speaker 5: That's why I asked you your son might be a
Speaker 5: mix of both. When a lamb is traditionally like a
Speaker 5: sort of I wouldn't say soft in a negative way,
Speaker 5: but like a calmer maybe would be found doing puzzles,
Speaker 5: reading books, being calm.
Speaker 6: And then my boys are like three roosters.
Speaker 5: So the dynamic of understanding they need and they have energy,
Speaker 5: they need X, Y and Z. Have a ball in
Speaker 5: the boot all the time. Take them to the park
Speaker 5: to kick. If they're off the charts, it's usually an
Speaker 5: emotional reason for that. If they're not listening to you,
Speaker 5: it's not because they're being rude, it's often because they
Speaker 5: can't hear you, and.
Speaker 1: You're like, what, like, I just don't do that, my chiller.
Speaker 5: And they listen and they're emotionally connected differently girls to boys,
Speaker 5: And I don't want boys to feel different, but I
Speaker 5: think they have different needs.
Speaker 6: At a younger age to girls.
Speaker 5: Like boys can come across as being naughty or needing
Speaker 5: to be toughened up, whereas you would never say that
Speaker 5: to a girl tough enough. So anyway, her book's fascinating,
Speaker 5: Like she has a chapter called I think food, fun
Speaker 5: and farts like boys seriously, Like clearly you still feel
Speaker 5: that way.
Speaker 6: Boys like that and little boys like that.
Speaker 5: Like if there's an opportunity to break the craziness with
Speaker 5: some humor or silliness or silly songs or yeah, toilet humor,
Speaker 5: anything like that, that's what they love. You be cushions.
Speaker 3: Like when you found out you were having a third boy.
Speaker 6: I didn't know what I was having. Each time was surprise.
Speaker 3: Time was your reaction? Do you remember when you.
Speaker 6: Just like I knew it, Like I just knew it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, really, yeah knew it.
Speaker 3: I just yeah that you understood how boys operation you.
Speaker 5: Probably, yeah, I would love to have known what it
Speaker 5: would be like to have a daughter. The dynamic would
Speaker 5: be different in the house for sure. I mean, who knows,
Speaker 5: I could have had it like a really dominant alpha
Speaker 5: girl as well. But I think we have a niece
Speaker 5: who comes over a lot, who's the same age as
Speaker 5: my eldest, and I call her the calming goat, like
Speaker 5: she could come over whenever she was.
Speaker 6: Can the calming goat please come over and sleep?
Speaker 5: Because she's just she walks in and she's chill, and
Speaker 5: the boys come to her level and when.
Speaker 6: She's not there, I'm like, a.
Speaker 5: She just relaxes them and they get mesmerized by her.
Speaker 1: Out of the three, who's the naughtiest?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 6: So hard? It depends what day.
Speaker 3: Change the bat.
Speaker 2: Together in the morning, Ye're up. You want a good performance.
Speaker 6: I want to see mom lose it because of.
Speaker 1: That.
Speaker 2: She swears ten point Yeah.
Speaker 6: I'm like, don't swear.
Speaker 5: And I've got like, I've tried some all sorts of
Speaker 5: things to stop them from being naughty. And then they're like,
Speaker 5: but you're doing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, got on a technique. What's the naughtiest thing that
Speaker 2: they've done?
Speaker 6: My gosh, what's the naughtiest thing?
Speaker 2: What springs to mind?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 6: My gosh.
Speaker 5: I mean they got into a rock fight with the
Speaker 5: neighbors once tell us about that, and the neighbor's kid
Speaker 5: threw a rock and it smashed the pool fence.
Speaker 6: That was awesome. I was at a game and get
Speaker 6: the call.
Speaker 5: From Oh, the neighbors just smash them, And you know,
Speaker 5: I'm like, who started it? He's like, I don't know,
Speaker 5: just like who thinks it's a good idea to start
Speaker 5: throwing rocks like this size over the fence at each other?
Speaker 3: These type of stories that I always thought I wanted boys,
Speaker 3: and I hear that, I'm like, thank goodness, I've got
Speaker 3: two girls.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I do want to know though, because we always have
Speaker 3: myself and Laura the talk of the third third. Be honest, yeah,
Speaker 3: be honest with me. Here do you regret having Hamish?
Speaker 5: I will not be the person that comes on your
Speaker 5: podcast and says, don't have three children.
Speaker 6: I will say, go for it. I will also tell you.
Speaker 5: I will tell you that a lot of people did
Speaker 5: say don't before we had three, Like people are quite
Speaker 5: happy to tell you that have three.
Speaker 6: Don't do it.
Speaker 5: Yeah they've got three, and they're going you're out numbered,
Speaker 5: and they would.
Speaker 6: Further down the track.
Speaker 5: So I should have probably taken on board. But again,
Speaker 5: you tell me to do something, I usually do the opposite.
Speaker 3: So that was the hardest phase.
Speaker 5: Now when when probably now yeah, baby stage, he was
Speaker 5: the best blessing. Like we had him in COVID the
Speaker 5: world was horrible. We you know, we weren't even stuck
Speaker 5: inside here in Sydney like everyone in Melbourne. But he
Speaker 5: brought a like there was very stressful for business, so
Speaker 5: you know Anthony's business, a lot of stress around that.
Speaker 5: So to have him at home was such a happy time.
Speaker 5: He just brought so much light and happiness and he
Speaker 5: was adorable and the boys, you know, adored him from
Speaker 5: them like the first two don't always adore each other.
Speaker 5: They fight a lot because there's a sibling rivalry there.
Speaker 5: But he brought this, oh my god, there's a baby that.
Speaker 6: Needs them, needs mum. They kind of accepted that.
Speaker 5: They don't accept it around each other, but him it's
Speaker 5: okay because he's the baby.
Speaker 6: So yeah, I would say do it it.
Speaker 5: Just know that it's a lot that you are outnumbered
Speaker 5: and when you're doing things like simple things, I'm not simple.
Speaker 3: I don't know if this will make sense, but I'll
Speaker 3: ask this question. When I had Lola, you know, the
Speaker 3: biggest change was that, all of a sudden, my time
Speaker 3: was split between two kids. You know, it was so
Speaker 3: easy to give Maley so much attention when it was
Speaker 3: just her and the picture. Yeah, my worry is that
Speaker 3: with three kids, all of a sudden, your time is
Speaker 3: diluted again, Is that the case you didn't think it is?
Speaker 3: I wish, yeah, I wish I had you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: and giving enough.
Speaker 5: There's all these like posts on Instagram like make sure
Speaker 5: you spend ten minutes of quality time with each child
Speaker 5: a day at all.
Speaker 6: No, just you too, though, like I don't have that time.
Speaker 2: Oh. I was like, I've just grouped all together.
Speaker 6: You can't go. It's supposed to meet their needs.
Speaker 5: It's so hard, Like there'll be these beautiful dads, they say,
Speaker 5: I take my each child on a walk, like every
Speaker 5: every day, I choose a different child to spend that
Speaker 5: time with. And I'm like, it's unrealistic. I don't have
Speaker 5: that time. You wish you had time to have one
Speaker 5: on one time. You don't they do? I should say
Speaker 5: they want that one. I think it is really challenging,
Speaker 5: the spreading your time amongst the three, and they do
Speaker 5: feel it, of course.
Speaker 6: They feel it.
Speaker 5: And half their poor behavior is because they're furious that
Speaker 5: they haven't got you to themselves.
Speaker 6: And that's what you forget. Get cranky at them and
Speaker 6: you're like, why are you being so annoying?
Speaker 5: Because they want to tell you about their day and
Speaker 5: this is the other ones are like it and they
Speaker 5: don't get their airtime.
Speaker 6: So yeah, that part is definitely hard.
Speaker 1: TV pun By the way, with that one, the airtime,
Speaker 1: you said totally, I want to go back just a
Speaker 1: little bit.
Speaker 2: So and we did skip over something there. Motherhood.
Speaker 1: Early on you had some health struggles, do you mind
Speaker 1: telling Sure?
Speaker 6: So I loved being pregnant.
Speaker 5: Most women hate being pregnant, so I'm one of those
Speaker 5: annoying people who.
Speaker 6: Really loved it. Yeah. I felt really well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was really lucky, felt really well. I enjoyed it,
Speaker 5: like just didn't feel uncomfortable, lucky, very lucky.
Speaker 2: Did you have any particular cravy just.
Speaker 6: Little Elberg little how many? I ate like it would
Speaker 6: be awful.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I had a lot of chicken burgers.
Speaker 2: She loved Parsley.
Speaker 3: Yeah that's little Elburgers that.
Speaker 2: We have a little.
Speaker 6: Yeah, a lot of chicken. I might have one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So all three brains were great and then but
Speaker 5: afterwards didn't feel great, so, you know, very fatigued, like
Speaker 5: beyond fatigue, like walk walking up the stairs like felt
Speaker 5: I'm like breathless.
Speaker 6: And then I just was like, am I being a hypochondriac?
Speaker 5: Because I can be a hypochondriact sometimes and went to
Speaker 5: the GP and he's like, Lara, you've gone back.
Speaker 6: To work quite quickly.
Speaker 3: It's a bit run down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you might be just.
Speaker 5: A you're tired, you've got you've got a baby, and
Speaker 5: that's fine. That's yeah, fair cool. And I don't blame him.
Speaker 5: I still love him. He's my GP and everything.
Speaker 6: It's fine.
Speaker 5: But it took a while, but I think I think
Speaker 5: it was about eight months after I had the first
Speaker 5: we did more comprehensive blood tests and you found that
Speaker 5: my firoroid wasn't functioning properly. So essentially what it was
Speaker 5: was postpartum viroiditist, which is like a post baby reaction
Speaker 5: my thyroid where the hormones that it's supposed to produce
Speaker 5: are not on the right levels, and it can make
Speaker 5: you either feel if it's underactive, it can make you
Speaker 5: feel really depressed and slow, or if it's overactive, it
Speaker 5: makes you feel like you're on speed. And I was
Speaker 5: I think at the time, I was overactive. So I
Speaker 5: was like, my heart rate was always really jittery, and yeah,
Speaker 5: so how.
Speaker 3: Long are we dealing with it before you got diagnosed?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I probably had it straight like pretty much
Speaker 5: after I had him, so eight months postpartum before we
Speaker 5: figured it out.
Speaker 2: It's a long term and if you don't, you also
Speaker 2: don't know what you don't know. So you like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I've had is my first baby. I don't know what
Speaker 2: my body's supposed to be like after that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like we do heavily rely on professionals to
Speaker 1: give us that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And also you know when they do more extensive it's
Speaker 1: just because you're just not feeling right. Do you remember
Speaker 1: any other like like, so you're saying you're breathless, remember
Speaker 1: any other symptoms?
Speaker 5: I felt like anxious, like really anxious, and then I
Speaker 5: lost all the baby weight really quickly, right, And most
Speaker 5: people like.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, how amaze.
Speaker 5: But you're like, I know that sounds nice, but I
Speaker 5: felt unwell, So I was like, anyway, short story is
Speaker 5: that all those symptoms, like losing the weight, all of
Speaker 5: that super quickly is babe basically telling you that your
Speaker 5: farrow was not working. It leveled itself out. I had Cooper.
Speaker 5: It was worse after Cooper.
Speaker 6: It went bad.
Speaker 3: How do you medicate that well?
Speaker 5: So you couldn't They can't get so when you're over
Speaker 5: you're creating too much of this of the hormone, so
Speaker 5: there's nothing really they can do other than give you
Speaker 5: something to calm the jittery. If you're under underactive, so
Speaker 5: you're not producing enough, they can give you thuroxen So
Speaker 5: I think with Cooper, I eventually ended up being underactive,
Speaker 5: so I took some of that for a while, but
Speaker 5: it normalized and then I had Hamish and I didn't
Speaker 5: have anything, so it was yeah, so with him it
Speaker 5: didn't happen.
Speaker 3: That's why.
Speaker 6: He just made me happy.
Speaker 5: To be fair, I probably should have known. I love
Speaker 5: my mum to death, but when I mentioned my broad shees,
Speaker 5: oh yeah, I've had some of those, you know, like
Speaker 5: just a typical like that's just so dificul a mom.
Speaker 5: She just wouldn't have thought to mention it. And the
Speaker 5: doctor's like, yeah, it's genetic, thanks mom.
Speaker 3: Perfect.
Speaker 6: We could have got to the botto of it a
Speaker 6: little bit.
Speaker 2: So up.
Speaker 3: Before we recorded, you mentioned that your family you've not
Speaker 3: slept in them right bed since COVID.
Speaker 6: Or I tried to think about the date I reckon
Speaker 6: I could.
Speaker 5: Count on one hand that we've all slept in the
Speaker 5: right beds.
Speaker 2: Bed going it's like five years.
Speaker 3: How does it normally work?
Speaker 1: Her?
Speaker 6: Okay, I had perfect babies. They all slept well.
Speaker 5: I had them in a strict routine four hourly sleeps, feeds, sleep, feeds, sleep.
Speaker 5: Then my eldest got to three or four and started
Speaker 5: to get night terrors. And just as he's gotten older,
Speaker 5: he's become more scared at night, which is just what
Speaker 5: we're dealing with him. He's the nine The seven year
Speaker 5: olds are chiller, like he could he'll sleep anyway. But
Speaker 5: I think he's just following him now. And now the
Speaker 5: last six months or so, the hey mish just started. Well,
Speaker 5: I'm getting up like if everyone else is getting up
Speaker 5: in the middle of night. So we all go to
Speaker 5: bed in the right spot. The night starts off fine,
Speaker 5: but then.
Speaker 6: You hear.
Speaker 5: Which one is it, and it's usually the eldest first,
Speaker 5: and he comes in like a thunderbolt of lightning because
Speaker 5: he's had a dream. So you hear him like and
Speaker 5: then he jumps in your bed and you're like fast asleep.
Speaker 5: You're like just get into bed like we used to
Speaker 5: get up to try. And we've been going on a
Speaker 5: journey with him, but we've gotten to the point where
Speaker 5: are like, sleep's more important. We want him to not
Speaker 5: be so worried about it. It's not a big deal.
Speaker 5: He'll grow out of it. It's not forever.
Speaker 1: You're knocking all the doors fifteen and still doing it.
Speaker 6: We'll kick him out.
Speaker 3: But also similar here, like it's kind of nice.
Speaker 6: It's okay for one, but not free and free. We
Speaker 6: have a king sized bed. Usually then the next one
Speaker 6: will come in.
Speaker 5: We've got a mattress on them floor, and the mattress
Speaker 5: is there for like, I don't know, just yes, do.
Speaker 3: You ever end up in the kids like last night?
Speaker 6: No, Anthony was in the spare room last night.
Speaker 5: He ended up in there because you go, I can't
Speaker 5: say I've got someone's knees or in my back.
Speaker 6: I'm like pushing someone away and you both you're both.
Speaker 5: Looking waiting for one to get up and leave, and
Speaker 5: you know, we take turns. I won't get up every
Speaker 5: night and leave the room, but yeah, ultimately we're in
Speaker 5: it a patch five ye, a long patch of lack
Speaker 5: of sleep, Like I don't know what uninterrupted sleep is
Speaker 5: unless I'm on the road.
Speaker 1: Like magic, there'd be so many parents listening right now, going,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is my life. Yeah, last night,
Speaker 1: last night, I like it was like eleven thirty and
Speaker 1: I'm not usually up that late.
Speaker 2: I just couldn't sleep.
Speaker 1: And then I hear the door open because they share
Speaker 1: a room and they've got white noise still for my younger.
Speaker 2: So I hear the door open and the white nose go.
Speaker 1: It comes and then it goes, and then I hear that,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like oh, and then sick of But
Speaker 1: sometimes I'll just go You get into bed with marm
Speaker 1: and I'll just go straight to the Israel.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because you want to have a good night sleep right, Yeah,
Speaker 5: it's que for a minute.
Speaker 2: For a minute until he starts elbowing me.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I feel like we could talk to you for a
Speaker 3: long time, but you have places to be, you do.
Speaker 3: Holy shit. Last question before you go, I would like
Speaker 3: to know when your boys are all grown up, they're
Speaker 3: no longer at home, they're no longer kicking you in
Speaker 3: the back in bed, what is the one thing you
Speaker 3: would like them to remember about the house that they
Speaker 3: grew up.
Speaker 5: I hope that they think of it as a loving,
Speaker 5: warm and open home. I think that they'll remember it
Speaker 5: as a crazy house where Mum and dad lost their up.
Speaker 6: They will.
Speaker 5: The legit of it is, they'll the funny stuff will be,
Speaker 5: you know how crazy they sent us like, it will be.
Speaker 5: But I want them to always know that they can
Speaker 5: come home be with us. They love family, their best
Speaker 5: memories of being as a family, So I want them
Speaker 5: to be resilient people.
Speaker 6: I want them to be happy. That's like the most
Speaker 6: important thing for me.
Speaker 5: Is that they're happy and confident when they grew up
Speaker 5: that they had a loving and warm home. I love
Speaker 5: except maybe yeah, less screaming, remember all of it, but
Speaker 5: it will forget.
Speaker 2: But yeah, thank you so much for jumping on.
Speaker 6: See you in Vegas again.
Speaker 3: So who knows when you will bump into us next?
Speaker 3: You'll see us?
Speaker 5: Yeah, behind you the Brisbane Grand Final.
Speaker 3: Maybe at least we're not dragon support.
Speaker 6: Oh that is a nasty way to end.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Bye.
Speaker 6: Bye.
Speaker 3: Two. Doting Dad's podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country
Speaker 3: throughout Australia and the connections to land, sea and community.
Speaker 1: We pay our respects to their elders past and present
Speaker 1: and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres straight
Speaker 1: on the People's Today.
Speaker 2: This episode was recorded on gadigle Land,