Speaker 1: Welcome to three doting Dads.
Speaker 2: I am Maddie Jay, I'm Ash, I'm Larry with a
Speaker 2: sock on my mic.
Speaker 1: This is a podcast all about parenting. It's the good,
Speaker 1: the bad, relatable and if you've come for any type
Speaker 1: of advice, I'm going to be stop you right now.
Speaker 3: Although today might be different.
Speaker 4: And we have Larry, and we've been pitching learn from
Speaker 4: Larry all week.
Speaker 3: Each other, like do you know what learn from Larry?
Speaker 3: That'd be great.
Speaker 1: People have been going to be so confused. Ye, if
Speaker 1: you're coming for advice, sit down, attention, no distractions. But Larry,
Speaker 1: I'm going to pash your ego right now for a second.
Speaker 4: If I may, he's usually pashing mind, let me tighten
Speaker 4: up my sock.
Speaker 1: Look, when we think about dad who are successful, you
Speaker 1: are at the top of that list. You've got a
Speaker 1: beautiful wife that you were still madly in love with
Speaker 1: as far as I'm concerned, see on social Instagram. Never lie, never, never, exactly.
Speaker 1: You've got a very successful career right now, and more important,
Speaker 1: when you say.
Speaker 2: Right now always, it'll never end, it will never end.
Speaker 1: And more importantly, you've got two beautiful children who not
Speaker 1: only are very successful, but it seems like you're still
Speaker 1: best friends with them. Yeah, what is the secret?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Tell us everything?
Speaker 3: You know what?
Speaker 2: I don't know? And I get asked that a lot too,
Speaker 2: And I feel very blessed and very lucky. I think
Speaker 2: most dads would say that about their kids. But I
Speaker 2: don't know. I've just written a book recently where I
Speaker 2: tried to work that out and I couldn't work it out.
Speaker 2: It was nothing you always want. You want to be
Speaker 2: a great dad, you want to be a great parent,
Speaker 2: you want to be a role model, you want to
Speaker 2: be helpful for the kids. But there's nothing that I did.
Speaker 2: I didn't set off down a path of being I
Speaker 2: want to.
Speaker 4: Be great mate, going to be perfect, and it's just,
Speaker 4: you know, it's just.
Speaker 2: Worked out that one. I feel very lucky because I
Speaker 2: know that's not everyone's story. I know that, but I
Speaker 2: feel very lucky now that I'm best mates with my
Speaker 2: son and best I was with my daughter yesterday and
Speaker 2: they're older and they, you know, they've got every reason
Speaker 2: to not want to.
Speaker 4: Hang out with the Yeah, because your kids are similar
Speaker 4: age to me. Really right, I'm thirty two.
Speaker 3: I've had a sec to me.
Speaker 4: Apparently that's young, but your son's thirty.
Speaker 3: Twenty nine, twenty nine, how would you do it?
Speaker 2: Twenty four?
Speaker 4: Okay, so your son's really close to my age, and
Speaker 4: it's kind of like you're coming out the back end
Speaker 4: of what we're just really embarking on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you've cross the finish line on that about
Speaker 1: pretty much had to go into like a grandparenthood at
Speaker 1: some stage in the next probably five to.
Speaker 4: Ten years, right, And like for us, we've both got
Speaker 4: a four year old, two year old really embarking on
Speaker 4: that entry level. Yeah, sucked in, dad, Yeah, I was
Speaker 4: going to invite you over to change and happy.
Speaker 1: Let's start right back at the very beginning, right before
Speaker 1: you have kids. You're expecting kids. Sylvie is pregnant, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about this almost like it's in
Speaker 1: like the Dark Ages, which I know it's not, but
Speaker 1: back then it was very different from where we're at
Speaker 1: right now. It's almost you know, I think back to
Speaker 1: when Laura was pregnant and we had too much information
Speaker 1: is every other website was podcast there was we were inundated,
Speaker 1: And I'm going to blame that for the fact that
Speaker 1: I didn't read any book or I went to one
Speaker 1: birthday class. But what was it like for you when
Speaker 1: you were expecting kids and how did you prepare?
Speaker 2: Well, we had no electricity, so it was like you
Speaker 2: had to light candles and no Netflix. There was no television.
Speaker 2: Look at they were very different times. We didn't have
Speaker 2: the resources. I think you're exactly right, the answers to
Speaker 2: all your questions on Siri now and on the phone
Speaker 2: and oh and there wasn't that there. But you know,
Speaker 2: we had a great It wasn't that long ago, but
Speaker 2: we had great support system, my mum and Sylvie's mum
Speaker 2: and we lived actually in an apartment in Bondi on
Speaker 2: the top floor. It was one hundred stairs and Sylvie
Speaker 2: was seventh. Sylvie was seven months pregnant and broke a leg.
Speaker 2: Oh so that was breaking leg running away from me.
Speaker 2: I think no, no, she fell over, fell over, broke
Speaker 2: a leg. There's different traumas and different challenges right at
Speaker 2: every different stage. But everything we needed to know was there.
Speaker 2: Did I go to the classes maybe once or twice,
Speaker 2: but I was working very very hard hosting the prices, right,
Speaker 2: I don't have time to go and sit in the
Speaker 2: bean bag and watch those videos which I should have.
Speaker 3: Well, said, I went to two of them.
Speaker 4: There were eight hours long on a Saturday, the worst
Speaker 4: two saturdays of my life. I'll never get that back.
Speaker 4: And I don't think I learned anything well that I
Speaker 4: can remember. And like, yeah, like Matt was saying, there's
Speaker 4: a very big technological difference between like when I was
Speaker 4: born we could talk about because of similar age first
Speaker 4: our kids now where we just.
Speaker 3: Literally did a whole episode the other day on how YouTube.
Speaker 4: Is the best parent because they, yeah, they pretty much
Speaker 4: look after my kids. If I'm just like, here's my phone, kid,
Speaker 4: It's like back then, I don't know. I always it
Speaker 4: rattles me how you did it and how much pay
Speaker 4: you would have had to have Back then?
Speaker 1: Was it something that came easily?
Speaker 2: It was okay, you know, it wasn't about Joie was
Speaker 2: actually sick when he was born. He had his sort
Speaker 2: of an underdeveloped valve, and so it was indigestion, but
Speaker 2: major indigestion every time he laid back even a little bit.
Speaker 2: So he for the first probably better part of a
Speaker 2: year of his life, he never slept for more than
Speaker 2: forty or fifteen minutes. Yea. So it was full on
Speaker 2: and I was traveling I was in Melbourne every second
Speaker 2: week for four days at a time doing Prices Right.
Speaker 2: So poor Sylvie here brokenly with a child who was
Speaker 2: not sleeping at all, and so I'd come home from
Speaker 2: Melbourne after four or five days and find this wreck,
Speaker 2: you know, not in Sylvie, but just in the situation. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was horrible and I felt really bad. I'd open
Speaker 2: the door, she hadn't slept for four days, should throw
Speaker 2: gipe me go? It's yours, It's yours now. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: Interesting the challenge in that from a relationship perspective of course,
Speaker 2: and a parenting perspective, but you know, like all things
Speaker 2: in that situational, most things in that situation, it turned
Speaker 2: out okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4: I think at that time too, you kind of like, well,
Speaker 4: we'st We've got to get on with that because there's
Speaker 4: not much we can do with the situation.
Speaker 1: But also the pressure as well, like the Price is
Speaker 1: Right was just huge. It was one of the biggest
Speaker 1: shows in the history of TV in Australia. And what
Speaker 1: were you at the time when you were hosting it,
Speaker 1: late twenties.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was late twenties. I mean, it was nothing
Speaker 2: compared to what Sylvia was going through at home.
Speaker 3: But it was fun.
Speaker 2: I was going to work to hang on last No, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: I don't hear this. Probably she will probably hear it.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: I was going to work in playing games and from
Speaker 2: you know, a mother, a new mother's perspective, who wasn't
Speaker 2: sleeping sitting at home. I'm in Melbourne. I'm surrounded by
Speaker 2: girls in bikinis and launcher, you know, like you know,
Speaker 2: like it was, it was.
Speaker 3: It was interesting, you know.
Speaker 2: I felt for Sylvia during that time. It was difficult
Speaker 2: to go like that with no sleep and be stressed
Speaker 2: and all the anxiety around that, and then see how
Speaker 2: you sort of down there playing games and having fun.
Speaker 4: Did you watch the show while you were down there?
Speaker 1: And I don't.
Speaker 2: Like she says no, but I feel like she's hidden
Speaker 2: cameras around this place. She's Polish, so I think I
Speaker 2: like to keep an eye on.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when it came to the prices, right when you
Speaker 1: were given that contract, how did that conversation happen with Sylvie?
Speaker 1: Was it always a case of I finally been given
Speaker 1: what I've always wanted. I'm going to take this, questions asked?
Speaker 1: Or was there ever a case of maybe not doing
Speaker 1: the prices right.
Speaker 2: No, No, there was never that because my life was TV.
Speaker 2: It's all I'd ever done. I couldn't do anything else,
Speaker 2: you know, she said, you want to go away and
Speaker 2: get a job closer to home as a surveyor or
Speaker 2: an engineer as well. There's nothing else in my life
Speaker 2: that I've ever done or I could do, So there's
Speaker 2: never a question of that. But it's just I had
Speaker 2: to take the show because it was a huge show.
Speaker 2: As you said, it was an enormous opportunity, and for
Speaker 2: me to have a career in television or and entertainment
Speaker 2: and to say no to that opportunity would have made
Speaker 2: no sense at all. And it was a good thing.
Speaker 3: It was good.
Speaker 2: That money was good. It gave us good lifestyle. I
Speaker 2: have some nice house, It gave us all the good things.
Speaker 4: Have you a real platform too, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: It's set us up for life basically. But at the time,
Speaker 2: you know, all of that whittles itself down to screaming
Speaker 2: sick kid at home, you know. But I couldn't leave
Speaker 2: the prices, right. I don't think she would have wanted
Speaker 2: me to not work. I don't think she would have
Speaker 2: wanted to be sitting around the house. Yeah, but yeah,
Speaker 2: there was never.
Speaker 4: A take care of two kids then, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: But there was never a question of you know, that
Speaker 2: was the culmination of everything I'd done for years and
Speaker 2: years and years before.
Speaker 4: And how long did you do prices right before? Because
Speaker 4: your kids are what five years apart?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So I did price for I think four or
Speaker 2: five years in the first block. Then I had a
Speaker 2: break for a while, and then went back and did
Speaker 2: it for another three or four years, then had a
Speaker 2: break for ten years, went back and did it for
Speaker 2: another year or so. It's been on and off, So
Speaker 2: people think it's been on for twenty I've been on
Speaker 2: for twenty years because that run repeats like i'd finished.
Speaker 3: Rare looks really young. What's his secret? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Those double breasted suits? Are they still live? So there
Speaker 2: was this sort of perception that I was doing it
Speaker 2: for ever and ever and ever, which was fine by
Speaker 2: me as well. I mean, I'm very happy to be
Speaker 2: that none as that guy.
Speaker 1: When you look back at those first few years being
Speaker 1: very very difficult, was it always on the cards to
Speaker 1: have too or did you guys come out of no no.
Speaker 2: In fact, no, no, no, no, no, no, Sylvie was
Speaker 2: a flight a's in it and we were traveling all
Speaker 2: over the place very cheaply or for free, and we
Speaker 2: were love it, having this great lifestyle, right, and then
Speaker 2: we decided, that's so bloody selfish. And we got to
Speaker 2: a point where I think all our friends who had
Speaker 2: had kids were having other kids, and we thought, of course,
Speaker 2: you know, we've got to try try for another one,
Speaker 2: another one. And we got a perfect little you know,
Speaker 2: perfect little daughter.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And did you find when you decided to have a
Speaker 4: second child and you did have your second child, what
Speaker 4: was your work life and family life then like different
Speaker 4: to the first child?
Speaker 3: You think?
Speaker 2: So? I think we were probably better set up, like
Speaker 2: we were in a comfortable so when Jie was born,
Speaker 2: we were in an apartment on the top floor with
Speaker 2: no lift.
Speaker 1: You know this seven hundred.
Speaker 2: And before we'll work or coals would delivered to your doors, right,
Speaker 2: so I away. So we've got the baby and the
Speaker 2: shopping and this and.
Speaker 4: The you think, you know, there's that thing where it's
Speaker 4: like you got to carry every grocery bag the one
Speaker 4: tree like that we lack seven hundred steps to take sixteen.
Speaker 2: You leave one bag down there next time it's the frozen.
Speaker 2: So I think the next time we had a house,
Speaker 2: we were more comfortable financially, We're in a better place
Speaker 2: career wise, I was in a better place. And I
Speaker 2: think all those things play into, you know, a comfortable,
Speaker 2: I don't want to say happier house, but just a
Speaker 2: more settled house.
Speaker 3: Yeah, cool, do you think?
Speaker 4: Yeah? And we we spoke about this the other day
Speaker 4: as well, that you sort of subconsciously with your second
Speaker 4: child remember things and how to do things, and all
Speaker 4: of a sudden, you're way better than than you were
Speaker 4: with your first trouble without even really thinking about it.
Speaker 4: And I think, like, we set out to have two
Speaker 4: on stage, then we had one, and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 4: not doing that again. And then I had a second,
Speaker 4: but so thankful had the second because I had a
Speaker 4: girl second as well, and it was like, well, she's
Speaker 4: my favorite.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, you know, it's just like but it's also
Speaker 2: down to.
Speaker 4: That I'm much more patient and much more calm. Why
Speaker 4: It's like I definitely don't get upset with her as
Speaker 4: much as I would have with my son, because the
Speaker 4: first one, you're just you're learning how to do it
Speaker 4: as you go.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So after the first one where you said
Speaker 2: I'm never doing that again. Was it because it was
Speaker 2: just so hard for you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was, yeah, so hard, But it was sort
Speaker 4: of like our story is sort of similar with Oscar
Speaker 4: had silent reflux and forty minutes around the clocks and
Speaker 4: really took a toll of my wife, which was the
Speaker 4: hardest thing to watch that happen, and I think I
Speaker 4: was just traumatized from that. I've never really spoken a
Speaker 4: whole heap about it with Matt and Keish, but it
Speaker 4: was sort of like, yeah, watching a shell of a
Speaker 4: person that was my wife because of how hard that
Speaker 4: time was, made me think I can't do that again.
Speaker 4: Not for me, but I can't watch this happen again.
Speaker 4: To her, she was adamant, she wanted the second one,
Speaker 4: and then so obviously so glad that we did in
Speaker 4: the end.
Speaker 1: Also my thing for yourself, Larry, one of the hardest
Speaker 1: things I'm assuming it was hard is the fact that
Speaker 1: you're a new family. You know your wife is doing
Speaker 1: her very best, but there's also that added pressure of
Speaker 1: the fact that you know this notoriety right now is building.
Speaker 1: You're becoming such a familiar face. How did you guys juggle.
Speaker 1: That was it something that you guys found quite difficult?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean there was nothing that we ever had
Speaker 2: to really focus on. Like I think Sylvia came into
Speaker 2: my life where I'd been hosting TV for a while,
Speaker 2: so we're getting a bit of that anyway, So it
Speaker 2: was all right too, you know, and we lived at
Speaker 2: Bondai and we walk up.
Speaker 3: And down in the front of WHO magazine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know your situation. You know that happens in
Speaker 2: a short space of time, right, you go bang and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you're famous guy. But for me
Speaker 2: back then, it was this slow crawl up and then
Speaker 2: you get you're kind of you're kind of getting used
Speaker 2: to it. Social media wasn't around, so it was really
Speaker 2: just that face to face walking along Bondi Beach and
Speaker 2: people saying nice things to you.
Speaker 1: But how did the kids react when they're a little
Speaker 1: bit older and you know, if you guys would go
Speaker 1: out because I remember seeing you when I was younger
Speaker 1: at Perisher and I remember thinking to myself, holy shit,
Speaker 1: it's Larry, And you know, I was like, do I
Speaker 1: go up, do I say anything? But obviously so many
Speaker 1: people will come up to you and speak to you
Speaker 1: your kids, like.
Speaker 3: Dag, what is going on?
Speaker 2: Sometimes sometimes it's okay and then sometimes it's less okay.
Speaker 1: When is it not okay?
Speaker 2: If you're having sort of a private ish moment, it's
Speaker 2: not okay.
Speaker 1: You know, like if you're trying to put the kid
Speaker 1: in the back of the car and there's kicking a.
Speaker 2: Screen, there's that they're sitting down at a nice restaurant
Speaker 2: with Sylvie. That might not be okay. But now with
Speaker 2: social media, everyone just wants you all the time, you know,
Speaker 2: it wants a bit of that.
Speaker 4: All of the time.
Speaker 2: There's no boundaries now, I find then you get the
Speaker 2: strange people come out hiding their phone, going you know,
Speaker 2: like trying to sneak just say hi. It's a very
Speaker 2: strange world.
Speaker 4: I think like a lot of people can't pick up
Speaker 4: on like you were saying, like you know, a personal moment.
Speaker 4: A lot of people can't pick up on that personal
Speaker 4: moment that you're having with your family to wait to
Speaker 4: go okay, well there now they're walking back down you know,
Speaker 4: Bondo Beach. Maybe now I can say hi, Larry, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I loved you on the prizes right, are you still
Speaker 4: doing it?
Speaker 3: Or come on down.
Speaker 2: So I was sitting yesterday in a coffee shop in
Speaker 2: Crown Street in Sydney with my daughter and was a
Speaker 2: lovely day. We chose to sit outside. We only had
Speaker 2: she had time for a coffee on a work break,
Speaker 2: and we sat there and three four people stopped and
Speaker 2: said start. I mean I should have sat on the street,
Speaker 2: you know, for that I wanted that time with her.
Speaker 2: It's funny because one person stops, and then if someone
Speaker 2: stopping and take yourself, you know, and then the next
Speaker 2: person goes, oh's what's happening over?
Speaker 3: It starts this.
Speaker 2: Thing I created a So maybe you know, I should
Speaker 2: have gone sit with tea for twenty minutes half an hour.
Speaker 2: Maybe we don't sit on the street on a nice day.
Speaker 2: And most people are nice because the shows I've been
Speaker 2: involved in Price is Right and Chase the Morning Show,
Speaker 2: they're nice show so they're not a villain. So people
Speaker 2: are just saying nice things. A guy the other day
Speaker 2: walk past and goes, oh, you're a pisser, Carl, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, you.
Speaker 3: A compliment.
Speaker 2: I'm Eddie, I'm not I'm coffee.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: Did you ever have to have the conversation with your
Speaker 1: kids and you know it's out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's been things.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm a fucking big deal.
Speaker 4: Maddy's just gearing up because he's going to have to
Speaker 4: have that.
Speaker 2: It's a thing. No, you know, it's been part of
Speaker 2: their lives forever too, and it's okay, Like it's not bad,
Speaker 2: and it's it's got me a place and a car,
Speaker 2: and it's got you right here and here I am, here,
Speaker 2: I am so you know, we live with it and
Speaker 2: it's nice. An old TV executive one said to me,
Speaker 2: if you're on TV and people aren't wreckinging you, that's
Speaker 2: when you've got a problem, not when they are recognize
Speaker 2: you when they aren't. So okay, that's good.
Speaker 1: When you think back now all of those years being
Speaker 1: a dad, what do you think is the hardest part.
Speaker 3: Stumped him? Got him?
Speaker 2: No, I think I think it's in yourself. I think
Speaker 2: it's in yourself thinking am I doing this right?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And constantly challenging so like what is right? Yeah, that's right?
Speaker 1: Is that thought process one that's just reoccurring every single year?
Speaker 1: Or like, you know, are you now at the point
Speaker 1: where you're like, do you know what I've done? A
Speaker 1: good job?
Speaker 2: I can tell you both happily, it just goes from
Speaker 2: one chapter to the next. So Tea is now engaged,
Speaker 2: so it's totally consumed with the wedding. It eyes on
Speaker 2: well on his career path. So we're talking about that
Speaker 2: all the time. We've got our family dinner tonight, which
Speaker 2: I love, and it's all about hearing from them, but
Speaker 2: hearing them articulate things and face their challenges and get
Speaker 2: better at things. That's you know, that's a beautiful thing
Speaker 2: as well. But they're going through they have issues as
Speaker 2: well all the time still, But luckily and with Sylvia
Speaker 2: and I feel very grateful for this. They still come
Speaker 2: to us for that, They lean on us. We're still
Speaker 2: a close family.
Speaker 3: And do you have a family dinner every week?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: No, no, this is the first one about a year.
Speaker 2: But no, we do when we can. We actually, we
Speaker 2: actually do when we can. I saw Tea yesterday. I'll
Speaker 2: walk or train with Jai a couple of times a week.
Speaker 1: So we're close.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: What's the secret to having that closeness? I always think,
Speaker 1: is it just the case of you know, the fact
Speaker 1: that the door is always open. You know, I would
Speaker 1: if they came to me with a problem, I would
Speaker 1: never get.
Speaker 3: We know what happens when your doors are open.
Speaker 2: I'm going to say that I think it was easier
Speaker 2: to form these sorts of relationships before phones and laptops, tablets.
Speaker 2: But you know when you see these families every night
Speaker 2: at a restaurant, even down at the beach, and dad's
Speaker 2: on the phone and Mum's on the phone and there,
Speaker 2: So we didn't have that. You know, Jo and I
Speaker 2: go for surf tea and I'd go for drive and
Speaker 2: she loves antique shop, so we do this stuff and
Speaker 2: we're not on the phones. So I think these relationships
Speaker 2: were formed in a different time. But you see the
Speaker 2: families now where everyone's on a different device doing different things.
Speaker 2: There's no conversation, there's no engagement, there's no interaction. I'm like,
Speaker 2: how are you going to get from there to wanting
Speaker 2: to go and spend an hour or two with your
Speaker 2: kids just having a chat. And Jai and I can
Speaker 2: do that any day the week, will go for like
Speaker 2: an hour long walk or whatever and just talk the
Speaker 2: whole time. And Tira and I will do the same,
Speaker 2: go for a drive or go for coffee and without devices.
Speaker 2: So I think it was you know, the seeds were
Speaker 2: planted at a different time.
Speaker 4: For that, I think thinking back to my relationship with
Speaker 4: my dad during the same time, and like we didn't
Speaker 4: have that technology for most of it, so we used
Speaker 4: to serve every day.
Speaker 3: We used to do that, like that was our thing.
Speaker 4: And then I think as we both got older and
Speaker 4: technology came into it, we are actually.
Speaker 3: More distant than we ever have been.
Speaker 4: And I have an older sister myself, and they have
Speaker 4: a different relationship. But I've got one boy and one
Speaker 4: girl as you do, Yeah, both very much into their
Speaker 4: early adulthood. Do you feel you raise them any differently?
Speaker 4: Do you think there is obvious things?
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think I did, And I haven't really
Speaker 2: thought about this much, but just hearing yourself, I think
Speaker 2: I did, and I think inherently you do. A different
Speaker 2: relationships is your favorite? Next question, We're both my favorite,
Speaker 2: but for completely different reasons.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's and this is the thing that they both have
Speaker 2: these enormous strength and fantastic personalities, but they're completely different obviously.
Speaker 2: So Ji, our relationship was you know, surfing and walking
Speaker 2: on the beach together and doing all the fun that
Speaker 2: sort of fun stuff. And then Tia and I had
Speaker 2: a completely different relationship where she's very really really smart,
Speaker 2: very very philosophical, you know, very philosophical, reads lots and stuff.
Speaker 2: So our conversations are completely different. And she's a great debater,
Speaker 2: so I'm really loath to get into a heavy conversation
Speaker 2: with her because she'll smack me down.
Speaker 1: How was that with disciplining?
Speaker 2: So classic classic family Sylvie very good at disciplining. Not sorry,
Speaker 2: Sylvie tough, tough on her as her upbringing she was,
Speaker 2: She's Polish and she was brought up in Poland, and
Speaker 2: I think parenting changes greatly around the world, and the
Speaker 2: way she was brought up was very, very different to
Speaker 2: the way I was brought up. And I was brought
Speaker 2: up in this sort of happy, kind of carefree, surfy
Speaker 2: family and whenever there was any sort of friction, which.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you left school at fifteen, Yeah at sixteen, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: And were your parents like, yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 2: Well back in the day, that was kind of fine too,
Speaker 2: like because you go off and do an apprenticeship, So
Speaker 2: it wasn't what it is today. It was like, you
Speaker 2: can leave school at sixteen if you've got an apprenticeship,
Speaker 2: which I didn't have. I was going to be a
Speaker 2: garbo because it was the best surfing shift. Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 2: I made the garbo. We started four o'clock, finished at
Speaker 2: eight thirty and go surfing all day. I'm like Ian
Speaker 2: to be a Garbo. So the situation with Jay was
Speaker 2: very different to the one with Tea, and from when
Speaker 2: it's your daughter involved, you move into this really protect
Speaker 2: you kind of standover hover is everything okay? Are you okay?
Speaker 2: Are your friends okay? You know, it's a very different
Speaker 2: relationship to that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that really early on with my daughter.
Speaker 4: I think I definitely parent her differently. I'm very aware
Speaker 4: of it, mainly because yet you put this protective front on,
Speaker 4: but I don't have that same protective front with Oscar
Speaker 4: like my elder.
Speaker 3: It's more he'll be right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're sending him out to work, and is that
Speaker 1: even for Yeah? Yeah, fact what everyone always says to
Speaker 1: me with Marley and Laura as well, like oh, when
Speaker 1: she starts dating, that's going to be tough, And I
Speaker 1: kind of laugh it off because for me that just
Speaker 1: feels like an absolute lifetime away. Is that a really
Speaker 1: tough time in their life? Yes?
Speaker 2: Oh great, No, it's not a tough time in their life.
Speaker 2: It's a tough time in the parents live. I think
Speaker 2: because you want them to be safe and you want
Speaker 2: them to be happy and.
Speaker 3: All makes sensible decisions. You probably didn't make sensible decisions.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. And of course when I was
Speaker 2: talking to the kids about school because I was kicked
Speaker 2: out of school when I was sixteen, Like, I'm like,
Speaker 2: go to school and focus on your working like dad,
Speaker 2: practice what you free? Yeah, back in the stupid corner, dad,
Speaker 2: But yeah, the dating thing for Tea and she did
Speaker 2: knowledge this now that I was Yeah, I was normal
Speaker 2: dad in that situation. And goodness, it wasn't. I mean,
Speaker 2: social media was around, it was early, it's not what
Speaker 2: it is now. So I think that's a whole new ball.
Speaker 2: It's scary.
Speaker 4: It scares the shit out of me. And make he's
Speaker 4: only one and a half. Imagine one's going to be
Speaker 4: like when she's it'll finish.
Speaker 2: By then it'll be my fat Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, bad.
Speaker 1: You mentioned she's engaged.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Is it on par with looking at when she first
Speaker 1: started dating versus when her boyfriend is coming to you
Speaker 1: to ask to marry her? Is one easy than the other.
Speaker 2: Easier because we knew him at this point, right, So
Speaker 2: he knew him and we loved him. We love him,
Speaker 2: and he's fantastic and how he treats her and how
Speaker 2: he adds to her life equally, they do it equally,
Speaker 2: but you can see as a couple of fantastic that's
Speaker 2: as opposed to meeting some kid from school. He goes,
Speaker 2: how's this going to work out? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 2: he Roell is a lovely, lovely guy. And to see
Speaker 2: them in a relationship, you go, okay, that's meant you know,
Speaker 2: they're balanced, they're beautiful together. So that was different. And
Speaker 2: when he you know, he asked me downstairs here we're
Speaker 2: standing outside, did you know what was coming? We've been
Speaker 2: out for dinner and we were walking them downstairs and
Speaker 2: we were just getting something other garage. So Rose said
Speaker 2: to you just to go up to the carr and dad.
Speaker 2: Your dad gets to me, and then he asked me.
Speaker 2: It's funny because all of my life I had all
Speaker 2: these questions for the guy that would ask me this,
Speaker 2: like what are your internships with them? Show me your
Speaker 2: bank balance, what sort of cardio drive?
Speaker 1: What happened did you?
Speaker 2: And I cried, you know, it just straight away wow,
Speaker 2: like a blubbering mess straight away, and it was it
Speaker 2: was a beautiful moment because you know when you see
Speaker 2: daughter that happy, and you know, and they've been they've
Speaker 2: lived in Bali for a year, so the relationship had
Speaker 2: been well and truly tested, and it was a beautiful moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's going, is that a yes, she's picking
Speaker 1: this guy. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But that that was very very special.
Speaker 2: And now we look forward to the next thing whatever,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe that's grand children, you know whatever. We
Speaker 2: got the wedding and then that, so it just goes
Speaker 2: from one. The parenting thing just goes from one chapter
Speaker 2: to the next.
Speaker 1: Har ending.
Speaker 2: But is google now? Hey Siri, how will I be
Speaker 2: a good granddad?
Speaker 1: How do you feel about being your granddad? Is that
Speaker 1: something you're really excited for?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I don't want to preempt any not that
Speaker 2: I don't think that's happening anytime soon, but I feel
Speaker 2: like I'm too young to be a grandad. But I
Speaker 2: also feel like i'd be a really cool granddad thell
Speaker 2: come around, we'll play prices right games.
Speaker 1: But also you're a granddad with tats as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we wanted to ask you about your tats, so
Speaker 4: you've got matching tat with Ji.
Speaker 2: Yes, so, and these are little things, you know, They're
Speaker 2: just funny little things that over your life you pick
Speaker 2: up and you run with. And we were at a
Speaker 2: rowing carnival for Joe, he was a rollerback at school.
Speaker 2: We were walking along the pathway along the river. There
Speaker 2: was another race going and there was a team coming
Speaker 2: forth and their coach was riding next to them on
Speaker 2: the path next to us, yelling out over the megaphone,
Speaker 2: come on boys, if not now when? And then then
Speaker 2: they pulled up and they won the race. So j
Speaker 2: and I just adopted this if not now when thing.
Speaker 2: That's what we would always say to each other, whether
Speaker 2: we're out surfing, or whether he's going for a job interview,
Speaker 2: whether I'm going for a job interview, or any time.
Speaker 2: So we went and got matching tattoos. If not now when?
Speaker 4: That's amazing, yeah, and it's very special to us.
Speaker 2: And then when tears like not for me? So Tea
Speaker 2: was always like, what tattoo are going to get for me?
Speaker 2: What are you going to get for me? I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: we don't have any of those sayings. So we came
Speaker 2: up with her star sign that goes over eyes tattoo.
Speaker 2: So it's the waves of Aquarius going over the if
Speaker 2: not now when? So I've got both my kids on
Speaker 2: my heart. Yeah, shut Have you.
Speaker 3: Got your kids taed on you yet?
Speaker 1: I've got I've got one of them. I've got Marley
Speaker 1: May's birthday which is just on my triceap and I
Speaker 1: had every intention to get Lola's birthday, but been very busy.
Speaker 1: I haven't done it yet. Yeah, but you gave Macy
Speaker 1: prime spot.
Speaker 3: On prime spot that Yeah.
Speaker 4: And then Oscar got my my arm. But he always
Speaker 4: like he always like points him out which one's me.
Speaker 4: I'm like, that's sorry, mate, you're down here.
Speaker 2: We can do your other one. Now we can do
Speaker 2: a prison tat now if you do that. He's got
Speaker 2: a sewing kid. I've got some innk we could.
Speaker 1: I didn't expect to be getting tattoos and.
Speaker 2: Here we are.
Speaker 1: But then you've also got the love heart with the
Speaker 1: three hours.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, I've got so love heart he with
Speaker 2: the three arrows.
Speaker 1: When did you get that?
Speaker 2: Well? I had the heart for a while and then
Speaker 2: I've got the three arrows a year or so ago
Speaker 2: in Bali, and then on this arm, I've got like
Speaker 2: a decorative S for Sylvie and then a sort of
Speaker 2: a T and a J inside that, so they're all over.
Speaker 2: They're all over.
Speaker 3: There's no escape.
Speaker 4: Cool granddad with all the tas, you're going to get
Speaker 4: all your grandkids on you.
Speaker 3: They might have heaps of kids and you're just covered in.
Speaker 2: Well, I've got to start back in the gym because
Speaker 2: Sylvie's saying they looked all right, but now they're just
Speaker 2: all getting inside.
Speaker 3: Old Man's let her change.
Speaker 1: When you look back at your years as a parent,
Speaker 1: maybe there's no answer to this question. It's going to
Speaker 1: be very self critical. Do you ever think I really
Speaker 1: wish I was better at this? Is there one part
Speaker 1: of parenting where you think I wish I had done something? Lots?
Speaker 2: I mean, you know lots. I wish I was smarter
Speaker 2: so I could have helped at school. It's funny that
Speaker 2: I was. I was a dumbo at school and I
Speaker 2: couldn't read all write, I couldn't add up. So the
Speaker 2: kids out groomy in the smarts very quickly. You know,
Speaker 2: they were coming to me with with homework at twelve
Speaker 2: years old that I couldn't answer you. So I wish
Speaker 2: I was smarter for them. I wish I had more
Speaker 2: intellectual input in what they were doing. But I think
Speaker 2: I've been around a lot and I'm happy for that.
Speaker 2: My work has been you know, it's either on or off.
Speaker 2: But even with the morning show now for sixteen years,
Speaker 2: i've been home for the school pickup. It's not an
Speaker 2: early start, it's not the sunrise start. So I'm around
Speaker 2: a lot. And then there's been periods of three months
Speaker 2: six months where I've been unemployed, so I've been present. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Sylvie would argue if I contributed anything during those days,
Speaker 2: but I was here, you know what I was here.
Speaker 4: I was here and I was very much part of
Speaker 4: their being present for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so I got made to travel the
Speaker 2: world all the time, and you know they'll see their
Speaker 2: kids every second Wednesday and before I get on another
Speaker 2: flight or other mates who go to work at six
Speaker 2: in the morning, come home at eight at night. Uggould
Speaker 2: have the dinner and a beer and go to bed.
Speaker 2: Got nothing left, I.
Speaker 4: Think, So it was changed so much of that too. Yeah,
Speaker 4: for me, I had Oscar and COVID was before COVID,
Speaker 4: and then COVID here and all of a sudden I
Speaker 4: was home every day and spent so much time with
Speaker 4: him in that that I think we, you know, bonded
Speaker 4: so much over that. And now because the world is
Speaker 4: different because of all that, I'm at home most of
Speaker 4: the time working and you know, Macy's there one day
Speaker 4: or because there another day, and it's like my dad
Speaker 4: would have left to go to work, come home, have dinner,
Speaker 4: and it would be I'd be in bed, you know.
Speaker 3: So it's definitely changed so much. That's why he's being president.
Speaker 3: It's huge.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So by hook or by crook, I mean some
Speaker 2: of that presence was because I'd been asked and I
Speaker 2: didn't have a job, but it was good time at home.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: I don't regret that that time, and I think that's
Speaker 2: I was lucky like that. If I could do anything again,
Speaker 2: I wish I was smarter.
Speaker 3: That's a good answer.
Speaker 2: I could have helped, you know, I could have helped
Speaker 2: with that stuff. But I think the life lessons of
Speaker 2: the street smarts or the even being the fun dad,
Speaker 2: I think is as its place.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely sure, good answer. Like I mean, I left
Speaker 4: school too when I was fifteen sixteen, and I can
Speaker 4: tell already that my kids will out grow my smarts
Speaker 4: very quickly, and that's you know, I'll be proud of that.
Speaker 4: But yeah, you've been able to provide street smarts and
Speaker 4: other things that maybe that really smart book Dad couldn't
Speaker 4: have provided.
Speaker 2: Maybe well, you know, we'd get to a point where
Speaker 2: Silvie go, can you help Joe with his homework? And
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, but I can order the pizza like that,
Speaker 2: I'll hunt and gather. Yeah, can't we get a cheator?
Speaker 1: The issue about interviewing Larry as our first guest is
Speaker 1: that the bar has been set very hard to bloody high.
Speaker 1: Whoever comes in next, we'll be like, it's just not
Speaker 1: quite as good as Larry.
Speaker 2: Were going to put a spread on?
Speaker 1: Yeah, can we also? Can we just say Hash messaged
Speaker 1: you on on social media and we weren't quite sure
Speaker 1: if you were going.
Speaker 3: To reply, just a stab in the dark.
Speaker 1: We should be honest, shot our shot and we didn't
Speaker 1: think you were going to invite us to your place
Speaker 1: because we said, he can we come to your apartment?
Speaker 1: You've invited us in.
Speaker 3: Two strangers into your house and we know each other.
Speaker 1: This is the most beautiful spread also, so I just
Speaker 1: want to say thank you so.
Speaker 4: Much, thank you so much for having us and like,
Speaker 4: we wanted to learn from Larry today and I've learned
Speaker 4: so much.
Speaker 2: We'll hope the next house that you go to is
Speaker 2: the house of a real dickhead and sad.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to come back for Larry. What else
Speaker 1: can we love to day?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, for sure, so yeah, thank.
Speaker 2: You so much for having absolute pleasure guys.
Speaker 1: And your book Happy Is Larry is still out now?
Speaker 2: Still out now?
Speaker 1: Where can I pick it up?
Speaker 2: Probably in a two dollar clearance bin?
Speaker 4: I imagine, na is that the sign copy or the unsigned?
Speaker 1: It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you guys, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. If you're listening right now and you thought, hey,
Speaker 1: I quite enjoyed that episode and for the first time,
Speaker 1: I've got some advice that I can actually use my
Speaker 1: own situation. We would love it if you gave us
Speaker 1: a review five stars, maybe a few comments on Apple
Speaker 1: Podcasts and give us a follow, and as well, if
Speaker 1: you would like us to interview any other doting dads
Speaker 1: in the country please, we would love to hear your
Speaker 1: suggestions and we'll do our best to come to their
Speaker 1: apartment and get them to put on a cheese board.
Speaker 3: For Thank you for listening. Appreciate it and Larry, thank.
Speaker 4: You so much for welcoming us in your house and
Speaker 4: pleasure guys putting on a spread.
Speaker 1: Love It. Two Doting Dads podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians
Speaker 1: of country throughout Australia and the connections to land, sea
Speaker 1: and community.
Speaker 4: We pay our respects to their elders past and present
Speaker 4: and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torrestrate Islander
Speaker 4: peoples today. This episode was recorded on Gadagal Land