The Juggling Act

Latest Episodes:

Daily Coronavirus Check-in: How robots at school are changing the lives of sick children Jul 12, 2020

Show notes

It has been so lovely to see the kids back at school and around their friends and teachers again as the restrictions around COVID lifted for most of the country. But for thousands of sick Aussie kids, this hasn’t been the case. One mum witnessed this first hand, when her once vibrant ten-year-old son missed school for almost two years with rare blood disorders. She had to watch as he deteriorated through lack of contact with his friends and tutors, when the hospital became his school. So Megan Gilmore wanted to do something about it, show him that he had a future and a life worth living, and also change the lives of the other sixty thousand children who are sitting at home or hospital right now, disconnected from their school community.

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Daily Coronavirus Check-in: Working parents in Melbourne react to second shutdown Jul 09, 2020

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As you all know, my little family spent a month down in Victoria with my parents at the start of the first lockdown period to have some support with homeschooling and working from home. Now they’re going through it all over again as a second wave of Covid sweeps through Melbourne. All my family are down there and so many friends, who are all really struggling to process another six weeks in isolation. As I sit here in Sydney, still able to go down to the shops, send my kids to care, and catch up with friends, I can only imagine the emotions they’re all going through down south. So, I reached out to a bunch of working parents in Melbourne to find out exactly how they’re feeling.

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Daily Coronavirus Check-in: Do you still want to WFH if this is how it looks in 25 years’ time? Jul 08, 2020

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Sitting at the kitchen table on a dining chair WFH has done shocking things to my neck and shoulders, I believe my massage therapists words on the weekend were, ‘your neck is not good…’ And it turns out ‘tech neck’ is just one of the problems we have to look forward to if we continue to work from home long term. A team of researchers created a fictional character called Susan, who represents what the average desk worker could look like in 25 years if we don’t change the way we’re working from home. Hunched shoulders, weight gain, hair loss and eye strain could all be common issues with our bed-to-desk commute, general lack of movement and decrease in exposure to sunlight. That’s a pretty picture right?! But some people are calling BS on this research, claiming they have found that they’re looking after themselves better while working from home. So I reached out to a bunch of working parents to see how they feel about the Susan of the future!

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Daily Coronavirus Check-in: Tiff Hall’s simple trick to help you hit the ‘reset’ button Jul 07, 2020

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Somedays I just feel like I’m on a treadmill that I can’t get off. Get up, feed small people, try to get ready (lucky bras and make up are off the table right now), get them to school / care, work, try to exercise, try to eat properly, sleep, repeat. My wellbeing usually comes last, and it’s just exhausting. So I reached out to the divine Tiff Hall – founder of online health and fitness program tiffxo for some guidance on how to press the reset button and break this cycle.

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Daily Coronavirus Check-in: Simple tips to get rid of the Covid kilos Jul 06, 2020

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I don’t feel like I’ve been putting that much more food in my mouth since isolation started and I’ve actually been exercising more, but somehow those nasty Covid kilos have crept up on me - specifically around the booty area. So I put in a desperate call to nutritionist, exercise scientist and mother-of-two Brooke Turner to find out where I’m going wrong.

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Daily Coronavirus Check-in: Teresa Palmer on trying to attain our parenting 'Zen' Jul 05, 2020

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I feel like those angry parenting ads are constantly popping up in my Facebook feed. Like is Zuckerberg actually listening to me lose my mind at my kids? I know we all do it. They push and push and push until we yell, then we feel bad and vow to try and find a way to keep our cool. But this parenting gig is damn hard. They push buttons we never thought we had. As they get older I think I’m getting a little bit better at it, but I really wish I could be super chill all the time. Work, life, money, they all add to the stress of life and sometimes that just feels like an impossible goal. One mum who is also trying to find her ‘Zen’ is actress and mum of three Teresa Palmer. She’s actually written a book about it with her friend and co-founder of the popular blog Zen Mumma, Sarah Wright Olsen. It’s called 'Zen Mamas' and is all about trying to help us through pregnancy, birth and beyond. So I asked Teresa to give me some advice on how I can try to attain some ‘Zen’, or least strive for a bit of ‘Zen-ish’.

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Daily Coronavirus Check-in: Ben Lucas reveals how he innovated his business to survive Covid closures Jul 02, 2020

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Look I’m not a gym person, I only started going a year ago after I had knee surgery. So it was really only out of necessity. But I know they’re a sanctuary for a lot of working parents who need a break and to do something for themselves. I’ve also really felt for all the gyms going under during Covid, I’ve heard so many stories of businesses that just couldn’t afford to ride things out and it's just crushing. One that managed to stay afloat by pivoting VERY quickly, is Flow Athletic in Sydney. It’s run by Ben Lucas who is also a dad of two little ones with his journalist wife Talitha Cummins - a previous guest on The Juggling Act. So I reached out to him to find out how he kept his business running with the Covid closures, especially with two little people at home.

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Daily Coronavirus Check-in: Sam Squiers on the lesson girls playing sport teaches our sons Jul 01, 2020

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We’ve had a great break from all the extra-curricula activities that kids do, and it’s been nice not to spend weekends rushing from one thing to the next. But things are starting to kick off again (pun intended) and while I’m dreading standing out in the cold at 9.30 on Saturday morning as my daughter TRIES to play netball, she’s super excited. Mostly about wearing the uniform which I get, it is cute. I grew up in a sporting household and it taught me so many things - Resilience, teamwork, confidence, social skills, and yup, a competitive streak. So it’s something I’m encouraging in my kids too. One person who totally gets that is sports journalist and mum of two girls Sam Squiers. When Sam had her first daughter, she wanted to find a book about girls in sport to read her and couldn’t find any – so she wrote one herself! I’ve read it to both my kids and they loved it, so I reached out to Sam to find out a bit more behind why it’s important to send a powerful message to girls about sport from an early age.

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Daily Coronavirus Check-in: Is it a violation to share our children's pictures on social without their permission? Jun 30, 2020

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Sharing children's pictures on social is something everyone has an opinion on, and before I had my first child, my husband was pretty vocal about us not showing pictures once the baby arrived. I’ll be honest, I didn’t get it. But I decided that if he was that passionate about it, then, of course, I wouldn’t do it, but I wasn’t quite sure why it meant so much. In time my husband changed his mind and now we both put up photos but I didn’t get his initial issue… Recently I posted a pic with my youngest sitting in the pram, with two fingers firmly shoved up his nose, joking that he wasn’t destined to be an astrophysicist. One person asked me about my son’s rights in this situation. Was it fair to not only post pictures of him when he’s too young to say he’s ok with it, but pictures that show him in an unflattering light?

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Daily Coronavirus Check-in: The pandemic has dads pulling their weight more at home Jun 29, 2020

Show notes

We all know that women generally take on the lion's share of domestic duties within the household. Sure, we may have come a long way since the days of Suzie homemaker having the house spotless to greet her breadwinner husband at the door with a martini in hand, but many will argue that not enough has progressed in terms of gender equality over the last few decades. Well turns out we may now have the global pandemic to thank for changing all that.

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