This episode is Part 1 of my chat with Cathy, HQ of a family of 4. Her family unit includes 2 kids and a partner who is unable to be in the paid workforce at this point, and we talk about parenting kryptonite, mental health and some impromptu role reversal.

The Lowdown

– Family of 4
– 1 parent working part-time (3 days)
– 1 parent not currently able to work (recovery from workplace injury)
– 1 at school
– 1 at kindy

  

2:30 Sleep
3:02 Self-inflicted lack of sleep
3:20 Enjoying the silence when everyone else is asleep
4:06 Enjoying the time when no one is wanting anything from me
4:30 Trashy TV and intelligence (the podcast I was referring to here was Ep 6 of Bang Onwith Myf Warhurst & Zan Rowe (which was in turn talking about this article: Enjoyment of trash films linked to high intelligence, study finds)
5:22 Overspending alone time
5:44 Who are the people in your family and how are they occupied?
6:36 Past arrangements
6:53 Workplace injury and the fallout from that
7:22 Thinking of taking a package then plans changed due to partners injury
7:56 Looked for a new job instead
8:08 New role called for full time and it provided some certainty at an uncertain time
9:14 A really difficult and challenging time
9:58 Parenting super powers
10:02 Parenting kryptonite!
10:18 Being family HQ
10:36 Being across everyone's needs
11:10 Partners parenting superpower?
11:28 Dad knows everything
12:38 Superpowers? Or super glue?
12:50 Has the switch to being full time at home evolved his super powers?
12:10 Yes!
13:20 Was a shift worker so previously missing at key parts of the day
13:54 Parenting role has played a large part in the healing process
14:08 Can now take the lead in after school activities
14:34 Coming to terms with 'losing' a job/career
15:10 Parenting with a shift worker
17:44 Really important to have positives to focus on during time of healing and recovery
18:30 Blossoming as a parent
19:46 Taking over the home life reigns while at an acute stage of a mental health issue
20:14 A blessing and a curse
20:42 Focusing on day to day functioning to help recovery
22:18 Being the only dad at school drop off
23:16 Hats off to him!
24:38 Embracing the 'home with the kids role'
26:00 How are drop offs and pick ups managed
26:18 Have good resources for this at the moment.
27:02 OSHC
28:04 Keeping OSHC days to prepare for the future
30:06 Keeping OSHC days to keep routine and normality in difficult times
30:32 Knowing how the kids are travelling during the difficult times
32:38 I think we've done pretty well with guiding the kids through it
34:54 Have you been able to choose your own path?
35:00 Yes and no
35:14 Work now is more the direction I was initially heading
35:46 Situation actually created options
36:00 Going from facing redundancy to having choices
36:36 Making a decision because I had to,