Matty J is officially in the South African jungle, which means one thing...GIRLS DAY! IYKYK.
Ash is holding down the fort, and who better to step in as co-host than Matt's wife, Laura?
While one half of Two Doting Dads is roughing it in the wild, the other half is having the time of his life. No rules, no Matt...
Laura shares her week since Matt left, while Ash deals with Macy and her DIY slip and slide.
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What do your feet look like, Shami? Yeah, no, I need to see them. You've often how much money you've made? That fucking pinky toe? Who is paying for that thing that's hanging on for dear life? What is that?
What is that? Guilty? Guilty?
I did make some money on a certain platform with my feet.
How fard you go up? Was it just feet?
Feet? And Dick? Welcome back to two doting dads. But it's with a difference. Today it's with a doting mum. You interrupt me already.
It's with a doting mum usually looking at Matt, but now I've got the pleasure of looking at Matt's wife and arguably the better parent, Laura Burn.
Thank you for joining us.
Definitely not the better parent.
That will be the judge of that.
I have been solo parenting for one week now and everything surprisingly has been going okay. But I have some very big choose to fill and I need to admit because I feel like I should have done my research and listened to some recent episodes just to get into the listen to it keaven for a little bit. Okay, let me finish the intro then, thank you. I don't know what stories Matt shared or whether I'm going to be telling the truth.
We'll find out.
This is a parenting podcast, the good, the bad, and the relatable, and we do not give any advice real advice unless you want to take it anyway.
Lauria doesn't listen to us. I've just found out. So that's a good start. I do.
I just have been so busy parenting this week that haven't been able to listen as regularly as I would.
I'm not used to running the episode and Matte usually runs the episode, so please.
Bear with me.
Wow, this is Ash feeling completely out of his depth right now? Do you feel confident? Do you feel comfortable? How are you coping with my husband being away?
Look, I'm struggling. It's only been at three minutes. But have you had a This is not about me, This is about you.
Okay, So Matt as I'm sure you guys are all aware he's now in the I'm a celebrity jungle. By the time you're listening to this, it would have been on TV right there would have been a couple of episodes.
Yeah, you potentially have played out. You should have been like four days in or three days.
What did Matt update you guys on before him going away. Did he tell you about how that went with the kids and what this period for us has been like.
Yeah, so he gave us an idea just how chaotic it was in trying to get loose ends tied up.
Yeah, so Matt told I mean, he kind of left it really late. He told the girls that he was going away to do the show, but he didn't really think through the logistics of that. So firstly, he told both the girls specifically that he was going to Africa and he was going on a TV show called I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here.
As a five year old knows where Africa is.
The the thing is she does. What she doesn't realize is what ndeser. So Maley had been going to day it. Marley had been going to vacation care and telling every single person, my dad's going on I'm a Celebrity, get me out.
Of here, and he's going to Africa.
So we rocked up to pick Molley up from school and this was like a week before he left, and the teachers.
Were like, good luck.
On the show, everyone knew, so I know it was meant to be embargoed, but if you live in Bondai, three quarters of Marley, it's Marley May And he also told Lola, and because Lola actually like kind of hates Matt and doesn't really care if he's there or not. Unfortunately he's great dad, but he he's not Lola's favorite.
Yeah, that's yeah. We've we did a period a whole year on that. Yeah.
So he broke it to her that he was going away, and her reaction to that was girl's Day and it broke his goddamn heart.
Oh, I bet because he's worked so hard at the last twelve months of try and it's kind of pathetic how hard you work, because he was like just trying to win her over, and every and every time he won her over last year, you'd come back into the room or I think you were away for a little while there, and it was Matt and the girls, and he was like, she's got no one else, so she's stuck with me. So hopefully by the time that Laura gets back, not forgotten about Laura. But I have evened it up a little bit so that I am a parent, yeah straight away apparently.
Almost almost, but she no to be fair, she goes through these periods where she how do I describe it, It's like nah, nah, actually take it back now. She always just wants me more.
She's she's a manipulator.
I've noticed she manipulates him, I know, but they're good at it.
Macy's also does the same thing.
But one thing that stuck out for me was he was like I had won her over, like we're vibing, it was all good, and.
Then he said, I, he's your own daughter.
He turned around two quick ones and she was behind him and knocked her over.
And that.
Is the unraveling.
And that's how quick it can unravel her.
I've told Matt, I've tried to give him advice on this, because it is a real thing. It's called parental preference, right, when a child prefers one parent over the other.
Is a real thing.
Yeah, again, usually.
Kind of a parenting podcast. I don't know that.
Usually kids grow out of it at three. Lola is almost four and showing absolutely no signs of growing out of it anytime soon. But I like lovingly tried to explain to Matt that I just think, like I think Lola smells it on him. I think he reeks of desperation.
We've said that. I said, I can smell it on you from.
Here, mate, and she reminds me of me. But when I was like twenty years old, like I never wanted to be around the nice guys, and he's so nice to her. I was like, you just need to be a little bit.
More sassy.
Again.
Exactly right.
She's taken all my toxic traits from my early dating years.
That's what this is.
But I think, look, six weeks of her having potentially, if he does well, thing has crossed everyone vote. Six weeks of him being away, I feel as though either it's gonna be it's gonna be like the real antithesis of that, it's gonna be a real issue, or it's gonna be the opposite. Because the other night at dinner time, like she had no one else to fight with, so I was trying to get her fed and it was a whole debacle and it ended in her storming up the stairs and screaming, I want.
Why dead out.
I was like, fuck, if only was here to feel that, or he is so happy.
I know, and no one was, like, no one was there to fight with her, So she was like, fuck, no one If that's a kryptonite.
Did Matt tell you before he went away that he has a leg secret sign on the show for the girls?
No?
So, I mean it's gonna be hard for him. He's been acting very much like in the last couple of weeks that he's been pretty nonchalant about the whole thing, and then when it came actually to crunch time and him going away, he got really emotional and he had this station with the girls. He had a big cry.
He's going to cry. Okay, here's my prediction. We put a prediction out there.
He had a big cry.
This is my prediction on the show is that Matt will cry a lot.
He's the best.
He'll cry a lot. And he'll also get snappy a lot. Because he gets snappy when he's hungry.
I feel like that could be a really a good too, doting Dad's drinking game. If anyone's watching the show and you want to know like when to drink, it's when Matt cries and when he says something piece listeners.
I love that guy.
Matt can be a real fucking piece of work when he's hungry, though, So that might come back to.
About it work with him. Every day he has.
This little sign where he's going to do like a little love heart sign to the camera for the girls.
I'm going to make it about me. You know, I'm going to make that about me. We know who it's really fall.
And go, well, okay, how.
Is this going to go over the next few weeks, because obviously with Matt being gone, could be two weeks, could be six weeks. How many of these are we doing?
As many as you like? Is April doing? He is like a contingency plan.
Did she know that she's part of the contention plan?
Nod. I've got the valuum stock up stocked out so we can get her on. That's the only way we can get about voluum and a glass of wine.
It'll be April just here like.
She was.
I watched that Mac go on TV the other night, any krad Al and I'm still drunk.
All right, We'll see you back here every week.
Then Matt gave was an update on Lola changing schools, because we are in January and there's a lot of change happening, like my kids Marley going to a big school, Oscar going to big school, but Lola's had to change daycares. First of all, I want your side of the story. I'm really going to set mat up here, and I'm really sorry Matt when you do hear this. What is your thoughts on the changing of the school and what's your side of the story of how it happens.
I am horrified by everything, So okay, I feel as though a decision was made that I was not a part of.
And to set the scene on there.
So Lola's been going to one daycare since she was about nine months old she's now almost four, Like she's been going there pretty much her whole life. The daycare teachers from that daycare are also some of her babysitters, Like she has her little friends there, Like she's so ingrained in that daycare, and she's so confident there, and we also know it's an amazing daycare. Likes it's really really great. The annoying thing is is that it's probably about a forty minute drive round trip to drop her off in the mornings, because it's back where we used to live. It's not far, but it's like the traffic can be bad.
In the morning. It's simmy everywhere.
It's just annoying.
Sometimes I look at the GPS and it's like five k's thirty minutes.
I'm like, what, it's exactly that, but it's actually it's And also because Matt leaves it late, so he drops her off during school time like smack on when all the school kids which are across the road a going. So Matt he drops her off a couple of times a week, but I also do the pickup, so I pick her up on the way home from work, so where her daycare was was more convenient for me for a pickup, but more annoying for drop off. Cool establish that he came home this one day and had the idea that because Marley's going to school now, that he was going to unenroll Lola from her daycare and enroll her in a different daycare which is closer by three minutes to us, but it's the same daycare that his sister takes Lola's cousin too, so that way they can co share.
The drop of options. I like that, Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure co share for co brother and sister parenting lovely.
For only ten months though, because our niece is going to go to school like next year, so there's only ten months, so there's still going to be an additional year where we have to do that ourselves. So great in theory, but also not great in theory because when that decision was made, I originally was like, hey, I don't think this is a great idea, but it was also preceded him going and doing I'm a celebrity, and so I kind of felt like, Okay, well, if you're not going to be here, surely the easiest and best route should be the route that's like calm for Lola and fine for her from a transition perspective, and also for me since I'm doing all the pickups and drop offs, Like, why would we make a change that's actually going to make my life harder over this six weeks than anyway. So we had many fights about it. I lost. She's now going to a different daycare, and she fucking hates it. And yesterday, no wonder she hates him, she hates it. Yesterday she cried from the second I dropped Maley at school the whole way there, and then held onto her car seat, screaming as I pulled her out to take her inside. And so this is my question to you, Ash. Matt is no longer here, which means he can't make parenting decisions. Am I the asshole? If at the four week mark and he's not home and I'm still dealing with this, can I unenroll her and send her back to the old daycare?
Send it back now, Send it back now time he gets back. Whenever he gets back, it's going to be too late. But when this comes out, he won't be able to hear it.
So by the time he actually hears this, she'll be probably two or three weeks deep and back.
And it's like, leave earlier. Bro, It's it's so hard that.
I mean, anyone who's been through the process of trying to change their kids to a new daycare, it's it's like it is soul crushing. And when you have to leave your kid with a stranger and they're screaming, crying and their friends aren't there and they've got no friends. And I got into the car and I just burst out crying. I was so sad because she.
Cried in the car or not, because that's the thing.
You can't You shouldn't cry in front of them because then they think I'm never going to see you again. Don't cry. Don't cry on the show. Actually cry, that'd be great for the socials.
Cry damn it.
I couldn't. I had to let she was holding it to Actually she wasn't holding it together. I was holding it together. Yeah, And I was just devastated for her and she the next day I picked her up and she was like, Mommy, I have no friends. I don't know anyone's name, like, she was so so sad. Yeah, and I'm not used to her being sad. I'm used to her being like a fucking ruller recog. She's like, yeah, she's like my sassy kind of like a little bit angsty, angry, little four year old that nothing phases, and here she is being all sad and vulnerable.
It broke me.
Oscar's going to big school this year. But just with work and stuff, we've got to do the odd casual day. Yeah, because April's back at work and I'm here, back at work, and.
I very hard. It's good to see I'm hard work. I had an app today. You started at two thirty. I literally did, what time is it? I'm done. It's two forty two, I'm done.
I So I dropped him and Macy off yesterday and none of his friends were there, but Macy had friends there.
And then I was like oh, I was really I was actually really worried.
And I drove past and Oscar was playing with Macy and someone else's playing, and I rang April up.
I'm like, none of his friends. I feel terrible, and you do feel bad?
Did he cry?
Was there any tea?
No, he's sort of like at the stage now where he's like if Macey's there, he's pretty happy. He's chill because he'll look after Macy all day. He'll play whatever Macy's playing. And thankfully he came home yesterday and some of his friends arrived after I'd left.
If he was hysterical, what would you do?
I've gone back in and got him and spent the day with him. I've done that once.
That is shocking to me.
What do you mean?
I wouldn't have picked that, or that I've got a heart.
Not that.
But just like I think that because I worry, and I thought about going back in and getting her and being like, oh, just I'm not doing this today, like I'll just stay home from work and be with you. But then I thought that if I did that, I would actually just make it worse for the next day. I thought I would just reinforce that if she has a huge tantrum and she cries her eyes out that then more Mum would just come back and get me.
Yeah. See the difference here was it wasn't it was, it was a different cry.
I love that because I think that, I mean, it's very surprisingly sentimental of you, Oush and vulnerable, but I think that you can sew, you can so deeply second guess what's the right thing to do, and everyone always tells you, oh, well when they when you walk away, they're fine fifteen minutes later, like that's kind of the thought when.
And majority of the time that that could be the case. Yeah, but it.
Hasn't been for us this time with Lola, and I know that this is going to be a few weeks and it's going to be really hard. It just kind of sucks that it's coincided when Matt's not here. Had day, but I will, but I will tend to pick her up. At the end of the day, she'd been there to four point thirty and she just looked like she'd been crying all day, and the teachers said, yeah, she cried on an awful day and often was saying how much she misses you, and asked when you're coming to pick her up, and I don't know, Like I mean, I know that she is resilient, and I know that she will be fine the more that we stick to it, But I don't know if I have that resilience in parenting. And then you have that big question of You're like, well, is this one of those moments where like it's going to be better for her in the long run.
I don't know. He sees you being resilient about it. She might be more resilient about it too. You just give up, and what sort of message does that leave?
So I shouldn't send her back to her audation podcast now sorry, where we unpack our feelings, hold each other and cry, and maybe it won't just be Matt crying I will also be growing by the end of the show as well.
I would give it how long has been two weeks? In two weeks? Give it another week? Okay, that's true.
I had planned on giving it four to six weeks, So like I was going to give it potentially until that comes home. Is this I do hope he stays in there longer than two weeks, Like if he comes home first, I think we've overshot it with how excited we've been and how much like.
Whoa you better do? Really well? Imagine if he gets out first, I don't think so, it'd be worse than him in there, Like there has to be someone If ray Gun goes in, she's out first, surely do you know what they'll say, there's no kangaroos alouded here and now bounce you away out of here.
There's been so many I think it's a very big possibility it is going to be her by the time this comes out. Well know, so like we're all going to know that she's in there or not. But anyway, well that is all the updates in the Burne Johnson household.
I can't wait for a couple of days. I want to see the girl's reaction. I'm going to watch this season.
Are you going to come to our house potentially on Sunday night?
You guys should, That's a great idea, come.
And do a watch party. I've invited a lot of people over.
But can I be drunk?
Yes, you stay, stay the night, do have.
An event in the afternoon, but I can come afterwards because I'm a busy man. You are so popular.
I'm going to the basketball Okay, so you will be drunk. Great, perfect, that's exactly how I like you. Actually ash what has been happening in your household.
She's taken it upon herself to toilet train herself.
Well done. I always knew she was a genius.
Well we look, we're trying to we're trying to toilet train her, but only because she's pretty much forcing it upon us. She's just keep taking a nappy off everywhere. So we're and we're look, we highly encourage it straight away.
How old is Macy now?
Just three?
It's time?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I'm like with her and I was like, oh sweet, because we were going to anyway.
So how do you go about the toilet training? Like, how do you approach this?
So during the day, we're in undies and it's the constant do you need to go the toilet? What do you do if you go to need to go the toilet? She's got a little toilet shaped potty, like a proper looking toilet thing, which she loves.
It's pink, it's.
Beautiful, gorgeous.
I wish I had one when she goes. When we can get you on from child size there, yeah, I'd use it. Although we've I've heard about your shits. It's full to the single use single they are because you can take it out, put it in the toilet, wash it. Obviously she loves it. But she just disappears, like where's Macey? And you looked down the hall and she's sitting on it, which is great. So she's really good. She the first little while, she would just I don't know with kids, if they're into something, they're doing something, they just piss, right what like?
So like early time, you mean she's distracted, she's not thinking about the toilet.
She's real simple. She'll just weak because you think she forgets that she's not in a nappy anymore.
Do you have underwear on her?
Yes?
Okay, that's where you're going wrong. Pantless so no pants at all, and you just like you have to just suck it up and do three days staying at home. Don't stuck the piss up, just stay at home.
Oh damn, easy, clean up a paper straw for the environment. I've think of the turtles.
You've got to do three days of no pants, no underwear, just be at home. So it's like as close to the potty as possible, so she can easily access it. But it's almost like I find that having them with no pants on is their constant reminder that when they need to go, they need to go to the toilet, where when they've got underwear on, they think it's a nappy, so they're not actually thinking about the fact that they need to go.
So I am.
I mean, one thing that I think we we didn't have as many struggles with when it comes to like parenting, was the potty training thing. I had a friend who was like, just once you've made the decision, don't.
Do any of this.
Oh, we'll put a nappy when we go out of the house and then we'll They're like, you just got to You've got to bite the bullet. You gotta go three days, hardcore, no pants for three days, just stay at home, and within three days they will be so close to being potty trained that you can like manage it way better.
We're way past the three days, okay, unfortunately, but like we still wears a nappy when she goes to bed, because yeah, of course she every fucking day long still has a nappy. Yeah, but she takes it off even when we were leaving the house. We're still in Undie's work. We had ditched the nappies during the day, which is great because then we'd be like, we can't go anywhere into your weed, right, And I think it was like two or three days in it was really just after Christmas, and we were to this new park that's sort of been done up near our place in the afternoon.
Great and it's got like a really big, windy slide, amazing fun.
Kids are playing, having a great time and this is going it's perfect. And I'm at the bottom of the slide and I just see a trickle of what I thought at the time was water and it slightly built up a puddle at the bottom of the slide, and I was like, what the fuck.
There's kids. There's more than just my kids there. I was like, what the fuck is this?
And I was like, maybe someone's poured like a bottle of water down there. And then Macy comes sliding into her own pool of pits.
It's Macy's own water slide.
She literally and I was like, what the fuck and she slipped her and then she gets off the slide and goes it's wet, like she.
Didn't know, and I was like, fuck, how'd you pack spare clothes.
We did.
We packed spare clothes, thankfully, but like we didn't have any wipes to wipe this slide down.
Fuck it, that's someone else's problem. Macey's got her own wet and wild going on. She's just like who can't put over Christmas?
So I got the what she was in. She was in a dress.
I took the dress off, put her in a new dress. I sent oscar up there with the wet dress to come back down the slide to clean the wee off the slide.
That was very responsible of you. I can't be sure that I would have done that.
There was people right there, and I think they would have walked away if there was no one there, I'll believe in that piece of dry out.
It's like when your dog does a poo but it's nighttime and you're like, could I get away with this? Should I pick this up? Or the always I always do?
Always the fake pick up my old man does used to do. The fake pick up is the.
Fake pickup where you just pick up next to it, but you don't actually pick it up. Yeah, don't know what you're talking about.
Me where these things, my friends where it would be like if you had went to go pick up your dog shit.
Everyone someone would fill me been.
Like, oh.
So childish.
There is still so from when Matt and I like when The Bachelor was on air a million years ago. Now there is still Pat pictures and it's a series of Pat pictures of just of me picking.
Up dog shit. That's good gear.
And it was a full Daily Mail article just about me being environmentally conscious and how I clean up after my dog.
So if anyone know you eat it after.
Tough times back.
Then, yeah, I feel like.
With dog shit is if you don't pick it up, you're just going to step in it along the line. It's a cycle.
I think like karma, it's karma.
I saw this fantastic TikTok or Instagram or something the other day and this mum was talking about how she was going through the stage of potty training, right, and she said, the thing that's the hardest is when you know that your kid has done a shit somewhere, but you just don't know where, right, so I can smell it, I know that it's happened.
You become a bloodhound like a truffle pig.
So she was walking around the house documenting like where is the turd?
Where is it? It's got to be somewhere. That'd be a really good idea for a book. And where's the book? Where's the turd?
And the little boy has fallen asleep. He's asleep like next to the couch, so he hasn't fallen asleep in his bed. He's asleep just like next to the couch on the ground. The mom's walking around trying to find the pooh oh. She finds it. It's in his hands, holding on to it next.
To his head.
I'll try and find this. It was absolute goal.
How comforting.
You know how kids have that aversion where they think it's theirs, like they sometimes kids get upset when you flush it down a toilet or whatever because it's their part of their body.
Yeah, so he was just holding on I store all my semen, jess face. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Where do you put it?
Where do you put it? Never you mind? Yeah? Sorry?
To sell it on only fans, you would do something. It would be a slide business completely.
There's no swimmers in there, I know.
But it's like the woman who sells her farts like it's of no use, but like someone buys it really there's a woman on Yeah, there's a selles of farts. Yeah, there's another person that they're unfit sweat the dark holes I go down on the internet.
You never you mind? How much money can I make? Do you think?
I don't know?
Ash?
How much did you make from selling.
Feet of your business? None of your business anyway?
So yeah, Like I know, when when I changed Macy's nappy, if she's done it, she won't she has to pull it in nappy still.
She might be sitting on the toilet, but she has to be wearing an appy. Oh the comfort. Yeah, But I like whenever I try and change it, she's like I want to see it, you know, like there's a there's a connection that they have with it.
I think every parent can like remember that, or if they're going through themselves now, like the time when your kid's doing that transition of toilet training and they want you to put a nappy back on them so that they can go and do a poo. So you put a nappy on them, and then they'll go and hide behind the couch and go red face. But you know that that's what they're doing. But they need the security of the nappy because yeah, poo's are just a whole nother kettle of fish.
So Macie will go into and for some reason she picks our bedroom to be her place to pooh. I would too, Yeah, just shit on my fucking pillow, not your pillow.
It's just a it's comforting, you know, being close to mom and dad.
And she can't it's a vulnerable moment. She can't pronounce the letter T, so like I'll come up the hallway and I hear this not yep. She's not ready for me to change it, so she's like, not yep, not yep, and then I'll walk in and it will fucking s.
So Macy is the sweetest little thing.
She is cute.
She's so cute.
She is cute.
Can you get a record of not yep, going there somewhere the cuteness that is little she is.
Yeah, she's she's very she's very cute. At the moment, she's sort of trying to say more words like Oscar was such a yapper. He is a yapper like his dad. It's just fucking yeap, yep. Yeah, I'm just like, fuck me, He's.
Like, do you know what he's like?
So my grandmother can talk the leg off a chair. Literally, she can talk underwater with a mouthful of marbles.
He's just like that.
Well, at least you know that he's got some good genes. At least you know that that's your son.
Maybe I don't know where she came from. She's a ginger and she's white as a goat. She glows in the dark.
Even I was suspicious.
Yeah, I was like, that's the that's the milkman's.
People explained herself on this one. Yet, Yeah, getting canceled. I do hope that I don't get you guys cancer And Matt's done a.
Really good It's meant to be, is it? It doesn't matter.
I have a question for you, and it's I wonder if it's something you've experienced with your kids. So, and I know I talk about Lola a lot, and that's probably because Molly's Molly is like quite reliable. She kind of doesn't do anything that's outside the ordinary in terms of like she's very consistent in her behavior and in her personality. She really and she's like it's in the way she gets ricky because I'm a creature habit, and that's a creature the same I am too. I'm like, same lunch every day, Like I am such a person that likes to do the same thing on repeat.
Like a serial killer.
Yeah, really similar, similar traits when I think about it, And I've always identified just.
To listen to if I go missing. You know, the number one suspect is go on.
Well, okay, So Marley's consistent. She also is like a little bit of a you know, an A plus student kind of thing. Like she's very smart.
She's a very humble brag. This is a humble parent.
My child's genius.
She's so clever.
Whereas Lola's a bit more radical. You don't know what you're going to get from her, right, Like she is the outlier and it keeps life interesting. And I think it's a second child thing, but who knows, it could just be the wild card of parenting. So Lola is now in a phase where if she hurts me, I'm in the wrong. So she scratched my face yesterday. She got so angry at me that she she lashed and scratched my face. This was preceding her screaming I want my daddy. She she did it to the cat and I said, don't do that to the cat. So then she turned around and did it to my face, and I was like, hey, like, we don't do that, and that really hurt. Like I got upset because she got me straight in the eye, but I didn't get angry. I didn't yell.
I was just like, WHOA like that?
No, No, I didn't.
I was really like, WHOA like that? Like, you don't do that.
That hurt mummy, Like mummy, Mummy's upset. That hurt me. And her response was.
Yo, hurt me, and shet Emotionally.
I'm like, yeah, like I manipulated her because my hurt upset her. So then now she storms off and she manages to twist a situation.
Gaslighted, just gas gas it by four year old, just manipulating the whole household.
So she manages to I mean, obviously, don't apologize. I'm not like a battered mom. But at the same time, I'm like, how do I explain to you that actually you're not always the one that's the victim in every situation challenging?
I don't know neither. I don't think I'm doing a good job this parenting thing.
I remember Macey hit April once at the beach, which tiny little Mazy.
It was like.
She patted April and shop technically she patted April on the back, but like it was at the beach, so like skin it was made a slap. And I think like Macy's the one who cries. They might be embarrassed that they know they've done the wrong thing in front of you or to you.
Yeah, yeah, but it's not and I'm sorry.
Cry, it's you hurt me. Cry.
Yeah, but I think I'm angry you make me feel bad.
I think that's a knee jerk trigger response because they don't understand the emotion or what it's called. I think they feel like I know when Oscar accidentally the other he poked me in the eye. It was it was a blatant accident. And my reactions straight away because because it fucking hurts you get poked in the eye. You've only got two of them, and you can lose them pretty quickly.
I reckon.
I can imagine you were upset.
They're bits of jelly in your head.
We're all we all know what I balls up.
If someone put their mouth over your eye and sucked hard enough, it had come out. That's what we're dealing with here.
I don't think that's true.
Would should we try go yet?
Anyway, he poked me in the eye and it was an accident, but my knee jerk response was oh fuck, and he got really upset, like you saw it.
No, I didn't swear. I actually didn't say fuck. I just said that for comedic effect. I was like ah. I was like ah, noticeably it hurt and it was clearly an accident.
But he then got upset around me, like I forced his finger into my eye, and I think it's the same thing. I think maybe she doesn't know the response or the emotion. I'm just going to get more upset.
Yeah, it's like I'm going to get upset because then it counteracts.
It's like, yeah, I don't know how to react when I've done the wrong thing. So instead I screamed for my father, who I actually don't want to know actual more. If he was here, I hit him too.
Poor Matt got it. Yeah, he really drew the short I miss him, and he drew the short straw with that. And I know that we're making jokes now, but in a week's time I'm going to be so sad. I am a pathetic puddle without that man, never leave me, Matt. When you listen to this, all right.
I hope you anyway, we're going on track it. I've got a scenario. I want to run by you.
Great, that happened, not to me, I witnessed it. I'm a good people watcher. I love people from the bush.
That's that's a peeping tom. That's different. You look outside, you you can.
Get that in the suburbs down by someone's house.
Yeah, yeah, through the window when they're in the shower. It wasn't me. I just happened to witness it while I was stalking someone masturbating. Sorry, yes I was. We were at the park and.
This particular park has a basketball court next to it. It's a half court just to paint your picture, thank you.
And there's it's not overly busy.
There's a teenager I'm going to say teenager here's probably twenty, that's how old I feel.
I am him and his girlfriend.
And he was playing on the basketball court along with another little boy that had a ball.
And then there was a mom there right with her pram.
She had a baby in the pram and she had a smaller kid about Macy's age two or three.
Around there somewhere the smaller ones out of the pram.
But the lady was standing in the middle of the basketball court, directly below the hoop pretty march. Why I don't know, with her pram and her two year old kid that's running around and so.
Wait, was there another kid that was in the pram or the two year old kid was the kid that was in the prem I.
Know there was a smaller baby babies. She's standing there in the middle of the basketball court used predominantly for basketball, and there are people trying to There's a guy trying I watched him for a while because he was like talking to his girlfriend and then saw they were there and waited, like politely waited and was like, I want to play.
I'm here to play basketball. You're in the basketball court.
Yeah, And then he's gone, fuck it. He started to bounce the well just around to sort of give the idea that you're in the middle of the basketball court here. I know, your kids running circles around the thing.
Whatever. There's a whole playground right there for that sort of stuff.
And then he sort of stands next to them a little bit like as he's kind of like edging them out to be like, can you if a ball hits your kid, it'll probably not the kid out.
You're standing in the wrong spot.
And she he has just completely ignored him, and he's gone to thrown the ball into the hoop okay and she turns to him and goes, you could hit my kid with that ball, and he and I watched it. He stood his ground. He said, this is a basketball court. And she's like, you need to be more careful. You need to be more careful. You could have hit my kid with your ball. Blah blah blah blah blah if it wasn't a basketball court and there's a ball flying around and we.
All know how much you like basketball. I love so I understand got to shoot some hoops.
Yeah, And he stood that.
He stood his ground and was like, Hey, you are standing beneath a hoop okay with a pram with a newborn pretty much a baby in it, and you're letting your two year old run around on a basketball court with no basketball, and then you want to have a dig at me for doing what the purpose of this is.
I have a question for you, what side of this argument do you sit on.
I'm on the I'm on the guy kid who wanted to play basketball side.
I am, but I think he went about it the way. I think he lacks the ability to have a conversation. I think the smarter way would have just been, hey, do you mind moving? There's a playground right there, and he's perfect and we want to play. I'm also saying he's a teenager too. Yeah, I know, I get that, But I also think that like, just because you might technically be in the right, doing something that then puts someone in danger puts you in the wrong. That's the problem, right, It's like the way, it's the reaction to the problem that then means she probably reacted in a way that she wouldn't have had he just said, Oh, we want to play basketball, could you move?
Yeah? I also think like some self awareness.
Yeah, and I and I do genuinely think and this might get me in trouble from like other moms maybe, but they're they're definitely our parents who think that them being parents is the most important thing, Like that they're that there's this sense of like, well, I have a baby, and I have a pram, especially a really little baby, you kind of expect that everyone else gets out of the way for you, I think to some degree, and it doesn't always work like that. So maybe she is someone who has that sense of entitlement. Yeah, but yeah, no, I don't think that in that situation. I am completely on his side. I just think you went about the wrong.
Way for sure. For sure, I felt I feel like anything communicated with communication, right, But then it just comes down into a pram.
You're standing directly under a fucking basketball hoop, for God's sake, with a baby in your pram and your two year old running a mark next to a playground where they can do that stuff safely.
Yeah, yeah, I understand your fury. I am on your side.
She this is the thing, right she She stormed off after pulling the I'm the mum card, stormed off, sort of passed me and looked.
At me to be like, I'm on your side. I was like, oh, I just don't make eye contact.
I yeah, I don't know.
I don't know.
If my thing is is like maybe I would have reacted like her as well. I think I not on purpose, only because like if I'd done something like that without realizing, but then a kid who is still a kid, like a young guy, reacted in a way that was a bit reckless. I probably would have turned around and pulled the mum card of like fucking grow up, you little shit.
You know, at the same time, you've got to be You've got to be like, it's not all about me.
Can I tell you one time that I was feeled? I mean, I probably could just say this, So I've got actually content to talk about the next time on this podcast.
But whatever, I'll blome a load the nut of content.
The one thing that, like I thought it was that next to mat sorry, the one thing, the one thing that comes to mind when I think about like being absolutely enraged as a parent, like like to the point where I was like I wanted I've never been so angry that I wanted to hurt another person, right, And I was like, I'm gonna spit on this girl. I was furious. I'm want to break her windscreen wipers. Like it was road rage as well, so like like a different kind of rage when you're like it's like a you can't even describe its.
Behind a windscreen.
So Lola was a newborn baby. Well, actually that's a lie. She must have been Oh when was it okay? Irrelevant? She was little, she was little. I had Marley in the car as well, and we were driving around. It was like peak fucking Christmas. So she must have been like ten months then, so or nine months. It was peak Christmas time. We were trying to drive around to find a car park in Bonnet Junction. I had been driving around for forty five fucking minutes and this was like Christmas Eve with two kids in the car. Don't ask me why I was doing it, but I was. Marley's screaming, Lola's screaming. All I needed to do was duck in and get one thing. And I had been circling around where the parent's parking the cars are anyway, I had my indicator on to go into this car park, and this other woman just zipped in and took the parent, like the woman with PRAMS. It's got a picture of Prams. She zipped in and took it. And I then, like, I obviously caught around and I was like, oh my. I was like, dude, I have two kids in the car.
You can hear them.
You could see I was going into that park and you just took it. And she goes, well, that's your fault for having children, and I.
Was like, well, Oh my god, that's warranted.
That's just my rudeness, so angry.
That is outright, that's outrageous.
I called Matt and I was like, I am going to snap this woman's windscreen wipers off, and he was like, don't do it. And I was like, I'm going to buy a smoothie and throw it on her window, and he was like, don't do it. He talked me back off a ledge. Oh my god, but that is my Roman empire. I think of that moment all the time all the time. I'm not a rage filled person.
No, I know.
I know that, and I wanted to physically armor.
Yeah, look I think that. Look, that's just straight up rudeness. I was like, I wish your mum never had a child.
I think she was swallowed.
I was. I was filled with I was filled with it. I could have wow, so many, so many. And there's the thing when you think back that you think what I could have done, But I should have said what I can say. So when he missed.
Opportunity, I said nothing because I was so startled, and then all of the responses came to me.
For weeks afterwards.
I'd be in a shower brushing my teeth, and I'd be like, Laura, Yes, it's time for some listener questions.
Yes, it is good. You read my mind, right, I've got one for you. Okay, So this comes off the.
Back of a do you call this ask two doting darts? No, just listen to questions.
Just listen to question.
Should get a name for this segment asking cart's good?
Can you cut that out? All right? What do you have for me? Okay?
So we have a guest on the podcast at a while back, Steph Claiar Smith, who is currently pregnant.
There has never been a more attractive pregnant person like she just frighteningly. I never knew I was attractive to pregnant women, but here we are.
I know, like like she popped out so like perfectly forward. If she was if you looking at her from the from the back, you'd be like, oh, there's Steph. And then she's like, oh, I got you're pregnant. Yes, yes, off the bait. And she's having trouble with her eldest child his name, Yes, she hasn't asked me and asked this question.
But notice that she's having problems with his sleep and how clingy he is.
But we have had a question from a listener similar circumstance, so I thought we'd touch on it now.
The question.
I knew that Steph Klasmith really wanted advice from us, so I'm.
Glad that she doesn't want to advice from us. She might from you, not from me. I think she's doing just fine.
Yes, So the question is, I'm currently pregnant with my second child. My first, who is four, is acting very clingy. They won't let me go to sleep.
What do I do?
Oh man, that's so hard. I mean, there's probably lots of things that you can do in this situation. I would probably check, like as in, like, you know, have a little mental check and see if you think you're spending enough one on one time with them, because big changes happening. Kids don't understand what that change is, but they know that a baby's coming, which means less attention for them, less time for them, and that mum's occupied with something else, you know, and there's lots of excitement talking about this new baby. But I think because like Maley and Laula are really close in age, and I think one thing that helped us was getting Maley excited about being a big sister and about all the things that it's going to mean for her as well.
That's not to say that once.
Laula came, like she was so jealous and it was really hard, and we had loads of those clinging periods, but trying to make it more about her rather than about the baby. And also the second thing that we had to do, which helped, like I can't even tell you how much it helped, was just me having really like designated one on one time with Marley, so like I would take Marley to go and get her nails done, or I would take Maley for a walk just us, so we'd go get ice cream. And I know that, like you obviously can't just leave the baby at home because it's in your belly, but it's like just not with dad, having time just the two of you where you don't talk about the baby, you don't talk about pregnancy, and you just focus on them and their little wants and needs. Like I don't know, I think that that's probably all you can do. Like it's only going to be a couple of months, it's a phase.
But the fact that like not letting mum go to sleep, yeah, that means everyone's tired in the house. At what point did you just go jump in to bed with me and that your time and create that bad habit.
But then then you've got.
To break note because then you've got to break that habit once baby comes along, and then that's like hell on earth, literally hell on earth. I also that kind of question in this time. I think we can all do it where like, when you're pregnant, everything it almost becomes part of your personality, right, Like your personality becomes that you're pregnant. Everyone talks about your pregnancy, everyone's asking about it. It's like all of the focus goes from everything else in the world to the fact that you're pregnant. That's like a really exciting thing. And I wonder if like you're little kid is picking up on that and they feel a little bit like, Okay, well, the most exciting thing that's happening in.
Mum's life is that mum's pregnant. Yeah, what about me? Yeah?
And everyone's talking about the pregnancy and we're always talking about the baby. But like, but like I'm here, you know, and kids are like in built. It's a I was actually listening. It's probably going too deep, but whatever, we'll go there. I was listening to a child psychologist talk about how siblings are actually really in competition with each other, Like as much as they love each other, they also see each other as like a direct threat, a direct threat, a direct threat to their attention source, or a direct threat to the thing that keeps them safe and makes them feel loved. And so it's almost like it's started already, but for you, it's just the baby's not born yet, but that direct threat is still there that you know, that little child still knows fuck, like, I gotta work so much harder for mum's attention now.
So it's like all the attention has been taken away from you when it's been with you for the whole time.
Yeah, I mean, I look back on having Lola and I My biggest regret is that I think I loved it at the time, the idea of having them really close together, and I love it now, But when they were really little, I found that it made Marley grow up too quickly and she no longer was the baby, even though I look back on photos and I'm like, holy shit, you're in a nappy, you were a baby. Oh yeah, they were only nineteen months apart or something, and I think that that was a bit unfair on her because she didn't get to be the baby for very long, and she kind of got thrusted onto Matt and I took Lola, and I don't know. I now look back and I understand why she had the moments of like neediness that she had, But at the time, I was like, oh my god, this is so hard. Get off me, Let me go to sleep. You know, it's hell on earth when you don't get sleep.
It's the worst. It's the worst part of those early years of parenting.
Yeah, So do you think that, like maybe the work can be done during the day, spend just a little bit more one on one time and make it about them, you know, doing that last bed bath routine that you would do with them one.
Hundred percent one on one time. And if that doesn't work, melotonin.
Forever, I'm still sleep with my mum, you would.
Both the kids are in the bed now with me. Now that Matt's not here, Oh yeah, as soon as I.
Go away or I'm not there for the night or whatever it might be. Oscar's he's got yeah, he's there. He's like, what do you mean you're away tonight, like you.
Bear, your spot is still warm, and Oscar just like slides on in. I just worry, like when Matt comes home, he's never going to be able to sleep in the bed again.
We've gone back to square one. That's the dream. I'm going to finish the episode now, I'm nervous.
What are you nervous about?
Don't know what we do at the end. What do you do? We all get naked, just your first she's back there to work and he's just.
Naked the whole time.
You can only see from the neck up.
Anyway, guys, that is it from us. Thank you for having me on the podcast.
Yes, you'll be back next week. I will be so. If you do have questions for Laura on the Facebook group I've asked.
Maybe I'll put up a question box as well. If you have any parenting to any dad questions that you want a mom to answer, I'm here, cheeky plug. If I've enjoyed this episode, please leave review five stars. If you're going to leave a review, you'd hope it's five stars. Anything less than that would be annoying, wouldn't it is?
With this one, we got one saying get your own slogan and it was like, must be nice.
It was so fun.
I did read that. I did.
Did you see the one that was just like no, it was one star anyway?
That is it Join us on socials as well, two doting dads on Instagram, like I said, the Facebook group also TikTok. We also have a couple of calendars there where else can I plug in this little section here?
You do. There's actually quite a few of the raunchy ranch calendars that are at my house currently. And I think that if you want to get someone at present in January, now is the time to get a calendar to get your life in order for twenty twenty five. Just never mind the little typo one March. Apart from that, it is perfect well said. It's a beautiful, beautiful calendar also, and I think before we wrap this up, we have a very very important request.
Please go and vote for my husband.
Whether you've enjoyed this or not, if you've really enjoyed it, the way to keep that away longer is by going joining I think it's ten play. You've got to sign up and you can vote for Mattie Jay in the jungle. Let's see him eat a zebra asshole. It'll make everyone happy. Session with this zebra assholes running, it's kind of just a rotting joke with Matt and I.
I want to actually get him a zebra's asshole.
That's it from us.
See, Hey guys, I'm trying to get pregnant, are you? I'll tell you with a baster.
Matt just is we're using we're using condoms. So when I just go and fish them out of the bin, that's a lot I don't two. Doting Dance Podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and the connections to land, see and community.
We pay our respects to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torrestraate island the peoples today