The Secret of Half-Arsed Parenting
Thursday, March 4, 2021 at 9:00AM 
With special guest:
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Dr Susie O’Brien
… in conversation with Bill Kable
There is a toasted sandwich in the cover picture of her book and that leads our guest Dr Susie O’Brien to tell us that a toasted sandwich is a quite acceptable dinner alternative. This is the world of Susie O’Brien where parents can escape all that guilt about not being the best parent in the world and just start enjoying their children.
In Susie O’Brien’s new book The Secret of Half-Arsed Parenting we get an insight that is fun. It is also comforting to know that the conclusions are drawn from research all around the world. And most parents will find sections where they have to say to themselves ‘No doubt about it, that resembles me.’
We all have some idea of the message conveyed in the title but it does not mean doing a bad job. It really means protecting our offspring from bullies and head lice but not from boredom and hunger between meals.
Susie is like the parent whisperer. Parents are not wise to ignore their gut feelings on what to do when they make the million decisions involved in being a parent. If you don’t get the answer from your gut feelings Susie says to avoid social media and magazines for the answers as these will just put more pressure on you.
It is better to look for ways to responsibly give more freedom to our kids as they reach their milestones. It we treat a 15 year old in the same way we treat a 10 year old then the child will not grow and learn to react within the real world.
It really is fun to talk with Susie and to hear how we can avoid the guilt trip, how we can relax and enjoy that limited time we have with our children and even how to handle parent/teacher night without tears.
Dr Susie O’Brien
Dr Susie O’Brien is a journalist and columnist with a PhD in Education. For the last 19 years she has written about parenting and social issues for the Herald Sun and other News Ltd papers, and she appears weekly on Channel Seven’s Sunrise. She and her partner have five kids between them - they’re the Brady Bunch, without Alice to cook dinner every night.
Song selection by our guest: We Are Done by The Madden Brothers