From Playdates to Pitch Decks

Commical – Episode title: From Playdates to Pitch Decks  

Published 07/04/2025 on Chasing Albert website, spotify and apple podcasts.

Marie 00:11

Hi everybody, and welcome back to comical. This is a very interesting episode, especially for all the parents out there. I have Lauren Thornburgh, who's the founder of the village, which is an organization that connects and advocates for working parents, specifically in media, but she's also a mum of two. Welcome Lauren, thanks for joining.

Guest 00:34

Thank you so much for having me here. It's my pleasure.

Marie 00:37

When Izzy came across your profile, she said to me, “Hey, have you heard of the village? I reckon this would be a really cool organization for you to join.” And I hadn't heard of you. And of course, you're still very new.

Guest 00:51

We are. Yes, we launched in May last year, so not even one.

Marie 00:55

That's crazy, but you've had great success. Start by telling us a little what you do. What does the village do?

Guest 01:01

Yeah, so you touched on it. We connect, support and advocate for working parents in the Australian media industry, and that's really with the ambition to, I guess, enable them to have sustainable and successful careers media. Media is a super-fast paced industry, and it was really born out of the Insight between myself and my co-founder, just seeing churn of our colleagues and our friends and great people within our own organizations, leaving because it was just too hard. So, we had our own experiences as working parents in the industry and so that was the motivation, really, to start it.

Marie 01:46

And when you say you saw a lot of your friends leaving, etc, were those friends mums, mainly,

Guest 01:52

um, interestingly, like a combination, sure, like the large percentage of them were mums. But I've certainly had conversations with dads just wanting to create space in anticipation of kids coming into their lives and they are coming. It's not a nine to five profession. There are commitments beyond that, pitching that you do events that you're intended to or expected to attend. Rather so it is about managing that juggle. And we did a survey with the village in 2024 or 2023 rather, it was December, and 80% of people had thought about leaving the industry or had left the industry. So, it is a big problem. And obviously the people we surveyed were parents, and you know, we're here for media agency, for vendors, for publishing houses, for client side. So, it's a widespread issue. It's not sort of specific to one particular industry.

Marie 03:00

When you said it the media agency? So what about creative agencies? PR agencies, all the right, like, do you kind of put media and marketing together, or will you, or is it just media at the moment?

Guest 03:11

Um, I mean, we certainly welcome all parents across the board. There are certain issues within the creative engine industry, and I'm not a part of that industry, and I don't have exposure to that. You have exposure to that industry, so you know, I think there's a lot to be done in that space. We would love to help any parents within that space, but yeah, I guess Lou and I, Lou the co-founder, and I wanted to specifically speak to the people that we interact with on a day to day basis, but certainly not excluding anyone either.

Marie 03:44

And so, what have you done so far?

Guest 03:46

Yes, we have a two phased approach for the business. So, the first phase that we're in right now is about community. And I think we've really, as a society, sort of lost that aspect of community. So, the ABS reports that 73% of couple families both have parents working in some capacity. That's the largest it's ever been. It's, it's up 10% on the last nine years. So we have more working parents in the workforce, and we have, I guess, not that traditional, if you will, set up where the man goes to work and the lady stays at home, and she raises her kids with her village, the people around her who can lean in when she's struggling, or, you know, the support of having multiple children together, interacting. And so our village is gone and we're at work. And where does the mental load go that the woman used to carry at home? It either gets spread amongst both parents or, unfortunately, it does fall predominantly on the woman. And so mental load is a big issue. So again, 80% of people we surveyed said that mental load was stopping them from performing their best, which, you know, on a personal level, I can totally relate to that. At times it does feel overwhelming my endless to do list, and so that was quite an insight for us, thinking about that and what that means when you're showing up at work, there's a whole other part of you that's impacting your day. So, we wanted to build a community where people could share these stories, give each other tips and tricks, find ways to lighten the load, or just have a friend to be able to talk about what's going on with you at that point in time. So that was our first approach, and currently we're offering two streams within that. So, we offer education series where we deep dive on particular topics that are important to parents. So, we just ran one on burnout, boundaries, guilt, those types of things. And then we have a panel that sort of speaks to how that particular topic, it resonates within the industry. So that's one stream. And then a second stream we have is peer to peer mentoring, and we like to refer to it as micro moments of mentoring, because who has time for a long term mentoring relationship, yeah, nobody. So, no working parents, yeah. So, yeah. We run those. We have someone get up and share their story, and then we break people out into groups in accordance with their parenting life phase. So, are you a toddler parent? You go over here are you a school aged parent, single parent. And so that's a real like enabling of us creating communities. We've run a few of these thus far, and we've been told that people create WhatsApp groups off the back of that.

Marie 06:53

Oh, how cool. How many people have done it?

Guest 06:57

We've run three of those. We tend to get about 60 to 70 people at each one at each event. Yeah, and so I don't know in its entirety, but I believe there's been about five or six WhatsApp groups created off the back of that which that's one that's exactly what we want. So that's phase one. And then, of course, phase two, which we're not in just yet, but the intention there is to, I guess, enact change within the workplaces themselves. So, look at frameworks that we can build for best practices within workplaces, and how do we advocate for things that are affecting the people that we serve within our community? So, we've got about 600 members at the moment, and, you know, it's, I was about to say, it's surprising to me, but it's not really like it's still growing on a daily basis. Yeah.

Marie 07:50

I mean, you've done an amazing job at growing a membership base so quickly. Yeah, that's amazing. I think you have almost 1000 in under a year, Lauren, that's huge. And I think it speaks to just how necessary totally this was.

Guest 08:07

yeah, totally, yeah. I mean, I remember on launch day, standing in my kitchen feeling nervous that no one would care. And so, I think we've been quite overwhelmed, and it really has demonstrated to us that this was a need, and when we ideated it, we couldn't believe something like this didn't exist. Exist the amount of times I was on Google, sort of making sure we weren't eating someone's lunch. So, I think it demonstrates to us that we've done the right thing. There's still so much more to do in this space. And you know, I feel equal parts excited and terrified about what we need to be doing to serve this community.

Marie 08:48

I feel, you know, what may actually there's I'll come back to what terrifies me on your behalf. But before that, you mentioned that you were surprised that Nothing like this had already existed. One of the things that surprises me to this day is that the media industry, actually, I'm going to make it broader. The marketing and media industry, right, are not leading the way for working parents, because we're the ones who identify trends. You know? We're the forward thinkers, we're the early adopters, sure, and it baffles me that when it comes to the workplace, the hours, the jobs that are by design, impossible to do in in normal hours, it shocks me that it's still that way I would have expected. And I'd like to think that, moving forward, this industry would be the one that goes, Hey guys, this is how you keep parents in the workplace.

Guest 09:43

Yes, yeah, I look and I've been in media for 20 years, so I guess I've seen a bit in my time. And I think what I've noticed is it's, it is a really young industry, right? And so, it's probably only been in the last 18. To 24 months that we've started to have conversations about age and tenure and experience. So, we're obviously an organization working parents. There's another organization called the experience advocacy Task Force. Glad I got that mouthful out and they're basically catchy. They very good up to try and keep people sort of longer in the industry, so for 50 plus. And so there is also simultaneously a big conversation being had about the juniorization of the workforce, certainly post covid And what does that mean. And I think what that means is, obviously people aren't bringing their experience, their perspectives, their, you know, ability to think holistically about problem solving and whatnot, but also, we're not teaching the next generation, and that makes me really sad. I've had so many incredible leaders over the course of my career that I have learned so many invaluable lessons from. So I am really hopeful that this is sort of not the start, but sort of the catalyst to more change, because we need these people to stay not just for now, but for the future.

Marie 11:21

Yeah, very good point. So the other thing that I was going to say to you that terrifies me on your behalf, also as a mother of two and a business owner and I work full time, is that you also work full time. You have a very senior role at a very big agency. You're a client director at um, and yet, here you are taking this on, yeah as well, and taking it on and doing it well, hopefully growing it yeah and advocate. No, you are. You absolutely are. How the hell are you managing?

Guest 11:52

Um, I was at a talk the other day, and I think Mia Freeman actually covered this in one of her podcasts. When you are so personally passionate about something, it fills your cup, and so I don't mind the additional hours that the village takes of Mine, because it motivates me so much to show up more, to do more. It also is so important in the relationship with my own kids, to be able I have a daughter and I have a son, and so to be able to say to both of them, really, that Mommy and I did change and helped shape the future workforce that you're going to be in that is so important to me. But likewise, like I said, I've been in the industry for so long. I'm not I don't want to leave it. I love it. I love how dynamic it is. I love the creativity, I love the teamwork, I love the clients. I love great campaigns. So yeah, I feel for me, there's space for both. And then, of course, my third role as a mother, which is, you know, just as important, if not more important for them.

Marie 13:02

So how do you manage as a working mum? What? What support do you like? What? What kind of network and systems and processes do you have in place?

Guest 13:12

I mean, shout out to my beautiful school mum, friends who have helped me on the regular when, you know, I'm late from a meeting, or I can't make it, or whatever. So, you know, I think I would encourage that enormously. I was speaking to someone whose parent, whose child had just started kindergarten. I was like, make good friends, because they will make the absolute difference. I don't trust my brain anymore because it is so full, so I'm permanently putting reminders in my phone for things yesterday.

Marie 13:47

Look what I just grabbed. Lauren, I grabbed my phone because, as you're speaking, I'm thinking, Oh, my God, I forgot to arrange someone to pick up my daughter. Can I arrange it while you speak?

Guest 13:55

Yes, do, do do that. So, okay, yeah, a reminder popped up for me yesterday to get the bread, which I'd absolutely forgotten about. So that is, like, that is my lifeline. You know, I have a husband who's quite leaned in and has the ability to pick up things when I can't. And, yeah, I would like to actually talk about the men here for a minute, if I can, because, you know, there's a lot to be done about flexibility and working arrangements for parents, but I think it's equally important that we empower the men in this situation. So there's a national working family survey. I think they do it every five years, and they did one last year, and they spoke about the fact that they had found that it is less acceptable for men to use family friendly arrangements, and of course, they have less access to paid parental leave. And the only way we're going to succeed with such a large cohort of working parents in the Workforce is if we empower them. And when I say we, I'm talking probably more organizations, and then us as culturally as well, to be able to lean in more. Because I don't know that I could do all this if I didn't have a husband that was able to lean in. So, you know, I think that's a really important piece that we need to progress on. And I think organizations shouldn't be scared to encourage and allow for this. There's a YouGov UK survey. I think it was either 23 or 24 and it sort of two key statistics stood out for me. 89% of parents that are offered flexibility more loyal to the organization. And I can attest to that. You know, I've been at UN for five years. Prior to that, I was at wave maker for eight years. You know, if a company offers you that flexibility to be you or facets of you, why would you go anywhere else? And then 86% agree that if they are offered flexibility, they're more productive. And again, I attest to that. You know, the flexibility that I'm offered within my current position means that I can take my daughter to dancing, take my kids to swimming, but also be able to do all the things on my work, to do list that I need to do. So, you know, this kind of perception of, oh, you're clocking off at three, you know, half day. I hope mostly it's gone. But if it's not, it's got to go, yeah.

Marie 16:32

I think that's it. There's so much trust that has to be built to, yes, you know, on both sides, and I can totally understand why, again, as a business owner, why it would be important to businesses to go, you know, we're all for that, but we need structures in place to make sure that the productivity is still there. We're still able to be innovative, that person's still coming in, and that you can make that work, but fundamentally, it starts with the right attitude and just going, we want to make this work, and we believe that, you know, it might take some testing to figure out what's going to be best for the company. Yeah, because you know it's you could argue, okay, well, flexibility. We're going to give that flexibility to parents. But what about if you're not a parent, but you want flexibility too? Shouldn't I enjoy that, even though I don't have kids,

Guest 17:22

of course, of course, and I think that should be across the board. I think covid taught us that we can trust staff to get things done. So like, I'll give you a beautiful example from UN where I work right now, once a month, everyone is allowed eight hours. So whether that's one day or I take mine in parts, but to spend with your family, whatever you deem family to be. So if you don't have kids, and your dog's your family kumago Like you can take your dog for an hour walk, you know, once or twice a week, if you want to that kind of trust and acknowledgement that people have lives. You know, we don't live to work. We work to live like I think that's an incredible way to give back to your employees, beyond just paid acknowledgement, title acknowledgement, etc.

Marie 18:20

So I think it also gives people permission, because I think you can sometimes say, Yeah, God, you should be spending time with your family, but then the workload is keeping you back till 10. So you're like, hang on, if I, if I'm supposed to be spending time with family, where am I getting this time from? So I feel like having something like that in place is that permission. It's that official notice that, yeah, we work hard, and our industry can be crazy, but you have the permission to be an adult and organize your time and prioritize what matters, yes, when you need to. Yes. And I think those things, those signals, are really important.

Guest 18:57

Yeah, someone said to me the other day, and he'll know who he is. He said, We need to look at people, not profit and people's performance, right? Like, what are their outputs versus a you need to sit at your computer from nine till five, and you know, we've, we've come leaps and bounds in that, in some respects. But then there are other organizations who are mandating a four day in the office situation, or five days rather, that's just going to set us back enormously. I was trying to find it before we jumped on here, but I saw a wonderful woman speaking the other day saying that there's never been more women in the workforce than there has since covid Because of flexibility we need that economically. We need that for the cost of living crisis. So, to dial that back does fill me with dread, because I think it's going to have large repercussions.

Marie 19:53

And you know what, depending on what you're reading and the industry you're in, actually that it's the big trend. And at the moment is that a lot of the large organizations are calling for people to come back to the office. Some are saying, come back four but then we're going to move to five. And there's a lot of industry leaders even in the creative and marketing industry, loads of them that are saying you can't be innovative if you're not all together in an office, you've got to, you know, reel in the whole work from home piece. So, it's a challenge. It is how we define it is flexibility. What, you know, is it work from home? Is it just flexibility with a lot looser terms around terms?

Guest 20:37

Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, it comes back to the individual conversation we were having before. Like, on a personal level, on my Fridays at home, I get so much done because I'm not distracted by office chatter or I'm not being interrupted consistently. So, I get it like it is really important to be in the office, to be around people to learn from people, to brainstorm, etc. But I also think we need to be mindful of how people work and how they produce work.

Marie 21:10

Yeah, and you know what the truth is as well? I feel like there's people that deliver and their output is strong, regardless of whether they're in the office or not, and if the output isn't strong, then they're probably not the right person 100% for the job. It's actually not about the work from home arrangement. It's about the talent specifically. Do you think that? Do you think that you could be doing what you were doing if you didn't have a flexible role? What is flexibility for you? Like, do you do four days in the office? what does work look like for you?

Guest 21:45

No, I'm five days a week. But like I said, I do take time, so I finish up early on a Wednesday and Friday to take my kids to their various activities, which I am grateful for, because I don't want to ram everything into a south today. Some kids are high energy kids. That's not for me. But I will be honest. I do jump back on when the kids go to bed, because, you know, I have, well, I've got the village as well to work through, so that, that's what flexibility I have been permitted, if you will, in my role so and like I said, that has created gratitude for me, and is part of, I mean, obviously I enjoy what I do, but it's part of The reason why I have stayed for as long as I have.

Marie 22:44

Yeah, yeah, I probably wouldn't have a business if I had been given flexible opportunities. So, when I had my second kid, which was 10, years ago, now, I didn't have those options. And I was like, How do I do this? You know, daycare, if you're not at that door by six, they're charging you. What is it? 10 bucks a minute? And I was battling traffic, and I tried to get out at 430 to it was just, honestly, it was really stressful, and it was making me sick, if you want to know the truth. So I just went, Yeah, I can't. I would love to, but I can't, but I love my work, and I love my industry, and that's why I set up chasing Albert, but I don't think we'd have existed if I'd have had those opportunities before.

Guest 23:34

Yeah, and look, you know, I obviously come from one angle, but a lot of our community are facing the same things. So in that survey, I mentioned, a quarter of the people we surveyed were unhappy or extremely unhappy, with their return to work arrangements. And so, it's a common narrative out there, the Juggle. But, like, I don't even think juggle is a strong enough word for some of the things parents are facing. And you know, I think our goal is to help advocate, but also empower people to advocate for themselves and understand their self-worth in the roles that they have and what they bring to the table. The Harvard Business Review, because I went on this big research tangent to understand what skills parents bring to the workforce. Crazily, there's nothing out there that actually quantifies it, but the Harvard Business Review sort of spoke about the soft skills that parents bring, empathy, tenacity, patience, prioritization, skills. They're all really incredible skills that people would want in their employees, in the workforce. So, you know, I would encourage parents to understand the value that they bring, not just the concern of, oh my goodness, I need to get out at 430 to make that. Daycare drop off, think about the broader perspective of what you bring and advocate for yourself. Because unfortunately, at this point in time, no one's going to approach you when you come back from parental leave and say, what situation would work best for you, you are going to have to advocate for yourself. So, remember that aspect of things. And then I guess that's another reason why we created the village so everybody else there is helping you in the background, because certainly for women, there's a massive crisis of confidence when they return from maternity leave. And then, of course, sort of, I often say double that, because so much shifts in the media landscape within a 12 month period, right? Yeah, so then you're trying to just remember what an acronym is from 12 months ago, let alone the evolution of AI tech and what not. So, yeah, you know it's a hard space to be in, but that's something else I'd love to do, sort of help parents upskill again, and something I think businesses should be doing, you know, create those courses, spend that time, because it actually gives back to them, right? Once people feel upskilled, they can sort of get back into the groove things quicker.

Marie 26:18

So, you're right, you do feel out of touch. If you take that six, six months? I don't know. I felt six months was okay for me. I only took six months off. I've got friends who thought I'm going to take off a year, and then maybe two, and then had the third, and then just went, I can't come back to this industry. I don't know so much has changed, particularly my generation, 10 years ago or more, when they were having kids, and then digital just moved so quickly. They just felt so scared and intimidated by it. They were like, I actually don't know what I'm doing. I don't want to enter the workforce again. So the upskilling is vital.

Guest 27:00

and, like some skills, are just basic skills that are necessary, irrespective of time. You know, not in the workforce. Can you project manage? Are you a good people person, you know, do you? Do you love brainstorming and creativity? All those things are consistent, but it's just, I guess, the peripheral stuff that changes along the way.

Marie 27:23

Yeah, and it's interesting, when you were talking about learning to value yourself and what parents can bring to the table, particularly around empathy, etc, and the World Economic Forum, year on year, for the past, God knows, how long has been saying that in the top 10 skills required for the future. The majority of them fall under emotional intelligence, yes, yes, which?

Guest 27:46

So, yeah, but before I had kids, I will say I don't know that I was a very empathetic leader. I was very goal driven, very ambitious. Still those things, but I just feel so much more for my team and feel like I want to connect in with them and help them however I can, and I would have never have developed that skill if I wasn't a parent. You think, yes, I do. Yeah, because I mean, pre, pre kids, it's all about yourself. It is, yeah, you know, having kids opens your eyes up to thinking about the needs of others.

Marie 28:29

Yeah, I think it's a crash course. Definitely an empathy it's a big crash course, but you still a skill that can be learned. I mean, we've got a client who works with companies all the time to help them build emotional intelligence, of which empathy is one major pillar. And the results are phenomenal. It is phenomenal so it can be taught. And I think that's something that more organizations need. And if you have a more empathetic culture, you have a better culture. And I think it helps everybody, regardless of whether you're a parent or not

Guest 29:00

100% Yeah, completely agree.

Marie 29:03

What's next for the village? What is, are there events coming up?

Guest 29:07

There are so we have our mentor sessions. There's one in April, but I feel by the time this is out, that'll pass, but we are also going to be at crocodile cans in May, which I believe a large proportion of the marketing cohort will be at. So, we will be there working with what is that? It's It's an event put on by B and T to bring marketing professionals together. It's probably more of the senior marketing professionals. It is a big learning agenda over three days, and they have incredible guests that they line up each year, we will be there with a life design coach to help people create values, frameworks to refer back to when they are making life decisions with regards to work and for. Families. But honestly, we think this kind of framework could help anyone, because I think about it, and we certainly spoke at length with other people before we decided on this. Course, you do Bumble sometimes through life, just certainly as a parent, I just got to get to the next day, the next day, the next school holidays, the next term, the next year,

Marie 30:20

God, school holidays

Guest 30:25

And so how do you create a framework where you are consistently living back to your values, whatever that might be, so that you can reflect on five years time and feel like you did the best for you? So that's, yeah, a session we have coming up in May. We have another education event in June that we're planning so that they're quarterly. We're planning them quarterly. And then we do have something special in the pipeline for our school holidays this year, which I can't speak to yet, but

Marie 30:55

oh no, scoop for me,

Guest 30:58

just acknowledging how hard it is for parents to work and have so much school holidays to accommodate for

Marie 31:08

you know, can we just stop and talk about school holidays for a second? What the hell you know? Christmas, my kids are off school for two months. They their last day is either the fourth or the sixth of December, and they're not back till about the 28th 29th of January. Yeah, yeah. Now I'm, I'm so lucky because I've got, you know, I grew up, born and bred in Sydney, so my mum is close by. My best friend is around the corner. My cousin isn't far my mother in law is a two minute. So I like it is, you want to see a village in action? My Life is one big village, and I just could not. And that's on top of that. I have a very hands on husband, who it's split, 5050 very much. So 5050, and I still find it hard, yeah, and where it stuffs me up every time is school holidays.

Guest 32:04

Yeah, it's all the other holidays over the year as well.

Marie 32:09

I know there's something like, what? How many weeks, 1214, weeks of school and that. So like you feel like you're doing well, do you win terms on and then all of a sudden, kids are home. 24/7, yeah, and that's the scary part. What do you do? How do you manage those ?

Guest 32:25

I mean, thankfully, my kids are young enough they still enjoy vacation care. But I think the other thing that I reflect on a lot, and you know, childcare and daycare is a big reason why a lot of women don't return to work. It's for a lot, not economically viable. They're basically returning to work to have $5 to have one coffee a month. It's it's something that really does need to be addressed. I know it's on the agenda for the government, but until we really solve for this, it is going to hinder a lot of women returning to work, and the same can be said for vacation care. You know, I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford that, but if you can't, you're literally having your kids at home, having to work, having to split yourself between the two, and you're not you're not doing your best work, because you just physically can't. So it is a big problem to be addressed. I was speaking with someone the other day that does group care. So one parent will take a day off. They'll take five, six kids. The next parent does the same, so the kids, so it's sharing the load. And that comes right back to the narrative we were talking about, about the importance of village. If we can enable more things like that, then it will allow us to be successful in managing the both of that, because it is an issue

Marie 33:49

a big one vacation care can be up to 60 bucks a day, if not more, depending on what they're doing.

Guest 33:54

Yes, yeah, yeah. And then there's activities and things like that on top that you have to pay for.

Marie 34:00

Yes, you know I thought when my kids were in daycare, and I'm sorry if this terrifies anyone out there with little babies, just, God help you all. I'm thinking of you when, when my kids were in daycare. Luckily, we could afford it, and we had the subsidy, etc, so it was fine economically. It was expensive, but it was fine. What I didn't realize at the time was how much easier daycare is to when they're when they're older, when they're school. And I remember my mom saying to me, because I'd be like, Oh, how do I drop my baby at daycare? And I feel so bad. And my mum looks them in she goes, now's when you work. Now they have them till six, if you can afford it, do it. She said, actually, it gets harder as they get older. And I was like, how could it possibly get any harder than this? Yeah, yeah. But it's not that it's harder. It's that the challenge changes. Yeah. And so you, you're never, ever going to have just that one solution that works. I feel like every term, every time my kid has a. Brain fart and decides they want to do soccer or something like that, you have to again, rearrange, restructure. It's like a never ending cycle of trying to get your family's planning right. Yeah, you know, we've had to, in my family's situation, I've just had to pull my kids out of stuff. I'm like, not you do one sport that's enough. You do one instrument. You don't need to do two that's just dumb. And they're like, Oh, but I really enjoy and I want to do X. And I said, well, guess what? Mommy's not an Uber driver, and I have to work, and we have to, all of us, make changes and compromise so that we can make the family work, yeah, and that's with help coming out of my ears, and I struggle. And I often think about a lot of people in media or marketing aren't from Australia. A lot of them have, you know, moved here from, you know, the states, or from the UK, etc, and they don't have the parent, the best mate, the neighbor. And I often think, God, they would be having a really hard time. If anyone needs a lot of support, it would be them.

Guest 36:05

Yeah, we had someone come to us with an idea, actually, of creating a community of essentially babysitting for expat parents in the industry. Oh, that is nice hell. I hope that person has continued on that journey. But again, like comes back to the village, you need the people surrounding you to be able to make it work. I also sort of blame social media. A bit back to what you were saying about kids wanting to do a ton of things. My kids are the same because they are exposed to this content of a particular lifestyle that isn't necessarily reflective of the everyday person. So it is, I think that probably feeds into it as well. We're working more. Our kids are being exposed to more. They're expecting more of us, and that sort of leads to the to the overwhelm, the burnout and the guilt.

Marie 36:59

And I think I I don't know about you, but certainly for me, when we just on the topic of social media, it's also from a parent's perspective, seeing how much other parents put and encourage their kids to do that, you start to think, God, is that the norm? Should my kid be doing? And I know when I've had so in my circle of my family and my closest friends, I was the first to have kids, so I had to just figure a lot of this stuff out in my own head. And then when my friends or cousins were having kids, I was like, you know, your kid doesn't have to be an Olympic swimmer by age three. Yeah, yeah. They can start at four. They'll be fine. Or they can start later, you know, or don't, you don't. They don't have to be riding a bike by the time they can walk, just slow it down. It's okay. But I feel that there is that pressure as well, particularly when you're working that, oh, well, I can't afford to put them. Why shouldn't I?

Guest 37:51

Yeah, and like, I am starting to see more and more content coming through, which is the antithesis of that, you know, like women with the bento box slapping in packaged foods to make the rest of us feel better that I'm not there with a star cookie cutter with my child's kiwi fruit, I don't have time for that, so we need to take the pressure off. We can't do it all. And like you know, what is it? 80% is good enough. I think that is certainly a narrative we need to remind ourselves, because there's a opportunity cost for wherever you're putting your energy, and more often than not, it's your own self care.

Marie 38:36

You know, the lunchbox thing i My husband was cutting fruit for the kids. And I go, What are you doing? He goes, I'm cutting the fruit. I said, Why would you set that standard? Absolutely not chuck the apple in. Yeah. And they're done. But he loves the kitchen. So when he's doing lunches, they're getting he like, they're getting cooked meals, right? Because he enjoys it. But he said, whereas for me, where? Well, I'm like, now he's the one on lunchbox duty, because I just that's just not me. I can't I'll die. Yeah, a sandwich is enough and an apple that they can bite into or something. I'm not sitting there cutting cutting fruit for them. And they always say, Oh, you don't spoil us like dad does.

Guest 39:17

Well. So I'm currently reading a book called fair play, and it's it has a beautiful section of the book where it steps out 100 tasks that most households have to navigate. Right whether that's putting out the bins, sorting out play dates, it's for people with kids, but also not with kids. But it is such an interesting observation on how do you split it down the middle? So fair is fair, or maybe middle is not fair for your particular scenario. Maybe you know, you have a husband who has longer work hours, or the woman for that,

Marie 39:54

yeah, what's fair for you? Basically what's fair in your scenario, correct?

Guest 39:59

And so I think. We do need to have more conversations like that within our households, because she Eve rodsky is a woman who wrote it. She talks beautifully about the unicorn space and the unicorn space being that you've sorted out something for both of you that is fair enough that you allow yourself time to do things that bring you joy. So whether that's a dance class or a cooking club or, you know, reading your book for your book club, whatever that might be. Or, you know, my husband likes to cycle your cycling club like but I think that's a really important narrative for parents and non parents also. But how are you creating space for your own self care? Because if you don't put on your life track at first, you know you can't help others. Yeah.

Marie 40:48

I mean, I've got nothing to offer out to anyone out there. I'm the worst at that. I'm the worst at that. It has to get really bad for me before I go, Oh, hang on a second. You haven't done anything for yourself, yeah, but it's, it's funny, because it's so true about it being about a family situation, or you and a partner situation, if you, if you're lucky to have one still in your life, if you've got kids, because it helps so much. I find that sometimes in my situation, what's fair when it comes to the mental load, and the kids load is if I'm carrying 80% of that, because my husband might be carrying the work, working back to 11, taking care of house, rentals, office, move, whatever it might be. And then that change again. There's change. You've got to be so flexible. Personally, yeah, in your life, because then, you know, inevitably, there's a time where I'm slammed and I'm like, I can't you're gonna have to pick up all of this now so that I can now work those long hours. And then we do where it gets interesting is when you're both in a tough space at the same time, yeah, yeah. But with in our house, we're often saying, Oh, it's not a competition, because how was your that was shit. How was yours? It was shit. I was worse than yours,

Guest 42:07

paper, rock scenario, yeah, yeah.

Marie 42:11

But yeah, it is so tough. And I love what you're doing, Lauren. I think it's so important. I really wish I had something like that when I had kids, I think, if nothing else, the fact that people are talking about it and not feeling alone and having someone to say to them, hang on. What you're feeling is normal, but you're still valuable to the workplace. Yes, stop focusing on or, you know, begging for favors, for flexibility. There's a lot of value in what you bring. Yes, that kind of support, in and of itself is amazing. And I really, really tip my hat to you, because it's very important what you're doing, and obviously a lot of work, and you're doing it for you're carrying it for all the parents out there at the moment. And so I feel bad asking you to open the doors a little wider so many industries.

Guest 43:02

I mean that you might be hoping maybe eventually, we have been asked if you'll go into other industries for now, this is what we know, certainly the people and the connections we know, who knows what the future holds. But this is so dear to my heart and such an important topic, so I will forever be passionate about it and committed to it. And I know Lou, my co founders, the same amazing.

Marie 43:27

So if you someone is in media and wants to join, how do they do that?

Guest 43:31

Yeah, so our web, website, the village working parents, comm.au, or you can find us on LinkedIn, or, yeah, drop us a line as well. Hello. At the villageworkingparents.com.au, awesome.

Marie 43:45

And everybody, if you're listening, do that, because I can see on the website, there's some cool stuff coming up. And there's that amazing school holidays surprise that's going to be dropped that, unfortunately, I just didn't have the journalistic skills to get out, so just sign up and you'll find out in time. Thank you, Laura for having me. Thank you so it was an absolute pleasure and amazing work. I look forward to see where you guys. Thank you.