Meet

Ahead of this weekend’s big day at the polls, we sat down with Leader of the South Australian Labor Party, Peter Malinauskas, to find out a little bit more about the proud South Aussie Dad. Not only did we ask about his party’s priorities for families, but also the really tough, hard-hitting questions like where he finds knock-your-socks-off good coffee in Adelaide and his favourite episode of Bluey (because, let’s face it, every parent has one!).

“They grow up so fast. It happens in the blink of an eye. It seems like just yesterday they started school. All these well-worn cliches about how fleeting childhood is are sadly true.” Bec Morse shares her heartfelt letter to her oldest daughter who’s just graduated high school.

Tara Mitchell is one of Australia’s leading infant and toddler sleep consultants, helping literally thousands of families through one of the toughest experiences parents can go through: sleep exhaustion. We get to know Tara and share her top five tips to troubleshooting sleep issues.

Chances are you’ve seen one of Comedian Josh Hawkins’ viral social media posts clocking up the likes and shares on Instagram. The internet just cannot get enough of @hijosh…and neither can we! For the uninitiated, Josh is the rad-dad and funny-guy who’s basically made a full time job out of recreating his baby daughter’s milk drunk facial expressions on the gram, garnering not thousands…but millions of views. The same guy who’s the comedy genius behind The Bachelor and Married at First Sight lip reading videos that have just about a million shares a minute across social media when the shows are airing and —in between all that— is also an everyday dad of two and loving husband to wife Catherine, who he says makes it all possible!

Adelaide raised Monica McInerney has over a dozen successful adult novels under her belt. The kind of well known, best selling, page turning novels that we’ve all heard of, probably read most of and definitely recommended to our book club. Now it’s our kids’ turn to enjoy the magical storytelling Monica weaves with her words, with the release of Marcie Gill and the Caravan Park Cat scheduled for November; a summery tale about a young girl, a cat called George and a magic wishing stone.

Design experts and TV personalities Alisa and Lysandra Fraser have welcomed a new addition to their al.ive body hair and body care range – and it’s for the soft and sensitive skin of the smalls in our lives. We chat with Alisa and Lysandra about creating the ali.ve body range, their success in business and following their passions, as well as what’s next for them in 2021 and beyond.

When Naturopath Sonia Tzerefos’ was pregnant with her second child, she and her husband thought they were pretty well prepared for the next challenges life would bring. They just didn’t realise how big the challenges that presented themselves were going to be. We chat with Sonia about her son’s Autism diagnosis and how she has helped her family thrive by focusing on the importance of gut health.

Kate Jones and Mandy Hose have experienced the highs and lows of parenting – and they wouldn’t change a thing. The pair met a decade ago and bonded over their premature twins with additional needs and their remarkable capacity for love, laughter and swearing like a trooper. As the mothers grew closer, however, they confided that they felt ‘on-the-floor lonely’ sometimes because nobody was talking about what it was like for families like theirs. It was time to give their community a voice. We chat with Kate and Mandy about their new book and the importance of finding your tribe.

When the original founder of SA Mums in Business stepped aside from running the networking community and business directory for SA women, members Jess Engleson and Sandra Senn knew they couldn’t let that be the end of SA Mums in Business, but rather a new beginning. We chat with Sandra about what SA Mums in Business is all about, their plans to reinvigorate the brand and what Mums can expect when they sign up.

There have been a lot of career highs for leading legal firm Partner Amy Nikolovski. From being made Partner, to Managing Partner and President of the SA Law Society, Amy’s made it happen. We chat with Amy about the pressure on women to have children, the expectation versus reality of being a working mum and her advice to other women working in law.

REBECCA MORSE: “It’s my take-out message for you in this issue of KIDDO focusing on health and wellbeing. I’m parenting three daughters through very different stages. If I’m not well-rested, hydrated and operating at optimum core strength they will eat me alive.”

Owner of mental health space, The Red Tent, Mikki Fisher wants to change the game of mental health. On a mission to create a safe space where women could openly discuss mental health struggles, Mikki believes that by changing our attitude towards mental health, we can get rid of the stigma attached and instead celebrate healing. We chat with Mikki about her online mental health space, The Red Tent, how it evolved and how people can get involved.

Wanna be a winning dad? There’s now a manual for that, thanks to Symon Jarowyj! Just in time for Father’s Day, Symon gives us some of his top 10 tips to being a winning dad!

This year’s Australian Survivor cohort is one of the most accomplished yet, but at KIDDO HQ we’ve been particularly taken with Wai Chim, who happens to be an acclaimed award-winning author of six children’s and young adult books! We chat with Wai about how being an author has played into her game strategies on Australian Survivor and how her experience on the show may end up on the pages of a new children’s book.

Owner of mental health space, The Red Tent, Mikki Fisher wants to change the game of mental health. The business owner, mother of three and strong advocate for mental health found herself inundated on her social media platform with women who wanted to open their hearts to her. On a mission to create a safe space where women could openly discuss mental health struggles, Mikki launched The Red Tent, a mental health space for women. We chat with Mikki about The Red Tent, how it evolved and how women can get involved.