Episode 15: Helena Head of a Codfish: A podcast about modern working families

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In this episode, I interview Helena who is about to complete 3 years of study to start a new career. She is a mother of twins and we talk about how that has influenced her path, the education system and working in a female-dominated industry.



The Lowdown



- Family of 4

- 1 working parent (full time)

- 1 parent doing study and placements

- 2 school-aged children







1:46 Sleep on a scale of student to not student

2:30 Good sleepers

3:00 Who are the people in your family

3:16 Work travel and study

3:38 Mum and Dad close by

3:58 Studying full time and placements

4:50 Overnight help with children for shift work

5:40 No other students have kids so can be more flexible and can swap shifts

6:40 Watching study happening from a distance

7:18 Not a lot of belief in myself as a student

7:40 Education systems failing students

8:16 Valuing traditional subjects more highly, creative subjects ranked lower

8:50 Linking up students on the Autism spectrum and businesses that value those skills (The work I was talking about here is the Dandelion Program as talked about in this article and video https://itspmagazine.com/itsp-chronicles/cybersecurity-and-autism-the-values-are-obvious)

10:30 Schools not designed for good educational outcomes and life skills

12:12 Overvaluing university education

12:50 Don't all need to strive for the same thing

13:36 Parenting superpowers

14:20 Independence in children

14:50 Independence Day at school

16:38 Confidence and being out of your comfort zone

17:08 Going into situations with confidence

18:10 Not looking like the one who feels like they shouldn't be there

19:00 Raising a child with the kind of adult you are producing in mind

19:44 Looking for things beyond being 'mum'

20:10 Twin mum experience

20:58 Intense and compressed parenting of pre-school aged kids

21:10 Twins always have someone else to take new steps with

22:20 Parent of first child at school

23:18 Sending kids out with set instructions for acceptable behaviour

24:12 Husband's superpower

24:16 Patience

25:04 Mothers watching sons become parents

26:30 Men growing in the emotional intelligence department when becoming fathers

27:20 How are school drop offs and pick ups organised

28:08 Big effort from mum!

29:08 School holidays don't match up with uni holidays

29:42 Holiday at the grandparents!

30:04 OSHC cost prohibitive on one income

30:50 School holidays are hard work!

31:46 Swap kids with other parents

32:04 School activities that work for all ages/genders

33:26 After school activities

34:02 Spending a whole day at kid sports

34:24 Do you have a choice in your path?

34:44 Uni hours not flexible

35:30 Flexibility to contribute to own rosters

36:08 University study was a choice you could make

36:58 If I am doing this study then we are REALLY doing this

37:50 We are all in this

38:22 Adjustment of going back into work for men and women

39:38 Wife buffer

40:20 Doing study that costs money and not bringing in any money

41:44 Achieve more when on placement and I have less time

41:58 Semi-procrastinator

42:08 Downsides?

42:44 Not spending time with the children

43:04 Bigger picture looks better once study has finished and at work

44:12 Shift work and night shift means more tiredness

44:20 Next step for family?

44:46 Working, a new unknown environment, transitioning to doing instead of learning