Becoming SuperPops Katrina Edillor

The sixth episode is with Eugene Catchick. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Eugene as he exudes optimism in his approach to life and parenting, and shared his passion (or obsession) with basketball and the Miami Heat! He also emphasised the importance of his wife's (Monica) support and how he continues to learn from their 2 year-old son Xavier as they spend more time together. 

Eugene prides himself as a husband who has taken a big leap in becoming a full time dad. He continues to enjoy the journey, as he constantly learns and grow as a parent..to be the best superpops that he can be!




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Welcome to Episode 5 with Mr. Mitch Barber - I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Mitch as he openly shared his journey into fatherhood, the importance of vulnerability in being a better dad and husband, and why he wants to have lunch with Adrien Brody!  

Mitch is a father to two and husband to one. He and his wife Katie shared primary care of their 3 year old son Elio, with Mitch leaving work as Katie returned, when Elio was 5 months old. He found it incredibly hard to find the kind of support, guidance and shared experience that Katie had (mothers' groups, social media, friend circles) and feels that more dads might choose to take long term paternity leave if it is more normalised. His 18 months off with Elio really cemented their relationship and he hopes to emulate the same with his 5 month old daughter Norah. Mitch is back at work now, but working from home has allowed him to still partake in a lot of day to day parenting. He shares a lot of his fatherhood experiences on his website dadmode.io and is co-founding a mental health startup called Hero.


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I'm grateful to have a conversation with Allan Garlick. Allan is a pioneer for dads taking on the primary carer role since he has normalised this family dynamic for more than 30 years. His message for dads: Looking back, I’m really glad for the chance to have done it. It was a steep learning curve at first, (playgroup - where you’re the only dad amongst 30 or so mums can be intimidating) but I have no regrets about leaving the paid workforce to do it. Every dad should at least try it!

My highlight is when he said: "When you are raising children, you don't succeed if you aren't patience with them, and if they're not patient with you." 

Follow Allan's photography and art at https://www.allangarlick.com/. 




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In this episode, I am fortunate to have a conversation with Blake Woodward. Join us as he talks about his advocacies, why he doesn't like the stereotype that caring isn't masculine, his proudest moment as a father and what superpower he would like to have. 

Blake is a husband, father of two and advocate for dads and parents. An ex-management consultant by trade, Blake founded Suit Tie Stroller upon becoming a dad for the first time when he experienced first hand the lack of support and resources for dads taking parental leave. Suit Tie Stroller is a social initiative helping working dads navigate parental leave and flexible working arrangements to become more actively involved in caring for their kids, as well as advocating for gender equality when it comes to parenting. More recently, Blake co-founded a new initiative called Dads&, focussing on developing resources and learning materials for all dads, to assist them in becoming the dad they want to be, no matter where they are up to in their fatherhood journey. The resources cover all aspects of being a dad, from personal health and wellbeing, to being a great partner, parent and provider, sharing stories and insights from real dads and celebrating the diversity of fatherhood.




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I'm so excited to share with you the second episode where I spoke to our fun, yet practical SuperPops, Jon Stokes. Tune in as he advocates for more inclusive company and government policies, and why he wants a hedge trimmer for Christmas and considers baby cucumbers as a very good parenting hack!

Jon and his wife, Jade, are the proud parents of two young boys (Sammy - 5yrs and Matty - 2yrs). Over the last 5 years, they have juggled shared parenting while also building their careers in business and medicine and trying to pay down a mortgage.

Jon feels that more companies should support fathers to step back from work and equally share parenting responsibilities. In doing so, we encourage fathers to build deeper connections with their kids and, importantly, we can relieve mothers of the heavy mental and physical burden of day-to-day parenting and allow them to thrive in their return to work.

In this episode, Jon shares: 


glaring statistics (in Australia) of parents who have children under the age of four, 40% of mothers work part-time vs only 4% of fathers work part-time which  prompted him to reserach and learn more about this societal issue;
men solve lots of the world's greatest problems over beers, but not shared parenting; 
company and government policies need to be inclusive in a way that fathers are just as encouraged as women financially to take parental leave; 
more conversations are needed to take away the stigma that if men take on an active parenting role or becomes a primary carer they're somehow compromising on their masculinity or manhood; 
his message to Sammy and Matty if they were to listen to this episode 10 years from now; 

Resources that influenced Jon's perspective and advocancy on shared parenting include: 


Wife Drought by Annabel Crabb
Men at Work essays by Annabel Crabb
Fair Play by Eve Rodsky 


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Welcome to our first episode! I'm very excited for this opportunity to be able to share with you the inspiration for the podcast, the OG SuperPops, Niccolo Alvendia. 

This episode can be summed up by Nicc's advice for dads thinking about become their child or childern's primary carer: "If you want to do it, you gotta go for it. Don't let what other people think or society stop you from being your child's primary carer. Just do you."


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