My Family Strategist

Christina Spark
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  • Parenting
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My Family Strategist is an Australian podcast about the decisions of the first five years of parenthood: postpartum, daycare and childcare, returning to work, housing and school fees. Host Christina Spark spent fifteen years in business — Big Four audit at KPMG, then eleven years at Google — before becoming a parent. Parenting content is either medical, or cold finance that ignores how time-poor parents are. This show is the gap: the real numbers behind one family decision at a time. Not perfect parents. Informed ones. myfamilystrategist.com

  1. Oct 21

    How to tell if your daycare is a good one (17 practical checks)

    If your child does a typical 7am–5pm day and you do 15 minutes at drop-off and again at pick-up, you're only observing about 5% of their day at daycare.And because most of us keep the same schedule, we're not seeing 5% of their day. We're seeing the same 5%, over and over again.A lot happens in the other 95%. People behave differently when they believe nobody is watching. That isn't cynicism — it's the entire reason anything gets audited.I spent eight years of my career in audit and risk — Big 4, then Google, before I became a mum. Now I teach parents how to audit their centre the same way I used to audit companies. Because that's all a for-profit daycare is. A business. The business of children.I've written up exactly what I do now, instead of guessing whether my centre is a good one. It's 17 things to check the other 95%. Most take minutes, and none of them require you to be "that parent". Chapters: 00:00 Intro02:56 1. Look up your centre on Starting Blocks03:17 2. Email your director for staff names, days and tenure03:37 3. Put your name on another centre's waitlist04:10 4. Ask about the cameras — where they are, retention, access04:59 5. Check bathrooms, change areas and sleep rooms for sightlines05:57 6. Turn up unannounced, or change your drop-off or pick-up time06:36 7. Do a headcount at drop-off and pick-up07:40 8. Ask why when an educator leaves — and ask more than one person08:21 9. New face in the room? Ask for a profile09:12 10. Notice when children disappear10:17 11. Look at the photos closely — staged or candid?11:41 12. Never sign an incident report you haven't read11:44 13. Give feedback in writing, professionally and politely13:49 14. Build relationships with the educators15:05 15. Make friends with other families and share notes16:00 16. Ask educators to describe your child — does it match home?16:41 17. Trial another centre one or two days a week before committing

  2. Oct 7

    What your daycare rating can’t tell you

    My son's old daycare was regularly out of ratio. I filed a complaint with the Department of Education. It was rated "Meeting NQS" the whole time we were there. It still is.How can that be?I looked into how Australia's daycare rating system actually works, and what it really assesses. Here's what nobody tells you:🔹 Ratios aren't part of the NQS rating, so a breach doesn't change it. 🔹 There is no legal requirement to reassess a centre. Some centres go five to seven years between visits. Your child can start as a baby and leave for school without the centre being assessed once.🔹 Centres get up to five days' notice before an assessment.🔹 92% of services are rated Meeting or Exceeding. That's roughly 15,800 centres, with completely different staff, culture and leadership, sorted into only two buckets.🔹 The two areas that matter most to a parent — staffing arrangements and relationships with children — are the smallest in the standard. About a fifth of the assessment.I've enrolled across three centres, all rated Meeting. One was exceptional. One was good. One was borderline neglectful.In this episode I'm break down why the NQS rating isn't something parents should lean on to judge quality, and what to look at instead.

  3. Sep 23

    The Daycare Audit: 10 Qs Most Parents Never Think to Ask

    The gap between the best and the worst daycare centre within a few streets of your house is enormous, and almost none of it is visible on a tour. I spent eight years auditing businesses, then I had the real experience of being a parent navigating the broken daycare system. So now I audit daycares to correct this and help parents make more informed choices. With the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge I’ve accumulated in business, these are the ten questions I ask a daycare. Episode Chapters: 02:22 1. Who actually owns this daycare? 06:05 2. Will my child have the same educator every day?  07:32 3. How long has the director and each educator in this room been here? 08:48  4. Do you staff above the minimum ratios, and do you count room by room or across the service? 11:42 5. Do you always operate at full occupancy? 13:57 6. Who is ever alone with my child, and how do you check who you hire? 15:41 7. What is your procedure for biting, pushing and hitting? 17:07 8. How do you prevent the spread of illness? 19:14 9. How many hours a day are the children outside? 20:26 10. Tell me about something you changed because a parent raised it 21:16 The one thing you don't ask 22:06 It's never too late to switch

  4. Sep 16

    Daycares: The Business of Children

    Everything that makes a daycare better for your child — more educators, more experienced educators, better food, more space — is a cost.  And as a society, we have decided to hand over the care of our youngest children to businesses that profit by spending less on them. I spent 8 years as an auditor and then I became a parent. Now I audit daycares. Here’s what I found and why I’m horrified (including the two-minute check every parent should be doing).

  5. Sep 9

    The 5 Qs I Ask Before Any Big Family Decision

    At work I would never sign off on a major decision without analysis. But at home, I paid $5,000 in private school fees to hold a high school placement for my one-year-old, on nothing but social pressure. Our biggest family decisions get the least rigour. Here are the five questions I now use instead.

  6. Sep 3

    Is Parenting Harder Than a Generation Ago?

    Why do I struggle with one child while my parents and in-laws had four kids and made it look easy? I looked at the data to figure out if it really is harder today or if it just feels that way. I ran the Australian numbers on housing, childcare, and how much we're actually parenting. The answer is not what I expected.

  7. Jun 30

    How to Ditch Decision Fatigue & Paralysis (for Overwhelmed Parents)

    Ever feel completely paralysed by the sheer volume of choices you have to make as a parent? Maybe it’s because you’re making 35,000 choices every single day. The constant pressure leads straight to decision fatigue and second-guessing. In this episode, I break down practical, proven methods to conquer decision paralysis and fatigue using frameworks straight from the world of business. I’m going to leverage my 15+ years of business experience to share smart, low-friction hacks to automate your routine and protect your mental bandwidth. Whether you are stressing over childcare choices or what to wear, it's time to move from overwhelmed to prepared. Hit subscribe for your weekly dose of operational and financial strategies built for modern parents. Episode Chapters 00:00 The 35,000 Choices Dilemma 00:43 How to Triage Daily Decisions 03:13 Experiment with low stakes choices 05:45 Analysis Paralysis & The 70% Rule 07:06 Remove Decisions: Automate your Routine  07:34 The Paradox of Choice 11:08 Setting Up Future You 12:36 Outsourcing Decisions Without Micromanaging 14:37 Sharing the Mental Load: The Fair Play Method 17:11 Coming Up Next

  8. Jun 2

    Sophie Tieman on the Working Mum Juggle, Identity Shifts & 2 Under 2

    From national TV to a high-stakes corporate career, followed by the whirlwind of back-to-back babies, I sit down with Sophie Tieman for an incredibly raw, honest look at modern motherhood, identity shifts, and the reality of the working-mum juggle. Many of you know Sophie as a finalist on The Bachelor (S6) or as an incredibly authentic voice in the lifestyle and parenting space, but in this episode, we’re going behind the curtain. Sophie is a wife and mum and she’s currently navigating that intense 'middle ground' of juggling a career in Real Estate while raising two babies born just 12 months apart. We dive deep into the real-life stuff: the anxiety of the reality TV aftermath, the loss of identity that hits when you become a mum, shifting priorities, and the constant need to redefine what success actually looks like, and the honest, daily juggle of a multi-career household. We also get into the big strategic decisions many Australian parents are navigating right now: how to budget with a growing family, buying versus rent-vesting, and the private school debate. We break down the pressures of perfectionism, the intense private school culture in Sydney, and what it actually means to "fake it till you make it". Whether you are currently in the thick of the toddler years, trying to navigate your return to work, or rethinking how you budget for your family’s future, this episode is a beautiful reminder to slow down and smell the roses. EPISODE CHAPTERS: 00:00 Welcome to the MFS Podcast 00:49 The Bachelor Aftermath  03:59 Grieving Your Past Identity  06:17 Becoming a Mum: The Ultimate Identity Shift   08:54  "Irish Twins” & The Ideal Age Gap Debate 11:53 You Can’t Have It All  14:31 Dropping the Glass Ball 16:40 The Financial Shock of Having a Baby 20:14 Commercial vs. Residential Property Investment 23:08 Buy vs Rent-vesting? 25:03 Private vs. Public School? 28:31 Sophie’s Mum’s Influence on her 35:57 Smelling the Roses: What I Want My Kids to Know 37:38 Fake it Till you Make it DISCLAIMER We’ve just had the new budget announcements from the Labour government. While the strategies we discuss in this episode are timeless, tax laws and government incentives can change with the stroke of a pen. I’m a former CPA, but I’m not your accountant, so please use this as a jumping-off point for your own research or a chat with your professional advisor if you want to explore further any topics discussed today.

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About

My Family Strategist is an Australian podcast about the decisions of the first five years of parenthood: postpartum, daycare and childcare, returning to work, housing and school fees. Host Christina Spark spent fifteen years in business — Big Four audit at KPMG, then eleven years at Google — before becoming a parent. Parenting content is either medical, or cold finance that ignores how time-poor parents are. This show is the gap: the real numbers behind one family decision at a time. Not perfect parents. Informed ones. myfamilystrategist.com

Information

  • Creator
    Christina Spark
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Christina Spark
  • Show Website
    My Family Strategist

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