From Tough Love to Time-Outs: How Parenting Has Changed

In this episode of The Big 6-Oh, we take a nostalgic look at old-school parenting and how it shaped us. 

We discuss the ideas and wisdom of the time—when discipline was firm, kids roamed free, and "because I said so" was a valid argument. 

Comparing it to modern parenting, we explore shifting attitudes toward discipline, independence, and resilience. Have we softened too much, or have we simply evolved?

Transcript

00:00

If you're old enough to remember when phones had cords and the only thing that went viral was a cold, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the Big Six-O with Kaylee Harris and Guy Rowlison. Because who better to discuss life's second act than two people who still think mature is a type of cheese?

00:37

Welcome to the Big 6.0 podcast where we chat about life, laughs, all the lessons we're still figuring out past the Big 6.0. I'm Guy Rollison, your co-host, and as always, I'm joined by my partner in nostalgia, the woman who still knows how I assume to do long division and ahead, Kayleigh Harris. Absolutely no idea, but thank you so much. I don't know, a partner in nostalgia, I think I like that. I don't know, do I? I mean, okay, we're old. Let's just go with that. We're old. I thought...

01:05

Women and sort of, is that, sorry, am I allowed to say that? Women and long division was always handy because whenever you go to a restaurant, if something costs X amount of dollars, guys will always just, oh yeah, yeah, that's gonna be close enough. And women will get it down to the seat almost. To the absolute, yeah. I mean, long division, there's a whole podcast in that. But that's for another time. That is for another time. So look, I tell you something that.

01:33

I was talking to a friend about the other day and we were talking about helicopter parenting and the things that their kids are doing. They're going to jujitsu and to ballet and to everything under the sun. It occurred to me that it's probably a good enough reason to discuss how things have changed from when we were kids, our parents, their style of looking after little ones, and how parents do things today.

02:01

Yeah and also I want to touch on grandparents because you're a grandparent and you seem to love it and relish it and I want to hear about that because I'm not yet a grandparent but I think that's really important too that generational connection between you and your grandchildren and how that is different to how you parented your kids but let's go back to how we were parented. How did we survive without bike helmets and we were drinking from garden hoses I

02:31

We've lived it over the tail and really there was just band-aids and a bit of hard love to get us through, wasn't there? Yeah, I think so. But I also think that we, everybody parents according to their culture and according to their time in history, but also according to their geographical location. So if you were a parent in 1920s Russia, you would parent differently than

02:59

parent in 2025 in Sydney, Australia. Do you know what I mean? I think it's there are so many versions of parenting and there have been over millennia that who's to say what is right and what is wrong. I mean surely I'm sure there are things that parents did previously that would be frowned upon now but will there be things that we're doing now as parents that will be frowned upon in the future if that makes sense?

03:28

It's like just about anything, isn't it? I mean, things that our parents did, I mean, that whole, and I'm only relating to the things that we grew up with, wait till your father gets home, because invariably there was a threat if you'd done something wrong, or the wooden spoon would be shown as a threat. And of course, that sort of corporal sort of punishment is just something that is just not seeing you. I mean, you don't even see people getting a...

03:57

paddle across the backside in the shopping centre if they start screaming and whatnot these days. So of course there's going to be changes, generational changes in the way, you know, everything from the way we parent through to, and you're right, what happens today or what happened a generation or two generations ago can't be judged by today's standards or can it?

04:19

Well, I think if you fast forward, say, 20 or 30 years, are parents then gonna look back at us, parents like you and I, and go, you were way too soft? Because that's a common criticism of parents these days is, like you said in the intro, helicopter parenting or red carpet parenting or they call it lawnmower parenting where you create a path for your children that is all happy and lollipops and rainbows. Are parents in 30 years' time gonna look back and go,

04:48

like that was pathetic. Now I wonder these kids are so soft. So who's to say what's right and what's wrong and who's right and who's wrong or is there such a thing as right and wrong or do you I mean kids are going to grow up despite us? Oh look the one thing that used to irk me and I might just be a dinosaur about all this but the everyone wins. You go into a race and everyone gets a certificate because they they tried hard and

05:15

I don't know whether that's just going to permeate through the years in an office environment and a trade environment in some sort of social circle. Everyone is going to be a winner, but I can't see that because otherwise we're just going to have a lot of Indians and no chiefs and no direction because everyone will want to be inclusive. There will be no one to actually take some of these.

05:39

these people to where they need to be. But then who are we to say though, that I mean if you build kids up in the primary school years by you know, everyone has, you could change the wording to everyone has something to offer, everyone brings something to the table. So that by the time those kids get into a work environment where it is much tougher, I mean your boss isn't gonna give a crap about how you're feeling that day, like you know, whether you had a big night the night before or not, that hopefully they

06:08

have enough love for themselves because they've been valued through primary school that do you know what I'm saying it's sort of like I don't know you could you could see good and bad I can see good and bad in both I can see you know when we were kids there was a lot more bullying going on when we were kids then and I personally I think bullying will always be there it's human

06:37

humans I think bully to some degree. And I don't think you'll ever get rid of it. Look, I love how kids, and I shouldn't say kids, I mean I'm talking about young adults as well, are inclusive. I love the way that kids and young adults are inclusive and everyone should have a right to be heard. And the loudest voice doesn't always win anymore. And I think that's admirable because

07:06

everyone does have something to offer and everyone does deserve to be heard and I love the fact that people are just accepting of it doesn't matter who you are whether what you're doing that you are someone special and everyone has that you know has that place in the hierarchy which wasn't how it was when we were growing up was it? I think when we were growing up

07:31

we didn't value everyone's opinion. You were either one of the cool kids or you weren't. You were in a cool group or you weren't. And these days I hope that that's maybe we're a little bit more accepting but I don't know that it is. When you hear about stories in schools these days. Kids always want to fit in. And they always want to be like everybody else. And if you don't fit in for whatever reason because you look different or you have different views or you're a different culture. Then as humans we will always

08:01

point those things out. Yeah, I think those challenges from when we were kids, and you're right, if you were the sporty kid or the cool kid and then you didn't fit into that framework, yeah, you're alienated and you had to find that minority group just to hang around with, but you always knew that there was a hierarchy. Yet today, you will see a different hierarchy where you see influences out there. And you know,

08:27

So all of a sudden everyone wants to be an influencer, do they? Or they need to still fit some sort of stereotype in some way, shape or form. That's why I really do like how so many kids that probably don't fit in that stereotype do want to be heard and are heard by the great bulk of the population. And maybe it's only those minorities, that 5% of people that feel as though, yep.

08:55

I want to be one of the beautiful people on TikTok or I want to be one of the beautiful people on Instagram. I don't know. Yeah. Let me take you back to you know primary school and your parents when you were at school. How strict were they with you? I did know that some parents... Did both parents work? Yeah. Let me ask you that. Yeah. Look, dad worked, mum worked while I was up until about the age of five. Mum was a working mum.

09:24

So I'd be going to grandparents during the week or it was called preschool then, it was essentially daycare these days. So I'd go to preschool a couple of times a week and to grandparents a couple of times a week. So yeah, mum was a working mum. But as soon as I started primary school, it was decision made that mum would stay at home. But there was no doubt that she sort of ruled the roost and dad sort of towed the line and because she was a very strong woman. But

09:53

those influences have stayed with me in my adult life as well. And it makes it hard because you try and impose those sort of rules on your kids growing up as well. And rightly or wrongly, times have changed. And then you become a grandparent, as I have, and you see your kids and the way that they sort of react and respond to their kids. And as a grandparent, you try and make up for it. I shouldn't say the mistakes.

10:21

But you're a whole lot more lenient than you are with your kids, because you like to think that you're teaching your children the right and wrong way to do things, and then the decisions they make after that are their own. Whether they choose to do something or not is then their choice as an adult. And you hopefully have sort of shown them that there are two options, or sometimes three or four. But as a grandparent, for example, yeah, look.

10:48

you tend to let a lot of things slide because you know you were playing a bad cop quite often. That's well yeah but as a grandparent you're playing good cop now like you you can be their best friend and you can you don't have to be the adjudicate you don't have to be the disciplinarian I guess with them because their parents do that so. You get to play Starsky and Hutch and Huggy Bear all at the same time and and and you know yeah so you've got the best of every world.

11:14

Let me ask you this, when you were a kid in primary school did you get smacked? Yes. Okay, by who? Both parents or? It was probably the wood. Now thinking about it, I didn't get that many. Whether I was really good at hiding what I sort of did I don't know. But occasionally I'd get a paddle on the backside, the wooden spoon or the feather duster would come out. I remember getting the feather duster, gee that used to sting and it wasn't the fluffy end either.

11:44

Wow. Yeah. But of course, your mom was next level. We were somewhere the other week and we were in a restaurant, it was like a club, and it was in a dining room and there was a little boy there who was just over the top. And we saw dad give him a little bit of a paddle on the backside and we thought, my gosh, you just don't see that in public anymore. It's alien to you. I don't know what your upbringing was like and whether you were. But see, it's

12:13

See, it's interesting the language you use as well. When you talk about smacking children, it polarizes people. And people our age who were smacked as kids will go, well, it didn't do me any harm. I didn't smack my kids, I didn't believe in it. I didn't think it was the right thing to do. I thought I wouldn't smack my grandmother and she's a vulnerable person, why would I smack a child?

12:40

I just I smacked my son once when he was about to for something and I ended up in tears for two days in My bedroom and call me whatever you like call me pathetic. I don't that's perfectly fine I just found at the bottom line was it did not make things right it made things worse It made me feel worse. It made him cry. It wasn't the right outcome for me and for you to get to if any parent to get to a point where they

13:10

smacking they usually have lost a bit of control. You're like you're so frustrated that you just go whack and the it as I said interesting the language that you use a little paddle on the back it's not a little paddle on the back because if it was it wouldn't have any impact. It's a smack and you can't even say that because it's like you say I smack my kid on the back of the thighs which is what a few of us would have got

13:34

that's not acceptable anymore. So you know I often hear people our age saying oh yeah I got a little tap on the bottom. It wasn't a tap sorry if it was a if it was a tap you wouldn't have got it. It was a decent smack. The feather duster was never just a tap I'll tell you now. Yeah that's what I'm saying that's my whole point is it like if you were smacked as a kid when we were young and that's but that goes back to my whole point in the beginning that parenting is cultural and it is

14:01

shows you the time that you're in and in the sixties and seventies when you and I were kids that was perfectly acceptable and plenty of people today will tell you it still is. It's the and that's fine. If that's your thing that's fine. It just didn't work for me. I just found it did not make the child listen to me anymore. It made me feel like crap. It made them upset and it didn't solve the problem about the behavior they were showing at the time. So

14:29

I just found other ways to work around it. Well we were pretty lucky with our kids. I mean, I've got to be honest, I don't remember our kids ever getting a smack. But we didn't have raucous kids that were just out of control. No, neither did I. So we were very lucky. But I mean, are they going to look at timeouts?

14:52

other big things where you know if you're misbehaving, time out you only need to go and spend 15 minutes in the corner or whatever. Is that going to be looked upon in another 20 or 30 years as being a self isolation thing? Or is it going to be looked as being too soft? That's right. I mean you cannot judge. That's my whole point. Parenting is very dependent on where you are in time and geography and history. Who's to say what's right and what's wrong? Do you think parents today are too protective

15:21

Is the world generally more dangerous than it was in our day? Oh gosh that's such a hard question because I think in some ways the world is more dangerous with social media and things like that but in other ways it's even safer because we are aware of a lot of the dangers that children can face and we're prepared to talk about them now. So I think it's a bit of both if that makes sense.

15:50

As parents we are probably a little bit more anxious than our parents were because we have a lot more information available to us now and people can be a lot more judgmental about what is the right and what is the wrong way to raise a child. So what's right for somebody may not be right for somebody else. The reason I ask that as well is because you and I grew up in an era where you'd be told, I'll just go outside and play. And you'd go a dozen streets away.

16:19

go to someone's house and and all those sort of things and you just don't see that now or maybe you do I don't know I mean you just don't see kids walking to someone else's house and you know but at that time that was a time in history and a culture where we did that and everyone's kids did that and that was the norm whereas now it's not the norm do you know what I mean it's we we watch our

16:48

much more aware of stranger danger with our kids and we educate them accordingly and we're much more prepared to talk about those dangers of a stranger danger and all those sorts of things. So I think our kids are more aware of stranger danger but I think there is too much emphasis placed on being a good parent and your definition of a good parent in mind might be two totally

17:16

fraught with danger if you're a parent it is so fraught with danger because you don't know what's the right thing to do. I think everybody starts out wanting to be a good parent, not everybody is because life throws stuff at you and for whatever reason you know you may not be able to manage your kids in a way that society sees is acceptable but I think we all want to but like I goes back to what I said before the kids are going to grow up anyway. I think we do we are I think sometimes we are a

17:45

Did you have any rules in your house that you look at now and think, that were just, that were just dumb rules or they're just outdated now? Were there anything like that in your, in your household? I don't think so. Like we were what they call, um, my sister and I were latchkey kids. My parents worked and we would come home from school with a key and let ourselves in and amuse ourselves till our parents got home from work. Um, not really, no. I don't, we didn't really have too many boundary. I don't feel loud. We had too many boundaries on us.

18:15

I don't remember getting smacked. I remember the threat of it. I remember that, you know, wait till your father gets home. But I don't remember any actual corporal punishment when I was a kid. Yeah, I remember going to a kid's place. He was just around the corner from us. And this probably shows a different in parenting sort of styles. And it even, it actually hurts me to say it because he was such a good kid, you know. He and his sister were two good kids and you know, they were...

18:44

poster sort of looking kids and others. But I remember they did something one day and their mum said, wait till dad gets home and the belt will come out. Oh. And I thought, my gosh, even at that age, I think I was about seven or eight. I thought, the belt? Yeah. And can you imagine that today? Imagine the fear of that, waiting for your dad to come home. But that was the reality for a lot of kids. Yeah, 100%.

19:09

I know there were little things in our house growing up and I'll ask you about your grandparents in a minute but I remember we always had to ask to leave the table when we were finished a meal and that's something that you don't see kids doing. Our kids grew up with it and they asked whether they could leave the table when. But I mean back in the day I remember my grandmother when she was with us she used to remind me we'd go into the, I think it was the David Jaynes cafeteria in the city and you'd get

19:39

up to the nines and you'd go into the can. And she reminds me that as a little boy, and I must have been about three or four, she said, oh, I had to actually tell you in the middle of the David Jones cafeteria that you didn't need to pop down on the floor to say grace. Oh. And I thought, oh my gosh. And she said, oh, people were looking at you and I'm thinking, oh. But.

20:04

That was a thing in her house that you would say grace before you had a meal. And so as a as a four year old or three year old, I knew no different. I was about to have lunch with my nan and my mom. And so what you did was you'd say grace. So that grandparenting thing, I don't know if you remember your grandparents or what? Well, it's funny, I was talking to my sister the other day and she said she and I'd forgotten all about this, but apparently when I was about, I don't know, seven or eight or something, grandma came to stay.

20:34

and was sitting at the table and grandma was there and my sister and I and I my mom was cooking dinner and I back answered mom and my grandmother reached over and slapped me across the face and my sister my older sister said to me don't you remember that and I said I have no recollection of that at all and she said I said what happened she said she slapped me across the face and said don't speak to your mother like that and she said you started crying and

21:01

She said I remember she was really angry at Nana for slapping me because she hadn't seen that before. But it's interesting that I was the kid who was slapped but I have no recollection of it. I have no bad memories of my Nana. I have no... I don't... it didn't impact me at all. But the same Nana I can remember, you know, like most girls, 7, 8, 9, 10...

21:28

spend their whole life upside down doing cartwheels and handstands. God I wish I could still do that. And Nanny used to say, oh Kayleigh get down, put your legs down. Young ladies don't do that, don't show your underwear to people like that. And then she used to get stuck in my mother and she goes, she shouldn't be doing those things you know, ladies don't do that you know. It was funny when you think about the generation, my mum used to go, oh mum don't worry she's fine, she's just been a kid you know.

21:56

It changed over time to then when we, you and I became parents and read way too many books and strive to be good parents and try to be the best parents. But what does that even mean? Look I have to say that my Nana never told me not to do cartwheels and not to share my underwear.

22:19

It's changed lately but I mean yeah but I'm sure you remember the girls at Epping West Primary School hanging upside down on the monkey boys. Underwear out there for the whole world to see but we didn't care. We were having a great time. That's what it was all about you know. Speaking of that sensitive topics growing up you know and like used to have the the sex education sort of things at school because you know that's just how it was handled. How was it handled in your place? Oh gosh I

22:48

remember ever having any sex talks with my parents or anything I can remember. Oh gosh I know it's a podcast but how much should I share? You've shared your underwear already so it's only downhill from there.

23:08

Look, I think we might save that for another podcast, but I wanna go into that whole idea about what we thought sex was at 16 and all that kind of stuff. That's a whole nother episode, but I didn't have any sex talks with anybody. Like what we picked up about those sorts of things was in the playground, right? What could possibly go wrong when you get your information from the playground? So yeah, but I think I might've mentioned to you in the first...

23:37

podcast we did talking about school where you know I have a sister and we live next door to the Johnston kids and they were boys and and then one day over the back fans hey you know like can I have a look at yours and I'll show you mine and I was like sure and I dropped my Dax and he's looking at me and seen a girl's thingy before and I hadn't seen a boy's thing before and it was it was I was like wow look at that and he's like oh yeah look at that thing he goes where's your penis

24:04

where's your he said where's your dingley or something and then my mum sticks her head over the wicker. Kayleigh Harris get back inside wait till your father gets home pull your pants up young lady and but that's a natural curiosity for children particularly if you don't have siblings of the opposite sex where you have any idea what that stuff is that was just was that where you were going with that question or have I gone completely off on it? You know when you said that you might go too far?

24:30

Yeah, okay. No, no, no. You haven't gone too far at all. Because I remember my parents gave me a little book. They gave me like a little, a little handbook. Where did I come from? Yeah, yeah, like where did I come from sort of book. Yeah. But there was the sex... What did you think of that? What was in that? Anyone that may... Were you any the wiser after reading it as to where babies came from? I couldn't be bothered reading it. Really? Well, I started looking and I thought there's not too many pictures here.

24:55

And then they had a sex education thing. I thought it was all pictures. Maybe not the book I got. I was waiting for the Brodie's notes, the monarch's notes version. So it'd be truncated. You were waiting for the Kama Sutra, weren't you? Yeah, I sort of relied more on what was said in the playground. But- We all did. I know, but we used to have a sex education thing at school where they used to show ducks up on a screen. And- Ducks? Ducks, yeah, because this is, you know, and the reproductive system, which was essentially like-

25:21

Why ducks? I know, I just remember the ducks. They showed ducks because I don't think they could be too specific. What did they represent? I think it showed like a mother duck and little ducks wandering behind them and things like that. Rather than just saying, well, this is A, B, C, D sort of thing, they'd show ducks and all those sort of things. That was a language kids could understand. We're not talking primary school right, because I wasn't.

25:45

I was in the same primary school as you and I don't remember this or do I? I've just got no recollection. I've just blocked it out. You didn't take the note home did you? No I didn't. No. So I remember where it was. It was in a church hall. It wasn't a church thing. It was a school thing. And, but today when I look at even my grandkids and the way that my daughter actually explains it, it's very, I shouldn't say clinical. No, but it's very factual, right? It's a matter of fact. Yeah, it's a factual thing. Yeah. And do you think that, I think that's better. Oh, a hundred percent. I mean,

26:15

I think it's better. But once again, in another 10, 20, 30 years, are people going to look at that and say, oh my gosh, why did you teach your kids this? Or is that how you really went about business? I mean, it's one of those, once again, generational things, isn't it? And I guess it's also about age appropriate. You know, when your kids go through those stages where they ask you questions about different things and you think to yourself, oh my goodness, how do I answer that? And it has to be age appropriate.

26:44

well in language that they can understand and how do you you know because a lot of things you're talking about can be very complex but how do you explain that to a kid who's eight nine ten eleven twelve whatever and then when your kids get to I guess sexually active when they're fifteen sixteen seventeen whatever um when kids start to explore those sorts of things how you know you can't it's hard to have a conversation with your teenage daughter or son because you're the last person as a parent that they want to hear that stuff from.

27:14

want to talk to mum and dad about sex but really when you think about it it's such a normal part of life that they rely on us for everything else but the one thing that's such a normal part of life you don't talk to your parents about and I don't I don't get that because that's that's very unique to to our culture and and in a lot of cultures in in Africa for example the mothers will explain to the daughters what's going to happen on the wedding night.

27:42

and they will tell them what's going to happen and I think that's a good thing because we give them information on everything else. You know, when it comes to sex we don't give them information because it's considered eww I don't want to hear that from mum, you know, but really you should be able to give them good factual information. And you're right, depending on the culture there's a whole different outlook on relationships and marriage, everything. And I know we're a little bit insular sometimes in the way that we look because

28:12

our sort of focus is what we've been brought up with and we know. But I know you said this will be another podcast episode, sexuality and all those sort of things. But I know it was frowned upon too. When I was growing up, and you wanna go away for the weekend with your girlfriend or whatever, and that was frowned on in our household.

28:39

Yet these days, and I shouldn't say these, that really does make me sound old, doesn't it? It's like, yeah, right, whatever. Or am I out of step? I just assume that everyone's... But would you have let your kids go away with their significant other at 15 or 16? Probably not 15 or 16. No, well, same. You know, but I mean, there was that whole thing, probably with your grandparents as well, and I don't know whether this is just the urban myth, you know...

29:05

you save yourself until you're married sort of thing if you're grandparents or great grandparents. And I'm talking about a great-grandparent and my great-grandfather passed away when I was about three or four. But I remember going into that house and I know I'm going off on a tangent. They lived down in Balmain, which was very much a working class suburb back in the day. But you were not allowed to talk to your great-grandfather when you came into that house. It was the old, don't spoke until spoken to.

29:34

Yeah, it should be seen and not. That's right. And then of course that that's carried over to their children and then and a lot of those sort of rules. And it's sort of sifted down to us and now our kids and that transitional sort of change. It's a very, now we encourage the relationship between grandparents and children and grandchildren, right? It's encouraged and it should be. I think that whole generational thing is so precious and important. Yeah, I know. I didn't know how to take it when.

30:04

our grandson come along and there was some meme on Instagram or something from my kid saying, how is it that, and they showed a picture of this sergeant major in a hat sort of thing. How can this guy be this same guy now? Because that whole thing that laid back sort of attitude towards grandkids. And that's another episode, I'm sure, altogether. But if you had, not your time over, but if there's a parenting style that you had or

30:33

that you would like to see changed or would you raise your kids differently? I mean is there anything you would change? Um I wouldn't change. No I don't think so the eighth as I said I I probably mentioned it earlier. I'm not a fan of smacking children. I think I think you know we we raise our kids later in life to say you don't hit people. You know you'll walk away from a fight. You don't hit people.

30:59

And we don't you know, I don't we don't hit we shouldn't hit animals We shouldn't hit vulnerable people and children fall into that bracket in my in my opinion So I I am not a fan of smacking and I'm sure people out there will disagree with me and that's perfectly fine But I just don't think I think that if you are getting to the point where you are smacking you've run out of other options and And I'm not judging anyone who does if if that's you know, what's happened to you?

31:27

Believe me, I've raised three kids under five. I have been in those high pressure situations where you just wanna kill the little so-and-so's. But it's just something that I'm pleased I never really got into was the whole smacking thing. Because as a parent, it's almost an emotional response compared with when we were probably at school where it would be a measured response if you went to the headmaster or headmistress and you were getting the cane.

31:55

Yeah but that's outlawed now right? Corporal punishment is outlawed now. That's right and I don't think you can equate the two because as a parent that a smack is an emotional outburst. It is. You've lost a bit of control because you're so frustrated with that child they're not doing what you want them to do and to and you're smacking to get their attention and I completely get that. I totally understand where that frustration comes from but it's all I'm saying is it was not something that worked for me.

32:23

and it's not something that I personally think is like I don't believe it's okay but I you know it's that's just yeah look all I'm saying is that as a parent that is an emotional outburst yet when we were at school it was a measured response absolutely it was as far as that cane or whatever you got and I still remember at high school believe it or not I think I was in year seven and I wasn't a dauber you don't want to be a dibba dauber and this kid behind me said something

32:53

And there was a lady teacher who had a name, it was Granny Insert name here. She was a much older teacher and she probably was, you know, 60s, but she looked 100 when you're 12 or 13. And she thought it was me and I wasn't about to dob the kid in next to me for saying something. So my hand was on the desk. She had a metal edged ruler. Like it was a ruler with a metal edge on it. And she kept hitting the back of my hand until it bled.

33:22

because I was stubborn that I was not going to move my hand. But my parents got wind of that and they weren't happy to say the least. But I'm talking, this is in the mid 70s where teachers still felt there was an obligation to not spare the cane to do something, even whether you were right or wrong. But that was half the fear of the cane in primary school was the anticipation that you were going to get it. Whereas what...

33:51

at home if you got a smack, it was usually a sudden outburst thing. And it would be over before it really, you know, anything really happened. But the shock of it was the thing at home. But at school when it was the cane, you were sent to the headmaster's office and you knew you were going to get it. And yeah, I just don't think that we should be hitting anybody. I don't think that's a way to sort a situation out. We don't.

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advocate that anyone do that or we're not advocating that that should be an option in your world, but it's something that from our past that we were able to relate to. I know we've got to go because I think mum will be saying the street lights are about to come on. Is there one parenting trend that you wish had been around when we were growing up? Oh gosh, that's a hard one.

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Well, you tell me yours, because I can't think of anything. I think that whole being inclusive and I don't think, you know, I think kids still have to be kids. I don't think you can say to a four year old, you have the same rights and privileges as an adult because that just doesn't work. I agree. But but I definitely think as far as, you know, being inclusive and that sort of thing is great. I think being able to include your kids.

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in some of the decision making processes rather than saying oh no no definitely it doesn't need to be but they need to be able to be felt like they're being heard yeah exactly and i i agree the parent just because i'm the parent doesn't mean i'm always right i'm right and you're wrong it's being uh collaborative i guess and and and listening to your child and getting some feedback but again age appropriate right every day of the week hey i can hear mom going so i better shoot

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Can we catch up again? Go back to the dinner table. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I won't say grace. I won't say grace tonight because- You can say grace. Oh, hang on. Maybe I should. I know what I've been up to today. I'll say grace, but I'll just make sure that, you know, it's just a quiet word to the boss. We'll catch up again soon, hey? See you, my friend. Okay, ciao. The views and opinions expressed on the Big Six O are personal and reflect those of the hosts and guests. They do not represent the views or positions of any affiliated organizations

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or companies. This podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice. Please consult with a qualified professional for guidance on any personal matters.

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Oh, and before we go, let's give credit where credit is due. Kaylee Harris and I came up with all the genius content for this week's episode. Our producer, Nick Abood, well he keeps the lights on and makes sure we don't accidentally upload a cat video instead of a podcast. So thanks for keeping us on track, Nick. Nick?