E41 - Experienced Army Mum - The Hidden World of Women

This is the fourth and last episode in our ANZAC day series. The series has focused on how the Department of Defence impacts womens lives. Whether that be women as serving members of Defence, or as wives, partners or mothers.  Being connected to the Department of Defence shapes women’s lives and I wanted to speak with women about that experience.

In the last episode I spoke with Tonya, a former Army Reservist and a new Navy mum.  In this episode I spoke with Jill a former Army Reservist and an experienced Army mum.  Jill shares her experiences of being a single mum in the Army Reserves and how inclusive that experience was. Who would have thought that you could bring your kids to training nights at the Army Reserve? I’m going to be honest, I didn’t. 

Jill then spoke about her experiences with her daughter joining the Army and Jill’s experience being the mum of an Army Officer (including having to salute her daughter!). Jill talked about some of the practical ways that you can support your children who dedicate their lives to Defence as well as ways that it impacted her having her daughter in the Army.

Jill spoke about some of the amazing opportunities that her daughter has had to travel the world and how Jill has also had opportunities that others wouldn’t even think of as well as talking about how far the Army has come (maternity uniforms people, pregnant women need maternity uniforms!).

The Hidden World of Women is a podcast brought to you by Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services. Help us get the word out about the podcast by hitting subscribe and sharing it with people you know who may be interested.

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with what we are offering at Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services www.whws.org.au

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WHWS (and this podcast) rely on donations to support our community. If you would like to make a donation you can head to our Give Now page. https://www.givenow.com.au/whws

Or check out The Hidden World of You our online learning platform https://hiddenworldofyou.com.au/

E40 - Army Reserve to Navy Mum - The Hidden World of Women

On the April 25^th we celebrated ANZAC day here in Australia (and New Zealand). We wanted to talk to women whose lives are impacted by their connection to the Department of Defence, whether that be as serving members, as a partner of a member of Defence or as a mother of someone who serves or has served in the Department of Defence.

In this episode I spoke with Tonya Bailey who shares about her experiences in the Army Reserves. Tonya also spoke about how she shared stories of being in the Army Reserve with her children, so she wasn’t surprised when one of them shared that he was planning to join Defence, but he took a while to work out which branch of Defence he was interested in (Army, Navy or Airforce, how do you choose?). While Tonya had almost expected that he would join the Army he had to break the news to her that in fact he wanted to join the Navy. Like most mum’s Tonya just wanted him to be happy and she celebrated.

Tonya is just at the start of her Navy Mum journey, a journey that was made so much more difficult thanks to Covid and the lock downs, travel bans, restrictions etc. Tonya had some useful hints and tips to share for other parents who are just starting their journey as a parent of a Defence member. Not surprisingly, I cried, surprisingly so did Tonya and I thank you Tonya for your openness in sharing your story and being vulnerable and letting me dig into wounds that you perhaps didn’t know existed.

The Hidden World of Women is a podcast brought to you by Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services. Help us get the word out about the podcast by hitting subscribe and sharing it with people you know who may be interested.

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with what we are offering at Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services www.whws.org.au

Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/womenshealthandwellbeingservices

We also continue to add content to our Youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCju-8oH3lDHZYi18wvgSJTQ

WHWS (and this podcast) rely on donations to support our community. If you would like to make a donation you can head to our Give Now page. https://www.givenow.com.au/whws

Or check out The Hidden World of You our online learning platform https://hiddenworldofyou.com.au/

E39 - Army Life and Army Wife - The Hidden World of Women

April 25th is ANZAC day here in Australia. To pay tribute to ANZAC day this is the second episode in the ANZAC series exploring how being connected to the Department of Defence impacts women. Women in the military, the wives and mothers of those in the Department of Defence.

In this episode I spoke with Nicky Thomas who joined the Army Reserves for half a second before moving straight over into the army and was a member of the Australian Army for just shy of 9 years before moving back to the reserves. Nicky shares her experiences of being in the army, deployment, getting married and having children in the army and then being an army wife with a small baby while her husband was on deployment.

Nicky had some wonderful experiences in the Army and shares how the Army supported her during her time as a member of Defence. There were times when it was hard, but there are times in life that are hard and life is what you make it.

Thank you Nicky for sharing so openly. I think we may have jumped up on a soapbox for a minute but we did really well to keep it to only a minute up there!

If you found this useful or interesting or you think that someone would benefit from hearing this episode, don’t keep it to yourself, share it.

If you want to follow Nicky her social media handles are:

Instagram: @Nickythomasofficial

FB: www.facebook.com/nickyt5

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in.nicky-thomas-leadership-coach

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with what we are offering at Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services www.whws.org.au

Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/womenshealthandwellbeingservices

We also continue to add content to our YouTube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCju-8oH3lDHZYi18wvgSJTQ

WHWS (and this podcast) rely on donations to support our community. If you would like to make a donation you can head to our Give Now page. https://www.givenow.com.au/whws

Or check out The Hidden World of You our online learning platform https://hiddenworldofyou.com.au/

E38 - Life in and after the Royal Australian Air Force - The Hidden World of Women

April 25th is ANZAC day here in Australia. I wanted to do a short series talking to women who have experience with the Department of Defence to look at the ways that the armed forces impact women. Women in the military, the wives and mothers of those in the Department of Defence.

In the first episode of this series, I spoke with Helen Burgess who was a peace time veteran and was in the Royal Australian Air Force for 16 years with a civilian husband who followed her through her RAAF career.

Helen spoke of her love of planes, her experiences in the RAAF, getting married, being pregnant in the Air Force (before there were maternity uniform options), finding herself after she left the RAAF, living with PTSD, and more.

Thank you Helen for sharing your experiences.

Some of the support agencies that we spoke about where veterans can access some supports:

RSLSA https://www.rslwa.org.au 

Working Spirit https://workingspirit.org.au/

Open Arms https://www.openarms.gov.au/

Soldier On https://soldieron.org.au/

Sailing On https://www.sailingonwa.org.au/

Buddy Up https://www.buddyupaustralia.org.au/

Connected By https://connectedby.org/

Our Veterans Forge https://ourveteransforge.com.au/

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with what we are offering at Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services www.whws.org.au

Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/womenshealthandwellbeingservices

We also continue to add content to our Youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCju-8oH3lDHZYi18wvgSJTQ

WHWS (and this podcast) rely on donations to support our community. If you would like to make a donation you can head to our Give Now page. https://www.givenow.com.au/whws

Or check out The Hidden World of You our online learning platform https://hiddenworldofyou.com.au/

E37 - Carving a Career in an industry that doesn’t exist - The Hidden World of Women

In previous episodes I have mentioned that the jobs our children may have possibly don’t exist yet. In this episode I speak with the amazing Paola Magni who is a perfect example of this. As a child, Paola was fascinated by nature and science and as she continued through her science education she fell in love with the natural sciences and in particular entomology, taphonomy and aquatic biology and she could see how these could help people. How they could help in the field of forensic science to so families could achieve closure. While she excelled in this area the area the job she created for herself, the job she was doing didn’t exist in Italy where she was doing it. She was carving out a space for herself in a space that didn’t exist.

In this episode we spoke about how Paola found her passion and how she followed it to achieve success and international recognition for that work and how that journey led her to Western Australia. I am always very grateful that my guests are so open to share their experiences and Paola also shared what it was like to move to the other side of the world, despite social expectations that she should stay home and care for her parents, what it was like to do that alone with no family or social support.

The conversation covered forensic science, motherhood, making friends as an adult, moving countries all alone, what it means to be ‘normal’ and many other topics.

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with what we are offering at Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services www.whws.org.au

Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/womenshealthandwellbeingservices

We also continue to add content to our Youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCju-8oH3lDHZYi18wvgSJTQ

WHWS (and this podcast) rely on donations to support our community. If you would like to make a donation you can head to our Give Now page. https://www.givenow.com.au/whws

Or check out The Hidden World of You our online learning platform https://hiddenworldofyou.com.au/

E36 - Conversations Around International Women’s Day - The Hidden World of Women

Tomorrow is international women’s day. As this is a podcast for women by women and brought to you by Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services, we couldn’t let the day without pass without having a conversation around IWD. This years theme is Changing Climates: Equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.

In this episode Emma speaks with Jayde Robinson-Clancy from the Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing https://cwsw.org.au/ to discuss the issues that surround International Women’s Day. We discuss this years theme for International Women’s Day as well as discussing whether International Women’s Day is still relevant in 2022? While we intended to focus on the theme for IWD2022 it wouldn’t be an episode of The Hidden World of Women if we didn’t go off on at least a dozen tangents.

We delve into what are the underpinning ideas around gender equality, gender equality, social bias, and violence against women. We also touched on QANTAS uniforms for flight attendants, school uniforms, whether women should need to smile, should you accept an apology if the words and actions don’t align. Safe to say we covered a lot of ground with this topic and I am grateful to Jayde for her time.

The website that Jayde spoke about are:

United Nations Women’s site https://www.un.org/en/observances/womens-day

ANROWS https://www.anrows.org.au/

Our watch https://www.ourwatch.org.au/

Preventing Violence Together https://pvt.org.au/

International mens day https://www.internationalmensday.info/

If you want to attend the virtual event you can contact info@cwsw.org.au to register.

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with what we are offering at Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services www.whws.org.au

Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/womenshealthandwellbeingservices

We also continue to add content to our Youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCju-8oH3lDHZYi18wvgSJTQ

WHWS (and this podcast) rely on donations to support our community. If you would like to make a donation you can head to our Give Now page. https://www.givenow.com.au/whws

Or check out The Hidden World of You our online learning platform https://hiddenworldofyou.com.au/

E35 - Alternate pathways to higher education - The Hidden World of Women

In the last episode I spoke with Paris about with an introduction to home schooling. One of the fears that is often discussed when talking with parents about the idea of home schooling is how will it impact my children’s further education? ‘The only way into uni is ATAR, can my kids do ATAR if I’m home schooling them?’

There are many pathways into higher education regardless of whether you decide to home school your children or go through main stream school system.

In this episode I spoke with Danika about her experiences of alternate pathways to further education. Danika started a university degree while she was completing year 10 and then did not attend year 11 and 12 and instead studied a university degree and a TAFE certificate without needing her WACE, or ATAR.

In this episode we discuss the different path, people’s expectations and different options, the pressures from teachers and the pressures from peers as well. We also discuss some of the obstacles to studying at TAFE and the learning curve from swapping from writing for year 10 to writing for university.

In the episode we talk about Open University https://www.open.edu.au/ and the support they gave in this entry into university.

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with what we are offering at Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services www.whws.org.au

Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/womenshealthandwellbeingservices

We also continue to add content to our Youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCju-8oH3lDHZYi18wvgSJTQ

WHWS (and this podcast) rely on donations to support our community. If you would like to make a donation you can head to our Give Now page. https://www.givenow.com.au/whws

Or check out The Hidden World of You our online learning platform https://hiddenworldofyou.com.au/

E34 - Intro to Home Schooling - The Hidden World of Women

The school year is almost upon us again, someone remind me where the summer holidays went? This time last year I chatted to Cindy in Episode 12 about schooling in uncertainty, ways to help reduce anxiety as kids start school, return to school or perhaps start a new chapter in schooling, you can check out that episode here https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-it99b-f9aaab

As we get closer to the start of the school year a number of parents are starting to consider whether a traditional route of schooling is the best option for their children and family or whether perhaps home-schooling would be a better fit and just what a home-schooling journey may look life. For some families the thought of home-schooling fills them with excitement. Others can be almost paralysed with fear.

In this episode I chat with Paris about her experiences with home-schooling her boys. Paris home-schooled her boys for 5 years and I home-schooled my son for 3 years. Together we discuss the highs and lows of home-schooling, some of the common fears, some of the myths and some hints and tips for parents who are considering home-school for their family.

Some useful links

Education Department WA – Home School https://www.wa.gov.au/service/education-and-training/school-education/home-schooling-western-australia

Home Education WA - HEWA https://hewa.wa.edu.au/

WA curriculum - https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/curriculum-browser

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with what we are offering at Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services www.whws.org.au

Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/womenshealthandwellbeingservices

We also continue to add content to our Youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCju-8oH3lDHZYi18wvgSJTQ

WHWS (and this podcast) rely on donations to support our community. If you would like to make a donation you can head to our Give Now page. https://www.givenow.com.au/whws

Or check out The Hidden World of You our online learning platform https://hiddenworldofyou.com.au/

E33 - Journey into Motherhood, Step Parenting - The Hidden World of Women

Some women dream of becoming parents, other women make life choices not to become mothers and then the universe works in mysterious ways and when they meet the man or woman of their dreams the new partner comes with children.

Being a stepparent has many challenges, negotiating different parenting styles, not wanting to overstep but wanting to do the best you can for children that come into your life.

No parenting is easy, there are lots of additional stressors and challenges that come with step parenting.

In this episode Emma talks with Jen about her experiences of being a step mother of two young girls.

Books that Jen speaks about; StepMonster https://www.amazon.com.au/Stepmonster-Look-Real-Stepmothers-Think/dp/1517071380 , The Happy StepMother https://www.amazon.com/Happy-Stepmother-Empower-Yourself-Thrive/dp/037389225X , StepCoupling https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/976033.Stepcoupling .

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with what we are offering at Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services www.whws.org.au

Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/womenshealthandwellbeingservices

We also continue to add content to our Youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCju-8oH3lDHZYi18wvgSJTQ

WHWS (and this podcast) rely on donations to support our community. If you would like to make a donation you can head to our Give Now page. https://www.givenow.com.au/whws

Or check out The Hidden World of You our online learning platform https://hiddenworldofyou.com.au/

E32 - Journey into Motherhood, Same Sex Parenting Part 2 - The Hidden World of Women

Journey into Motherhood – Same sex parenting part 2

This is the second part of the episode talking to Kelly and Sam Pilgram-Byrne about their experience and journey into motherhood and having to be a part of changing laws to be able to become mums. This episode picks up just after I have asked them if everything they went through was worth it.

I would love to give a brief synopsis of what we covered in this episode but oh my goodness, what didn’t we cover? Fostering, same sex marriage reform in Australia, raising a non-binary child, and so many more tangents.

HWW episodes are normally around an hour but this conversation dug into places the three of us weren’t expecting. We diverted off topic (surprise, surprise) but the conversation was too valuable to cut after the journey to motherhood discussion sort of wrapped up so I have cut the episode into two parts and this second part is an adventure that’s for sure!

And don’t forget if you want to keep up to date with what we are offering at Women’s Health and Wellbeing Services www.whws.org.au

Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/womenshealthandwellbeingservices

We also continue to add content to our Youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCju-8oH3lDHZYi18wvgSJTQ

WHWS (and this podcast) rely on donations to support our community. If you would like to make a donation you can head to our Give Now page. https://www.givenow.com.au/whws

Or check out The Hidden World of You our online learning platform https://hiddenworldofyou.com.au/