Two Doting Dads with Matty J & Ash - #94 Weatherman Sam Mac: Travelling Dad, Drive-Thru Dinners and Tackling Newborn Life

Episode Date: September 22, 2024

Australia’s beloved weatherman Sam Mac joins Matty J and Ash as he's knee-deep in newborn life!  Sam and his fiancée Bec recently welcomed their second child, Mabel, just a few weeks ago, while their first, Margot, is almost two! The boys dive into the highs and challenges of parenting two under two and the wild story of how Sam and Bec’s love blossomed over Zoom during the pandemic. From navigating lockdown love to balancing TV life with fatherhood, Sam shares how he juggles the parenting chaos.  Buy Suddenly One by Sam Mac Here https://www.penguin.com.au/books/suddenly-one-9781761347849 Buy our book: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/two-doting-dads-9781761346552  Two Doting Dads Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/639833491568735/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTwoDotingDads  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twodotingdads/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@twodotingdads See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matthew, I wonder what the weather's going to be like today. Yeah, I'm not too sure, Ash. I don't know myself personally. If only we had someone here today who could help us forecast what it'll be. What about Sam Mack? Oh, that took us four hours to script and record that little joke. Was it worth it? Yes.

Sam Mack is of course the beloved weatherman on Sunrise since 2016. He's of course engaged to Rebecca. They have two beautiful children, Margot who was born about two years ago and Mabel Ash. Get this, get this. Three weeks. Three weeks? Yeah. He's knee deep in the newborn phase. Fresh out of the oven. I'll tell you right now, he looks great. Must be all that TV makeup. Again, three hours to script that one. One of the unique things about Sam Mack is the fact that he became a dad a little bit later in life, closer towards edging towards his 40s.

Did you say edging? And he met Beck during COVID time. So a very unique start to a beautiful relationship. Yes. Fell in love over Zoom before finally being able to meet in person. We were just thankful that Beck wasn't catfishing. Lovely. Oh God. Another three hours for that joke. Well let's get the man himself on the mic so we can tell his story. Welcome back to Three Doting Dads. I'm Matty J. I'm Ash.

I am quadruple threat Sam Mack. Quadruple threat? I don't know what the four things are yet. By the end of the podcast, maybe we can workshop what they might be. We'll figure it out. Yeah. This is a podcast all about parenting. It is about the good, the bad.

And the relatable. And if you've come wanting any advice, normally we say, don't bother. However, today we have an experienced dad who's currently going through a newborn phase. And he looks quite fresh considering. You do, yeah. I nearly forgot.

Thank you. I'm TV ready. I've just straight from the show. I normally carry my own ring light, but I'm not necessarily a podcast. Although you do have multiple iPhones pointed at me, which is not unnerving at all. We want every angle. We want every single angle. Perez Hilton is back. Hi guys. Be honest, are you wearing any foundation?

Yes. Are you? Yes, I am. Are you? Yeah, of course I am. I'm just excited to watch you two touch each other. Yeah, of course I am. I'm just excited to watch you two touch each other. I normally do a little dab under the eyes just to hide the bags a little bit.

Don't be silly. I don't think it makes a huge difference, but I think it just makes me feel like I'm going into battle. I'm ready to deliver Australia their weather. Whenever we went on, like go on the morning show or whatever we go on, they're like, they do Matt's makeup. And then I sit down, they're like, no, you're good. I're like, they do Matt's makeup and then I sit down. They're like, no, you're good. I was like, oh, you can't make me look any better. That's a compliment.

No, because they're like, you're going to wear that hat? I'm like, yeah, they're like, you're fine. Enough shadow. It's the thing, like some guys who are too blokey when they do go into a TV thing, they try to put makeup on them. It just looks like they're doing a really bad drag impression. Maybe that's what they were worried about with you, Ash. Whereas I normally walk out and I've got like a new nail polish

and I'm like, is this necessary? An eye pack. You've got an eye pack. You're like, here, just do this bit. Sam, I do want to talk about you as a dad, but before we go there, I want to talk about another woman in your life who is very important. Loretta. My dear mother. And I kind of feel bad in your life who is very important. Loretta. My dear mother.

And I kind of feel bad because your dad is in the picture. He well, well, he's kind of taking the picture. But I know your mom far more than I know your dad. Hang on. Should I know about this? How do you know my mom? Loretta, come downstairs. This is your life. Well, because she's a bit more, I'm assuming she's more happy to oblige with being in the content and being a bit more like front center as opposed to your dad. It's interesting you say that because it's more that she's unaware. She doesn't know that.

And that's why the reason that I like featuring her on some of my, I mean, I share, like you guys, I share a lot of what goes on, not everything, but like little bits and pieces along the way. And the people that follow you get to know your animals, whatever it is going on in your life. And mom's obviously a constant in my life. And she just doesn't realize that I'm filming half the time, which means you get real moments. Like when she got to Sydney, she lives in Adelaide,

got to Sydney the other week, she was so excited about this pass she had that could get her on any transport, public transport for like the whole day. Are we talking about Opel? Yeah, yeah, Opel. Yeah, and I don't use public transport because I'm on TV. She was actually so excited. I'm going to say more excited about the Opel car than seeing her grandchildren.

Look at this thing. Pass drivers pass, she runs out the front door. I covertly film those little moments. And it's amazing because so much of social media, so much of what we see on TV, et cetera, is manufactured. You know, everything is set up. It's like, can you say that again? That happens, right?

But with mum, it is raw. It is real. And she now gets stopped out and about. Like, she'll be doing her shopping at Tea Tree Plaza in South Australia. And people come over and go, they'll go, Loretta, Loretta. And she'll- Did she love that? She's so friendly.

My mum still thinks that everyone that follows me on Facebook or Instagram, I know them personally. So she will say to them, how do you know Sam? And they'll say, I watch him on Sunrise and I follow his Instagram. She's like, oh. We don't know him from school or anything. Just pure innocence. I love that. I love that. She's the best.

And I mean, I'm basing this on what I've seen on TV, on social media. Seems like you like your mum. I love my mum. Seems like you have a great relationship. Was it always the case? Were you a mummies boy growing up? Yes, undoubtedly. Always a mummies boy.

Have a great relationship with my dad as well. And so much of what I do. I spoke about this in my book, which you guys obviously read as research before today's chat. I just finished it. We'll get into that in more detail. I want your thoughts on chapter six in particular, Ash. We'll talk about that when we're not recording.

My dad, I think I inherited, you know, the entertainment. He played guitar. He sang songs. He's a bit of a joker, bit of a character. Whereas mum, I feel that I've inherited, you know, the loving nature. She also has a great sense of humor. You know, just those principles of like eating well, all those basics that are so important. So I'm very, very lucky that I got, you know, this from dad, this from mom. And mom is just, like you say, so innocent,

but just happy to be involved, happy to be invited, happy to be at the table. So it's great. It's easy to get her involved if we do want to get her on. For example, when I wanted to come to the Logies with me, she was my plus one. That's awesome. Had nothing to do with the fact that I couldn't get a date at the time.

Was your dad like, um, Jason, what about me? I took dad to Sir Paul McCartney. So, you know. We were aware of that. You asshole. One and all in, isn't it? You're gonna have to do some context, guys. Like, oh, this guy's the worst ever. He took his dad to St Paul McCartney.

I know. We were talking about this story. I was like, what's the problem? It's like, you got to take both. It's like, I suppose. Yeah. Could you not get tickets for all three of you? I got two tickets.

Who do we need to talk to to get you a pay rise? So you can get three tickets. St Paul McCartney does not come cheap. I got two tickets. It was my dad's birthday. My dad and my mom live in Adelaide. I don't get a lot of time with them. My dad and I bonded over music many, many years. He taught me how to play guitar. We're a Beatles household. It was really special for me to take dad. If I told mom ahead of time, she would have ruined the surprise within eight seconds of the phone call ending. She would have given those really like, you know, I know something but you don't hints that are obvious. Yeah, yeah. I hope you like the Beatles. Like, Mum. Yeah, I know. That's what? That's obvious.

Ever been to Allianz Stadium before? Like, Mum, what are you doing on the 16th of March? Oh, God. So I took them out for dinner, beautiful dinner. I had organized for my fiance, Rebecca, to spend the night with mum. They had some cool things planned, you know, putting Margot out to sleep. We went for an early dinner. Then I surprised both of them by telling dad that he was going to see some of McCarthy.

Mum, you're not. As some people have pointed out on social media, I probably should have let mum know ahead of time, but they don't know Loretta. They don't know the innocence of Loretta. It just goes to show there's two sides to every story. Also, on social media, as you guys know, there's no room for context a lot of the time.

If I'd given the backstory to what was going on and why I couldn't keep it, it would have been like three views. No one would have been interested. They skipped to the next thing. If I put in there that I'd taken mum to Elton John, I took her as my plus one to the Logies, you know, like she has her own hashtag.

She features all over my socials. Like if I try to explain that, it just doesn't work. No one's gonna watch it. People have such short memories. Oh, I know. That one actually, of the few things that have happened where, you know, you've become a story where it's out of your control, and that did go quite big.

It was on a lot of news websites internationally. There were like American bloggers talking about me as a bad child, and it's like, what? You're in Mississippi. You don't know me. That one actually did annoy me a little bit. Like I felt that one because I know the truth and I know how much I admire my mom and how much I do for my mom. I hope that I am the great son to my mom. And that one was like that little bit too close to the bone where I was like, that's not the case at all.

Was Loretta buying into this at all? That narrative? Was she like, yeah, I have been hurt. And Sam Mack is a bad son. What else has he been hiding from me? No, she was oblivious to it all. Classic Loretta. I don't think she even knew about it.

Just skipping down the road. No, no, no. I know. Oh, endurance is police, isn't it? Yeah. And we sent her heaps of videos from the concert as well. Which, as you know, makes up for just not being there, right? Absolutely.

Wow. And when you're, just to skip back, you're working in radio in South Australia. Also a proud South Australian as well. Represent. So a few of us. Matt's from a lot of places, I find. Can you name a few of them? Brisbane.

Oh yes. South Australia. I knew that one, but I forgot. I pick and choose depending on the guest. I probably spent about less than a year in them. Brisbane. South Australia. I knew that one, but I forgot. I pick and choose depending on the guest. I probably spent about less than a year in Port Augusta. All right. But in the right audience, I'm like, I've always loved South Australia. I feel like Matt doesn't say Port Augusta very often because the podcast numbers aren't

that big there. It's not really going to translate to numbers. Shout out to our podcast listeners in Portuguster. Hope you're well. Next week we are live from Portuguster. I don't even know where that is. How dare you. I've never been.

Was there any part of you that thought I may end up working for Channel 7 and I may end up doing the weather? Was there any little seed that was planted in your brain? No. Even when they offered me the job, I first of all thought it was a prank, because I thought, oh, content TV, people are always mucking around. And then the second thing I thought was that I would have to like do some sort of short course in meteorology, you know, at least a tape certificate or something. It's it's been almost 10 years and I still haven't been asked for any weather credentials whatsoever.

In fact, on a number of occasions, I've forgotten to throw to the weather. So, like I've done my shtick, you know, like talking to some lady about the scones she's made. And then we've had a little laugh and I'll be like, alright guys, I'll see you in half an hour. And then the host and the studio have to go, hey, we kind of need the whole reason we crossed you, which is to get the forecast for Australia. Yes, let's do your weather. Who would you say is the most interesting person you've done you

stick with before giving the weather? Who do you think? Oh, there's so many. I'm very lucky. I find that it's, it's the random people or the people that you don't know. It's almost like, I feel like I'm almost on, thank God you're here every morning because people just walk into shot and start having a chat or they'll show up, you know, two minutes before the cross and be much more interesting than what we had organized.

I've got a great producer. You've seen you've been there, Maddie, on some of our segments where you just it's very flexible. It's very fluid. You just kind of go with what's happening. But I love the random moments like, you know, we had a guy recently in Queensland who had no fingers and and he came over to me like 20 seconds before I'm going to air. He's like, I'd love to be on the show.

Love the show, Sam. Well, like none at all. None at all. A mechanical accident many years ago. And he goes, my nickname's fingers. And I'm like, well, we're bumping that guess and having fingers. I think right away. And he was hilarious.

And it's like, that's what I love about the role. Every day is a random adventure. Some days more than others, but you just genuinely don't know what you're going to get. But I, you know, I did a bit of improv. I enjoy being in the moment and, you know, not having too much of a plan. Like, let's see where it goes. Sometimes for TV, you need a bit of a plan and for timings.

But I love the nature of, you know, anyone can be on TV. And we go to these towns that have never been featured on TV before and you don't know what you're going to get. When did the anxiety, or was it ever any anxiety, like 2016 when you're first starting, you got live TV. You don't know if you're going to have like a nice young gentleman or maybe fingers 2.0. You must have a lot of, for your first cross in the morning,

a lot of nerves built up. No one's watching in the first cross. It's about 5.35 AM. Your peak audience is around 7.38am. Not that we don't put effort into the early process. To my content director, if you're listening. You could test out a few jokes. You can build.

You can build as the morning goes on. It's still dark. You know, everyone's still waking up. The show is still waking up. There's not really as much time at the first cross because they're doing the news, headlines, etc. So you get time to kind of craft it and find your rhythm over the morning. You meet people and you're like, oh, they're great.

We're gonna save them for eight o'clock. Fingers, can you just stand by for a second? But it is genuinely, and I hope that it comes across, we want it to seem that it's a bit off the cuff. We want it to seem like they're making this up as they go along or that wasn't supposed to happen. Because often when something wasn't supposed to happen, it's the bit that people remember the most

or are cringing at or laughing at, rolling their eyes, whatever. I'll take any of those any day of the week because so much of the news is depressing. It's sad. You know, kids watch a show. You don't want them thinking the whole world is doom and gloom. Another classic example is yesterday where things go wrong. We had a young kid at a school, primary school named William Chen,

and he's a really good hip hop dancer. And so we were organized, we meet him, we meet his mom. Kids is always a roll of the dice on TV. Absolutely. You should go to Reagan on. Well, yeah, she's back in the country. And we'd organize to have him do his thing and we'd seen him do it in rehearsal. It was amazing.

Like really talented young dancer. We go on the air and I do the build up. I go, he's about to perform at the school spectacular. Give it up. This is William Chen. The UE Boom doesn't work. Have you guys had UE Boom issues? Seriously? I'm a Resonance kind of guy myself.

Okay. Well, maybe that's what's going wrong. But there's always some sort of like, oh, you had to do your passcode. So the Bluetooth disconnected or something always goes wrong. Beeps at you like weird beeps. You're like, doodaloo. And William Chen is looking up at me with these expectant eyes. Like, I'm a TV guy will fix this. He'll be able to play music.

My producer, The Human Emoji, is scrambling, like trying to log back into William's phone to like press the button. Every second is like 10 minutes. It's eternity. And so what do you do? You're live on air. You have to just do something. So I said, and probably a little unfair to William,

I said, look, the thing is William is that good. He doesn't even need music guys. He's gonna dance here right now with no music. And I can see him looking at me like, am I? Am I gonna dance with no music? All right, Weatherman, why don't you dance with no music? So he does and he's really good. And then the studio played some music,

which was so out of time. It was like a Katy Perry song. It was something that William would never dance to. But he did it. The crowd cheered. His schoolmates got behind him and we turned it into a moment. And, you know, at the end, you're like, you can see him performing at the school spectacular, preferably with music. If you want to enjoy that performance.

From now on, he's like, don't play the music. We give him a high five. And that's the thing. Like that sums up the job. That is the randomness of that stuff. Like that's what I want to see. Like in the morning when it's like, when you go to like a school like that

and you're interviewing a kid and the kid gets stage fright, it's like, oh yeah. I'm like, yes. Yes, absolutely. Just ignore my cat behind you, Sam, by the way. Are you running an animal sanctuary here? No, I'm not.

I'm just a three-legged dog who's beautiful. There's a snake somewhere in this building. There's a lorikeet on your shoulder. Normally we lock him up before we record. We're delighted not to today. Raspberry is just going walkabouts. She's been very affectionate lately. She may come onto your lap.

Sure. Don't be alarmed. She may want to be on my lap. I't be alarmed. If she may want to. I was going to say it is a safe space, but not for that. No, no. From the outside, looking at your job, it does look amazing. Like you must have the most amazing highlight reel of your work on Sunrise as my cat. You can hear doing a shit in the background. Apologies for that.

Yeah, that's the kitty litter. I'm sorry. That shit stinks. As a former cat man, I feel you. It's totally fine. Yeah, I get it. But there is a double edged sword to your job. And it's the fact that you travel a hell of a lot. I think you said you clock up like a hundred flights. 130, 120, 130 average per year. Oh my god.

Yeah, it's a lot. That is crazy. Yeah. And then one of the byproducts of that, not being in a town for a long period of time, I'm guessing it's hard to meet people. Romantically. Oh right, you're going way back. You're going way back.

You do realize I've got two kids and a fiance. Yeah, now. But there was a time when you were lonely and sad. Let's talk about that. I'm still sad. Just sad, tired and not lonely. Yeah. But I'm guessing it was hard to meet people when you're travelling so much and you're

throwing everything into your job. Yeah. And I wasn't really a data. Like, the idea just seemed like a lot of effort and I didn't have a lot of time, particularly in this job. Like you say, like so many flights, so little time in each place. So-

It gets to the weekend, you wanna just sit on the couch and do nothing. Yeah, you're exhausted. So it really genuinely took a back seat for quite a few years. And then I think a lot of my friends started to have kids and I sort of, I could see the joy that it was bringing them. And I was like, Oh, this looks cool. And I think I was more open to it. And I think maybe subconsciously I was like, okay, if you want to find someone,

if you want to do this, like you've got to put effort into it, like anything. And so I started to make a little bit more time for it. And crazily enough, it was COVID lockdown that like so many people brought Beck and I together. Roughly at this age is what 39? 42. Thank you. When you are right. I thought I was going to hang on there for a second. Yeah, I was like, oh, that's done the trick.

21? So that age I would have been 38. Yeah, around that. And we all like we talk about women having a biological clock. Yeah. Did you feel that at all being 38 then and not having a long term partner? I mean, I didn't think about it a lot, but there was definitely that lingering thing in the back of my mind of like, I don't want to be the dad that everyone thinks is the granddad and like, you know, it happens because people age at

different ways. Just keep wearing that makeup. You'll be fine. Exactly. Yeah. People, you know, go gray at some people go gray at 25. Like there's so many variables in that. And it's a very superficial way to look at it.

I guess the second tier to that not so superficial was I want to be active. I want to be involved. I want to be on it. Right. So yeah, I think it's all kind of worked out the way that it was supposed to for me. I feel like if I was in this position a bit earlier, maybe I wasn't at the maturity level required and you know, it's bloody hard work.

So I feel like now I, you know, I accept that, understand that, embrace that as best I can, as well as doing, you know, the travel and the work. And the positives of my job is when we're in Sydney for sunrise, which is quite often, I can be home by 10 a.m. and have almost a full day with the little ones, which a lot of dads don't get. A lot of dads literally are out the door at 7 30 home at 5 p.m. They might see them as they put them to bed and that's it until the weekend. And mum, so everyone's got a different situation.

So you're 39, COVID hits and for you, your job, all travel. We all know states are locked up, people are stuck at home. I mean, what does it look like firstly for your job? And then you met your now fiance when you can't leave the house. How did that work? Yeah, it was a really for everyone. Such a strange time. But like the nature of my job as weatherman is I'm just going to put it. It's so funny, like I saw it in the corner of my eye. I don't know what

level of professionalism these guys are. Do they just ignore the cat walking across the table with mini litter stuck to its foot? Sometimes, sometimes she'll just walk through and if it's just Matt and I, we'll just carry on. So I, around that time, TV's Dr. Chris Brown is a good mate of mine. We formed a band. I remember that. Did you? Yeah, called Tone Deaf Leopard.

Strictly covers. And strictly 15 to 20 second covers and with costumes. So we were a band that was more about the visual than the audio, which is not really a great start for a band. 15 to 20 seconds. Because I like I've dabbled in the guitar all my life, but I can only ever play 20 seconds. OK, you play the chorus.

And I'm like, all right, move on to the next song. Do you think that help or hinder the early stages of the relationship with Beck? Well, I feel like Chris's jawline brought a lot of attention to my socials. No, we were just mucking around. I think there was that weird period where you could have four people in a house and you had to be standing on your left foot and singing. There were so many rules. Anyway, Chris and I would have a few drinks, play some songs, dress up. It was just a fun Saturday night. And long story short, one of Chris's

friends was friends with Rebecca, my fiance, and she was in Melbourne in Victoria, the world's worst, most locked down state in the world. And she said to me, Hey, I think you'd get along with my friend Beck. And I said, all right, well, she's requested the next song. She hadn't, because we just, we wanted to do a particular song. I'm like, okay, I'll just tag her in it. And that was literally how we kind of first knew of each other. Then we got chatting from there. And then I think she, her family live all over the world.

She was pretty lonely at that time, living by herself, like a lot of Victorians. And it just became like a daily check in. How are you doing today? What are the numbers today? And then over time we do, hey, let's do a Zoom on a Friday night. We'll do like Negroni night so we can make Negroni's and have a drink, listen to some music. And it became this really, I just loved, I got excited. I look forward to those moments where we would get to chat to each other. I could feel it was also that thing that we weren't sure if it was a romantic thing

or if it was just like, are we making a great friend out of this? And if I was, that's totally cool. But it got to a point where we're like, all right, the board is the right thing. Bit of pressure. It's been a few months. I think we need a meeting person. And then we did. It's crazy.

Like from a, from a pandemic, how many good things have come from it? Yeah. I mean, the pandemic has changed my life completely. In what way? Uh, I didn't do any of this. I, I was a, I was a corporate dog. Pretty much. And, and, And like hearing a story like yours, where it's like you found love during that.

Yeah. For a time where the whole world was suffering essentially, and we've been, you know, put on house arrest and people are dying and all sorts of stuff. But then now things have blossomed out of it. Totally. It's fucking wild. It really is.

It's like, you can't imagine or preempt how those paths would go in that direction, but they do. And I actually wanted to write a song about it, which was, we found love in a hopeless place. And I found out that it had already been done. And so Rihanna already beat me to it. But it was about the pandemic. That was my experience.

Yeah. Be honest. I've read somewhere and like, obviously anything you read online in magazines. It's all true. I heard that you spoke every single day for six months. Is that true? That's true. Oh my goodness.

Makes me sick. I'm very lonely. Exactly. That's the point of it. So then what's it like, the pressure then that you put on yourself, you've got this amazing relationship over six months, speaking every day, every time you speak, you love it, you're feeling it, you get tingles. Then what's it like that first meet up in person?

I don't really get nervous very often, even for TV. I've never, like nerves aren't something, thankfully, that I've had to battle with. I mean, I get a little bit anxious and excited for something to go well or something to work out in a positive way, but I don't get nervous. So I wasn't really nervous. I felt so comfortable and calm with her already from our chats, Zoom, et cetera. Obviously it's a little bit different in person.

You know, does she walk with a limp? Like all of these things, no, I'm joking. But it's like, there's variables. What does she look like from here down? Does she have really good filters? No, not at all. I wear makeup. So I think I was just hoping that it would be

what it had been so far over that five or six months. And it was that and better, like instantly felt calm. She's so non-TV and that's a weird thing to say, but in my world, like I'm constantly meeting people in TV and media and you know, it's a bubble that we work in. It's not like, it's not a normal industry. And there's lots of great things to that, but there's lots of things that are very superficial

and not real to that. And so with Beck instantly, she really didn't know who I was in terms of like TV. When she met Koshi for the first time, she said to him, oh, do you go for Adelaide or Port Adelaide? He's the chairman of Port Adelaide. You will not meet anyone more known as a Port Adelaide supporter.

So she's so, um, She sounds like Loretta 2.0. Wow. Yeah. It doesn't look like her. I might just point out. We'll be the judges after. Um, so.

Did, had you told her, and this is me prying, had you told her that you loved her in those six months? No, it wasn't anywhere near that. It was just, we really enjoyed each other's company. We wanted to meet in person. We certainly were nowhere near that. And it took a little while to get to that, which I think is great. I think it slowed things down.

It gave us time to actually get to know each other properly as people before it became anything, you know, visual or physical or any of those things, it became like, I really like this person. This is a sound person. And were you ever worried over that time that you were getting catfished? I wasn't. No, I wasn't. That's good. Because I had the friend recommendation,

I would have been a pretty awful prank if the friend had said, I'm going to set you up. And then she goes and sets up an account. It's Chris Brown. No, it's just Chris Brown. She does have to set you up. And then she goes and sets up an account. It's Chris Brown. And I just Chris Brown. She does have a great jawline. Gotcha. I did binge a lot of Catfish, a TV show when I was in America last. Yeah, it's a good show.

And that scares me a little bit. So I had to ask the question. You just said no. I mean, there's so many things now even that I go, is this a trick? Yeah. You just don't know. But if that was a prank money, you might actually. When my bank calls me and it's a legitimate call to my bank, I don't engage with it anymore.

I don't know. I don't engage. And it really is the bank because they've emailed me follow ups. I've seen the name of that. They could just be sophisticated and setting up. I checked the voicemail and it's like, this is a thing for a man. I've been like, sure it is. It definitely is.

Catfish. What a show. What a great show. So then at what point after you met Loretta? Sorry. After I met Loretta? That's when I was born. No.

So yeah. I've broken him. I've broken him everyone with the catfish. I can't stop thinking about catfish. No. I've broken him. I've broken him everyone with the catfish. I can't stop thinking about catfish. No, sorry. With Rebecca, after you start dating in person, people would say that you move quite quickly in terms of having your first child.

At what point do you start saying, are we gonna have kids? Yeah. You know, well, the early days of our dating was a bit different to yours. I didn't have producers to set up the dates. And 27 other women. Um, yeah, that's right.

So it was a different environment, Matthew. Um, but what happened was we very quickly felt very comfortable together. I feel like I'm getting the birds and the bees talk right now. So what happened was? Yeah, when a man like, um, we, we both, I think, you know, Beck is younger than me, but I, like you were talking about before, biological clock, like obviously it was top of mind for her. And I was the last option.

No, it was- She didn't want to be lonely again. It was more a case of, we didn't have to force any of those conversations. It all just sort of naturally, which sounds strange, but I think like you were saying before, Ash, COVID, I think made everyone take stock of their life. Like what's important to me?

What am I doing well? Is this a career I want? All of those things. So I think made everyone take stock of their life. Like what's important to me? What am I doing well? Is this a career I want? All of those things. So I think we were all, whether it was consciously or subconsciously, we're making those decisions. And so many people moved states, so many things happen in that period.

So positives did come out of it. And I feel like one of the positives for us was that once we knew that we were into each other, we were so certain about, all right, well, let's not muck around. Like we don't want borders to happen again. Cause at that point it still could have happened again. So pretty quickly she was like, I'll come to Sydney and we'll work it out from there.

Wow. How many months into the relationship? It would have been a few months, a few months in. Did she have to quarantine? No, she didn't. Yes. Yeah. It was one of those brief periods where it was like they announced the borders were open. She's like, I'm packing the car. I'm coming. Yeah. Like how desperate are you? No, I'm joking.

We'll cut that bit out. Please do. And all the other bits. Yeah. And all the raspberry interruption. Nah, I believe those didn't think right. Do you remember the moment that Rebecca told you that she was pregnant? Yes. Yes, I do. Yeah. And I'm, I'm, I don't know if you guys are the same, but like,

what is the like accuracy of the test? Like I'm not a skeptic, but I was like, can we do another one just to like double check? Two conspiracy theorists over here. So it wasn't like the movies. It wasn't like the movies. Yes. It's like when I got the job as a weatherman, like, am I really? Yeah, we did it. We did an episode where we talked about the pregnancy test and how do you do it? Do you pee on it or is it a dunk? Do you dip it in? No, dip it in what?

It's like a COVID test, up the nostrils, wheel around a bit. So it was amazing. Like I was, yeah, I mean, I'm sure you're the same. You remember it so clearly. It's life changing in an instant and so many questions, so much excitement, all of those feelings. And it was just as exciting the second time, you know, when Beck surprised me on Christmas day, actually, there was a lot of surprises going on around that period. I proposed to her on New Year's Eve. Eve, I didn't want to do it on New Year's Eve because too busy, too much going on.

Can we ask how you did that? Yes, I included her family in it because I knew that that was the best chance of me getting her over the line for a year. She's very family- Put him in public. Yeah, like, kill them. Put him in front of him. Kill them, insane. You gotta say no.

I had a heap of photos printed of like key moments of our relationship and basically set them in the shape of a love heart. You were really trying to sell it. Yeah. You were like, look, there's evidence. Yes. Yeah. We had fun once. Did you rope in your producer to print out those photos?

No, I went to Officeworks by myself. Did you? I paid $0.55 per photo. A lot more expensive for the frames. I put a lot of effort into it because I knew that, hopefully, you only get one shot at it. And I wanted it to be right. And I had one of her brothers, she's got three brothers who she didn't know

was in Sydney at the time. He wore a ghillie suit, an army ghillie suit, so he could hide in the bushes to film. What's a ghillie suit? It's like an army camouflage suit, but a proper one with like shrubbery on it. I'm surprised he didn't get arrested. He is in the business of like video shooting videos.

So he knew what he was doing. He's like, I'm going to make sure that she's can't see me. I'm like, okay. So we did that and then yeah, propose. And it was a yes. And then her parents came. Amazing. They emerged from the bushes as well.

Not in ghillie suits. So nerve racking. They were all in bush suits. But back to what I was saying. Yes, that was a proposal. But Christmas day Beck for my Christmas present said, I've got a, you know, a box for you. And I was like, yes, that was a proposal, but Christmas day, Beck, for my Christmas present said, Oh, I've got a, you know, a box for you. And I was like, Oh, it's a puppy. It wasn't a puppy. And then there was a poem in there. And the poem basically explained

to me in beautiful language that we had another one on the way. So there was so much going on at that couple of times. There was a pea covered stick in there as well. No, there was a stick. Yes, there was a stick. And as we were hugging to like, you know, share the moment, how exciting is this? Margo, who at that point about a year and a half had grabbed the stick and was literally about to put it in. It's funny you say that, about to like, we look like an ice cream kind of energy, but she didn't. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. She was like, this tastes funky.

It's definitely positive. How did it work with your job after Margo was born? Like, I'm assuming media is a little bit different to a normal nine to five. You can't take paternity leave straight away. Not straight away. Like it's tricky. They were so supportive and so on board with it. I was very lucky.

We cut back the weekend travel. Often I would travel on a Sunday. We kind of said, can we make it Monday, fly out and generally get back on a Thursday or a Friday. But did you do the weather from the delivery suite? No, we did. We're alive. We could not have a bar of that. No, we they were very, very flexible with it.

I mean, it's still it's hard. But the way that I try to justify it, like we were talking about before, is, you know, OK, I might be away two nights in a week, but on the days that I'm home, I'm home. And like I can have them for almost most of the day, which is awesome because that frees Beck up to have a breather to do some work or whatever she wants to do. So at the moment we're juggling it. And as you guys know, every week is a new juggle with new challenges. But I feel like we're doing pretty well with it all.

Did you find that, I know September of last year, you took a month off as your paternity leave. Was that period where you could completely forget about work? Was that any different to the moments where you come home at 10 o'clock and you kind of become dad? Absolutely. So different. You're not as jet lagged of having done the morning breakfast show

and flying that week. You're just in it. You know what it's like with work. I'm always thinking, where am I traveling tomorrow? What time does my alarm need to be set? What time do I need to leave? Your phone goes off. Yeah, there's all these elements. So I didn't have that lingering over me. I'm always thinking, where am I traveling tomorrow? What time does my alarm need to be set? What time do I need to leave? The phone goes off.

Yeah, there's all these elements. So I didn't have that lingering over me. So it just gave you clarity to actually be more, much more present and just like, all right, what are we doing today? Cool, we're going to go for a drive. We're going to do this. We're going to do a little, you know, a couple of nights away,

whatever it was we were going to do. It was awesome. I loved that freedom. So I'm lucky enough to have a lot of leave saved up. Cause I didn't, cause as you know, I was lonely and sad and a loser for the first six or seven years in the job. If people want to just rewind the episode, I didn't phrase it like that. You kind of did.

And like with Margot, your first year eldest, what sort of baby was she? Was she a sleeper? Was she a good feeder? She was a great feeder straight away. But she was not a great sleeper, which I think everyone can connect to at some point. We got a sleep specialist, a sleep trainer. Yeah, me too. Yeah. Which was- How many months in did you decide?

I feel like it was about six or seven months in. We probably should have gone a bit earlier on it. I feel like everyone says that though. We did really early. We did twice. Did you find that it was more about training you and your partner? We still have her at home training now. She's sitting in the room. She's just sitting in the corner waiting. I feel like we were doing some things wrong or we didn't have conviction with some of the things

that we were doing. So, you know, it's natural, particularly as a first time parent, when your baby cries, you're just instinctively, you're physically drawn to go and help. But we had to kind of let go of that a little bit, give her a minute or two to try for herself. And she worked it out really quickly. The first time we had, we had, because we had a sleep specialist twice for the same kid. He owes me, that's for sure. But the, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like,

it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, natural normal thing to feel. What was the moment that you guys, yourself and Rebecca said, we need help here, we're struggling? I think it was when I was going away, like I felt really, you know,

bad for her because her family are all over the world slash mainly Victoria. My family are in Adelaide. You know, she's got some friends here, but not a huge network here of support. So if I was away for three nights or four nights, that's a long time, as you guys know. Like it's, it was, it was a lot for her, particularly while I was away for three nights or four nights, that's a long time, as you guys know. Like it was a lot for her, particularly while I was away. So that made me kind of, I guess, investigate and research and go, all right, how can we improve this at least? And credit, you know, Sleep By Steph, who was the lady that helped us, it honestly changed things for us very quickly within a month.

Yeah. Once you're given the correct tools in that, it's crazy how quick do they learn and adapt to it? Yeah, they're regress like every kid regresses I suppose but yeah, you a lot of people as well thinking like okay Well, you're going away for four days. It must be nice. But then you're also like you feel guilty that She's my wife said how are you your partners at home with the kid? And it's like I can I can just imagine the night she's having without me. Totally. And what doesn't help is like the things that I'm doing on TV. Like, you know,

Speaking of fingers. Yeah. Totally. I'm at the Gold Coast with some new cocktail bar that's open. There's like flamingo dances and it's a bad look. But it's not reality. Like, that's just the show. How do you deal with...

You just kick on from there. Okay, immediately I should have done that for five days of the week. How do you deal with that guilt as a parent? I think everyone gets parent guilt and I think it's amplified so much more when you're away from your family. How do you deal with it? You chip away best you can. You offer solutions. You offer options.

You make sure when you're home that you are absolutely going above and beyond, even working ahead a little bit. Hey, I've ordered some of those easy lasagnas that are in the freezer ready to go. If you don't get a chance to eat tomorrow during bath time, if it's chaos, that's there ready for you. It would take 10 minutes. Just those little five percenters so that, yeah, you're contributing. You're not oblivious to it. Yeah, that's good advice.

And then if you're staying somewhere really nice, don't first time to know the hotel room. Qualia, Hamilton Island, never heard of it. Yeah. And then if you're staying somewhere really nice, don't FaceTime at the hotel room. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You kind of like, there's no right way to handle those facelike calls. Is there? I was like, you can try to dress down the background as much as you like. Or like, guys, keep it down just for five minutes. You can't, there's nothing you can do because the reality is they're in the thick of it. And you're with a room full of prostitutes. Yeah. Not on that trip.

Not on that trip. Not on that trip. It's like, ladies, keep it down. I didn't say ladies, but that's what you said. Gents. I still can't believe you've got a newborn. Three weeks. Three weeks. Yeah.

Three weeks. How is it second time around? Just as amazing and just as challenging. Different challenges. But I think you have those little moments where like hearing Margot say Mabel, like say her sister's name, I love that. Or when Mabel's crying and Margot runs with the dummy and almost like chokes her, like trying to force into her mouth.

Like she means well. That's that's the stuff that I'm really, really reveling in and loving to see just them interacting. It's so amazing when you get that first photo of your eldest holding the youngest. You're like, the best. Look what we did. Oh, 100%. Never like that again.

As they get older, they're just like, don't touch me. Yeah. How was it for you? Like the going to two, Matty? I think, I think in the early stages, you know, in the first six months, obviously a newborn is so connected to mom and that period initially, it really galvanized my relationship with Marley.

Yes. Like we really stuck together. Yes. And, um, and I guess it took me a little while to then build that same level of relationship with Lola because obviously like, you know, when your first born arrives, all your attention is on them and then you have two kids and all of a sudden it's diluted a little bit more. Um, and so I actually found second time a little bit harder to build that

relationship. Um, and not, this is like the worst way to say it, but you know, when you're like, when something is second time round, it's not as special sometimes. Wow. There is a quote for the poster. Whoa. Do we get that guys who are rolling on that? We are going to edit all of this out. I know. We know what you mean.

Because it's also as well, it comes down to like job experience. Okay. Also, and also let me, let me just- Trying to help you out here, bro. No, no, thank you. Let me give an example. Let me give an example. This has taken a turn, hasn't it Ash? Your first birthday for Margot. How was it?

Spectacular. Okay. We had a dancer named William Chen. No, I'm joking. Okay, I guarantee for Mabel's first birthday, it will be nowhere near as spectacular and the money and energy won't be as matched. I see that as a challenge.

I know. And I'm quite stubborn. This time next year we'll be like, let's go. And you'll be like, well, we actually did have William Chen this time. Yeah, I get where you're coming

from and you might be right. I mean, it's Margot's birthday, second birthday this weekend. And compared to her first birthday, yeah, it's but I feel like, lackluster, I'm sure. That's what I'm saying. It's kind of like,

it's kind of like job experience, right? It's like the first time you do your job, you're on TV like, holy shit, I'm on TV. This is amazing. And now you've been doing it for how many years. It might not seem as special because you've, I mean, you've built up that muscle memory. And like for you, like you were, and I'm the same.

Our kids are pretty much the same age. So it became me and Oscar, you know? And you built that, you know, we're butt heads, yeah, but you built that different relationship that you do with the younger one that you still, you remember as well, that Lola is younger. By the time that she gets to Marley's age, you would have probably built that same relationship. Yeah, I think that's a good way to look at it.

And that's definitely what I'm trying to do, lean into the positives of it, which is, OK, Margo, it's you and I today, let's go do this, this and this, let's have an awesome day. And, and then okay, when Mabel gets to that older, then you make sure you've you've tried to schedule in those days for her to have that that time. We did have a pretty solid session a few nights ago where the kids were in bed. House is a bit quiet. As Laura and I went to bed, we went through our phone and started looking at photos and videos when the kids were a lot younger. Like a trip down memory lane, if you will. I love that. And it's wild how much in our memories, Marley has been like a little toddler her whole life, in a sense, whereas Lola, who's my youngest, she's been a baby for like a whole life.

Because you've got that constant comparison of size and language. It's funny when you look at like Marley and Oscar are a week apart. So that's the same. We did the exact same thing not that long ago. And now I look at Oscar and I'm like, you're a child. And yet you look back at that and you're like, how chubby were you? But also you're a baby. Yeah. And yeah, you don't look at them until you do that. You only you don't look at them that way.

Oh, for sure. When I was at a friend's house recently, they have a six month old. Yeah. And I was watching them try and feed their child and feeding a six month old. Obviously they're very bad eaters with solids. You know, it's just a lot of like smushing food over themselves. Great content. I love that. Great content. But also I was like, oh, that high chair is going to need a wipe down. And I had fabric as well on the seat.

And the baby was like just a mess. I like to hear you say that that's going to be a wipe down. Whilst a cat with kitty litter attached to it walks across your dining table during a podcast recording. Different. Different strikes. But that to me, I was like, that's one of the hardest and most frustrating parts of the task of dealing with a child is having to try and feed them. At the end of the day, it takes so long

to cause such a mess. That's a part I dislike with parenting. Are there any moments or tasks that you're like, I just, I don't want to- How long have you guys got? How much reporting can you do in a day? There's a lot, but like with the disclaimer that, you know, so grateful, absolutely love

it. But yes, there's challenges. Like that's just naturally part of it. Like even last night, I cooked Margot dinner. I was expecting a round of applause. Sorry, the bar is very low. What did you cook? Chicken nuggets and chips.

No, it was carrots, broccoli, mashed potato and a little mini chop, little cutler. There you go. That's outstanding. A little bit of effort. That's a good spread. That's a decent meal. It was a frozen meal. And she didn't want to eat it.

She just wanted to eat a piece of broccoli raw that she'd been holding since she was at the shops. And it was a very frozen meal. And she didn't want to eat it. She just wanted to eat a piece of broccoli raw that she'd been holding since she was at the shops. And it became, it became a meltdown. It was a meltdown. And it's like, she would not let go of the broccoli. She didn't want the cooked broccoli. He didn't want the mashed potato that had Parmesan and butter in it. Might say.

And yeah, it's really frustrating because, and I have to keep reminding myself of this. It's like, you can't put adult logic on a one slash two year old. And you have to keep reminding yourself. And it's hard to remind yourself of that sometimes because it's like, you know that it's dinner time, you know the routine. And she's just, I think, starting to have those little power struggles or understanding she can have independent thoughts,

which of course you need. And so it's just like, all right, we're going to have to play. What do we, what do we need to do? So everyone's got their different methods for us. We do, okay, it's drive through. So it's like, she does a lap of, you know, the kitchen island and it's here's your drive through carrot. I'll see you in a moment for drive through broccoli.

Yep. Yep. We just got it. Yep. Drive through broccoli is available. She comes around, oh, drive through broccoli. Yep. What's that? Oh, mashed potato coming up next. And it actually works, but it won't work in two weeks. And we know that. We're just waiting for her to be like,

she's got the sweet and sour sauce. We're just enjoying that while it and it's good. I do love even though in the moment it's tough and it's like you're stressed and you're tired and you're like, just want to get her in the bath because I know that means I'm near the finish line. Right? Yeah. It's a lot of that. But I do love that there's little puzzles, there's little challenges.

And it's like I'm a creative person. I do like the creativity of like, how do I get onto her level to make this fun or at least bearable? How do I do that? Even to get the result that you're hoping for. She knows what result I want. And she's probably going to try to resist that. But it's like, is there a way to like navigate?

Bribery. Yeah. Yeah. Just manipulation, bribery, guilt, whatever. With your name on it. That's I guess that's a version of parenting in a nutshell, isn't it? But just on different levels and different ages. How often do you put Half Man, Half Cat on TV for your kids? It's part of the morning routine. Half Man, Half Cat.

Yeah, sit some down and say, listen to it! For those that aren't familiar, I don't think there'd be many. Wayne, we'll put in a little sample right now. If that's what I discovered, though I truly am. Half man, half cat. Ain't nobody got a problem with that. I will get royalties for that, thank you. Yeah.

I recorded a song. You are welcome. I wrote a song, recorded a song with The Wiggles, who are amazing. I've been very lucky to spend time with them at HPS Hot Potato Studios, for those that don't know. And recorded a song, I Wiggles who are amazing. I've been very lucky to spend time with them, but HPS Hot Potato Studios, for those that don't know, and recorded a song. I got to perform it on stage with them, which was-

That's amazing. Genuinely like a life highlight. It's almost annoying though that Margot wasn't a little bit older to appreciate like the enormity of the situation. I've got an open invite with Anthony the Blue Wiggle. So he said, you know, I can come and perform with them another time. You can do it time. Can you get us in?

No. Yeah. We'll chat this away. I'll have a chat with Captain Fethasor, see what I can do. We've had Anthony on the pod and he was really great. He's awesome. He's such a legend. But it, I've showed it to her once and she was so

disinterested, much like the book, which I'm actually here to promote today. Thanks for the mention guys. Hang on. How long was this podcast? I've grown a beard in the time we've been sitting here. I was getting there. That was my next point. So we've got time for. She was not very interested in it, but I feel like it's more, you know, your three to five year old demographics. I'll test it out on how old are your kids now?

Five and three. We'll put that on the list, you know, for the kids. Actually, I will try. Marley and Lola are big Wiggles fans. I will film it and get their reaction. And don't tell them it's like weather guy. Just say new song from the Wiggles. OK, OK, I'll do two. And I'm picking them up this afternoon from Daycare.

I'm so excited for this. We've got a brand new TV at home, so we'll put it on that. And they can give you their honest opinion. Brilliant. Brilliant. You are here to promote your second book. Yeah. We are all sitting at this table, published authors. So a few of us.

Congratulations. I know. Thank you. Yes. I still pinch myself every day. The book is, we're not sure when this episode will drop. We'll say it's available now. Yeah. It is called Suddenly One. Yeah.

What's harder, writing a autobiography style book or a kids book? Well, it's interesting because- Because Accident of Weatherman, great book. Absolute crack of a read. It's also a kids book. It's primary school level vocab. I don't know, but this Suddenly One sits in a strange territory because the publisher Penguin will sometimes refer to it as a kids book or a children's book or a picture book. It's probably more picture book in the sense that it's not really for kids to read at like as they turn one two it's not really that it's more like when they get a little bit older

showing them what what you did with them what they went through the experiences you went through when they were a baby because you know they're all egomaniacs they want to hear about themselves and they want to see photos of themselves more more more so that's what it's about. But the thing I love about it is I never intended for it to be a book. It was literally just, Margot was about to turn one. I was on a flight to Perth or something like that. And I literally on a paper bag just scribbled down some thoughts on.

I was looking through photos and here are my thoughts on my first year as a parent and Margot's first year on Earth. And by the time I got to Perth, which is a very long flight, I kind of thought, oh, this could be a poem, this could be a piece. So I fine tuned it over the next week or so, and then recorded the audio of me saying it, matched up a lot of the video to bring it to life

and posted it thinking, this is a great little snapshot. We can look back on this. I love it. Margot will see that in 10 years time. That's pretty cool. And it went like much bigger than I expected. Had over millions of views literally within a day or so. Other parents in the same situation would have looked at it and they go,

we did all that too. And that's the thing that gets people going. It tickles them, right? Yeah. Where it's like, oh, I thought we just did that. It's shared experience. Yeah. It was picked up by the outlets over in Mississippi in the States today. We were like, guys, report on this.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hasn't made it there yet. They don't like good news. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, where are you now? Yeah. And yeah, Penguin said, do you want to turn this into a picture book?

So then I had an amazing opportunity to find the right illustrator, which I'm sure you guys had that, which is really cool to bring to life visually. Yeah. And here it is now. And what I love about it is, number one, for parents,

even if your children are older, it kind of takes you back. And like, oh yeah, I remember our first solace. I remember. So milestones that you can discuss and you can have that chat with your little ones. But number two, I love the idea of grandparents like gifting it to their kids. You know, like say their grandchild is about to turn one.

So I love that concept as well of like bringing families together and sharing those experiences. When you talk about milestones in the first 12 months, is there one that sticks out for you as being one of your favorites? Oh, when she said data for the first time, which was three weeks and four days before she said, mom, that was, I don't know. Did you guys feel the same?

Yeah. Am I, what was my, I don't think, I can't remember. Like hearing dad for the first time, when it's not like mumbling, when it's an intentional dad, like when it's real. I mean, I feel like I'd love to get a professional opinion on this. I feel like data is maybe easier for-

Why would you have to ruin it? Matt. Because I was- Why? Are you here to bring me down? Is that what today is about? Seems like it. Dad is easier. What about Dad D?

I was the same in that, but I was, I was very premature. Like Marley would just go... We know. She was like, hello, Father Dan. I can't say anything in this episode. Sorry. Anyway, I was beating my child.

Which one? Your favorite one or the one that was a disappointment? The second one. What I was trying to say is, forget about it. Marley would say, she would just go like, la la da. And I'm like, there it is. I get it. That's it. And I'd film it. And Laura was like, that is nowhere near.

I think everyone goes through that. But then there is definitely one where it's distinctive and it's with intent. But another thing that apparently, which probably supports your argument is, often the little one will hear the word data more than mama because they're feeding so much or like, dad's gonna be home soon, dad is gonna do this.

And you know when your fiance or your wife or your partner starts to use like that language to get you to do jobs, like, oh, I think dad is gonna empty the bins tonight. Oh, I think dad is gonna, yeah. So they hear the word more. So it's probably the repetition thing. That was daddy's bottom.

Yeah, daddy's away on a work trip in verticals. Yeah was daddy's bottom. Yeah. Yeah. That's daddy's away on a work trip. Inverted commerce. Yeah. Yeah. Again. It's actually quite ingenious what you've done as well. Because you set this up as a series like suddenly two, suddenly three, suddenly four. Oh, you're on to me. Suddenly 20, kind of like. Suddenly 21. It's kind of like Lord of the Rings trilogy, but on steroids.

Yeah. Oh yeah. No, it's I have actually written something for Marco's second, but it's not called suddenly two and it's, I have actually written something for Margo's second, but it's not called suddenly two and it's, it's different. It's called finally two. Yeah. It's more for me and for Margo. I mean, I'll share it, but yeah, I don't know if it would be like an annual thing, but who knows every year is different, right? There's a year.

Love it. And will the, I have to ask the question and I'm sure you've answered this a number of times. Will there be a third or are you happy to be surrounded by women? I would love a third genuinely. I feel like- And that's coming from someone who's in the thick of it. Yeah. It's not really my decision though.

Fuck. He's got a three week old and he's like, let's do it again. That's what you can do. Oh, I was like that at the hospital. Like for me. Popped down to the hospital and be like, this was actually a twin. As if you get a free one. Yeah. We had a really good, I'm not going to say we.

We had a really good birth. What did I do? I took a photo at the end of it and cut the cord. He just recorded the weather from there. Bec had a really good birth. The second time around, Margot's was much more challenging and a longer, I mean, it changes. I always ask, do you think you're going to be able to do it? I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it.

I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it.

I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it.

I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think I'm going to be able to do it. I think Yeah. Keep practicing. I have the snip. No, I'm on the fence. I'm on the fence. I'm not sure.

I mean, it changes. I always ask, I guess. We can adopt. I feel like on the fence is a yes. Yeah. I mean, someone did say to me, they said, I mentioned, I think I'm done. And they said, well, if you think you're done, get the snip. And then the thought then of trying to digest me having the snip, I couldn't do it. So, which was an indication that maybe I'm not done, but we'll wait and see.

Lucky doctor. Well, someone said to me, if you're thinking about it, if you're umming and ah-ing about it, don't think about the third as another baby, another child. Think about it will be a name. And by that, it's a simple way to put it, but like if you had the chance to have another Maple, another Margot, because then you know them, you know the bond that you have with them, you know what they mean to you.

If you had two kids with the same name, that'd be weird. Yeah, I mean, you might need to workshop a different name, but I think that's a nice way to look at it. Yeah, I think so. Because as soon as you meet them, hold them, get to bond with them,

I think it will change. I was so done. Yeah. And like, that's just me. And like, I'm very honest about, I've been very honest about that. Yeah. And like, that's just me. And like, I thought that's, I'm very honest about it. I've been very honest about that. Like I was like, and even April, like, no. Well, I think even you did, I don't know if you recall,

Sam, you did a video where you were like, parenting means that you lose a social life. It makes you broke. Do you remember this video? Something along those lines. But then you did finish it and say, but it's absolutely wonderful. Which it is.

There's magic in every day. Genuinely. We have to say that. Yeah, you do. And it's to try to convince other people to come there. Be miserable with us. Join us. Join us in deprivation.

I truly believe that. There is something every single day. And sometimes it's literally a 10 second moment. Oh yeah. And it makes up for all the shit moments in that day. Yeah, I really feel that. And you know, you're going to be tied with two. So why not be tied with three? That's how I see it. I'm not trying to change convinced, but that's how I see it. And everyone has their own path. Everyone has their own threshold. And like I said at the start,

I'm not the person who has to birth, carry the baby. So it's really more Bex call than mine. But if we had the opportunity, I would absolutely love that. And when you are a much older man, let's imagine you being- You still look like this. A grandfather, a little bit of foundation under the eyes, looking great. And Margot and Mabel are grown up.

They have left the nest and they're no longer living with you. Is there anything that you would like them to remember about the house that they grew up in? Oh, that's a really interesting question. Oh, I'd like them to remember that it was full of books. This is not a plug for me. It's not, it's not. No, genuinely, I'm a big reader.

I love the whole landscape of children's literature. I find fascinating. And even entertainment, Bluey, Wiggles, Peppa Pig, I find it so interesting what resonates with kids and what doesn't. Do you think Dad's a question for your time? Yes, of course. Exactly. There's no more honest audience than a child.

And I find something really pure and interesting about that. So I just want them to remember, oh my God, like Dad used to read that book or mom dressed up as that character. So I want them to remember the oh my God, like Dad used to read that book or mom dressed up as that character. So I want them to remember the stories and the books and those moments. I've taken back to those moments too. Right. When you have that thing of nostalgia, it's like, oh, Dad used to read me that book. Well, you still remember books that you read as a kid, right?

It's amazing how you can forget about it for 20 years. And you walk past Dimex and you're like, oh my God. Yeah, there it is. I walk past the Daily Telegraph. I remember getting hit with that. Mate, thank you for your time. Pleasure. Your fiance is probably wondering why you're not at home right now

with the children. So we will release you. Yes, thank you very much. Congratulations on the book and the podcast and getting the snip. Thank you. I feel like it's kind of ironic that like we're having this three dads having this conversation about how to be better parents while our kids are nowhere to be seen. I know. I don't even know who mine are.

Podcasting is more important than me raising you. Sorry. Bye. No, I did the double drop off this morning, so I'll tick tick the box today. Oh, touch the nerve. Minor in the basement. I'll get it after this. There with the cat. Thanks, guys. Thank you very much. Love your work. Thank you, Sam. We now know what the weather is like. No No we don't. We forgot to ask him. If you enjoyed that episode,

please jump on, leave us a review or suggest any other guest, parent, parent, whoever that we can have on. Mom, dad, grandparent. Have we had any other grandparents other than? Very interesting shout. We have not. Other than your mum? Yeah, your mum. My mum. Let us work on that one. She's hot. She's a hot topic, my mum.

We'll see. Hey, she's hot. She's hot. You're not wrong. She is delish. Anyway, that's enough from us. See you. Two Doting Dads podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia

and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. This episode was recorded on Gadigal land.