November 25, 2025 • 10 mins
Katie has a moment of realisation that her kids are a lot more self-sufficient than they allow her to think so she is taking a break from being everyone's PA!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Apote Production.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome back to another episode of am I Bad Mum Podcast.
I don't want to go straight into this episode Rach
and really scare the shit out of you. But on
Monday it's December.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, no, I know.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I'm actually hanging for December one, December. I'm actually so excited.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Do you want to know why?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Why I can't fool a life of me?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Understand why? Because the elf on the shelf is back.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
He's back, and my daughters went and found the stash
of elves. And you're wondering why I'm saying the stash
of elves because every year consecutively, I think maybe for
the last four years, I've forgotten the night before where
I put the elf from the year before, and then
(01:07):
I've had to go and buy another one on. So
now you've got a family of elf, but you really do?
We've got six six?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Do you lose it every year? Why don't you have
it put with your Christmas decorations?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I do. That's a problem.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Actually maybe no, maybe for the other years I haven't,
but this year in particular, I must have been like
clute on to go just.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Put it with the Christmas gear. So then my girls
get all excited.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
They know where the Christmas gear is and they were
the ones that prompted putting.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
The tree up.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Like a week ago or a week and a bit ago,
there's the tree up, trees up.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Oh god, it looks fab actually just quietly so. The
girls are really happy with what they did.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
But in the process located family of elves on bottom
of said cupboard that the Christmas So then I had
the question from Elsie, Mom, why are all the elves
on shelves in with the Christmas decorations?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Because aren't they meant to be?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
The magic doesn't come alive if anyone touches them or
if anyone sees them?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And why are they not hidden? And why have you
got six of them?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
She looked at me, and she goes, also, why do
we have six of them? I looked at us, so well,
just keep the magic alive?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Am I bad mum for taking annual leave from being
their pa?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
No, I feel like that too.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I went away for the weekend. It's the first time
we've ever been away for three nights and.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Left the girls by themselves.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, they never used to really like overnight by themselves.
They appeared to be fine, although Amelia was funny because
she said, Mum, I didn't even stay up, I didn't
watch anything. I just couldn't wait to get to bed
because I was worried about.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Being on my own.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Oh so she just wanted to go to bed, to
go to sleep so that she could get to the morning. Yeah, yeah, right, okay,
that's okay, great strategy and rage.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Like you, you know, when we go away or you're
not with your children, you get bombarded with phone calls
and text messages. And you had a night out recently
where your girls had a few hours by themselves.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
And you just got like, oh as soon as I
got that five minutes in and Elsie loves a one
liner message, they just keep going.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, forty five messages one person. Yeah what is that?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
One? Actually bad habit from probably me that she's probably
picked up on because I do a little bit the same.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I'm not a bulk rider of essay.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
I'm like, if I have like four questions I need
to ask you, it'll come through in form for different messages.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, So we went away and it was
nice and we actually I expected to hear from them
all the time.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I was getting like alerts from the cameras when they
like leave the house and things like that. They were
going off doing their own thing. They were working a lot,
and they were working a lot separately, so one would
go to work. Holly said to me, Mom, I felt
like an Uber driver because she had to just drive
Amelia around and pick her up from her shift. I
was like, yeah, well, welcome to my world for the
(04:17):
last seventeen years.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, that was.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
However, it is just an Uber driver and most of
the time you didn't even want to talk to me
in the uber. When I get an Uber I usually
chat to the driver if I am getting like kind
of friendly vibes from them, Yes, how is your day?
Crazy weather at the moment, like all that kind of
stuff you chat to Uber drivers about. Anyway, it was
(04:39):
a really good weekend and we had a lovely time.
The minute I got back great was it was like
bam bam, bam, bam bam.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
They saved it up for.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Me, saved it all up. Mum, you need to do this.
You haven't got back to so and so. I've got
this email. You need to go back to this. You
have a text from my driving instructor. You haven't replied.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I went guys.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh, and I have been on hold and you'll leave
for three days from being your pa. I've had a
little break from being your pa. I will get back
to it today.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Also, they're very capable girls that can reply to goddamn emails.
Rach do, I haven't replied to my driving instructure about
my time of my driving.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Just to it yourself, I said, give him a text
before I left. Right on the Thursday, I was like, okay,
just let you know I've done all the washing. Nothing
else is going to be done now. And Hollywood, well,
but you need to wash our school uniforms on the weekend.
I went, no, No, you need to wash your school
uniforms on the weekend. Yeah, guess whose school uniforms haven't
(05:46):
been washed?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Oh well, that's not your problem. Please, my problem. Did
not wash them? Let them go stinky.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, put them back on how they are.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
It is what it is.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Do you know what was funny before we left h
is that I was looking through the calendar on my phone.
I had to sit down with them and we were
going through all the shifts because they've both got two
jobs each now, so it's confusing. So they're both working
at macas Amelia's got City Beach, Holie's got all Worths.
And so we were working out over the three days,
(06:18):
who's working where and what time, and how they were
going to navigate the dropping off picking up of the
other one. Who's going to need the odd uber that
kind of stuff. As I was going through, I was like, Okay,
so Holly, you got this.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
This time Amelia blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
They're looking at all the other stuff I've got in
the calendar and they're like, what's all this stuff? Like
can you delete that out? Like that's making it really confusing.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I went, that's my stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
That's what I'm doing on my weekend in my calendar.
This is my calendar. It looked at me and laughed
because I was like.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
You can't. You can't have a calendar, mom, you can't
have things.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I can't do stuff for yourself. Aren't have met that
shit out? You're not going wine? What do you think
you're gonna wine tasting on Saturday?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
You're confusing my calendar.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
This should just be dedicated to me. Your shit out
of it?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
On the same half an hour rage one of them,
when they'd had their dinner right, and they went there's
like vegetables in the calendar in the sink, Like are
we throwing those out? Or like where they're going? Because
I want to wash my hands. I was like, there
are vegetables for mine and Dad's dinner that we haven't
had yet. You're sortid. It was just a real reminder
(07:39):
of everything's about them, so about them, everything is about them,
And so when I got bombarded with all this stuff
when I got home, I was just like, I'm taking
more holiday off being your pa in future because I'm
coming back to what's harder than actually if I'd done
those little bits and bobs as I'd gone over the weekend,
(08:02):
which I wasn't gonna do because I wanted to enjoy
my weekend.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
That's exactly right, though you can enjoy your weekend.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Do you know how many kids would just get thrown
to wolves, Like they'd be like, Okay, have a great
three days, like mom and Dad wouldn't be sitting down
trying to micromanage their calendar with like other parents would
just go.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
See you later.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
What I realized they rage from what they were able
to do and the lack of a chat they needed
to have over the weekend is that they actually were
completely fine. They did.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
You probably don't need to micromanage for now. For now,
let them sort out whether But I mean, like it's
very clear and that Amelia is going to be the
one with the old uber so do when she gets
a license?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, And so the only thing that did happen is
we were getting home and there was a big storm,
as we know in Brisbane, and so we've had to
wait at the airport because the ground stuff weren't allowed
to go out and get the bags off the plane.
So we're just in the airport. It's chaos, but it's fine.
And Holly is driving to work in the storm. So
(09:03):
I'm trying to work that out. I'm like, just find
an underground car park, stay sheltered, cool work, they'll understand
kind of thing. Amelia is at home, she's having a meltdown.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
I was like, mate, you've got nothing to complain about us.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You're the one that's fine.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
You're at home.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
You're in the best position out of all of us.
We eventually get home, Rache it's probably about five thirty
six pm something like that, and Hi, Miil, you know,
and then Bella the dog is so excited, so so excited,
and I was like, has she had dinner yet? Amelia
turns around and goes, oh, she hasn't had breakfast.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
What do you mean just have breakfast?
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Oh no?
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I was like, ah, dog, that thing called a dog.
You know, I haven't better for three days. No, there's
Bella in the corner, rolled over.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
So what I realize is that they are perfectly able
to sort themselves out over the weekends. They are very independent.
They just might kill the dog in the process.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, I was like, what about the cat? Did she
get fed or at that? That's it.
Apote Production.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome back to another episode of am I Bad Mum Podcast.
I don't want to go straight into this episode Rach
and really scare the shit out of you. But on
Monday it's December.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah, no, I know.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I'm actually hanging for December one, December. I'm actually so excited.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Do you want to know why?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Why I can't fool a life of me?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Understand why? Because the elf on the shelf is back.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
He's back, and my daughters went and found the stash
of elves. And you're wondering why I'm saying the stash
of elves because every year consecutively, I think maybe for
the last four years, I've forgotten the night before where
I put the elf from the year before, and then
(01:07):
I've had to go and buy another one on. So
now you've got a family of elf, but you really do?
We've got six six?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Do you lose it every year? Why don't you have
it put with your Christmas decorations?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I do. That's a problem.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Actually maybe no, maybe for the other years I haven't,
but this year in particular, I must have been like
clute on to go just.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Put it with the Christmas gear. So then my girls
get all excited.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
They know where the Christmas gear is and they were
the ones that prompted putting.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
The tree up.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Like a week ago or a week and a bit ago,
there's the tree up, trees up.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Oh god, it looks fab actually just quietly so. The
girls are really happy with what they did.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
But in the process located family of elves on bottom
of said cupboard that the Christmas So then I had
the question from Elsie, Mom, why are all the elves
on shelves in with the Christmas decorations?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Because aren't they meant to be?
Speaker 3 (02:06):
The magic doesn't come alive if anyone touches them or
if anyone sees them?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And why are they not hidden? And why have you
got six of them?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
She looked at me, and she goes, also, why do
we have six of them? I looked at us, so well,
just keep the magic alive?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Am I bad mum for taking annual leave from being
their pa?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
No, I feel like that too.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I went away for the weekend. It's the first time
we've ever been away for three nights and.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Left the girls by themselves.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, they never used to really like overnight by themselves.
They appeared to be fine, although Amelia was funny because
she said, Mum, I didn't even stay up, I didn't
watch anything. I just couldn't wait to get to bed
because I was worried about.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Being on my own.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Oh so she just wanted to go to bed, to
go to sleep so that she could get to the morning. Yeah, yeah, right, okay,
that's okay, great strategy and rage.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Like you, you know, when we go away or you're
not with your children, you get bombarded with phone calls
and text messages. And you had a night out recently
where your girls had a few hours by themselves.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
And you just got like, oh as soon as I
got that five minutes in and Elsie loves a one
liner message, they just keep going.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, forty five messages one person. Yeah what is that?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
One? Actually bad habit from probably me that she's probably
picked up on because I do a little bit the same.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I'm not a bulk rider of essay.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
I'm like, if I have like four questions I need
to ask you, it'll come through in form for different messages.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, So we went away and it was
nice and we actually I expected to hear from them
all the time.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I was getting like alerts from the cameras when they
like leave the house and things like that. They were
going off doing their own thing. They were working a lot,
and they were working a lot separately, so one would
go to work. Holly said to me, Mom, I felt
like an Uber driver because she had to just drive
Amelia around and pick her up from her shift. I
was like, yeah, well, welcome to my world for the
(04:17):
last seventeen years.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, that was.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
However, it is just an Uber driver and most of
the time you didn't even want to talk to me
in the uber. When I get an Uber I usually
chat to the driver if I am getting like kind
of friendly vibes from them, Yes, how is your day?
Crazy weather at the moment, like all that kind of
stuff you chat to Uber drivers about. Anyway, it was
(04:39):
a really good weekend and we had a lovely time.
The minute I got back great was it was like
bam bam, bam, bam bam.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
They saved it up for.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Me, saved it all up. Mum, you need to do this.
You haven't got back to so and so. I've got
this email. You need to go back to this. You
have a text from my driving instructor. You haven't replied.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I went guys.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh, and I have been on hold and you'll leave
for three days from being your pa. I've had a
little break from being your pa. I will get back
to it today.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Also, they're very capable girls that can reply to goddamn emails.
Rach do, I haven't replied to my driving instructure about
my time of my driving.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Just to it yourself, I said, give him a text
before I left. Right on the Thursday, I was like, okay,
just let you know I've done all the washing. Nothing
else is going to be done now. And Hollywood, well,
but you need to wash our school uniforms on the weekend.
I went, no, No, you need to wash your school
uniforms on the weekend. Yeah, guess whose school uniforms haven't
(05:46):
been washed?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Oh well, that's not your problem. Please, my problem. Did
not wash them? Let them go stinky.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, put them back on how they are.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
It is what it is.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Do you know what was funny before we left h
is that I was looking through the calendar on my phone.
I had to sit down with them and we were
going through all the shifts because they've both got two
jobs each now, so it's confusing. So they're both working
at macas Amelia's got City Beach, Holie's got all Worths.
And so we were working out over the three days,
(06:18):
who's working where and what time, and how they were
going to navigate the dropping off picking up of the
other one. Who's going to need the odd uber that
kind of stuff. As I was going through, I was like, Okay,
so Holly, you got this.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
This time Amelia blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
They're looking at all the other stuff I've got in
the calendar and they're like, what's all this stuff? Like
can you delete that out? Like that's making it really confusing.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I went, that's my stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
That's what I'm doing on my weekend in my calendar.
This is my calendar. It looked at me and laughed
because I was like.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
You can't. You can't have a calendar, mom, you can't
have things.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I can't do stuff for yourself. Aren't have met that
shit out? You're not going wine? What do you think
you're gonna wine tasting on Saturday?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
You're confusing my calendar.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
This should just be dedicated to me. Your shit out
of it?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
On the same half an hour rage one of them,
when they'd had their dinner right, and they went there's
like vegetables in the calendar in the sink, Like are
we throwing those out? Or like where they're going? Because
I want to wash my hands. I was like, there
are vegetables for mine and Dad's dinner that we haven't
had yet. You're sortid. It was just a real reminder
(07:39):
of everything's about them, so about them, everything is about them,
And so when I got bombarded with all this stuff
when I got home, I was just like, I'm taking
more holiday off being your pa in future because I'm
coming back to what's harder than actually if I'd done
those little bits and bobs as I'd gone over the weekend,
(08:02):
which I wasn't gonna do because I wanted to enjoy
my weekend.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
That's exactly right, though you can enjoy your weekend.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Do you know how many kids would just get thrown
to wolves, Like they'd be like, Okay, have a great
three days, like mom and Dad wouldn't be sitting down
trying to micromanage their calendar with like other parents would
just go.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
See you later.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
What I realized they rage from what they were able
to do and the lack of a chat they needed
to have over the weekend is that they actually were
completely fine. They did.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
You probably don't need to micromanage for now. For now,
let them sort out whether But I mean, like it's
very clear and that Amelia is going to be the
one with the old uber so do when she gets
a license?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, And so the only thing that did happen is
we were getting home and there was a big storm,
as we know in Brisbane, and so we've had to
wait at the airport because the ground stuff weren't allowed
to go out and get the bags off the plane.
So we're just in the airport. It's chaos, but it's fine.
And Holly is driving to work in the storm. So
(09:03):
I'm trying to work that out. I'm like, just find
an underground car park, stay sheltered, cool work, they'll understand
kind of thing. Amelia is at home, she's having a meltdown.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
I was like, mate, you've got nothing to complain about us.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You're the one that's fine.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
You're at home.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
You're in the best position out of all of us.
We eventually get home, Rache it's probably about five thirty
six pm something like that, and Hi, Miil, you know,
and then Bella the dog is so excited, so so excited,
and I was like, has she had dinner yet? Amelia
turns around and goes, oh, she hasn't had breakfast.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
What do you mean just have breakfast?
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Oh no?
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I was like, ah, dog, that thing called a dog.
You know, I haven't better for three days. No, there's
Bella in the corner, rolled over.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
So what I realize is that they are perfectly able
to sort themselves out over the weekends. They are very independent.
They just might kill the dog in the process.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, I was like, what about the cat? Did she
get fed or at that? That's it.
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