Dear Wiggles: Is My Toddler Ignoring Me On Purpose?

Your toddler can hear a snack packet open from the other side of the house… but the second you say “stop”, “come here” or “we need to go”, suddenly it’s like you’re speaking another language. This week on Dear Wiggles, John and Caterina join Simon and Lachy to talk toddler selective understanding - why little kids seem to hear everything except the thing you actually need them to hear.

HOSTS
Simon Pryce
Lachy Gillespie

GUESTS
John Pearce
Caterina Mete

PRODUCERS
Produced by The Wiggles and Mylk Media
Madeline Joannou
Nick Webb

To submit a question for the ‘Dear Wiggles’ segment, email us at [e-mail] or head to thewiggles.com/podcast to send in a voice note.

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About The Wiggles' Podcast - Wiggle Talk

Think you’ve got parenting figured out? So do Simon and Lachy - until the toddler throws a curveball. On Wiggle Talk - a podcast for parents, Red Wiggle Simon Pryce and Purple Wiggle Lachy Gillespie tackle the tricky, funny, and unexpected moments of raising little humans.

Simon, dad to son Asher, and Lachy, father to twin daughters Lulu and Lottie and stepdad to Jasper, share the highs and lows of parenting in the early years. Alongside their own stories, they welcome guests - from parenting experts to well-known personalities - who bring fresh perspectives and practical wisdom to the table.

Each week also features Dear Wiggles- where listeners send in their questions, the things that keep them up at night, or the dilemmas they’d love another parent’s take on. Simon and Lachy talk it through with honesty, and when needed, they call in expert friends to help provide thoughtful advice and reassurance.

With decades of experience in children’s education and entertainment, The Wiggles bring their trademark warmth and playfulness to conversations on everything from sleep and routines to tantrums, play, and the big feelings that come with family life.

Two dads, no filter, figuring it out as they go.

About The Wiggles

For over three decades, The Wiggles have been a beloved cornerstone of children's entertainment, captivating and educating millions of preschoolers—and their parents—around the world. Known for their high-energy performances, catchy songs, and colourful characters, The Wiggles have built a global legacy rooted in the power of music and movement to inspire early childhood learning.

With a mission to make education fun, The Wiggles create content specifically designed for pre-K, preschool, kindergarten, and nursery school age groups. Their unique blend of music, dance, and educational content not only entertains but also helps children understand the world around them. Generations of fans who grew up watching The Wiggles are now sharing that same joy with their own children.

The Wiggles’ impact is truly global: they’ve achieved billions of music streams and YouTube views, and have sold more than 30 million albums and DVDs, along with eight million books worldwide. The Wiggles continue to dominate the preschool entertainment scene, connecting with new generations through various platforms. Their live shows consistently sell out across three continents, and their videos are enjoyed on countless broadcast and digital platforms in over 190 countries.

The Wiggles continue to dominate the preschool entertainment scene, connecting with new generations through various platforms. You can watch them on ABC Kids, Netflix, Prime Video, and Stan, and stream Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Wiggles acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia
and their connections to land, see and community. We pay
our respects to elders, past, present and emerging.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to will Talk, a podcast for parents. I'm S
I M O. N. Simon the Red Wiggle.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Say it, Say it, Say it again.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's a song that's really it went by the Bye.
But it's actually quite fun of.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
How songs just we just do too many?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
And who are we talking to?

Speaker 3 (00:36):
L A C H Y Lucky. My name is Lucky
the Purple Hello Simon.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hello Lucky. It's great to see you. We are joined
by some wonderful friends here in the pod. Yes we are.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Please spell your names.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
John. I'm the older twin and the younger one is Len.

Speaker 5 (00:51):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
That is before we get to so your your brother's
lenn You're John lenn Yes, and your brother's Len John.
How weird is that is?

Speaker 4 (01:03):
It really nothing to do with the Beatles, But yeah,
that's that's my name. It's John Lennon n John. So
funny story is that when we're a teenager, when we've
got our peas, our licenses are Mine's John Len Rouel
appears and his is Len John Roller Piers. Our face
identical twins look the same same address. My brother got
pulled over by the police being a pea plater and.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Tatoos.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
Yet it's just Hooning pulled him over and pulled him
up on the system and said you've got two id's
and he said, no, I don't, I've got a twin brother.
He didn't believe him because he pulled up the photos
and he goes, you've got duplicate. You need to come
in and prove that your twins. Come to the police
station with your twin brother and his ID. So we
went to the police session. Is the only time I've
been there.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Did you go in like with linked arms?

Speaker 4 (01:46):
We told you I'm John Lenn then John as in.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Your your actual Yeah, yeah, that's your adversity.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Yeah, I didn't know that John Lenn John.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
It's a Filipino thing. They just reverse the name reverse. Wow,
they add two names and flip it.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I don't know. It's confusing flipinos flip.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
That was that would have really got them confusing.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, and of course there are other guests.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Oh yes, I'm Katerina C A T. E.

Speaker 5 (02:18):
R I. N.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
A and thanks for having me, Thanks for coming. As always,
we love having you here for a de Wiggles segment
because you, you know, you solve the world problems and
that's what we're here for. Isn't Lockie solving the world's problems?
Wigle talk Talk Talk, Wiggle Talk.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's Dear Wigle.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Authorized by Simon Locke.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
This Dear Wiggles episode is brought to you by Carry
Care Toddler made for Happy Little Tummies.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
This one's this problem is from Kelly. Thanks for writing Kelly.
Now who I think it's John's turn?

Speaker 5 (02:48):
Would you?

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Why don't you do half each? Actually it's quite a
long one, excellent great.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
Sharing, Kelly. Please tell me I'm not the only one
living with a toddler who has selective understanding. My two
year old can hear the open a snack from the
other side of the house. They understand shoes, park, bath, teddy,
where's your hat?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
All of it but.

Speaker 5 (03:08):
Jumping in there. But the second I say something like stop,
come here, hands off, or we need to go now,
they look at me like I'm speaking a completely different language.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I know they.

Speaker 5 (03:23):
Understand more than they let on. So what can you
actually do in that moment. How do you get through
to your kids, Kelly.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Well, Kelly, your child is two ashes five and it
hasn't changed.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
And more. That's a good question, Kelly, It's very good.
I sometimes doesn't help all the time, but I sometimes
turn the those second lot of words into like a
song or something. Oh, that's good, let's go to the bath,
smelly butts, something like that. But that that can make

(04:05):
it fun and you just pulls them out of what
they're we're thinking was coming to what changed it up?
I don't know if that helps those moments. I think
they do.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah no, I'm not Yeah no. I think A good friend,
Jen Muir, who has been on the pod quite a
few times, she talks about these sort of things where
if you're at the kitchen and you're talking to your
child on the other side of the room, don't do that.
Stop you can't. You know, they actually won't really respond
to that at all. You actually have to stop what

(04:35):
you're doing, get down to them on their level and
actually talk to them. And that has a better way
of them understanding exactly what you're asking to do. Yeah, okay,
and as it to you are they are understanding, but
they're also still trying to piece it all together. So
it's about getting it and actually physically getting on their level,
getting down, having eye contact, connecting with them, and then
talking to them. And that's tricky because you're trying to

(04:57):
make the dinny, you're trying to do your jobs, and
you've got to stop that, you know. That's kind of
a big thing Jen has talked about.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, had and also probably giving it some kind of
reward or what will happen after the stop or come here,
or let's go do something and then we'll go and
do something else you'd actually like to do, and rather
than just saying we have to do this now, yeah, yeah,
nothing after them to be encouraging to do that thing.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
So you're talking bribery, You're right, It is giving that
yeah we do this now, then.

Speaker 5 (05:30):
We get to do go to the park later or something.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (05:34):
With my girls, it's always tricky when they're having a
moment together and they're having a little fight you would
call it, and you want to let them sort of
figure it out themselves, but it gets to a point
where you have to step in because you're like, oh,
this is going to get serious. So I would go
down and like Okay, you've got to stop. You got
hands off, you all of that toye stuff. But my

(05:55):
gg she does this, she holds onto the listop and
just holding her top and you're just like staring at her.
And I was like, oh, you were clever, and that's
really funny. But no hands off. And also when they're crying,
Dolly's a cuddler and so she'll go up to it's okay,

(06:15):
but G's one of those people, don't touch me, doesn't
want She's like no, and I have to tell Dolly
because I don't want it.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
To stop caring.

Speaker 5 (06:21):
I'm like, that's very nice that you're doing that, but
she doesn't like it at this moment. Give her space,
give mummy cuddle instead.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
And let Dolly get upset when pushes her away.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
She does a bit and she's like because she's like,
it's okay.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
And then she's got a dummy and she'll take it
out to give it to it rozen. So it's hard,
isn't it to try and let them still be themselves
in a way without Yeah, I just.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
Watched them from a distance and flick the last.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Twins.

Speaker 4 (06:58):
I don't know, do you you have that moment with Henry.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Henry.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
Now, I think he's starting to rebel a bit, like
he knows when we are trying to stop him from
doing something. If he's got like we give him those pouches,
you know with the yoga in it after dinner, just
so you can sit down and just sit still. And
while trying to wash the dishes, you turn around. He's
just got it upside down. He's about to wave it everywhere.
Henry stop and.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
He just looks.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
He looks at me, and it's just like got this
smirk and he would just run and just throw it,
holding onto it and it just splatters everywhere. Oh God,
please try to wash out. It's getting the bath. And yeah,
it's fun, Like it's cute because you see they've got
a little personality developing and you have to just embrace
it and clean it up and yeah, just have fun

(07:41):
with it. I think I've just been embracing the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, I mean, it is that thing. You have to
keep a lightness about all this stuff because otherwise you
can get incredibly frustrated and kind of be barking at
your children more than you'd like to and kind of
get in a in a mood where you're not seeing
the enjoyments. And I think it's a really really tricky
balance to find, but I think it's really important to

(08:04):
try to keep lightness Asher. Now he's old enough to respond,
he has enough communication skills, enough language to talk, yet
he'll ignore you. And this is our big thing going Asher,
we're talking to you, we need a response, or even
saying hello. I've said this before, saying hello to people

(08:25):
who he knows, and he won't say hello. And we're
going through that now, just saying Asher, you need to
say hello to people. You need to talk to them.
They're talking to you. It's actually not a nice thing
to do. How would you feel? We go through all
that and no, he understands. But it's really interesting how
that his age is still so selective a lot of
the times because he's engaged in something else, and it's

(08:47):
trying to find that moment of I tried to do
reading with him last night, his homework while he was
playing with his ninja toys because I couldn't get them
off him and we had to do some homework. And
I shouldn't have bothered because he's not reading the book
at all. He's got his little ninja toys and Sam

(09:08):
sat is the two words or something, and he's going,
Pam is a Pam read what's the first Pam read
the letters? So that was my mistake, is if that

(09:30):
was going to work as.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
If I remember just when you're talking about Jen, we
probably already said this before. But also you know all
the words that they're not listening to. If you've got to,
Jen would say, set them up with it like an
acknowledgment of acknowledging what I know you don't want to
go now, or I know you don't want to stop,
or you don't want to come here. I know you
want to keep hitting your sister or brother. But there

(09:55):
always seems to help. And no, definitely I've tried that
a few times at home in the right moments and
it actually, yeah, it stops because you've said, I know
how you're feeling, but yes.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
You're about to go exactly right that acknowledgment. Jenn always
talks about the narration, narrating what is going on, okay
and talking through it and so they understand where they're
at and what they're going to get to.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
You could do that with a two year old, Yeah,
for sure. Yeah, definitely in a simple way. But how'd
we go?

Speaker 2 (10:25):
Oh? Look, world's problems.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
I spoke about it too.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, very very good. I think, Kelly Will you should
be almost fifty satisfy made it worse.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
Well, Thank you Kelly, Thank you Katerina, Thank you John,
thank you for joining us on this Thursday segment.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Is John right, it's not Lynn John? Then? Fine?

Speaker 3 (10:48):
We know we don't know, we know you're personally now surely.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
What if I was the original Len John? Like as
a baby we bath together.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
You might have swapped. Did you have one crown or
two crowns? Two crowns?

Speaker 4 (11:02):
Like I always think that, I like, I'm still me,
You're me? I was the original second born?

Speaker 2 (11:08):
For example, Yeah, you'd be doing baby rapes. I would
be there with pink ponytail.

Speaker 5 (11:15):
Maybe.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
Yeah, it's like a butterfly effect. I'd be here with
a pink pony tail.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (11:20):
Maybe that would be a side child, That would definitely
be a side.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Well.

Speaker 5 (11:24):
This Dear Wiggles episode was brought to you by carry
Care Toddler made for Happy Little Tummy.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
It's been wonderful. Yes as always, and because this this
is

Speaker 3 (11:32):
Wiggle Talk, a podcast for parents, Thank you, Lucky Welcome