Welcome back to Witching Hour, the show where two mums and sort-of cousins figure out how to make work work. This week, we answer your biggest Christmas and end-of-year questions, including:

• Are we all doing Christmas Day wrong by visiting multiple houses

• What’s the actual etiquette for daycare and teacher gifts when budgets are tight

• How to survive working through school holidays without drowning in mum guilt

• What to say when your family expects long-distance Christmas travel with overstimulated kids

• How to shut down parenting comments without causing a festive feud

• Whether you’re entitled to return part-time after maternity leave

• If it’s bad to ditch your mother’s group when the chat is only sleep schedules

• And the spicy one: is accepting less responsibility for the same pay a feminist failure… or the smartest decision a working mum can make

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In this episode we cover: Christmas family politics, emotional labour in motherhood, school holiday stress for working parents, teacher and educator gift etiquette, overstimulation in young kids, parenting boundaries with relatives, flexible work after maternity leave, Fair Work return-to-work entitlements in Australia, breastfeeding and pumping at work, inadequate corporate parents rooms, mother’s group expectations, maternal mental load, burnout in working mothers, identity shifts after returning to work, workplace discrimination and flexible work negotiations, and feminist debates around choosing balance versus ambition.

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Find us on Instagram:

@readyornot.pod

 @laurentreweek_

@lucindamckimm_

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This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation,  the land on which we’re lucky enough to raise our sons and daughters. Always was and always will be Aboriginal land. We Pay The Rent, and you can too.

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