Becoming SuperPops

Ep 2. Jon Stokes, The Fun and Practical SuperPop

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I'm so excited to share with you the second episode where I spoke to our fun, yet practical SuperPops, Jon Stokes. Tune in as he advocates for more inclusive company and government policies, and why he wants a hedge trimmer for Christmas and considers baby cucumbers as a very good parenting hack!

Jon and his wife, Jade, are the proud parents of two young boys (Sammy - 5yrs and Matty - 2yrs). Over the last 5 years, they have juggled shared parenting while also building their careers in business and medicine and trying to pay down a mortgage.

Jon feels that more companies should support fathers to step back from work and equally share parenting responsibilities. In doing so, we encourage fathers to build deeper connections with their kids and, importantly, we can relieve mothers of the heavy mental and physical burden of day-to-day parenting and allow them to thrive in their return to work.

In this episode, Jon shares: 

  • glaring statistics (in Australia) of parents who have children under the age of four, 40% of mothers work part-time vs only 4% of fathers work part-time which  prompted him to reserach and learn more about this societal issue;
  • men solve lots of the world's greatest problems over beers, but not shared parenting; 
  • company and government policies need to be inclusive in a way that fathers are just as encouraged as women financially to take parental leave; 
  • more conversations are needed to take away the stigma that if men take on an active parenting role or becomes a primary carer they're somehow compromising on their masculinity or manhood; 
  • his message to Sammy and Matty if they were to listen to this episode 10 years from now; 

    • Resources that influenced Jon's perspective and advocancy on shared parenting include: 

    • Wife Drought by Annabel Crabb
    • Men at Work essays by Annabel Crabb
    • Fair Play by Eve Rodsky 
      • ...more
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      Becoming SuperPopsBy Katrina Edillor