Your kid comes home polite, capable, and lovely for everyone else… then absolutely unloads on you over something that feels wildly disproportionate.

Rude? Yes. Fun? Not particularly. Proof your family is broken? Not so fast.

In Episode 61 of Faark The Shoulds, “Family Ties”, QuantiMama Jodi and QuantiPapa McGill unpack how to build strong family bonds with teenagers and children through emotional safety, steady parenting, family rhythms, real responsibility, and the deeply underrated art of not making every meltdown about you.

This is not a shiny-family-values chat. It is the much more useful version: the one where kids can be savage little creatures at home because home is where they are safest. The one where holding space does not mean standing around looking serene while secretly combusting. The one where family dinner is less about the food and more about creating a no-phone place to belong.

Because strong family connection is not built from perfect behaviour.

It is built when a child falls apart and the parent does not shame, fix, distract, interrogate, or make themselves the main character.

Jodi and McGill talk through what that actually looks like in real life:

•  remembering the meltdown is not about you 
•  breathing first, so you do not escalate with them 
•  listening without turning questions into ammunition 
•  letting the emotion move instead of rushing to solve it 
•  creating technology-free gathering points that actually stick 
•  giving kids real responsibility before you are certain they can handle it 
•  keeping your word, because trust is built in boring little moments 

There is also the big one: safety. Not soft permissiveness. Not letting everyone run the show. Proper safety. The kind where your child knows they can bring the hard thing, the ugly thing, the shamey thing, the big feeling, and still belong.

For the parent whose teenager barely talks. For the family that feels a bit fragmented. For anyone trying to build a home culture that can hold the full human, not just the well-behaved public version.

Take this one for a walk. It may make you rethink the next front-door meltdown.

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Loved this? Come deeper.

QuantiMama supports families with empowered birth education, postpartum preparation and homeschooling support — practical tools, lived experience and honest guidance to help you make choices that fit your family.

Explore free resources, courses and support at quantimama.com

Preparing for birth — wherever you are
High Vibe Birth is our self-paced online birth preparation course, available worldwide. Want more personalised support? Birth Immersions are available online or in person, with practical birth preparation, partner support, nervous-system tools and space to explore your choices.
→ quantimama.com/highvibebirth

Planning for postpartum
Optimal Birth Recovery provides professional placenta encapsulation across Geelong, the Bellarine, Melbourne and selected regional areas. Not local? Explore QuantiMama’s free postpartum resources for pregnancy, birth recovery and early postpartum preparation.
→ quantimama.com/optimal-birth-recovery

Questioning school or considering homeschooling?
Take The Leap supports families anywhere in the world to explore homeschooling with clarity, confidence and practical next steps — without needing to have it all figured out first.
→ quantimama.com/take-the-leap

Follow @quantimama on Instagram, YouTube & Facebook — and come say “howdy”.

What if the conversation that changes a girl’s life isn’t the big dramatic one everyone notices?

What if it’s the quieter stuff.
 The language.
 The noticing.
 The steady reassurance of being seen before things go seriously pear-shaped.

In this episode of Alchemising Education, QuantiMama Jodi and QuantiMama Kerri sit down with sisters Bianca and Kritz from The Big Sister Experience to talk about girls, schools, parents, and the relational gaps that so often get missed until everyone’s already in problem-solving mode. And honestly, that’s the thing this conversation does so beautifully. It doesn’t come in hot and sweaty with panic. It comes in with care, perspective, and a useful reminder that meaningful early support gives young people language, life skills, and steadier ground before there’s a crisis to manage. 

It’s really a conversation about what young people are navigating now, how quickly disconnection can creep in, and why the adult’s job is not to have the perfect script, but to stay in the room. To stay available. To resist the urge to fix everything the second a kid says, “Ummm”. Sometimes what our kids need is not advice. Sometimes they need to be heard. Sometimes they need a hug. Sometimes they need help. And sometimes they just need the signal that their grown-up is still there. 

There’s a potent beauty in the “big sister” energy too. Not expert-on-a-stage. Not teacher handing out unsolicited, generalised advice. Not parent hovering with an opinion. Just women who’ve lived a bit, learned a bit, and are willing to say to younger girls, here’s some stuff worth knowing sooner. That lands because it’s human. And because so much of what kids are carrying now is happening in spaces adults barely understand, or are trying to manage after the fact. 

This one is for the parents feeling the drift and not wanting to lose the thread.
 For the educators who know wellbeing can’t be bolted on after the damage is done.
 And for anyone raising kids in a world where connection is getting harder to hold onto, and more important than ever.

It’s a lovely reminder that not everything meaningful lands instantly, with fanfare.
 Some things land quietly.
 Some things land later.
 And still change everything.

Find out more about The Big Sister Experience, for young women, schools, educators and parents.

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Loved this? Come deeper.

QuantiMama supports families with empowered birth education, postpartum preparation and homeschooling support — practical tools, lived experience and honest guidance to help you make choices that fit your family.

Explore free resources, courses and support at quantimama.com

Preparing for birth — wherever you are
High Vibe Birth is our self-paced online birth preparation course, available worldwide. Want more personalised support? Birth Immersions are available online or in person, with practical birth preparation, partner support, nervous-system tools and space to explore your choices.
→ quantimama.com/highvibebirth

Planning for postpartum
Optimal Birth Recovery provides professional placenta encapsulation across Geelong, the Bellarine, Melbourne and selected regional areas. Not local? Explore QuantiMama’s free postpartum resources for pregnancy, birth recovery and early postpartum preparation.
→ quantimama.com/optimal-birth-recovery

Questioning school or considering homeschooling?
Take The Leap supports families anywhere in the world to explore homeschooling with clarity, confidence and practical next steps — without needing to have it all figured out first.
→ quantimama.com/take-the-leap

Follow @quantimama on Instagram, YouTube & Facebook — and come say “howdy”.

Postpartum Power

What if postpartum isn’t “just hard” because motherhood is intense… but because women have been sold a version of recovery that leaves them isolated, underprepared, and quietly drowning?

In this episode of Faark the Shoulds, QuantiMama Jodi is joined by Chantel from Becoming This Mama for a big, honest conversation about postpartum care, recovery, and what it means to actually be held after birth. Chantel shares the experience that cracked everything open for her: a traumatic first birth, a postpartum period that left her overwhelmed and detached, and the moment she realised that while this kind of suffering might be common, it is not normal.

From there, this chat goes deep. Not in a fluffy “light a candle and have a bath” kind of way. In a proper, practical, system-questioning way. Jodi and Chantel unpack the difference a supported, physiological postpartum can make, why postpartum planning matters just as much as birth prep, and how much inner work women often need to do before they can even let themselves receive care. Because that’s one of the real tensions here: it’s not only about meals in the freezer or help lined up. It’s also about whether a woman believes she’s allowed to rest, be cared for, ask for help, and take up space in that first raw season after birth.

Inside this episode:

• why “common” postpartum struggle is not the same thing as normal
• the moment Chantel knew her first postpartum experience was not okay
• how a redemptive VBAC and intentional preparation changed everything the second time
• why postpartum is a time for receiving, not performing
• the conditioning that stops women asking for support, money, rest, and real care
• how to think about building a postpartum village before the baby arrives
• why postpartum support shapes not just the mother, but the whole family unit

There’s a lot of truth in this one. About maternal depletion. About the loss of reverence around the postpartum window. About the way women are expected to bounce back, host visitors, act fine, and get on with it while their whole body, brain, and identity are being rearranged. But there’s also real hope here. Chantel doesn’t just talk theory. She speaks from lived experience, from doing it differently, and from helping other women create a more intentional, nourishing start to motherhood.

This episode is for the mother wondering why postpartum felt so brutal.
For the pregnant woman wanting to do it differently.
And for anyone ready to stop treating postpartum like an inconvenient footnote to birth.

Press play. This one matters.

Hear more from Chantal at
instagram.com/becomingthismama/

and pick up her fabulous resources at
stan.store/becomingthismama

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Loved this? Come deeper.

QuantiMama supports families with empowered birth education, postpartum preparation and homeschooling support — practical tools, lived experience and honest guidance to help you make choices that fit your family.

Explore free resources, courses and support at quantimama.com

Preparing for birth — wherever you are
High Vibe Birth is our self-paced online birth preparation course, available worldwide. Want more personalised support? Birth Immersions are available online or in person, with practical birth preparation, partner support, nervous-system tools and space to explore your choices.
→ quantimama.com/highvibebirth

Planning for postpartum
Optimal Birth Recovery provides professional placenta encapsulation across Geelong, the Bellarine, Melbourne and selected regional areas. Not local? Explore QuantiMama’s free postpartum resources for pregnancy, birth recovery and early postpartum preparation.
→ quantimama.com/optimal-birth-recovery

Questioning school or considering homeschooling?
Take The Leap supports families anywhere in the world to explore homeschooling with clarity, confidence and practical next steps — without needing to have it all figured out first.
→ quantimama.com/take-the-leap

Follow @quantimama on Instagram, YouTube & Facebook — and come say “howdy”.

What if the measure of your parenting isn't what your child achieves - but whether they know how to do it without you? The moment your kid takes you off their bank account might just be the graduation you've been working toward all along.

How to Raise Kids Who Know How to Adult - Not Just Pass the Test 

In this episode of Alchemising Education, QuantiMama Jodi and QuantiMama Kerri get into the reality of parenting young adults. Jodi's first QuantiKid is approaching 18 and apparent "adulthood", and the bank account conversation that kicked off this episode sets the tone for everything that follows - what it looks like when all those deliberate choices around life skills, fiscal responsibility, and 'holding the rope' actually land. This episode is for parents in the thick of it who want to know what all this work is for.

Inside the convo:

•       The bank account moment - when your almost-18-year-old calmly says 'I think that's for the best, Mum' and you realise you've actually done it

•       'Holding the rope' - the abseiling analogy that reframes what support actually looks like in practice, and why throwing kids in the deep end creates trauma, not resilience

•       Why giving children everything might be the most loving thing that backfires on them

•       Fiscal responsibility starting young - cooking dinner, earning money, negotiating with parents, contributing to family costs

•       How homeschooling creates the spaciousness for boredom, creativity, and entrepreneurial thinking to emerge

•       Why this generation already has the bullshit detector installed for the Shoulds - and why parents are the ones who need to catch up

There's a quiet graduation that happens in parenting, and it doesn't belong to the kid. It's yours. The shift from managing their outcomes to holding the rope. From deciding what success looks like to watching your child define it for themselves - even when it doesn't look like what you expected. This episode is a warm, honest, and grounded look at what it actually means to raise humans who do what's right for them, not just what keeps everyone else happy.

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Support the show

Loved this? Come deeper.

QuantiMama supports families with empowered birth education, postpartum preparation and homeschooling support — practical tools, lived experience and honest guidance to help you make choices that fit your family.

Explore free resources, courses and support at quantimama.com

Preparing for birth — wherever you are
High Vibe Birth is our self-paced online birth preparation course, available worldwide. Want more personalised support? Birth Immersions are available online or in person, with practical birth preparation, partner support, nervous-system tools and space to explore your choices.
→ quantimama.com/highvibebirth

Planning for postpartum
Optimal Birth Recovery provides professional placenta encapsulation across Geelong, the Bellarine, Melbourne and selected regional areas. Not local? Explore QuantiMama’s free postpartum resources for pregnancy, birth recovery and early postpartum preparation.
→ quantimama.com/optimal-birth-recovery

Questioning school or considering homeschooling?
Take The Leap supports families anywhere in the world to explore homeschooling with clarity, confidence and practical next steps — without needing to have it all figured out first.
→ quantimama.com/take-the-leap

Follow @quantimama on Instagram, YouTube & Facebook — and come say “howdy”.

A Wildly Nourished Life. 

What if the most radical thing you could do was actually live the life you were meant to live; your full potential?

In this episode of Faark The Shoulds, QuantiMama Jodi sits down with Miek Paulus - the powerhouse behind Ket Baker on the Bellarine Peninsula - for a conversation about obligation, energy, the inner critic, and what it actually means to show up fully to your one wild and precious life.

Miek is ten years into building something she deeply believes in, and the way she talks about it - flour up to her elbows, business calls happening simultaneously, a non-negotiable standard for quality - is less a business story and more a life philosophy. This episode is for the humans who feel the fire but keep dimming it. For the parents who sense what they're capable of and keep talking themselves out of it. For anyone who's wondered whether the grass is actually greener on the other side, or just looks that way from a safe distance.

INSIDE THE CONVO

 • why "do what you need to do and it will be right" is the only bumper sticker worth having

 • the deathbed question that reframes every moment of playing it small • how to handle the inner critic without trying to magic it away

 • why the grass actually IS greener when you push through - and not when you flee

 • building an empire in the divine feminine and why birth has something to say about that

 • the difference between having the drive and having the wish

There's a thread running through this conversation about obligation - not obligation as burden, but obligation as energy source. The thing you owe yourself and the world that, when you lean into it, gives you more than it takes. The energy Miek invests in the details at Ket Baker - 100% sourdough bakery, infamous for its 5-day-in-the-making pastries - the lamination of a croissant, the mood in the kitchen - and why that investment always comes back. It's a reframe worth sitting with for anyone preparing for something big. Including birth.

Fair warning: this one might make you want to book a trip to the Bellarine Peninsula, eat mouth-watering sourdough pastries, and then go do the thing you've been putting off. 

As always, (dough) balls and all.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Loved this? Come deeper.

QuantiMama supports families with empowered birth education, postpartum preparation and homeschooling support — practical tools, lived experience and honest guidance to help you make choices that fit your family.

Explore free resources, courses and support at quantimama.com

Preparing for birth — wherever you are
High Vibe Birth is our self-paced online birth preparation course, available worldwide. Want more personalised support? Birth Immersions are available online or in person, with practical birth preparation, partner support, nervous-system tools and space to explore your choices.
→ quantimama.com/highvibebirth

Planning for postpartum
Optimal Birth Recovery provides professional placenta encapsulation across Geelong, the Bellarine, Melbourne and selected regional areas. Not local? Explore QuantiMama’s free postpartum resources for pregnancy, birth recovery and early postpartum preparation.
→ quantimama.com/optimal-birth-recovery

Questioning school or considering homeschooling?
Take The Leap supports families anywhere in the world to explore homeschooling with clarity, confidence and practical next steps — without needing to have it all figured out first.
→ quantimama.com/take-the-leap

Follow @quantimama on Instagram, YouTube & Facebook — and come say “howdy”.

What does homeschooling look like after the panic settles down and real life takes over?

In Alchemising Education Season 4, Episode 56, QuantiMama Jodi and QuantiMama Kerri share a five-year homeschool progress report. This episode is for homeschool-curious families, reluctant homeschoolers, and parents questioning whether mainstream education is still the right fit for their child. It explores trust, autonomy, the potency of deschooling the parent, and what happens when learning is no longer forced through someone else’s timeline.

This isn’t a shiny success story tied up with a neat ribbon. It’s a reflection on the (sometimes) free fall, the (inevitable) surrender, and the deprogramming that can happen when parents stop trying to control every part of their child’s learning. The QMs unpack what they’ve learned across five years of homeschooling, what surprised them, and why autonomy has become one of the strongest indicators that things are actually working.

The pressure parents put on themselves to recreate school at home is real; the fear of getting it wrong, and why being a child’s parent matters more than being their perfect (on paper) teacher. Real reassurance for families who are in the messy middle and wondering whether they’re doing enough.

Inside the episode:

•  what five years of homeschooling has taught the QuantiMamas 
•  why deschooling the parent matters 
•  how autonomy supports confidence and problem-solving 
•  why grades are a flimsy measure of a full human life 
•  how to trust the process when it still feels uncomfortable 

If homeschooling has felt equal parts brave, untidy, liberating, and mildly unhinged, this episode will feel like a good exhale. Press play for a grounded reminder that there’s more than one way to raise capable, connected humans.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Loved this? Come deeper.

QuantiMama supports families with empowered birth education, postpartum preparation and homeschooling support — practical tools, lived experience and honest guidance to help you make choices that fit your family.

Explore free resources, courses and support at quantimama.com

Preparing for birth — wherever you are
High Vibe Birth is our self-paced online birth preparation course, available worldwide. Want more personalised support? Birth Immersions are available online or in person, with practical birth preparation, partner support, nervous-system tools and space to explore your choices.
→ quantimama.com/highvibebirth

Planning for postpartum
Optimal Birth Recovery provides professional placenta encapsulation across Geelong, the Bellarine, Melbourne and selected regional areas. Not local? Explore QuantiMama’s free postpartum resources for pregnancy, birth recovery and early postpartum preparation.
→ quantimama.com/optimal-birth-recovery

Questioning school or considering homeschooling?
Take The Leap supports families anywhere in the world to explore homeschooling with clarity, confidence and practical next steps — without needing to have it all figured out first.
→ quantimama.com/take-the-leap

Follow @quantimama on Instagram, YouTube & Facebook — and come say “howdy”.

The Evolution of Self

What if the whole “I’m still the same person” line is complete rubbish?

In this episode of Faark The Shoulds, QuantiMama Jodi and QuantiPapa McGill kick off 2026 and Season 4 with a big, juicy conversation on personal growth, memory, identity, and what actually keeps people stuck. Fresh off their double 50th celebrations and a very on-brand “re-wedding”, the hosts dive into the evolution of self and ask a deceptively simple question: who is anyone really, five years later? 

This one is for the Quantifolks who know they’ve changed, but still feel snagged on old pain, old stories, or old versions of themselves. It’s also for the people quietly wondering why some humans seem to move through hard things and grow, while others keep looping the same wound. Jodi and McGill get into perception, memory, contrast, radical responsibility, and the difference between being unchanged and being stuck. 

Inside the convo:

•  why nobody can literally be the same person they were five years ago 
•  how memories and perception can keep old suffering alive 
•  why discomfort, contrast, and challenge can become growth fertiliser 
•  the role of the drama triangle, transactional patterns, and self-awareness in moving forward 
•  why birth is such a powerful teacher for trust, surrender, and transformation 

There’s a beautiful reframe at the heart of this episode: even when someone looks stagnant, they’re not the same person they were before. The cells are new. The life force is still moving. What might actually be happening is that they’re stuck in an environment, a pattern, or a perception that no longer fits. And that’s a very different thing. 

It’s a steady reminder that growth doesn’t always look shiny. Sometimes it looks like sitting in the discomfort long enough to stop running from it and instead, integrate. 

If the past has been feeling a bit clingy, or the old identity is starting to itch, this one’s worth a listen. As always, balls and all.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Loved this? Come deeper.

QuantiMama supports families with empowered birth education, postpartum preparation and homeschooling support — practical tools, lived experience and honest guidance to help you make choices that fit your family.

Explore free resources, courses and support at quantimama.com

Preparing for birth — wherever you are
High Vibe Birth is our self-paced online birth preparation course, available worldwide. Want more personalised support? Birth Immersions are available online or in person, with practical birth preparation, partner support, nervous-system tools and space to explore your choices.
→ quantimama.com/highvibebirth

Planning for postpartum
Optimal Birth Recovery provides professional placenta encapsulation across Geelong, the Bellarine, Melbourne and selected regional areas. Not local? Explore QuantiMama’s free postpartum resources for pregnancy, birth recovery and early postpartum preparation.
→ quantimama.com/optimal-birth-recovery

Questioning school or considering homeschooling?
Take The Leap supports families anywhere in the world to explore homeschooling with clarity, confidence and practical next steps — without needing to have it all figured out first.
→ quantimama.com/take-the-leap

Follow @quantimama on Instagram, YouTube & Facebook — and come say “howdy”.

You can’t outsource wisdom. Or connection. Or that strange blend of magic and monotony that is raising kids while trying to live in alignment with your values.

In this season final, two-part Faark the Shoulds conversation, QuantiMama Jodi gets comfy with Riona Seehusen—founder of Bellagreen Organic Farm and unintentional mother-hub creator—to explore what it means to live locally, parent cyclically, and hold community without fanfare.

Riona’s Bellarine Peninsula farm isn’t just where food grows—it’s where mothers gather, side by side, babies on hips, stories shared between the carrots and the compost. Raised in a Steiner community and now raising and homeschooling five kids while running a thriving business, Riona makes a quiet but persuasive case for slower rhythms and deeper roots.

Because the real cost we’re reckoning with isn’t just at the checkout—it’s in our nervous systems, our disconnection, our collective amnesia about how to live together.

Across these episodes, Riona and Jodi wander through:

— The natural mentorship that happens when mums work side-by-side
 — Teaching kids resilience through rhythm, not rigidity
 — Farming as a metaphor for womanhood, motherhood, and community life
 — How school refusal, spirited kids, and stress might be signs we’re ready for something different
 — Why pronoia—the belief that life is rigged in your favour—might just be the medicine

This is community care without the performative glitter. It’s honest, imperfect, and rooted in dirt-under-the-nails knowing. Pour the tea, walk the dog, or potter in your garden—but don’t miss this one.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Loved this? Come deeper.

QuantiMama supports families with empowered birth education, postpartum preparation and homeschooling support — practical tools, lived experience and honest guidance to help you make choices that fit your family.

Explore free resources, courses and support at quantimama.com

Preparing for birth — wherever you are
High Vibe Birth is our self-paced online birth preparation course, available worldwide. Want more personalised support? Birth Immersions are available online or in person, with practical birth preparation, partner support, nervous-system tools and space to explore your choices.
→ quantimama.com/highvibebirth

Planning for postpartum
Optimal Birth Recovery provides professional placenta encapsulation across Geelong, the Bellarine, Melbourne and selected regional areas. Not local? Explore QuantiMama’s free postpartum resources for pregnancy, birth recovery and early postpartum preparation.
→ quantimama.com/optimal-birth-recovery

Questioning school or considering homeschooling?
Take The Leap supports families anywhere in the world to explore homeschooling with clarity, confidence and practical next steps — without needing to have it all figured out first.
→ quantimama.com/take-the-leap

Follow @quantimama on Instagram, YouTube & Facebook — and come say “howdy”.

You can’t outsource wisdom. Or connection. Or that strange blend of magic and monotony that is raising kids while trying to live in alignment with your values.

In this season final, two-part Faark the Shoulds conversation, QuantiMama Jodi gets comfy with Riona Seehusen—founder of Bellagreen Organic Farm and unintentional mother-hub creator—to explore what it means to live locally, parent cyclically, and hold community without fanfare.

Riona’s Bellarine Peninsula farm isn’t just where food grows—it’s where mothers gather, side by side, babies on hips, stories shared between the carrots and the compost. Raised in a Steiner community and now raising and homeschooling five kids while running a thriving business, Riona makes a quiet but persuasive case for slower rhythms and deeper roots.

Because the real cost we’re reckoning with isn’t just at the checkout—it’s in our nervous systems, our disconnection, our collective amnesia about how to live together.

Across these episodes, Riona and Jodi wander through:

— The natural mentorship that happens when mums work side-by-side
 — Teaching kids resilience through rhythm, not rigidity
 — Farming as a metaphor for womanhood, motherhood, and community life
 — How school refusal, spirited kids, and stress might be signs we’re ready for something different
 — Why pronoia—the belief that life is rigged in your favour—might just be the medicine

This is community care without the performative glitter. It’s honest, imperfect, and rooted in dirt-under-the-nails knowing. Pour the tea, walk the dog, or potter in your garden—but don’t miss this one.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Loved this? Come deeper.

QuantiMama supports families with empowered birth education, postpartum preparation and homeschooling support — practical tools, lived experience and honest guidance to help you make choices that fit your family.

Explore free resources, courses and support at quantimama.com

Preparing for birth — wherever you are
High Vibe Birth is our self-paced online birth preparation course, available worldwide. Want more personalised support? Birth Immersions are available online or in person, with practical birth preparation, partner support, nervous-system tools and space to explore your choices.
→ quantimama.com/highvibebirth

Planning for postpartum
Optimal Birth Recovery provides professional placenta encapsulation across Geelong, the Bellarine, Melbourne and selected regional areas. Not local? Explore QuantiMama’s free postpartum resources for pregnancy, birth recovery and early postpartum preparation.
→ quantimama.com/optimal-birth-recovery

Questioning school or considering homeschooling?
Take The Leap supports families anywhere in the world to explore homeschooling with clarity, confidence and practical next steps — without needing to have it all figured out first.
→ quantimama.com/take-the-leap

Follow @quantimama on Instagram, YouTube & Facebook — and come say “howdy”.

Did you know the education system most Aussie kids move through was designed during the first industrial revolution? That’s horse-and-cart territory. Now we’re in the sixth, with AI reshaping everything from work to identity—and somehow, school hasn’t moved much past the factory floor.

Still standardised. Still compliance-driven. Still asking kids to fit into a model that no longer fits the world they’re stepping into.

In this episode, QuantiMamas Jodi and Kerri sit down with Dean Delia—an ex-teacher, youth worker, parent, and now Executive Director at King’s Trust Australia—to ask the question every parent eventually runs into: what are we actually preparing our kids for?

They talk about outdated career advice, disillusioned teens, and why so many educators feel trapped between what they want to teach and what the system demands. Dean doesn’t come with blame—but he does bring a clear-eyed look at where things are breaking, and how the King's Trust Australia's full subsidised Achieve framework, shaped by young people, for young people, to build the skills and confidence they’ll actually need to be workplace ready.

— Reframe “success” beyond grades and ATARs
 — Get clear on what career readiness really looks like
 — Understand why kids disconnect—and how to spot it early
 — Explore co-design as a tool, not a buzzword
 — Hear what real-world prep sounds like (hint: it’s not an essay nor an exam)

It’s confronting, yes—but there’s relief in hearing someone name it so plainly and be working so earnestly to facilitate tangible and relevant solutions. If you’ve ever wondered whether school is still fit for purpose, this one will meet you right there.

Keen to have your child prepared, for the real world, beyond school, with actual, useful skills: augment their education with the fantastic Achieve Online programme. More info and access at kingstrust.org.au and achieveonline.org.au

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Loved this? Come deeper.

QuantiMama supports families with empowered birth education, postpartum preparation and homeschooling support — practical tools, lived experience and honest guidance to help you make choices that fit your family.

Explore free resources, courses and support at quantimama.com

Preparing for birth — wherever you are
High Vibe Birth is our self-paced online birth preparation course, available worldwide. Want more personalised support? Birth Immersions are available online or in person, with practical birth preparation, partner support, nervous-system tools and space to explore your choices.
→ quantimama.com/highvibebirth

Planning for postpartum
Optimal Birth Recovery provides professional placenta encapsulation across Geelong, the Bellarine, Melbourne and selected regional areas. Not local? Explore QuantiMama’s free postpartum resources for pregnancy, birth recovery and early postpartum preparation.
→ quantimama.com/optimal-birth-recovery

Questioning school or considering homeschooling?
Take The Leap supports families anywhere in the world to explore homeschooling with clarity, confidence and practical next steps — without needing to have it all figured out first.
→ quantimama.com/take-the-leap

Follow @quantimama on Instagram, YouTube & Facebook — and come say “howdy”.