Guys, I have something that's a lot more serious that I wanted to talk to you about. It comes as a bit of a PSA to parents out there. As you might know, I'm a mom. I have two little kids, Marley, she's four, and Lola's two. And on the weekend we were faced with the situation that I did not think I would be faced with this early with my kids. So just to kind of give you the background, we have a lovely older lady who lives next door to us.
She's in her eighties. It's been a really nice part of like living in this new house is that the kids will go over and they will visit this lovely lady next door, and our doors always opened her and we kind of try and keep her company as well as you know, allow the kids to have a bit
of a relationship with our neighbor. And on the weekend just passed, I went over there with the girls and my neighbor and I were standing on the balcony having a chat, and the girls run inside into her house and we're playing around because she's got dolls inside, she's got things in there. And about fifteen minutes past and Marley and Lola came out, and Lola, who's two, was white as a ghost, and Marley was bawling her eyes out,
and I thought, what could have possibly just happened? And Marley came out and said, oh, there was something on the TV. And I walked inside, and not realizing our neighborhood is quite elderly, she didn't really register what she had playing out on the TV. And she had a true crime documentary playing and so the girls had run inside they'd seen something on the TV, and then they'd stood there and watched it, and they had seen something
truly horrific play out on TV, really violent. And now this is so much for a little two year old and a four year old to process, and also for me as a parent to process the fact that they've experienced this and they've seen it, and then how do we deal with that? And it's just been such a challenging two days, and it's going to make me upset because you try so hard as a mum to protect your kids from this sort of stuff and then it feels like, in one moment you can completely fail them.
And that's how I felt off the back of that experience. And you know, I thought, in this house, they were so safe. We've done it a hundred times, and it was just in that moment. And then you're like, how do you take back something that they've now seen. How do you comfort them in a way to explain what they've seen on a TV isn't real when they're too young to really comprehend what's happening.
I mean, I think the thing is here, not that it makes it okay, But unfortunately in life, there are going to be things that are outside of your control. And you can be the best parent in the entire world, which we all know you are, and these things can still happen that you can't undo that, and you can't be even a helicopter parent can't be with their kids twenty four to seven. Like there's always going to be
something in life. And you know you hear this from parents all the time at all different ages that you wish you could protect them from everything and be there with them every step of the way, but you just can't. And I guess now it's how do you explain to them that that was fake, that that wasn't real, that that's a growing up show where it's acting like I'm assuming.
That was tomatoesource that What is that what you had to do? What was your first step as a parent. Did you talk to Matt, your husband, and go, we need to talk to them.
Yeah, And my first step with the girls was really reassuring. I mean, they live in the safest house, They are filled with love, like they are filled with safety. But I just I was like, how do you explain to them that what's happening on the TV isn't real? How do you explain to them that what they've just seen is not something that they should have to comprehend it?
And I guess partly as well, like you want to validate that it's okay to be scared of that, because I would have been scared too, but it's not real. And I guess for me, I just having this experience on the weekend, it made me exactly as you said, like realize that you can try so hard, like you can put all of the safety nets in place, and sometimes things can happen that feel beyond your control. But that doesn't mean that you don't feel incredibly guilty for it.
And That's what I'm dealing with now, is this, like I feel like I'm the failure in that.
Oh, Gloria, you can't feel that. That's so normal and so natural. It's part of growing up. Like you said, Britta, I have memories to this day of seeing Pans Labyrinth. Nowhere knew what the girls saw, but it's so scary. And also all my cousins had all the Goosebumps books and the front covers.
I was scared.
I would go downstairs in my cousin's house at family events and I'd look at these covers and I'd look at them and I'd be so terrified, and I would lose sleep over them. I didn't tell anyone, and it's not my parents fault. I don't think I'm blame my kids, So your kids are not going to blame you.
Yeah, And maybe this is the reminder to parents, like your kids at some point are going to see things, whether it be because they have an older sibling who's on an iPad or because you've been on Instagram, and like, there's so much that's happening online these days, whether it be violence overseas or whatever it is, but it is very easy for them to come across something that is
not age appropriate. And I guess for me, this was a real lesson around how much more I guess active I have to be and how much more protection kids need in terms of like screen time and having that being in front of mind.
Yeah, of course, all right, let's get out of here, guys, let's go. We're gonna chat to you tomorrow. We're back for your Wednesday. If you've missed the show, you can podcast. So we had a revelation that fifty percent of women have a backup boyfriend. I don't.
There's three women in this room right now and none of us have a backup boyfriend. So you have back up boyfriends when you're dating.
I don't even have one boyfriend. No, I don't. I don't have a backup But we had this conversation earlier in the show podcast on iHeart search to pick up. We'll see you guys tomorrow.
There