‘KARL’S MY PARENTING GURU’
THE TODAY HOST SAYS SHE’S TRYING TO BE LESS OF A HELICOPTER MUM
There’s no denying the cutthroat world of brekky TV is tough, often causing rifts and feuds between those sitting on the couch. Now, Today co-host Allison Langdon lays down the truth with New Idea.
Not only does she have amazing chemistry with her co-anchor Karl Stefanovic, the pals also lean on each other when it comes to parenting.
Ally, 42, shares son, Mack, and daughter, Scout, with husband Michael Willesee Jr. Meanwhile, Karl, 47, has a young daughter, Harper, with second wife Jasmine, along with three older kids.
“We talk about being parents a lot,” Ally tells New Idea.
“Karl’s daughter Harper is 1, and mine are 2 and 4. Sometimes you walk in [to the Today studio] in the morning and go, ‘Mmm, this is difficult.’
“At the moment, it’s more Alex [Cullen, who has three kids under 3] than Karl and me, because our kids are a bit older. But we all get it and we all understand it. We all talk parenting and what our kids get up to all the time.”
Parenting, in all its forms, is the focus of Ally’s new reality series, Parental Guidance. The show sees 10 sets of parents put their different parenting styles to the test in a series of challenges. After completing the tasks, they sit down with Ally and expert Dr Justin Coulson to assess and reflect, with couples weighing in on everyone else’s methods.
Ally firmly believes there’s no correct way to parent, saying: “When it comes to parenting, we all have an opinion. As parents, I think we always ask ourselves, ‘Am I doing this right? Could I do better? Am I stuffing this up?’ It was nice to know no-one is doing it perfectly, we are just trying to do our best.”
In fact, Ally says hosting the show made her and Michael examine how they are raising Mack and Scout.
“We’ve talked about our parenting style a lot since shooting the show, and I think we are a little bit like [helicopter parents].
“I think that’s because we’ve got little kids in the city and we find ourselves often saying ‘be careful’ and ‘watch out’. But since the show, we’ve actually changed how we parent. I took away a bit from all of the styles.”