Pop Culture Parenting

It’s been tough lately advocating for a world where boys can be supported in becoming men who care for others and themselves too.

In this reflection episode you’ll only hear from Billy. The questions and reflections that came in were so vulnerable, powerful and heavy that in the end it felt right for Billy to carry them alone, with the clinical experience this space deserves. What follows is some of the most powerful content the PCP community has ever sent in.

We hear from parents raising boys in impossible circumstances finding grace in the smallest moments, from men who carried the weight of looking strong through the worst experiences of their lives, and from a woman who was harmed by lost boys and is now pregnant with a son, trying to understand how to protect him from becoming one. A letter about what happens to lost boys when they grow up and become fathers stops us in our tracks. We end with a child protection worker’s story of Steve Hogan, a man who found more lost boys than anyone she has ever known. It’s a heavy listen. Take a break if you need to, and please reach out if you need someone to talk to.
Thank you to Our Watch for supporting this topic and for the important work you do for gender equality and violence protection.

For more guidance from the amazing team at Our Watch please check out https://www.ourwatch.org.au/parents-carers
To book your free spot at the Apple Sydney live recording on the 22nd of October head to https://www.apple.com/au/today/event
For our intimate Melbourne parenting workshop check out https://www.guidinggrowingminds.com/products/p/melbourneworkshop

Pop Culture Parenting is created by Guiding Growing Minds, a social enterprise dedicated to changing the future of our kids.
Want to support our work and access more content?
Become a member of our Patreon community
Follow PCP on Instagram
Send insights, questions or reflections about this episode to popcultureparenting@gmail.com
Interested in partnering with us? Send us an email to info@guidinggrowingminds.com
Thanks for being a part of the beautiful PCP community!
Pop Culture Parenting provides general information, stories, and discussions about parenting and child development. The information shared on this show, and advice from hosts, is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or therapeutic intervention. Every child and family is unique. Always consult a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.
If you’re in crisis or need immediate support, we encourage you to reach out to a mental health service in your area. You can find a list of services at https://raisingchildren.net.au/.

"Yeah, but what do I actually say to my boys?"
If Part One of this series reframed how we see the boys in our lives, Part Two is about what comes next: the words.
In Part Two of this special three-part series, Pop Culture Parenting and The Man Cave move with you from understanding to language.
Billy is sharing the clinical insight behind why certain approaches work alongside the most valuable insights from his in-clinic experience. From The Man Cave, Al Green, Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer, and Callum Goodes, Director of Content and Digital Engagement, bring what they've learnt from thousands of conversations with boys.
We’re releasing the pressure you feel for every talk to have to "work", supporting you to see why small conversations matter more than big ones, and giving you what to say when a boy shuts down.
Parents don't need perfect words. Boys remember repeated safety.
If you haven't heard Part One yet, start there!
The Man Cave is opening its doors to parents, with sessions that let you experience the work first-hand and take home tools to try with your boys.
Register your interest here: https://themancave.life/pop-culture-parenting/
Follow:
The Man Cave on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themancave_aus/
Pop Culture Parenting on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/popcultureparenting/
Guiding Growing Minds: https://www.instagram.com/guidinggrowingminds/

Pop Culture Parenting is created by Guiding Growing Minds, a social enterprise dedicated to changing the future of our kids.
Want to support our work and access more content?
Become a member of our Patreon community
Follow PCP on Instagram
Send insights, questions or reflections about this episode to popcultureparenting@gmail.com
Interested in partnering with us? Send us an email to info@guidinggrowingminds.com
Thanks for being a part of the beautiful PCP community!
Pop Culture Parenting provides general information, stories, and discussions about parenting and child development. The information shared on this show, and advice from hosts, is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or therapeutic intervention. Every child and family is unique. Always consult a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.
If you’re in crisis or need immediate support, we encourage you to reach out to a mental health service in your area. You can find a list of services at https://raisingchildren.net.au/.

"Why won't he tell me what's going on?"

It's one of the questions Billy hears most from parents. Inside schools across Australia, The Man Cave hears boys asking something strikingly similar: "Why does no one seem to get me?"
Two sides of the same relationship. Rarely in the same room. In this special three-part series, Pop Culture Parenting teams up with The Man Cave to close that gap.
Billy of course brings you the clinical and developmental lens. From The Man Cave Al Green, Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer, and Callum Goodes, Director of Content and Digital Engagement, bring stories from thousands of conversations with boys. All three share their own journeys understanding the boys they once were.
Together they explore what a boy's silence might really mean, why our most loving instincts might quietly close boys down, and what connection really looks like. Not praise, but being truly seen.
This isn't about fixing boys or finding the perfect words. It's about shifting from "how do I get him talking tonight?" to "how do I help him feel understood?"
Part Two, where these insights become the everyday words that make a difference, lands later this week.
The Man Cave is opening its doors to parents, with sessions that let you experience the work first-hand and take home tools to try with your boys. Register your interest here: https://themancave.life/pop-culture-parenting/
Follow:
The Man Cave on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themancave_aus/
Pop Culture Parenting on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/popcultureparenting/
Guiding Growing Minds: https://www.instagram.com/guidinggrowingminds/

Pop Culture Parenting is created by Guiding Growing Minds, a social enterprise dedicated to changing the future of our kids.
Want to support our work and access more content?
Become a member of our Patreon community
Follow PCP on Instagram
Send insights, questions or reflections about this episode to popcultureparenting@gmail.com
Interested in partnering with us? Send us an email to info@guidinggrowingminds.com
Thanks for being a part of the beautiful PCP community!
Pop Culture Parenting provides general information, stories, and discussions about parenting and child development. The information shared on this show, and advice from hosts, is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or therapeutic intervention. Every child and family is unique. Always consult a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.
If you’re in crisis or need immediate support, we encourage you to reach out to a mental health service in your area. You can find a list of services at https://raisingchildren.net.au/.

What does it mean to be a man?

The Lost Boys gives us a window into one version of that answer and it isn't pretty.
In this episode we use the film to explore masculinity and what the research tells us about how boys develop their sense of who they are, what it means to be strong, and what they risk losing when the only version of masculinity on offer is rigid, stoic and built on control.

We talk about why masculinity itself isn't the problem but rigidity is, how boys often police each other's masculinity in ways that punish vulnerability and reward dominance, and why fixing individual attitudes while leaving peer culture and school systems unchanged rarely works.

We look at what the Man Box research tells us about the very real costs of rigid masculinity for boys themselves, including depression, isolation and suicide, and what it actually looks like to raise boys who are strong in all the right ways.

This one is for every parent, carer and educator who wants to do better for the boys in their lives.
We can't wait to read your reflections, questions and advice.


Pop Culture Parenting is created by Guiding Growing Minds, a social enterprise dedicated to changing the future of our kids.
Want to support our work and access more content?
Become a member of our Patreon community
Follow PCP on Instagram
Send insights, questions or reflections about this episode to popcultureparenting@gmail.com
Interested in partnering with us? Send us an email to info@guidinggrowingminds.com
Thanks for being a part of the beautiful PCP community!
Pop Culture Parenting provides general information, stories, and discussions about parenting and child development. The information shared on this show, and advice from hosts, is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or therapeutic intervention. Every child and family is unique. Always consult a qualified professional regarding your specific situation.
If you’re in crisis or need immediate support, we encourage you to reach out to a mental health service in your area. You can find a list of services at https://raisingchildren.net.au/.

The response to our Sensory Sensitivities episode reminded us just how personal and powerful this topic is. Our polls revealed that 85% of our community find the world too full on for their senses some days, and the reflections that followed were honest, funny and deeply moving. We hear from a social worker whose son's autism diagnosis unlocked more than 80 years of unrecognised sensory challenges in his great-grandfather, a mum who realised her entire approach to sleep and noise in her home has been quietly shaped by her own sensory needs, and a parent who discovered mid face story that she absolutely cannot stand having her own face touched. One of our long questions comes from a mum in rural NSW whose daughter spent years being described as anxious before a sensory OT helped the family realise she was simply noticing everything, all the time, and carrying an extraordinary cognitive load just to get through the day. A paediatric OT also shares the cups model, a beautifully simple way to help families understand and talk about their own sensory needs, including how to plan ahead for overwhelming events. We hope this episode helps and thank you to all the beautiful PCP people who sent in their questions and wisdom. Pop Culture Parenting is created by Guiding Growing Minds, a social
enterprise dedicated to changing the future of our kids.
Want to support our work and access more content?
Become a member of our Patreon community
Follow PCP on Instagram
Send insights, questions or reflections about this episode to
popcultureparenting@gmail.com
Interested in partnering with us? Send us an email to
info@guidinggrowingminds.com

Thanks for being a part of the beautiful PCP community!

Pop Culture Parenting provides general information, stories, and
discussions about parenting and child development. The information
shared on this show, and advice from hosts, is not a substitute for
professional medical advice, diagnosis, or therapeutic intervention.
Every child and family is unique. Always consult a qualified
professional regarding your specific situation.

If you’re in crisis or need immediate support, we encourage you to reach
out to a mental health service in your area. You can find a list of
services at https://raisingchildren.net.au/.