Ally Langdon is no stranger to tricky topics and “bloody good journalism”, as per her TV Week Silver Logie acceptance speech in 2024.
And there are plenty of divisive discussions to be had in the new season of Parental Guidance, which looks at the biggest issues Australian parents are dealing with.
The A Current Affair host and mum-of-two, 46, is once again hosting the topical series alongside Dr Justin Coulson, demonstrating the versatility that has seen her nominated for the Gold Logie for the first time this year.
Read WHO’s full interview with Ally Langdon below.
WHO: Congrats on the Gold Logie nomination! How does it feel to be a part of a historic female-dominated line-up?
Ally: We were standing on stage when they made the announcement and I look down the line and there’s this phenomenal line of women … and Hamish [Blake], who is utterly laying into this and going, “Alright, I’ll carry handbags. I’m the honourary chick.” We’re happy to have him. But it’s really awesome to have looked down that line and to see that six of the seven Gold Logie nominees are women. And we’ve all had very different paths reaching this point we’re at in our careers, which also just goes to celebrate how fabulous the Australian television industry is.
What can viewers expect from the new season of Parental Guidance?
What we realised is that once you have a discussion around some serious issues – smacking is probably the biggest example of it in Season 1 – you can’t really take it any further. So we said if we’re going to do it again, what are the biggest issues that all parents are facing at the moment? And that’s why we broke it down into screen time – being up there as one of the top issues – peer pressure, body image and mental health.
It doesn’t matter how old your kids are, I feel like they are the four big issues that we need to tackle as parents. When we look at this generation of kids who are coming through more anxious than we were growing up – why? Why aren’t they as resilient as we want them to be? But then you look at these pressures that they’ve got – I didn’t grow up with phones. We didn’t grow up with any of those pressures of what social media represented.
So we’re looking at what’s coming and how do we get in front of that? And so the biggest one for us is AI and chatbot friends, and how kids will use AI online.
Being a parent yourself, how do you deal with some of the more confronting aspects of the show?
Look, I’m more likely to cry, and I’ve seriously got to work on it. I do get emotional. We have some really big moments in that room. Previously, with stranger danger, the parents have watched their kids and gone, “Oh, we talk about stranger danger all the time. They’d never [talk to a stranger].”
And I remember – I think it was in the second season – it was talking about a man trying to get the kids to go with a stranger in the park.
And my little boy, Mackie, who was about 5 at the time, goes: “Mum, you never go with a stranger in the park.” And I’m here inwardly cheering, like, “Yes!” And then he goes, “Unless they’ve got puppies or lollies. Then you go.” You think you’ve really hammered something into your kids, and then you realise that’s not the case at all and they might be vulnerable.
Are there moments where you catch yourself judging other parenting styles?
I wouldn’t say there’s moments where you’re really judgmental of other parents. But there are some parenting styles that are very different in their approach, which is what real life is like as well – not all the same. That’s why I think we do a pretty good job of representing everybody. There are some parenting styles I don’t relate to at all, and so then you’ve got to try really hard not to judge because none of that relates to me. I sort of lean into trying to work out where they’re coming from and why. What the benefits or the downside to those views might be?
What do you hope parents can get from watching this season?
I think we all realise that our kids are far more resilient than we give them credit for – that if we just give them that room, they’ll step up. And also to go easy on ourselves as parents, that everyone is doing their best, no-one is perfect. Just keep learning from mistakes. And at the end of the day, what our kids want from us more than anything is our time and attention. That’s it.
