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Video transcript

Anthony (father of 3): Hey, girls?

Girls: Yeah?

Anthony: It’s time to come inside now. We’re going to get dinner ready eh.

Girls: Okay.

Anthony: Youse can give Mum and Dad a hand please.

Girls: Yep.

Anthony: Come in, what are you going to do first love?

Girl 2: Oh I’ll wash my hands.

Anthony: Good girl. Here shorty, you’re going to need this.

Anthony: From a young age they’ve always known that they have to drink water. Water comes before anything else. Just to keep them hydrated, prevent headaches and things like that. So yes, water always is first.

Anthony: Preparation for our meals is a time for our family to come together and talk about our day, talk about our evening ahead and talk about the food that we’re eating. So, it’s just a time to come together and communicate as a family on a very relaxed environment--in a very relaxed environment, yeah. Let’s put the skin on here.

Do you want to come with me and we’ll wash the lettuce? Do you want Daddy to cut the skin off it? You know what to do, Shorty?

Girl: I do.

Anthony: Who knows what fish that is? I like to give them vegetables and all sorts of vegetables. I usually use fresh vegetables from the market but frozen vegetables are always going to be better than no vegetables. They’re just as good as fresh. So I always keep some of them in the freezer.

It’s a father-and-daughter thing that I do every weekend. I take them out on the Saturday and we go to the markets. The girls look at the fruit. They get to know the fruit

and as for the vegetables, I always talk to them about why they’ve got to eat these vegetables, and why it’s important to always have green vegetables in the meals that we have everyday.

Anthony: We see the importance of instilling all of these things into our children so that they can be independent in the future. <to girls> See it’s white down the bottom. That means it’s cooked through that far. So what we’ve got to do is wait until it’s white like that, about there, and then we’ll flip it over and cook the other half. Alright?.

Girl: Mum, can I do it?

Anthony: Give Azaria a turn first and then you can have it. Me and Debbie always like to lead by example. It’s hard to try and get the kids to do something that you’re not doing. But it benefits us as well.

So we’ve grown up as very athletic people and we’ve always eaten well. So we want to instil that into our children to give them the best opportunity in life too. I think getting the girls involved in the preparing of the meal makes them appreciate it and makes them be a part of it, and that’s our number one rule in our family is that we always come together and we talk. It’s important not only for the family unit but for communications within society too.

Debbie: This is nice eh? Nice and sweet.

Anthony: We’ll have to go fishing again soon eh?

Girls: Uh-uhm.

Anthony: Maybe we’ll borrow Uncle Nick’s tinny. That’s the same one as granddad gave you.

Girl 1: Mummy can I have another bun?

Debbie: Oh good girl.

Anthony: This is what I was made for mate. Are you going to turn your knife around? Good girl.

Anthony: Well done.

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Raising Children Network is supported by the Australian Government. Member organisations are the Parenting Research Centre and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute with The Royal Children’s Hospital Centre for Community Child Health.

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