In this interview, award winning author and media personality Kathy Buckworth shares her mission to change the narrative about grandparenting. Her goal is to break the stereotypical view of the older generation as past it, doddering or old fashioned. Today’s grandparents are healthy, active and living life to the fullest.
Award winning author and media personality Kathy Buckworth joins Sherrilynne Starkie in episode five of the 50 Women Over 50 podcast, to discuss life in their fifth decade.
Kathy is the author of six non-fiction books about family life and motherhood and has been an influencer and broadcaster on parenting issues for more than 20 years. When she became a grandmother, she turned her focus to addressing the challenges and opportunities that grandparents face. She’s a regular on CTV TV and hosts the “Go to Grandma” show on Zoomer Radio.
“If you’re not happy, you can change things in your life pretty quickly,” advises Kathy. “You can start making changes at any time in your life. You are never really stuck no matter your age.”
In this interview, Kathy shares her mission to change the narrative about grandparenting. Her goal is to break the stereotypical view of the older generation as past it, doddering or old fashioned. Today’s grandparents are healthy, active and living life to the fullest.
Kathy Buckworth is an award-winning writer, spokesperson, content creator and media personality. She is the author of six non-fiction books which have been translated into Chinese, Indonesian and other languages. She’s a two-time winner of the Professional Writers Association of Canada Award for Excellence in Humour and is the recipient of the Mississauga Arts Award for Established Literary Arts. She has recently completed her second novel and is also working on a new screenplay. Her show Go To Grandma airs weekly on Zoomer Radio and is available as a podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Sherrilynne Starkie started this show as a creative project with the goal of interviewing 50 women past their 50th birthday to learn how they see the world, what lessons they’ve learned and what advice they have for us all. She’s been blogging and podcasting for 18+ years as part of a successful marketing and communications career and looks forward to learning from the women she will interview.
Subscribe to 50 Women Over 50 wherever you get your podcasts and please share it with your friends.
50 Women Episode 5 Machine Transcript
[00:00:00] Sherrilynne: Hello, and welcome to episode five of 50 women over 50 a podcast for women whose personal confidence is born of experience. I'm your host, Sherrilynne Starkie.
My goal with this podcast is to interview 50 intriguing women who are over 50 years of age to learn how they see this world and what they've learned along the way.
Today. I am welcoming Kathy Buckworth to the show. She's an award-winning parenting, author and media personality, mom of four and a grandma of 2.
You'll know her as the host of go-to grandma on Zoomer radio, Where she talks with guest experts and shares information about subjects that all grandparents want, I was absolutely thrilled when she volunteered to come on my show because I've long been an admirer of her.
And in this interview, Kathy confesses that turning 50 kicked her butt a little look first. But she's come to realize the age is nothing but a number on the scoreboard. She loves life in her fifties, and she feels the future is bright.
Welcome, Kathy Buckworth to the show. I'm so delighted that you are able to join me
[00:01:12] Kathy: today and I am so happy to be here, Thank you. You don't know
[00:01:16] Sherrilynne: this, but, I'm a bit of a fan girl for you because when I became a grandmother before you, And I had this idea, I was 50 the year I became a grandmother.
I had this idea that I wanted to be the first grandma blogger. There was tons of moms blogs out there. This is like a real thing. This could be a proper business. Yeah. I'm a grandma blogger, But of course I was working at a PR agency at the time, and I just was too busy to get my act together around it.
And then lo and behold, two or three years later, you come out with your podcast, go to grandma. And I was like, Well, at least somebody did it. You are You are definitely a pioneer I think in terms of this whole kind of social media engagement with your peer group. And, and how tell me a little bit about your podcast and how did it, how did it come to fruition and, and what's happened since you
[00:02:07] Kathy: launched it?
Sure. I became a grandma I guess almost three years ago. My oldest grandson, I have two of them. My oldest one is almost three, so I was 56, actually became a grandparent. I've always written about parenting and my four kids and everything, and they were grown and, and when it became a grandparent, I thought there's.
There's not a lot of like, not resources, but not a lot of community. How's that? Cause certainly you can pick up a book about grandparenting, anywhere. But I thought there's not a lot of community around it. And I, when I started thinking about it, I thought, why are we still using grandparent as sort of a slam?
Like someone will say, Okay grandma, like it's this bad, thing. And I thought we need to change the narrative. Grandparenting and not the same type of grandparenting that perhaps that we grew up with. I, in fact, only met my grandparents a handful of times cause they live in England. I didn't have a close relationship at all.
I started writing about it a bit about being a grandparent and then I was a regular on Zoomer radio in the morning show, just talking about. Whatever I was talking about, parenting and volunteer work, et cetera. And I said to one of the morning anchors, I said, I, if I want to pitch a show, like what do I do?
She's like, Oh, here's the guy, Send it in. She said, Well, he's terrible getting back to people. Do, pitch it and see what happened. I pitched it, and I'm not kidding. 15 minutes later I got emailed back from him saying, I'm in. They were obviously looking for that kind of a show. I called it the Go-to Grandma or Go-to grandma and I had a couple people say Why have, why have grandma and the title?
And I'm like, Well first of all, I've been doing go-to grandma segments on television for a while. I would say, I'm your go-to grandma. And I said, I want to bring back that word. It's not a bad word. We want to like embrace that word and say, Yeah, we're grandparents. And the show is targeted that way.
It's targeted for what today's grandparents are dealing with. And it's not all about the grandkid. Although a lot of it is in relationships and that sort of thing, it's about nutrition and tech and travel and social media and books and art and everything, that we're just sort of going through maybe in a unique position in our, probably 55 plus, 50 plus years, or, I mean, just from a grandparent's perspective and I've had a great reception to it, I'm really enjoying it and I've got this fantastic title sponsor who's Royal Bank, whom I used to work for.
30 years ago. Anyways, I've kept a relationship up there and they've been fantastic in supplying financial advice as well to the same audience. Retirement obviously a big one, or even buying a second property or, downsizing, all of that sort of stuff. That's been really fun as well.
Yeah. It's, it's a great mix. I hope if I call it fun and facts, it's like a magazine style format show. Try to do one fun sort of subject and one more serious. It's not a show about. At all that we do address, things that happen uniquely. AF after we pass the age of 50. And yeah, it's a half hour sort of quick thing that on Zoomer radio and then it's up on the podcast
[00:04:38] Sherrilynne: and it's a great brand because everyone knows if you.
If you really want something, go to Grandma. Yeah, they're
[00:04:45] Kathy: right. Exactly. Exactly. I know, I it goes both ways. I know. Go to grandma or the go-to grandma. I'm fine either way. I just wanted people to know what this show is about. And it's funny because I have some guests on this show. Obviously, people aren't grandparents.
I love it when they are grandparents. As well. But obviously I just have experts in their field and they, they go out of their way sometimes when they're promoting their interviews to say, I'm not a grandparent. I'm like, It's not a bad thing, don't worry. No one thinks you're a grandparent at 35. We're good
[00:05:09] Sherrilynne: Yeah, yeah. I know. Well, becoming a grandparent it really was a big, I mean, it was as big as becoming a parent or getting married or anything. in terms of life changes, your, your whole, my whole perspective. on. On life changed,
[00:05:31] Kathy: and yeah, it's a milestone for sure. Right. It's definitely a milestone.
It's a life marker, I
[00:05:35] Sherrilynne: guess. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Your whole paradigm changes and, and then of course, I don't know about you, but like I live up to every single stereotype that you can. It's like the kids can do no wrong. You want to eat, chocolate right before bed. Go ahead. You want to play with the fine China.
Okay. I'll get it out for you.
[00:05:55] Kathy: Yeah. Yeah. We're a bit of suckers, my husband and I for the grandkids. Very sure. I think that the thing is, I'm not allowed to get away with anything because my daughter Victoria, or Tori Halpin, who's the mom of my grandsons, is actually in the same business, so to speak. She's a child educator a teacher, and she actually.
Talks a lot about gentle parenting and parenting techniques that more than millennial moms are using now, I can use that term. She has 126,000 Instagram followers or something, so I have to be careful. I have to be careful because she'll report what I do and what I mean by that is I'm very conscious of her parenting techniques, I actually, and they're vegan, I, and I'm not, So I actually don't slip them chocolate chip cookies on their regular basis, although I'd like to.
Yeah. I, I follow along with all of her strategies and actually, I get people saying, Well, isn't that annoying? They don't watch TV till they're two or you can't say you're doing a good job when you're eating their dinner and stuff like that. Actually, it doesn't bother me at all because it's kind of nice not being the one in charge, if you know what I mean.
I've done my parenting. That is, it. Right? You
[00:06:51] Sherrilynne: hit the nail on the head right there. That's not our job. Right. Our job is to support our children in their role as parents and say, Precise. You're doing a good job, And then just precisely just to add some support and certainly during trend, during pandemic times a lot of grandparents, like I took on a lot of responsibility.
In terms of looking after my aging mother and trying to help my daughter who was working. Yeah. And plus, now, now she's a teacher, and there was a lot of stuff going on. If there's one thing, I want to hang on to as a silver lining about the the pandemic was that every. Morning at 10:00 AM I did a story time with my grandchildren online.
Nice. And would read a book with them, give them her, their mom about a 20 minutes or 30 minutes to herself in the morning. And yeah, that's, but that's
[00:07:43] Kathy: about, Yeah. That's really cool. Lining. Yeah. No, yeah, exactly. No, that's cool though. And it wasn't, trying for grandparents to stay in touch during lockdown when we weren't allowed to expand our family bubbles.
Right., thank goodness for moving past that a little bit. Yes, for
[00:07:55] Sherrilynne: sure. For sure. Tell me about your 50th birthday party. What did you do?
[00:08:00] Kathy: Right. Okay. I'm 59, I'll have to think back. My 50th landed at the same time as my last book came out actually, which was, I'm so the boss of, You can't believe it's nine years ago, but it was, and it came out at the same time because my birthday's in April and Mother's Day is in May, and that's when they tend to release mothering tight books.
I was actually doing a bit of promo for it, and I got stuck at the Ottawa airport. There you go. I spent my 50th birthday having dinner by myself at a crappy little restaurant at the Ottawa Airport. So exciting, And then when I came home, I had a book launch, which took place. It was wonderful and everything, and I said, I can't do a 50.
I didn't really do it at 50th birthday party, but I'll tell you what, when I turned 55, I had a really fun, big dinner party. I saved it up a bit.
[00:08:41] Sherrilynne: Yeah. Interesting, interesting. Yeah, I did have a big 50th birthday party, but it was a surprise party, so I didn't, Oh, I didn't know that it was happening, but I'm definitely getting the word out there that I, I do not want a big surprise party for my 60th
[00:08:55] Kathy: birthday.
I've already been, Yeah. I'm not some big, I'm surprise parties. I, I like the idea of celebrating and I think it doesn't celebrate you. You're open until I have always talked about my age. Doesn't bother me. Although I will say that 50 kind of kicked my butt a bit. Turning 50. It, it did, Yeah.
Turning 40, who cares? But turning 50, I, I thought, geez, this is really, is the back nine at this point. Right., and, but now, I, I love my fifties. They've been amazing. But I would say it took me a year to get over the fact that I was in my fifties, honestly.
[00:09:25] Sherrilynne: Right, what happened that made you decide that this was, not going to be so bad? What
[00:09:33] Kathy: did, was there an event, I guess, No, I don’t know if there was an event or not. There was just this feeling of, you know what, I still feel the same. Like I'm still as active as I ever was. I still have a, great career, great life, everything.
Nothing's really changed except the number on the scoreboard, right? It gradually came to me, I guess, in that way. And I don't know, I guess I just found that, I knew so many people in their fifties that were still doing amazing things to, and sixties, like I have to say. The idea of turning 60 doesn't actually bother me.
And leading up to 50, it bugged me. I think I'm past it. I read it a quote, I wish I could remember who said it, but that 50 is the youth of old age and the old age of youth, and I think that's really true. It's like you're standing up here, looking back at some, but looking forward to others and it's, maybe you know this.
It's so true that like little things don't bother you as much. The older that you get, you've got a much better ability to see the big picture. And I've always been someone who acted pretty quickly on things, and I think I'm slowing down in that regard, which is I'll sit on things now for like a day, which was unheard of me before.
Even big decisions, right? I think it's just, coming to that space of, Oh, it's okay. I'm, I'm good and I can take my time and I can make good decisions and I don't have to do everything that people ask me to do.,
[00:10:42] Sherrilynne: Yeah. If there's one thing that I would like the listeners of this, this podcast series to take away is that don't fear your fifties.
Because I’m, I'm like, you like the lead up to my fifties, It was like a pit of dread in my stomach. Yeah. And I couldn't quite believe it was happening to me.
[00:10:58] Kathy: Yeah. And
[00:10:59] Sherrilynne: and I have to tell you, my fifth decade has been the, my best decade. It really has. I mean, apart
[00:11:05] Kathy: pandemic, but at least,
[00:11:07] Sherrilynne: Yeah. You know. Could have been a lot worse.
There could have been a lot worse things that happened to me personally than that pandemic. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:14] Kathy: Yeah, I agree. In the fifties, I agree. I've been my be, I thought my forties were a great decade. When I look back, I had four kids and I had them when I was 28. 30, 35 and 39. Yeah. So, given that my forties kind of passed in a bit of a blur, I'll just say, right?
Cause I was working full time, I was doing whatever. And I feel like the forties went by pretty quickly. And then the, when the fifties came and my kids were not grown by any, because my youngest would've only been 11, but it was it was sort of a slowing down in a sense. Some of them were out of the house, et cetera, and that became actually our nice part of being in your fifties.
Yeah. A
[00:11:46] Sherrilynne: lot of change. Yeah. But for me, a lot of change for me. My kids went off to college when I was 40. Yeah, that's young.. Yeah. I got a, I got an early start. Like my forties were career building years for me because I didn't have so much childcare, skeptics Right.
And stuff., but my fifties, my career in my fifties has been the best it's ever been.
[00:12:09] Kathy: Yeah. And mine has changed. And I think when you're, like we are, somewhat entrepreneurial and making our own way I mean, I was a corporate banker marketer for 18 years before I wrote my first book.
Those were years were pretty heavy too. And having the four kids, et cetera. Being in the freelance side now has given me more freedom. In fact, it was downtown Toronto yesterday with one of my kids seeing a play, and we, and they really wanted to go to the Eaton Center after I'm like, Ugh. And I. It's so weird not having to race home and like usually I was used to being downtown and I had to get home for a kid, or I had to get home to take someone to a sport or I had to.
I'm like, I have not nothing to race home for. It's kind of free, but it's kind of weird
[00:12:45] Sherrilynne: too. Mm let me give you a heads up because my grandchildren are a little bit older than yours. There are a lot more sports runs in your future.
[00:12:53] Kathy: Probably you're right. Probably. You're right, exactly. There are for sure them before.
Yeah, exactly.
[00:13:00] Sherrilynne: So, what advice would you give to your 30 year
[00:13:02] Kathy: old self? You know, I thought about this question when I saw it on your list and I thought, I'm not sure, because I think like we, we just, you and I have just been talking about our fifties not being as sort of bad as we had anticipated, in fact being pretty good.
I don't know if I would've believed that from someone in their forties, and I certainly would've believed it from someone in their thirties. I'm not sure the 30 year old would believe whatever advice you would give them is what I'm trying to say. And I guess the only advice I would. I think people worry that they get stuck in something.
I, I've made the decision to stay at home until my kids are, in school or I've, This is my career path. I've been here already for five years or 10 years, or whatever it is when you're thirties and I can't leave. Like you can change things pretty quickly. I guess that would be my advice is that if you're not happy, if you're feeling stuck, Just change it, like what are, or what are you doing to try to change it?
Whether it's going back to school, whether it's addressing maybe fitness or health, things that you have going on, whether it's, so what are you doing to address it? And you can start that at any time, as you know, you can start when you're 80 for goodness sake, but you can certainly start making changes when you're 30.
I, I would say don't, don't try not to get into a position if you can, where you feel super stuck, I think, in that decade, because it's still, you're really pretty young still, which no one in their thirties would think that they are. Yes, that's true. Right. Like in 25 years you make a, might make a whole career change in 25 years.
Think about it. Right. Not to, not to feel that whatever you're doing now is how you see the rest of your sort of career or your life or whatever playing out.
[00:14:25] Sherrilynne: And I think for the people in that cohort right now, like a lot of them have. Really substantial investments in their educations much more so than our generation did.
I mean, yes, we went to college and university and stuff. Yeah. But when I was working in agencies here in Ottawa, I, I mean, people were coming to me with multiple degrees, with postgraduate degrees, for an entry level agency job. And when you're carrying, you've, you've invested that much in your education.
Not only the financial investment, but the time and emotional in it. I can understand why you, you would think at age 30, Oh no, I don't like this, but I've put so much into it so far. I'm stuck here now. But you're totally, Yeah, exactly. You're
[00:15:11] Kathy not stuck here. You're never, you're not stuck. And in fact, my oldest daughter, the one I was just talking about, Tori, she trained and went through, be a teacher, went to teachers college, taught for a year at a very nice private school, had great, parents and kids and teachers didn't like it.
After a year, she said, and she was afraid to tell us, She said, Mom, I don't, I don't like it. And I said, Well change it. Then you're 29, whatever. She was, 20. No, she was younger, probably like 25. I didn't change. I said, What do you want to do? And she'd worked at PR companies in the, in the, March breaks, fall breaks summer, whatever.
And she went and worked for a PR company. She went and worked for E one, and she worked for different companies, did PR for many years. And then sort of when she had her two kids said, I don't do PR anymore. I'm going to go lean back on my teaching degree and get that going again. And not teach, but sort of do this, the, the sort of online parenting
Influencing that she's doing. Yeah, nothing's forever, but. Things in your past to come to help you, right? Sometimes. My years in corporate banking and marketing certainly helped me to run the business, which is now my radio show. I mean, I'm responsible for all of it as you are for your podcast. Those management skills didn't, weren't in vain either, you know?
Very
[00:16:14] Sherrilynne: true. My first career was in retail. This, we're going, I'm talking ancient history here now. Yeah, yeah. Back in the dark ages. I was, I spent the first five years of working life in retail, but the lessons I learned working at Eaton's, Yeah. Selling Lady Sportswear yeah. Have carried me through my whole career.
I learned a lot about, client services, interpersonal communication, all that kind of stuff. But you're so right.
[00:16:39] Kathy: Yeah. Yeah. Those skills will always help you. So don't think of it as wasted time if you decide to switch careers. For sure. Yeah. Where do
[00:16:46] Sherrilynne: you see yourself in 10 years?
[00:16:48] Kathy: I am so enjoying doing this radio show and podcast.
As I mentioned before, I am wholly responsible for it, I had to get the sponsor. Royal Bank. I, I book the guest, I research the guest, I book the guest. I write the scripts. I do the ads, I do all social media, all the promotion for it, and I love it. I'm in season two. I've done. 4 65 episodes at this point.
Yeah. Which I wasn't sure then. We're zooming along here, and I really like it. I don't know if I see myself doing it another 10 years because I like changing things up as well. Who knows? And besides the radio show I'm doing still television and brand work and things like that, like I've always done.
But you know what, I love having to experience this. I'm going back to take some work courses. I'm a big believer and I've taken a lot of script writing courses or written a couple of scripts now. I can't sell them, but I wrote them. I've written a couple of novels too. Again, can't sell them yet, but I'm working on it.
I'm going back to take some more classes and comedy writing and television writing and stuff like that and see where that, see where that takes me. Who knows, right? That's the nice thing about in 10 years, I would be very surprised if I am retired in 10 years. I have zero retirement plans right now, I'll tell you that.
, but I'm only 59, so we.
[00:17:56] Sherrilynne: Yeah. And you have your health. I, I feel the same way. That retirement, I just can't, I cannot visualize myself being retired, not having no, something going on. And, and yet I, of people that I do know that have retired, they say I've, I've never been busier in my whole life, once they get
[00:18:13] Kathy: into retirement.
, Yeah. I know people too younger than me, same to me, that are. And I would say half of them are happy that they're retired. How's that?
[00:18:23] Sherrilynne: Yeah. Yeah. I know a lot of people that retired and went back. You may Yeah. Maybe doing something different, but,
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah.
And we're, we're living longer, right? Retirement is, Well, like we're talking 30, 40 years for, for most of us, if, if it's a right. Optimistic.
[00:18:38] Kathy: Exactly. That's, yeah. No, it's a long time and it's, it's not only a long time to now, if you find another passion in life that's awesome. Like whether it's, a different type of line of work or just a hobby, you're something that really engulfs you volunteer work, whatever it is, that's fantastic.
But it, but you're just doing crossword puzzles. Not to trash crossword puzzles. Cause I love them, but not for the next 40 years. Right? Yeah. You got to, you got to have a bit of a plan. For sure.
[00:19:00] Sherrilynne: Well, talking about the future, what are you most hopeful about for the future?
[00:19:05] Kathy: Well, I think continued like my relationship with my grandkids.
Obviously, I've got two right now. Not sure if there's any more on the horizon. I hope so. I hope to be able to be the type of grandparent that can be very present. As I mentioned, I didn't have that relationship with my grandparents, and I think it's very valuable. And in order to do that, I hope that I can, I have very good health.
I'm very lucky. I do work out a lot. I try to watch what I eat and drink. I hope that I'm able. Because I think people underestimate, and you would know this, how, how physical it can be with your grandkids too, right? Oh, yeah. If they come barreling at you with a great big hug, you better, you better be good.
You better be able to anchor that. and, and just picking them up and carrying them around and getting on the floor and running around. Yeah, like I want to start a training course for grandparents. an obstacle course for grandparents. Good idea, right? Yeah. Squatting on the ground, playing train, right?
You got to do that stuff., Yeah, I'm hopeful that I can continue doing that. Cause I feel like I'm pretty, pretty active with the grandkids right now. We do a lot of stuff.
[00:19:58] Sherrilynne: And switching over to the, the quick round here. What are you reading, watching, binging. What, what content are you, Gee, All
[00:20:05] Kathy: stuff.
Okay. I read like a big nerd. I have two library cards in Mississauga and then in Medford where my cottage is. And I have a Kobo that's always loaded. I read probably three to four books a week. Oh yeah. Huge reader. And it mostly top 10. I'll like top 10 fiction. Like I just finished Stephen King's latest.
I'm reading Richard. What's his name? The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Oman. Right now, at Love Linwood Barkley. I'll read a lot of thriller type stuff. I do read some nonfiction. I have to read a lot from my show cause I have a lot of authors on the show. which I enjoy. In terms of watching, I warn my husband about this all the time.
I probably know how to get away with murdering him at this point. Because I. So many British, like gritty British crime dramas, like line of Duty and stuff like that. I love British television and my parents are British and I guess I grew up a little bit with that, but yeah, that's mostly what I've binge on is the suspenseful gritty crime stuff, I have to say.
Yeah, that's my, Yeah. Agree with
[00:21:00] Sherrilynne: you about that. I lived in Britain for 20 years, I, I'm very also very biased to it. And Britbox, what a fine, right,
[00:21:07] Kathy: right Britbox, and. Acorn, Do you watch Acorn TV too? No. I don't know what Acorn is, is all British. Yeah. And a lot of the overlap with Britbox but some other stuff there.
Anyway, I could, Yeah. I love that'll check it out. That stuff
[00:21:17] Sherrilynne: I'll put, I like the show notes, right? Yeah, exactly right. You doing any. Extracurricular stuff like volunteering or
[00:21:26] Kathy: fundraising. I did, yeah, I did a lot of volunteering. More so when actually I did a lot of volunteering when I first sort of quit full time and started working from home writing and stuff.
Cause I found, I had the time for it. I did a lot with the Toronto Symphony. And now my volunteering is left mostly to, I do run. I if this counts, I do a lot of the 5k, 10 K runs and stuff for charities, try to raise Nice. That, especially the run for the Cure. I've done, I think we've done it for 20 years or something crazy.
And I also really actively seek out volunteer and charitable organizations to feature on my radio show. I just did an interview that's going to air this this week or next week with Feed Ontario, which supports Ontario food banks. I've done a lot of work pride at work in Canada. I'm doing another I.
Thompson, who used to be on Anne with an e who ran, runs an organization called The World Remembers where he, it's a not-for-profit. He's trying to capture all the names of everyone who gave their lives in World War I, and this year we're focusing on women. I really try to make sure that I represent sort of all of those organizations on the show and give them the air time that they need and that they can't afford to buy anywhere.
But I and their stories are always so interesting. And I, and I really hope that reaches a wider audience that. Wow, you're busy. Yeah. A lot of stuff. Yeah. I need to find another hands on sort of thing to do on charity side as well too. Because I did enjoy the time of the Toronto Symphony where I did a lot there.
I really would like to do something on the art side, I think.
[00:22:42] Sherrilynne: And I like the 5K thing too. I was, I was doing some of that until the pandemic hit and yes. I mean, I can't, I can't run unless there's a race, right? Like I can. We'll do it. We actually, There's a deadline, right,
[00:22:54] Kathy: Exactly. Indeed. Nice. Have that deadline.
Yeah, we just did one. Yeah. Run for the Cure was just a couple weeks ago and before that we did one in Beford where our cottage is for supporting the hospital. It is nice to have a sort of a mission or a purpose to do that. I agree. And I know What does running have to do with, those Well, it raises money.
That's what it has to do with it. Right. And it gives us Yeah. Deadline and helps our fitness. It's a win-win, right?
[00:23:12] Sherrilynne: Yes, yes, yes. And it's also a community. Yeah.
[00:23:14] Kathy: Building community. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.
[00:23:17] Sherrilynne: And is there an app that you couldn't live without?
[00:23:20] Kathy: Ways because I have zero sense of direction.
Okay. Literally zero Google Maps and Ways, and I use Waze all the time, especially living, I'm in downtown Toronto a lot and I know how to get home from downtown Toronto. It's only 25 minutes, but it changes so much. Yesterday I left downtown, left the center at five 20 and normally 20 minute drive took me 90 minutes and that was with ways, it was a huge accident.
I can't find my way anywhere without ways I would say any other app on my. I could probably work around it was that, but I need to know where I'm going.
[00:23:50] Sherrilynne: Yeah, no, it's important too. And, and it's, I mean, it, it's such a way of life now. Like I just, I couldn't contemplate getting in. The car and not putting on Google Maps or, or something to, even if I'm Exactly, even if I'm going like to my mom's where yeah, I could drive there blindfolded.
But the, it could navigate you around the traffic if there's any holdups or anything like this. Just,
[00:24:11] Kathy: and I think maybe you're, maybe you're like me because we started this on time today. I hate being late. Right? The map, the map will tell me if I'm going to be late. Like I'll look it up before I go right.
To make sure I'm going to get there on time. For me it's that sort of, Time management sort of thing, and it's, And then of course the social media apps, if you consider those apps that you couldn't live without, right? Mm-hmm., I'm not on TikTok, I'm not on Snapchat, but I am, my favorite is probably still Twitter, honestly.
And then Instagram and Facebook mostly for personal stuff. Those apps, I guess I use on a daily basis also. I should,
[00:24:42] Sherrilynne: I got on TikTok this year because my clients Did you? Yeah, I do a lot of work in social media. My clients were asking me about it, and I thought, Well, I got to figure this thing out then.
And so that's how I. That's how I've always done social media is I do it for myself and I learn. Yeah. And then I can apply it to clients. I wouldn't say that I'm usually successful, but I have, I'm having a lot of fun. It's a fun,
[00:25:03] Kathy: fun app. I, I do have it, so I do, watch them. How's that?
Kids are on it, whatever. And there's a really, apparently, I was reading, there's a huge senior market on TikTok. Right. That's a big thing. In fact, I just had Sharon and Bra from Sharon Wilson brand. I recorded them yesterday. They. 12 million views on TikTok Lois and Bram like, seriously.
I'm like, Okay guys, I got to get on here. But yeah, very fun.
[00:25:28] Sherrilynne: Yeah, it is a lot of fun and it's just, Well, maybe it's the algorithm, but I don't see a lot of the negativity that you see on Twitter. Yeah, I don't see that anywhere on TikTok. It's just That's fine. A fun, entertaining experience, which I, which I like.
Yeah. Cool. Do you have a, a life hack that you'd like to share with our audience for over two? Do
[00:25:48] Kathy: I have, Oh my, I guess, do you know what and I don’t know if this is a life hack or not, but it certainly works for me. I do work out every day. And it's just people about how do you do it? And I said, It's actually just part of my routine.
But you have to do things. How many times do they say you have to do it 10 times or something before? It's a routine. I would encourage that a great deal and what I do is part of my thing, and it may annoy. That heck out of people, but too bad. Every day on Instagram, when I finish my workout, I post a picture of it in my stories every day, somebody, and I get people saying, That's so inspiring or good for you.
And other people say, Really, seriously, honestly, you're really bugging me. Like it's not, you're making me feel guilty, or you're just bragging, or whatever. It's part of my own motivation. Yeah. How's that? If there are things that motivate you, You don't have to listen to people., do you say, Is that, if there's things that you are really struggling to get done, like do something that makes you feel good about having done it.
Because no one's going to pat you on the back except you. Right? Do something that gives yourself a pat on the back. Whether for me it's just posting it every day. Or for someone else, maybe it's, I don't know, rewarding themselves with new clothes or, or I don't know, going for a walk or doing whatever it is.
Indulging themselves and reading a book, whatever it is. Like find your own reward mechanisms because no one else is going to give them to.
[00:26:54] Sherrilynne: Yeah. And when you post it, you get that as you push posts. It's that little, sense of achievement.
[00:27:00] Kathy: Exactly. And I've been working out every day for three years, four years, whatever.
And before it was pretty much, almost every day it's like, I can't miss a day now. Because now I'm anal about it, right. But it's, it is a totally motivating for me. And some days are really crappy workouts for 20 minutes and some are great ones for an hour, but it's what it what, it's what keeps me doing it.
Find out what keeps you doing something That's good.
[00:27:19] Sherrilynne: Find the, when it comes to the gym and running and stuff, the, the more you do it, the more you want to do it. The less you do it, the less you want to do it. You
[00:27:26] Kathy: That's true life in general. Yeah. Yeah. You just
[00:27:29] Sherrilynne: got to, got to lean into it and know that once you get some momentum going, you'll, you'll be
[00:27:33] Kathy: all right.
Yeah, it's funny you say that because I'm going down to an event tonight and I was kind of like, Oh, do I want to go or no, Cause it's downtown Toronto, got to be down there at five 30. It's all traffic. And then I thought, because I haven't been going out like everyone for the last two and a half years, I feel less like going out.
Do you know what I mean? Yes, yes., but, but the more you do it, you're like, oh, I should do this more often. Right. I am going out, I'm going to do it. Actually, you're having, doing the podcast with you today made me like put on night nice clothes and stuff and I've got them on already. Why not
Yeah, definitely. You look great. I think. But you know what I mean? But then less and the more you back out of things. Like I know a lot of us are booking things and I'm backing out at the last minute saying, Well, I just wanted to be asked and I didn't really want to go. Just go, just go out. Just force yourself like once in a while, because yeah.
The less you do, the less you do, right? Yeah, exactly.
[00:28:18] Sherrilynne: Yeah. Is there anything I haven't asked you about that you'd like to?
[00:28:21] Kathy: I don't think so. I think this is great. I think what you're doing is great. I admire it. The, the 50 or 50, I think it's a wonderful idea and I totally agree with you. This is a time for us.
And Ann Douglas, we, and we both know and written this great book called Navigating the Messy Medal. One of the things she mentions in her book about this age is how important it becomes to hang on to our. And to really recognize which ones are important to us. And I think that's what a lot of us missed in the last couple of years.
A lot of us were past the, really hands on childbearing years really had come to rely a lot on our community of women or support, network of friends. And we lost that right. A little bit. Yeah. I think getting that back again is going to be super important and. Forums like you're doing here, and hopefully my show as well.
And there's some other great ones out there, hopefully that will do that to bring us together online and then hopefully in real life, right? We can get those friendships back and, and running again., yes. I think that's it, that the time is right for this at Sherrilynne. I think you're exactly right when you said that.
I wish you all the, the best with this. I know you're going to get some, and I got great names for you if you need them, so.
[00:29:24] Sherrilynne: Ok. Excellent. I do, I do. Yeah. Where can people find you?
[00:29:28] Kathy: You can find me, just say Kathy buckworth.com. And it's Kathy with a k that's my name on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as well.
And you can find links to the show there. It's just Go to Grandma. You can find iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and the Zoomer network as well as it does air Saturday mornings it's seven 30 on Zoomer. And if you're not in the Toronto area, it is online at that time as well@zoomerradio.ca so you can listen anywhere.
Thank you for coming on. Thanks for having me on. I really, I really enjoy.
[00:29:56] Sherrilynne: Well with episode five, complete we're one 10th of the way through this interview series already. This has been 50 women over 50 a podcast for women whose personal confidence is born of experience. Thank you to award-winning author and media personality, Kathy Buckworth for joining me today and for sharing with us, some of her personal journey through her own fifth decade.
And for giving us some great practical tips and life hacks for grandparents.
I've put links to Kathy's show and socials in the show notes. So, you can find her easily online. And I've also included links to many of the other items we discussed in the show. I've got lots more interviews lined up with some tremendous over 50 women. So don't miss an episode. Subscribe to this podcast now.
And if you have a second, please drop me a rating or a review on apple or wherever you get your podcasts. It helps other people find this show. And let's connect. And create a whole community of wise women over 50 by sharing a link to the show with your friends and connections. See you next time on 50 women over 50.
I'm your host, Sherrilynne Starkie.