Inspired Magazine

Maggie Dent has her audience in raptures as she
strides across the stage, recounting hilarious tales of
parenthood and sharing the practical, no-nonsense
parenting advice for which she has become so revered. Though
she loathes the title ‘parenting expert’, Maggie has captured the
hearts of parents and teachers across the nation for her focus
on building resilient kids – kids who spend their time outdoors,
who get dirty, who have been given the chance to fall, fail and
recover, and therefore build the confidence that comes from
learning for themselves.
Maggie’s wit and talent as a speaker, educator and author
make her appear a master of confidence. But she hasn’t always
been this way. For Maggie battled a self-esteem so low that
she once attempted to take her own life. How did she rise from
despair to eventually lead a movement that is guiding the
nation’s teachers and parents?
AN OUTDOORS KID
Growing up on a farm in country Western Australia, Maggie
spent her time outdoors, roaming the open spaces, or tagging
alongside her beloved father, enchanted by the stories he
shared and influenced by his strong sense of communitymindedness,
equality and social justice.
She developed her own sense of justice early. She remembers
standing up to her teacher as a seven year old, her fists scrunched
in anger as she berated the teacher for shouting at a fellow
student and making her cry. Maggie spent the rest of the class
sitting under the teacher’s desk as punishment.
She hung out with the Aboriginal kids whose parents worked
on her family farm. She argued with her mother. She played
with her five siblings. She did farm jobs. She helped her dad with
agricultural science – thinking nothing of helping with tasks like
measuring the scrotums of rams.
SELF-ESTEEM FALTERS
Despite this robust childhood, by the time Maggie reached her
teenage years she felt her self-esteem falter. Her bum was too
big. She wasn’t into partying. She’d prefer to stay at home than
socialise.
She consoled herself that at least she was good at school. She
was smart, she earned good grades. “School was my mask that
I was ok,” Maggie says. She relied so heavily on this mask that,
when she failed a politics essay at university, she unravelled. “It
was like something shattered in my mind,” Maggie says. “I had
pegged my hat on this thing that I was going to be clever and
when that mask cracked I thought ‘oh my God I have nothing …
there’s no point living’,” Maggie says.