Commonly known as the ‘queen of common sense’, Maggie Dent has become one of Australia’s favourite parenting authors, educators and podcasters. She has a particular interest in the early years, adolescence and resilience, and is an undisputed ‘boy champion’.
Maggie’s experience includes teaching, counselling, and working in palliative care/funeral services and suicide prevention. Maggie is an advocate for the healthy, common-sense raising of children in order to strengthen families and communities. She is a passionate, positive voice for children of all ages.
Maggie is the host of The Good Enough Dad podcast and has hosted six seasons of the award-winning ABC podcast, Parental As Anything.
She is the author of 10 major books, plus several other e-books and a prolific creator of resources for parents, adolescents, teachers, early childhood educators and others who are interested in quietly improving their lives.
Her books include the 2024 release Help Me Help My Teen: supporting our teens through tough times, Girlhood: Raising our little girls to be healthy, happy and heard, Parental As Anything (a book based on her podcast released in 2021), and her bestselling boys’ books From Boys to Men and Mothering Our Boys.
Maggie is the proud mother of four wonderful sons, and an enthusiastic and grateful grandmother. She lives in the South Coast region of NSW with her good bloke Steve Mountain and their dear little dog, Mr Hugo Walter Dent.
Maggie’s main books include:
- Help Me Help My Teen: supporting our teens through tough times (2024)
- Girlhood: How to raise little girls to be healthy, happy and heard (2022)
- Parental As Anything: A common-sense guide to raising happy, healthy kids – from toddlers to tweens (2021)
- From Boys to Men: Guiding our teen boys to grown into happy, healthy men (2020).
- Mothering Our Boys: A Guide for Mums of Sons (2018)
- Real Kids in an Unreal World: How to Build Resilience and Self-Esteem in Today’s Children (2nd ed, 2017)
- Nurturing Kids’ Hearts and Souls: Building Emotional, Social and Spiritual Competency (rev ed 2010)
- Saving Our Adolescents: Supporting Today’s Adolescents through the Bumpy Ride to Adulthood (2010)
- Saving Our Children from Our Chaotic World: Teaching Children the Magic of Silence and Stillness (rev ed, 2009)
- 9 Things: A Back-to-Basics Guide to Calm, Common-sense, Connected Parenting Birth-8 (2014)
Maggie is an ambassador for Telethon in WA, a champion of the The Kids Research Institute Australia trust established 50 years ago to financially support the medical & social welfare of children and which funds research into children’s diseases. Maggie is also a proud ambassador for Smiling Mind a not-for-profit web and app-based meditation program dedicated to having mindfulness in schools, and an advisory board member for mental health not-for-profit Gotcha4Life Foundation.
Maggie is a patron of the WA Association of Teacher Assistants (WAATA). She is an ambassador for The Sanctuary – The Hills Women’s Shelter in NSW.
Please see this page if you need a high-res image of Maggie or to see her bio, written in varying lengths.
Maggie Dent
BA, DipEd, DipCounselling
See also:
Booking Maggie – Webinar/seminar topics and how to book
Press & Media – Press information including high-res publicity images and bios of varying lengths