Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe's Parenting Hell - S05 EP18: Myleene Klass

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

Joining us this episode to discuss the highs and lows of parenting (and life) is the brilliant singer, presenter, musician, model and author - Myleene Klass. Myleene's new book 'They Don't Teach This At School' is out now. Thanks, Rob + Josh. BIG NEWS.... we're writing a book!  ⭐ All the stories we can’t tell on the podcast – in depth. ⭐ What it’s like to raise a stiff neck and a loose neck – straight from the horse’s mouth (our parents) ⭐ And.. the BIGGEST REQUEST WE’VE EVER HAD FOR THE PODCAST… Hearing from our wives, Rose & Lou. They’ve got a chapter each and YOU can submit your burning questions to them...   [e-mail] What's it really like to be a parent? And how come no one ever warned Rob or Josh of the sheer mind-bending, world-altering, sleep-depriving, sick-covering, tear-inducing, snot-wiping, bore-inspiring, 4am-relationship-straining brutality of it all? And if they did, why can't they remember it (or remember anything else, for that matter)? And just when they thought it couldn't get any harder, why didn't anyone warn them about the slices of unmatched euphoric joy and pride that occasionally come piercing through, drenching you in unbridled happiness in much the same way a badly burped baby drenches you in milk-sick? Join Josh and Rob as they share the challenges and madness of their parenting journeys with lashings of empathy and extra helpings of laughs. Filled with all the things they never tell you at antenatal classes, Parenting Hell is a beguiling mixture of humour, rumination and conversation for prospective parents, new parents, old parents and never-to-be parents alike. Find out everything you need to know, including how you could win a pair of tickets to the Parenting Hell LIVE tour & an overnight stay in London here:  https://www.bit.ly/ParentingHellBook We're going on tour!! Fancy seeing the podcast live in some of the best venues in the UK? Of course you do, you're not made of stone! Tickets available now on the dates and at the venues below. We can't wait to see you there... ON SALE NOW  14th April 2023 - Manchester AO Arena 19th April 2023 - Nottingham 20th April 2023 - Cardiff  21st April 2023 - London (The O2) 23rd April 2023 - London (Wembley) 28th April 2023 - Birmingham Utilita Arena  If you want to get in touch with the show here's how: EMAIL: [e-mail] TWITTER: @parenting_hell INSTAGRAM: @parentinghell A 'Keep It Light Media' Production  Sales, advertising, and general enquiries: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, I'm Rob Beckett. And I'm Josh Willicombe. Welcome to Parenting Hell, the show in which Josh and I discuss what it's really like to be a parent, which I would say can be a little tricky. So, to make ourselves, and hopefully you, feel better about the trials and tribulations of modern day parenting, each week we'll be chatting to a famous parent about how they're coping. Or hopefully how they're not coping. And we'll also be hearing from you, the listener, with your tips, advice and, of course, tales of parenting woe.

Because, let's be honest, there are plenty of times when none of us know what we're doing. Hello, you're listening to Parenting Hell with... Sophie, can you say Rob Beckett? Rob Beckett. And Josh Widdicombe. Rob Widdicombe. Well done. See, he started posh and then trailed off of the poshness.

That first line was well posh, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. This is our daughter Sophie, who was born during the first lockdown, May 2020, and we've been avid listeners since. Our second baby, Theodore, is now five... Great name. Is now five weeks old,

and she is slowly coming to terms with him. Love the show. Keep up the good work. Ed and Heather in... Shropshire. Cheshire. Not far! Not far!

Get in! And what? And what? And what? Deal with it, yeah? That's probably an adjacent county, yeah? Well done, Rob. Welcome to the episode. How are you?

You good? Yeah. I've got to say... Go on. Bank holiday weekends are long, aren't they? It's a bit like the lockdown, isn't it? People without kids looking forward, know enjoying the freedom if you are a freelancer with kids a bank holiday has fucking nothing i hate it i hate that exactly basically you don't

get a day off you just don't earn any money and then you've got to go and do something and then everyone's off where normally you can get stuff done on a monday yeah but yeah if you're self employed freelancer the worst i hate them And then all my mates are like, oh, what's everyone up to? Bank holiday? Or just, no,

just the same really, but no money in it and it's busy everywhere. Oh, and do you know what I've done actually? Is I didn't realise it was a bank holiday, so I scheduled something

really annoying on the Monday as well. What, this? No, I'll be honest with you, Rob. Yeah.

This was like a fucking oasis as I was going through the afternoon and looking after two children. Especially straight off the back of the six-week holiday. If this popped up in February, it would be nice, wouldn't it? Oh, what about May when you get two bank holidays in one month? It's absolutely May madness. What is that?

But I don't even know what for. It's just, oh, because it's May. Spread them out. Just because it's May. May Day just because it's May May Day weekend yeah oh god and you've just had Easter which is four days

anyway sorry good to be back on track normal back to normal life I should add obviously my issues with bank holidays

I have no issue with the reason the bank holiday was called just add that case anyone from the Daily Mail is listening

now do you want some school drop-off times, Josh? We asked about whose school finished the earliest. Yours finishes a bit later than mine. Oh, Rob. You know what? The 9.34 thing is an absolute winner. Yeah? That's such a gift. Rob,

I know we're not meant to talk about positives in our life. Because it ruins the show. Because it ruins the show. I've actually got too much time in the morning. That's what I was going to say. I think, you know, getting ready, you don't need, you want to mup and out really, but then you want to be out longer. But you've got loads of time in the morning to get ready.

And 4pm, yeah, 4pm's a win. I tell you. Let's give me some more. Let's get me up with some times. This is from nicola gordon yeah um love the podcast you're talking about josh's daughter's school shutting at 2 p.m on a friday is that still happening my daughter it's not my daughter's school it's a friend's child's school okay we're in scotland and my son's also a josh finishes school at 12 20 p.m

on a friday they're only there for three hours. What is the point? Starts at 8.45. Pointless. I hardly have time to unpack my food shop. Nicola's not happy. Oh my God. That is stupid. Every day. They go back earlier

as well don't they Scottish schools? Do they? It gets so dark early up there and so light early in the summer. 12.20?

That's before lunch. I know. It's ridiculous isn't it? At least stay for lunch. You've got to feed them before you send them off surely. Hello still loving the podcast? Okay that's a bit loaded what you suggested okay somehow we're holding you're holding my attention but yeah i really think

it would last this long right still love the podcast love the chat tonight about school pickup times i love when people say the chat tonight and they just assume everyone's listened to it at the same time it's going out live hi guys let's all have a listening party 6 p. able to say the chat tonight and they just assume everyone's listened to it at the same time. It's going out live. Hi, guys. Let's all have a listening party. 6 p.m. Love the chat tonight about school pickup times. This is from Vicky Allen.

I feel like I'm really going in on her with this. Yeah. But I should say it sums up our output and our audience that someone's emailed in with the phrase loving the chat about school pickup times. We start school here at 7 a.m and finish at 1 45 what where do they live and she's a teacher i work 7 a.m till 3 p.m every day oh no you don't don't do that do you want to guess do you want to guess where they're from like spain something like that no qatar qatar yeah well, there we go. So, Qatar. This is Qatar, Josh.

And she said, after 12 years, you get used to it. I mean, that's a long time to wait. After 12 years, you get used to it. Or does she mean, I've been here 12 years and you get used to it quick? Or it takes 12 years to get used to it? Yeah, I mean, either way, it's not... I'm ripping apart the context of this email. So, what is she 7am till 1.45?

Is that because of the heat presumably yes oh my god that would destroy me every day but yeah every day i thought yeah i think you just get used to it though don't you it's just a shift six aren't you because that's what you know like the rocker mark walberg always get up like 4 a.m to do exercise i just think they're jet lagged from being in europe And they've just stayed jet-lagged. Because when you get to America from the UK, you're just up from four or five every day until you sort of have a really late night.

But if you don't have a late night, that's just your new life. So Mark Wahlberg went to, you know, Ocean Beach for the weekend to watch, you know, to enjoy himself. He's just never reached that. Yeah, that's what I think. It's not commitment.

But what time does Warburg go to bed? Do we know? I think it's at 9pm. What a weird thing to do to your life. And they don't drink or anything, do they? I think it's all bollocks. I don't think it's true. I think...

I've got an itchy ear, Rob, and I've only got one headphone in, so I can't hear what you're saying at that moment. I've got to deal with these headphones what's wrong your ear it was itchy but so you took a headphone out to itch it you couldn't hear one of my headphones works josh are you you shitting me have you got it out again to itch it no i'm listening to you so i know we were talking about the the wires all being tangled up but but does only one of those work yeah one of those josh how long's

that been like that since we started this podcast that is actually mental do you not wonder why i only ever i suppose you don't see me do you no but i only ever have one ear thing in josh that's not acceptable i don't need you in fucking surround sound rob you're not in stereo no but you need to like to hear me at least well for this very reason in case you get fucking itchy ear like a dog it's only come up three years in it's my first itchy ear how itchy do you get your ears do you know what i think i might have something wrong with my ear of course you do every week you it just keeps getting itchy could i have like ear dandruff or something like no you can get like yeah a skin infect like fungal infection in your ear oh my god like a skin

infection because i had a really bad ear and then i and it got worse and worse it was a fungal infection in there and in the end what that to do was it was really itchy so keep it but then you damage it more and then it gets and then you create a it gets really red and sore so what he had to do with mine is he had to pump it full of um he cleaned it out and it was really red and sore then he pumped it full of cream yeah and then i'd have my ear full of cream for a day what so i did i did um no nothing out of that ear so i did eight or ten cats of one ear and then the day, he goes in and cleans it all out. And then puts it in. So it's got antibiotics in it.

People see it. You've got creamy ear. No, so he cleaned it around the edge. If you had a proper look in there, you'd see white at the end. But it weren't like, here comes creamy ear. Yeah, it wasn't like you had a 99 sticking out of your ear. What are them Italian little things called? You know, with the cream in the middle.

Italian. Oh, God. If I weren't jet lagged, I'd have been, I'd got that. My timing's off. They're like, yeah, Italian cream in a... Ah. Ah. Oh, my God.

How does that person still enjoy this podcast? Oh, God, I just typed in Italian cream here. Italian cream... It's called... Filled pastry, that's it. Cannoli. Cannoli. Cannoli. Oh, fuck.ola canola oh fuck that's my only italian that's from joey triviani that is simply not good enough broadcasting wise

now why is it g i think it's osmosis i think that's what osmosis means oh yeah i'll do neither of us knows i've got a thing about weirdest place people have listened and then we'll do my own class hiya listening to this week's podcast and the weirdest place i've listened to the podcast bit we welcomed our baby boy 10 weeks ago and i listened to your podcast whilst in labor no specifically whilst wasting for my epidural no way big time incredible i was in so much pain and i've got a bit worked up about the needle that i shouted at my partner to put the latest episode on as it always makes me laugh it reminds me of the time when i wasn't in absolute agony needless to say the doctor asked me to turn it off oh here we go you kill joy who was it dr chatterjee worried about the charts that was quick wasn't it

that was really good because one there i've as a white man i'm panicking about the charts. That was quick, wasn't it? That was really good. Because one, as a white man, I'm panicking about an Asian man's name. Two, I've got to find a doctor in the charts. And I just don't think there was another person I could have done better. I'd have said Dr. Fox. It just wouldn't have worked. Needless to say, the doctor asked me to turn it off as they found it too distracting when trying to position a potentially very dangerous needle into my spine

without causing any long-lasting damage. Yeah, it's so funny we could permanently disable something. Is that what she's saying? Like, the doctor would be laughing away while they were... And just jab it into the spinal cord. Suddenly we're riffing about Jimmy Cipollata. So it was a Jimmy... To be fair, yeah, she can't walk now, but riffing about Jimmy Cipollata. To be fair, yeah, she can't walk now, but it was a Jimmy Cipollata one.

Anyway, however, once I was pain-free, the podcast went straight back on and myself and the midwives had a lovely chuckle whilst my contractions were edging closer together. Thanks for the laughs, Ria Marwick. Marwick, sorry. Oh, wow. Great. Well, if you've listened in birth do let us know

if you ever put it on and someone's told you to turn it off because it's too too dangerous that's what I'm going to do as my as my last thing

when I feel like I'm going I go can you just you can listen to this podcast you just pop on the um one so I can slowly

slip away to silence fucking boring I'll one so I can slowly slip away to silence. Fucking boring. But here's Mylene Class. Hello, Mylene Class. How are you? I like that intro. That was great.

Thank you. Been up all night writing it. It's not too gushing, is it? No. Do you know what? I like 16. I think it's weird when you do a show and then you're sat there while they intro you and they're reading out all your credits and stuff. It's just an awkward start.

Do you know what? You're absolutely right, so thank you. Author, musician, member of hearsay, which we won't go into. You can go wherever you like. I have nothing to hide well should we start with how many kids you got that's the classic what's your what's your kids set up marlene okay so i've got um a 15 year old 15 i've got an 11 year old okay boys or girls are they both girls both girls yep so ava's 15 here is 11 and then i've got my baby boy who's three his name's apollo but we call

him snoopy he's just turned three amazing how comes the apollo to snoopy yeah well when i was pregnant i put um a piece of paper up on the door because i wanted all the kids just you know to really feel involved because my partner he has two children too so we're a blended family of seven all in i know honestly it's chaos um but uh i thought let's let all the children feel really involved in this and write down any name that you want to call the baby i don't know who the culprit was but somebody wanted to call him um snoop dog and i was like don't be so ridiculous we're not gonna have a baby called snoop dog and would you believe it it's what stuck so he's been given like this god of music

and science Apollo we've given him that name and nobody uses it Snoopy amazing I'm just calling him Snoop Snoopy

Snoopy his teachers his little nursery teachers he calls himself he calls himself Snoopy that's incredible so do you think that'll stick

when he goes to school I'm guessing so it's the only he answers to and that's how he introduces you think that'll stick when he goes to school i i'm guessing so it's the only answers to and that's how he introduces himself it's a little snoopy so how because you've got so all the kids in your house so they split between other houses with like different parents so three are permanent residents two come and go and then there's myself and my partner and i'd like to say we're permanent residents too how old are the other two kids uh also 15 and 11 so how spoil is snoop getting having all these sort of older kids and parents around because he's got to be the little golden

boy if he ever learns to tie his shoelaces by 21 it will be a miracle he went through a phase of not even speaking it was kind of just yeah we just well look he's a rainbow baby so we are we're all obsessed with him what's a rainbow baby the rainbow baby is the baby that you get at the end of the rainbow after you've had um miscarriages and i had four miscarriages so so to get this baby he was you know obviously all babies are very very precious but i was just willed over the finishing line we were so worried to the to the last you know the minute i held him in my arms i didn't even believe i was having him i didn't dare to believe i was having him did you was it i mean, gone quite heavy quite early. Was it difficult to keep going with a set of points

when you thought we're not going to do this? All the time, because I spent four, you know, to have four miscarriages when you've had two, you know, seemingly very straightforward pregnancies. It just, it rattles you. I think anybody who's ever been through anything even, you know, remotely like that, you know, one is awful. Four is just looking into giving up.

I mean, I can only imagine. We had one and that was horrific. And then the pregnancy after that, there's no joy in the pregnancy after that. Absolutely not. It's fear. It's like every time you go to the loo, you just think you're scared just

to go to the loo um yeah you just don't know what you're going to find and i think you know you're just forever worried if you if you feel a movement you're worried if you don't feel a movement you're worried i don't know if you you had to experience you know all the injections and the pessaries and the the drugs that are required but i was rattling around you know you know every everything i could possibly take i took it because i just didn't want to take any any chances but we got him but you've got him and he's called snoopy against your wishes he just floats a loft on this around on because he's just i'm so i am i still i don't think I will ever get over the fact that I have him he's here and I just I'm just I just you know sneak into his room at night and just stroke his head and smell his hair that you know that baby smell that you're just trying to just still

hang on are you done now though would you go again or is it too much stress from what's happened before I you know what on a serious note I don't think I could do it again I couldn't tempt fate like that again I just I don't think i could do it again i couldn't tempt fate like that again uh i just i don't think i could do i think i got my lot i really did um and from a practical consideration i don't think there's a tour bus big enough now i had to get a bigger kitchen table a bigger dinner table to fit everyone around it um so just from a practical consideration i just i don't know how we'd move it's like the circus coming to town wherever we go how do you genuinely what are the practicalities

of going from a to b with five kids yeah you have to be so organized and i always have a master point not joking in case anyone gets lost along the way so what how big's your car what we're looking at previa full galaxy how big how many seats you've got sometimes we just have to just go in sort of in in in a rotation or drop someone at the tube or yeah yeah well we're not we can't do the 80s anymore we just throw someone in the boot it just doesn't really work so we have to just really you know i've got with the 15 year olds it's a little bit easier because they they you know they're a bit more independent but uh it is like i said you have some real practical considerations how to move everybody it's like it is like kettling rather than raising and how do you jump between a like

a three-year-old and then teenage girls oh my goodness if you figure it out i'm all ears um it is it really it's it's a real challenge because i think people have this idea of you have teenagers and they're going to be this one way and you have toddlers and they're going to be this other way like actually you're just dealing with independent people you don't know what these little people are going to want or what they're going to be like and i just think the most important thing really is with you know so many little people with all these big feelings is that you just remind them that you're team children that's it whatever they need whatever support they want you know whatever it is that that you know that they need in their lives at whatever time they just need to know that you're supporting them and that's the best thing i can

do because it's just it's just definitely it's not one size fits all yeah and got you know all my children they're very very different um yeah they're very different we've got things obviously all in common we all you know make music together i've managed to you know pass on you know piano lessons that they all seem to love and i love doing that with us together because i made my own band but then you know my elder she's like some chemistry wizard I've got no clue I can't help her absolutely no none whatsoever my 11 year old she's like comedian slash wants to make clothes for the drag queens he's on her own trajectory and then obviously there's the emperor the golden child who I've got a four or one year old and when we're going through these stages of the one year old I can't even remember really what it was like with a four year old so to I've done it 12 years apart do you feel like you've still got the kind of things you learned the first time around or does

it feel like you're just starting afresh again with the new baby um I think what you do learn is that, you know, your children, they just, they have such different needs. I'm learning that boys are really kamikaze. I can't tell you how many times I've been to A&E. Yes. I've probably been to A&E with him more times, you know, at the age of three than I have with Ava the whole time because she just cannot sit still.

We literally just tripped over on nothing the other day when we're back in A&E on Ava's birthday you know it was just one of those things you're trying to juggle everything and I think that's what the difference is with you know with Ava and Hero wherever I put them down if I gave them a book they'd still be there yeah yeah boys definitely aren't there's just like there's a bit of a nutter switch in boys aren't there where they're when they go on one i have those generalizations but it's very very different i was told that you know just give them loads of fresh air you can let them run around outside and make sure they're fed with boys and that's not a sheep dog because i remember saying i don't know if i mentioned this before on the podcast when i was at a wedding and then it was

like it was in america and it was like was on the that this pre-wedding thing on the beach and there was a dad there were two twin boys that were six and the game was they were running out the sea at him and he they had to try and get us in he just pushed him back in the sea and he was just pushing his kids in the sea and they were loving it to get like knocked back under the water then at one point one got up was sick in the sea and then carried on running his dad getting pushed back and i was like these are animals my daughter is so different from my son in that way like um because we went to we went to a five-year-old's party on saturday and there was basically it was you know when you're like i'm not going to put gender roles

on my child and there was literally boys fighting with sticks to the point where they were having to get the sticks taken off them. And then my daughter and her two friends were at the craft station decorating hats. And you're like, this is like a kind of awful Victorian kind of thing where you're like, this isn't Enid Blyton, but these kids are like... I hear you. But they just, yeah, they just find their own way, don't they?

I can't believe they do play straight into the hands of what you consider gender-specific. And there are definitely things like, we've got a math motto. The class family motto is have fun, don't die. That's our class family motto, and I'm just hoping that, because everyone just stick to it. Yeah, yeah. Have fun, don't die.

And how did you find it different when, obviously, you were a single parent at points with your first two, and then now you're with your partner. Looking back, do you sort of think, oh, how did I do that? How did I cope with that? Considering, you know, people get overwhelmed now and they've got their partner with them. But I can't imagine how hard it was.

There are definitely easier parts when you are single because you just know it's just you. So you just crack on. It's all just down to you. And that's also the pressure because it is all just down to you. And then there's also times when actually it can be, yeah, that's very, very hard because it is just you, but it can be very lonely at the same time.

Because it's not just sharing the workload. You also want to share the love. You want to go, oh, they did this today, or they smiled you want to go oh they did this today or they smiled at this today or they put they they this incredible thing it's just wanting to share your lives together but there are things that now I'm you know not always used to having my partner who who are you know maybe you'll just say well could you go and pick this up or did you do the laundry and if it's forgotten you're like I didn't do it myself yeah it's so easy you're just it's i find it just such a huge switch to to share that workload having done it

so long yeah used to doing it for so long whether it's just you know pottering around the house fixing things around the house all the way through to ferrying the kids and just being manic you get so used to it and how was it with like obviously some of it was quite public about your sort of ex-husband or ex-partner um and like do you feel protective over your kids because you know that's sort of out of your control when it's in the paper and stuff like do you sort of just ignore that and or do you have a discussion with them how do you deal with that because it's sort of out of your control i have been extremely open with my children because i found that even um even if let's say i didn't want to share a story

or if I didn't think it was appropriate you would be amazed at what shared at the school gates and by I would I I you know I had one mum who went up to to my children and was just talking like it was just daily gossip and I was like my god these are their lives I couldn't believe I couldn't believe it so what I've done now is i've just made it really clear that i've shown my children that there are you know stories let's call them that are written about me and about us and i just show them the differences and it's you know you can't underestimate your children i think so many people think that's not appropriate or upset by these or they can't understand that they're too young but actually don't underestimate

your children i've got stories where you can start as simply as showing the girls when the names have been swapped around or the ages have been swapped around which when you're a child if someone gets your age wrong yeah you aim wrong it's like you're a fool you know so you can see how those stories can start but we've got actually again in the same vein of have fun don't die we've also got a graph of how bad something can be there was a story written about me a long time ago when the kids were you know about ava would have been about ava would have been about four or five and i went somewhere called um the yap islands which is in micronesia and i was doing i'm working on a project called um singing the rainforest so i had to bring a piano and go and write a song with a tribe one i would have loved it

and i came back from the yap islands and the girls helped me unpack my suitcase and a little crab crawled out and it's been like 20 pp starts to the size and we all sort of named it as you do and put him in a bowl and try to figure out what a crab from the yap islands would want we tried brown flakes we tried to put you know little food obviously it's very sad because he didn't quite make it but we tried and i i hid it from the girls that he didn't make it um and i was talking about this crab story as you do at a press conference but the show i've been working on and they said you know is there anything that you're going to miss about the yep islands and i said well actually i took a little piece of it home with me i I had to stow away.

Anyway, I mean, I'll leave it to you to Google. Have a look for yourself. It's a really unfortunate thing to have to look up, but it's mine in class. Killing crab. Killing crab. Look at the size of the crab that comes up. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Releasing giant rat-eating crab. Look at the size of it. Look at the size of that. Look at the size of that. That's not what you had, is it? No. 120 pp. So the story went out. No, no, it gets worse.

They asked, what did I do with this crab? So I said, well, I released it onto the heath. But then it was meant to just be a joke. Most of the journalists present got it. And that was the end of it. Amazing. But it then translated that I'd released a three-foot coconut crab onto the i had animal white fruit saying i'd ruin the ecosystem i had i had broadsheets getting in touch with management

saying you know what's she going to do about this never since the the terrapins from teenage mutant ninja turtles have we had such a pandemic it was it just went out of control oh wow i had a journalist who was uh pictured with a net walking around the heath trying to find this giant crab because apparently a resident said that it tried to eat a dog so they saw these stories i showed them all these stories and we just use it as a you know if the story breaks and is it accurate or is it not accurate we always go along the scale of the crab where does it lie yeah because i've seen the tiny And we just use it as a, you know, if a story breaks and is it accurate or is it not accurate? We always go on the scale of the crab. Where does it lie? Yeah, because they've seen the tiny little one that you add and they know that's all just bollocks.

And I think, you know what, just show them, show them how things can can either snowball or how things can be reported and learn to laugh at it. How quickly could you laugh at Crabgate? Dude, if I would open my suitcase and found that three foot crab which i wouldn't be carrying it down to the heap i would be ringing the police let's be honest with you it would have shown up when they put it through the baggage car that is no way that is the biggest crab i didn't know they did them that big. But I think if you can show them and they can see the, they lived it in real time.

So they saw all of this happening. So we just always refer back to that, the sliding scale of how bad are things. Yeah, you can just, they just know it's nonsense. Because it's amazing how young they get when like, even my six-year-olds

be like, oh, you're famous, you're on the telly and stuff like that. So like, as soon as they get older and they can start reading the newspapers and googling you because that's what they will you know that's it's in their nature too isn't it but they know now that the crap on the crab scale so it's crap the most ludicrous is that the top level nothing so funny that you know the girls can really genuinely get there i was gonna say their claws into into yeah oh my god that's amazing dealing with the tabloids isn't one of the uh topics uh that is in the book they don't teach you this at school which is your book you were saying so this book is

and so this has got a hundred lessons for children uh but it's like really practical stuff over 100 lessons uh from really practical stuff to just like kind of personal stuff like dealing with different kind of um emotional things and stuff so it kind of covers the full gamut of uh of life experience how many times have you sat with somebody uh i don't know you can get the power board the kitchen table and just said why don't they teach us this at school and i'm going through this more and more because i've got a daughter who is doing pythagoras theory and does want to know the breakdown of every single cell and I don't know how much you talk about half the time I'm really trying but then actually what about the practical lessons that you know CPR how to change a tire if you look on my insta my daughter we got a flat

in Ibiza and my daughter at 14 changed my tire for me and I amazing and it's things like that where I just so I thought you meant you bought an apartment in Ibiza. We got a flat in Ibiza. I was like, okay, this is a weird thing to... All right, well done. Oh, it's flat tyre. So one of the things is how to deal with Ibiza. Dealing with Spanish estate agents is lesson one.

No, it's all in the... No, we got a flat tyre, sorry, in Ibiza. I let my daughter change it. And I just think it's, you know, nobody wants to feel helpless. Nobody in life can feel helpless. And this is not doing the schools down. You know, a lot of teachers have actually bought the book. And I think the bottom line is, and they do enough, of course, as well.

It's more a case of just all those things you wanted to learn at school. I've consolidated them all from basic finance, you know, the amount of people that are doing abstract algebra but don't even know how to run a household, household budget, set up a bank account or, you know, their mortgage. Well, they never taught you tax. I never got taught about tax. My school, I grew up in South East London,

everyone was either a criminal or they run their own plumbing firm. That was it. And at no point did anyone talk about PAYE or what you have to do. Nothing. It's ridiculous. We was all doing Pythagoras. All we needed to know was self-assessment tax returns. That was it.

Do you know how many adults even still struggle now? You say it's the children, but I've had loads of silver splitters. Loads of people getting divorced. There was one girl, she got... What's a silver splitter? Is that older people getting divorced? No. I didn't know know that you've got loads of little terms i like this yeah silver splitters what age do you have to be to be a silver splitter about just the hair yeah what it is the kids have grown up they've gone either to me or they

they're right i see yeah yeah yeah flowing the nest empty. Yeah, and you're spending a lot of time together and suddenly you're thinking, well, actually it's not working. Their silver splitters have got their independence now and actually then they realise, I don't know where the fuse box is. One girl from the same to me, she broke up with her boyfriend and she said the humiliation of him watching her from the window when she was trying to start the lawnmower. And I was like, come on, babe.

She just said all she wanted was just to look like she wasn't going to be helpless and that just broke my heart there and then so yeah it's just it's for uni leavers it's for it's for people who just want to know those life skills we've saved four lives already there was one guy got in touch and his wife was choking on chicken at the table and and he saved the life yeah oh really heimlich you teach the heimlich yeah it's all in there i mean you you know you can do the basic sort of um uh pats on the back if you like the firm slap on the back but it's i think there's so many people out there that just don't know what to do what would you do if someone was choking what would you do if someone yeah you know needed cpr there's been loads of children actually that have known what to do and If someone was choking, what would you do if someone needed CPR?

There's been loads of children, actually, that have known what to do. And whilst they haven't had the strength to actually carry it out, they've been able to. Adults have to do it, which is remarkable. We also saved a little baby, a six-month-old baby. The mum actually posted on her Insta after she'd saved her child. Obviously, a while later. Yeah. Quickly going to send this DM you'll be alright

Instagram live felt it felt it felt a bit inappropriate to Instagram live just want to say big thanks to Mylene Klaas this little fella

it's just oh stop stop obviously you've you've put this all together Mylene though but have your kids come up to you

with this book and go and point out some of your advice and go, remember when you did this to us, but that didn't really work out from the past? Because I don't know about you, but my kids remember everything I ever did wrong.

When I was in Ibiza, not in the flat that I did it by, there was a blackout and I came downstairs to find out what was going on. And then the lights came on and I said to Sim, my partner, did you fix it? He went, no, Ava did it. She just went to the fuse box and I'm like my god it's actually working I just that's when you think god it you know it does go in they think everything you do is wrong trust me my children they don't get my job at all they don't you know get that

I'm like one thing say famous they just don't see it like that at all they don't you know get that i'm like one thing say famous they just don't see it like that at all they don't understand why i am in a newspaper or anyone would i don't know listen to any um have you had to lay down the law with the teenagers yet mylene or they've quite well behaved especially the 15 year old because i'm petrified of teenage daughters no don't be do you know what i mean i'm i'm really enjoying seeing where she's at and seeing the books that she chooses to read and how she'll have these conversations, what she started standing up for. Do you know what? She left a party. I put it in the book. She left a party because she didn't from the bathroom and we just got into bed. We were like, oh, no, it's a party. This is great. And kids are in bed. And she said, can you come and pick me up?

And she told us what was going on. We went and picked her up. And I thought, my God, that's really brave. I wouldn't have done that. I'd probably just been quiet or just gone and found somebody else. And she was like, I don't want to be here. It's not right. And I just thought, our kids actually,

they're growing up in a time where they have got more information. They are way more savvy than us. And that's what I'm really enjoying, just the conversations and seeing what she's doing. I like it. I can't say it to her, but I love it when she gets a bit feisty because I'm like, yeah, you're going to need that. I don't want you to be a people pleaser.

I want you to question authority. I don't want you just to blindly go like a lemmings to wherever somebody says you should go you've got to question things but you don't question them on so what have you what have you crushed over what has he what has she been feisty about bedtime my household if i want to start armageddon bedtimes it's it's just one of those things that you can never beat because everyone's got a friend who's allowed to go to bed at midnight. We get that all the time. This one girl went to bed at midnight once,

and that is said to me every single bedtime when I'm trying to get him to sleep. So what are your bedtimes in your house? Well, here's the thing. I mean, it gets looser because the week... Summer holidays, there isn't one. It's carnage. Oh, it's chaos. But, I mean, the baby, I mean, I tried to get him into bed for, say, seven.

The three-year-old baby. He's going to be your baby forever, the baby. He's three and at school, little tie on, the baby, briefcase. Off he goes. Where's the baby? He's just on the bus. Yeah, he's all right. That's exactly how it's going to be.

But, yeah, that sort of changes up when he hears all the noise and the chaos downstairs because he wants to be a part of it. Put him in his room at 7, 7.30, lights out, so we read all our books. We read an Oi Frog. What a champion book that is at the minute. I've not read Oi Frog. Never had Oi Frog sat along. I thought I'd have you down as a big Oi Frog fan. I thought I'd basically bought all of the books in Waterstones

out of guilt when I'm on tour. So I'm surprised there's any. So it's 7.30, lights out. What about the teenagers or the 11-year-old and the 15-year-old?

So the 11-year-old, I aim for 8, 8.30. She's climbing up the walls with that. She wants 9.30 because all her friends and you know what? It's actually when they're getting up because they're all getting up at 6.30 because I her friends. And you know what? It's not when they go to bed.

It's actually when they're getting up. Because they're all getting up at 6.30 because I've got three school runs, you see. So that's why it's tricky. And the teenager, she has so much homework. It is insane. I start off by going up to her room, saying, right, bed, lights out.

And then I start sitting down with her, looking at the homework, and then getting stuck on it with her. And before you know it, it's like, it's really hard. Bedtimes are hard. They're hard to police because you just make your kids miserable because they just fight against it but and if they're doing homework up there it's hard to say go to sleep when they're going to be laying there

worrying that they've not finished it exactly do it quicker and better come on that and then you start thinking what excuse can i give to the teacher for her so then what's just three school runs so what's what's your what's, just three school runs. So what's, what's your, what's the morning routine looking like? You're up at six. Everyone's up 6.30. I put the bowls out on the table.

So everyone's got their breakfast ready to go. Everyone does, does their piano, like 10, 15 minutes piano. Oh, fuck that. No offense,

but I can't remember the thought of having to do piano first thing in the morning. Oh, it would drive me mental. That is it. I can't do it. I can't do it at the end of the day. thing in the morning. Oh, it would drive me mental. I can't do it. I can't do it at the end of the day. At the end of the day, I want to stay tired. Really? So you do it in the morning, piano. Do they all like the piano?

They love the piano. Hiro plays the trumpet. Does Snoop play the piano? Snoop wants to play the piano, yeah. Initially, nobody likes to practice, myself included. Absolutely hate practicing. But because Ava's now earning money from it, earns money every weekend she's got seven pupils and she's seeing the benefits of that so she's teaching piano yeah wow at 15 no she's been teaching since

she was 12 wow yeah you've created you've created your own band so you're the nigel lithgow of of your own of your own pop stars you have your own pop stars yeah would you be in a band if your children came to you and said we're going to start a band and we want you to be in it would you join they would never want me in their band it'd be like here's all over again well it's mad because not always like the three of them have the same you know like you're obviously your passion's music isn't it yeah as well the three of them have the same, you know, like, obviously your passion's music, isn't it? Yeah.

As well, they've all got the same passion as their mum. That's nice that you've got that shared interest where normally one rails against it. Yeah, very much. With sibling rivalry, like, if one's good at it, I know, if my brother's really good at piano, I'll be like, I ain't doing that. No, but that's why I gave them all different instruments. I did that on purpose.

I gave them different instruments. Right. Because my family growing up, we all got the same instruments and it does become then exactly what you said but you see on my socials i usually film one in one room and one in the other and they just both do like one will do piano one will do cello they'll swap over snoop's got gin and juice on the go listen to some beats obviously you're like you're you're into you love your music my and josh you love music as well and i don't mind music, but I'd always go and listen to a comedy album over a music album.

That's just, you know, why I'm inclined. But the thought of hearing three instruments at 6.30am at breakfast, I don't think I'd cope. No? I'd just be like, fucking shut up. I'm trying to be a weeabix here. I've got not enough milk. The toast burn.

Oh, no, I love it. I love how loud our household is. I mean, my daughters have had friends who've come over and have said, your house is very loud. Is it quite an open house? Is it one of those houses where there's always people coming and going? Yeah, and I'll tell you why, because I didn't grow up in a house like that,

and I really wanted it i wanted like those sitcom houses where someone just walks in through the back door i made a pie and this one left over and i really wanted that so you know it's our household has always had you know waves and strays and i love it you know there's always been some woman crying rolling down a radiator there's always someone dropping their kids over or they just had to get their legs waxed um obviously at the weekends um Ava's teaching all her pupils so their mums and dads come in for a cup of tea it's just it is chaotic she's earning good money from 12 she's earning she's doing really well she hasn't asked me for money for i don't know a few years what that's amazing it's great but you have to entertain the parents yes you should get a split yeah she's got the

easier gig well i have pointed this out as we were talking about taxes and about finance and how to pay your way and i said look you don't get charged for the room or the electricity or the use of the piano or the wear and tear of the stool or the you know she's got a great deal she's learning she's got a great deal. She's learning. She's got a really good deal and she knows that. And also, her teaching has a free meet and greet mile-in-class chucked in. I mean, when you put it like that, I do sit and have a coffee with my mom.

Do you ever get any of your mile-in-class fans that the kids are disinterested in piano and your daughter's in on it going, let's just sit here and pretend I'll play for a bit and then your mom and dad can have a chat in theley i know you're not into this but they're paying good money yeah it's not a bad idea there's a little side earner so are you having to do nine parents you must be buzzing off your face with the coffees you're having on a saturday i live on coffee i live on coffee hero actually actually i don't know who where she heard this from she said

if you have five coffees and no sleep she said you're gonna die who said that yeah I don't know where she heard this from. She said, if you have five coffees and no sleep, she said you're going to die. Who said that? Hero. If I don't have those coffees, then I will be breaking the family rule. I have to have those coffees. How many coffees do you want a day, would you say? Oh, God, easily five.

Easily five? Are you having it? Talk me through it. Cappuccino. Skinny cappuccino. Five skinny cappuccinos. Yeah. Single shots.

Yeah, yeah. First one, as soon as you get up, when are you having the last one? Yeah, sometimes after a meal. Oh, at night? Isn't that nice? I can sleep any time anywhere. Oh, mate. Really?

That sounds so much fun. I have one coffee, and I'm absolutely high as a kite followed by so low. It's like the come down I have from a single coffee is like nothing I've ever experienced in my life. Really? Yeah. You just drink tea now. Your kids are still young. You're young, Padawan.

You've got time. But you just drink tea. I don't think you've ever had a coffee have you Josh I've never I know I drank too much at university of course

I mean that's such a lame story just did too much coffee at university guys but like I was I was doing class levels of coffee at university really

and it was yeah and then it was really bad I was getting like I was throwing up in the mornings because I was consuming so much caffeine

oh I'm not made of strong stuff I don't have to get through the day without loads of coffee you're right Rob I'm just not made of strong stuff like coffee just killing him poor old Josh I do go decaf tea after about 2m so there we go pathetic really isn't it

mylene's dealing with it five coffees plowing on are you worried there's gonna be a massive caffeine crash at some point mylene or do you reckon you can ride it out i think i'm just keeping things like the status quo is just keep the coffees rolling yeah don't wait for the crash that's the error don't wait for the crash normally with just you can't calm down if you're still up his show business taught you anything normally i'd be we'd be like so what's the score with like alcohol and discussing that with your kids when they're 15 or stuff where do you stand on what age can a kid start having coffee oh yeah oh my god so that's interesting again i did that in the book i did measures i actually did measures kids love it because if you put all the glasses out on the table

and you say because there was this trend and i think the girls pointed it out to me on on tiktok where kids were just downing bottles of vodka and i said to them that's water and that's why i put that in the book because i think we don't they you know, everyone knows when you drink and it's at a wedding or a party or at the weekend. If you've got friends, you know, everyone sees drink. But actually, have you ever sat down with your kids and explained drink and measures? It's like when you lay all the glasses out in front of them and you show a pint glass and a shot glass and you say, look, if you poured that into a if you poured the vodka shot into a pint glass, you'd be in severe trouble. I think that's a really important thing to teach them. And then what I've also showed is how easy it is to spike a drink as well.

We have all those conversations about never returning to a drink. And I think those are really important conversations, not to scare children. I think a lot of people have seen the stories that have been written up about when I first introduced this book, things on like fire drills. That was, you know, those were heavily sensationalized too. But, you know, the London Fire Brigade got in touch to say, thanks for talking about it.

Because I think, you know, you do firemasters at work, you do firemasters at school, but you don't, you should do a fire drill in your house. You should, no, no, nothing should be off limits. A lot of children, and this is really sad, I've worked with Save the Children for 10 years now, and you hear these stories and you're like, I just think, God, we should be teaching our children this,

that a lot of fire brigades, a lot of firemen say that they find children hidden under beds or in cupboards because the first reaction is to hide. So your job, I believe, is you've got to show them how to get out or what to do and don't go back for the pet and don't go back for your teddy bears and, you know, hide. And so we do little fire musters. We have a fire muster point.

We've planned if you can't get out the front door, how do you, you know, can you make your way to the back? How old do you start that from? Would you discuss that with Snoop? Yeah, I did a video on it. I put that on my socials and people are like, oh my God, you know,

it sounds scary when you talk about it. But when you see the cause of it, it's game. You'd rather have an awkward conversation about it than them not know. And the worst happens. It's awkward because you're applying your emotion to it. Yeah. Yeah.

Because you're panicking about it. They don't know that fire is hot because they're forever trying to touch things. They just don't, they don't see the danger. So They just don't see the danger. So whilst they don't see the danger, turn it into a game. So show them how to crawl across the floor. We did a game where we tried to do it in the dark because often it's the smoke that is the inhibitor as opposed to the fire.

And is this before or after piano lessons at 6.30am? When you're slipping this in? Just trying to get my schedule ready. This is what happens when you've got a navy dad my dad was in the navy

used to have to run a fire master and I'd be like I've never done this with my kids

this is torture I'm barrack and now I'm here I am

I was going to say you've got an amazing amount of energy and I was going to

ask where you get it from but we know it's the five coffees but it's

so nice you're so excited about looking after your kids yeah i mean like it's just problem solving and making it fun it feels like you're what you like to do i just think it gets really sad like it's almost like when you hear parents i'm like we're all tired we're all massively overwhelmed we're worried about what the future holds it feels relentless at the moment it feels like i said overwhelming but you know what they they i've got a 15 year old i blinked when she was 15 yeah i just think you know i just want to be team kids i do enjoy their company i enjoy being a mum i hear so many times that people

moan about oh god the kids did this and then they that yeah, we've got to earn a living though, Miley. Let's not shit on that too much, okay? Because twice a week we're pumping this out. I feel like they're just growing up so quickly. I know, it's bad, isn't it? It seems like the baby is through. I do think, yeah. I mean, now mine are less labour intensive because they're six and four.

I am really enjoying their company but you when they're well josh's stage at 15 months is unrelenting but um but yeah no you it's so true it's like it goes so quick but they shift like you know here ava's challenges now you know she's self-sufficient in so many ways but her challenges are uh challenges that i can't always solve you know i sit down all the time it out together because some of them are just, it's so complicated. And we're also, we're trying to prepare them for jobs

that didn't exist when we were growing up. We're trying to prepare them for a world that has socials and tech in it that we didn't have. And you're trying to tell them how to behave and navigate this world. And we never, like, can you imagine if this was,

if your past was all over the internet or your photos or your conversations oh my god you know could you imagine what our poor kids are navigating it's terrifying and as someone who loves a busy house and obviously you kind of i could see you just like your door having a kids all doing different things and stuff you've got a 15 year old daughter who maybe in three years is gonna leave home can you comprehend that how how do you think you're gonna deal with what to go to the monastery well yeah because yeah obviously you've got the you know snoop and he's young still but that are you gonna be that mum i think that moves to near the university somebody said to me you know that nature designs it very well that's by the point by the point

they're moving out they don't they can't tolerate your ideas or whatever else and you're probably on your last nerve as well but i'm just i just you know i said to them i want you to go out and go and do whatever it is you know whatever that passion is or whatever whatever that job you know you want to go and follow or travel just come home just make sure you come home but i just think that idea making you have to look after your mom you know all day you know you have to i think that's such a that's a real labor on a child and I don't I've been really careful about my language around that and I've also changed a lot of my language recently um in talking you know you just talk to people and you pick up tips and it was actually Catlin Moran actually she said to me recently

that she stopped saying to her children I just want you to be happy and I'm like oh my god I say that all the time I say that all the time but she said it's just another pressure and i thought about it and if someone kept saying to me to be happy when i'm stressed at work and worrying about yeah that's so true yeah oh now i've got happy on top of it all i think you just got a i just just got a role with the punches but here i I... But Ava, I can never remember which child I'm talking about. Isn't that awful? They get really wound up with me when I confuse their names. They get really mad at me.

And I know who I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Doubting another person's name. I think, yeah, it breaks my heart to think that they've been with you forever and then you will have... Yes, I can't even... I can't even imagine it and yeah saying all of that i'm gonna be a massive but then when do you so when do you like like

draw that line because when they move to uni and then in the uni house are you getting her and all the her mates doing the firepoint muster is that but but part of you will want to you'll be in there visiting going it's lovely is it that's That's your... Guys, quick Firepoint master. Is it podcast? This is a podcast. Exactly. Fuck off, mum. I'm 26.

Really cool mum with you. Hey, guys, it's me here. The crab releaser. Quick one. But that's the difficulty, isn't it? You still want to do it, but you can't. That's your job as well. You are still going to be mum. I don't... you can't do a firepoint muster at a uni house all right i might

hold off on that you want to do it now what about a piano schedule a piano schedule when she moves into her halls right everyone i've noted down when you're all doing the piano in the morning you'll check you'll ask you're really smart with the piano moves so i've raced them through their graves whilst they were young because i know they said i even said it to even i said to sim my partner i said once they hit 15 it's just not impossible that practice you know it's hard because they want to be out with their mates and why wouldn't they yeah because i'd had that and I'd lived that, that's why I raced them through it, because I thought, well, that's it now.

Ava's got her diploma. She's starting music college. She can earn money now. Brilliant. It might not be the part of... She's got a trade. She's already got a trade, basically. Always have a trade.

Yeah. Like the South London way you were talking about. I mean, I've saved a fortune on doing my own plumbing. Always have a trade. Yeah. So now they've done that they can always teach piano essentially if they get there through their grades but also it's a transferable skill it's a transferable skill so she she gets paid by tiktok she's not like just you know holding up shampoo bottles and you know just to advertise she actually gets paid to make videos. She's figured this out now.

So what's brilliant about all of this is I don't have to say, go and do your piano because she knows she earns on a Saturday from it. She earns from social media from it and it's an actual talent. So no one can actually just be, you know, you're not wearing the right clothes. I don't like that realistic surface level of how so many bands are judged. She's a diploma student that's going to music college. She's sorted from that point.

And even if she decides, you know, she wants to go a completely different route, I know I've just given her a trade. I know that she'll always be able to eat. Yeah, it's an amazing thing to have, like, forever. But what was your journey learning the piano then was it different to how so did you readjust it to do it when they were younger well did you say you had to do it when you was older when you did your levels i didn't have a mum who could read music so if i couldn't figure something out i had a whole week of having to wait to see my teacher right i can hear what's going on if i'm just doing the washing

up and i can see you and there's a running joke but I can literally hear C sharp, it's a C sharp I was really hoping I wasn't coming across like some tiger mum but it's like it's all coming from love it's such a good place but if they don't want to do it

I've also said just just don't do it. It's life isn't short. It is way too short. But their love in the flex have been able to go, I've earned my money. I would have loved to have that ability to earn that money when I was 15. Genuinely. Like, it's such a great thing to have.

But I think it comes from a real place of love and excitement and opportunity. I think sometimes when it's coming from a place of fear of oh my children aren't keeping up at school and then you badger in them and go and do this do that that's when i don't think the kids sort of enjoy it but when it's like you're sort of well if you do that it's a c-sharp but if you do that then you can earn money from it it's an opportunity not a fearful thing i get asked by moms a lot they want to get they want to get their children into music and i'm telling you music is the most transferable skill it picks up your mouth it picks up your english it's so abstract so you can understand even from a storytelling point of view it's just language as well you know

whether you want to learn a language the way that you listen it teaches you to listen not to actually not you're not always on send but ultimately i think there's a lot of parents who say to me well my child isn't you know practicing or they don't seem to enjoy it or change the teacher because yeah music is fun nobody ever goes to a gig well shouldn't do and just be like i mean to come out you know utterly miserable you you know it just goes into your soul you go to a concert and it touches something you watch a movie if you turn the sound off i know that you say that you'd rather listen to a comedy podcast but you watch movies as soon as you yeah as soon as you hear the music to et you can't yeah feel anything other than like mush because it's such a huge nostalgic part of our childhood and in music irrespective of how you think you feel about it it touches absolutely everybody it's like it is it's a universal language well

whenever i get in the sea, you can hear it. Exactly. So, last question on learning the music. Recorders. No, they should be burned. Good intro or bullshit? Burn them. Absolute bullshit. Burn them. I should have learned somewhere.

Burn them. Triangle. Just fuck off and find something you're good at. Fucking triangle. At four, if I was to buy my daughter an instrument, what instrument would you suggest I buy her? So this is an interesting one because I get asked this a lot. Actually, if you want to get your child into music, play the music.

Play them every genre you can. Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Pavarotti. Don't just give them one genre of music because it's what you listen to. It's so important that they can, you know, pick and choose different bits and hear the influences of other songs. You know, you could, I know so many people think that classical music is boring,

but now if you listen to how many people are using classical music in, you know, their pop writing, it's just, it's the key to everything. Pachelbel's Canon, which I used to make my money as a teenager playing at weddings, every single wedding went to Pachelbel's Canon. It's what Oasis used, Kylie used, you know, for the locomotion.

It's Morning Glory. Every single act, every single writer is using Pachelbel's Canon. It's just the key. Even Alan Sugar used classical music for the start of The Apprentice. Yeah, for coffee. Big time. Yeah, quite right, you see.

But I just think that's it. It's like play the music because not everyone can afford an instrument. And then they have an instrument that just sits there collecting dust because they don't have to play it. And then they decide they're not very musical. She gets it from me. I'm not very musical. And I just think that's a real shame teach them how to listen to different pieces and different melodies and they'll sing along to it and you know anything

can become an instrument in the house if you are going to you know run with anything i say run with it it's impossible to do so but you know piano is key because it's both hands both lines that you're learning it's it's like a staple everyone loves to sing along yeah true piano um my last question um this is about your partner um is there one thing they do parenting wise that really annoys you and frustrates you but they keep doing and one thing that they do that's amazing we try and finish on a positive if you want to do the negative first okay so um sim does this thing with the washing up it becomes washing up jenga right that with all the kids stuff it just

gets piled up higher and higher and it's just one of those things i just you'll hear it in the middle like sometimes just oh yeah it all comes crashing i don't know it comes from a good place he's trying to like get you know to the laundry do the washing and help out but that that gets my nerves on edge because yeah there's a breakage and on a good point uh I have never seen him ever not be so happy to get hands on he's so hands-on he is he's brilliant he's like a kid and i think that that's such an infectious thing for children to see someone who doesn't mind you know running in the parents race and go around again doing it just fun on when we're doing trick or treat just isn't afraid to make you know um a fool of himself and just puts the fun back into it all and and doesn't die which is key for

the classes that's fun doesn't die and you know what he the classes. Has fun, doesn't die. Has fun, doesn't die. And do you know what? He's always full of surprises. He's just been coaching Hero because Hero's decided she wants to get into cricket. And they had this whole thing where I showed up just to watch and he'd done all these special bowling little tricks that they had. If you've seen League of Their Own where they do the movie where they've got their little signs and they were both communicating as to what bowls you should do next.

And I just, that is when you think that's really, that's really special. Oh, lovely. These podcasts got much better since we ended on the positive. We used to just end with the negative. But it's nice now. It's nice now. And good luck with the book. The book is out now.

They don't teach this at school. Essential knowledge to tackle everyday challenges. There we go. Thank you very much, Miley and class. Honestly, thank you. Miley and class. There we go. What a lovely woman.

She's lovely. Do you know what, though? I reckon three coffees enough. I'm going to say maybe I need a coffee. I just need one. How about me and you have an extra one each and she has three? I wish I had that zest for life.

I will, again. Mine and Klaas there. Don't forget to buy a book and we'll see you on Friday. Cheers. Bye.