Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe's Parenting Hell - S10 EP9: I feel like a bad parent...

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

More misadventures in parenting, life, and beyond with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe... Small Business shout out: 'Natter Matters' by Rosie Johnson Illustrates can be found HERE Please follow and leave a rating and review you filthy street dogs... xx If you want to get in touch with the show with any correspondence, kids intro audio clips, small business shout outs, and more.... here's how: EMAIL: [e-mail] INSTAGRAM: @parentinghell Parenting Hell is a Spotify Podcast, available free everywhere every Tuesday and Friday. MAILING LIST: parentinghellpodcast.mailchimpsites.com Join the mailing list to be first to hear about live show dates and tickets, Parenting Hell merch and any other exciting news... A 'Keep It Light Media' Production  Sales, advertising, and general enquiries: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You don't see how the births seem to you. Anna Lee Ashford and Dennis Quaid star. I am not responsible for what my dad did. The score and how you hoped. Happy Face new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. 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

where none of us know what we're doing. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] there are plenty of times where none of us know what we're doing. Rob Bickett. And can you say Josh Whiddicombe? Josh Whiddicombe. Thanks guys. That's great. I'm from New Zealand. New Zealand. 100% New Zealand. Rob Bickett. Am I echo-y or trying to pillow Michael?

Where are you Rob? I'm in the wellness suite. What the fuck is going on? Lou's changed the room and it's gone echo-y. Let me get a cushion. What is the room? It's very like James Bond film isn't it? Don't panic soundproofing is here. What is that behind it? Put my little headphones on I can talk to you.

So Josh you are now looking at what was the spare room that we've got rid of the um soap bed because we realized we don't really like people staying. Right that's nice. So we just thought, fuck that, get rid of them. And you've replaced it with what? Lou's got a pilates bed. So behind that thing, there's a big mirror on the wall so she can look at her ass to make sure it's in the right position. And then she's put this wicker thing here to shield from the mirror so it's not a weird mirror reflection. But she's taken out anything that's sort of soft.

And is this it for the room? I don't know, do you think I have any idea what's happening in my own fucking house? But she's taken out anything that's sort of soft. And is this it for the room? I don't know, do you think I have any idea what's happening in my own fucking house? No idea, mate. Let me just move all this out of the way. Fair enough, fair enough. Let's get a bit of soundproofing going on here. There we go. Does that sound good? Does that sound better now? It's better, yeah.

Is that better? Well, no, your camera's cameras looking not looking at you. But apart from that. Great. Let's go. Look like I'm peeking over a trench. Is it a laptop? No, I've got a screen that goes up or down. And I just can't see you as much now. It's better if they see me if it's gonna get

clipped. I mean, are you gonna click this just can't see you as much now. It's better if they see me if it's going to get clicked. I mean, are you going to click this up? No, probably not. Shall I read out the New Zealand person while we wait? Yes, sorry. I'm sorry about that. Kia Ora, Rob, Josh and Michael. Here's a recording of my sons, Mickey and Oscar. Mickey's eight, Oscar's six. We live in Omakora, New Zealand. I recently went back full time to teaching after having seven years at home raising my boys. Being at home with young kids is so much harder

than 32 students in an English class. Love listening, 32. Big class, that. That's the whole South Island, isn't it? Love listening to your podcast on my commutes. My husband and I especially love the Playground Shaggers specials. And we're looking forward to seeing Rob in Auckland

in October. Yes, get in. See you there. See you there, baby. Thank you So much for doing. Not nice that. No, you can't know that. Thank you so much for doing what you do. Stay sex in relatable from EJ, Mickey and Oscar. Lovely. Key aura. Josh, also there's another thing that may happen. We had a power cut last week out in the Shire. Right. We've been on backup generators. They've just messaged me and they said today, the power will go off whilst we reconnect you to the grid. Okay.

No, no time. No. Just so at any point. So why will the backup generators go off? I suppose they have to, they have to leave the backup and go back to the grid. What's going on now? Oh no, that's all right. Is it? I think my, my, my recording looked weird. Cause it looked like I won't, it weren't going in. What are you talking on now? Oh, no, that's all right. I think my recording look weird. Because you look like I want it weren't going in.

What are you talking about? Okay, you know, when you're recording, you're okay. When you like Kendall last night at 10pm. I was at Kendall leisure center last night. I think this is recording it just looked weird. You know, as the little up and down sound waves. Yeah, on the recording. I can see your waves. Your waves are it has the little up and down sound waves on the recording. I can see your waves. Your waves are great. Your waves are brilliant. Your waves are brilliant. Okay, my waves are good.

You're having a breakdown. I am, I think. I'm so tired. I was up at the 5.30 to get the quarter past six train. Oh, mate. It's midday and I'm just fucking spent. God. I think the tanks at almost zero Josh. Is it? What are you doing tonight? I'm running around trying to soundproof. Yeah. In the wellness suite. It's basically an empty room with a pilates bed in it. So why? So talk me through what you've been in Manchester for five days.

I'm going to have to take a picture of what it looks like for me trying to do this. Absolutely mental. I've been Manchester for five days, come back and I'm at home now for a couple of days and then I go back out and tour. Where are you going on Wednesday? York and then three nights in Birmingham but luckily home in time for Mother's Day. Oh yeah nice. I'll be driving home after the gig. Should get in about 1am, but the clocks go forward. So that's another hour lost of sleepy time before I'm up in a cracker door making shit scrambled eggs of a nine year old.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's the plan of the week. Yeah, so I've not seen my children. Okay. Well, we've got some things to discuss. We've got some things to discuss. We've got some things to discuss Rob. It's all right. First thing first. I feel like a bad parent, but I'm not

a bad parent. No, no, no, you're not. You're exactly Rob. Remember, Rob, generally, you see your kids a lot more than a lot of parents that work. Oh my God, what's happening? The recording stopped. Jesus Christ. I think, oh, I'm sorry. Why is that? It's very difficult for me to get on my high horse about technical issues. My my my save project before closing. I'll save the clouds. So I'm going to my computer. Oh, what is this episode called? I've had to move the cushions to I imagine it's called the wellness suite. This is called the beginning of the end. I'll just call it tired boy. And then I'll save

that and I'll try again. Oh, God. And he said just for listening, he can't type because he's got too many cushions on his I think the cushions have fucking stopped the recording. Oh, the cushions have stopped. Where's that gone? Oh my fucking God. When will we professionalize? Cause the worry is it won't be as good. It won't be as good, will it?

Cause this is what people are here, Rob. You're sat in a room with a Pilates machine, with a cushion on your keyboard, having been in Kendall less than 12 hours ago. Can I? I have professionalised, but my wife keeps changing the room that I professionalised. Stop professionalising me. The area I'm able to work in is getting smaller and smaller. And I'm just like, let me cook. Let me work. It's not like you move to the country to get a bigger house Rob. It's, you know, you've got, she's fucking filled it.

She's filled it with no nothing. I'll say if I went missing and the police come and they went, show me his things. She'd go, huh? Show. Where's his stuff? What? Well, he's got that cupboard for some clothes. There we go. I'm back in now. That should be fine. Oh, Rob, I've got more cupboard space. Yeah.

I've had, because I haven't got much cupboard space in my clothes, Rob. So now I've got extra cupboard space, Rob, because I've been having problems with my cupboards. So I've managed to free up a drawer in my bedside table, which I'm gonna put my pants in. That's nice, yeah. And then I've got some covers in my son's room, so I can now split my clothes between my room and my son's room. Great, because you know,

sometimes when I want to get ready, I want to go to another floor of the house. Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's ideal. How have we allowed this to happen? Do you know what? I was listening to another Rival podcast. It's not Rival. Nothing's Rival to us. Let's be honest. I do have an office up but I couldn't get there in time. And they were talking about this trad wife thing that's taken off. What's that? So this is like a thing I suppose it's part of like the kind of America first style people

that want to go back to the traditional. What like man goes to work, woman stays at home and puts opinion. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then so it's become a big thing on Instagram and TikTok. Yeah. The trad wives going this is what, you know, fair play to anyone. It's not men going I want my wife to do this. It's women going actually this is how I want to live. Yeah. And I think the men are loving it, obviously. Yeah. I mean, Rob'm do you mind if I just

cook dinner every night? That's a do mind. I do think it's a little bit like, you know, backward. I prefer no neither of us to cook. We just order again. Trans deliver. Trad deliver. But I just thought it made me think me and you are so far from trad wife in our lives. And it's incredibly refreshing. That's what people like about the podcast Rob. Yeah, well, I think we're one drunken night away from being

cucks. Well, I do think there's, there's undue pressure. What I'd say is that for women, there's undue pressure on women, because now, obviously, there's more opportunities to be like a mother and a working mother and go back to work. Then also as well, it's like, well, just because you can go back to work and be a working mother, if you don't want to, you shouldn't feel shame for not wanting a career and want to be the main parent at home. But also as well then back in the day when we were at school, if your mum had a job, he was like, your mum don't love you. It was like shame. His mum goes to work.

Do you know what? I was thinking about this, Rob. Either, I'll ask my parents what the answer is to this, either they kept from me how absolutely day fucking it was when I took the day off school. And they were quite cool about it around me. But in secret they were like, oh, for fuck's sake, now I've got to take him to fucking Sainsbury's and that was going to be just an easy hour of my day. Or just life was so different that it was much easier. Because now you go, we've had three weeks in a row now where kids have, right, my daughter's home with the temperatures today.

You need to get out of those Victorian slums, mate, in London, get to the countryside. No power, no flu. That's all we have. Exactly. Hay fever's a bastard day. Extra space for a wellness suite that you can't record podcasts in. You know what? I'll take a bit of Victorian color over this hay fever. I'm getting off the tree pollen. Are you getting hay fever?

Oh, tree pollen fights me. Do you know why that is Rob? Because you didn't see a tree until you were 25. I know. Your body's not used to it. It never saw a flower until you were 30. Bus stops until I was 22. That's all it was.

Exactly. Anyway, we need to talk about something. OK. This guy that beat you up and made you cry and you bled and you pleaded for All right, this guy from last week, you said you spoke to guy on the front row who called himself Devin and that we had a fight at school, right? Yeah. I don't remember Devin. There was absolutely no Devin at my school whatsoever. It was actually and then we was it come up on Instagram and he outed him, his wife outed him as his name's Steven Prosser, but he's now called Devon Prosser. Yeah. Let's not dead name him here, Rob.

Hang on. Is Devon a woman now? Just, I'm just winding you up. I know, but I don't know. What a name to go for. This 515 star is really, it's hard. I'm not in a good spot. I watched Adolescence Alone in a hotel room away from my family.

Oh no, Rob, there's no fucking way I'm watching that. Do you think I could handle it? Oh my God. I'm not in a good spot. I watched Adolescence Alone in a hotel room away from my family. Oh no, Rob, there's no fucking way I'm watching that. Do you think I could handle it? Oh my God. I'm not in a good spot. I'm not in a good spot. I watched Adolescence Alone in a hotel room away from my family. There's no fucking way I'm watching that. Do you think I could handle it? Oh my God. Do you know what? It's definitely worth watching. I would say...

Am I going to be able to handle it? You are and you should be able to handle it, but you should be able to handle it. But it's something that does need to be addressed because it is absolutely mental. So what's the general message of the piece? The general message is that there is a movement online called the Manosphere, which we are aware of, like with Andrew Tate. We're part of it with us, our alpha male podcast. Well, no, it's so it's all the Andrew Tate stuff. And the deeper dive on it, which I

didn't know about was all the different emojis people send each other have deeper meanings that we don't know. So I feel a bit like my mom in the early noughties when LOL anyway, so you learn a lot about that the Manasphere, Andrew Tate and all that kind of stuff. And this whole thing that there's 80% of women are only attracted to 20% of men. And these as these sort of non alpha men are having to exist and women that they just sort of hate misogynistic and hate women. And it's all getting manifested in these online places. They do stuff like and they show their hate by kind of getting angry about the wellness room stuff like that.

Hey, no, hey, I'm a good guy. Did it make you worry? It made obviously made me worried. Also, it's absolutely horrific. Watching Stephen Graham, the dad, so good with it, because he's such a good actor. And he's so got the common touch as a working man. Like he just plays every single dad that's trying their best kind of character. And it's heart wrenching the way the story develops. It's not a who done it, it's a why done it.

And it's horrific. And I think hopefully it will prompt that, everyone's got a role to play, whether it's your parents, the school, and the government, I think, because I generally think like, when you think of what your phone shows you adults who fully developed frontal lobes or whatever it is, like the shit your algorithm,

if I go on my Instagram, we joke that is for on search, and I'm not even searching, but Instagram suggest stuff, mine is football, boxing, boobs, and like fighting and UFC. And it's just like loads of boobs. I'm like, yeah, I do like boobs. Absolutely. I'm not going to do that. But I don't want to look at it at 9am when I've not even asked for it. Do you want to know something worrying, Rob? What's that? I don't get any boobs. What do you get? I just have all of my friends are getting boobs. Go on your Instagram now and search. So I've got I've got you talking to Richard Ailwardy. Yeah. Territories. I've got quite a lot of comedy. Yeah. I've got Rick Rubin. Music stuff. Yeah. Music stuff.

It's mainly comedy. And I've got I've got Stephen Graham talking about adolescence. Not exactly. Absolutely. I've got photos of the past. But yeah, I can't. All photos of the past. Do you know what? Very deep, Rob. God, I'm a pretty deep guy. But then what I'm saying is, so imagine you're like, we're like fully grown adult men. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And imagine what some sort of inquisitive, horny teenage boys getting pumped through. Yeah, yeah. And imagine what some sort of inquisitive, horny teenage boys getting pumped through. Yeah, I personally think this is this might tell me what you think is I generally think right one

they need to they need to work out what's been put on Twitter. So I go on Twitter once I went on Twitter, and I typed in the ring magazine, which is a boxing magazine, right? Because it's been relaunched. I typed in the Ring Magazine subscription, and do you know what came up? A link to the subscription, do you know what the next page was? A man bent over opening his arse up. Yeah.

It's mad to get two things that you want, isn't it? No, but do you know what I mean though, Ben? So like, that was a genuinely, I am looking for the Ring Magazine, but how on earth? And a bit like that song when I asked, whatever it was to play that, All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth, and a bit like that song when I asked, um, whatever it was to play that all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. It played Merry Christmas motherfucker. If my kids have done that, I don't, what parental control do you need to put on? And then all of a sudden they listen

to your motherfucker, yourself, my big bitch. And I'm like, what the fuck? And that is just a, like a genuinely like accident. So imagine what you can get if you're been hooked in and radicalized by these twats like Andrew Tay. And also all these people do stuff for clicks and Joey Barton, for example, has like gone out against adolescents totally to enrage people. So we talk about it, people click on it, and he earns more money from his traffic to his site and his podcast. So it's like this horrific thing that you can't stop because people, some people are awful. But there needs to be a government intervention that comes in and goes, for example, I don't think you should be able to get pornography in your phone completely free and just type

in whatever you want to think. I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to stop you there. I know this is like a comedy podcast, but this is semi serious point. I think if you want to watch pornography, absolutely fine. But you should sign up and pay and access it. And off you go and prove that you're 18. Well, there's an interesting, there's an interesting, um, John Ronson documentary about the porn, porn, uh, pornography industry. I can't even say I'm

just gonna go down says I apologize to Rose sorry I said pornography. Am I going to hell? The raptures now. Come get me. Come get me. So also all the free pornography has ripped the total heart out of the pornography industry. So all of the this guy who founded you porn, I think it was whatever the first one that was I don't know what the first one was. He was just a Belgian. Michael? What was it? That was it. His name was Michael. He's gone into podcasting now. But he does. So get this right. He basically was just a kind of not hacker. What's it called? Like a coder? Yeah. And he realized that you could do for pornography, what YouTube

was doing or whatever. Yeah. And he realized that you could do for pornography what YouTube was doing or whatever Yeah, and he by starting this it's called the butterfly effects the Documentary he started that Do a joke about that's what I'm into actually, but I thought better of it because it's a serious point But just you know, there is comedy still a failable in my head if I need it Conversation the butterfly effect. Yeah three days and then I die. Oh, there we go. That's nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Starts a tidal wave. Right. So Rob, and he bought up all of the port, they're all owned by the same person. He bought them all up. And he

made loads of money. And everyone who works in pornography, which was a really thriving industry in the West Coast of America, all the actors now make zero, zero money. And then they're totally... Because I think that only fans, if people want to do an only fans and they want to sign up and go for it, but this access for like, it's like even flucking up, but for a teenage boy or girl to see these unrealistic examples of sex and this sort of like swayed power towards men, it's horrific. And if you want that and you're an adult and you want to buy it, have it. But it shouldn't just be so easy to find. Also going on Twitter and finding it by accident.

Some of the stuff Twitter suggests for me. They're not, they're not on Twitter are they? No because I'm into boxing, but you can go on it and sign up easy. Because I'm into boxing. Sometimes I look at my feed, there's a beheading comes up. I thought we searched for it, Josh. It's just you're like this. I was like, No, I don't. What are you doing? That's not Queensby rules. That's not the Queensby rules. Sorry, it's got a point deduction. I find it like overwhelming and the quiet. Sometimes you see something like that's actually really, that's horrendous, that. But like for a teenage boy, and also that's being dragged down this path by these anti-women

sort of media people that are doing it just for clickbait, it's mental. But yeah, so it's definitely worth watching, but it's government intervention, but as a parent, it's heart wrenching, you've just got to work out how you navigate it. I think the really difficult thing is because you're, it's the same with anything that the reason it feels to me, you know, I don't really, I'm not, that it needs to come from higher up. Yeah. Is that it is too difficult to say to your kid, you're the only one that's not going to get to do this. You're the only one that's not going to get to use the phone. Yeah, or just even knowing how to deal with the, there's so many devices

in a house, there's so many TVs, like we're so busy as parents, like and the kids are better at the technology than we are. Yeah. Well, it's like I used to be able to set I used to be able to set the timer on the video, my dad couldn't. It's not it's not different. It's just like that's recalled the 10 minute preview. It's exactly. So we had just a bit of cleaning. I didn't even have that. I didn't even have that. I had Euro trash on a Friday night and the Freeman's catalog. Yeah. Well, I didn't even have that. I had Euro trash on a Friday night. And the Freeman's catalog. Yeah.

Well, oh gosh, it'll do. Whatever. Oh gosh. Just some of those gardening gloves on a lady's hand. With the Fizz loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan. You know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. Anyway, this guy beat you up. Right.

Talking to a teenager. Go on. I remember him, Steve Prosser. I remember distracted. Talking to teenagers. Actually, I'm on a serious point. Go on. Yeah, so this guy, I remember him, Steve Prosser. I remember. And apologies to Dan Doerr, because I remember Steve Prosser was friends with this kid, I think, called Paul Samalan. I'm not sure.

Sorry, sorry. So you've got Steve Prosser. Dan Doerr and a guy called Paul, I think Samalan Samalam, I think it was that, I'm not sure. Did he say why change his name? Did you speak anymore about this? No, because I didn't know he changed his name. So obviously this happened two weeks ago. Oh no, yeah, but I didn't know if you spoke to him on Instagram.

Because I'm Steven's wife, he's called Devon now. Oh yeah. And she's just dead now. So she was there, she was there as well. Right, okay. So yeah, so I do remember this fight. And basically, him and his mate Paul, I think, and I think Dan was in the vicinity, giving me shit. He's pushing me about a bit.

So I ended up fighting both of them. Yeah. And I, one of them, a three, one over offense. Here we go. You're fucking legend, right? And what does, what did process say happened? He just said he beat you up. I'll find my misfits. Do you know what misfits is? It's that the KSI content creator boxing thing.

I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think I don't, I don't think you'd make the same amount of money. No, no, no. That's KSI and Yeah, yeah. I can walk in that barber shop. Shoulders back. Shoulder length this back. Show the length of powerful. I'll beat Stephen Devon on the same fucking night.

Do you want some parenting updates? Yes, please. Of my kids, ideally, I don't know what they're doing. I don't know what they look like. Well, this involves you a bit, Rob. So we're tidying up a load of stuff to put into you know boxing up old stuff to put into the kind of new storage yet to make use of our new storage. Is it full yet the storage? No, not yet. No. Yeah. This talk of some stuff going to Cornwall but we're not gonna move it. There's a loft there.

You know you can't need it if it's going down there when are you gonna... It's old artwork. Of like you guys have done or the kids or just paintings. Just like I don't know I just don't want to get rid of some of the... I know Rob. You're a bit haughty, aren't you? No, I'm not too bad actually. I'm quite- Look at, look behind you. Yeah, but that's not my fault.

Here we go. We're underneath, we're in that, we're in that. Whose fault is it then Josh? Life's. Life's? Life's. Life's fault. Yeah. Because what's all those pictures behind you doing?

Well that, because we're having people put pictures up today. I thought you needed a studio or are they coming later? What? I thought you couldn't record at home today because they're putting pictures up? Oh yeah, no, they're putting in the cat flap at the moment, so it's fine. So that's far enough away. So So what was I saying on it? Oh, yeah, she found some of our parenting held cue cards my daughter from the live show. Oh, yeah. So I don't want to not encourage, you know, young entrepreneurship. It's what this country needs, obviously, etc. She was like, could

you sign these and I can sell them. And then she's like, I'm going to get Rob to sign them as well. And where is she going to sell them? I don't know. I don't know whether she's going to set up an eBay account. I was kind of like, I don't know where I stand with becoming a kind of one of those people that stands outside the BBC and gets you to sign photos so they can sell them off. That's her job. But then, but then it's sort of, she will get in that community, she'll get nepo baby accusations. She only got a foot in the door because she found a cue card when she was a kid. Because she's got like 20 of them. I don't know.

And then the other people are like, oh no, leave her alone. She loves it. She's not her fault. She had that chance. And anyway, the value. People are no lever alone. She loves it. She's not. And anyway, the value of that's gone down since Josh got put away. Probably exactly. Exactly. Well, I'd say the value's gone up. If anything, they're rarer. But in a way she's making a big mistake. She's flooding the market as well. Cause there was so many of them. Yeah. She needs to drip feed them out. Exactly. So I didn't know because you don't you know, I didn't I don't want to clip her wings on that. Did you sign it for her? Yeah, I did. I signed all of them. Yeah. When I was signing the

books, you know, we've got loads of books sent to sign. My daughter sat and did her autograph next to mine for the whole time. That's nice. It's nice. Is it though? I don't know. I know. It's difficult. Isn't it fucking difficult, Rob? Is it absolutely mad? Do you want to hear about the point I've reached in my life, Rob? Go on.

So I had two tour warm-up shows. Yeah. When did you all start? September. I had Folkestone on Wednesday. I had Tunbridge Wells on Saturday. And my tour manager, Ali. Can you hear the Hoover?

No. Okay, cool. Just double checking. In my house or yours? Mine. Right, okay. Yeah, I didn't know there'd be a Hoover today. It's alright.

Is that Loo or is that a cleaner? I don't know. We do have a cleaner on a Monday, but I don't know if the cleaner's here. I'm gonna have a guess. If you do have a cleaner on a Monday and you can hear hoovering. Yeah, do you know what? I gotta stick my neck out. Go for it.

You should be a detective. If Lou's hoovering, if anything, she's taking work away from the cleaner to do it on her actual day in front of her. Fucking trotting on the trad wife. Upsetting the apple cart. Lou, please stop hoovering. Stop being a trad wife. To invite the cleaner in and then hoover is a real passive aggressive move.

What's that? You're going to do a roast dinner and I'm going to go down the pub. Oh, Lou, you've got to stop this. Please. So what was I saying? I don't know if I want a trad wife though. No, I'd like to go. I quite enjoy the way Lou keeps me on my toes. I think you want to be challenged Rob. Yeah. I need to be called an annoying prick now and again.

Now and again. Um, so I had two replacement tour managers cause Ali was away. Okay. Ali's off with Frankie Boyle. Right. That's a real shift in it. It's a bit of a gear shift, isn't it? from Clinton cards observations to the guard from Palestine.

You've done that Frankie Ball podcast tour. Oh, right. Okay. There's also Krista McArthur-Bloyd and Susie McCabe. Anyway, I had two different very good tour managers and I got on very well with both of them. But it was a real moment in my life where I thought, oh God, I am old. Wednesday I had a tour manager who was a lady in her 50s and we had a lovely time. We talked about all the different DJs on Radio 2 and what we thought of them.

And then we talked about parenting them. And then we talked about parenting of teenagers and then we talked about whether students don't drink as much as they do as they did in my day or our day. So do you chat the whole way down on a drive? I wouldn't normally with Ali I'd get in the bag. But first meeting you can't. I haven't seen her in a couple of years. I had her a couple of years ago. I don't know why I'm not naming her. She's called Sophie as if I'm trying to cover up her kind of.

Sophie's quite a young name for a 50 year old, I'd say. Yeah, I'm hoping she's 50 now. She's got a 19. She's got to be. No, she hasn't got to be. She's between 40. She's got a 19 year old. So I've said she's about 50. Right. Okay. You've just assumed that she had a kid at 30. But she looks 40. She looks 20 Rob. Now you've gone creepy.

Yeah. I can't look. How far? She looks 11. I don't know how much oil of you late she's using because... I don't know. That is the most short-short-ed gun. Oh my God. What's that oh fuck loose put an air freshener in that goes off every half hour really jesus what one of those yeah that's what i did i

thought something like this did you know what it was show you this this guy Fucking hell, it's the size of your head. All right, look, watch. Fucking hell, did you need such a big air freshener? I don't know. The amount of wellness that's going on in here, mate. Yeah. I'm surprised you're not listening to like, kind of gong music and stuff. I'm having a gun though, because I just put it on the side there and it was facing me, but it should be facing out. You don't want that to go off in your face. No, not at all. So we were chatting very grown up conversations about Radio 2 and parenting teenagers.

And then I had Joe on Saturday, lovely bloke. Joe is 25. And we were talking about people I hadn't heard of that do comedy because they're younger than me. Right, okay, go on. And where the mushrooms are illegal in the UK. The drug ones? The drug ones. The drug ones. Not button.

No, not button. I'm across that. Yeah. And we had a lovely time. But I did at the end think, I've got so much more in common with the 50 year old woman than the 25 year old man. You're closer in age. I know Rob, but it was really confronting.

You, I think, are struggling with becoming older, but I don't know why, because you've always felt like an older soul. I know, it's so mad, isn't it? I've been 60 since I was 21. But you've always gaslit me as well into thinking that you've got your shit together. It's only since we started this I've seen the chaos. I've seen the chaos of Instagram and that balloon you were trying to get down when you were airing. Fucking hell. You look like you've been bogwashed by Phil Mitchell. I've seen the chaos. I've seen the chaos on Instagram and that balloon you were trying to get down with your wet hair.

Fucking hell. You look like you've been bogwashed by Phil Mitchell. I just got out of the shower. I know, but don't you dry your hair? No, because if I dry my hair, it goes into a big ball of fluff. Whereas if I let it dry naturally, it curls. Right, okay, so that's why, yeah. But you got the balloon down eventually? Yeah, I used another balloon with stick with double-sided sticky tape Would you not tend to just have a long stick with a pin on the end?

I haven't got a long stick with a pin on the end Must have a long stick The Hoover? I could have used the Hoover, but the Hoover is we've got a What is it? I don't know what it is, but it's like is it a Henry or it might not be it might be a Melee Whatever we've got It's mainly tube isn't it? Or it might not be a might be a melee, whatever we've got. It's mainly tube, isn't it? It's not got a long stick for Hoover. So I don't know

Hoover you've got so no fairly long stick one because unless you're on your own all fours holding what is a bowling ball. No, but I can't emphasize that these these skylights are quite high in the kitchen. Okay, so it's showing up your house is it? That's not showing off my house because it's not extra room to have more sky. We're not able to make use of that room. If anything, we're just losing balloons in it.

Fair enough. Well, you got it down anyway. But no, I'm saying that you're getting, it's getting old because you turning 40, I think you found confronting. And then now I think your interactions with people are reminding you that you're slightly older. Exactly.

Oh, on that, you know, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, I don't want to talk about topical. She, she for security, she had to get a box at Sabrina Carpenter. Yeah. I've seen that crowd, they wouldn't have known who she was. There's no who the fuck does she think she is? Rachel Reeves was not there would not be a pile on for Rachel Reeves in that crowd at Sabrina Carpenter. No, she would look just like any other mum taking a teenage child.

No one would have gone, wait a minute, are you the woman that got rid of the bloody fuel during the winter for old people? Well, yeah, I mean, as long as they declare it, it's fine. None of them are wearing anything anyway, Rob. They don't care about winter fuel allowance. Are you suggesting you think you're more famous than Rachel Reeves and you should have got security? I'm saying. Do you know what? If you're both down the street, who's going to get more selfies?

I think I'm going to get more selfies than Rachel Reeves. There's no one going up to Rachel Reeves and saying, gobble gobble. Yeah. Keir Starmer, I get it, he is the Prime Minister. I don't think people know the Chancellor that much. I'm sure she could have got four seats in the stands and gone with her child and then two securities either side and that would have been fine. Yeah. Let's be honest, it was difficult to get tickets. Let's just admit, Rachel, that you had to pull some strings to get some tickets. And that's fair enough. Because I think if

I was Chancellor, I would try and get the Sabrina carpenter tickets as well. It's a small bonus of what is a fucking shit job. Well, exactly. Yeah. If you don't, what's the point of being in politics? If you're not going to exploit it for own personal gain? That's the whole point of politics. That's the whole point of being there. It's not the pay. She could have got more in the private sector. She was working for the Bank of England. She must have been coining it in. I think, Josh, you just gonna have to accept that you're growing older and just be that She could have got more in the private sector. She was working for the Bank of England. She must have been coining it in.

I think, Josh, you're just going to have to accept that you're growing older and just be that wise, measured uncle type figure. Yeah, I'm not quite the measured one, Rob. I was never the cool hip guy. But you know what? You were the cool hip guy when I used to see you. You looked like a really cool hip guy from an indie band until you spoke. But you had the look. I think that was the danger. You had the look. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty cool. You got your little David Aylbarn polo shirt on. Yeah, I got that for free from the last leg. Are you still trying to dress smart? Because you had that

little thing going into your 40s. I'm just not getting the opportunities to. Yeah, but can't you dress every day? So you go on the last leg every night on a Friday? Not every night. Yeah, but I just don't care anymore. What else is going on parent wise? Anything?

Well, not really, because we did parents evening. We did. How was that? It's fine. I think I talked to you about it, didn't I? I can't remember. I don't know, Rob. It was fine though. It's fine. I think I talked to you about it didn't I? I can't remember. I don't know Rob. It was fine though. It was good. It's just like chugging along all right. Do you know what I mean?

We did that. I tell you what we went to that was quite good was the Twist Museum. Twist? It's all optical illusions. Right, okay. So I took my son to it because my daughter was away at her grand's. And it was fucking amazing. Yeah, the kids loved it. It says just like things that blow your mind. Go in this room, stand up that end, you stand this end and it actually felt like the kids were bigger than the adults somehow. Right. It was just like all just like tricks. Tricks of the morning.

Did it go in one room and you just said on the wall, the economy? Yeah. And Rachel Reeves was in there going, look, come on guys, some of us recognize me. Everyone back off for the photos. I'm just trying to enjoy some optical illusions with my kids. Exactly. Yeah, I've got the whole museum closed down because it could become too much for me. Way too much. All right, well, do you want to do some

correspondence? Shall we? Sure. It's sure we do some correspondence, we never get the chance to do it. You've been away with no kids. Okay, I've been, you know, it's just been going okay. Should we do a Playground Shaggers? Oh yes please. Did you see that news story about Playground Shaggers? It was like actually the police got called and there was like one I saw there was a woman fighting I think it might have been actually about her kid being bullied and she's like beat up the other mum but it was oh motherfucking thing went again. Oh no, what's

happened? No, just the air freshener made another noise. It may be every half hour. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It fucking stinks in this like lush. Even though you're barely in there. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'm making it stink out of me podcast. Maybe it can hear you or feel you. It can feel me. It can feel the smell. No. Um, there was a thing where two teachers had a fight because one of the teachers was shagging another teacher in the school. Do you know what Rob there was a rumor about that in my school because one of

the teachers got a black eye and the rumor went round that, uh, two of the teachers had a fight over one of the other teachers. I don't know if it was true. I won't name them. Please keep me anonymous. This is not my story to tell. A friend had three kids and her now ex-husband. Good start. Will Barron She had three kids with her now ex-husband. I have to shut my eyes to try and get it all in order. She was the breadwinner and he was the stay at home dad. Right. I've got, there's an angle on this, isn't there? She often praised him for a brilliant job he was doing raising their kids. Nothing was too much trouble. He was excellent

at the mental load, et cetera, et cetera. One day she noticed a drop box file on an old laptop. Why were they using the old laptop? They kept it for their kids to do their homework on. Right, okay. Oh no. So it's on the kids' laptop? Yeah, thinking it was odd she clicked on it to discover many videos of him and various women up to no good in the local dogging spot. Oh my god. He's a doggie. He's a doggie. Oh god, he should stay at home, dad. To add insult to injury, she recognized a number

of the women from the school run. Oh my god, it's a doggie school. This is disgusting. What? Just shagging a house. Why'd you want to shag in a car park? She had absolutely no idea. He's clearly been very busy boy during the school day. It did at least make the divorce easy as she just shared the videos with her solicitor. Oh my god. Is that

horrific for the solicitor or hilarious? Hilarious. It depends. Although it means that, you know, obviously solicitors are billing by the hour. So you probably will depends. Although it means that, you know, obviously solicit as a billing by the hour, so you probably will watch all of them just to you know, Yeah, just so you could bill it back. He didn't have a leg to stand on. Right. In his defense. Well, is he issuing a letter? No, I'd say it's better that he was just some kind of sex mad

fiend rather than that he was having an emotional affair. Oh no, it's not because if he's saying it's bad either way, I'd actually say loads of different women in a dogging spot is better than like one in your bed. Do you know what I mean? Because you can write him off as a sicko. Yeah, I mean, move on, but he's still a sicko. Yeah. And not completely move on. But he's still also the parent of your children.

Yeah, yeah. It's not like, oh, he's going to get together with that woman he was fighting. Also, if he's had sex with those different women and then she's had sex with him in the meantime, she's like, well, God knows what's been going on down there. Oh, yeah.

Well, not God knows. She knows exactly. She's got video footage. And he's filming himself dogging. Who's putting it in a drop box? Where do you put yours? Where do I put my doggy on sense videos? It's saved as accounts 2021.

Right. And that other quiet year because of COVID. What? Write in, write in. If you've got secret files on your computer, what they're saved under. Do it anonymously. Write in if you're into dogging and tell us why you like it. I would love to know just from a journalistic point of view, I don't want sordid details of what you get up to. Tell me why you get off on dogging, please. Okay.

A bit late. A bit late. Okay. I just want it. Why are you doing it? I think it's probably the the thrill of being Yeah, but you can have the thrill of an affair in a hotel room. Rob, it's the gust of the wind on your ass. The smell of the petrol.

Oh, small business, we've got to do a little small business. Dear Rob, Josh and Michael, I'm a former primary school teacher turned illustrator and I've created a set of games called Natta Matters. They are packs of carefully researched cards with open questions, one for every week of the year. The idea is that you pick a question and start chatting. No long answers, just prompts for big conversations. My aim is to make talking about big stuff a completely normal natural thing to do. So as children grow and face challenges, they know how to talk about them openly.

This is a good idea. Questions range from, is it ever okay to tell a lie? To, if you woke up to find everything a term blue, what would you think had happened? In every pack, there's a QR code, which takes you to a secret page on my website with a digital version of the game, ways to play, all the rationale behind the questions,

and tips for tackling tricky conversations. There's a universal set suitable for ages five plus and the follow up set which delves more deeply into philosophical questions. I'm incredibly proud of the games and would really love to think of them being played by fellow parenting held devotees and their families. I've made a special 20% discount on all Natata Matters products with the code ParentingHell in caps. That's 20% off Josh, that is. The website is www.rosiejohnsonillustrates.com.

R-O-S-I-E-J-O-H-N-S-O-N, Illustrates. Or rosiejohnsonillustrates on Instagram. That, I'm into this Josh. Yeah. Also, what I'd love to do is if people are getting on the mad sesh, just leave it in the kitchen and film people at 5am. Yeah. There we go. I love the podcast so much. I'm really grateful for it. What's in the way is the way has become

a new, very helpful mantra. Don't thank us. Thank Marcus Aurelius. As a parent to a 15-year-old and 10 year old and a 26 year old bonus son, I can say it gets better from a physical exhaustion point of view, but more complex emotionally. You rule you sexy and relatable beauty. Rosie. Thanks, Rosie. Thank you, Rosie. Morning, sexy and relatable guys. I'd love to give a shout out to my 14 year old son, Finn, and his small business creepy cute with K's Creepy with a K cute with a K. He started at just 12. This is we're basically talking about fucking Alan sugar here, aren't we?

Selling his digital artwork affairs and local comic-Con style events. And he now has an Etsy shop too. Fin creates both unique and character inspired designs on his iPad, turning them into pin badges, key rings, stickers, postcards, greeting cards, and art prints. Good on you, Fin. We're so proud of his creativity and everything he's achieved at such a young age. His Instagram is at creepy underscore cute, both with Ks, and his Etsy is creepy cute designs dot Etsy dot com 20% off for parenting hell listeners with the code parenting 20. Thank you. Haley No, it's good to help out. I enjoyed that Josh. Bye Hey there, I'm Kimopp and I have a new podcast.

It's called Icebergs and it's about the endless journey to find ourselves and find out what it really means to have self-acceptance and self-love. I'll be exploring the inner landscapes of some of my favourite people. Oh, I don't like being self-aware! And asking them about who they are, how they got that way, and how they feel about it. That's subjective, what I do on stage. I am objectively not funny off stage.

A bit of their present. I didn't know that I was ugly until I was like 16 and record executives told me it. A bit of their past. I need more time being alone than I thought. And how they navigate all that stuff. That's definitely something I think my therapist would have to bring it on.

The thing about icebergs is only 10% of them is above the surface. 90%, we can't even fathom, and I think people are a lot like that. And if they're not, then that's a really dumb name for a podcast.