The Netmums Podcast - S19 Ep10: THE GILL FAMILY UNFILTERED: JB and Chloe on marriage, parenting and life at home

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

For the Series 19 finale of The Netmums Podcast, we’re switching things up with a special video episode. After a series spent asking the questions, dad host JB Gill finds himself on the other side of the conversation as his wife Chloe joins him on the sofa in the studio – and host Louise gets the chance to find out what JB is really like as a husband and dad behind closed doors.Together for 17 years and married for 12, JB and Chloe open up about the reality of making family life work around busy and unpredictable careers. Chloe, a former dancer, is now a successful content creator. They talk honestly about how they stay strong as a couple in the spotlight and how they operate as a team – even if Chloe, as the family’s default parent and self-described CEO of the girls, carries much of the mental load at home.The couple also share how they’re raising Ace, 11, and Chiara, 7, to stay grounded despite growing up around entertainment, travel and life in the public eye. From chores and personal responsibility to resisting the urge to fix every problem for their children, JB and Chloe explain why preparing them for adulthood matters more than making life easy. And Chloe reveals whether the JB listeners know from the podcast is the same man she gets at home – you'll have to listen to find out! In this episode: Chloe reveals what JB is really like at home The reality of sharing the parenting load How they keep Ace and Chiara grounded The secret to 17 years together The difference between bring up boys and girls And because we couldn’t let JB escape that easily, the episode finishes with a revealing Mr & Mrs-style challenge, as the couple put their 17 years together to the test, compare parenting habits and discover just how well they really know each other.A funny, warm and revealing Series 19 finale about marriage, mental load, raising grounded kids and the reality of family life behind the scenes.Fancy watching the full episode of The Netmums Podcast on Youtube? Visit the Netmums YouTube Channel now!Read more trusted parenting advice at Netmums and join the conversation on social @Netmums.JB and Louise would love to hear your parenting stories, questions and dilemmas. Email [e-mail] and you could be featured in a future episode.The Netmums Podcast is brought to you by Netmums, trusted by parents, backed by experts.This episode was produced by Further Films.

Hello and welcome to the NetMums podcast where real parenting conversations happen. I'm Louise B. Bert, the editorial director of NetMums. And I'm J.B. Gill. And I'm sat on this side of the sofa, which is a bit of a mix-up, isn't it? Yes, you are. Indeed. Well, we're at the end of series 90. Yeah. I thought we'd switch things up a little bit. All right. You know, mix it up, keep it fresh, have some fun. So I'm putting you on that side of the sofa today.

and I want to get to know what's behind, what goes on behind the closed doors in the girl family. And I thought in order to do that, well first things first, actually, Jay, you sit here every week and it's lovely. You know, you know you're my favourite dad co-host. I should hope so. But, you know, you divulge on everything parenting

and all your pearls of wisdom and you act like such a great dad all the time. Yeah, there's not much acting going to. on, but yeah. So I just wanted to see, yeah, see what really goes on. So in order to do that, I've invited on dancer, content creator, Mrs. J.B. Girl, Chloe Gill. Hey. Welcome, Chloe.

Some lawyer reinforcements. This could be interesting. So let's just kick it off with the question that everyone wants to know, really. Go on, go on. What's he really like behind closed doors? Oh, he's dreadful. No. He's not. He's everything that you see.

Like, he is... He's the real deal. He is the real deal. He is a lovely guy. He's my best friend and we're a great team. Because you guys have also been together forever. Too long. Quite a long time to be fair, yeah.

How long is it? He's good at this. He's been together 17. There we go. 17 years. I think we, yeah, almost 18 years we met in December and we're married 12 years. There we go. So, yeah, and two kids now.

Yeah, two kids. You've got eight, who's 11. Yeah, Kiara, who's seven. Seven. I just want to say eight. She's seven. Nearly, nearly. Yeah, well, eight, 18.

Who knows? Yeah, exactly. Not far off that. So who's in charge at the girl family household? It does fluctuate, but I, we've just been away. We've just come back from Geneva. Just the two of you or family? No, it was just the two of us for just under 24 hours.

Wow. Just over. Just over. Just over 24 hours. I mean, it didn't feel like jet set at the time, but we did jet set. We literally were in and out. And Ace went, Mommy, when you're not here, you are the center of our world and it melted down. So, I don't know, but we do fluctuate.

We do hold it up together, I would say. But I am misorganized. So I like to know what we're doing, where we're going. Do you store that all up here? Yeah. Or are you someone that has it all on the fridge or on the shared calendar? We have the share calendar. Because you guys have got busy lives.

I mean, when you tell me all the activities your kids do, everyone's got a busy life. And I think I was talking to one of your family friends, Zoe Harbin, the other day, and she referenced you being a mummajor. Yes. Because, I mean, you are head of all things. CEO of the girls. But I just think I do mentally hold it all, but I have to write it down.

I am one of those people that if I haven't, if there's too much going on, I have to write lists. And then if I can see it all, look at the week, know where we all are, everyone's everywhere and how we're going to make that happen. And also what I find quite difficult is Jay's work so sporadic. Yes. So he'll get a call and can you go and do... At the last minute, yeah.

So I have to make sure that if that does happen, I am available to be able to do whatever for the children. Does that mean like sometimes that you operate almost like a single parent because you can't quite depend on him being around the whole time? Is it easier almost to operate like a single parent? I would say I have to make sure if I can't do it. And he potentially is going to be busy. Someone else needs to be in place.

Because that's just the nature of the industry and how the position we're in at the moment. And the kids, if they need someone, somebody needs to be there for them. But I do, especially when he went into something like Strictly. Wow. I know. It's such a grueling schedule, isn't it? That did feel a single parent. Yeah.

But it's always for a time. And he is always on the. But that was around Christmas time, well, before Christmas time. Yeah. When life is always like going 110 miles an hour. Yeah, it was, that was a crazy time. And then obviously he went on tour after that. But I just think we're so used to, we've done, you know, without the children, we were both doing this. We were both touring.

We were both, you know, jumping to different places to meet each other. I think our life is just manic. And we have to be really organized in order to make sure that all those things happen. What would you say the biggest misconception is about J.B. Girl? Oh. Getting a full name as well. I don't know the answer to that question. Well, let's put it this way.

What do you know about him that other people don't know? He gets really grumpy in the mornings. But he's not, well, he says it's told me before he loves his sleep. He loves his sleep. He's known in general. So it takes him a little while to warm. warm up sometimes. Right in the morning.

I get that. I get that. That's not a bad thing. No, you just avoid. Avoid him. I just know. Like, even this morning was manic. There was lots going on.

He went out the door before us and the kids were late because they were tired. So I just knew. Just let him go and he'll be fine. But he's just, he's a lot better than he used to be. I was going to say, let's qualify it a little bit because 10 years ago, no. Don't get defensive. No, no, no, no, no. We got qualified because 12 years ago.

I'll go 12 years. 12 years ago, you literally could not speak to me until 1 o'clock. Yes. One o'clock in the afternoon? Yes. In the afternoon. What? Really bad.

Don't even, don't try it. When we first started dating, I was really annoyed at him because he would leave at like 5am. And I'd be like, just say bye to me. Like, just give me a kiss, say goodbye. And he was storming out the door, half asleep, grumpy. And I was like, you need to be better than that. You need to work on that. Now, like this morning, for example.

Morning, bye guys. And all the kids are all there. Do you think having kids has trained him to be better in the morning? Absolutely. Because now it's not just you that he's got to smile at, but he's got to show up for the others. Or his daughter will go, what's wrong with you? Yeah. Yeah. Grumpy daddy.

Wow. Okay, let's talk about the kids. Yeah. Obviously, you've got Ace who's super duper 11 years old and Kiara who's eight, seven, nine. Nearly eight. Nearly, nearly, nearly. Why have I got eight? Because she looks like she's 10.

She generally does. She's really tall. I think as well, like, I think I might just position. and my kids with your age where it's quite often. They're not too far away. I'm just terrible at remembering other people. She's a lot older than she is. She does. And she behaves a lot older than she's.

Not in a bad way, but she genuinely does. She's very confident. Yeah, she's quite astute and she's on it. And she, yeah, she's the life of, you know, sort of like almost a set. Not in a bad way, the centre of attention. You know what I mean? Like she commands her in when she walks into it. And so you automatically think that you don't see her as a seven-old.

You definitely think she's at least. In fact, we went to. I totally thought she was not. Yeah. Yeah, we went to one of Aces' new school events, because he's in primary school at the moment, about to go to second school. We went to one of his sort of whole school events where you meet the team and meet the senior team and stuff like that.

And Kiara was up there talking to the head of science saying, you know, what events have you got going on? What experiments are you doing in science at the moment? And he's just like going, okay, are you coming here next year? And she's like, no, no. I've got three years till I get there. Yeah. She's in year three. Are I hearing a proud daddy's girl situation?

Oh, she loves her daddy. She really does. Are we talking about the thing? He's so different with her. It's a different thing. And I think as well, obviously I had a sister and you had a brother. I think it's a whole other dynamic. Do you understand women a little bit more having a daughter?

No. He probably thinks we're even more crazy. Will ever fully understand women. Even women don't understand women. No, you don't. Don't know. We are so, you know, so basic. This is a NetMum's podcast where real parenting conversation happened.

That is a lie from both of you. My husband is one of four boys. And I was, I'm one of four, but I grew up with boys. And he's obviously got three girls. And I, they are his center. They are the center of his universe. But he does not understand a few tears, you know, teenage tears and things like, because he wants to fix it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the other thing. He's like, because he hates them seeing. They're seeing them upset. Yeah. And sometimes, as we know, as women, might just shed a little angry tear. Oh, she will say now, I just don't know why I'm feeling like this. And I went, we'll just let it out.

Yeah, exactly. Let's just have a good cry. And then she'll feel better for it. And she does then go, oh, I feel good now. Yeah. Because sometimes you just have to get out. And you don't need like 20 questions about why you're crying. Yeah, I don't feel, I'm not a fixer.

No, when it comes to her being upset. No, you just kind of la. Yeah. But she does love her daddy. Like, she really misses him when he's not around. And then Ace, is he a mini J or a mini U? No, he's basically a male version of me. Oh, brilliant.

We actually have, like, she's the female version of him, and he's the male version of me. I love it. With, like, little bits of each other in. It's really strange. Explain? I want to hear more. He just, I don't know, I just get him, like, straight away. I just know exactly what he needs or the way he functions.

Or his mood. Yes, I look at him and I just know. But then does that mean that sometimes you clash? Because sometimes when... No, they don't clash. No, we don't. I could just tell him off and he literally will just... I could literally say the exact same thing to Ace that I would say to him

and he would freak out and kick off if I said it. Yeah. And would be like, oh, okay, mum. It'll take it for me. Absolutely. But you are the mumager. But he, as he said yesterday when we came home, you are the centre of my world. And I'm like, I understand AC, but you know, you really need to, you know, he went, no, Mom, it just falls apart.

Where are you? He had his eye message on his iPad. He went, how much longer? I went, it's not even been 24 hours. He went, Mom, please. I went, you've been on a residential for a whole week. He didn't think about us. I've been for less than 24 hours and you're having a meltdown.

He went, just need you back, Mom, just need you around. That's what he's like. That's what he's like. It's dependable. Yeah. And obviously, you've taken abetable. told me so much about all the amazing things they've done, like whether it be through football or TV or modulate, like these guys are busy, busy kids. And they're exposed to amazing privileges as well,

I imagine, in your family. How do you keep them grounded? I just think we talk a lot and we explain to them that, you know, not everybody gets to go, especially when you're going to like a premiere or something exciting like that. But we also... Because that isn't right kids, we're off to the cinema. No. No. It's a full-on basil-dazzle time. But I just think we're quite grounded as people.

Like we, I don't know. I don't know. We just make sure that they're always... Tell me the most normal grounded thing in your family life. Probably living on a farm. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's been really helpful, I believe. That's a wholesome thing.

Yeah, and making them... I want something real. Oh, okay. Give me something real. Chores? Making the kids do chores, no? What are you trying to get? Right on the level of people.

I mean, we are pretty just normal. Like, we are. You know, like we don't, you know, when we fly as a family, we've never been business ever. We'll never go business. No. If the kids get older or if we do a special, you know, we turn 50 or whatever, we might potentially.

But we've made that a very conscious decision. Like, I mean, yes, okay, you can go to nice places. And of course, you go to a premier. years and we go to things like that. But we're very explicit that that is not normal life. I think when you go, you know, maybe at school and then a child does something else, like goes on a yacht for a weekend, for example. And you're a bit like...

No, we just explained to them that obviously there's different worlds. But I think we expose the children to lots of different experiences that we, especially, you know, being in the football world, that's a completely different world. Yeah, absolutely. You know, we've been at grassroots and, you know, there's lots of different experiences. of different experiences of life and we've always made sure that they're exposed to all of them. Yeah. So then they don't, they understand everything.

So then I think that grounds them. Yeah. But, you know, they don't get allowances. They don't get, you know, a lot of the things I suppose that, you know, perhaps people that you might see in the public eye might do. And yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Yeah. And perhaps maybe they're a bit too young, really, for that at this stage. But, yeah, I mean, we let them know certainly our reality.

you know, I didn't come from a background that, you know, we had everything and had a silver spoon. Yeah. You know, and same with Chloe, both her parents, you know, all our parents been, you know, working hard. Yeah. You know, to be able to afford the luxuries. And they came from that generation where you had to work towards something. Yeah. So even though, yes, I did go to a private secondary school, I didn't go to a private primary school.

And that was a battle for my mum to do. And for her, it came from her upbringing, thinking or believing that that was the best thing for her child and for her children. Yeah, with the focus on education. Yeah, and education is a massive thing from her upbringing. So that was what she felt was the right thing at that time. So yeah, for us, it's always kind of been rooted in that, or both of us come from that background. And then similarly being able to, yeah, like, we work hard. We are. We are. We're like, we're like hard. Yeah. We don't stop, but we're grafted us and we've always been like that, like, in good or bad. Like, we're always like together grafting. And I think the children see that.

So then they have learnt this work ethic. They pack their own bags for school. They make sure they get their own stuff ready. And you're touching on sort of fixing things. We don't fix it. If Ace forgets to bring whatever. Then on his head so be it. He has to face it.

Yeah. You know, and especially at football, football, we're really good with that because the coaches expect, they say the one thing you are responsible for is your football and your kit. You want to be here. You like playing.

You have the responsibility. And yes, of course, they go to school and they do a million on other things. And yes, it might be on us that, oh, we'll bring the bag and whatever else. They don't care. Yeah. If we turn around and say, oh, I've forgot blah blah's kit, they're not interested in what we've got to say.

They literally go down to Ace and the other's level and say, you've forgotten your beach, you're not playing. You've left your shirt. So he has the consequences of those things. So he knows what it feels like. They're real conversations in my house right now. On a more basic level with like a water bottle. Oh, no.

So fed up a vibe of water bottles at the moment. And it's like, mum, was in a water bottle. Where's your water bottle? It's your water bottle. It's your responsibility. Yeah. Why are you asking me? So true.

Your bedroom, make sure your bed's changed. Yeah. And it's interesting, just before moving on, because for me, I think with Ace, obviously, he's older. So you can have that really harsh conversation and saying, like, you know what you need to do and you're not doing it. But you kind of, I certainly do. I don't know about Chloe, but sometimes you sweep Chiara into that. Yeah. Because obviously she's been around it and she can see it and whenever you forget sometimes, she is seven.

Yeah. And actually, as much it is her responsibility, when Ace is seven, he probably wasn't doing any of that. Yeah. So for me anyway, it is difficult. But then that's always good for a younger sibling because they can watch and learn. Yeah. And she's more organised than him.

Yeah. She's definitely left, but maybe that's because she's a woman. Woman. And going back to the two of you, we mentioned before that you've been together for ever and ever and ever in a day. What's your secret thing?

Because now the kids have been thrown into the mix and you're like you say, you are busy, you're hustlers, you're just flying through your weeks. How do you keep it together for the two of you? you. We don't know. How long have you?

We don't know. I mean, people ask us this all the time. But we are just... Because it's hard. It is hard. It is hard. It's, you know, any relationship's hard. Relationship with anyone.

Yeah. But we, you know, we have good days and bad days. Yeah, of course. But we just discuss those. Yeah. Like, if it's like you're really getting on my nerves. Yeah. So it's out in the open.

Yeah. Just let's just talk about it. Yeah. And that's something we've had to learn over the years because we've had to work our way of doing that. Like, what's wrong with you? Like, do you need five minutes? Yeah.

What's going on? But I think because we're quite separated a lot and then we come back together. Right. I think that's just changes. We don't really get on each other's nerves as such. If anything, we want to be together more. Yes, I was going to say, but that's like not that you've got a long distance relationship, but, you know, when you're, you know, pushed apart, then when you come back together again.

Yeah. And I guess maybe that keeps it exciting. Yeah. But then when we are in intense, we've been in a show. together where we've been in intense places where we're just together all the time, we're cool. I just think we're generally, we have a really good grounding and understanding of each other and a great base of friendship. We know kind of, okay, he's having a bad day, just give a minute. And then do you want to talk about it or what do you want to do? And then I

think it's just vice versa. That's for me, but I don't know, but I'm stuck with him now, so I just let's just keep it going. Like, if you're going to be like that, let's just roll. What sort of things, J.B., do you keep help? Do you do to keep Chloe Sweet? Are there things like little rituals in the day, whether it's making her coffee first thing in the morning? Oh no, because you're too grumpy. No, no, no. He does do breakfast.

If he's at home, he will cook breakfast. But, you know, sometimes it's the little things, isn't it? It's not like the candlelit romantic dinner day or the weekend away. For me, it's always a little thing. Especially when you've got kids and time just gets chewed up. When things don't happen, they don't. You don't have to, or certainly not in our life. Even if you plan them, they never happen.

Honestly, you could literally plan the most lavish thing and something happens. I get called and I've got to go and do a job. But that's happened before. We've been on a family holiday and I've had to fly back for work. Yeah. Like, it's, and we're away for a week. So it's not even like you've got three weeks and you can spare a bit of time. So those sorts of things happen all the time.

And Chloe and I always had sort of like this motto that, you know, until it's sign on the dotted line, And even when it's signed on the dotted line, it can change. You know, and so obviously, yes, we do, I do plan big things and we do organise big things to do together and we try and carve out that time. But that's never guaranteed. And so for me, personally, it's always a little things. Yeah. He writes love notes.

Oh, that's so nice. And we've always kind of done that. That's always been something that we've always done. Do you hide them? Yeah. Yeah. When he tours. I mean, I don't do it anymore and he's probably like shit.

I don't know him off. That's it. I'm just thinking of it. I was like, she's probably thinking he needs to do that some more because I'm thinking. Actually, he used to do that. I did used to do that. I mean, I used to have time to do that. But I used to, like, put them in his suitcase or, like, leave him, like, a load of notes or, you know, if he was away for a period of time.

Or. On the last tour, though, you did send, she sent, like, a bottle of something to my room and I had a little note with it. And I was not expecting it at all. I wasn't expecting it at all, because, you know, I'd say we were. fine and whatever and it's fine and I think we're in that stage of life where probably the little things wouldn't matter yeah if it didn't happen it's not you know me they they they as I say for me the little things are like so special because it's just that continual reminder and and yeah I think they're so for me anyway they're much easier to continue to do yeah do you know what

I think the reality is family life is manic and hard for everyone, especially if you're both working and you're juggling jobs and kids. And it's quite, your focus then becomes on the kids. You go and do your job every day and then kids. They take over. But you have to look up at each other as well, right? And I know like, you know, when we have our mum moan wines sometimes, you know, friends will say, oh God, you know, my husband's like managing another child rather than another adult in the family. Yeah, so that's when it all goes a bit out of kilter, but it sounds like you two guys. If we do have time where it's about reconnecting. I've learned this from when we both go away, like you, obviously you disconnect and you have to take time to reconnect.

And my friend said it to me, she's like, when we've been separated for a certain amount of time, even if it's just a dinner, even if it's just sit down or, you know, just chill and talk, you have to reconnect. Because otherwise you stay disconnected because you've been separated with work and stuff. that then doesn't come back together and it does feel a bit like that. And then you just get sucked into family life and all the chaos of everything as well, don't you? Yeah. I think that's a conscious thing we try to do.

Yeah, and I think Chloe's right. I mean, I probably would be quicker to reconnect than Chloe would be, but I think also a lot of that is partly because I tend to go away so then I am away where I can do whatever, and I'm coming back. So I'm looking forward to coming back and whatever else and seeing everybody and so on.

Where I'm like, whoa, I've got to readjust now. Yeah. Yeah. We've been running as a three. She's had to manage like that. It's a bit disruptive. Yeah, it is. And it's like we then have to relearn to be a four again.

Even the kids say it sometimes. And they, you know, they get a bit emotional. And then they're like, oh, okay, we're settled back in. And then. Yeah, and so do why, to be fair, because I'm coming back into basically disrupt the hole. So I'm going back into a unit that's working independently, which obviously I'm part of. Yeah. But then it's trying to break it again to then become part of it again.

And, you know, I've always said it. You know, when they were younger, you go away for one day, you come back, literally overnight. And they're saying different stuff. And they're like completely changed. And so the change is less drastic now that they're slightly older. But if I go away for a week and then come back again, they completely change. Like, Danny, we don't do that anymore. He's like, what?

We're not going to do. I'm like, huh? Hold on a second. Mommy knows. Oh, that's all about mommy. Okay. some quick questions just from some of the Netmoms community. Quick ones. Who is stricter? Oh, maybe me.

Yeah. I think maybe me. But he does tell you. You're most strict about. Everything. Everything. Yeah. I like boundaries. Yeah. I'm like time, bed. Let's go. But he's a great backup. Right. Oh, I'm like, oh, daddy's coming. Yeah. Well, that's good. Who says yes more? You. No, I don't know. Really? Yeah. There's been many moments where I've thought... She'll say no. No, I'm going to say no. And you'll be like, oh, yeah, it's fine.

And I think myself, okay. And to be honest, I tend not... So I'm not the dad that comes in and goes, yeah, everything there's go. Yeah, fun dad. Because I know that I've been away, especially, and I don't know. I always double check. So I go, well, I don't know what you've had today. We have to check each other.

Who is more competitive? Oh, we're both very competitive. I don't know if you're going to be able to. Definitely, me. I'm going to win. Are you one of those couples like at the class camping trip and you go, who wants a game of friendly rounders? There's no friends.

Oh no, we're winning. There's no friends. We're smashing it around the park. Yes, that's us. We need to be on the same side because otherwise there probably will be. We'll fight. Who's the cook in the house? Me.

Excellent. Favorite dish? I mean, anything that feed the kids. Fahita's always good. Spaghetti bolanets or some sort of bolognaise. Lasagna. Lizania, breakfast. He'll make anything.

He's like, it sounds all delicious now, make him really hungry. Who's more likely to embarrass the children? Why? Because you know everything. Maybe. Yeah, I would be like, oh, do you fancy da-da-da-da, maybe. I would probably do that. He won't do that.

I've got the inside scoop because I've heard it, yeah. And so far, who's the favorite parent this week? Ooh. Probably Chloe. Me, maybe, yeah. We've been away. Okay. And they miss me.

Like, Cleora will run up and hug me. but they definitely miss because we have established this on previous podcast that Clare is the default parent right? Yeah, for, it depends on a situation. I think you put your hands up on that episode. Mostly, yeah, she is mostly. We have default, like for instance, we said,

I cook. Yeah, default roles. And it's funny, we were talking about this the other day. I was like, oh, please can you come home because we really miss your cooking. Yeah. So do you have like pink jobs and blue jobs? I mean, is that even acceptable?

She does. I do. I do. He needs to do the bins. I'm really upset. And then if something's going on with the car, please, can you just be here? But he's actually never there.

So I end up doing a lot of it. But I get a bit like, where are you? Yeah. But like, for instance, when we were talking about that pod, we go on holiday. We talk about it actually. We go on holiday. There isn't a, oh, well, the kids won't have sun cream on unless I do it.

Right. I just would do it. Or Chloe would just do it. But does she? She has to ask you to do it? No. No, he will do it. We'll go up and we'll go, right, let's go guys, some cream.

We're a bit, like, we're all just kind of rolling with him. So you're not managing two kids and J.B. Oh, no. Like, you're both, when he's present, you're both together. Yeah, we're both present. Also, things like the toilet. So Kiora is non, like, she's really good at drinking water. But it does my head in.

She'll literally go, I need a toilet and clothes just come back from the toilet. Oh, that does my head in. I would never just sort of ignore the question. No, come on. Let's go. Unless the toilets are awful. If it's public toilets, I'm like, no, crony. When your kids can go to the toilet by themselves,

as it, like, I know she can go to the toilet by themselves, but like if you're in a cafe or a theme park or something, it is so liberating. Because you ask too much. Because you can stay put and finish your coffee or whatever. And it's like, girls, the toilets are just over there, knock yourself out. Yesterday, we must have gone about five times. Yeah.

I mean, she's drinking lots of water because it's so warm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, quick Mr. and Mrs. Challenge. going on. What is J.B.'s most annoying habit? Oh, when he has a go at me about loading the dishwasher. Oh. The control freak.

My brother's right. Yeah. It really annoys me. And I just went, will you do it then? Yeah, I'm probably like that. And I've done it and it's not good enough. Because all the knives aren't right down. Yeah, he wants it in a particular way.

Yeah. You can't wash unless it's in the... I'm trying to hide everything. He's trying to make it neat. What is Chloe's most used? Parenthooding phrase. Probably I'm tired. She says that lot.

Yeah. Yeah. Always tired. Last night you were like, I'm done. Guys, I did. I did. I did. I'm done.

I'm done. If you want to say good night to me, I'm going to bed. Yeah. Yeah. Who said I love you first? Me. Yeah, okay. Do you remember the moment you did it?

I don't know if I remember the moment I did it, but it was definitely me first. Yeah. I don't know where. But it was definitely on you. Probably. at my mom's house maybe? Yeah, maybe. I was, I think, we were 22.

You were 22, I was 20. Yeah. Young love. We're young, baby. What would your children say is the funniest thing about your family? Funniest. Yeah. Probably if we do silly dance in the kitchen.

I know I've just answered your question. But they really love that. When we do like, just keep, we're silly. Yeah. When the music's on and we're doing silly dancing, Kiki is laughing. Do they know your dance routines? your JLS moves and stuff. Yeah.

So they copy them? Yeah, yeah. For at a show, they know all, they know all the routines. Tell them what happens when you sing songs? Oh, I mean, Kiara, she's at that prime age where I think she's just discovering music and, you know, obviously she's been to a few JLS gigs now. But she, whenever we sing Love You More, and I don't know when this sort of took hold of her, but she's said on more than one occasion to lots of different people, including us,

that whenever I'm singing Love You More, she doesn't understand why all these other girls think that I'm singing to them. Because really he's singing to me. He went, the whole song is about me. And I was like, darling, I'm sure Daddy wrote them. She really is a dad is called. The other day, the other day.

The Dement's the Daddy Girl theory. She took it even further. The other day, she went to me. So, Dad, why did you not look at me the whole time? And I was like, I was looking at you all the time. No, you didn't. You have got your work cut out as the ears. Come on now, then.

She said, no, you did it. I was like, what do you mean? She said, you didn't sing to me the whole time. I was like, I went down. I think Daddy wrote it about me. And she went, it's definitely not about you. When are you going to break it to her? I have.

I told her. She's not listening. She's just like, you need to sing it to me. I was like, okay, fine. She said to me, it's not about you, mom, it's about me. I went, okay, girl. Even though it was written before she's even thought of. That's what I said. I tried to explain it.

She's not having it. Chloe, what makes the other part. that as in Jay, a great parent. I just love watching him be a dad. Just, especially with those difficult questions in the car, I'm like, well, that's for you. He's, you know, he's good at answering those questions. He's always there when he can be. He doesn't want to miss sports day.

I'm just, you know, doing life with him and being a parent, having like your mate doing it, going, I can't cope with this. How do we deal with this one and just talking about things? So that's what I'd say. Okay. Imagine we're now entering a children's courtroom. Yes. And you guys are on trial.

What charges are your kids, do your kids have against you? Well, we've already established Grumpy. Definitely he's getting that. Ace would probably say I don't play with him enough. I agree. Which does break my heart because I do play with him, but obviously I don't have a great deal of time to play. And as you know, life is incredibly busy.

So it's definitely something I try to do more, I carve out more time. But for instance, when we go on holiday, which we genuinely don't get to holiday enough, I mean, people might think, you know, you do all this stuff, you do all this, wherever, you must have amazing holidays. Like, we don't get the time to do it. So if we're lucky, we'll get a week in the summer. We get no half turns because of his football and other bits and pieces that he does and Kiara does as well.

And then we get one holiday, literally one holiday when we're not working, I can actually go away, turn up, we can both turn our phones off, not be worried about work. Absolutely, they're off. So that one time is at the end of the year for New Year. So on those occasions, we'll get up early. I'll go and play tennis with them every morning. He loves it. You're like, you are fun dad then.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, and then we'll play bat and ball on the beat or whatever we're doing. And I love those moments, but he, I think he would definitely say that, you know, he wants me to play with them more. Anything else? What about you, Clare? No, you're just grumpy. There's a theme running through this podcast. That's all right.

I don't mind. What about me? They might say, Mommy's a bit strict sometimes. But they do. Do you do anything that irritates them in the house? Yeah, I ask them to clear up. I ask them to tidy up.

I can't stand it when you come in and every kit bag and every bag under the sun is there. And then they're, oh, Mom, I don't understand. And like, well, do you, can you see it? So I think the clearing up and making stuff go to their bedrooms and tidying up. Things like my kids hate me singing in the street. I really? No, my probably will probably giggle.

They hate it. Do they? Wow. They are so cross with me when I do it. That's so funny. And I still do it. Yeah, you do it more. But they really turn against me.

Yeah. I'm not saying I'm in the world's best singer. No, but I mean. Do they not sing out loud then? Yeah, but they don't mind me doing it in the house. Oh, fine. as long as their friends aren't around. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Especially if it's like one of their songs as well. It definitely changes as they get older. Like, oh, don't do that because my friends. And I would do that. I would do it to annoy them. What about like, because obviously you guys live, you're a content creator. You live a lot of your life on socials.

Do they mind you taking pictures of them and putting them in content? Do they love it? Do you know what's funny? Obviously, most of my life, especially throughout as a family, I have to stop and take a photo at least. five times in that evening or whatever. And it's funny because Ace has started to have to do that as well. And of course, we've been on shows together as a family.

So people genuinely are like, oh, I love your show. I love your stuff. Can we have a photo? So they're actually starting to almost have to embrace that themselves in a weird way. We don't often let them do it, if that makes sense. But it's something that they're, I think, if you'd ask maybe three years ago, Yeah. They would have been a bit more sort of put out by it.

But now I think they're a lot more used to it. And we try and do it in a controlled environment. Like if I'm by myself with the kids, I'll decline photos, which is not something I ever really make a practice of doing. But in terms of safety, it's just no. Yeah, you don't know whether it. And people usually kind of get that. Yeah.

But I mean, it's just part of, like, we've always taken the view that it's part of our life. Yeah. And obviously, they're part of our life. and we don't want to hide that, you know, to hide that from them. Because I think it's very important to be able to understand. Understand when it's okay. Understand when it's not okay.

Understand when it's appropriate and not. You know, and to get, as I say, like a real sort of grounding with it. And I don't know, we've just been open about it. But I think we'll go, we're filming something today. So I prep them. This is what's happening today. We're doing a bit of content. So they know it's coming.

So it's not just there's a camera in their face at all. That doesn't happen. And I don't film everything all the time. No, no. It's always quite, it's in an environment where it's restricted. Okay. So before we finish, and I really don't want to finish, because we're talking about who leaves the toothpaste in the sink

and who doesn't change the loop roll in the bathroom. But when your children are grown up and they're talking about their childhood, what do you hope they say about life at home? That's a nice question. Well, we hope, we hope they say that it was very buried and they did lots of things where it wasn't just, it wasn't even though I am strict we do lots of different things and we are fun we do lots of fun things and they have lots of different experiences um and that they feel loved and safe that's probably my

main thing it's their home yeah you built them home and they do feel I do feel like they feel they say that they do and it doesn't matter where we are the four of us that they feel safe and and they feel loved by us that's what I think and I want them to say that they've been they feel like they've been well prepared for adulthood. Yeah, yeah. Because I think there's definitely lots of families, certainly lots of adults who definitely didn't feel that. Yeah.

Yeah, and that's not an easy thing as a parent to be able to master, to be honest. No, because you don't want to be parenting them for the whole of their adult life as well, do you? But also if that sort of, there's a void there when they become adults, it gets filled by something. Yeah. Or someone else. And, yeah, I'd love for them to say, no, we felt really prepared to go on and do what we wanted to do. Yeah.

Very wise words from the NetMum's Dad host. Thank you. Thank you, Chloe, for joining us today. And also for revealing this grumpy person over here. He's never, like, I didn't see that side of it. Yeah, because he's all jazz hands. After one and quite a lot of jazz hands. So it's all good.

But thank you so much. That was great. And it was a great finale. but that was football for me to end on because I've got to switch the tables a little bit and put you in the hot seat. You're going to be in a hot seat. I bet you're in a hot seat.

Thanks so much and thanks for listening to the NetMoms podcast. Come and find us, listen to us, review, share, do all those things. See you next time.