The secret to surviving 6 Kids: YouTube Queen Tara Greer tells all

0:00Hey friends, Olivia from OLLI. Between new routines and the ultimate group project known as parenting, you need science-backed solutions that work with your life. That's where OLLI comes in. Start your mornings off right with Maltese made to support nutrition and immune health. Choose from our lineup of gut-supporting probiotics, and we've got occasional sleep support to help the whole fam chase their big dreams. Head back to class with the number one gummy supplement brand. Stock up on OLLI.com today. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

0:30Coming up... You can buy like rubber pretend toes, did you know that? To like stick over the top. I have seen them, have you seen them? Get one of those. I was about to get a pedicure and I got really excited about it and now I can't, they've taken that joy away from me as well. But they might charge a couple quid less. Can you just do nine nails bombing to Zabley? The amazing Tara Griel! Woohoo! Thank you guys. Welcome! Thank you. Six kids. Six, six. How? Probably could have had more. I'm sorry, what?

1:02Hello, welcome back to No Parental Guidance, your weekly dose of parenting chaos. Where we laugh through the meltdowns, the fails and the general madness of raising humans, big or small. That's right. From toddler tantrums to teenage strops, the chaos just changes shape. But luckily, so do we, sort of. Sort of. And we're back. We're back. We're back. We're back in our lovely red chairs. I feel like you've got a bit of stress levels today. Is it obvious? You said you can't get your words out. I can't get my words out. I'll be honest, Hannah. I am today exhausted. I'm having one of those days where, I mean, I threatened my door handle this morning when it like caught my shirt as I was walking through it.

1:41Were you in a mood at that point? Massive mood. Do you know what it is? It's that tiredness. I haven't had this tiredness for a long time. It's why my eyes have like gone to the eyes of, size of raisins. And I have forgotten how tired mothers can be at the start when they become parents. that's how I feel today and my god you forget and also anyone who is going through that tiredness right now I salute you because I'm just in a foul mood but you know that if people are going through that tiredness it's just a phase I remember my dad came around once when my firstborn was firstborn and he was in his Moses basket which he hated I thought everyone had to have a Moses basket and I hadn't swaddled him because the swaddle he kept breaking out of and I couldn't do it properly and I was really stressed and I was like I remember looking at my dad I was like daddy keeps crying and I haven't slept for like months.

2:30And my dad was like, Hannah, it's just a phase. Very soon, he'll grow out of this and he'll sleep longer and you'll feel better. Now it is just a phase, but it's a really long one. But here I am, I'm still exhausted. A long time. So you appreciate, don't you, when you've had a bit of a tough time. Why are you having a struggling day? What's happened? Well, obviously it's kid related. Obviously. And very painful related as well. so I took my kids to London yesterday and we're on the tube on the way home and it's but it's quite late it's like you know half past nine at night I've got the two older ones the little one was at home and all was going well like this is great and then we're on the escalator and my my nine-year-old's in front of me and he's going down the escalator and as the as the stair the escalator kind of closes and goes flat my son managed to clip my toe and I'm wearing open toe shoes and took off my uh toenail the whole toenail toenails gone look at my plaster I mean I didn't want to kind of make a big point of it because some people are a bit funny about feet some people love them some people don't but you you've got a massive pink kids plaster on your second toe Well, I mean, that's the only plaster I had.

3:46It was so painful. And I'm at the bottom of the escalator at Tottenham Court Road. There's a blood everywhere. Blood. I'm literally effing and blinding. And toe pain is really painful. Yeah. It's seriously painful. And then my eldest is then kind of like retching. And I'm like, you cannot throw up now. This is not a good time to throw up. The kid who actually did this, obviously very, it was an accident, like proper freak accident. Yeah. He's completely oblivious. He's like, oh, can I have a snack? And I'm like, no, I'm literally, I feel sick. I'm going to faint. I'm so angry. So we get on the tube to Waterloo, rush to Boots at Waterloo, get some plasters.

4:24But while you were on the tube and it was bleeding everywhere, were you a bit like, ugh? I just ignored it. The toenail had just gone at that point. Just left. Gone. It left the building. I am now without toenail. And I'm about to, I was about to get a pedicure and I got really excited about it. And now I can't. They've taken that joy away from me as well. But they might charge a couple of quid less. Every cloud. Every cloud. Can you just do nine nails for me today, please? How much is that? The silver lining. So then I went to bed last night and I knew that I was filming this today. I was like, I want to get a good night's sleep.

4:53You know, can't look tired on camera. Hi. And the pain of my toe in the middle of the night woke me up. Really? And then the kids all came in because I think they felt sorry for me. So I'm in bed and I've got a nice big bed. I deliberately bought a king-sized bed when you become a mum because you're like, I'm going to need more space now because, you know, you'd be co-sleeping. You need space. No, no, no. I'm on the edge, literally on the edge of the bed. And now I'm on the edge of life right now. Yeah, so I am also stood on some Lego. I literally told a Lego piece to f*** off this morning. Did you?

5:26Yeah. I've been threatening objects around the house. So I apologize now if I'm going to be like threatening at all. It's just been one of those mornings. To anybody else, you know, as a mum, when you see people at the school gates and everyone's like, hi, are you okay? It's such a false smile. and if anybody said tell me what's happened to you today and you tell this version people at school gates wouldn't see this version they'd be like look she's she's got it together she's got lovely plaster yeah she's got a pretty pink plaster on the toe not that your toenail was severed off yesterday because of one of your kids and i'm really sad for that toenail it'll grow back and it's a memory when does it grow back right now i've literally just got flesh you can you can buy like rubber pretend toes did you know that to like stick over the top have you seen them get one of those and just paint it and nobody will know you just get like a sweaty popcorn toe yeah yeah i hate the smell of sweaty feet i don't think anyone does like the smell of sweaty feet there are people that have i remember i used to work on a shopping channel right i used to work on a shopping channel and when i wanted to do presenting i was like how do you how do you become a presenter so i was on the tv show gladiators as a contestant i love this story by the way years and years ago and that's actually how I met my husband on the show he was a head trainer and john and john anderson used to be his trainer his coach so anyway there's me there you know do my my audition for gladiators having a great time and um yeah met my husband there um where was I going with this story babe I'm so tired I've got no idea where was I just I'm also perimenopausal anyway this is great should you just have a little nap here instead there's a blanket here Where was I going with that?

7:02So we were talking about toes, sweaty feet. People like this.

7:30Statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Smell of sweaty feet. Yes. So, right. Here we go. So, then I don't got yet. Ian Wright told me that I should be a TV presenter. And he said, listen, read the autocue. I did. And he was like, you should be a presenter. Any football job I've gone for after that, people have been like, so what got you into presented? Like Ian Wright said. But before that, you have to get talkback experience. Right. Is that when it's in your ear? Yes. You have a piece in your ear of people that don't know.

7:58And you'll have everybody in the gallery talking to you. so on on the shopping channel I worked on I did it on a Saturday and Sunday because I had a busy job during the week so I turn up there and we'd be selling like uh it's not a channel anymore so it doesn't matter we'd be selling like ruby rings and the ruby would have fallen on the floor somewhere like the cameramen were like you know just doing things behind the camera did they pick up at their feet it was yeah yeah it was weird and um it was just awful and I remember the first shift I ever did I um I heard like I'll do it myself somebody said I'm loving it and there's all these people counting up and counting down I was like oh my goodness so the presenter was like Hannah Giles sounds like how are you feeling today and I heard loving it and myself and I just looked at the camera I was like I'm absolutely loving myself today it was like you're loving yourself and I was like yes and I really love this ruby ring and then I looked down and the ruby wasn't even in the ring and I was like oh it was just awful absolutely awful um but yeah the uh the whole uh talkback experience is just I think I think day one our first episode here we had we had talkback didn't we and I've never had it before and we were talking I was like what what's going on are they my thoughts yeah like we're not gonna give you that anymore we're just gonna not do that not do it but the weird part about is on on these shopping channels people have feet fetishes it's a real thing so like people would say to me listen I'll give you 500 pounds if you send me your shoes are you kidding so my husband used to be like go to primark primark primarney whatever people call it up north we call it primark um get yourself a primark on and then buy yourself a pair of six pound shoes he was like i will rub my feet and my genitals in the shoes send them off for 500 quid wow and i was like you don't need to rub your balls in a pair of stilettos hun and i can't i couldn't do it well you know desperate times I wonder how much my toenail would be worth if I found it.

9:52That's where I was coming to on that long-winded story. You could have sold that. People sell things. Wow. I saw online this week that testicles are worth£1.7 million each. And my husband's got two. See what I mean? And he's got an attitude. So do you know what I mean? Things are going to happen, hun. Sounds good. Anyway. um any parenting fails this week for you uh well a parenting fail that um i had just as i'd given birth i'm going to tell you this one okay um you know you know day three or day four when you're you can't stop crying yes and it's that awful overwhelming you're very sweaty hormones are kicking in your milk's coming through your tits are like bags of marbles or like tea bags and marbles in it's just and you're like all the time the baby starts to cry and you're on a ward with everybody shouting and their phone's going off and you can't sleep and you're like this is not how I envisaged parenting to start with and there's a woman across from me and she'd had an eighth child eight eighth child and she was younger than me and she kept swearing she arranged to have a fight with a woman the day after she'd given birth to make it fair because she's not carrying babby anymore I'm sorry what I know and I was like I can't deal with this I can't deal with so the doctors came around to the ward round and they were like how are you today Hannah and obviously at that point my was completely severed like it was bad everyone's waiting to do that first poo after giving birth like a wee was hurting so I knew I knew what was coming and so I was walking everyone's walking around like John Wayne out there like you know happiest time of my life and uh the doctor came around I was like excuse me um I was like the lady across from me is becoming a bit much like she's shouting all night and I haven't slept you know in your face and um I said do you have any side rooms and he was like oh sorry no we don't have any side rooms and I was like my husband can give you cash he will go to the cash point on the way there name your price and he will bring you cash I won't say a word and then I wrote it on a newspaper did you I wrote it on the little section I was like you name your price oh my gosh and I slid it across him as if I was doing some sort of like international drug deal I just wanted a side room because I was scared about having my first poo after having a baby and I was scared about what was going on.

12:16But that's the links we'll go through to kind of get that privacy I totally get it. And he was really like we don't have any but I'm gonna get the nurse to come and see you Hannah. That's brilliant. Ten minutes later the nurse came back and she's like so how are you feeling? I was like I just I don't know. I've never been better. Yeah I've felt better hun. So then my kids always turn out like David Dickinson like bright orange so like bradley was under the lights for about a week and uh the nurse was like i'm gonna get you a side room hannah it's okay do you want me to move your stuff by yet they thought i was so unhinged i was just tired and hormonal i'm glad that you kind of well that's good so you did get your side room i did yeah but didn't have to put any money across i didn't have to pay because apparently you can't bribe doctors and nurses no no no toenails no feet nothing i'm really pleased you got that room then what's what's been your fail this week right well my parenting fail I actually do feel like my parenting fails are they're not really my fault they never are right they're never my fault would your husband agree with that and your kids probably not no okay but in this case well we'll see let me tell the story and we'll see so my youngest is a girl she's got two older brothers who um like to mess with her and I'm sure anyone yeah I'm sure you have the same with you've got a little girl and two older brothers so they like to educate her in certain things that maybe I wouldn't educate her in um and one of them is uh the middle finger oh no no but she's just been taught and they have called it the brother finger so now she knows the brother finger and obviously knows that it's not it you know it's it's not the right thing to do you know I have said you can't you can't do that so you know refrain from doing that anyway uh took a shopping to get some school clothes and as I am picking out some nice new skirts and shirts for her school return I see it in a corner of my eye and I'm like she's there she's doing something and then I turn and look at her and she's managed to manipulate the mannequin's fingers because the mannequins there are the ones where you can move everything and she has made the mannequin give everyone in the store the brother finger and um and of course there are parents around me around around the school uniform section as well obviously yeah um some of them uh found it quite funny some of them uh didn't and so then you know I had to basically put the hand back to its normal position and leave the shop because I was did you get the uniform or not no no I'm gonna do it online and do you ever find a ways like because you will get recognized by a lot of people so especially mums yes every mum knows who you are do you find that even more pressure that your daughter was doing the middle finger with the mannequins to every passerby and then they look at the daughter this child and go well that's terrible parenting and then look at you and go hold on a second I follow her on Instagram she's hilarious sometimes it's a saving grace because the people that do follow me and see situations like that happen they know that that's kind of what my Instagram is about it's a bit like you know this has happened and we're all in this together um and some of them kind of go like I'll follow you on yeah I get it I get it and I'm like cool but then the ones that don't follow me yeah there is a bit more of like a well that's unacceptable and I'm like oh I know I know I'm sorry I'm gonna leave and just shop online instead um yeah so um who knows she might have done all the fingers in Marks and Spencers and sees like a middle finger on the mannequins just ignore it the women's underwear section yeah and what did the your two boys say about it do they find it hilarious oh yeah I find it hilarious yeah find it absolutely hilarious so um yeah that was um that was a joy and then I did have another uh fail but I did bring it back so I was clearing out my daughter's bedroom clothes that are going to charity clothes that need a wash got them mixed up oh no um so washed all the clothes that I was going to throw out which you know fine but all the clothes that I wanted to keep got in a black bag luckily though as we all know when we take clothes to charity shops they leave them in the boot of the car for about you know six months to a year yeah so I did manage to get them out of the boot uh luckily um but it was just a big waste of faff of time um thank god you noticed and thank god that as parents with that disorganized that we leave the bags in the boot yes because otherwise your daughter would be going around with half mass harry's yes crop tops as well yes yes so um that was um that was fun i think it's just part of like you know the mental load clearly tiredness no toenail summer holidays yeah like it's there's a backlash for summer holidays i think it takes me to like october to get over the summer holidays and then we have half term yeah i always feel like oh that's come around quick and don't you find you're spending so much money you leave the house and you've spent 50 quid yeah just you know on anything starbucks anything cinema crikey can i have a snack and you're like i've made you like a cream cheese sandwich it's like i don't like cream cheese i'm like well normally you eat cream cheese i know you liked it yesterday i wish i was that parent and i'm not like i know there are parents that do this and I really admire them yeah but if my kids say they don't like it I'll always say I make a meal for all of us and I know that one of them's going to say I don't like it so I will modify the recipe a little bit and then if they still don't like it I am not sending them to bed hungry because they will be awake in the night so I will make them an alternative yeah no knowingly and I always used to say I'd never do that I hate doing that but I do do that because Because I don't want them to be hungry.

18:07And then they just snack on s*** for the rest of the evening. Or wake up in the night. Yeah, no, no, no, no. It's when they do that stance at the end of your bed, like. And you wake up like, Jesus, pick up the crowbar next to the bed. We've got somebody breaking in. It's like, oh, Bradley, are you okay? It's like, I can't sleep. It's like, well, neither can I now, Bradley, because you've just woken me up. It's like, what are you doing, mummy? It's like, I'm sleeping. I was sleeping, Bradley. I was asleep, yeah. And then sometimes I'm like, don't let him get into our bed. And then I'll be like, just give us a cuddle then.

18:37And then half an hour later, he's in a deep soup. I've become that parent that I always said, wouldn't do that if I had kids. And here I am. Today's guest is basically a super mum. She's got six kids. Yes, six, ranging from uni age to primary school, including twins. You'll probably know her from Meet the Greers. Her family's YouTube channel has millions of views. But behind all that is a mum who's navigating every stage of parenting at once. That's right. And she's a big believer in balancing fun and making sure your kids can load a dishwasher, which I actually really respect. Absolutely love that.

19:12But she also is hilarious, totally honest and still somehow finds time to share it all online. Please welcome the amazing Tara Griel. Thank you guys. Welcome. We're like that. I know. Six kids. Six. Six. How? And you look like this. You look amazing. Thank you so much. yeah six kids when i say it to people people go really i'm like is it really that weird yes six kids but you really confused me because you were like six kids five pregnancies yeah yeah we're like a twin there's twins yeah your eldest is 21 and the youngest he is six next month and do they all get on um yes they do and they don't typical siblings yeah like you have the ones that are closer to each other than others and the ones that will like kind of like really got each of his nails basically yeah as typical but the twins are both girls yeah but polar opposite really completely opposite you like people will go are they even sisters they look totally different they act totally different it's crazy so they're into different things completely different things do they like share a room and look they used to share a room and then about a year ago they got their own room and now literally you can see their personalities are so different like the colors of their room and what they have in there it's very much like how they are as a person yeah do they get on they do get on yeah i think they tolerate each other in like different ways like sienna's kind of she'll be on her own a lot and so will soraya but when they're together they're either really like doing hair or whatnot or they'll be like bickering of something or she stole this or that's mine or no this is yours or why is this in my room it's yours typical day-to-day of parenting so you've been so hang on i'm trying to i'm trying to do this you've been a parent for how long so 20 21 years yeah you've seen it all yes you've seen it all all you i'm hoping you've got some parenting fails uh i've probably got more than most fabulous let's have it let's have it um parenting fails for me um there's been a few hilarious ones And it's usually to do school as typical.

21:18My son, Romello, I think he was around about seven. So seven, eight, kind of the age of primary school where it's kind of, you're getting into your coolness if you have your friends and stuff. And he had this Spider-Man outfit, no Spider-Man, Superman outfit, but it wasn't your typical standard, like one that you put on, it just fits really well. It was like one with the big chest muscles. Yeah, yeah. Made him look like a massive. Love those ones. And it was dressed up there at school, just for him though, because we'd got the dates wrong. So we rock up at the school and it's not a small school.

21:47It's not like a little village school. It's a school that probably has around, I think in the year, it's the biggest school in Birmingham for a primary school. So we're talking a good like six, maybe 700 children in the school and he rocks up in this ginormous Superman outfit. Looking like an absolute legend. And there's not one other person around in any kind of outfit. And do you know what? In the end he said, I'm just going to go to school. Did he? Yeah, good for him. Do you know that says a lot about his personality already, doesn't it? But he's really shy and really kind of reserved. And I was quite surprised, but I think he just felt like today is my day.

22:18I'm going to be the person. Everyone goes, wow. Yeah, that's cool. And what was it like when you picked him up? He was fine. He was absolutely fine. Yeah. He said it was one of his best school days ever. Oh, I love that. It's kind of a fail, but like, it could be a triumph. I think it's worse sometimes the other way around when there's non-uniform day. Oh, I've done that as well. Many times. Well, we've all done that. I've done that too. I've literally dashed to Tesco's and been like, I need to find something red, like a whole red outfit like right now i've sent my boys in once where it was fancy dress got them the whole star wars costumes on amazon prime the shoes everything the mask took them to school like yeah my dad had taken school it wasn't fancy dress it would just replace one item and i've got a picture of my son and even though he has the mask over his face i can see the anger in his eyes and they're both stood there like yeah like they didn't speak to me for ages after that but it's It's like, you know, my kids were like, didn't want to go into school.

23:13How great that your son is going to own it. Cheers, mom. When it was year six, on my last day at primary school, all my friends and I decided that we were all going to dye our hair pink and turned it up to school on a lasso with pink hair. I was the only one that did it. No one else did it. Oh my God. And I was mortified. And the headmistress, her name was Mrs. Lawrence. And she used to spit when she played the guitar and she made me stand up and assembly. I love what you remember from school. Honestly, traumatized. It's the traumatic thing that you remember. She made me stand up in front of the whole school with my pink hair and like just go higher.

23:45And yeah, I think that's why I've just been blonde for the rest of, I've literally never changed my hair color ever since I've always been blonde. I'm like, I can't do it. It's in hair mascara. You weren't tempted with that. Can't do it. Nothing, just keep it natural. Trauma, yeah. Wow. Six kids is like, you'll have so many stories, but did you always plan to have six kids? I always knew I wanted a big family. Yeah. On my mom's side and my dad's side, there's like loads of cousins, you know, you go to a party and you go who are you I'm your cousin oh okay um literally it's one of those ones um and I've always wanted a big family I like the whole Christmas everyone around the table everyone exchange it doesn't happen like that in the in the in the movies you think oh it's so nice everyone's around the table it's usually it's like that's my cracker give it back I had that joke um but yeah so it I've always wanted a big family um didn't expect to have six kids probably could have had more really do you think you would have more are you done I am done I probably would have had another two if the last child marcello the baby of the house um didn't uh keep me awake until he was three and a bit yeah that's through the night drinking formula you're gonna talk about like your vagina oh no the whole like yeah giving birth with i'll yeah i'll do it again do you find that um because i found after my with with my third i actually really quite enjoyed the labor i was like here we go again yeah let's go push go nice i think i had all different labors so I've had a c-section it wasn't what I wanted I had to have it with the twins it was something that we had so many to and from the hospital it was like no they need to come out one was like no they're fine and I was like they're really small and I was like no they need to come out I think they'll be better out and I'm like I don't know and they're like in the end I said I'll go to 36 weeks and then I'll have a c-section so that happened and they came there was they were expected to be in the NICU took me around toured me around one was meant to be around once what about one pound seven and the other one was like one four um they came out um four six and four nine and came straight home and which was your favorite labor and why okay so what's your favorite child who's your favorite child I don't I don't have a favorite child I feel like um I was asked this question the other day and I feel like I do spread myself quite well around I'm not trying to brag but I think the younger one would be the baby because he's like he always wants to hug he's very affectionate so people would go oh he's always getting loads of hugs and stuff and he's the youngest and just gets bought by everybody in the house um but I don't have a child that I'd go oh my mum ask my mum she would openly say Marcelo my youngest is her favourite grandchild out of all of her grandchildren and she would not be scared to say it.

26:18You do find it be the first one don't you my mum's very I think she definitely has her favourite grandchild yeah yeah it's quite obvious It's very obvious in us. Yeah, it's really obvious. Yeah, 100%. And she was her least favourite. Actually, more obvious. Really? And we're all going away together tomorrow. Fantastic. Anyway, back to you. So your YouTube channel. Yes. So tell us that. So how did that start? And are the kids openly involved? Are they happy with it? Yeah. So it actually started with my second son, Lorenzo. He was a football mad. So we used to do boot reviews on his channel. So it started with his actual channel, Techers Kid, and he used to do loads of football skills.

26:58And I think because he was six, almost seven, there was people doing it out there, but they were adults. And when a kid seen a young kid doing it, it made it a little bit more believable. And his channel just flew, like it blew up really big. And then people just wanted to know more about the family because he's an older brother, Romello. He was in on it as well. So he'd be in there playing football. Hey friends, Olivia from Oli. between new routines and the ultimate group project known as parenting, you need science-backed solutions that work with your life. That's where Oli comes in. Start your mornings off right with Maltese made to support nutrition and immune health.

27:31Choose from our lineup of gut-supporting probiotics, and we've got occasional sleep support to help the whole fam chase their big dreams. Head back to class with the number one gummy supplement brand. Stock up on Oli.com today. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. I started a family channel I think about a year and a half after and that's just been ever since like almost nine years now and how do you film everything do you have like cameras around the house no it's just literally like so my partner um he will have a camera or have a camera or even sometimes the kids just take the camera and just go and record stuff and it's just what happens on a date like our house is busy house there's always a lot going on there's always something going on whether it's good or bad yeah and we do like to share the ups and the downs yeah and it's just a yeah just a typical family life and what you yeah so you sorry so you do all the editing and you do i do none of that my partner does everything yeah he does all that stuff i'm just so i do like most of like them with the kids with the school and stuff so like all the like i'm the proper like housewife style but in my own way where i'll just cook clean everyone well i say cook clean i do have the little hoover that cleans and helps me out um yeah best thing i have ever purchased one of those it's just it's i love it like i look at it as like that is my seventh child i will i will make sure he's very that's your favorite child yeah that's my favorite child yeah i'll put that there yeah but no i want to get one of those yeah so nathan does most of the like the work side of it like with the editing and all that which does take a lot of time so i'll be like i'll do my shower the laundry and just the mundane how do you feel then because i'm sure some people would say about having kids on social media and stuff are there any things that you won't show by showing your kids or were you a bit concerned about that to start off with?

29:17I feel like we won't show the kids if they don't want to be shown. So if they turn around and go, I think because I've grown up doing it, it's very much like it's the norm for them. I bet they're like celebrities where you live, aren't they? They are. They, in a sense, at school, they're like, oh, it's the greatest. But they enjoy it. Yeah, I'm sure. They really enjoy it. I mean, wouldn't do it if they didn't. Yeah. My eldest is 13 and he is very much now like, I don't want to be in any of your pictures. If I take a picture of him, he's like, where are you putting that? And he's, and I respect that.

29:48I'm like, that's fine. I won't put it anywhere. But he's so handsome. I'm like, I want to share. He's like, no. Favorite child over there. Or if I take a picture, like I slightly take one. He's like, delete it. Fine. But going back, so you give your kids chores. Yes. So what kind of chores? And do you pay them? Do they listen? so we have lorenzo and the sienna sarah the twins they have set chores every day and the chores just go on rotate every week yeah how old are they sorry so lorenzo is 16 okay and the twins are 14 fine um and they have had chores for a good while and i just feel like i had chores when i was growing up and it didn't do many wrong and like i know how to like cook and clean i'm not saying that it's just the boys will do exactly the same as the girls i don't prioritize one over the back like they all do the same so they'll do the dishes granted that i probably will have to go over and do them but they do do them um so it could just be like hoovering the stairs and like making sure that their bathrooms are tidy but i just feel like they need to know how to do stuff like turn on the dishwasher or the washing machine or absolutely do some toast so you're helping your son's future wives yeah as well yeah you're already a great mother-in-law everyone just tips in and like i don't make all the mess a wash I clean all the mess I'm sorry but um how do you have like so we have a whatsapp group do you we have a whatsapp group a family whatsapp group and then it's like pinned at the top the chore list of whose day does what and then really and dad usually goes around at the end of the day to see who hasn't because he's like the okay on the group or who hasn't done this or whatever and just make even if they miss it they'll go oh I'm sorry we'll do it like the next day and they'll we'll make sure they do it I think it's just a bit of a routine and just a bit of structure and I don't think it has caused any harm.

31:34I think it's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. What about your six-year-old? So they want chores. So he goes, oh, mummy, can I tidy the little living room? Like, yeah, you can. So he'll push the pillows. There you go. Yeah. Do that. They asked to be involved in stuff and Tiago was like, how old do I need to be to get my chore? So you made it really fun. Yeah, they see it as like it's a positive. It's not like, oh, gosh, I don't want to do it. But yeah, so I just feel like it just builds character for them. Like it's, it's life skills. Yeah. Like everyone needs it. We're all going to, everyone, every child's going to grow up needing those things in life.

32:06I know I can go to their house in the future and I'll walk in and it won't be a bummer sight. Yeah. Because you should know how to do this and that. I remember my brother was ironing his own school uniform when he was like 10 or 11. I remember my mum being like, you, you're doing this. Yeah. And he still does now. And his wife's like, wow, that's amazing. It's so good. That's brilliant. Cause your kids, future spouses are going to thank you. But all the work that you're thinking now. Hopefully I'll get that, yeah. Hopefully. Do you all still live together? So my oldest, actually, he's moved in with my mum to help her out.

32:39She's got a bit older. So he's the oldest grandchild. So he's took on the responsibilities. He's your favourite grandchild. Yeah. Always the first one. But is there chaos in your house? There's always chaos. And I feel like that's what makes the house the house. And I feel like when there's not that. So on the other occasion, they'll go to my mum's estate. and it's really quiet it's like it just doesn't seem normal it just seems really empty yeah it's always it's weird when there's no yeah chaos and noise yeah exactly what you mean we're kind of like all kind of wish not wish but look forward to having no chaos and no craziness but when you do get it like my mr don't like this it's like that white noise isn't it really the noise of just you know there's someone around in the house you hear something um but there's always chaos there's always problems there's always this is not yours or that's mine or there's always some sort of arguing some bickering or something going on but it's just typical normal yeah what about do you go on holiday together yes because i find going on holidays family of five yeah is so much harder than a family of four like i feel like holidays oh but then you've got eight yeah i'm thinking of airplane seats uh do you want to hear something even more crazier okay go we road trip it oh my word all in one car we go in the in our in our van yeah like a bus oh i do love that but also that must be slightly mental yes like suitcases do you have some kids that just take a backpack and a pair so we'll have like a roof box on top which will hold most of this stuff yeah um and then i'd be in the roof yeah i'll be in that roof box literally it's like it is chaos and there's so much noise and there's i need a wee and all that stuff but it just makes it i don't know what it is it just doesn't make the truth it's weird to say that it does it's like a lot of memories are made even if it's just in the car or something something silly happens or we stop at a service station you go remember that service station or whatever it's just little things because your kids are maybe that little bit older but when they were younger was it as nice um it was challenging because it's like the noise level goes to a point where you think to yourself what have i done here or can we just stop the car for a second let me just get out and maybe just start walking that way a little bit yeah but yeah but i i don't know i feel like we just become accustomed to all being around each other so often um that it's just the norm yeah it's crazy i remember being on a road trip once with my kids and i had my apple watch on and a notification saying this is a loud environment i was like yeah no yeah it's like what am i supposed to do you're like this is my life yeah yeah i actually got rid of the watch and went back to this at least you didn't get rid of the kids like i know yeah yeah but um i'm really intrigued how like because i'm really weird about ironing and washing yeah And I've got three kids and I wash constantly.

35:25Yes. I'm obsessed with it. Yeah. How do you keep on top of like the washing, the ironing, the food shop? Like, do you just spend all your time? You're going to tell me here that your partner's really hands-on, aren't you? No, I'm not. Because that's a robot doing for you. I wish. The kids actually have their own set days of coming to bring their washing for me to do. Okay, I need you to come into my house. You are super. So on the weekend, we'll have set days where certain things get done and must be washed and then I'll do all the school uniforms my washing machine does not stop no but at the same time there's so much to do and I will always try and buy stuff that doesn't need to be ironed yeah that's smart yeah no ironing needed I'm like yeah do you have more than one washing machine no I have one and I've had that washing machine for five years and I look at it and I think you must be so sad you must be so tired literally I feel so sorry for you but i love you at the same time oh i'm gonna say that now i'm gonna get home and it's gonna go yeah so everything's scheduled but what happens if you've got a teenager or one of your kids it's like i ain't doing that today hun um how do you discipline them how do you what's your approach to parenting if they just i'm very much a i do do a lot for them yeah and i'll be like well i ain't doing that for you then simple yeah so if you need me to drop you to a shopping center to go and meet your friends then that's good yeah the um the bribery continues yeah because if you want to be like yeah you know that i do a lot yeah well i can work with that we'll do that but in all fairness it doesn't really happen honestly it doesn't really happen they're very much like they'll just do the chores they know that obviously as a parent obviously and that me and the dad we do do a lot around the house and they do have a lot of stuff so it's just a little bit like we'll just maybe it's just like it's set in stone now yeah i think it's just the norm I think because we've been doing it for so long, it just becomes norm for them.

37:21And how do you ever get like private time with your husband? Do you know what I mean? We go away every now and again to like a spa. Just the two of you. We just sometimes just sit there. I'm like, he'll have his phone. I'm like, yeah, this is my time. Just like binge watch or scroll or whatever. And then we go to the gym. So in the evenings, when the little ones are all washed and in bed, obviously knowing that we have a son Lorenzo 16 at home, we just go up the road to the gym. And that's like our getaway. and we do like I know it sounds mad to get excited to go to the gym because most of the time they cannot oh no it's wonderful well it's just like a little outlet yeah all of that yeah I go I work out I shower I have a coffee and then head home and we'll watch a series and even now I think it's watching a series we will watch like a new series every now and again but do you all agree on watching the same thing?

38:08not with the kids me and my partner oh you and your partner? we can't watch anything with the kids yeah because otherwise how would you there's too many like I want to watch this I want to watch that and I have this like lovely I mean sometimes it does work but we try and watch a movie every Friday night it's like our thing yeah and I even bought like these little ticket stubs from Amazon and like popcorn boxes and it's like this thing and I'm like the ticket master they're going tickets please and the little ones love it and my artist is like just let us in the living room um but then we sit down and then we end up just bickering about what to watch and the whole moment is ruined yeah I'm like you know what Get out, go to bed, whatever.

38:42Moment's gone. You ticket master hat on this. Okay, fine. I'm not playing anymore. Yeah, you can have a refund. Get out. Yeah. So, yeah. So, it's tricky to kind of decide what to watch. I think we do more so that at Christmas, like when it's Christmas time and all the Christmas movies are on and you're really excited to watch them again. And we have done the same thing before. We've opened a little shop. So, they've done chores around the house and they've actually got like, we bought fake money from Amazon. So, we give them out the money for their chores. And then we went to Costco and got like the hot dogs and the popcorn.

39:10and then like had a little, we haven't done it in ages and they really enjoyed it. But yeah, we haven't done that in a while, but I might actually bring it back out again. Sounds thoughtful. I'm like getting so many tips from you to say I'm like, you're such a better mum than I am. Yeah, I'm literally, like when I go home, I'm going to give, because my son, my eldest again, he said, can I clean the car for some money? Yeah. I was like, yeah, of course you can. Yeah. He was like, cool. And he never did it. And I didn't, I did say, you're going to clean the car? And he was like, oh, I'll do it later, So I'll do it later.

39:37And I was like, that's cool, fine. And then he came to me like a couple of days later. He was like, have some money. I was like, no, you didn't clean the car. And he was like, yes. So yeah, the car's still dirty and I needed to get more on the whole chores, especially as he's a bit older now. Yeah. He's like instilling that, isn't it? When they want money. How are you as a parent now compared to how you thought you were gonna be before you had kids? Oh, I think I'm just very more relaxed. I think as of the more children I've had, the more relaxed I've got over the time. I think sometimes you stress about stuff and sometimes it's stuff you can't actually fix or you can't change.

40:17And it takes up so much energy, stressing about things and you're just like, do you know what? Yeah. I'm stuck going to. Yeah, it's like you've got to pick your battles. Yeah, definitely. And I used to get, I think, you know, we've said this before, but when you first become a mother, you're so much more, yeah you overthink everything worried about everything i didn't do this and i didn't do that or i missed that appointment whereas yeah i was like yeah it is what it is what it is sometimes you just have to roll with it are you bothered if you're late you know and getting the kids to school i used to be really like ocd about making sure i was on time i would always leave early i would get up my phone the alarm list on my phone is insane just to set make sure that check if if the alarm goes off we need to be this we need to be that and i think i've just been talking more like if I'm late, it's not the end of the world.

41:01Before I'd be stressed like, oh, they're going to be waiting in the playground for me, crying their eyes out, where's mum? And I get there and they're like playing or, do you know what I mean? And I'm like, it's just stress over nothing. Or I'll just make sure I'll stop. If I'm going to be late, I might as well stop and be a little bit extra late and get them a sweet. Oh, that's good. Sweet. I still get really, I hate, I hate, I hate. Hate it, yeah. But I've always been like that. Even when I was a kid, I remember saying to my mum, we have to get to school on time. I do not, I don't know why, I don't know where it's come from.

41:26And it drives my husband mad. Yes. I used to have to tell my husband that we have to be somewhere an hour before we need to be there. Just so we are much earlier. Earlier than you need to be. Yeah. I do that as well. Nathan's very much kind of a, he's more, oh, we'll get there when we get there. Or is this traffic? This traffic, it's fine. And I'm like, no, so I'll make sure. Yeah, we need to be there at one o 'clock. We didn't need to be there till two, but one o 'clock. And you obviously compliment each other if he's taken that relaxed approach because if he was uptight, it would make you uptight.

41:57And then having six kids, they just feed off your energy, don't they? Yeah. He's very much, he's the other child in the house. So he's very kind of like the one who will go and just be silly and go out in the garden and do all the fun stuff. And I'm just there going, this needs to be done, this needs to be done, this needs to be done. But it works. Get your kids to do it, don't worry about it. Yeah. I don't need to wash up the kids to do it later. It's fine, don't worry about it. It's so refreshing to hear this because I feel like I'm in that stage at the moment where my little girl's just turned two she's not potty trained we're in nappies and she's climbing everything and then the other two kind of a bit of they've got a bit of independence self-sufficient but they're not they couldn't like yeah go out by themselves yeah so I'm kind of in that stage of just you know coming out of like the breastfeeding and all that sort of stuff um where it's really nice to hear that you know you've got teenagers and they they can get themselves dressed or like drive or do all these things that you sometimes forget and we mentioned this earlier about phases everything yes everything comes in stages what are the stages that you look back on and were your favorite from like naught to five I think it's the whole they really rely on you for a lot of stuff and I think when you're in the moment it can be quite overwhelming that you end up doing like a lot and you your list is as long as your arm but like Marcelo got dressed the other day in his school uniform on his own and I was kind of like no mommy needs to do your buttons or and you think because of him being the last one I'm like I'm coming to the period now where they won't really need me for a great deal obviously to in and frobbing from school and cooking the dinners and washing baths and all stuff but like his own little self he can get yourself ready and put his socks on and he gets his school bag and he'll get his water bottle out and he'll fill it up and I'm like no no no I'll do that no no no I'll do that because I know before I know it I won't need to do any of it and you you look back in in the times you're like oh I've got this to do that to do and then you think to yourself when you don't have to do it you really are going to miss it so to really cherish it Tara thank you so much what an absolute ride six kids and still full of stories energy and a top top tier advice honestly you've made us feel better about the mess and slightly worse about our kids not knowing how to use a mop so like subscribe share all the usual jazz it really keeps this podcast going honestly we are not parenting experts just experts in our own disasters absolutely if you've ever bribed a toddler with snacks you're in the right place hit that subscribe button