Mum's The Word! With Georgia Jones & Kelsey Parker

This week Georgia Jones sits down with Trish Abreu, Head of Early Years at Alleyn's Hampstead, for an honest chat about the early years: nursery, reception, and those all-important first steps into school life.

Trish gets real about what "school readiness" actually means (spoiler: it's not knowing your alphabet at two), why so much of a child's anxiety is really the parent's, and the settling-in truth nobody tells you: that there's no such thing as a perfect one, and it can take far longer than a couple of weeks.

Then it gets practical: the flashcards-versus-real-world debate, using London as your classroom, why bombarding your child with "how was your day?" makes them shut down, and the little girl who didn't speak for a whole year and what was really going on.

Plus your listener questions answered: quiet at nursery but chatty at home, tears and fussy eating at drop-off, the questions nobody thinks to ask on a nursery tour, and how the conversation goes if the school spots something you haven't.

Grab a cuppa and get comfy.

A Create Podcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Kelsey Parker sits down with two remarkable dads, Jack Taylor and Matt Whitehouse from the Lily Mae Foundation, for an honest, tender conversation about losing a baby and the life and grief that follows.

Jack takes us back to Oscar: two miscarriages before him, an enlarged bladder spotted at 20 weeks, and the Trisomy 13 diagnosis that meant he wasn't compatible with life. Jack and Ellen made the hardest decision any parent could face, to protect their son from more suffering, and Oscar was born sleeping. Ten years on this December, Jack speaks about how time both stands still and races away.

Then Matt shares Callie's story: a textbook pregnancy right up to 38 weeks, a daughter kicking away at 8am, and by 9.29 she was gone. Matt talks about the 27 minutes they had with her, the false hope, and the moment a doctor walked in with the news no parent should hear, why he says the mind simply can't compute the speed of baby loss.

Together they open up about the grief dads are so often expected to carry in silence, the space to talk about their babies, and how the Lily Mae Foundation helped them find their way through. Plus the "unhinged" challenges that keep them going, from seven marathons in seven days and 110 miles in 24 hours for Oscar's 10th birthday, to Matt running 10k every single day of 2026 (karaoke and all).

Grab a cuppa and get comfy.

A Create Podcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Georgia Jones hands the co-host chair to a very special guest: her one and only, Cooper, for his first ever appearance on the podcast.

Cooper gets into the big stuff: why he's going to be a professional golfer like Rory McIlroy, beating grown men three times his age off the tee, and the "so mathematical" reason he loves the game.

Then it's back to real life: starting Year 4, keeping his two best mates in class, the great mufti-day-versus-non-uniform-day debate, and the after-school pull of the PS5.

Plus the lighter stuff: the great orange chocolate scandal, why he only "shuts his eyes" for 50 minutes in the car (definitely not sleeping), Daddy's ill-fated mission to rescue a sunbed a mile out to sea, and Cooper's honest ranking of the most annoying things adults do.

And of course, his one rule every grown-up should follow: put the phone down and play.

Grab a cuppa and get comfy.

A Create Podcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Kelsey Parker sits down with Nutritionist Rhiannon Lambert, founder of Rhitrition, for the conversation every parent needs to hear, and one that'll probably start a few arguments.

Rhiannon doesn't hold back: why the UK now feeds kids more ultra-processed food than anywhere on earth (yes, above America), the childhood obesity stat that just jumped from 1 in 4 to 1 in 3, and why for the first time in history we're not outliving our grandparents.

Then the stuff you're not supposed to say out loud: the real truth about weight-loss jabs, why "diet" and "zero sugar" might be worse than the full-sugar version, why less than 2% of nutrition advice on TikTok is actually true, and the study proving a home-cooked meal beats the identical ready meal, calorie for calorie.

Plus the bits that'll actually make your life easier: why two eggs and a red pepper are doing more than you think, the genius "sometimes food" trick for ice cream vans and party bags, raising boys who can actually cook, and why even a nutritionist has UPFs in her cupboard.

She is also releasing her fist kid's book Ready Set Cook in the new year, to get your children having fun in the kitchen.

If you've ever felt like you can't do anything right, this one's for you.

Grab a cuppa and get comfy.

A Create Podcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Kelsey Parker sits down with Lee Parkinson MBE. Teacher, three-time Sunday Times bestselling author and one half of Two Mr Ps in a Podcast for a chat about school readiness, raising triplets and why we've all been worrying about the wrong things.

Lee gets real about becoming a stepdad at 21, the scan where the nurse went silent before revealing it was triplets, and the "bath, bottle, bed" routine that got all three sleeping through by six months.

Then it goes deeper: why 63% of children aren't ready for school, how scrapping Sure Start centres left a hole nobody filled, and why the little things like doing up their own shoes & putting on a coat actually matter far more than reading or counting before day one.

Plus the lighter stuff: the ex-pupil who bought him a pint 15 years on, getting his MBE ("the world's worst kept secret"), and the show-and-tell Tupperware box that accidentally exposed an affair.

Grab a cuppa and get comfy.

A Create Podcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.