Making a show of the parents

Have you ever fished faeces from a bath? Had to explain periods to a seven-year-old in a restaurant bathroom? Or tried (or failed) to “snap back” after a pregnancy? Then set your dial for Jen & Lottie do . . . Parenting, and find yourself in highly relatable company.

Cohosts are Jennifer Zamparelli, of Republic of Telly, Breakfast Republic, Bridget and Eamon etc, and her pal, fellow former Breakfast Republic alumnus and familiar 2FM presenter Lottie Ryan, of Dancing with the Stars and legendary broadcasting stock. Both are pros at the radio banter, their easy repartee and casual approach belying the years of experience in the room when they take the mics.

Here’s the premise: Zamparelli and Ryan are here to talk parenting, not to dispense advice (though they often accidentally do so) nor to judge other parents (though that also can occur), but to tell their own stories of motherhood, and discuss their parenting dilemmas and decisions.

The result is a candid discussion of hot button topics including co-sleeping, kegels and creatures encountered on and around children. (Threadworm, head lice, and all the things you never thought you’d have to do in your life – including but not limited to shining a torch on your child’s anus.)

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The two do impart some practical tips – bring some never-before-seen toys for your toddler when heading on an airplane; arrange your kid’s party in a park pre-nap so you have a reason to bail and rid yourself of guests; use the correct names for genitalia, or your daughter will be calling her vagina a “fan-geenie-weenie” for who knows how long. But the bulk of this new pod, which releases weekly episodes on Wednesdays, is just the kind of forthright sharing of anxieties and anecdotes that can be a lifeline for parents getting through the first years.

It’s funny, yes – sometimes truly laugh-out-loud, with quick wit and comic timing carrying us through some horrifyingly relatable moments

Ryan speeding to the doctor for every two-year-old ailment in case it’s meningitis exposes the vulnerabilities we’ve all (surely?) had as parents: the panic of responsibility and this all-encompassing instinct to protect. Zamparelli throwing a Rubik’s Cube out the car window to teach the kids to value their toys is the kind of moment of reactive parenting you’ll be familiar with if you’ve ever driven children anywhere ever.

Their different perspectives – Zamparelli vehemently anti co-sleeping, Ryan appalled at the notion of sex outdoors – makes for enough variety to remind us that everyone’s approach may differ, but the experience of parenthood is in many ways the same for all of us. The genuine friendship between the two, though, is what anchors things – they’re close enough to berate each other without hurt feelings, and have enough interpersonal chemistry to carry off conversations about the same banalities of parenthood we’re all familiar with.

It’s funny, yes – sometimes truly laugh-out-loud, with quick wit and comic timing carrying us through some horrifyingly relatable moments – but it’s not all levity and leaning into the giggle: the two also talk impacts of divorce and the traumas of a difficult pregnancy, and give permission to each other and to listeners by proxy to be frank about their desires and their concerns and the fact that they, and all of us if we’re honest, are just making this whole parenting bit up as we go along.