TOWIE star shares tips for parenting like a pro
Mum-of-two Samantha Faiers chats to Tolani Idris about co-sleeping, the terrible twos and the pressures a celebrity parent can face while under the spotlight
Most famous for The Only Way Is Essex, and currently starring in The Mummy Diaries, 27-year-old Samantha Faiers is a busy mum-of-two.
“I feel like how you are with your children can be so different to how other mums are,” she says.
Faiers is mother to two-yearold Paul and 10-month-old Rosie, raising them with partner Paul Knightley. Here are her tips for parenting like a pro...
1.Find your routine
For Faiers, having her own routine with her children is what makes managing the house possible. She will occupy her youngest child, Rosie, with an assortment of healthy food, which will give her half an hour to do some jobs.
“Paul is at the age now where once he’s fed and watered, he’ll go and play with his toys, which is perfect.
“Rosie still needs a lot of attention, but I find that if I put her in a high chair with a mixture of foods, you do get a good 30 minutes,” she says.
“I can get stuff done in the house, whether it’s putting some washes on, or the dishwasher, or preparing lunch, or whatever it is. It does give me time.
2. Keep your cool
Faiers’ reality-star status comes at a price — she can always be filmed or watched when out in public.
“I am laid-back and I don’t lose it — I just try and keep my cool. And especially when people might recognise me if I’m out in public, it’s like, ‘Remain calm, there is nothing you can do here’. You never know, someone might be filming you, you know what I mean?”
3. Let your children bond
Children are likely to be at different stages, having different bed times, waking-up times, and feeding times. When they are awake, allow them to play together so they can bond.
Faiers explains: “The first thing he [Paul] does at breakfast in the morning is say, ‘I want Rosie, where’s Rosie?’ Because Rosie gets up before Paul, so she’ll be downstairs playing, or in her high chair. He absolutely adores her. They play, and now she’s crawling, she’s way more fun for him.”
4. Try co-sleeping
The NHS advises: “The safest place for your baby to sleep for the first six months is in a cot in the same room as you.”
If you opt for co-sleeping, reduce the risk by not taking medication that makes you sleep heavily, and avoid alcohol and smoking.
Faiers says: “Rosie sleeps with me, and Paul sleeps with [husband] Paul. Rosie generally goes to sleep anytime between 7pm and 8.30pm. I feed her to sleep in the bed and then she might stir a couple of times in the night, but because I’m there, she just rolls over, has a bit of boob and then falls back asleep again, so it doesn’t really wake me up.”
5. Sneak veggies into food
Children can be fussy, but you can outsmart them. Faiers says: “With mashed potato, I always add broccoli and carrot in. I’ll boil it all together and mash it up with butter. They don’t know — add a little bit of butter and it just tastes like mash anyway.”
6. Make the most of ‘clingy years’
Everything changes when you become a parent; you’re no longer able to run to the shops, or book an impromptu massage.
“We’ll think more about us when they’re in school — planning trips and date nights and stuff, but right now, we’re not that fussed,” she says.
“I think it will get to a point when we’ll start doing stuff, just the two of us. But it’s such a short time that they’re babies — appreciate this moment, because before you know it, they’ll be in senior school.”