PETE SNODDEN

Cool FM presenter Pete Snodden (38) lives in Bangor with wife Julia (38) and daughters Ivana (7) and Elayna (4). He says:

Every day is Valentine’s Day! But since the kids came along, you get to a point where you get a Marks & Spencer meal deal for two and the kids will get a treat. We haven’t been out for Valentine’s Day in years.

When it comes to a meal deal for two, it’s got to the point where you think, ‘That’s great value, why don’t we buy two and put one in the freezer for a later date?’.

I suppose that deep down I’ve always been one for surprising Julia, my wife, be it on holidays or at our engagement — deep down I would be a romantic.

Before the kids came along, we would have had people come up to look after the kids while we went out for dinner.

I don’t have a favourite Valentine’s Day, but we would have made the effort and gone to our favourite restaurant or tried somewhere new.

It’s not that it’s just another day now, but I’d much rather go out for a meal on a Saturday night and have the kids looked after — you don’t have to get up for work the next day. I suppose it depends what way Valentine’s Day falls. We don’t make a big deal of it — like, ‘It’s Valentine’s Day — we must do A, B, C and D’.

Love is the greatest gift. My family means everything. I remember when Julia was pregnant with our first child, and a friend said, ‘Nothing will prepare you for the love that it brings’. That was so true.”