All mums face the same difficulties. It helps people feel less alone by talking about it

MUM’S THE WORD FOR GIOVANNA FLETCHER AS SHE TALKS TO MARION McMULLEN ABOUT TAKING A REALITY CHECK ON BEING A PARENT

How do you and your husband (McFly’s Tom Fletcher) manage with three young boys?

I ALWAYS wanted children. (Laughs) I thought I’d be a mix of Maria from The Sound Of Music and the Oxo mum and it turned out I was neither. Reality is so different.

People without children have so much energy and I think ‘that used to be me’.

What is family life like?

VERY busy. Three children is a lot; it’s a lot of kids, but they are all different personalities.

Buzz (aged three) is the sensitive one and he loves to do shows for us and things like that.

Buddy (aged five) is more boisterous and is always raring around and baby Max is a little Buddha. He’s happy all the time. He sees what his brothers are doing and is starting to copy them. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but they learn from each other.

They love bedtime stories. It rounds off the day nicely. Buzz has now started to read the bedtime story. It’s very cute and lovely.

What is the biggest challenge?

I WOULD say sleep deprivation is the most challenging thing. I was getting five hours a day but getting lots done.

I was writing until midnight or one in the morning and then the boys would be up early.

Then we went on holiday and I started getting seven or eight hours sleep and now I can’t get back to that rhythm of so little sleep.

I now try and get to bed about 11-ish and get up about six-ish.

At the moment the boys are going to bed about seven and I get guilt-free time, especially time for writing the books.

You’re a writer, podcaster, presenter, YouTuber, mother and wife. Do you and Tom manage to find time for yourselves?

NOT enough I would say. As soon as the boy are asleep, we might watch something or just chat and have a late night snack ... things like that.

At the moment that’s enough, but it would be nice to step it up and do a few more things in the future.

You both write the Eve Of Man books together. How does that work?

THE idea for the trilogy came before the first book was even published.

We played around with how the book would develop and decided to write it together and it follows the point of view of two different characters.

It’s amazing to write together and we bounce ideas off each other. We often surprise each other. We’ll read something and say ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe what you did’.

The next book in the series will be out next April.

Your UK tour Happy Mum, Happy Baby Live follows the success of your book and podcast of the same name and various guests like Jamelia, actress and podcaster Rosie Ramsey and Corrie’s Helen Flanagan will be joining you at various points on the tour. How did it all come about?

I WAS writing books, writing fiction books, and I decided to write a firsthand account of what it meant to be a new mum.

There was so much at the time about this image of striving for perfection – about getting it right all the time.

I wanted to write about the things I felt and then the podcast came along and I invited people to come along and talk.

It’s non-judgemental, supportive and empowering. Last year I took it on stage in London with Katie Piper and some other guests and it went well.

I can’t wait for the tour. It means more access to more people and every night there will be a different guest as well.

It’s just realising mums all face the same difficulties – trying to get your children to get their shoes on in the morning or brush their teeth. I think it helps people feel less alone by talking about it all.

It can be isolating going through motherhood and it is so important having that support.

Social media gets a massive bashing, but I found it to be such a supportive environment. You don’t feel quite so alone.

The biggest person judging you is yourself. I want every single person who comes along to the tour to leave being empowered and not to feel that they are the only one.

You have featured some heartbreaking stories on the podcast. Is it hard to stay detached? I HAVE cried so many times. Davina McCall was talking about how she never cries on TV because it is the people’s moment, their story. I thought ‘right, that’s so cool. I’ll channel Davina’ and I just didn’t. I completely failed.

I cannot help myself. Even the positive stories make me go and I’m howling into the mic. What the best advice you would give a new mum?

FOLLOW your own instincts.

HAPPY Mum, Happy Baby Live is touring the UK. For details go to gigsandtours.com, seetickets. com or ticketmaster.co.uk

I always wanted children. I thought I’d be a mix of Maria from The Sound Of Music and the Oxo mum and it turned out I was neither. Giovanna says she had unrealistic expectations of parenthood

Giovanna Fletcher has three sons with her husband, Tom Fletcher of McFly (right)