ALL PARENTS WILL RELATE TO ‘BREEDERS’

Any parent who tells you raising kids is easy is lying – or maybe has a staff of nannies at their disposal. But no matter how tough it can get dealing with children, most of us put on a brave face and pretend everything is just fine. Not so on new comedy series Breeders (starts Mon., Mar. 9 at 8.30pm; Fox One), which devotes its first episode to depicting something every parent – nannied or otherwise – will have plenty of experience with: kids who will not go to sleep, no matter what you do.

Watching as married couple Paul (Martin Freeman) and Ally (Daisy Haggard) try to settle their son and daughter throughout the night reminded me that I’m not the only one who has been dragged out of bed countless times to find a dummy, fix the bedclothes, find a dummy again, shut the window, fetch a drink of water and, yes, find another dummy. And however badly I felt I’d dealt with things, Paul shouting and swearing at his kids, and then getting an attack of the guilts, reassured me that parents everywhere have the same struggles. I also picked up a tip – if your child won’t sleep in the middle of the night, try to wear them out with push-ups. Genius.

A realistic comedy in the same vein as Catastrophe and The Letdown, Breeders doesn’t shy away from showing the challenges of parenthood – from losing your sense of self as somebody else’s needs come first to the frustration you can feel when your kids will not be quiet for just one second.

But the series is not only about coping with difficult children. Episode 2 touches on parent-teacher interviews, what to look for in a school and the hate you can feel for seemingly perfect parents. Paul and Ally say things we all think but don’t often dare speak out loud, and it is so nice to hear a character speak truthfully about the infinite number of decisions and responsibilities a parent faces every single day. And how sometimes you just want to sleep. •