PAULETTE AND GARRY NOTT
Parents of 4, including Caleb and Georgia Nott — AKA Broods
Paulette: There is a lot of intrinsic musicality in the children. I can think of one instance when we were just walking to our gate when Georgia would have been maybe 2. She could hardly speak. And there was a big truck idling outside our house and she just started moving, dancing to the idling of the truck, the “chugga chugga chugga” of the truck and said, “Mummy, music!” And Caleb naturally would do the air guitar thing. Garry ended up making him a little plywood guitar-shaped thing.
Other children would come home and watch Barney or whatever after kindy or school, but they would watch Lord of the Dance and prance around and do Irish dancing. Caleb did it at a talent quest when he was 5, his Riverdance routine.
I was involved in the pre-school, going to music sessions, so they would see us playing guitar. But there’s a massive amount that’s just natural. Garry’s dad, in particular, is very musical, my parents were very musical, so it’s hard to draw the line of where does nature become nurture.
Yes, siblings have rivalry and fighting and things like that. But early on, we said it seems to be expected that children will fight but let’s set the expectation that they will be friends. So let’s not accept when they treat each other badly. Let’s not accept when they don’t get on. Let’s nurture the relationship. If they had a fight, I’d send them to their room together. Say, “right, do not come out until you’ve sorted it out, until you’re friends and you’re happy.”
Now they all adore each other, it’s lovely. Caleb doesn’t hero-worship Georgia but he just thinks she’s the bee’s knees. And always has done. Always thought she was the funniest thing, always enjoyed her company, was always inclusive of her. It was never, “I’m the oldest and Georgia Nott and Caleb Nott grew up together and now perform together as Broods. you’ll do as I say.” He’s always admired her. He’s her biggest fan and she’s his biggest fan.
Advice to new parents? Just relax and enjoy them because it’s so short, it really is. Make your children a priority. Nice furniture, having an immaculate house … when you’ve got kids around a) those things are impossible and b) what does it matter?
Garry: We played a lot of guitar at home, we played at church. I think if kids grow up with parents who are musicians, they grow up thinking, “Well it’s in me, it’s gotta be in me.”
We didn’t have a whole lot of other distractions. We were pretty strong on never having any Playstations or X-box. The only thing they could really play around with was a whole lot of instruments. It was never, “Oh these kids have talent, let’s make them practise.”
We just allowed them to go ahead with what their dreams were. One thing we never put pressure on them to do was get a real job. We told them, “No matter what you’re doing, learn something while you’re doing it.”
As a parent, you’ve got to be relaxed. For us, when we had Georgia we thought, “Oh well she’ll be similar to Caleb. She’s actually quite different.” The next one was quite different and the next one was quite different again. I think you’ve just got to go with it. It’s one of those jobs you don’t go off and train for; you fly by the seat of your pants and do the best job you can.
We look at it and think, “Well, what are they like as adults?” They’re doing really well with their music and we’re really proud of them for that. But we are just as proud that they’re actually really good human beings.
Children will fight but let’s set the expectation that they will be friends.