The Wiggles | Parents discuss taking toddlers to live shows

Have you taken your children to the theatre, to see musicals, a concert, ballet, or a kids' show? This is the one where Emma and Elliot chat about The Wiggles: what we enjoy as parents and taking a baby & toddler to various stage shows, inlcuding conversation about... The Bluey Live Show, Musicals at Disneyland Paris, a performance for children by Northern Ballet, In the Night Garden live show, and of course The Wiggles UK tour! Some top tips from us on taking under 5s to see shows. Plus tangents on our favourite Wiggles songs, shows we saw as kids, future plans, and general chit-chat about the theatre.

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Unwind on sleepless nights to a wholesome mix of parenting stories, quirky humour, and cosy crafting. We’re not here to provide answers but to share our experiences, explore how parenting has changed, and build an online community of parents for mutual support.

A fun, honest and unscripted conversation between Emma and Elliot on non-judgemental parenting and millennial-based topics, as we relax on an evening attempting an artistic or creative activity. 

We are a project in partnership with The Kairos Movement and supported by The Methodist Church, of which The Kairos Movement is a part

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:45 Parenting Achievements
• 6:35 The Wiggles
• 18:40 Live Shows with kids
• 31:05 The Wiggles UK Tour
• 45:00 Our upbringing & the theatre
• 55:00 Top tips & ending

Transcript

 So Emma, what are we talking about today? Today we're talking about taking Toddlers Tour live performances and shows.

This episode is called The Wiggles

Sh. Get ready to wiggle. Welcome back to this cozy corner of the internet where we chat about parenting with babies and toddlers. Join us in the expanded, impressive, what was I gonna say? Could see you struggling new and improved blanket tent canopy. Pull up a beanbag of, uh. Hope a bean, a be a beanbag of sleepless nights.

And wrap yourself in a cover and don't fall asleep. It's a new series. Yay. Yay. Oh, we should introduce ourselves. Uh, we intro. Oh, we introduce ourselves. Introduce, just gonna go. Well, isn't it? If you're new here and don't have a clue who these little voices in your head are. Yep. Um, uh, we are the crippin. We are.

Um, I'm Elliot. I, I was gonna say he's Elliot, the big Crippin. I'm Emma, the media crippin, and we have two small crippin as well. Yeah. Well, with without further ado, let's, uh. Into some getting into some chatting. Yeah. Our very professional amateur podcast.

Bing. Well, before we go any further, that means we have to do our parenting achievement section, parenting achievement time. I'm really trying to get this to be the thing. Uh, it's a little bit where we just, uh, tell a funny story about a parenting fail or relatable moment at the beginning of the show.

What parenting achievement have you unlocked this week? Do you have any stories? I'm trying to think. It's probably a lot. It's been a while since we recorded, so I've, uh, I've got a few backed up. Oh, yes. I think I made a list. You know, that's, which is rather organized of me, isn't it? Mm-hmm. There's people say there surprise in my own voice that I might have made a list.

There's always things that go wrong, isn't there? Trouble is we forget. There's so many things. Uh, so we often note them down so we can remember for the podcast. Oh, yes, I've got a good one. You got a good one. Yeah. Paint the scene, Emma. What's happening? It's not, well, it's kind of a fail, but it's not really our fault or anybody else's fault.

We played some kind of game and she said to Elliot, she was going, you, and then she was said. Bugger. Now, if you are not British, might not be a swear word where you are. Mm. Here. And I was like, what did you call daddy? She's going, ha ha ha. Bugger, bugger, bugger. And I was like, and where did you learn that word from?

And then she went, bluey what? Bluey. So then she was like, you know, bandit says it. We've discovered. I'm not sure how they say it 'cause I'm not Australian, but it's like booga. Yeah. Yeah. But you know the thing of your knows. Yeah. Like bogies. Really? Yeah. Bogies. That's what we call 'em. Bogies. Yeah. And I keep trying to help her pronounce it, not so it's not an offensive word.

Yeah. Um. I dunno. I'm getting through to her. No, she just knows. It's funny. Yeah. Well she could be saying worse words. It's not too nice. It's quite an old fashioned swear word. Yes. It's quite old fashioned. I just worry. She goes in public around you bugger. I think it'd be more funny if she used it in context and would like if she like did something wrong, was going, oh bugger.

I feel like a person could be a bugger. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's kind of in context. I don't think people would take too much offense. Yeah. I though I just feel like it could be embarrassing. I still, I mean, now we've figured it out though. I've, I'm thinking back to the situation. Why was she calling me bogies?

Why was she saying. What, what, what? Oh, I'm taking a offense all over again. What? You must have thought it was funny. Mm. That's it. It's funny. Um, uh, story from me. Uh, we got one for each child. Uh, so we've got something for the big one and the little one. Yep. Uh, so a story for the little one who is about eight months.

Yeah. I dunno when it was or whatever. So it doesn't really matter, does it? Right. They don't know. Yeah. Lying. They don't dunno. It was yesterday. Sure. Go. We go with that. You normally do a lot of the nighttime, but in this instance you'd left me with the baby in the bed I think. 'cause Lily had called you Lily from her bed.

Li wanted one me to go in her bed. Yeah. You'd gone and lied in her bed. And uh, I was gonna say, I wasn't sat enjoying myself. Don't you guys worry. Um, I'm a fairly. Deep sleeper. Mm-hmm. Um, so I had the baby with me in the bed. She's doing better recently going in the car, but she has actually since, since that incident, she's been much better.

We do do a bit of co-sleeping. Um, and I woke up in the morning about six o'clock, um, which normally when all the kids wake up, yeah. Um, and I looked over and I couldn't see her. I was like, where's she gone? I didn't immediately panic 'cause I thought, oh, maybe Emma's come to get her. Maybe she, you know, whatever.

Yeah. Um, and then I peered over the side of the bed and she was sat on the floor. Uh, I think she was playing with. Like, um, one of your like sanitary towels Oh, yes. Was beside the bed, but you just sat, sat down there quite happily just playing not a used one, just for people know. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.

I'm just very prepared for periods, so I always some at the wedding. Mm-hmm. Um, and I was like, well, how, how did you get down there? So at some point you must have like, fallen off the side of the bed or crawled off the side of the bed. Yeah. And but didn't seem to injure herself. Wasn't bothered by it.

Didn't shout, didn't cry. No. Didn't wake me up. Didn't just was like, okay, I'll sit down here and play for myself. This shows a difference with mommy and daddy because when Lola wakes up, if mommy's in the bed, she just starts attacking my face till I wake up. Whereas clearly with you, she was like, I'm, I'm just gonna go explore.

I'll leave him in the bed. So who knows what happens. Not, not the best moment. No, not, not our proudest. Yeah. Not, not a great thing. Uh, but, you know, this is what we like to admit these things on the podcast show. We're not perfect. Parents write into the show if these are relatable or you, if you have your own stories.

I mean, you don't have to shame yourself if you don't wanna.

Okay. Well go deal with that poo explosion first, and then come back and chat with us all about our topic for today. So we've actually done quite a lot of live show type. Yeah, true. We're gonna talk a lot about The Wiggles 'cause that's a, a good one. Yeah. Um, I think a lot of people might enjoy hearing about that, so we'll focus that.

But there, there's some other stuff we're gonna mention as well. But let's talk generally a little bit about the Wiggles first opening question for you, Emma. Who is your favorite wiggle? I like Simon. Why'd you say that? So like, uh, as if that's gonna be an unpopular answer, I know it'll be an unpopular answer because, um, I'm wanna, this is how Geek Am I'm on like an a, a wiggle fan Facebook group.

Oh, right. So you are like, you're an actual fan. I'm, I'm like a super fan. Um, I would say I have a passing interest, but that's not someone who has a passing interest, is it? Um. And I think he was one of the least favorites, and I was like, oh, no, he is my favorite. So I think it will be unpopular. I don't know if people think he's like, I don't know, a bit dull, but I like him.

I like his voice when he sings. He's got a good operatic voice. He does. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do, do you wanna ask me the question who I, I thought you were gonna ask, who is your favorite wiggle? Um. Probably L now. Now this is, it's pronounced lack lacky. Yeah. But it sounds like lucky. Yes. It, especially in a Australian accent.

Yeah. Because like for ages, we've thought his name was lucky a long time. His name was lucky. Yeah. And then, and then like sometimes it popped up on the screen. Yeah. And we were like, and we were like, was that's how you spell it? We're like, Hmm, it's not the name we thought it was. Yeah. Anyway, that one, the blue one.

He's purple. Oh, you're right, you're right. You can cut that bit out. Do you wanna try that again? Elliot? Do future. Don't make me look like an idiot. I'll probably end up leaving it in. Do you wanna try again? Oh, what color is he? The blue purple one blue one. I like the Tree of wisdom too, though. He's fun.

Yeah. Yeah. We should clarify also, 'cause there's been like many different generations. Oh yeah. Iterations of Wiggles. True. Uh, so they are from, I suppose, current and previous. You see what I mean? That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Like they've both been there a long time now because we basically started watching them when Lily was first little.

Yeah. So like, and that's when three, so that's And the wiggle was a wiggle. Yeah. So they had Emma, lucky Simon and Mr. Maine. Wiggle Anthony. Anthony, how do you say his name? I call him Anthony. Mm. I think that's what they say. I think they say Anthony. Oh, do they? Oh, I think. See we're showing how little we know about The Wiggles.

We can't even pronounce any of their names. Well, I think it's like an Australian English though. We, we have slightly different words. Oh, you think that's just an Australian pronunciation? Yeah. Oh. Or maybe that's the pronunciation they favor compared to us. Mm-hmm. So that's kind of when we properly got into it.

So yeah, we didn't really grow up with original Wiggles. No. I knew, I know they are very popular. Were very popular and I, I knew they existed, like I saw, um, adverts for them, but I never, we never watched them. Mm. I suppose some of that's down to like a generational thing. Like back then you'd have have to have like, I don't know, gone to a show, bought a dv like a tape.

Yeah. Like bought a tape or something. 'cause I don't know if they're on tv. Whereas these days you just watch 'em on YouTube. But yeah, I dunno how everyone else finds them, but like, they just popped up on YouTube for us. Yeah. True. Um, although we're a big fan of the original classic Wiggles, uh Oh yeah, because we watched that documentary about them.

We did. Mm-hmm. We really enjoyed this. It was fascinating documentary. Yeah. Yeah. I highly recommend it. What was it? Was it on Prime or something? It was on Prime, yeah. Yeah. I don't know what's called. Um, well, there'll only be one wiggle documentary, I'd imagine. I can't imagine there's light. It's probably called like The Wiggles.

Yeah. Probably like the wiggle story or something, but then there's the like new, new iteration. Yeah. Since Emma Wiggle left. Yes. Well there's a lot of 'em now. Yeah. Yeah. They've expanded. There's uh, Lucia, who is Anthony's daughter. Yeah. Saha is Saha. Mm-hmm. I actually really like Saha. Yeah. Yeah. Um. And then what, who else is that?

Oh, Katerina. But she was kind of a wiggle ish. She was like choreographer before. Yeah. And now one of the main, one of the main, main crew. Yeah. Um, and there's big strong John. Oh yes. I forgot he existed. Come on. You gotta represent the women of the No, no. That's why I'm surprised. I forgot he existed. Well, yeah.

Can't forget Big strong John. So I feel like, I feel like I might be missing somewhere. Are we missing? That's all. No, we're miss, uh oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's another girl, um, who wears yellow. Yeah. She's, um, what's it called? Is it, am I, am I gonna butcher this as well? Is she aboriginal? She is like part of our aboriginal, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Um. Because that's why she has two colors on her skirt. Is she Evie Ferris? Oh, she's Evie. Yeah. There you go. That was, uh, I Googled it, but you don't know that 'cause you're listening to it. But Evie, well, and Wag the dog and Dinosaur and Captain, captain Feather sword. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's like lots of supporting people in there.

Yeah, that's true. I don't, they're not really wiggles. They, I mean, captain Feather swords been in it since the beginning. Yeah, that's true. So I suppose he should really be a, an honorary wiggle. He just doesn't have a color. Yes, that's true. True. I don't count him as a main wiggle. No, I know what you mean.

And of course, Dorothy, the dinosaur true, is like kind of a main part of it. Yeah. Um, yeah. I suppose that's from our perspective, um, from the kids' perspective. Uh, Lily was a big fan. Yeah. Um, I'm trying to remember, like before we get on to talking about the show and stuff, I think her favorite was Emma Wiggle.

Really her favorite was Emma Wiggle and now it's. Um, Anthony Wiggle and it's interesting 'cause they've just got, they've got so many songs. Yeah. You know, like we were chatting with, uh, your sister Kirsty Yes. And Sophie being into The Wiggles. And often we, we have completely different favorite songs. Yeah, true.

And like, don't, don't even know. I haven't heard of like, even read that the one, it is like, there's different like pockets of YouTube. 'cause I feel like YouTube just recommends them to you. Yeah, it's true. Or you see them on like a playlist or something. I'm like, I dunno how. There's still many, many videos and songs that we've Yeah.

Still never seen. There's just so much content. They've just got, yeah. They were such a huge catalog of songs. Mm-hmm. And then they redo them with like the new wiggles and, yeah. Uh, do you have a favorite wiggle song? I like Rocker by Your Bear. Uhhuh Uhhuh. Is that, that's a, like a wiggle specific song, isn't it?

Yeah. So it's not like a think so I think they made that. Yeah. You know, 'cause they also do covers of like lullaby. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Nursery rips. I have two favorites, obviously. Big fan favorite. Um, what's the, like the, the one with the tree? The bogged down in the valley. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that a, is that an actual song?

That's an Irish song. That's an Irish song. We had to sing it at school. Oh really? Yeah. Oh wow. Did you That's No, no, no. We, I dunno why we never, we never really sang the songs at school choir other than like, you know, like hymn assembly, like choir practice. But like we had singing at school and we had, that was one of 'em we had to do.

Oh, weird. Yeah. Or maybe that's very normal. I'm the weird one. Who knows? Is it, it was like, it's an odd choice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but to be fair, it's not 'cause I like that song, it's just 'cause I like how into it the tree gets. Yeah, that's true. Um, again, real shame. I have no idea what the, the actor guy's name is.

I know he's related to one of the old Wiggles. He's one of their nephews. Oh, is he? That's nice. Yeah. But yeah, it's just very funny to watch. Mm-hmm. It is. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He's got an album out. Has he just by himself? Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. The, yeah, the, the tree. Yeah. Yeah. As the tree like yesterday or something.

It came out as a tree album. Great. Um, but my actual favorite, um, of the songs again, um, I don't think it's actually a wiggle written song. Um, is the tap. Yeah. That one. That's favorite. See, now I keep bringing up things I don't know how to say and pronounce. Why do I keep doing this? Like, I really should have practiced all these words beforehand.

Not so when you look at me, I thought, I don't even know what it's called. Experi. So I think it's just called tap. Yeah, yeah. Now that's, is that an original, uh, um, what's the word? Uh, uh, Aboriginal. Yes. Like an Australian like song. I don't know if it is 'cause I remember. No, no, no. Doesn't I remember we looked up.

Doesn't it come from one of the islands? Yeah. Yeah, it does. But I think like this, the way they sing it isn't probably the way it would've been sung. Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I just find it very relaxing. It's just like, no, it is very relaxing. Really nice little, little tune, little actions with it. And do we wanna say, what is Lily's favorite song?

Hmm? What is Lily's favorite song? Hot potato. Uh, hot potato. Hmm. Although when she was younger, I think she really enjoyed the, um, hokey pokey. Hokey pokey. Which again, another controversial thing here. 'cause we're British. Yeah. We call it the hokey pokey. Yeah. Like what are you doing wiggles. It's not hokey pokey, but it means now Lily's like hokey pokey, but Lily's now like the hokey pokey Lily lily.

It's hokey pokey. Okay. I know, babe. It's too late now. I was surprised even at the wiggle show. I was like, are they gonna amend the words to like being No. They kept with hokey. Yeah. Pokey. Hokey pokey. Now the trouble is, 'cause I watch we, we do watch The Wiggles quite a lot. Um, my, my brain can't, I, I, I pause 'cause I'm like, is it Hoey Pokey?

Is it Hoey Pokey? I don't know anymore that I've been ConEd calmed when I first saw it, I thought maybe for years I'd just sang it wrong. Yeah. Yeah. We done, and then we were like Googling because it's like gaslighting us because we were going because. Is it just like a regional thing? Oh well, oh no. It's a country divide rather than like, I was just assuming fear we'd been singing the wrong song.

Just that beforehand. I forgot how big fandoms are. Like, like the wiggle kind of fan base. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah, like. I see them as these and, and I know, I know other people know the wiggles are huge. Mm. But to me, I was like, oh, these like little quirky Australians. Yeah. Yeah. We found 'em on YouTube. Figured we rather, they're quite far.

Like I, they knew they were thing years ago, but to me they seem like more like a, 'cause they are homegrown. Yeah. It didn't seem like a as big a thing. Mm. Um, but they've got tons of fans. Yeah. Yeah. Big following. I suppose there's a lot of adults who grew up with them when they were kids. Yeah, true. And so then, you know, introduce their kids to them again.

But anyway, our conversation today is really, you know, it's parenting. It's about kids. We should really stop talking about our love of the Wiggles and really get onto how it relates to babies and toddlers.

We'll be back to the conversation in a sec, but just at the moment, if you really like this podcast, how can you support the show? Well, step one, complete. Thank you for listening, or however you've consumed this, uh, this content. Tick. Good, great job. You've done it. Here's my little blurb. Uh, step two of course is tell other people to listen.

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But anyway, if you do, you can find all the links in the obvious spots. I'm sure you can find it. Just, you know, tap, tap with your little finger, however you're listening or you know. Yeah, it's probably on a phone, let's be honest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh, do all that stuff. That'd be great. In the meantime, let's get back to the conversation.

Yep. Off we go.

So live shows, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the first thing we took Lily to when she was little, and this is maybe not quite, I mean it's, yeah, I dunno. It sort of falls into this charact category. It was like a music type festival. Green belt. Oh yeah, that's true. Yeah. When she was about one-ish.

Yeah, about one. Yeah. Um. So it was like there was live show type stuff there. Yeah. But it was after it was the bubble man. Yeah. It was at a festival type thing. Yeah. True. Yeah. Um, I mean, Greenbelt is not like a typical music festival, so it is more like family friendly and Yeah. You know, orientated towards being accessible and no, Lily really enjoyed it.

They had the man who taught you like bang banga dance. Oh yeah. Um, she enjoyed that. Um, I don't think we've taken her to any other like festivals since really? It was quite expensive, but we'd won tickets. Mm, that's true. Um, so I think that was the main factor why we were able to go. Mm, that's true. Not our usual scene particularly.

No, not, not special. Although we had a good time. Oh yeah. I enjoyed it. Um, so yeah, that just happened to be something we went to when Lily was quite young. Yeah. Um, the next thing again is, uh, again, in that kind of music category and maybe slightly different from being a. Kid show, but I thought we should talk a little bit, um, because we didn't take Lily to this, but Eurovision.

Oh, yes. Yeah. Um, so we went, when Eurovision came to Liverpool, we did, um, we're quite big Eurovision fans. Yeah. Um, and so it's another, like, it's a live show. Yeah. Um, I mean it's really for adults, not kids. Yeah. But we did go with our friends and they did take their baby. They did take their baby. Yeah. Um, I'm trying to remember how old Grace was.

Hmm. I would say about seven months, but I could be way off. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I was really impressed. I was very impressed that they taken her and that they managed and yeah. Yeah. Ugh. I think we made the right decision not to take Lily. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, it quite loud home steps and stuff and I, I just don't think she'd have coped that day.

Yeah. Um, so not a lot to talk about there, but there are obviously live things we've been to where we haven't taken the kids. Yes. Yeah. A number of that you've been to quite a few, like theater performances and shows, London shows. Well, I think that's why I like to share my love with Lily. So like if people dunno, I've been to um, see two Studio Ghibli shows.

That are now in the theaters. So, and it's my neighbor Toro and, um, spirited Away. Mm-hmm. I've also been to see Andre Ru, I think his name is pronounced, uh, not Rio. No. Also at Liverpool. Oh yes. Yeah. In the same venue. Yeah. So my sister was very impressed 'cause I could take a street there 'cause I knew where I was going.

Um, I don't think I've seen too many other shows, but. I'm more into that kind of, yeah, I think that's probably it, but I suppose it does help, uh, give context, doesn't it? Like why, why we're taking our kids to shows. Not just because they enjoy it, but actually is the sort of thing that we like to do as well.

Yeah, true. And hopefully as they get older, then the type of content we go and see might slowly change to be like stuff we all enjoy. Yeah, true. Um. Not to say that we didn't enjoy like the wiggle show or anything else we've been to. Um, the next one is very specifically something we did go see for the kids, which was we went to see the Live Bluey show.

You did, but there is one before that, technically. Oh, have I missed one? Yeah, but you weren't there, so that's why. Oh no. What is, tell me When me and Lily went to Disneyland by ourselves. Oh, of course. We went and Sure. Kin the Magician. Mm. And that was a really good show in Disneyland. Paris. In Disneyland, Paris.

I'm very aware, yes. We often mention Disneyland and we very rarely clarify that. We mean Disneyland, Paris. No, we, we've never been to America. Yes. So it'll never be the American one, but yes. In the park at Paris. Yes. They do shows all the time, don't they? They do, yeah. They also have like the Lion King shows.

There's, there's a, um, a few of them, but there's even a frozen show now at the minute, so that'd be good to go to. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so Lily saw that and she really enjoyed that. I can't remember when it was, but ages ago on one of the podcast episodes, we, we talked about your trip to Disneyland. Mm. Um, when you went by yourself with, with Lily.

Yes. Yeah. But like for a work thing. So it was at Christmas. Yeah. Blah, blah, blah. You can go and research that if you want. You can go. Yeah. Yeah. But, but it was really good and she enjoyed that show a lot. How old was she then? I think she was two. About about two. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, so that's when I think as a toddler.

It became a lot more realistic. Yeah, I mean, it is a double edged short sword, isn't it? Where it felt like. The world was opening up in terms of she has an interest, she enjoys seeing things. She can sit and watch it for quite a while, but as a toddler you never quite know. Yeah. Is she gonna throw a tantrum?

Yeah. True. How Like maybe we could last half an hour, but like an hour or a two hour show. That doesn't seem feasible. Yeah, true. How old? How long was the one at Disneyland? I think it was 45 minutes, I think. Or half an hour. 'cause obviously they have a quick turnover before the next people come in for the show.

Yeah. So it's not like a full show. No. Um, but that's, that's like a really convenient thing for when you got little kids. Oh, it was, yeah. And I liked it 'cause it was in French and English, so we gotta hear both and mm. Lily loved it anyway because Elsa turns up at one point. Yeah. She recognized the characters and they have like songs from Beauty and the Beast.

It's. Just a recommendation. If anyone goes, it's great. 'cause they like key songs from each film. Really? Mm. So it means you get to hear a lot of them almost musical numbers from all of them. Yeah. Yeah. Next time we go, I'm excited to, to see it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Nice. Um, so where were we? That that was that and then Yeah, the Bluey show.

Yeah. So that came after that. Did it? That that was in, around a few months later. Yeah. Yeah. And we went with our, our friends again, um, and the same friends we went to your origin with. Yeah. And saw, uh, bluey. That was really good. That was really good. So we went to, we went to Nottingham for that, didn't we?

Yes. I mean it, again, it's aimed at families and young kids. Yeah. So it's like really good with the big puppets. Um, it's not too long. Not too long Now. Again, I can't remember. Probably like Yeah, 40 minutes, was it? Yeah. Something. Something like that. Yeah. And it's good 'cause it's like not a repeat of. Show it's its own story.

Yeah, yeah. But clearly, you know, I was very impressed that it really embodied the values and vibe of the show. It didn't feel like a cash grab. Yeah, it's true. It didn't feel like, oh, it is just, we'll do something that's vaguely similar. It's got the characters, but no, it actually felt like its own bluey episode.

Yes. With a story. That could easily, it could easily have been like an un, you know, an unpublished episode that they turned into a i, my theory is that's what it was. Mm. Because I think it fit so well with the storyline of, and of course, padded out with. Like moments within the story that are obvious, like Easter eggs and throwbacks to like favorite scenes and episodes that are just like for parents watching.

Absolutely. Wonderful. Yeah. And then the kids love it. 'cause like it's quite interactive. There's like bubbles and lots going on on stage. Yeah. And Lily loved the whole thing, didn't she? Yeah. Well like Lily's a funny one, isn't she? Because in the moment. With this and so many other things. When it's something new, she'll sit there and her face is very stoic.

Yes. She'll just be watching really intently. Yeah. And, and you, in your head you're going, I dunno if she loves it or not. Yeah. Like, I can't talk and often be asking like, are you okay? You having fun? You enjoying it? And she go, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But then afterwards, yeah. Loved it. Yeah. Could, can't stop talking about it, hear about it.

But in the moment she's just so focused. Yeah. She's like, I wanna absorb all of this. Um, so yeah. Very. Funny. It's just like a bit disconcerting. So I remember we did end up buying a very expensive balloon on our way out. That's it. We'll come to that again. I think that topic. Yeah. But like merchandise at these things.

Yeah. They know they've got a, like a sitting duck. Well, it was a clever audience. It clever because it wasn't even bluey selling them. Yeah. It was like he was a A street vendor. Yeah. But it was clever. Yeah. He had all the bluey balloons. He did. Yeah. Yeah. But what I really like about these types of shows, same with the Wiggles, is, you know.

It feels very relaxed. You know, everyone there has kids. Yeah. It's aimed at families. There's a lot of toddlers there. There's a lot of younger siblings come, so like you don't worry too much if your kid does have a tantrum. Yeah. If you have to leave, if they make a lot noise or like if you have to get off up and be like, oh, they need the toilet now.

Yeah. Nobody's gonna go oh's in the middle of a performance. Yeah, yeah. Because they know kids can't wait like, Hmm. Nobody's bothered. Yeah. So that's really good. I, I really like that. It makes it a lot more manageable Yeah. And achievable to go to something. It's just a shame there's not more things like that in a way.

'cause you know, obviously, I dunno, I think there probably is not more nowadays than there has ever been before though. Mm-hmm. I mean, we live in fairly rural Yorkshire, um, like we're not inner city. We, it's not. Super easy to get to London. So like Yeah, true. The options available to us. Oh yeah. For musical stuff on More limited, yeah.

I suspect there probably is stuff that's going on, but like we rely on traveling shows, you know, stuff that comes around the country. Both, yeah. Things that Tour. Yeah. Both Bluey and the Wiggles were examples of that. Yeah. That were like big franchises that traveled round and did a tour. I dunno if you're going onto it, but me and Lily went to see, um.

That, um, Northern Ballet Performance for Children. Yep. That's next on my show. Oh, right on my list. Next on my show. Next on next on the the running order. Yeah, go on then. Tell us about that. Um, so, well, I was gonna say that was at Rigu. That was really nice. So we could just get like the bus into town and see.

So what, do you wanna explain what it was you went to see? Um, so technically it's like the Northern Ballet, but they have, I think it's like Junior Northern Ballet or something. So it's for children's shows. Mm-hmm. Um, and. It's meant to be Hansel and Gretel, but be honest, it doesn't really follow the storyline of Hansel and Gretel.

Yeah. Um, and the most memorable bit for Lilly was that there's a big rubbish monster. 'cause it had a lot of like environmental themes and then the rubbish monsters keeps following Hansel and Grettel because of course we all know that very memorable character, the rubbish monster. In the story of Hansel and Gretel.

I hope that of course afterwards be like, well, thank goodness she doesn't know the story of Hansel and Gretel. 'cause she wouldn't have recognized it. Yeah. At this point Lily was three in a bit. Yeah. Um, so again, she was a lot more capable of sitting through a performance. Yeah. Um, I mean, the downside was.

Lily had started doing ballet. Um, if you, a long time listener of the podcast, you know, Lily's like a big fan of ballet now. Oh, I loves ballet. Uh, and so this was a big selling point. 'cause you were like, let's go watch. Let's go watch the ballet. Ballet, go see a ballet. Ballet. Um, of course, in Lily's mind, she was imagining like a very traditional ballerina.

Yes. In like a, I dunno, a pink dress. Yeah. With a tutu. That's not like they were trying to make it suitable for children. That's why. So there was less of that. Yes. That's why her favorite character is like this. Spirit of the forest, who was once again that famous character from SEL and Gretel, the spirit of the forest.

Who was that? Oh, yes, of course. From Hansel and Gretel. Um, it was like a lady who are, uh, a green tutu and she looked the most classically like a ballerina. Mm. Um, so Lily like. Loved it when she came on and thank goodness she happened to seem to be a main character throughout. Because I remember the start being like, oh, I dunno if Lily's gonna enjoy this.

Yeah. Like, but terms that her favorite, uh, character was the rubbish monster. Yeah. She still talks about it to this day. Still talks. This is, it's so nice though. That's something we went to see so long ago. It is still so like prominent in her mind. It's funny, isn't it? 'cause in some ways. You know, it is not that different from stuff we watch on tv.

You know, it's a story told through a visual medium. True. But like, it is so impactful and memorable to her to see these things live. True. Um, it, it clearly makes a big impression. Yeah. And whilst they can be quite expensive Mm. Um, they, they have been like some really. Important things. And like it created some great memories and like as us as family activities, they've been really good.

And as we say, we, we enjoy doing them ourselves. So we, yeah, finding things to take the kids to is, is great. Um,

let's talk about the wiggle show then. Oh, yeah. Um, so this one. Was something we became aware of first as parents, because obviously we're super fans. Clearly. Although, yeah. You know, I remember, I think me and Kirsty were messaging because Kirsty was like, have you seen There's a show they're coming to the uk.

Uk they're coming to the uk. That great excitement in house. Yeah. The Wiggles are coming. They're coming, coming. They haven't come in years. No. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so like, we booked it what, like a year in advance? Oh yeah. And the tickets went super fast. Really? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, really convenient for us.

They came to York. Yeah. So very nearby. Didn't have to travel far at all. No, very handy. Um, I dunno about you, but my biggest concern was at this point, Lily was three and a half. Yeah. She's all, we, we hadn't watched The Wiggles in a while. Yeah. She's all grown out of the Wiggles. Yeah. Like she watched other stuff.

Like when we stuff like when we booked it, she'd really, really keen. Yeah. And by the time we go to it, I think it was like a month before we were like, uh, when was the last time we listened to a wiggle song? Like it wasn't one of her favorite things to watch anymore. So like yeah, we did like have to reintroduce her to it in the run up to the show.

Um, I must say, since she's now like really a big fan, commit, wiggle fan for life now. Mm. But um, she was so sweet though. She was like, I was like, who is your favorite wiggle? And she was like, I like the blue one, because he's like, granddad, I thought it was so sweet. They're like her favorite one. He looks a bit like granddad.

Yeah. I like him. I mean, she often thinks that a lot of old men look like grandads. True. Like on both sides. Granddad and papa. Yeah. Yeah. True. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. Uh, the particular excitement with this one of course is that we went with her cousin Sophie. Yes. And your sister, who's one, one of her and her husband Rob.

Yeah. We went as two families. Yeah. That makes very interactive, isn't it? Yeah, it's great. It's a real, like, it's a really fabulous example of how. It doesn't feel like you've just come to watch some famous people. Yeah, true. Like it actually feels like they're there to engage with you as an audience. Like they're quite happy to jump off the stage and come into the crowd a lot.

Like they'll come and talk to you, like as they go round, like pick up signs and I mean, maybe you know, all this particular Yeah. You know, but this was like. Yeah. A bit of a surprise to me. Yeah. To us to That was very new. Yeah. Like, and just how friendly they were. Like they, they clearly like are very humble.

Yeah. Yeah. They were very speech. I didn't know if they realize how big they are. Yeah. But like, it was great. Um, yeah. You know, whereas nearly everything else we've been to. You've been quite created, hasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Like obviously the Bluey characters can't get off the stage and come and talk to you.

You, but like it does feel like you're going to watch a performance. You watch the performance and you go, yeah, true. But like the Wiggles almost feels like a community of people who like enjoy this same thing. Bubbles galore. Oh yeah. Shall we talk about merchandise? Let's talk about merchandise. 'cause that's how we get onto the bubbles.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So obviously they, they bring like a little popup shop and sell their own wiggle stuff. Yeah. As you'd expect. Yeah. It is very expensive. Very expensive. Very expensive. Um, uh, big shout out to Kirsty and Rob who bought our stuff for us. Yeah. Because I, I bought, otherwise I would've had to have a lie down.

No. Right. Um, because. When we'd been to see Andre, I'd bought Kirsty's Bear for her. We both got ourselves a bear, right? Yeah. Um, as you do go and see a show as two grown women by yourselves with no kids Yeah. And you bought yourself two soft bears. Yeah. That, you know, that night as well, we called them Elliot and Rob, like that's not weird at all to pretend you're with us.

And we're like, ah, Elliot's really going into the music. I can imagine you both enjoying that joke a lot. Yes, we did. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we had two spare seats beside us. 'cause some people clearly hadn't turned up and we just put them in there like so. They were sat on a seat each, um. Nevermind.

No, that's tap Anyway, side note. But anyway, so, um, you'd bought that and so this was, uh, yeah, so because she was like, well, I'll get this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And little did Chino would be way more expensive than the bear was. So what did we buy? We bought two bubble things. Two bubble ones. So like electric bubble wands?

Yeah, probably what you'd call them. That's what you call 'em. You click a button into the bubbles column. Yeah. Yeah. Not that we don't have many bubble making things at home already. This is good quality though. It's lasted far longer than the other now. Yeah, I must say it's very good and produces a lot of bubbles.

Still a lot of bubbles. But yeah. Um, I can't, was it like 17 pounds or something? It was more than that. Was it? I think she spent like at least. 40 pounds, maybe 50 pounds in, might have been 25. Hopeful. But did they buy anything else with it? Yeah, no. I'm pretty sure she lied to rob about how expensive they were.

So don't let this let catch off because I didn't who were coming from there. And she was like, now how much we say to the men? They were, and then we both went. 17 expensive, but not a third. I see. I mean, it is like, like you say, it's well made, but it is still a bit of plastic that blows bubbles. Yeah, I would, you know, it's like six to 10 pounds.

I feel like It's probably, I think what was hard though, we'd already said to the girls that we getting them. Yeah. Well that's dusts on you. That's your mistake. No, I wasn't gonna get him anything. 'cause I'm like a, he's an old miser. I'm a killjoy. Yeah. I'm like, no, of course we're not buying anything from the show.

Where's that? I'm like, it's the show. We care much. I think it was a good, you know, as an experience and something to talk about. It's a great example because we had like all ages covered to some extent. Yeah, true. You know, we took both kids, so at this point we had. Lola had been born as well. Yeah. So we took Lola, who was four months probably.

Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. Um, and Lily at that point was approaching four, almost four. So yeah. And um, Sophie was almost two. Yeah. So that had a range of ages. Um. But actually went surprisingly well. They did. Yeah. To, you know, take a load of toddlers and a baby. I think like Lily's at a good age because she's quite sensible.

Yeah. I think Sophie's good because she's a huge wiggle fan. Mm-hmm. So like that kept her interest. And I think Lola was a good age 'cause she could sleep through it. Yes. We were worried about this again. It's a bit like the Eurovision conversation about taking a baby to a loud thing. We did what a lot of people do.

Um, and it's highly, you know, we'd highly recommend it as well, which is buy a little pair of headphones. Yeah. Um, took them to try and dampen the noise for us so it wasn't too loud. And I did, we did manage to get her to sleep. We did. Yeah. And she did sleep through most of the show and I held her. He did.

Yeah. Um, and. Yeah, very worried, you know, with lights and noises and all sorts of things. Yeah, sure. Yeah. That she'd be able to sleep, but we did, we went okay. Went okay. Um, I had to go out, you know, a couple of times at various points for things and like had to leave. A bit early. Yeah, I did. You stayed in 'cause she needed to drink and Yeah, it was too distracting and things, so I tried to give her a bottle outside.

Um, and stuff like that. I think we're just lucky sometimes that Lily's very like, um, into shows and I don't, she's got a good attention span. Yeah. And she's very into music. Yeah. Like, like anything musical. She's, you know, I dunno whether it is because she's a girl or just because of her personality and, and who she is.

But you know, I just remember like she's quite able to sit Yeah. And watch something. There was a family behind us who I felt sorry for, I think they had a 6-year-old daughter and she kept hiding under the seat. Oh. And the mom was explaining every time they go to a show, this is her reaction. She gets really excited.

Yeah. And then like as soon as the people come to you just gets overwhelmed. Wow. Okay. And I was thinking that must be such a hard situation because they'll be excited to go to a show. So of course you're gonna go, of course we can go. 'cause you don't wanna deprive them of that. Yeah, yeah. But then when you get there, they're kind of so overwhelmed.

It's just hard. Yeah. Hard for them to like adjust. As parents, we don't always have. The most relaxing time at these things or you know, you're not always doing it for yourself. Often you're taking your child because they want to go and see it. And sometimes it can be challenging and difficult and stressful and, you know, navigating that and, you know, with us having multiple kids there, a baby with us, but like, it was a really good thing to do.

Yeah. And like they, the kids really enjoyed it. You know, sometimes you have to try and just get through it. Yeah. Debated for a long time. Like, you know, which, which time show should we go see? Yeah, yeah. Like what time of day is best? What mode of transport should we take? Do we wanna get there quicker? Or do we want a little adventure?

What do we do like with the rest of the day so that they're not overstimulated or overwhelmed or get there and really tired or, you know, but then also you don't want 'em to be really bored. So we went for a afternoon show, didn't we? We did, yeah. Yeah. Which is actually was a bit of a risk for us. It is.

'cause afternoons are normally when Lily's not the best. Yeah. She gets tired and gets a bit grumpy, can play up and doesn't want to do things. Yeah. Um, you know, often we, we do an activity like first thing on a morning. Yes. And then have a quiet rest of the day. But, so Yeah. But was that purposeful? Was that just 'cause of availability?

I think asked what tickets we could get, I think. Yeah. Constant battle with children, isn't it? It's, you know, it's, yeah. You know, you either trying to, and then I feel like you kind of feel like you know what they're like and then I think they will suddenly change. Mm-hmm. They'll suddenly be like, no, I'm great on an afternoon.

Yeah. Terrible on the morning. Yeah. Like, I'm just waiting for switches to happen. So they just, yeah, it just changes all the time. Keep you on your toes. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, now, like, this wasn't that long ago, this what we're talking about. But you know, Lola's grown an awful Oh yeah. In that timeframe.

So now it would be really difficult for us to go, um, which is bizarre, because actually you think, well, she's older, she's not a baby. Sure. It's easier, but No, because she crawls. Yeah. Yeah. She'd wanna crawl everywhere. She. Tips You wants space and typically, you know, you're sat in a seat. There's very little space.

True. You know, the wiggle show was, was it slightly longer? Was it an hour or was it Yeah, I think it was an hour at least. Yeah. Or was it meant, was it meant to be about 45 minutes? I feel like it went over. It went over, yeah, because it was the last one they were doing. Yeah. Uh, in York and on the whole, in the whole UK tour tour, wasn't it?

Yeah. So, uh, yeah. Well, we'll see. 'cause we've approaching one Got Eagle Pig coming up. Yeah, that's it. That's the next thing to talk about. The, we've got an upcoming show we in a few weeks. Yeah. In the night garden. Yeah. The wiggly ly pickle. Yeah. Lily always calls him eagle wiggle because in his song it's like.

Eagle wiggle. So now this is again, another weird one where, of course Lily's like outgrown the night garden. Yeah. I dunno if she ever really watched the Night Garden, but we've never watched it. Yeah. Um, but we are taking, we are going because of her, you know why we not because of, not because of Lola. Of her.

No. And because literally, so Mommy was on TikTok or something? Yeah, I was on something as you do. Um, and Lily looked over my shoulder and there was an advert for the show. For the night garden. Right. On your phone. On my phone. And Lydia was like, can we go to that? And I was like, you wanna, you wanna go to this?

You went, yeah. I was like, wait, I'll, I'll see where it is. I mean, I don't know. You're not a huge fan of your, I'd really like to go. I was like. Okay. Okay. So I, I started like looking it up and I was like, well, I'll talk to Daddy about, yeah. Anyway, the next day she was like, so are we gonna go to that eagle wiggle show?

And I was like, well, I've looked it up. It is somewhere close-ish. Um, I'm just gonna check. And then we were like, we ask cousin Sophie if she wants to go, 'cause she actually does like, or pickle again. It's like that's her train. He's more aimed at two year olds than it is at Lily's age. Yeah. But yeah. Um, yeah.

So, uh, we, um. I have invited them along to come with us. Yeah. Um, I've, no, I've no, what? I've no idea what to expect. What is this thing? Do you know what it, what, what will happen? It's like, it's like big puppets really. I think so. A bit like the Bluey show a bit. We, I, I assume Eagle Pig is somebody dressed up.

Yeah. But from what I, what I saw in the advert that Lily watched made us Yeah. Think they seem to have like a, is it. Uh, the Pliny ppl. Oh yeah, the flying one. Yeah. Um, that seems to go, like round the room. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, so it looks fairly impressive. Mm. Interesting. So yeah, as you can tell, Lily's now a big fan of live shows.

We go tomorrow to Purely because it's a live show, not because it's Eagle Pickle. Yeah. Because she obviously knows the Eagle Pickle characters like she's seen in the Night Garden, but it's not like a big, and it's never been a thing. We've watched a lot thing for her, but. But you liked it 'cause it was a show.

So yeah. Having had this conversation, I, I'm now a bit worried about how Lola will cope. Yeah. Yeah. You have made me worry. I wasn't thinking about it. I mean, I need to check what time it is again as well. Yeah, yeah. It's the details. Goodness. We. Hey, this is editing Elliot. Jumping back in from the future.

Just thought I'd give you an update on how the in the Night Garden Live show went. The Eagle wiggle show, as Lily calls it, as we predicted. She absolutely loved it. Um, she's been talking about it for weeks. We have to watch like recordings of it on YouTube. Uh, just, yeah, she wants to go again. If you ask what her favorite bit is, she'll say, oh, Igle Pig in the boat.

He was so funny. I, it was very funny. That bit. I'm like. Funny. I'm not sure if funny is really what, like is that what you were meant to take away from it? That it was like, are you laughing at it or with it? I'm, I'm not sure. You know, is she enjoying it just ironically or is she actually enjoying enjoying it?

But anyway, anyway, whatever. And Lola coached really well. Absolutely fine. This has been your little bonus content from editing Elliot.

And we have another show booked. Oh, do we? That ballet, clearly we are big live show people now. Yeah, because that one's in Leeds. Ah. Do you remember? See, I'm sorry, I don't even, I don't even know. I think it's Little Red Riding. I feel like it's the first time hearing about this. It's the same people. We discussed it at the time.

Did we? But it was like, it was like two months. I. I probably wasn't listening. I think after what I'm doing this, I'm like, oh, there's a thing Lily wants to see. Should we go? And you normally are like, oh, where is it? Can we get there? I'm like, yeah, I was, I was just about to say like, don't think, you know, we are flush with money going to all these shows.

They are just special occasions we do every now and again, but like we're list literally listing off like a series of shows that we're all doing within months of each other. Yep. True. But I think it, I like to, I think it was the same with Lola. I like to champion. What my child's interested in. Yeah. So I think if you're interested in something, I wanna feed that passion.

Yeah. To see what happens with it. Yeah. Rather than being like, oh, it's something you like, but I just hope Lola has a less expensive interest when she grows up.

Yeah. We, we shall see. Right. Moving on. Ooh, new segment. What is that noise? Welcome to the early two thousands. Oh, right. We're going back to that. I was gonna say the nineties as I often this segment is, but I don't think that's suitable. 'cause I was gonna ask what shows did you go and see when you were young?

Um, but I doubt we'll remember if we saw anything when we were toddlers. Yeah. Um, so we have to maybe shunt the timescale up a bit, but as a child, any in your childhood, did you go see anything we saw like local pantomimes? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but I can't honestly remember ever going to a bit, but I mean, there was four of us.

We, we've taken four little children to a show. A good point. It'd be a challenge. Unless we were quite like, then we localize as in when I mean local like village is running pantomimes. I don't mean like it, it doesn't help that you were very rural. Yes, that's true. True. So like, again, if you are waiting for traveling stuff to come to your local place, because what's weird is I remember watching live shows that had been recorded.

Yeah. So like we used to love watching, um, Dick Whittington. Oh, right. There was like a recording of a. It must have been a big play somewhere. And we used to watch that all the time of Dick Whittington. Well, even now, we like watching recordings of live shows. We love musicals. True. Um, Lily's really into watching the new frozen musical.

Yeah. That's come out in Disney Plus. I've already had, we've, I've already had to promise her. Yeah. That we will see. 'cause there's gonna be a frozen two musical. Yeah. Coming to London at some point. So this is the West End show? Yeah. Yeah. And it's gonna be, I think at. The same place as the last one was.

Right. So they did frozen one. Yeah. And that's the recording of, that's on Disney. Um, and there will be a frozen because Lily kept saying, can we see this show? And I was like, well this show isn't on. Yeah. Like this. And then I kept being like, well there will be another show and we can see that one. Mm-hmm.

I dunno if this one will come back. Um, so where did your love of like musicals and theater type stuff come from if you didn't go and see a load of stuff when you were young? I think a lot of it was we were, um. A, we used to always go and see storytellers, which sounds like an old folksy thing. No, we had some of them when I, I growing up, so we, we, there'd be like people who'd come, brown villages and they would come and it'd literally just be them.

They wouldn't dress up, but they'd like tell interesting stories and have like lighting and stuff. I know what you mean. I, I'm sure we had one. Come into school once to do a thing with us. Some drama. I'm sure we had like things like that. Like maybe a little more advanced that came round on like a bus. Mm.

And would do, like, there'd be a couple of them. They'd do like an interactive thing that way. Yes. As it got a bit older, they got a bit more like that. Yeah. Um, I think also we, we used to watch a lot of like TV musicals. Um, like, you know, we really liked, um. That's 'cause we're a religious household like Jesus and his technical true coat, Jesus and his technical Joe.

If I of the true coat, really old fashioned, seven brides, seven brothers, we used to watch a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You, you like you had to introduce me to a load of musicals. I did, yeah. Because I'd never seen any of this stuff, which is surprising. 'cause actually I did see a number of live shows.

Yeah. In childhood. I just hadn't seen like the mainstream. I'm trying to think. I mean, I definitely remember with school, in primary school, they took us, uh, we did a trip to London and we saw the Lion King musical. Oh, wow. That's pretty impressive. I think otherwise we, we did have access to a few more like local creative stuff, so not like really local, but I remember we'd drive to like Oxford and places.

Every year we'd go to see this theater company that performed in a tent. Oh yes. And there'd be like six or seven actors that would play the whole cast sometimes less. And like, there'd just be like, often be a stage. I remember one of them was like a stage, like right in the middle of the tent, like a circle oh's, funny.

Like, so it'd be really creative about how they would do characters, how they would do scenery. And like a lot of stuff would move around and like be imaginative and all that sort of stuff. So it was like. Local but professional. So like, yes. Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah. They weren't amateurs. Mm-hmm.

That it was a proper like theater company. Yes. Yeah. But not like we, we didn't go to London and see like live shows or anything like that. Yeah. And my parents aren't into music or anything. Mm-hmm. So we'd never go and see live music or live stage stuff. But they, they did like theater. Mm. Um, I was gonna say, do you think, I think shows are much bigger now than they used to be.

Mm, I think you're right. Well, hmm. That's an interesting conversation because isn't like theater generally struggling quite a lot, you know, particularly in London it's, but I think like kid theater's doing well, I mean, we were discussing it the other day actually 'cause there's, we've, we're talking a lot about shows, but that could encompass all sorts of things.

And it's not just music. Like, there's things like comedy shows. Yeah, true. Obviously a massive industry. I remember at uni we went to see like. Like a concert as in like an orchestra concert. Yeah, true. That's obviously a whole other, yeah. Other kind of concert. Really like category of live. Stuff. No, that was good.

I think it's a millennial thing. Yeah. I think half the millennials who have kids, we are all happy to pay for our kids to see stuff, but we don't necessarily pay for ourselves to see big shows. Mm. But I think those who don't have children probably will. 'cause I know some of my friends see the same show over and over and over again.

Oh really? Yeah. So like, um, the Cursed child, a few of my friends have seen an awful lot. Really? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So like the frozen show sold out. Well, this is, this conversation overlaps with something that I'm very interested and passionate about, which is like films. Yes. Um, and that's a similar industry, which is struggling, but it.

It is changed, hasn't it? So like you've gotta recognize these days so much of it is not built on, is this a big named actor? People won't just come out to see the next thing that's on the stage, but it's all built around ip. Like intellectual property. Yeah. Yeah. So franchises of things. So if you know the material, like people know Frozen.

Yeah. People know The Lion King. Yeah. Like we know those stories. So we will go and see them. True. Um, which is why in the film industry they keep making sequels. Yeah, yeah. 'cause they bring in money and then we complain. Why don't people original stuff, original things like, well, people won't go and see them.

Why make creative because people don't go and see them. Um, that's, I think that's the same across like, so much different media. Oh, we could talk for hours about all this. This is great. I mean, we've kind of veered off from talking about. How it's related to kids and parenting. I'm also like listing ballets in my head.

So you also don't know this when I was, I've never seen a ballet. No. So when I was, I, I actually have, oh, when I was in Bordeaux, yeah. Me and Rachel and Becky went and saw, um, a ballet. Lovely. Like a proper one with people, you know, not, not this Hansel and Gretel going on, but yeah. What I was gonna say is I've already made a list in my head of like ballet shows.

That would be good. 'cause when I was little, I had quite cultural upbringings from of much money. Um, I had a book that literally was stories, but it was the stories of different ballets. Oh. Why? I keep thinking like, if you have a ballet story, create like a thing that kids can, people remember back in the day there was a mouse.

Called Angelina Ballerina. Right? Right. In what? What context are you talking? She used to be on tv. On tv? Like in a TV show? Two books? No, that was her show. Her show was Angelina Ballerina. Okay. I think they could bring that back. Yeah. And have a puppet mouse dancing. Yeah. I think that'd be a huge hit with girls.

Yeah. Yeah. I dunno what they're doing because they're so great. Great show. That's interesting too. See, another thing, do you think this is particularly like a girl, you know, women focused? Interest or like, I think obviously with the things we've seen pretty even split. I was gonna say, yeah, boys and girls.

'cause like wiggles, bluey, you know, say universal appeal. I say the ballet show was only little girls in the audience. Right. I mean, yeah, it kind of makes sense, doesn't it? And a lot of them were dressed as ballerinas. Yeah. I feel like they might also have been disappointed had the spirit of the forest not want a protein dress.

Um, I, yeah. I think traditionally it's more of a girl. Space theater, but I don't really think it is anymore. Yeah. Like obviously anyone can enjoy anything and Yeah. Like it is a stereotype, but I just wondered whether, but I just think like The Wiggles, it was an even split. Yeah. Louie and Bingo even split.

Mm. Yeah, we'll see with Eagle Pickle, but I reckon it'll be, say you like live shows in general. Probably, you know, universal appeal, but there's probably like a slight distinction about where, where people like what people go to see. Yeah, true.

Right. Let's, let's try and, um, there's a parenting thing. We weren't already given any recommendations, so I would like, uh, some tips for taking kids to live shows. Mm-hmm. Hints, choose a time that suits your family. Yeah. B pack loads of snacks. I was gonna say, yeah. Pack well, snacks, drinks, distractions. Yeah.

I think also like it's obvious, like pick something they're interested in. Hmm. Like also as we found, let them pick the show they wanna go to. Hmm. Yeah. I think picking a good show is. Important, particularly if you're just getting into this and like recognizing that it is an expensive hobby. Yeah. Um, it's an experience that is definitely gonna set you back some money.

Yeah. Yeah. Especially 'cause there's, there's like four of us now. Yeah. As a family. Yeah. I think my tip is just again, like picking a show that has a good runtime. Mm-hmm. So like being aware that like, we know, don't we like kids? Particularly like two year olds, three year olds, they can only pay attention for so long.

Yeah. Like there's no way you're gonna survive a two hour performance. No. So you really need something that's definitely under an hour. Yeah. Even if it's closer to half an hour. Well, it's, the problem is it feels like you're getting so much less for your money. Yeah. Like you pay that money and then you're like, well, it's only half an hour.

That's good. Like, to me, I'm like, well, this, this was, go with them wanting more. I, I literally was looking, not having a breakdown. There is a ballet coming to Harrier that I think is the Nutcracker. But it's two hours long. Ooh. It's on too late. It just, obviously everything we've gone to see has been during the day.

Yeah. Like they've been shows aimed at families days, but it's so hard when I know she enjoy, she enjoys bye so much. But that was my point of being like, well, we couldn't cope with that. Yeah. Because we couldn't go that late. We couldn't do that long. Well, thank you so much for joining us in this episode today.

I hope you've had a good time with us rambling on about shows and the stuff we enjoy, things we like, you know, all the, all the stuff. You've listened to it. You know what we talked about. Um, Emma's just popped off to get the baby because Lola has woken up from her nap. Um, so you've just got me here to end things off.

We've probably not done the topic justice. There's probably loads of stuff we've missed. Do let us know, are you a big fan of The Wiggles? What live shows have you been to see, either by yourself or with kids? With young babies and toddlers? Oh, hello? You popped back up. Lola and Mama come to say goodbye.

Say goodbye. It's the end of the show. It's that plane. She wasn't even looking for help.

Looking amazed. Lola. Yeah, we're just ending a podcast. We've been chatting away without you. I'm so sorry. We've been having fun and you've been asleep. Oh, don't you touch the microphone? Lola's play for game. Try and touch the microphone. Well, for now, until next time in the future, we will see you soon in our ears.

My words have gone wrong. God bless. Sleep. Well, everyone, and uh, just, just remember, don't wake the baby. Don't wake the baby.