The book Parenting Hell sees Rob and I share the challenges and madness of our parenting journeys with lashings of empathy and extra helpings of laughs. Filled with all the things they never tell you at antenatal classes, it’s a charming mixture of humour, rumination and conversation and is aimed at prospective parents, new parents, old parents and never-to-be parents alike. Zeer goed audioboek, veel te vaak veel te herkenbaar. Zeker het stuk waarin Rob vertelt over hun prille ouderschap met een baby die niet wil drinken en Josh over blij zijn als je eindelijk eens 2u aan een stuk kan slapen. Manlief en ik luisterden er samen naar, vooral ‘s avonds voor het slapengaan. Blijkt dat de herkenbaarheid, de humor, relativeren en lachen met je vroegere zelf omdat we ook “die ouders” geweest zijn een perfecte manier is om zomervakantiedagen af te sluiten. I’m not sure I would have enjoyed the read as much had I been reading the book myself, and would have given it a 3 star rating. Join Josh and Rob as they share the challenges and madness of their parenting journeys with lashings of empathy and extra helpings of laughs. Filled with all the things they never tell you at antenatal classes, Parenting Hell is a beguiling mixture of humour, rumination and conversation for prospective parents, new parents, old parents and never-to-be parents alike. Love it, just like the podcast. I literally couldn't put it down and my kids are long long past the preschool stage. It's just so relatable - I don't even particularly like other people's kids and I think this is why this works. It's just like listening to J and R on the podcast, as if they're in the room with you.

The book Parenting Hellsees Josh and Rob share the challenges and madness of their parenting journeys with lashings of empathy and extra helpings of laughs. Filled with all the things they never tell you at antenatal classes, it’s a charming mixture of humour, rumination and conversation and is aimed at prospective parents, new parents, old parents and never-to-be parents alike. It probably is quite amusing for a 20-something gal who wants to be childless forever to be so entertained and attached to a podcast (and subsequent book) about parenting. It tells the story of the end of an era, the last time when watching television was a shared experience for the family and the nation, before the internet meant everyone watched different things at different times on different devices, headphones on to make absolutely sure no one else could watch it with them.This is a book about growing up in the ’90s told through the thing that mattered most to me, the television programmes I watched. For my generation television was the one thing that united everyone. There were kids at my school who liked bands, kids who liked football and one weird kid who liked the French sport of petanque, however, we all loved Gladiators, Neighbours and Pebble Mill with Alan Titchmarsh (possibly not the third of these).’

But these guys talk about coming home from a job tired only to have an excited toddler jumping around all evening in such a relatable way. Every parent or parent-to-be or parent-adjacent needs to read this! It's also surprisingly empowering for women - the way they include the wives perspectives is beautiful' Rob says; “ For all those people out there with hot tired ears. It’s time to give your eyes a run out. There’s loads of new stories about our kids and failures at life. Plus you will hear from my parents and Lou. Mainly to take the pressure off me with the word count. It’s a family affair.”

As mentioned, I'm a HUGE fan of the podcast. I love the honesty about the difficultly of parenting and keeping your entire life together as well as sharing the exciting and wholesome moments. The book dives into more of Rob and Josh's personal lives, into how they were parented and what their partner thinks about them.