'The Only Way Is Essex Has Nothing on My Class' | Mr P (Lee Parkinson) on Raising Triplets, School Readiness Myths & Why Boredom Is a Gift

'The Only Way Is Essex Has Nothing on My Class' | Mr P (Lee Parkinson) on Raising Triplets, School Readiness Myths & Why Boredom Is a Gift

From Mum's The Word! With Georgia Jones & Kelsey Parker by Create

August 30, 2026 · 33 min · Season 3 · Episode 102

About this episode

Kelsey Parker interviews Lee Parkinson about raising triplets and the misconceptions surrounding school readiness.

This week Kelsey Parker sits down with Lee Parkinson MBE. Teacher, three-time Sunday Times bestselling author and one half of Two Mr Ps in a Podcast for a chat about school readiness, raising triplets and why we've all been worrying about the wrong things. Lee gets real about becoming a stepdad at 21, the scan where the nurse went silent before revealing it was triplets, and the "bath, bottle, bed" routine that got all three sleeping through by six months. Then it goes deeper: why 63% of children aren't ready for school, how scrapping Sure Start centres left a hole nobody filled, and why the little things like doing up their own shoes & putting on a coat actually matter far more than reading or counting before day one. Plus the lighter stuff: the ex-pupil who bought him a pint 15 years on, getting his MBE ("the world's worst kept secret"), and the show-and-tell Tupperware box that accidentally exposed an affair. Grab a cuppa and get comfy. A Create Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Kelsey Parker

Guest: Lee Parkinson

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Two Mr Ps in a Podcast, Sunday Times, Sure Start

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