At Childcare is Fun, we a proud to admit to being Spice Girl fans! So imagine our delight when Sporty Spice and lovely mum Mel C agreed to answer a few questions about being a parent and a pop-star…

 

Hi Mel!

As Pampers fans, we couldn’t help but see that you have been supporting the UNICEF ‘big kiss’ campaign. It’s great to see a celebrity supporting such a great cause – how did you get involved with it?

I’ve been working with Pampers over the past 12 months as the celebrity mum on its Pampers Village Parenting Panel. It’s been really good fun meeting other mums and their children. I was aware of the great work Pampers has done in the last five years with Unicef and was delighted when they asked me to be involved. Working on The Big Kiss campaign was fantastic – encouraging people to send a virtual kiss to Pampers so they donated a vaccine to Unicef to protect women and children against newborn and maternal tetanus.

We are very excited to see that you have a new single coming out soon called ‘Rock Me’ (which from the sneaky listen we had on your website, sounds ace!) What was your inspiration behind this funky, fast paced, new track?

I’ve been writing for my new album for about a year and have had a great time working with lots of new collaborators as well as my old favourites.

I experimented with lots of different styles. “Rock Me” was inspired by me wanting to do a dance track with quite rocky guitars. Lyrically it was inspired by performing live and the emotions you feel in front of a great audience. It’s quite different to the rest of the album – it’s fun and frivolous, perfect for the ZDF Women’s World Cup coverage in Germany.

As a working mum it’s hard fitting everything in! How do you manage the family/work balance?

It’s really hard. My new album will be out later this year and that will put more demands on my time. I’ve been away on a few short trips but I miss Scarlet terribly. I don’t know what I’d do without Skype! You still can’t beat a good squeeze though!

Your lovely little girl Scarlet is two now? It’s a fun, fantastic but very challenging age! How are you enjoying the toddler years so far?

Every new development with my little girl is brilliant. She is so funny – I love our little chats. She often compliments the way I look or if I’m being silly she’ll say, “mummy, what are you doing?” We laugh a lot. Of course we have our moments but she is a wonderful girl.

We feel that there is so much pressure on parents today to ‘get it right’, so many books, websites and TV programs telling parents what’s right and wrong.  At Childcare is fun we share experiences and knowledge, not rules of right’s and wrongs – Which useful experience of parenthood would you be kind enough to share with our lovely parents?

Sometimes it can be frustrating when toddlers misbehave but I’ve found getting annoyed makes the situation worse. It’s difficult but I’ve found staying calm gets the best results.

Often the best and most honest childcare advice is from friends! All of the other Spice girls have littlies too – Do you get together for play dates or swap advice?

We try to get the children together as often as we can.

Having children has helped bring us closer over the years. I find all peoples’ experiences of being parents are quite different and all of my friends including the Spice Girls have been a brilliant support. Sometimes the most important thing is having people around to make you laugh, listen and put the kettle on!

You regained your fabulous figure quite quickly after having Scarlet – was it hard work and do you feel as a celebrity there is a huge amount of pressure to ‘get fit quick’ after having a baby?

I think there is an enormous amount of pressure on everybody about the way that they look and especially new mums in recent years. I think it’s unfair, it’s such an exhausting time, the last thing you need to be thinking about is losing weight. I put on three and a half stone during my pregnancy and lost it gradually over about 7 months. I didn’t diet or exercise frantically – I couldn’t be bothered!

As one of the members of the best-selling female groups in music history, do you think Scarlet will follow in her mummy’s footsteps? Is she a ‘sporty spice’ little mover? (I know my daughter Miss B, 21 months, boogies around the room to any beat going!)

Scarlet loves music and dancing. She’s quite an actress too. I think most kids are. I have no idea what she’ll do but I’m excited to find out what her passions and talents are as she grows up.

Finally, thank you so much for your time – could we ask a big favour and ask you to ‘say’ hello to your super fan Steven? He adores you, has all of your albums and nearly passed out when I said we would possibly be interviewing you!

Hi Steven. Hope you like the new album. I truly think it’s fantastic. Love Melanie x

I think I just heard a thud! (Steven has passed out!)

 

Melanie C works with Pampers in her role as celebrity mum on the Pampers Village Parenting Panel, which is designed to provide advice and information for the whole family’s well-being, as well baby’s, every step of the way