Parents around the world who have been living the lockdown life for the past months will be able to relate.
You’re at home; the kids are at home. You’re trying to work at something really important; but the kids really don’t care and will happily interrupt at the vital moment.
Let’s interrupt mum as she talks to the nation
Sound familiar? For UK-based mums Dr Clare Wenham and Deborah Haynes, their interrupting children brought a whole new dimension, however.
The pair of mums just happened to be live on air on the BBC and Sky News respectively when their kids burst in for some just-can’t wait chat.
Coronavirus interview becomes a chat about a unicorn
Wenham is a health policy expert at the London School of Economics and was in the midst of a BBC interview about coronavirus lockdowns and gaining access to test data.
Suddenly her young daughter Scarlett appeared in the background with a far more important matter to discuss: where did mom think she should put a picture of a unicorn?
Wenham keeps her cool and tries to keep the interview going, but Scarlett has other ideas and keeps engaging with an increasingly apologetic mom.
Interviewer gives his advice on where to put the unicorn
Eventually BBC presenter Christian Fraser chats to Scarlett and gives some advice as to where he thinks the unicorn should be placed. This prompts a response from Scarlett, who asks: “What’s his name? What’s his name Mummy?”
“Do stop me if you need to crack on,” Fraser tells mum, before revealing to Scarlett that his name is Christian.
Back in the studio after the interview, Fraser joked that it was “the most informative interview I’ve done all day”.
Foreign affairs interview becomes the great biscuit debate
On rival UK TV channel, Sky News, there was another would-be TV star hogging the attention and drawing smiles from the watching audience.
Deborah Haynes, Sky’s Foreign Affairs Editor, was talking to the camera when her son entered the room, asking for a snack.
“Oh, I’m really sorry, that’s my son arriving. Sorry,” she says. But the young man isn’t about to back down just because he’s live on national TV and asks again to be allowed to eat some biscuits.
Mum, apologising as she goes, agrees that two biscuits are in order.
Son clearly has high-stakes negotiating skills, says mum
Later, in a tweet, Haynes thanked viewers for their “lovely comments after my son’s impromptu appearance mid-live-broadcast”.
“I can confirm that his high-stakes negotiating skills netted him two chocolate digestives,” she said.
One thing’s for certain: the youngsters will have some interesting video material shown at their respective 21st birthdays!
