Catching up with the globe trotting road-schoolers

Well, this is how we were described by ITV’s This Morning programme when we drove into the studio (not literally) on Wednesday to be interviewed by Rylan and Lorraine.

Whenever we get asked to do anything media related we have to think carefully about whether to or not based on what learning experiences can be gained i.e. how will Amy and Ella benefit from us taking part.

The team at This Morning are lovely people – we know that after being on the show in August – that wasn’t our concern this time round. No, the thing on our minds this time was that the appearance would clash with the girls catching up with their friends in Nottingham. Since taking them out of school over a year we have been keen to support them keeping up their friendships and we didn’t want to drag them away from friends to make a short appearance on This Morning. So when the invite came from ITV it wasn’t a straight forward decision.

The solution was for the girls to take a friend each and turn the trip to London into a mini-edventure for them too.

The result

The result as four friends that had a bunch of fun, saw some of the main sights of London, stayed in a nice hotel (the Westminster Suite no less), AND got a brilliant insight into how a live TV show like This Morning is filmed and produced. It was a fascinating learning experience for them all. And as for Amy and Ella, well, they showed flexibility, confidence and competence when meeting people and being interviewed live on TV (no mean feat).

As with doing anything in the public eye, we open ourselves for criticism and negative feedback from people, but we’ve got tougher skin these days and feel that secure in the knowledge that we are just striving to do the best as parents, making careful and considered decisions with the girls’ interests the priority.

Interested in seeing what went out on the programme, here’s the link http://www.itv.com/thismorning/hot-topics/catching-up-with-the-globetrotting-road-schoolers-meek-family

Some pics: