S1 Ep12: Helping Your Kids Sleep Better (So You Can Too!) with Just Chill Mama

This week, Dean and Sara are back with a very honest, very funny catch-up after Dean’s 40th birthday weekend in Wales - featuring changed plans, live music, a lot of drinks, and one unforgettable caravan sofa incident that he may never live down. They also chat about a parenting dilemma after Ruby loses someone else’s toy and has to tell the truth, leading to a bigger conversation about honesty, gentle reactions, and helping kids feel safe enough to own up when they make mistakes. Sara then opens up about her health and body confidence journey since January 2025, sharing the reality of trying to lose weight and feel better after having children, the impact of stress, sleep, alcohol, quick fixes, and the slow process of building healthier habits. From Dry January and setting boundaries with drinking, to group PT, food changes, insomnia, mum guilt and learning to put herself first, Sara speaks honestly about how hard it can be to find time for yourself as a parent. Funny, raw and relatable, this episode is about big birthdays, parenting wins, body image, better habits and why sometimes the smallest changes make the biggest difference.

Dean is turning 40, so Sara puts him in the hot seat with 40 questions for 40 years. From coffee addictions and dad phrases to parenting regrets, relationship chaos, midlife crisis chat, caravan traditions, childhood memories, and what Dean is most proud of, this episode is full of honest reflections, ridiculous tangents, and classic Dean-and-Sara banter. They also dive into life before kids, how parenting changes you, and why turning 40 might actually be Dean’s best decade yet. A funny, reflective, and very unfiltered birthday episode

Ever wished you could redesign yourself as a parent from scratch? This week, Dean and Sara get refreshingly honest about the traits they're still working on, from Sara's struggle to slow down and be present, to Dean's battle with overstimulation (yes, the gymnastics bar gets a mention). They debate whether kids need to respect you, like you, or both, and play a round of parenting Would You Rather that gets surprisingly deep. Oh, and there's some big news at the end...

This week, Dean and Sara debrief after a full-on family meltdown when a sibling argument ends with one daughter yelling “I hate you” and a slammed door literally breaking the frame. From there, things spiral into a brutally honest chat about parenting pre-teens, discipline, sibling conflict, emotional outbursts, and whether you should ever remove a kid’s door. Then, because no domestic drama comes alone, they get into the big one: household chores, mental load, gender roles, resentment, and why one person’s “I’ll do it later” is another person’s final straw. Honest, funny, sharp-tongued and painfully relatable.

This week, Dean and Sara are all over the place in the most relatable way possible. From being personally offended by the price of a professional car clean, to the stress of waiting for their daughter’s secondary school place, to debating whether the six-week summer holidays actually still work for modern family life, this episode is honest, funny, and slightly unhinged. They also chat about Dean’s new family road trip game, why school decisions feel so high-stakes, and whether changing school holidays would help parents or just make everything worse.