Talking about having kids

Introduction Beth and Phil have a real conversation in easy English about having kids – what to expect when you're a parent. Learn to talk about toddlers, tantrums and raising a child. Vocabulary pregnant having a baby growing inside you raise a child take care of and support a child while they grow parenting being a parent; the act of raising a child  toddler young child who is just beginning to walk tantrum uncontrolled outburst of angry screaming and shouting Transcript Beth Hello and welcome to Real Easy English. In this podcast, we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I'm Beth.   Phil And I'm Phil, and you can find a video version of this podcast with subtitles to help you on our website. And that's bbclearningenglish.com.   Beth Hi Phil, how are you doing?   Phil I'm doing very well. What about you, Beth? How's your day?   Beth I'm OK. I am a little bit tired. As you know, I'm pregnant and my baby is kicking me right now, as we record this. And it's funny because today we're talking about having children and being parents.   Phil Oh, yes.   Beth So, you have children, don't you?   Phil Yes, I have two. I've got a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old.   Beth So, you almost have two teenagers, which sounds a bit stressful.   Phil It can be sometimes, but... yeah, it can be sometimes, because it might be that they have a problem and you can see they've got a problem, but they don't want to tell you what it is.   Beth OK.   Phil So, that can be stressful.   Beth I think that's a problem I won't have yet. Although a baby crying – they can't really tell you what the problem is.   Phil No. No, I think it's probably... it's probably much more tiring when children are younger, I think.   Beth Yeah. So, what would you say are the positives of raising children? When you raise a child, that means you take care of them and support them while they grow. So, what are the benefits of raising children?   Phil So, I think one of the best things about parenting is just it is so rewarding when you see them doing something new, something they've learned to do. And when they get to the age of my kids, they start doing things that I can't do. So, it's like, "Wow! You're doing better than me. This is good."   Beth What can your children do that you can't do?   Phil Play the saxophone, speak Chinese really well, speak Japanese...   Beth Wow.   Phil ...all these things. I can't do those – not to that level. Beth OK. Amazing. Great. So, what are the difficulties of being a new parent?   Phil It's a long time ago for me. I'm trying to remember. But when you have very young children, it can be very intense. There's not much of a break because you have to do everything for them, so you don't get much of a rest. It gets a bit easier when they become toddlers, when they're, sort of, two or three and running around, although that has its own problems!   Beth Don't they have a lot of tantrums when they are toddlers? So, lying on the floor screaming.   Phil Yeah, I mean, toddlers do have lots of tantrums, but you learn to deal with those.   Beth So, what advice do you have for me as a new parent?   Phil OK. I think I've got two big pieces of advice. And the first one is that when you have kids, things change very quickly as they grow and they get different, and everything gets different and you can't go back, so enjoy what's happening when it's happening. And the second piece of advice is don't give them your phone!   Beth Those are two very good pieces of advice, I think. Thank you. Especially living in the moment – I think that's very important. OK. Let's recap the vocabulary we heard during the podcast. We heard the word pregnant. If you are pregnant, then you have a baby growing inside you, like me – I am pregnant.   Phil If you raise a child, you take care of them and support them while they grow.   Beth Parenting is the act of raising a child and that comes from the verb to parent. Phil said that parenting can be very rewarding but very stressful.   Phil We also had toddler. Now, a toddler is a young child who's just starting to walk, and we also said that they often have tantrums, which is when they get angry and scream and shout a lot.   Beth That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. Why not try the worksheet on our website to test what you've learnt? That's at bbclearningenglish.com.   Phil And we'll be back next week with another conversation in easy English. See you then.   Beth Goodbye!   Phil Bye! Now try this... Watch The London Letter Challenge. Download a free worksheet. Discover more programmes for your level.  Find all our latest programmes.