Paul Weller finds being a father of eight "mentally tiring".
The 60-year-old rocker – who has adult kids Leah and Natt from his first marriage to Dee C. Lee, Dylan from a relationship with a make-up artist named Lucy, Jesamine, 19, and Stevie Mac, 14, with former partner Samantha Stock, and twins Bowie and John Paul, seven, and daughter Nova, 20 months, with wife Hannah – doesn’t get much time to himself so it can be "difficult" to do any songwriting at home.
He said: "It’s more mentally tiring than physically, ‘cos you’ve got people who rely on you and are asking you questions and ‘Can you do this?’ and ‘I want some food’ and all those sorts of practical things. Just to find that bit of time on your own just to go …
"When I’m writing at home, I’ve got to wait till everyone’s gone to bed. It’s difficult, yeah."
And the Modfather insists he’s got no plans to extend his brood any more.
Asked if he has enough children now, he told the Sunday Times magazine: "Definitely. I’ve got eight kids and eight is my lucky number. When I was a kid, I lived at 8 Stanley Road."
With it comes to his parenting style, Paul tries to be a "friend" to his kids.
He said: "I’m probably too liberal at times. It’s important to try and be their friend as much as you can as a parent.
"They have to have someone to confide in or know you’re always there for them, or on their side. I’ve been through a lot of things they’re going through as well.
"If you’re a good parent, right, then you’re always going to be a hypocrite at some point if you say to your kids, ‘Make sure you don’t drink too much,’ or ‘Don’t take this or that,’ knowing full well you’d have done totally the same thing at that age.
"It’s a fine balance, really, and it’s not one that I have necessarily mastered."
The ‘Changingman’ hitmaker – who left school when he was 15 years old – and his wife made the decision to home educate their children and he thinks it has been a "really good" idea.
He said: "It was my wife’s idea to home-educate the kids and I think it’s been really good.
"They’re smart — maybe not academically at the moment, but they’re only seven. It’s that whole thing about ‘unschooling’, where you just learn through life and interaction…
"We both do it when I’m around. They go to different classes — woodwork, practical things.
"They’ve got their own friends from other home-ed groups."
While the former Jam frontman admits he worries about his advancing years and not being around for his kids, he is "glad" he and Hannah – who is 27 years his junior – decided to have their three.
He said: "That was always tricky, really. Obviously my wife’s much younger than me and we talked about that. But what can you do? Not have kids? She’s a young woman, she wants children and I’m glad we did. I do think about how much more time I’ve got with them. You just live it and enjoy it all the time, and what will be will be."
Paul Weller’s large family is ‘mentally tiring’
