Konnie Huq, Blue Peter's longest-running female presenter, has revealed that presenting the children's show taught her to be happy with less. Fronting the programme from 1997 to 2008, the 51-year-old, who has two sons with her husband, Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker, says some of her interviews were a real eye opener.
Lessons from Blue Peter
She said: "I remember so many trips to a village where the kids have absolutely nothing and they want your empty water bottle. We interviewed a family once and paid them with like rice and cooking oil. They wanted the carrier bag, because it was durable and useful. I was right out of uni and it taught me to value everything and not waste stuff."
Huq added: "I don't buy anything unless it's an absolute necessity, because I don't really need anything. And then that makes you happy with what you've got, as opposed to sad about what you don't have."
Promoting free family fun
As part of her drive to find free fun, Huq has teamed up this summer with Art Fund, the national charity for art, for their third annual Kids Aloud initiative. The campaign aims to encourage families to use one of the country's most abundant free resources: its museums and galleries. More than 60 are taking part nationwide, hosting both free-to-all events and additional activities available for free or half price to families with a National Art Pass.
The campaign comes as new research reveals two-thirds (65%) of parents feel too worried or embarrassed about noise or behaviour to take their children to museums, despite data showing interactive museum visits keep kids engaged for longer than watching television.
Overcoming museum nerves
Huq said: "This is a free resource at your fingertips. And I know the feeling of taking rowdy children to a silent museum - it can feel exposing. I took mine recently to the Vatican. But playing is what children do, they can learn while they play. Even if they're just laughing at Michelangelo's David having no clothes on."
She stressed that once parents overcome those initial nerves, there is a whole world of free entertainment to be discovered. "The more people that take children to museums and galleries, the more normalised and less silent they will become. The less exposing it will feel," she said.
A win-win for families and heritage
Huq also said it is a brilliant way to get kids off screens and into something that the whole family will love. "Get your kids off the screens, get them out, get them to a museum or gallery. You can all learn something in the process," she said.
She added: "If we stop taking our kids there, if we stop going there, then the squeeze will get squashier and funding and resources will go. Once people stopped going to the libraries, the libraries started closing down. We don't want that for our museums and galleries. Going to museums and galleries is cheap, it's easy, and it kills time with the kids, while educating and entertaining them. It's a win win for the summer holidays."
