HGTV / YouTube Erin Napier & Jenny Marrs
HGTV is ringing in Mother’s Day 2023 by having two of its biggest stars sit down to talk all things motherhood, including raising children on reality television and what “home” means to them. “Home Town” host Erin Napier and “Fixer to Fabulous” host Jenny Marrs shared a “Mother’s Day Chat” which was posted to the HGTV YouTube channel on May 11, three days ahead of the holiday.
See the video and hear what Napier and Marrs have to say about motherhood below.
Erin Napier & Jenny Marrs Have a ‘Mother’s Day Chat’
Napier and Marrs dived right into their discussion by talking about how much their kids realize and understand the fact that their parents are on television.
“It’s just work, they know we just go to our job,” Marrs said, telling Napier, “Like you, you’re in your town, it’s not like you fly to LA and you have a movie crew… We’ve always built houses, they’ve always been on job sites, that’s how they’ve grown up.”
Marrs says it’s different for her oldest and youngest children, as her oldest sons, 12-year-old twins Nathan and Ben, “were 7 when we filmed the first season. So when the show aired they were in school, and it was the new thing, and our town was so excited. It was weird.”
The pair discuss running into fans in public while out with their children, which Marrs called a “tricky balance”, as their children don’t always understand why strangers on the street know their names and want to take pictures with them.
“So we don’t. We don’t ever take pictures with people when we’re out with the kids,” Erin said, “I think it might make us seem rude but we’re really just trying to keep things as lowkey as possible.”
The two then discuss lessons they’ve learned from motherhood, with Napier sharing that it has taught her to try “to remember moments in my own childhood to find my way. ‘How did this kind of thing go when I was her age and how do I wish it had gone when I was that age?'”. Marrs’ biggest lesson was “the idea that I can’t control things. That I truly have to leave my hands open. I can do my best, and I can pour in and pour in but I can not control who this person becomes.”
Napier ended the segment describing how motherhood has given her a new definition of being somebody else’s “home”, saying, “You become very aware of the heaviness of being ‘home’ for someone. For me, my mother is that. She is my safe place. She is ‘home’ to me. And no matter how old I get I see her through the eyes of myself at age 5, which is where [her daughter] Helen is right now. And it’s sacred.”
Erin Napier Celebrated Mother’s Day at Daughter Helen’s School
Napier shared an early Mother’s Day celebration on her Instagram in the form of a May 10 post, which featured a card and custom handprint tile Helen made in school while enjoying a “Muffins with Mom” event. Napier cherished the memory and encouraged her fellow mothers to hold on tight to the memories, as “20 years from today we will miss this incredibly difficult and sweet season, so let’s savor every drop.”
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