Former Hear'Say singer Myleene Klass shared some extreme parenting advice with viewers on a TV chat show.
The 44-year-old mother-of-three told BBC The One Show's Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas that as a child her father held 4am fire drills.
And, after swearing that she never would carry out the same routine, the star now holds her own emergency rehearsals with her daughters Ava, 14 and Hero, 11, and son Apollo, two. She said the family wear blindfolds as they practice what they would do in the eventuality of a fire and they 'make a game' out of it.
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"He would do a fire muster at 4am. I never thanked him then," she said about her dad's drills. "What like a fake alarm?" asked a gobsmacked Alex. "Yeah like a fire drill," said Myleene. And she explained: "We all know at work we get a fire drill and nobody moves a muscle but with fire it happens when you least expect it."
She continued: "I remember saying 'I'm never going to do this with my children, this is some kind of torture.' Now I do it with my children We make a game out of it. I put blindfolds on them."
Explaining the importance of the drills to her and her family she said: "From working with charities you hear terrifying stories about children who don't know what to do. So they do the first thing that comes naturally to them and they hide under their beds.
"Or they hide in cupboards. If you're teaching your child how to hold a knife and fork, if you're teaching your child to cross the road. These are basic life skills."
Mother-of-three Alex asked Myleene if she has an escape plan for her house and said: "It's making me panic now." And Myleene continued: "We turn it into a game. I'll say to the girls 'if this entrance is blocked how are we going to get out? where are we going to meet?'
"We've got our little fire muster point. We do it with blindfolds and we all know how to stay low and we've all got a plan over who is taking what. We can't take our favourite toys. If you plan for it then you're more prepared."
She added: "You wouldn't get in a car and just drive off. You need to know have I got insurance, what am I going to do if something goes wrong?"
Myleene, who shot to fame in 2001 when she won a place in the pop group Hear'Say on the show Popstars, was in the studio to talk about her new book They Don't Teach This At School a 'practical guide with life skills to help organise your family, for a happy and healthy home', reports the Manchester Evening News.
Last month she shared her family's fire plan on her Instagram. thegratefulmamma commented: "Yes ! This is one of the things that we regularly speak about in our family. Our boys all know what they would need to do in the event of a fire, above all to remain as calm as possible and know that if we work as a family team, following our family fire plan, all should be okay.
"We collectively made a family fire plan poster and we regularly revisit it to refresh our memories and adapt as per their ages." And katellockley said: "Thank you for getting this message out there. Fire service worker here and I wish people shouted stuff like this from the rooftops."
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