Bláthnaid Treacy says first year of parenthood has been “a whirlwind” after overcoming lack of sleep

This year, the RTE presenter and her husband Charlie Moon are planning to start a special new festive tradition — something which Bláthnaid said she is “so looking forward to”

Bláthnaid Treacy Moon has told how having her daughter Nancy has been “the most incredible thing that I’ve ever done in my life” — and how it “has opened my eyes up to lots of different things”.

The presenter is an ambassador for SuperValu’s new campaign which did a deep dive into the dinnertime habits of households around the country — and encouraged people to take back dinnertime traditions.

And Bláthnaid told Chic how she thinks “your perspective on things changes quite a lot” after becoming a mum — and opened up about the kinds of projects she would like to take on in the future.

Read more: Bláthnaid Treacy on the tough part of parenting and how it affects her marriage

Read more: RTE’s Blathnaid Treacy opens up about giving birth and her husband Charlie’s ‘emotional’ reaction

She said, “You open your eyes up to so many more different aspects of life and you grow up a lot.

“Having Nancy is the most incredible thing that I've ever done in my life. She has made me a better person, 100 per cent.

"Having her has opened my eyes up to lots of different things. There's so much change that has happened in my life and some of that change, I’d love to explore a little bit more in the medium of media.

“I have a couple of ideas that I would love to explore. I'm just in the initial phases of sort of putting something together, so we'll see what happens.

“And then of course, I mean, I love TV. Live TV is my favourite thing in the entire world — live radio, live TV. I just love live. Live is just amazing. I love it so much. I love the adrenaline rush that you get from it. I love working with a team of people.

"So absolutely, I want to do more TV for sure. I'm loving doing my radio show — my two shows — I love doing them so much. I get so much joy and so much craic speaking to the audience. The ratings are doing really, really well.

“So I mean, the radio box absolutely ticked. I want to try and focus a little bit more now on TV going forward.”

Bláthnaid and her husband, jazz musician Charlie, welcomed Nancy in June last year and the broadcaster how it’s been a “brilliant” year so far — and how they have “grown as a family”.

She said, “I mean, she was six months old last December, so I think we kind of got the sleep sorted ish.

“I was saying this to someone else, as well — once you kind of get the sleep down, where you can actually get her to properly sleep and there’s not much waking through the night, and you get proper sleep, that’s when everything starts to fall into place properly.

“The lack of sleep is when things become really, really difficult. The first six months are pretty up and down, in terms of every couple of weeks, things are changing. Things are changing and developing all the time, so there’s no such thing as a routine in the first six months.

"Once you’re through the first six months, you can start to put a little bit of shape on your day and you can plan things a little bit more; they’re becoming a little bit more independent.

"The last year has been really, really nice. We’ve grown as a family and our days and routines are shaping up — the first six months are a bit, ‘whatever happens, happens. But now we have a little bit more of a shape on our day, which is nice.”

Bláthnaid had told how the first year of parenthood has been “a whirlwind” but “beautiful”.

She added, “Just watching her grow, becoming the little person that she is and her little personality coming through.

“It’s amazing. It’s hard work, obviously, I think that goes without saying that it’s pretty hard work. But it’s the most rewarding thing that you’ll ever do.”

Bláthnaid told how their daughter loves music — and opened up about how she would feel if she were to follow in her parents’ footsteps in the future.

She said, “It’s a funny one, isn’t it? Charlie and I, I don’t think we’d be very controlling parents.

"We’ll see what she wants to do and guide her in whatever she’d like to do, open her eyes to her options and things like that. But I really don’t know.

“She does love music. She’s not one bit shy. She’s very content.”

Bláthnaid added that Nancy is “very content playing with her books quietly, but she’s equally happy playing with other kids, as well".

She continued, “She’s a very laid back sort of person.

"If she’s ever having a little wobbly moment, we start singing a song and it brings her back down to earth.

“She’s got music in her, for sure. TV and radio, I don’t know — only time will tell. If that’s what she wants to do, that’s what she wants to do.”

This year, the family are planning to start a special new festive tradition — something which Bláthnaid said she is “so looking forward to”.

She said, “Normally, we would stay over in our own parents’ houses. We usually would stay out in Charlie’s mum’s house on Christmas Eve, that’s kind of what we’ve done from the last few years.

"This year, we’re having our own Christmas Eve in our own house — and we’re kind of starting our own tradition, which is so lovely.

“We’re going to wake up on Christmas morning in our own house, see what Santa brings Nancy — I’m so looking forward to that.

“I just can’t wait, it’s so exciting. It’s those little things that you remember and you cherish forever.

“They’re only small for such a short period of time — and they’re only aware of Santa from three or four.

“That whole kind of Santa experience, it only lasts for a very short amount of time. We’re really looking forward to it.”

Bláthnaid also opened up about her experience on Ultimate Hell Week and how it was “one of the most challenging and most difficult things I’ve ever done” — and whether she could see herself taking on a competition or reality series again.

She said, “There’s no way I would do it now. I did it in maybe 2021 — it was before I got pregnant — and it was one of the most challenging and the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I would not do it again.

“The only way I’d take that much time away from home was if I knew that I was going to be getting actual sleep. There’s no way you get any sleep on that show.

“It was really challenging. At the time, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I really learned a huge amount about myself.

“I was only on it for a short space of time, but in that time, it was very eye opening.

Swipe across below to see the full gallery of images for yourself

Inside Blathnaid Treacy's adorable first birthday celebration for daughter Nancy

View gallery

And it was an amazing thing to do — when do you ever get to jump out of a helicopter or hang out with these incredible athletes?

“I don’t even know what I was doing there. I was there beside Olympians, GAA players, rugby players, boxers, MMA fighters and then…me. It was so insane. It was just an amazing experience.

“It depends on the show, I guess.”

Bláthnaid told how she was “absolutely thrilled” to get involved with SuperValu’s Dinner Time Well Spent campaign — especially as “being a parent now, your time just becomes just filled” and dinnertime is a great opportunity to catch up with family.

She said, “You don't have a huge amount of time.

“Dinner time is sort of like the last little pocket of time that we have in our days to spend with our family and catch up with each other and find out what went on in each other’s day.

“And it's you know, it's such a nice moment to actually sit down and we’re using both of our hands — we’re not on our phones, we’re not on gadgets or watching TV. We’re just talking to each other.

“I just thought this was such a lovely campaign.”

The study, which was commissioned by the retailer, found that eight out of ten people still believe dinnertime brings families closer together — and that it’s an important ritual to them.

And 80 per cent said they wished to have more meals together with their loved ones — with 92 per cent of households with children five years old or older wanting to have dinner together more often.

It also found that 31 per cent of adults see preparing dinner as a source of stress and a chore — and while almost half of the people surveyed said they wanted to cook from scratch more often, they felt they didn’t have the time or energy to do so.

Bláthnaid told how she loves the ready-made home cooked meals as “it all comes back to time and not having a huge amount of it”.
She said, “When you hear things like that, you totally get it when people are too tired to be making those meals that take a huge amount of prep time.

“When you hear that, it’s like, you can take an evening off and still have a home cooked meal — but you just take out all of the preparation. You just pop it in the oven, and you’ve saved loads of time, as well.

“I think it’s about time. It’s about taking time back to yourself and being with your family — I think it’s so important.”

Bláthnaid told how they “kind of have a routine down” when it comes to dinnertime — and how it is “really important to reconnect” during the meal.

She said, |We’re one of those households where, you know, I’d love to say we’re 50/50 with the meal and dinnertimes and stuff like that — but it is mainly Charlie, he’s definitely the chef in our house.

“We kind of have a routine down. Nancy goes to be at about half seven or so — fingers crossed she goes down at half seven.

“One of us is kind of doing that, while the other one is preparing dinner for us. Once she’s down, it’s nice — it’s quiet, she’s asleep, and it’s been a really long day for both of us, between minding our child, working, whatever it is.

“And then we can just sit at the table, light a candle and be like, ‘hi, how are you’ and catch our breath.

“It does feel like a whirlwind, every day does. It is really nice to have that little bit of time just to look at each other — look each other in the eye and be like, ‘so, what’s going on with you, how was your day?’ It’s just really important to reconnect.

“I also loved that SuperValu are championing lighting a candle. It’s such a beautiful universal thing, that when you light a candle it sets the tone and puts a pause in the day, creates a beautiful light and you just calm down.

“And this is like, shown universally, that your nervous system — everything just calms down. And I think there’s something so nice about that, and it’s so simple, as well.”

Blathnaid Treacy Moon is an ambassador for SuperValu's Dinner Time Well Spent campaign. SuperValu is calling on families across Ireland to reclaim dinnertime by coming together regularly and connecting over a great meal. To reinforce the commitment, SuperValu is leaning into a universal, cross-cultural ritual: lighting a candle on the dinner table and asking people to put away all the gadgets that interfere with the dinnertime conversation.

Join RSVP Live's WhatsApp community to get celebrity news and our top stories