‘There’s no shame or judgment’: Nazeem Hussain tackles parenting’s big questions

With three children at home ranging in age from three months to seven years, Nazeem Hussain was keen to sign up for ABC parenting series The Role of A Lifetime.

After filming the five-parter, which tackles older-kid-raising with expert advice, real-world challenges, and “sitcom” scenes in which Hussain appears opposite Kate Ritchie as an overwhelmed Everydad, the comedian feels he may know too much.

“I want to tell my friends and family who also have kids to make small adjustments to improve their parenting,” says Hussain. “It felt like I had a crazy masterclass. The risk for me is that now I’ve become that person.”

Comedian Nazeem Hussain with Kate Ritchie in parenting show The Role of a Lifetime, in which they play “sitcom” parents. Credit: Dylan Coker / Dreamchaser

Working with former Home and Away star Kate Ritchie, who is taking a break from her NOVA FM gig to address her mental health, was a highlight.

“Kate is someone I grew up watching,” says Hussain. “I’m in awe of her talent. There were times when she’d be looking at me as my on-screen wife, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘I think she might like me. I think she maybe loves me’. And then the director would yell ‘cut!’ and I’d just snap out of it. She’s just a good actor. It was such a bizarre experience.”

Even though making a parenting show “can feel like an arrogant endeavour”, Hussain says he thinks the show will resonate. “There are a lot of questions thrown up in here,” he says. “There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to these very layered questions. There’s no shame or judgment. There is an acknowledgment and an appreciation of different approaches to parenting.”

Parenting expert Maggie Dent hopes parents won’t feel overwhelmed by the advice in The Role of a Lifetime.Credit: Dylan Coker / Dreamchaser

Series expert Maggie Dent, who in 2003 wrote the book on Saving Our Children from Our Chaotic World, insisted that, unlike Nine’s Parental Guidance, real families would not be put under the microscope. Hence, potential minefields such as setting boundaries, discipline and when to give tweens a smartphone, are workshopped through the sitcom, written by Fisk writer Penny Flanagan and Melina Wicks and guest-starring Heather Mitchell as Nan.

“My stipulation was that we’re definitely going to have actors. I did not like the idea of real families with their children,” says Dent. “That was always a worry for me – how do we get authorised, valid consent from children who are not yet an adult with an adult brain? The second thing was, I’d already seen what this team (led by former ABC head of entertainment Debbie Cuell, who produced Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds/Teenagers), has done. So I knew they had integrity and a wonderful way of capturing the authenticity of human connection.”

Despite having raised four sons, worked as a high school teacher and written multiple books, Dent still had something to learn from the series. Like Hussain, she recognises the pitfalls of parenting advice overload.

“I’m partly to blame,” she says. “We’ve created so much parenting information that when a parent has a difficult moment, they think ‘what do I do to fix it?’ And they do the Google search. And of course, so much of the things that happen with kids that are difficult are developmentally appropriate.”

She suggests families watch the series together and “be prepared to squirm”. Heather Mitchell’s character, in particular, has a shock plot twist relating to online privacy. Hussain says making the sitcom, directed by Hussein’s Orange is the New Brown director Hayden Guppy, was “just really fun and silly”.

“The shoot days were often long because we were trying to make the crew and each other laugh,” says Hussein. “The blooper reel was probably longer than the actual footage.”

He hopes viewers will appreciate the comic approach to the serious subject. “There are as many different approaches to parenting as there are people and experiences. I feel like parenting is like comedy in a way. It’s subjective. And we’re all going through this together.”

The Role Of A Lifetime premieres on Tuesday, February 18, at 8.30pm on the ABC.

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