The $8.49 beauty product Chrissie Swan (and her son!) can't get enough of.

Image via Instagram (@chrissieswan).

At the end of last year after being somewhat unceremoniously let go by Melbourne radio station Kiis FM, you might have been forgiven for thinking that Chrissie Swan was at the end of the road in terms of a show biz career.

But, with new radio appearances and a gig hosting The Great Australian Spelling Bee, premiering tonight on Channel 10, things look to be going pretty swimmingly now.

“Pretty early on I worked out that you can’t look for self-esteem at work. You just gotta get in there and do your job and then go back to where your real life is, which for me is at home with the family. I think you’re on a slippery slope if you try and get your self-esteem from your job,” Chrissie tells me.

I can hear Chrissie’s youngest, two-year-old daughter Peg, in the background as we speak and I ask her how she goes juggling work and family.

“I’m currently making a bottle as we speak!”

“My philosophy is every day is a new adventure. Trying to get a routine with three kids and being a working parent is a fool’s errand. I make sure I’ve got what I need to do my job, that’s important because I’m the bread winner,” Chrissie says. She also advises, “get help if you need it.”

I couldn’t resist asking Chrissie about her favourite beauty products. “My little son has tricky skin. His skin specialist recommended QV Intensive Moisturising Cream ($8.49). It’s so great. I use that. We share it.”

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And for herself? “Do you know about Zoe Foster Blake’s Go-To products. She has a product called Face Hero and I’m obsessed with it. It’s so good I can’t believe it. All of her products are great, but the face hero is amaze balls," she says.

Channel 10 are heavily promoting The Great Australian Spelling Bee. It’s up against Hotplate, and Restaurant Revolution on Channel 9 and Channel 7 respectively.

“I think it’s going to be fun. I’ve only seen as much as everyone else has seen in terms of promos and stuff. It looks like they’ve captured the loveliness of the kids.”

The promos look like it might just be the most heartwarming thing on TV right now. “It really is. I just love that we’re saying it’s cool to be clever. One of the great things about getting all these kids together is that I don’t think they’ve ever been in a room with 52 of themselves before.”

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Chrissie says the kids haven’t always had peers that understand them. “Now there’s a whole room of people who understand them, that they can talk to about books and algorithms and stuff.”

The show has received some criticism, that it’s full of stage mums and pushy parents. “I read that somewhere and I thought where are they getting that from? No one has seen the show yet.” (Post continues after gallery).

“I’m a very free-range parent. I believe kids should be kids so I was worried about that element. But I was so surprised and delighted by the parents. Because they are completely mystified by them (their kids) as well.”

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“One of the things I found interesting about the perceived parental pressure is that none of these parents have an element of the show parent. The kids themselves entered the show. They had seen a call out on television and sent the email off themselves. The parents just sort of went along with it.”

Chrissie’s children are now eight, four and two. She says she wants them to learn that life is all about joy. “A lot of people are asking, in the lead up to Spelling Bee, about my kids and school and if this has got me thinking about pushing their education.”

“I just want them to have fun in their life. I want them to get that delicious realisation that you are the boss of you and that you can do whatever you want to do. As long as you are kind and having fun you won’t have any regrets.”

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As for what Chrissie has learnt from her kids? “Probably that things don’t matter. Material things. We spend a lot of time trying to get the best for our kids, working very hard, you know, so they have everything we perceive as a comfort for them. But actually they don’t care, they just want your time.”

This article was originally published on The Motherish.

The Great Australian Spelling Bee airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 7:30pm on Channel 10.