HGTV Couple Erin & Ben Napier's Most Relatable Parenting Confessions

HGTV's "Home Town" stars, Ben and Erin Napier, are a beloved couple. Not just because they can give old, dilapidated buildings a new lease on life, but also for being down-to-earth people who don't just show highlight reels of their lives. Aside from giving viewers a glimpse of their marriage on-screen, the couple has also made some relatable parenting confessions when it comes to raising their two kids, Helen and Mae. They've certainly not glossed over the fact that working and raising kids can be incredibly challenging on the best of days.

"It feels like every day is a dance, and it has to be carefully choreographed for us to get to the end and all feel good about it," Erin told People in 2021. "The wheels fall off around 5 p.m." She admitted that it's not always easy, but they're doing their best. Ben added that they've made a habit of taking their kids to work with them because they refuse to be apart from their children for prolonged periods. "If we are going to go on the road for [Home Town] Takeover, or if we're going to do media stuff in New York, then we're going to have to bring our family along with us," he told People. "And so that's how we do it. We don't fold on our family time."

Ben also shared in a 2023 interview with Entertainment Tonight that becoming a father completely changed his outlook on life. "They're just so little and innocent. I've never been worried about getting older or mortality or anything until I had little girls. Now I can't stop it, I can't hold onto it... It is the worst and the best," he said.

They might be an open book, but what many "Home Town" fans don't know about Ben and Erin Napier is that they once wondered whether they would have kids. Many celebrities have struggled with infertility, and Erin was set to be one of them. The HGTV star dealt with unexplained health issues for a decade before doctors finally figured out that she had a perforated appendix. However, the diagnosis came with the possibility that she might struggle with infertility. This was, of course, upsetting news for the couple. "We knew that if children weren't in the plan biologically, we would adopt. If we couldn't adopt for some reason, having each other would be enough," Erin told People in 2020.

They were blessed with two daughters, but Erin hasn't forgotten what it felt like to be told she and Ben might not be able to have kids of their own. On Mother's Day in 2024, Erin took to Instagram to celebrate one of her friends, Aly Saxton Smith, who had been struggling with infertility and had finally become pregnant. She hinted that she'd planned a surprise for her friend that fans would get to see on "Home Town," penning, "Bring your tissues to the couch this Sunday night, May 12 and watch the most emotional 'Home Town' ... This one's for the mamas and the mamas in waiting. Sending love to y'all this weekend."

Ben Napier might look invincible while he's doing hard labor on "Home Town," but being a brand-new father had him quaking in his boots, and he wasn't afraid to admit it. "I may sound like an idiot for saying it—the first night home from the hospital is the absolute scariest thing you will go through," he told Country Living in 2025.

It didn't help that their newborn daughter, Helen, spent the entirety of her first night home crying. Aside from dealing with a new, fragile tiny human, Ben also realized that just because Erin Napier had given birth didn't mean her hormones would suddenly, magically fall back in line. "I was unprepared for the next three to six months of hormonal changes that were going on. So if you're a boy who grew up in a house full of boys, just know: That's coming," he warned.

Erin admitted in a 2020 interview with People, two years after Helen was born, that, even though she really wanted children, the prospect of becoming a mom was pretty terrifying to her. "I always wanted to have kids and it was also my biggest fear my whole life; I was terrified at the whole thought of pregnancy and childbirth just terrified me," she admitted. We're pretty sure many women can relate. She acknowledged that holding the tension of wanting to be a mother but also fearing it was "a hard place to be." After their second child was born in 2021, Erin posted a candid snap of Ben snoozing on the couch to Instagram with his boots still on his feet. "Sleep when the baby sleeps," she captioned the shot.

Plenty of celebrity moms have had kids without a partner, and they deserve a gold medal for that undertaking, if Erin Napier has anything to say about it. She has been very open about the fact that she struggles to parent alone, especially because her kids turn into different humans when Ben Napier isn't home.

During an interview on the "Dadville" podcast, Erin opened up about solo parenting and how she finds it to be one of the hardest things, adding that it has given her profound respect for her friends who do it well. "They are used to doing things on their own," Erin said. "But if I have to solo mom without [Ben] for even an hour or two hours, the girls really misbehave and are different." It's a classic situation of when the cat's away, the mice will play. "As long as Daddy is there, they stay balanced and really sweet," Erin added. Ben noted that it goes both ways and that the kids behave in a similar manner when Erin isn't home. "They don't like it to have just one of us," Erin said.

When the couple sat down for an interview on the "Today" show in 2024, host Jenna Bush Hager said that she enjoys solo parenting every once in a while. Ben and Erin admitted that's not the case for them. "No, it doesn't work for me. We're always together as a family of four. Mommy and Daddy are one unit," she explained, adding, "We're just better as a team."

They say it takes a village to raise a child, and Ben and Erin Napier wholeheartedly agree. It can be easy for parents to have the mindset of doing everything on their own, but the couple learned that it's important to ask for help when you need it.

Speaking to People in 2024 after delivering two successful seasons of their spinoff series "Home Town Takeover," and filming the third, Ben and Erin admitted that, while they had a lot of fun, it was brutal. "Season 1 nearly killed us, it was the hardest thing we had ever done," Erin admitted. It got easier as the show went on, but the couple's crazy schedules haven't really changed. So how on earth did they manage to balance work and their kids? "There's no way you do this without an army of support at home and here," Erin said. Ben added, "We bring one of our moms every time we come."

It also helps that the rest of the show's cast and crew have become like family to the Napiers and their kids, which means that the couple has had the leeway to build their schedules around their kids' needs because they work with people who support them. "I really don't want someone else to raise them. I want us to be 100 percent a part of their life," Erin told People in 2021. That's why she and Ben set out a normal workday for themselves on the show — both work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. "The only trick I've learned so far is that you've got to say what you need. And what I need is to be there for my kids," Erin said.

Erin Napier has been candid about parenting as a TV personality, and like so many moms out there, she's confessed that she experiences the occasional bout of mom guilt. She's in good company — even Princess Catherine has opened up about dealing with mom guilt, and she's the future queen of England!

Erin told "Today Parents" in 2022 that she felt incredibly guilty about not being able to read as much to her youngest daughter, Mae, because she also has her oldest, Helen, to take care of. "I beat myself up over it, like 'Is Mae not going to love reading because I haven't read 50 books to her?'" she questioned. Erin also took to Instagram after Mae was born to share that she wasn't breastfeeding. "Just a little encouragement for you mamas who weren't able to breastfeed, like me. Don't let anyone make you feel less than or belittled because of it," she captioned the post, hinting she might have struggled with guilt about this, but Erin has made it clear that she has no time for Instagram mommy shamers.

Something else that was hard for Erin was bidding goodbye to her life as "just Helen's mom" as Mae was about to be born. "We're feeling weepy every morning at breakfast, realizing the days are numbered when it will just be the three of us, and this precious routine we've made will change again," she told SheKnows. Erin and Ben told "Today Parents" that they were a little afraid of having a second child because they were worried they wouldn't be able to love them the same as they do Helen. "All of our worries were unfounded," Erin shared. "It feels like Mae was always there."

Ben and Erin Napier love their kids dearly, but that doesn't mean they're going to throw them a pricey birthday bash every year, and it's not because they're being stingy parents. On the contrary, they believe small, intimate family gatherings will make for more meaningful memories because that's how they grew up. Ben told Today in 2025 that he spent his birthdays with his family, playing with his three brothers. His mom baked his birthday cake, they'd eat pizza, and play in the park. "It was awesome!" he said. Having attended their fair share of loud, chaotic kids' parties made the couple decide not to subject themselves to that kind of mayhem with their children. "It's stressful and loud. I was like, 'We're not doing this,'" Ben said.

This means that Helen and Mae aren't getting big birthday bashes. Instead, it's a family affair. "Our rule is, until they're old enough to plan it themselves, it's supper at grandparents," Ben explained. Erin added, "If your 4-year-old's birthday party looks like a wedding, what do they have to look forward to?" Touché! Ben, however, feels very strongly about having a homemade birthday cake for his girls, just like he had as a boy, but that doesn't mean it's a ginormous, fancy cake either.

When Mae turned three in 2024, Erin took to Instagram to share a snap of the cake. It was incredibly simple, with white frosting topped with strawberries and blueberries, and the words "Mae is 3!" scrawled in red. She shared that her youngest wanted a Christmas-themed party, so they "brought a little potted tree with ornaments on the porch and grilled hot dogs, blew up a waterslide in the yard and listened to Bing Crosby."

Call Ben and Erin Napier crazy, but they firmly believe that young kids should not be exposed to social media and the internet (and experts actually agree). In fact, they started their own nonprofit to help raise awareness about the impact technology has on young minds and encourage other parents to follow their lead. The organization's name is Osprey (Old School Parents Raising Engaged Youth). While talking about the organization on her Instagram Stories in 2024, Erin said that her kids are growing up device-free. "Our kids haven't used screens before, haven't needed to, haven't really been around other kids who do," she shared, per TV Insider. "They facetime grandparents and that's it."

For Ben and Erin, keeping their kids off social media and the internet is vital for them to develop social skills and have a normal, carefree childhood. "I feel like when our kids have more opportunity to be engaged in the real world and learning skills and finding their talents, that's where self-assurance comes from. And the opposite of finding self-assurance is in social media. Everything that tears down our self-confidence and self-assurance lives there," Erin argued in an interview with People, adding that her kids will only be able to see social media as a tool and use it responsibly when they're "much older."

Erin admitted in a lengthy 2022 Instagram post that she wouldn't have survived her teenage years in the age of social media. "As a highly sensitive artistic kid, the criticism or silence of 'likes' would've hurt me deeply. It would have shaped me into someone, something else," she wrote. Parents agreed resoundingly in the comment section.

One of the hardest things about being a parent is figuring out how to discipline your kids. It needs to be effective; they need to learn, but you also don't want them to be terrified of you. This is something Ben Napier grapples with, and many parents can probably relate. Speaking to Fox News in 2024, he admitted that discipling his two girls is harder than it would have been if they were boys. "I am in a constant state of fear with two little girls and wanting to discipline, but how far?" he confessed, clarifying that he doesn't want to "make them terrified of [him]." Erin added it's a challenge to be strict "but not crush their spirit."

Ben explained that he wants his girls to trust him, feel safe with him, and confide in him, but they also need to have a healthy amount of respect for him. Toeing that line is difficult. Erin added, "Parenting is the hardest job in the world. Everybody knows that." And parents everywhere agreed.

Erin has also been open about how she's had to change her approach to life's little annoyances as a mother in order to set a good example and not be too hard on her kids just because she's stressed. "My whole life has been about how much I can do, as fast as possible, as effectively as possible ... but then, once you have kids, like, do we have to freak out about getting our shoes on? Like is it really that [much of an emergency]?" she told the "Dadville" podcast in 2026. "I'm working so hard to tamper that down."

As far as Ben and Erin Napier are concerned, the perfect-parenting content on social media is a bunch of baloney. They'd much rather talk about what parenting is like in real life and share the messy parts on their social media accounts so others can know they're not alone. "We stopped following social media accounts where everything is always staged and beautiful and perfect because it is so boring to me," Erin told Yahoo! Life in 2022.

Both Ben and Erin understand that most people simply share a highlight reel, but they don't want to be that couple, even though sometimes it means getting a bunch of nasty comments from people offended by their real-life content. "I'm not thankful for people who find us on social media and give us a hateful opinion that was not asked for," Erin argued. Ben agreed. "You don't treat people like that [in real life]," he added.

The haters haven't stopped them from being real. In 2022, Erin took to Instagram to post a snap of her failed attempt at styling her daughter's hair in a French braid. She had gone to an enormous amount of effort to get it right, but it simply wasn't up to snuff. Instead of hiding this, she shared the relatable moment with her fans, and the frustration she felt as a mom who tried her best but couldn't quite deliver. "After trying for 30 minutes, this is what I had done and I was supremely frustrated," Erin admitted in the caption. Her daughter, however, made it all better when she told her mom, "No! I love it. It IS a French braid. You're a good mommy."