Chip Gaines Reveals His Parenting Fails While Raising Five Kids: 'I've Forgotten Birthdays'
Chip Gaines is a dad of five and despite all his experience raising kids, the Fixer Upper star, 44, admits he’s had his fair share of parenting fails.
He and his wife and business partner Joanna Gaines are parents to five children: Crew, 11 months, Emmie Kay, 9, Duke, 10, Ella Rose, 12, and Drake, 14.
“I made every mistake in the book with Drake and Ella both,” he says in the latest issue of PEOPLE. “There’s lots of stories of me leaving kids places I shouldn’t have left them. I’ve forgotten birthdays. Afterward you’re like, ‘I’m the worst person.’ “
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“But I’m a firm believer that it’s the mistakes that make us who we are. We learn the most from them, and I think that goes for parenting as well,” he adds.
While a lot has changed since he and Joanna welcomed their first child 14 years ago, Chip still remembers his early days as a new dad.
“I was a bit more adventurous than maybe your typical first-time father, but like anyone else we were scared to death because you have no idea what you’re doing,” he says.
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“There were definitely great books out there but we thought, ‘Hey, we could figure this out as good as anybody.’ At the end of the day we really considered it a big adventure.”
For more on Chip Gaines, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
