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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Opens Up About Being A Working Dad

It's important to keep a sense of predictability for his kids, he said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Facebook cover photo shows him with his daughter Ella Grace.
Justin Trudeau/Facebook
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Facebook cover photo shows him with his daughter Ella Grace.

Balancing your kids and a job is a struggle for any working parent. Even when you're the prime minister.

As Justin Trudeau explained Monday in a radio interview, there's a lot of juggling for him and his wife, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, when it comes to their three children, Xavier, 11, Ella-Grace, 9, and Hadrien, 4.

"We're trying to figure out: OK, which nights are you home for dinner, and are we going to be up to the lake on the weekend, or am I arriving late?" he told morning show host and longtime friend Terry DiMonte. "It's all trying to keep a little bit of predictability and normalcy for the kids."

WATCH: Justin Trudeau walks his kids to school. Story continues below video.

Trudeau mostly talked politics in his interview on CHOM 97.7. But near the end of the segment, DiMonte asked the PM about how he and his wife balance everything. Turns out, they're like most parents trying to fit in all those kid Christmas events this time of year.

"I'm going into the office late on Tuesday because the concert is first thing in the morning at the school," Trudeau said with a laugh.

Trudeau explained that his kids tend not to make a fuss when he goes away for a few nights, but they still grumble when those trips "get into five or six sleeps."

There's all sorts of like, pricks. I just say, 'Look, figure out who you are and learn how to read people.'Justin Trudeau's advice to his son, Xavier

Trudeau shared with DiMonte the advice he's passed onto his oldest son, Xavier, about how to cope with the extra attention from other kids.

"The conversations I get to have with him that I never got to have with my father are pretty cool. Because my dad had no idea what it was like to be the son of a prime minister. And I know."

Kids might act "weird" at first, Trudeau recalled telling Xavier, "but they pick up their cues from how your friends react, and when your friends don't think it's a big deal, the new kids will learn quickly it's cool not to think it's a big deal and just adjust to it and everything.

"There's all sorts of like, pricks. I just say, 'Look, figure out who you are and learn how to read people,'" Trudeau said.

Trudeau is often seen engaging in #dadlife, such as walking his kids to their first day of school, taking them trick or treating, and bringing the whole crew on business trips including earlier this year to India, where little Hadrien made headlines for living his best life.

Trudeau is just one of many working parents in Parliament. Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould made history in March as the first sitting federal Canadian cabinet minister to give birth, then had many parents cheering as she breastfed her son in the House of Commons.

"Baby's gotta eat & I had votes," Gould tweeted about the experience.

NDP MP Niki Ashton brought her twin babies to Parliament last February, writing on Instagram that she was "fighting for what matters."

Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre has been a new dad since October, and posts often about baby Valentina. Last week, his caucus colleague Michelle Rempel noted a little baby barf on Poilievre's tie during a vote.

Ah, the joys of being a working parent.

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