Drew Scott is sharing how his parenting needed a fixer-upper. The Property Brothers star, 48, opened up about a “heartbreaking” moment with his 4-year-old son, Parker, that forced him to rethink his work-life balance.
“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you run a mile a minute, which I tend to, I think you might relate to this story,” Scott began in a June 23 Instagram video, part of his “Blueprint for Life” series. He shares Parker and 2-year-old daughter Piper with wife Linda Phan.
Scott recalled coming home one day and asking Parker for a hug. Instead of running to him, his son ran away, then picked up a toy, held it to his ear, and started pacing around saying, “I’m on a business call”.
“It was heartbreaking for me because he just saw me on calls all the time,” Scott explained. “So that was a wake-up for me to not be on my phone when I’m around the kids. To show them that I’m actually present, I’m listening to their questions, I’m answering, I’m playing with them”.
The moment became a powerful reminder that children are always watching and learning from the adults around them.
The Drew Scott parenting wake-up call led him to make intentional changes. He now comes home during lunch breaks while filming to be present for small moments, like Piper’s at-home music class.
“It’s a small thing but for me to be present there, I can see it in Piper’s face, she gets excited,” he shared. “But if I was just to be in my busy, busy work pace, I would do calls over my lunch and I would skip that. Then all of a sudden I would look back years from now and think I missed these crucial points in my baby’s life”.
Scott concluded his video with advice for his followers, urging them to establish what truly matters.
“Even if you don’t have kids, maybe it’s nice to spend a bit more time with your parents, maybe it’s nice to spend some time with your siblings, or your best friends,” he said. “It’s going to feel pretty empty at the end of your career or at the end of your life if you look back and all you did was work. And don’t be that person checking your phone when you’re hanging out with family”.
For Scott, a child’s simple imitation became a powerful lesson in presence over productivity. His wake-up call resonates with anyone who has ever let work bleed into family time. The HGTV star is now proving that being fully present, even for small moments, is the most important renovation of all.
