The `If I Had a Gun...` hitmaker - who has daughter Anais, 12, with ex-spouse Meg Matthews and sons Donovan, five, and 23-month-old Sonny with his wife Sara MacDonald - wishes his kids didn`t have to grow up and find pals of their own, because they are so close. He said: "When I`m at home, Sara will sometimes take the kids up to Scotland to see her folks and for about 12 hours, it`s like living the dream. After that, a switch goes in your head, `Oh I`m bored now, I want the kids here,` because as daft and as mad as they are, they`re my best friends, all of them, and I do miss them when they go away.` "It`s my lad`s first day at primary school and it was like, `Aww that`s it now, he`s going to have his mates. He`ll come home and say he wants to support Tottenham and I`ll have to throw him in the canal. He`s going to have his mates and these are going to be peers he`ll have the rest of his life.` It`s mental that stage. "I just want them to stay like this forever. But they`ve got to grow up and be whatever they`re going to be." Despite his closeness to his kids, `Married with Children` singer Noel insists he isn`t an over-protective dad because he doesn`t want them to grow up to be "brats". The former Oasis guitarist told Q magazine: "My kids have got to work themselves around my life, not the other way. That`s how kids become brats, if you`re there staring at them all the time going, `Are you alright?` "Dad`s a rock star, know what I mean? He could be a f***ing square like all your mates` dads."