First of all, let me state that the phrase ‘working mum’ offends me.
Hugely.
Having been the career woman, then the full-time mum, I can tell you now both are work. And the latter is by far the hardest.
With my children getting a little older, the opportunities I’ve had to go back into the workplace (allbeit on a part-time basis) have been a blessed rest.
As much as I love my boys.
But the celebrities who pull this ‘I’m just like you’ rubbish, claiming they too struggle to balance work with their home lives and children, really gets on my frazzled nerves.
Yeah, right J-Lo, you’re just a working mum trying to balance red carpet ceremonies with the kids.
The closest the rest of us get to a red carpet is when our toddler squirts ketchup on the floor.
“I am a working mother now,” gushes Jenny from the Block.
“And to find the right balance is just very difficult. The babies become the most important thing in my life. Everything else has to take a back seat.”
Hmmm. I’m sure working out with a personal trainer to perfect her famous ‘back seat’ takes precedence over bathtime and storytime with her admittedly gorgeous twins.
from socialitelife.com
Former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham says of building her fashion empire: “There are quite a few video conferences at 5am with me in my dressing gown, holding baby.
“For me it’s no different than it is for a lot of women out there.”
I very much doubt this would ever happen.
If it did, she’d be in a Gucci robe, with an army of stylists having just done her hair, and a nanny hiding in the en-suite bathroom, ready to take baby Harper if she threatens to puke.
Yeah right Posh. Your life is no different to a lot of mums out there.
So I almost stood up and applauded recently after reading an interview with Kirstie Allsopp, she of Location Location Location.
“Yes, I have help, and lots of it,” she says.
“It makes me mad when I read interviews with celebrities who suggest that they do it all themselves. 
No they don’t. It isn’t possible, and to say it is is a betrayal of other women.
“My nanny Heather comes at 8am, and she goes at 6.30pm, but if I am away filming, she will babysit after that. I have a housekeeper to run the house.
“I could gloss over all that. I keep the mornings sacrosanct for the kids, then, at 8am, I scramble upstairs and throw my clothes on.
“But I haven’t ironed the stuff in my wardrobe. I make the bed when I can but some days I can’t and some days I can’t think about the children’s tea.
“But it would be silly to lie.”
US writer Kiri Blakely agrees with Kirstie. It is silly to lie, but an army of nannies are now Hollywood’s dirtiest little secret, since the majority of celebrity mums want to appear like they’re just one of us.
“What we don’t see are the armies behind the scenes who make this scenario even remotely possible,” she explains.
“We don’t see the nannies – most celebrities not only have one, but one for each child.
“We don’t see the housekeepers, the stylists, the trainers, the cooks and the plethora of personal assistants.
“Celebrities such as Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow, when asked by the press how they find the time to exercise and child rear, say they do it while their children nap. (Right! If their children nap for three hours a day!)
“Even the paparazzi, who normally catch celebrities in their most unguarded moments, seem to be in cahoots with them. Pictures of the kids with Lopez or Angelina Jolie sell – pictures of the kids with some harried anonymous nanny must not.
“Next time you see Angelina or J-Lo or Julia Roberts smiling and waving as they breeze through LAX with a Burberry-wearing tot, looking well rested and in control – 20 feet behind them, just out of the paparazzi’s lens, lurks the secret to their success – a nanny. Or two. Or three.”
Yet while I’m hugely irritated by these pampered and preened celebrities who lie through their perfectly whitened teeth, I can’t help but pity them too.
Think about it.
They have a charmed and beautiful life. They have all the help they could ever need.
Yet, they choose to hide it.
Which means that, it doesn’t matter how much money or fame you have.
Mummy guilt will always get you in the end.
Posted by Donna
Pingback: Fantasy New Year’s Eve dinner party | Mummy Central
Pingback: Fantasy New Year’s Eve dinner party