BEVERLEY TURNER: I felt a pang of understanding when Helen Skelton sacrificed her BBC Radio 5 Live Sunday morning show on the altar of motherhood earlier this month.
more than a year ago, told listeners. 'I'm not all right about it... But you know, needs must.'
You could hardly find a more vibrant, capable woman than 40-year-old Skelton, who wowed the Strictly Come Dancing audience on the same week that her ex-husband announced he was having a baby with his new partner. And yet her move does seem to confirm the depressing truth that, even in 2023, many mums still can't 'have it all'. While divorce can be liberating, it undeniably makes the juggle much harder.
As much as it pains us broken working mothers to admit - and this comes into even sharper focus when you are a divorced working mother - a happy childhood is grounded in simple moments like catching a parent's eye when you score a goal or chatting in the car on the way home from a match.
BEVERLEY TURNER: As much as it pains us broken working mothers to admit — and this comes into even sharper focus when you are a divorced working mother — a happy childhood is grounded in simple moments like catching a parent's eye when you score a goal or chatting in the car on the way home from a match
And, of course, like Helen, I also carry the quiet millstone of knowing that the plan to raise my children in a home with their biological father didn't pan out. No matter how happy we post-divorce mums might be with our new normal, that sense of having failed to preserve the 'perfect' family life for our kids lingers.
And, yet, the reality is that most of the time without the kids is consumed by boring tasks you've not had time to get done when they are around because the parenting and working is so relentless. After 19 years of parenting, I have concluded it's the voice inside our heads endlessly repeating the to-do list that finally grinds mothers down to the point at which we give up fabulous jobs.Often, too, it will mix frequencies. 'Mum, you're not listening,' my kids will say as I zone out over dinner contemplating an interview I'll be doing the next morning with a particularly tricky MP.
Ex: The television presenter, 39, announced her split from England and Leeds Rhinos rugby league star Richie, 33, in April last year My boss is lovely and has done everything practically possible to support my exit from the house before the kids leave for school, but they can't ease my guilt at not being there to wave them off and do last-minute checks. That's just a compromise I have to accept.
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