Leighton Meester has spoken candidly about how motherhood has affected her career admitting it's 'preferable' to work 'three months, non-stop day and night' - and her honesty might just strike a chord with you.
Whether it's struggling with 'mum guilt' or trying to explain the mental load to your partner, it's no easy feat juggling full-time or part-time work with being a parent. Even the Gossip Girl star admits an unsociable schedule of working "three months, non-stop, day and night" is "preferable" when it comes to being a mother.
The actress is a mum of two to daughter Arlo, born in 2015, and a son, whose name has not been revealed, born in 2020. Speaking to her husband Adam Brody for Interview Magazine, Leighton confessed, "It’s inevitable that it’s changed it, and we’ve had these conversations endlessly. I wouldn’t change anything and I’m proud of the mom I am.”
However, she, like most other mums out there, has reservations about how well she's doing when it comes to the motherhood role.
She continued, “But I also feel like I’m open to a lot of self-doubt and worry, and to more extreme hyper-vigilance and neurosis. So all I can do is take it a day at a time. But when I’m with the kids, our kids, I feel like all I can do is be present. Then when I’m working, I miss them like crazy.”
She added, “It’s hard not to feel as a mom that you’re not doing enough and I think that’s always going to be reinforced by our society.”
Simply becoming a mother changed her outlook on the role itself. She admitted, "It gave me a lot of compassion, and this whole other level of appreciation for other people and a sensitivity that I don’t think I ever had before. Particularly, when it comes to children. It’s not like a regular job. You work for 3 months, nonstop, day and night, and then not at all for the rest of time. It’s preferable.”
She previously opened up on motherhood, telling People, "It's all just so intimate and private" she explained, "It’s something that I could never put into words, really. It’s such an emotional journey to have children, and it certainly has made me reflect on my own upbringing and childhood.”
And while she wants to be able to give them everything she "never had", she wants to be "grateful for everything that we have".
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