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Parenting

30th Jan 2017

This Is What Victoria Beckham Has To Say About Coping With Working Mum Guilt

Trine Jensen-Burke

As every working mum on the planet knows, hanging on to your career and raising a family at the same time involves a lot of juggling and planning – and also occasional feelings of guilt for not not being there for your children 100 percent of the time. 

The thing is, though, to me – and I would imagine – most other working mums, the guilt is balanced out by both necessity and also pride – in that you are showing your children that you and your partner are equal, that your education and career matters too and that women really can do it all.

Go girl-power.

This too is that case for Victoria Beckham, who recently spoke about feeling passionate about the children seeing her go to work too, but also feeling lucky that she is in a position where she can take time for her family too.

“I am incredibly lucky that I am the boss, so I can say: “I’m coming in late because of sports day,” she told the Sunday Times Style. “Some mums can’t do that, and the key is to not beat yourself up about it.”

The busy mum-of-four said that the trickiest thing was managing her time between her children and her career: “The most important thing is to make sure that each child gets the individual attention that they need,” she explained. “I can never go to bed early because Brooklyn is always up and that’s when I get to see him, and then you’ve got Harper who is up super early. So I do feel that I’m being pulled in four different directions with the children. And then I have David and work, too.”

The fashion designer admits that she frequently finds it hard to delegate due to her self-confessed “control freak” tendencies. “The truth is, it is hard,” she explains. “You feel guilty if you’re missing something with the children. If I’m away on holiday or away for the weekend, I hide in the loo or a cupboard because someone at work is emailing me and they need answers to something, and I feel I have to hide those things because I don’t want to impinge on the family.”

Ultimately, Victoria points out that teaching her children the importance of working hard is invaluable.”It’s great when the kids know that both Mummy and Daddy work, and that we’re equal, and that when they come to the show, they know that Daddy is in charge because I’m going to be running around looking at the girls, checking the hair and make-up, checking the set,” she said. “All the children know that I go to work, and that is such a positive thing.”