This Morning presenter Holly Willoughby has opened up about one of her parental triggers. It stems from the guilt she feels because she rarely has time to take her children to school due to her morning talk show job. During a conversation about being a working mother, she also highlighted the importance of finding the root of the guilt. Holly is a mother of three to Harry 12, Belle 10 and Chester 7 - who she shares with her husband Dan Baldwin.
Speaking on the One Show to promote her new book ‘Reflections’ she revealed she was ‘losing touch with herself’ due to juggling family life and a successful career. When questioned how she manages it Holly admitted, 'I really don’t, I feel guilty about everything.' ‘It’s totally normal but what I’ve had to really focus on is where’s the guilt coming from,’ she adds.
The presenter realises that other mums also struggle with these feelings,' I think the problem with working mums is that I'm feeling guilty because I'm not there to drop my kids off in the morning, because I have to go to work, she said.' She adds, 'What I’m feeling guilty about is that in some way I’m clearly telling myself I clearly don’t love my kids because I love my career more than my children.' Holly insisted, 'That’s not the case, I know that’s not the case, I know I love my kids more than anything on this planet.’
Holly explained that upon reflection, she realised that the root of her guilt actually comes from worrying what others think of her parenting, rather than her own feelings. The This Morning presenter concluded, ‘You just have to kind of re-evaluate who’d rules you’re living by, are they your opinions or other ones you think are out there.’
Holly acknowledged she was 'blessed' to have children whilst maintaining a successful career. However, she confessed to forgetting to stop and be still. She revealed,'I love my career but sometimes, when you are spinning all of these plates you forget to stop and just be still, and work out who you are in the middle of all of this craziness, and this bit that is going on.'
Whilst Holly opts to keeps her personal life private, her book gives readers an insight into her inner thoughts and offers them multiple options to try and reconnect with themselves. She explained, 'A big part of the book was reconnection in many ways, mainly reconnecting with myself. I felt like I had completely lost a part of myself.' She concluded that she was so busy focusing on so many other things that ' looking in and focusing on myself' was lost.
'I had to get to know myself, and being still, being reflective and getting into nature was a major part of things.' Holly admitted she scared about the judgement she would receive from the public after writing a book. She explained, 'There's definitely pieces of me I haven't been ready to share yet. And actually there's pieces of myself that I've only really discovered since I've paused and got to know myself again.'
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