In a recent interview, Kate Hudson urged mums not to be too hard on themselves. But being kind to herself doesn’t stop the Oscar winner from being brutally honest.
In a new essay she wrote for InStyle magazine entitled ‘Sometimes I Feel Like a Bad Mum’ she gets candid about motherhood.
Kate talks about the struggles of balancing being a young mother with a skyrocketing Hollywood career: “I was really young, like, 23, when I had Ryder,” she explains. “I mean, we’re close, and I am his mom. I’m big on manners. I’m big on politeness. I’m big on gratitude. But I’m a bit of a wild mum.”
When Ryder was about eight years old, Kate gave birth to her second son, Bingham, who’s now four years old.
As with her career, motherhood showed her how to accept the failures with the successes: “Some days I feel like I should win best mum of the day award, and some days I find myself doing strange things that don’t have any real purpose, in faraway corners in my house, and I realise I am literally and deliberately hiding from my children.”
These words will hit close to home and it’s refreshing to read that even an accomplished celebrity such as Kate is not immune to fear and self-doubt.
photo: Getty images
READ: Kate Hudson thinks being a great parent is her biggest strength
Kate admits there is a constant need for balancing her acting career and business with being a single mum.
And despite the “primal ounce of the nurturing, domestic woman” within her, Kate also considers herself a “hunter”.
She knows that being a stay-at-home mum just won’t work for her because she only thinks she can be the best mum is if she can still follow her “creative endeavours”.
“I feel that somehow we are supposed to feel apologetic about wanting both. But I don’t want to apologise for that anymore. Being both already comes at an emotional cost, without adding society’s antiquated idea of the traditional roles of man and woman in the home,” writes Kate.
Kate split from her youngest son’s dad, Muse vocalist Matt Bellamy back in 2014.
Motherhood is not always exciting or immediately rewarding as some might idealize it to be. “Yes, I help my kids with their homework. But I also get bored doing it,” she confesses.
Continuing, “I will sit and listen to my children pontificate and discuss their ideas till the day is long because it warms my heart, but I really don’t want to do math! I’m gonna say it: I’d prefer to watch ‘The Bachelor’ rather than do fractions and divisions.”
Well done, Kate. Your honesty is both refreshing and inspiring!
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