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Prue Leith admits she still battles mum guilt, even though her children are adults

Photo credit: Jeff Spicer - Getty Images
Photo credit: Jeff Spicer - Getty Images

From Red Online

'Mum guilt' is something that working mothers undoubtedly face everyday. Despite childcare coming on leaps and bounds, mothers still pick up most of the slack and face the most pressure when it comes to perfecting a work/ life balance.

Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith knows only too well how mum guilt feels. In fact she says she still battles with the emotion, despite her son and daughter being adults and now becoming a grandmother.

Speaking to Giovanna Fletcher on her Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast this week, Leith –
who has written numerous cookbooks and founded Leith’s School of Food and Wine before joining Bake Off – said: 'I’m not a very good grandma, but then I don’t think I was a very good mum either.'

She lamented the pressures put on a lot of working parents to be present for their children and provide: 'I think women, especially in the hard days, [have] such guilt complexes about the amount that they work. '

Photo credit: Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast
Photo credit: Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast

She added that despite enjoying being 'the provider, the feeder, the nourisher', she too spent most of her children's early years working.

'I did work a lot,' she said. 'It didn’t occur to me at the time, I didn’t think I’m neglecting them, I just thought "Well I’ve got to do work and they’ve got to go to school".'

She added: 'I don’t think the way that I brought them up would be acceptable today.'

Photo credit: WPA Pool - Getty Images
Photo credit: WPA Pool - Getty Images

Happily, the 80 year-old mother of two and grandmother of four, doesn't think this has had a detrimental affect on her children or the family bond. In fact she admitted she 'must’ve done something right', as 'the children are good and they’re happy and we’re a very close family' so 'it all worked out'.

Download Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast from acast.com

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