She complained about the lot of movie-star mums – and got blasted for her trouble. Now, Gwyneth’s defending herself.
Back in March this year, Gwyneth Paltrow told E! the difference between her job as a movie star and those regular mums with office jobs. And how much easier the office-job-mums had it.
“I think it’s different when you have an office job, because it’s routine and, you know, you can do all the stuff in the morning and then you come home in the evening. When you’re shooting a movie, they’re like, ‘We need you to go to Wisconsin for two weeks,’ and then you work 14 hours a day, and that part of it is very difficult. I think to have a regular job and be a mum is not as, of course there are challenges, but it’s not like being on set.”
Needless to say, Paltrow had her name scratched into the naughty book after that one. What followed as outcries from working mums everywhere on how unfair that statement was.
Almost a month later, Paltrow has published her response on her website, Goop.com. She states that she was misquoted and that she thinks we should all come together and end the “mummy wars”. This is what she said:
Ending the Mommy Wars
A few weeks ago during an interview, I was asked why I have only worked on one film a year since having children.
My answer was this: Film work takes one away from home and requires 12-14 hours a day, making it difficult to be the one to make the kids their lunch, drive them to school, and put them to bed. So I have found it easier on my family life to make a film the exception, and my 9-5 job the rule.
This somehow was taken to mean I had said a 9-5 job is easier, and a lot of heat was thrown my way, especially by other working mothers who somehow used my out-of-context quote as an opportunity to express feelings (perhaps projected) on the subject.
As the mommy wars rage on, I am constantly perplexed and amazed by how little slack we cut each other as women. We see disapproval in the eyes of other mothers when we say how long we breastfed (Too long? Not long enough?), or whether we have decided to go back to work versus stay home. Is it not hard enough to attempt to raise children thoughtfully, while contributing something, or bringing home some (or more) of the bacon? Why do we feel so entitled to opine, often so negatively, on the choices of other women? Perhaps because there is so much pressure to do it all, and do it all well all at the same time (impossible).
To every single mother out there, have a wonderful Mother’s Day.
Love,
gp
