Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once said, “Motherhood is a glorious gift, but do not define yourself solely by motherhood. Be a full person.”
Those words hit especially hard for moms coming to grips with existing inside a family unit while holding down a full-time job. People talk about holding space and that’s what you’ve been doing since bringing new life into the world.
Mothers are expected to carry the burden with a smile and a wave. Never complain, never argue, and never cry. As Adichie says, you are a mother, but you are not defined by the labels society places on you.
It’s refreshing to witness celebrity moms sharing their accounts of balancing parenting and working. Raising kids in the public eye while remaining relatively sane is twice as hard.
While some celeb moms swear at self-care, others are brutally honest about the unconventional ways they relax and unwind, sans kids.
Lake Bell
Actress Lake Bell is on a mission to normalize cannabis. During a 2022 panel discussion, the mom of two confessed she’s a better parent when she’s “just two Canns in.” She can come down to their level and be a kid again.
The filmmaker added that she couldn’t get through the holidays without her “greenery”. She partnered with a cannabis brand to create a short film on a family’s Christmas gathering turning “spicy.”
Self-Care of a Different Kind
Since being legalized in 24 U.S. states, other celebrity moms like Bell have been outspoken about using cannabis in their wellness routines.
One such state is Michigan. The Wolverine State has a flourishing market, offering some of the most competitive prices in the region. Dispensaries in Michigan are among some of the best in the country.
Local growers produce high-quality buds, contributing to its robust cultivation industry. Additionally, it has relatively low tax rates on cannabis products.
Vibe Dispensaries adds that Michigan regulations and licensing fees are more lenient, allowing cannabis dispensaries to pass those savings onto customers. You don’t need to visit a physical store.
Some dispensaries have online stores and cannabis apps. Visitors log in and confirm their purchase which they can save for later or view their saved products.
Once the items are successfully submitted, confirm “Are you sure” and proceed to “Review successfully submitted quantity”. It’s as easy as that! You can also visit your saved products at a later stage following logout confirmations.
Rihanna
During a candid interview with Harper’s Bazaar, singer Rihanna gushed about being a parent to two boys.
While building her Fenty empire and working on a new album, things can get tricky for the 37-year-old. She says she’s making decisions that revolve around her boys. At the same time, those very decisions take her away from her kids.
For her, mom guilt is very real. However, she finds ways to restore balance through morning prayer, martial arts, and journaling.
Ali Wong
Comedian Ali Wong is no stranger to the ups and downs of motherhood.
She is consistently brutal as a single mom during her stand-up shows. Fans have been lapping up her one-liners because it’s very much relatable.
During one of her comedy routines, Wong admitted there’s no magical answer to balancing work and family. Instead, she got a nanny and didn’t expect it to be so easy to give her child off to a relative stranger.
Nonetheless, Wong adds that the only reason she’s crushing being a working mom is because of the support she gets from her ex-husband and mother-in-law.
In her 2019 book ‘Dear Girls’, Wong wrote essays for her two daughters. Inevitably, they were life lessons; the first rule of having kids is that you can’t control everything.
Chrissy Teigen
For Mother’s Day last year, model Chrissy Teigen partnered with KFC to launch a limited offer Mother’s Day menu.
In a tongue-in-cheek video, Teigen explained what she wanted for the special day: a break. Ahead of the announcement, she told TODAY.com, “We get to do what mom wants to do.”
The aspiring celebrity chef with a few cookbooks under her belt is typically seen rustling up a few dishes for her family. To unplug from mom time, she’s taken up punch-needling and other crafting activities while binging on reality TV.
Coffee Break
Some of these moms may raise a few eyebrows balancing motherhood and work. All the same, it works for them, and it might work for you.
From Lake Bell’s cannabis confessions in dealing with her kids to Ali Wong’s nanny diaries, the struggle is real for everyone, not only celebrity moms.
If anything, juggling a job and a family takes nerves of steel and a level head. As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie eloquently puts it, we need to break away from the noise so we can be a full person again.
Maybe it’s time to leave judgment at the door and applaud every single mom for doing the best they can under the circumstances.
With gender disparities very much alive, let’s give working moms a break, a book for journaling, and a bucket of KFC.