Jamie Oliver appears to have it all: a successful career and a loving family and during a recent interview he revealed just how important his family is to him.
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Speaking to the Sunday Times Magazine, Oliver admitted to making some changes in his life that enable him to spend more time with his four children, after revealing that he was “really tired and working lots of hours.”
“The little ones I’m really enjoying. I’ve had more time with them than the first two,” he continued. “I was in that fallacy of thinking while they’re not talking they’re creatures, not individuals.”
“I did a lot of travelling and thought it wouldn’t matter, but it does. Family is important.” And he’s right, family is important but so is equality.
More:The Mamafesto: We need to dig ourselves out of the “motherhood trap”
While we’re pleased that the celebrity chef is such a hands-on father, and a loving family man, we also feel compelled to point out the double-standards that still exist between men and women, because when a woman shares Mr. Oliver’s sentiments she is often slammed for being unprofessional.
When a woman takes advantage of not working to devote herself to taking care of her children it is so often frowned upon. In a society that fights so hard for equality between the sexes we are still too quick to brand a mother as “anti-feminist” when she chooses to leave the workforce.
Some examples of women in the public eye who have chosen to stay home include Ronan Keating’s ex-wife Yvonne Connolly, Phoebe Cates — who gave up her acting career in the ’90s to enjoy family life — and the late Grace Kelly (whose career departure shocked the world).
More: Sarah Michelle Gellar spills her favourite thing about having kids
Being a mother is hard-work and requires a lot of patience and highly developed multi-tasking skills, something which Sarah Jessica Parker, who has three children of her own, previously touched on during a 2011 interview with InTouch magazine.
“I’m at home for a lot of the year. I’m not always shooting movies,” she said. “And I want to make sure people know, stay-at-home moms are working harder than a lot of us can comprehend. It’s not easier at home!” — still society appears to think it is easier and this is one of the reasons why the taboo exists.
But the problem here is not whether a woman wants to be a corporate executive or a stay-at-home mum, it’s that her decision should be a choice that is met without judgement.
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