Natalie Cassidy, who as we all know is heavily pregnant, has said in a recent magazine interview that she can’t understand Denise Van Outen’s decision to return to work so soon after the birth of her baby. Van Outen went back to work just two weeks after giving birth, apparently because she wanted ‘to feel normal again’. Great staying power, that woman.
Anyway, Cassidy told New magazine, “I just think, ‘What have you had a child for? Having a child should be your job. I’m very old-fashioned. It’s my mum coming out in me.”
What do you reckon? For what it’s worth, I agree with Cassidy (for once). The role of a mother is a blooming hard one, and by returning to ‘real’ work after just 2 weeks it seems that the motherhood job is undermined somewhat. Not everyone wants to be barefoot in the kitchen until their little one starts university, and that’s fair enough. But giving just two weeks of your undivided attention to your new baby seems a tad mean. It seems that this generation is the first generation to have full-time working mums as the norm. One only has to look round local playgrounds to see how many children are being looked after by grandmas, and those are the ones who aren’t placed in nurseries. What will happen to those children’s children? Their grandmas (today’s working mums) will be at work…
Still, it’s one thing to hold views about working vs staying at home, and quite another to blast another mum’s choices so personally in a magazine article. Watch this space for Van Outen’s response!