Celebrity
Gabrielle Union Isn't Here For Your Mom Guilt (But She Still Feels It)
“I assumed that, working from home, I would see them more, and I physically see them, but they’re like ghosts.”
Gabrielle Union gets hit with mom guilt on the daily. In a candid new interview with Scary Mommy, the actress talked about spontaneous, low-key date nights (including just heading over to neighbor Kim Kardashian’s house... you know, like we all do), her new skincare line for children, Proudly, and parenting. In addition to talking about the ins and outs of raising gloriously unbothered daughters, 3-year-old Kaavia and 14-year-old Zara, Union delved into the subject many a mother is intimately familiar with: mom guilt.
“I’m working from home, but I’m on Zooms, starting at 9 a.m. and they can go all the way to 6 or 7. By the time I’m done with work, I am exhausted,” Union told author Jessica Curry Morton by Zoom. “But now we’re at bath and book time, and I’ve missed everything else. So I drag my tired self and go be present for [a] bath and book and song, but it’s guilt-ridden and it feels weird. I assumed that, working from home, I would see them more, and I physically see them, but they’re like ghosts, you know what I mean?”
After a years long pandemic that kept many folks homebound, lots of parents can surely relate. But with three households to support in addition to her own, Union doesn’t have the luxury of slowing down. Even with a strong network of family support (her sister moved in to help manage it all) and nannies, it’s “a lot,” Union shared with Scary Mommy.
“I drop balls all day every day,” she said, “and I just have to hope people give me grace in the same way I give them grace.”
But while the struggle is real, she also isn’t here for any mom guilt, including guilt she gets from her father over the fact that she and her husband, Dwyane Wade, employ nannies. “My dad is forever giving me grief,” she told Scary Mommy. “And I’m like, ‘Sir, you dropped me off at your parents’ house with a can of SpaghettiOs for the whole day and didn’t come back until y’all got off work. So what are you talking about? And you didn’t pay anybody.’
“So if you exploit familial labor, that’s perfectly fine,” she added, “but if I actually pay someone who’s certified, qualified to be in child care, then I’m a bad parent? What?”
So let this be a lesson to all Gen-X/Elder Millennial Moms: no matter what we did, our parents pulled crap like this all the time, so never let them make you feel guilty.
