Why my mobile phone was ruining my life
The Studio 10 star decides to switch off after a ‘topsy-turvy’ year
Jessica Rowe is far from alone when it comes to her addiction to her mobile phone. But in a very personal and candid post to fans, the star recently admitted her constant need to be in the know has become so out of control, it's started to affect her role as a mother.
Now the much-loved Studio 10 co-host has admitted she's been left with no choice but to stage her own intervention.
In her bid to go “free range”, Jess has revealed she's limiting her time online in order to spend more time on what really matters this summer – her family and friends – and of course, her gorgeous daughters Allegra, 10, and eight-year-old Giselle.
It was after returning from a trip to the hairdresser that Jess first realised she had a problem. “‘Mummmmmm, can you come outside and watch me skip?' asked my littlest girl,” Jess recounts on her lifestyle blog Crap Housewife.
“Soon my darling...” she remembers responding, adding that she was more eager to “suss out what messages and Insta mentions I had missed in the past couple of hours” than play with her daughter.
“I had been saying that a lot recently. Soon, I would watch my daughters play. Soon, I would reply to the emails of friends. Soon, I would organise a date night with my husband...
“Everything was on a collision course. My mood was short, the laundry was piling up even more than usual – I'm not a fan of the word normal – and I had been counting the sleeps until holidays began,” she adds of what led to her drastic move.
“Like you I had this notion that once I had ‘time' I could sort out my life and get organised. I'm not sure why I believed that time out was all I needed to sort out the chaos of my crazy, wonderful life.
“This year had been topsyturvy. I don't know why but it had been harder to keep everything on an even keel.”
TAKING ACTION
Promising to check her phone just twice a day from now on, the 47-year-old TV presenter adds, “I'm going to get outdoors, away from the blue light of my phone and towards the sensation of feeling sand between my toes and water in my pink hair.”
Jessica's honest accounts of motherhood – she often mocks her cooking skills on her blog and social media pages – have captivated her many fans around the country, who relate to her
struggle to be the best parent she can be.
After the birth of her first daughter, Allegra, the mumof-two spoke about her battle with postnatal depression.
And in her book Love Wisdom Motherhood: Conversations With Inspiring Women, Jess reflects on the difficulties that come with being a working mother.
“I really struggled early on, [since] I was no longer working full-time and my identity had been tied up with my work for so long.
“And when I didn’t have that, it was kind of, ‘Well, I’m a mum now but what does that mean for me, for my identity and the person that I was before and the person that I am now?” she adds.
After seeking help and advice for postnatal depression, Jess paved her own way to recovery, and is happier than ever.
Of being a mum, Jess says, “It’s the best, but hardest role of my life.”
‘Everything was on a collision course’