Motherhood is my biggest challenge yet
The daredevil TV presenter tells HANNAH BRITT why she believes it’s time mums stopped putting so much pressure on themselves
SHE has run an ultra marathon, kayaked the length of the Amazon and was the first person ever to reach the South Pole on a bicycle. However, for TV’s Helen Skelton there has been no challenge quite like motherhood.
“They walk all over me and go feral,” says the 34-year-old presenter, describing her young sons Ernie, two, and six-month-old Louis.
“It’s hard when they don’t sleep. My oldest hasn’t slept longer than a three-hour chunk ever – that’s a challenge. But I would never moan about them being up all night. I knew when I had kids that everything changes and so it should.
“It does turn your life upside down but in a good way. Every age has a stage and I’m grateful that I have them.”
Earlier this year Helen, who has presented BBC One’s Countryfile and reported from the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, said she had “the worst day of my parenting life” when she was asked to leave a playgroup near her home in the south of France after Ernie had a tantrum.
“I went to a playgroup and he didn’t like it so he kicked off and wanted to go. So they said, ‘It’s probably best if you leave’,” she says.
Afterwards an embarrassed Helen vented her frustration on Twitter.
“I didn’t really think about it. I just assume it’s my friends and family who follow me and I forget there are other people watching,” she says.
“The next day I went into the creche and was marched into the principal’s office to be given a lecture on the media.
“Something that had been a little bit stressful suddenly became a big deal.”
Helen says she hasn’t been back to the playgroup since.
“We gave up. I know people say we should persevere but we didn’t. Ernie is only little and I’m going to enjoy my quality time with him as in the blink of an eye he’ll be at school.”
Helen made her name presenting BBC children’s show Blue Peter from 2008 until 2013.
During her time on the show she became known for her daring challenges, such as in 2010 when she kayaked the entire length of the Amazon river for Sport Relief.
Then in 2011 she walked a 150-metre tightrope between chimneys at Battersea Power Station, 66 metres above ground, to raise money for Comic Relief.
Yet while scaling mountains and jumping out of planes doesn’t faze her, she says nothing prepared her for the pressure of being a mum.
“I’m amazed by the amount of pressure. We put pressure on each other to be a certain type of mum – to breastfeed, to do the controlled crying thing, to do this or do that. But we don’t need to,” she says.
“Some of my friends phone me in tears because they are comparing themselves to other mums.”
Yet Helen, who is married to rugby player Richie Myler, 27, says things have been easier the second time around. “The first time around, every time they make a noise you panic. The second time around you have to go with the flow a bit more because you’ve already got your hands full with the other one. Or I have anyway. My two-year-old is definitely more of a handful than my six-month-old. I have no control over him whatsoever.”
Helen learnt the hard way that there are some things in parenthood you just can’t control when she went into labour unexpectedly with Louis.
“I was overdue with Ernie so wasn’t expecting to go early with my second. But suddenly I was in loads of pain and I couldn’t get up off the kitchen floor.”
“I had thought, ‘I’ll be fine, I’ll just get myself to hospital’. My husband was in England and I was alone in the house with Ernie. But I underestimated how painful it would be.
“I ended up hunched up on the kitchen floor as my son hit me on the head with a plastic sword – he thought we were fighting.”
It was only afterwards that Helen realised how dramatic her situation had been.
“At the time I was buzzing from the drama but now I realise that it could have been quite dangerous.
“It was scary because obviously things can go wrong. There was no one there with me.
“I didn’t want to panic anyone. I didn’t want to phone my mum and dad because they couldn’t get to me. Luckily my friend arrived just in time to catch him.”
Helen is clearly unflappable, something she put to good use when covering the Rio Olympics for the BBC. “I love sports presenting because it’s live and unpredictable. People are flapping and talking in my ear but who’s in control? Me,” she says.
HOWEVER, during the Olympics she found herself in the centre of a media storm over what she wore while presenting the swimming coverage.
“There was all this hoo-ha about my shorts. But I suppose I work in a job where I invite people to have an opinion about me and it’s par for the course that they’re going to comment on my figure as well.”
She says the comments have increased now she is a mum.
“People love to pass comment on your figure after you’ve had a baby. When you’re pregnant they go, ‘Oh you’re big’ or ‘Oh you’re tiny’, then, ‘Haven’t you snapped back into shape?’
“It’s weird, people thinking that they have a right to have an opinion on your figure once you’ve had a child. Had I not had a child I don’t think people would say anything.
“There isn’t an expectation to be a size zero. I think people get that women are real, they have cellulite and all the rest of it.
“I want to feel good about myself and if that’s linked to being a certain size then so be it. But in this day and age all shapes and sizes are OK.”
Helen Skelton is supporting P&G and Sainsbury’s #HelpUsHelpThem campaign raising funds for The Royal British Legion and Poppy Scotland. For every P&G health and beauty product (including Oral-B, Olay, Gillette and Pantene) bought between October 11 and November 21, Sainsbury’s will make a donation.
‘People love to pass comment on your figure after a baby’