Kelly: Working mums use kids as ‘excuses’
KELLY Brook was criticised yesterday for claiming some working mothers used their children as an excuse for not doing their jobs properly.
The 38-year-old model – who does not have children – said genuinely ‘professional’ women never discussed their children at work.
Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women yesterday, she added: ‘I have a pet hate. I work with some women that, if they can’t make an appointment or there is a deadline... will always say, “Oh, it’s because I have to bath the baby” or “feed the kids” or “I’ve got to do the school run”.
‘Others have kids and you never even hear about the kids. They are very professional, and I love that.
‘Women shouldn’t use kids as an excuse not to do their job properly. It’s nobody’s business. If you can’t meet the demands of your job, don’t blame your kids.’
The former model admitted she sympathises with parents of children who get sick but criticised mothers who do not manage their time.
She said: ‘I have just been in situations with parents, where they have got to do the school run or something.
‘They know they have to do the school run, they know they have to put the kids to bed, so wouldn’t you figure your career out around those things?’
But Miss Brook’s comments angered viewers who claimed as a ‘childless’ woman she was unable to comment on the realities of being a working mother. One wrote: ‘Kelly Brook has absolutely no idea, how can she even comment without having kids. Just wait until you do. Then you will realise how hard it is.’
Another said: ‘The childless Kelly Brook giving advice to working parents.’
Others accused her of being ‘judgmental’, adding: ‘Some women may not have support at home so can’t always meet the “demands” of their job!’
Miss Brook, who has been dating model Jeremy Parisi, 32, for two years, has previously said she felt she had left it too late to start a family.
She said: ‘I spent so much time focused on my career that having a family was so left behind and now I am in my late 30s, I feel like actually I wish I had kind of thought more about having more children earlier.’