WENN
Mum of two and all round domestic goddess Nigella Lawson has spoken out about the never-ending guilt felt by parents.
Nigella, 52 is mum to Cosima, 18, and Bruno, 16, her children from her marriage to the late John Diamond, and step-mum to Phoebe, 17, her second husband Charles Saatchi's daughter.
Nigella told the Radio Times that motherhood brings a whole heap of guilt, anxiety and worry, not helped by the constant stream of ever-changing and conflicting parenting advice which is regularly dished out.
"People who don't have children imagine that their whole lives would be all right if they had children, but they don't realise that having children gives you lots of problems; one is constantly worried," she told the magazine.
"Also I think it's impossible to be a mother without a huge sense of failure. Not that I think of my children as failures. I think they're wonderful. But one is always aware of what one isn't doing right.
"I was really helped by a friend recently because I was thinking, 'Oh, God, I'm not strict enough', and this friend said to me, 'look, Nigella, you don't choose whether to be a strict mother or not, you really are what you are. It's not a decision.'"
Nigella on set filming her new show Nigellissima. Pic:WENN
Nigella also told the magazine she was a 'pretty easy going' parent, but manners were non-negotiable with her teens:
"Although I'm pretty easy going about most things, I do think manners are important, and being kind. And they make me laugh, and that's quite important. So I like the people they are."
The queen of kitchen returns to the screen this month with her new show Nigellissima.
Do you agree the most important thing as a parent is to like the people your children are?
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