'I refuse to feel guilty for being away from my children': Sunrise's Natalie Barr discusses her struggles with motherhood - and even admits she forgot to pick her kids up from school
Natalie Barr has opened up about the difficulties of balancing motherhood with a successful career.
In a column for Stellar magazine, the Sunrise presenter, 51, admitted that she never felt any guilt leaving her two children with a babysitter while she worked.
'I refuse to feel guilty for being away from my children,' she wrote.
'I don't dwell on leaving them': Natalie Barr (pictured) has opened up about the difficulties of balancing motherhood with a successful career in this week's Stellar Magazine
'When I'm at work I concentrate on doing a good job. When I travel for work, I go wholeheartedly and don't dwell on leaving them.'
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The star also confessed that she's 'forgotten' to pick up her two children from school on occasion, and has even booked them into daycare just so she could come home to a 'silent house'.
'I found Lachlan on a road once when he disappeared from a friend's place as a toddler,' she admitted.
'I found Lachlan on a road once when he disappeared from a friend's place as a toddler': The Sunrise presenter admitted to forgetting to pick her children up from school at times
Natalie has two children with husband Andrew Thompson; Lachlan, born in 2001, and Hunter, born in 2005.
This isn't the first time that the brunette has been candid about motherhood.
Speaking to Good Health last year, she said: 'At that time - 16 years ago - everything we were shown about motherhood was like something out of a Kleenex commercial!
'For me, it was the complete opposite,' she continued.
Marriage: Natalie married film editor Andrew Thompson in 1995. (Pictured together in 2006)
Happy family! The couple have two children together; Lachlan, born in 2001, and Hunter, born in 2005
'I know I was still mourning dad, but I really didn't enjoy being a mum. My baby was up all night and all day, I didn't like breastfeeding and I just didn't know what to do. I thought I was a failure.'
Natalie's father Jim died of a heart attack in 2001 at age 61, while she was six months pregnant.
At first, the newsreader suspected she was suffering from postnatal depression, however she later realised that being a stay-at-home mum just wasn't for her.
Superstar: Natalie has been one of Australia's most popular newsreaders for over a decade
'I was one of those mums who at three months just thought, "I wish I was better at this but I'm just not. I actually hate this. I'm a terrible mother",' she told The Australian Women's Weekly in 2017.
'I realised I needed to just get out of the house and do something for me and get back to work because I loved it, I loved my job.'
She continued: 'I had to stop breastfeeding which I didn't particularly love either – sue me – and I had done that for a few months and just had to leave to come back and be a better mum.'
Confession: Read more about Natalie Barr's struggles with motherhood in the latest issue of Stellar magazine (pictured)
