Meghan Markle is opening up about motherhood in a big way. While the Duchess of Sussex loves being a mom, she's speaking about some of her struggles as a parent to two young children. And honestly? It's pretty relatable.
Meghan got candid in a recent conversation with fellow moms, Sophie Trudeau, wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and actor and director Pamela Adlon on her Archetypes podcast. The episode is titled "Good Wife/Bad Wife, Good Mom/Bad Mom" and let's just say, if you're a parent of young kids, it's worth a listen.
Meghan spoke about the relentless demands of parenting first thing in the morning. If you know, you know. But she also talked about the relationship between being both a mother and a feminist.
Meghan shared what the morning hustle and bustle looks like with Archie, 3, and Lili, 1. "The morning rush … for me, it's both monitors on for the kids, to hear them," she said. "Always up with Lili, get her downstairs, then half an hour later, Archie's up."
She continued, painting a picture of what all baby and toddler moms can relate to. "Start doing his lunchbox right before he's up while I have [Lili], getting her a little nibble. My husband's helping me get him downstairs and I make breakfast for all three of them."
Meghan certainly wasn't complaining about her life as a mom. She pressed that those morning routines have a lot of value. "It's very important to me. I love doing it," she said.
Still, she revealed that she definitely feels she's "in the thick of it" with her little ones. She called those relentless mornings "a whirlwind" and she's not wrong. Moms of babies and toddlers — not to mention one of each — barely have time to inhale a cup of coffee first thing in the morning.
Meghan says she now understands how much unpaid labor goes into parenting. "It is so much work to be a mom when you are just trying to be a conscious parent to raise good, kind human beings — and to do that solo is the most impressive, admirable thing on the planet," she said.
Meghan also opened up about just how much she wanted children. "I longed to be a mom as much as I longed to be a wife," Meghan said. "And at the same time, also at a young age, I was a feminist, and despite what people would think, I didn't find those things to be mutually exclusive."
"The pressures imposed [on] being a mom, a good mom or a good wife, the ideals we try to live up to and the expectations we self-impose … they're pretty trapping," she said. "They're in many ways a fallacy because you can be a feminist and be feminine. You can clutch your pearls one day and let your curls be wild the next. You can be a working mom in or out of the house and you can have drinks with friends after putting your baby to bed."
Still, Meghan thinks we'd all be better served if we let go of perfectionism when it comes to parenting. "You can be the mom who never misses a school pickup or drop-off and bakes the perfect cookies, or be the one who buys the cookies from the store because that works, too, just as you can be the wife whose claim to fame is making pot roast or the wife who admittedly makes only one thing well — reservations."
She added, "We are all doing the best we can so maybe it's time to let go of these archetypes … [which are] riddled with so much judgment, and instead focus on one thing: being a good person."
Check out our Meghan Markle page for all the latest news about Meghan, Prince Harry, and their growing family.
