Frankie Bridge discussed homeschooling, life in lockdown and experiencing working mum guilt in a candid interview with Laura Whitmore.
Speaking on Laura’s Castaway podcast, the former Saturdays singer, 31, opened up about the pressures of teaching sons Parker, six, and Carter, four from home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Discussing lockdown, she said: ‘Yeah, it’s weird! At first I was like well this is nice, you know it’s a really horrible situation but I’m going to take the positives from it, it’s really nice to all be together all four of us at home and it was sunny so it was nice.
Candid: Frankie Bridge discussed the difficulties of homeschooling and experiencing working mum guilt in a candid interview with Laura Whitmore
‘The kids were out in the garden and at first I was quite enjoying it, and I’ve kind of had my first wobble now where I’m like okay this is going to be quite a long time.
‘The boys are asking quite a lot of questions about can we go to certain places, can they see their friends and it’s just that realisation that this is kind of our new normal and we don’t know for how long really and I think that’s what’s making it harder.’
Frankie and former footballer husband Wayne Bridge, 39, are now tasked with homeschooling their sons, with the songstress discussing how their new schedule is working out.
She said: ‘We did do a week of it and my youngest I’m like, I can’t figure out if he just doesn’t know this stuff or if he just does not care.
Family first: Speaking on Laura’s Castaway podcast, the former Saturdays singer, 31, opened up about the pressures of teaching sons Parker, six, and Carter, four from home and life in lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic
‘It’s so hard to do it with him! He just guesses everything and looks at me as if to say what are we doing, what’s the point of this!
‘So I’ve taken quite a laid back approach, we did two subjects in the morning and then that was it and we got everything done, but there’s people with these schedules I don’t know how they drag it out all day!’
The star juggles her busy TV career with motherhood and admitted to feeling working mum guilt.
She said: ‘We all have the same worries and the same guilts. Like Kate Middleton, she’s royal family! We couldn’t have more different lives but she still has that same fundamental feelings and thoughts and I think that’s nice for people to hear.
‘I think when you are feeling alone and you’re really over tired and you’re not coping well or you’re not being a good parent and you listen to someone else say those same things that you’re feeling, you kind of go, okay this is normal, I’m doing alright!’
New normal: She said: ‘The kids were out in the garden and at first I was quite enjoying it, and I’ve kind of had my first wobble now where I’m like okay this is going to be quite a long time’
Since her time in the chart-topping girlband, Frankie has become an advocate for mental health, after experiencing a mental breakdown while in the Saturdays.
This was chronicled in her book, Open, with the star rebuffing assumptions that she battled mental health issues due to being in the public eye.
She said: ‘That’s not the case. I was a really anxious child and I say I came out of the womb anxious, that’s just who I am.
‘And obviously being in the public eye probably didn’t help, it just brings new insecurities but I don’t think it’s the pressure that other people put on me it’s the pressure I put on myself a lot of that comes from within and I think that’s why I wanted to write the book to make people not feel alone to help people to understand but also it’s that proof that I am very lucky, I have a very nice life.
Rise to fame: Since her time in the chart-topping girlband, Frankie has become an advocate for mental health, after experiencing a mental breakdown while in the Saturdays (pictured 2010)
‘Yes, I’ve worked hard for that but I know that I’ve always had a life that a lot of people would have wanted and yet I was still sick and unwell and unhappy. A lot of shame and guilt comes with that (..)
‘ It is quite exposing, like you say there are things you don’t necessarily want to tell people that you feel guilty about, but it was important for me to say that because I knew it would resonate with some people.
‘Whatever walk of life we have similar things, we all have to earn money, we all have families and friendships we have to deal with.
‘It doesn’t matter what your job is or where you live, at the end of the day we’re all the same and it’s a big thing.
‘The biggest thing was saying the guilt around family and my kids and husband because they’re things you don’t want to admit out loud and for them to see.
While in lockdown Frankie and Wayne have kept followers entertained with their couple’s TikTok videos, nailing countless dance routines.
A laughing Frankie said: ‘He takes it so seriously Laura! His facials are amazing, I was like I’m not going on TikTok! It took me ages to even get on Instagram, and then I downloaded it just to watch them and then I just got hooked!
‘Then I tried to convince him to get involved and he was not having any of it, and now he is, I’ve awoken the beast!
‘He’s now like a 12 year old girl, he was sat next to me yesterday practicing lyrics for this one that he really wants to do and I was like who have you become!
‘And we were arguing over artistic differences for one of the videos! And we just started laughing because we were like what’s happened to us!’
Laura Whitmore’s Castaway podcast is available on Apple, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
Fun: While in lockdown Frankie and Wayne have kept followers entertained with their couple’s TikTok videos, nailing countless dance routines