Mama Tribe – Meet Bryony Gordon: journalist, podcast host and mental health advocate

1. Please introduce yourself: Name, what do you do & how many children you have.

Hi Kensington Mums! I am Bryony Gordon, a journalist, podcast host and mental health advocate. I have a daughter called Edie, she is 8 years old.

2. How do you manage to juggle work and life balance as a mother?

I find childcare is very helpful! I wish more parents would be honest about that – childcare, that’s how I manage to do it. I don’t know how anyone juggles work and parenting without outsourcing! My job is very flexi, so I’m lucky in that respect. I do ringfence weekends and evenings to proper time with my family, but whatever works for you works for you and it is all normal.

3. What top tips would you give to any working mum?

I did a recent Instagram post in partnership with Haliborange, the UK’s number one kids vitamin brand, for their #ItsAllNormal campaign asking other parents for their top tips and advice for other parents whose kids are starting school.

One of the women voiced her perspective as a working mum who couldn’t’ do pickup and couldn’t drop off at school. She felt really left out not being able to go to parents’ drinks and coffee meet ups. Her advice was to remember that there’s so many other parents like that! And perhaps, bring it up, mention it. Say ‘Hey, just so you know, I work.

Would there be a chance of doing this at another time?’ I thought that was really good advice. Don’t feel guilty because that’s your reality, because it is all normal! I guarantee you that the parents who don’t work are also feeling guilty. Find the common ground and stick to it.

Being a parent representative at Edie’s school is something I found really helpful. I was class rep, and I did it with another mum who also worked, and it was really good because we could shape it a bit to the realities of working parents.

We insisted that the next year, two dads take over because dads had never done it – we thought this was ridiculous… what kind of message are we spreading to our kids! Shape it, make your reality, make it work for you.

4. Speaking of work, can you tell us a little bit about Haliborange’s #ItsAllNormal Back to School campaign?

Haliborange has conducted research as part of their #ItsAllNormal Back to School campaign that’s shown since starting school, more than a third of kids have started asking more about their family set up and questioning what is ‘normal’, with 89% of parents believing this is down to school being the first time kids are seeing other family units outside their own.

 Haliborange is here to remind us parents that whatever your family setup, it’s all normal and one thing we have in common is the stress of sending kids back to school. In my household, the first day back is generally a blur of packing lunch, ironing Edie’s uniform, packing the correct schoolbooks, and jumping in the car before we have time to catch our breath.

At the end of the day, when it all feels it’s getting a bit much, it’s reassuring to know that if we remember to give our kids just one Haliborange Softie a day, they will have the vitamins and minerals required to support growth and development at every stage.

5. What do you think ‘normal’ looks like for families in the UK today?

Who knows? It looks however you want it to look. Normal is a box we try to squeeze ourselves into and in the process, we get crooked necks and hurt ourselves and bits of us are hanging out. It’s certainly very different to when I was a kid in the 80s. It had to look one way; it was very much 2.4 children nuclear family.

So, it looks different for everyone. For us, it’s mum’s an alcoholic in recovery… for others it may be two dads, it may be that you don’t know who your dad is. There’s all sorts of realities and the more talk there is about these sorts of realities, the better we all are for it.

6. What do you love most about London? Do you have a favourite spot with your children?

I’ve lived in London my entire life, so I don’t really know anything else. It’s like a gravitational pull in my soul, London. I relax here. I was brought up North of the river, but South is my place and is where I’ve settled; I relax when I head south over the bridge toward home! There’s so much outdoor space. I joined the South London swimming club recently and I love going to Tooting Lido.

7. How do you define quality ‘me-time’?

Exercise, just getting out for an hour by myself or with a mate. For me, my best quality ‘me-time’ is just before dinner. If I can have an Epsom salt bath, my dinner, watch an episode of something and get into bed and read, that is my absolute joy!

8. What is your favourite & least favourite thing about parenthood?

My least favourite thing would be having to play Uno for the 800^th time in a day… “another game of UNO mum!” …Why did we go on holiday with your friends if you’re not going to play Uno with them!?

 All the rest of it is fantastic. It’s just wonderful. It’s a joy. You remove the Uno from it, and it’s a joy. Sometimes it’s crap, but life is, suck it up! I feel very lucky to have my baby.

 9. Tell us something people don’t know about you.

Nothing – have you read any of my books?!

 I guess, well actually, I’m quite shy.

10. Given we are all about embracing Motherhood, what advice would you give a first time Mum?

Everyone else is panicking as much as you are. People have literally been having babies since the beginning of time and they’ve managed to make it work so you probably will too. It’s fine, and if it’s not fine, it will pass and then it will be fine, and you’ll forget it ever happened.

I don’t look back on breastfeeding and think I am the worst human in the world because I couldn’t’ get milk out. I don’t think about that at all now. Your baby will learn to eat solid food. I have never been out for dinner with someone who has requested Ella’s Kitchen Mango. It’s all going to be okay! That’s my advice.

Stressing is normal, you will stress, so don’t beat yourself up for it. I remember on day four, pushing out my daughter in the buggy on the local common and I saw all of these families frolicking around, and I turned to my husband, and I said, ‘I can’t imagine ever being happy again. I can’t imagine this ever being fun and frolicking, and it not just being relentlessly hard’. But now it’s fine! It is hard… and then it’s not.

11. I’m a mum and…

Bryony Gordon is working with Haliborange, the UK’s No.1 kids vitamin brand, on their #ItsAllNormal campaign reminding parents that at back to school time, it’s all normal. Haliborange reassures parents that their kids are getting the vitamins and minerals they need for growth and development at every stage. For more information, head to @HaliborangeUK Instagram page.

Read more inspiring interviews as part of our online motherhood exhibition and get in touch to share your story with us. We would love to hear from you.