Paloma Faith has "struggled" with her expectations of herself as a parent.
The ‘Only Love Can Hurt like This’ hitmaker – who has a one-year-old child with her partner Leyman – admits it has been tough as a new mother.
She said: "As a new mum, I’ve struggled with my expectations of myself as a parent. I had wanted a natural birth, but developed complications, so I didn’t have a great birth experience and got lots of infections afterwards. I’d wanted to be a driven, energetic mother, but the first three months were spent in bed, shivering with high temperatures and on eight rounds of antibiotics while breastfeeding."
The arrival of her child – who they are raising as gender neutral – has meant that Paloma has quickly had to adjust to a different lifestyle.
She added: "I’m naturally a night owl, but since having the baby last year I’ve been forced to be a morning person. Even on my days off, I’m up no later than 6.30am. As soon as I’m up, I change the baby’s nappy, give them a bottle, then go downstairs and grab some food for myself. If I’m rushing, I just have toast with butter, but on a day off I have eggs and avocado on toast, or vegan blueberry-and-banana pancakes."
And the 36-year-old singer can’t believe the controversy surrounding her decision to bring her child up as gender neutral.
She told The Sunday Times magazine: "I never expected my decision to raise my baby as gender neutral to be so controversial. I just want to raise a happy child who doesn’t feel forced into pink or blue clothing. I also want my child to avoid social expectations of men and women, and to grow up feeling that every opportunity is available to them. If a girl wants to be a construction-site manager or a boy wants to be a make-up artist, that’s fine with me. It’s wrong that girls’ T-shirts read ‘I’m a little princess’ and boys’ ones have space rockets on them. What lesson is that teaching kids?"
Paloma Faith struggled with parental expectations
