Lucy Kennedy shares honest struggles of raising teenagers
Despite her hugely successful broadcasting career, from fronting her hit show Living With Lucy to waking up the nation as a Classic Hits breakfast radio star, and even becoming a best-selling author, it seems like there’s nothing Lucy Kennedy can’t do. But Lucy is quick to admit that her most important role — and her greatest source of both joy and worry — is being a mum."It's by far the hardest things I've ever done", she tells RSVP Live. "On Instagram there are a lot of false narratives you see people putting out, but motherhood is not at all easy. It’s by far my favourite job but also my hardest. I find myself constantly begging the kids to listen to me just like my parents did", she admits. "I’m like come on guys give me a chance, I’m 49, I’m not a dinosaur I was your age once. It’s hard when they hit the teen years you’ve lost control a little bit and some of your communication with them. But I wouldn’t change it for all the money in the world." Lucy says like many people she found the early years overwhelming at times, but has learned that even as life gets easier in one sense as your kids get older, it comes with fresh challenges. "I remember even when mine were seven, five and zero and I was in a hot sweat, trying not to cry around the pool, while everyone else was enjoying their holiday. It can be very overwhelming having young children", she says. "So many times people would say to me, “Ah, enjoy it while they're this age” and I would think you've got to be joking. They're fighting, somebody didn't sleep last night, somebody's teething, but actually they were right. It does get harder, but it’s different. It’s not as physically exhausting, it's more mentally exhausting." However as her kids get older, with Jack now 15, 12-year-old Holly, and 8-year-old Jess, Lucy admits like many women she still can't believe how different she is from her younger self. "It’s funny sometimes it just hits me and I stop and think, “Oh my God, I'm a mom.” I know that sounds really weird because I've been a mom for 15 years. But sometimes I think, how did this happen? Like how did I go from being, this chain smoking crazy lunatic on Podge and Rodge, to being a responsible mother of three and a children's author." "I look back at life, pre-children, and I actually used to be a bit of a craic [Laughs]. Now I get excited going to Ikea and painting the gate. Like, where is the cool girl? Where is she? But I feel maybe more of her will come back now that parenting is less stressful." However Lucy says that as each year passes, your sense of self returns more and more as the chaos of the early years with children passes by. "The early years are very full on and they pass by so quickly from trying to conceive to being pregnant, and I was very ill with all my pregnancies for the first 18 weeks. Then having the baby, and that bubble of love and pain and emotion, they're with you the whole time, then juggling, creche, work, school. Ten years goes back in an instant", she admits. "Then you get a break again. When they’re small you can’t imagine ever being your own person again. But now when I’m feeling down or sad or hormonal, I’m thinking, what am I going to do when they don't live here anymore? That makes me really sad. They are going to leave home eventually and I’ll miss them terribly. So on one hand, I'm giving out to them, about messy rooms, not tidying up and yet thinking, I know I'll miss this one day." Don’t miss the brand-new season of Living with Lucy on Virgin Media Play and Virgin Media One at 9pm on Sundays Read the full interview with Lucy Kennedy in this month's issue of RSVP Magazine - on shelves now