In recent interview, Gwen said: ‘It's much harder for me. I feel like I set it up in a way that makes it difficult because…for me, like if I miss a school run, they are like, 'Where were you?'
The mum of two continued: ‘I think it's different when you have an office job, because it's routine and, you know, you can do all the stuff in the morning and then you come home in the evening.'
‘I think to have a regular… it's not like being on set.’
One mum decided to hit back at Gwen’s comments in an open letter to the star.
‘Dear Gwyneth,’ she writes.
‘I really enjoyed your recent comments to E! about how easy an office job is for parents, compared to the gruelling circumstances of being on a movie set.'
‘As a mother of a toddler, I couldn’t agree more!’
‘Thank God I don’t make millions filming one movie per year,’ is what I say to myself pretty much every morning as I wait on a windy Metro-North platform, about to begin my 45-minute commute into the city. Whenever things get rough, all I have to do is keep reminding myself of that fact. It is my mantra.’
‘And I know all my fellow working-mom friends feel the same. Am I right, ladies?’
‘We’re always gabbing about how easy it is to balance work and home life. Whenever I meet with them at one of our weekly get-togethers — a breeze to schedule, because reliable baby sitters often roam my neighborhood in packs, holding up signs peddling their services — we have a competition to see who has it easier. Is it the female breadwinners who work around the clock to make sure their mortgages get paid, lying awake at night, wracked with anxiety over the idea of losing their jobs? Or is it the mothers who get mommy-tracked and denied promotions? What about the moms with ‘regular’ 9-to-5 jobs, who are penalized when their kids are sick and they don’t have backup child-care?’
‘Those women are living the dream, I tell you!’
‘Which reminds me, child care. As you know, Gwynnie, having a staff can be a real drag. It’s so hard to find good help these days! That’s why it’s a good thing there’s all this nationally subsidized, high-quality day care lying around for the taking. It just makes things easier knowing you have such a strong support network and don’t have to pay someone anywhere from $30K to $65K annually to take care of your child full-time.’
‘Then I have a few Bellinis and adjust my 401(k) contributions.’
‘So, Gwyneth, you’ve figured out the secret of working parents everywhere: Livin’ la vida desk job is a breeze compared to the 14-hour days of a film set. Fourteen hours? Who in New York — especially those in the finance, law and tech professions — could possibly work 14 whole hours?’
‘Luckily, those 9-to-5 ‘ordinary job’ hours grow on trees here.’
‘And if you lose one, all you have to do is find another.’