Ah, balance. That elusive parenting goal that feels more like a pipe dream, where you have time to be present in your kids’ lives, be successful in your career, manage the home and your health, and, you know, pursue your own hobbies — all in one 24-hour day. It sounds great, right? And in pursuit of this practically impossible goal, you may be willing to look to pretty much anyone for advice … case in point: Hilaria Baldwin, mom of seven kids with husband Alec Baldwin. She was recently profiled for Romper about finding balance, and it was definitely not the relatable mom story she thought she was telling.
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She starts out by saying “I balance time for myself while parenting by always remembering that I’m a person too” — but after watching Baldwin’s interview, we feel like she neglected to mention how she is truly able to find balance: by having privileges that most moms don’t have.
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She Has a ‘Rotating Cast of Nannies’
Image Credit: Kristina Bumphrey for Variety The video starts with Baldwin demonstrating what balance actually means to her: doing a yoga pose in high heels while she pours a glass of wine in a flawlessly white kitchen (and a flawlessly white outfit). First of all, who wears that when watching kids? And whose kitchen looks like that without a full-time maid? (At one point, the videographer asks the staff to “stop doing the dishes” so it doesn’t mess with the sound, and I wish I had someone to do the dishes for me!).
Romper calls her “the ultimate multitasker,” but what does that mean exactly? She is a yoga instructor (who co-founded Yoga Vida), but she also has a famous husband and tons of help at home with her kids, Carmen, Rafael “Rafa,” Leonardo “Leo,” Romeo, Eduardo “Edu,” María Lucía “Marilu” (via surrogate), and Ilaria, ages 0-10. According to her Romper interview, she has “a rotating cast of nannies and babysitters, usually with two on at any given time.” Um, must be nice!
And these babysitters don’t just help with childcare during the day. Baldwin says she and Alec “have date night every single night.” Every. Single. Night. Can you imagine? She clarifies, “That might be date night, just the two of us, at the kitchen table, or we’ll go out to dinner, but we always spend time together.” Again, something that would be so much easier if you know there’s always two or more babysitters around to help!
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Treat Day
Image Credit: Lexie Moreland for Variety In the interview, Baldwin also explains her family’s odd “treat day” tradition.
“Saturdays and Sundays, we do treat day, which means they get to eat something extra special in the morning,” she says while lifting two-pound weights to demonstrate how down-to-earth she is. (She lifts tiny dumbbells while doing media interviews — that’s the answer to all your fitness needs, moms!)
These treats she’s talking about? Literally bagels!
“They plan the entire week what it’s going to be,” she explains. “Maybe it’s going to be a bagel, maybe it’s going to be a croissant, maybe it’s going to be some Nutella something. And they get all excited. And so, in the morning, we’ll have like our normal breakfast, and then we go out and we get something extra special.”
I’m sorry, but how is a bagel “extra special”? It sounds like she’s just doing a Starbucks run with her kids, which BTW, I have to bribe them with any time we go grocery shopping so I can get everything without a massive meltdown. But it also brings up another point: Is this the only time the kids are allowed to eat carbs? The whole thing is very confusing.
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Personal Assistants
Image Credit: Paul Zimmerman/WWD In the video, Baldwin plays Tic Tac Toe with one of her kids using Sharpies on a huge Post-It notepad set up on an easel. After they complete the game, Baldwin starts to flip the page, and someone comes in to assist her in turning the page. Like, this goes beyond just having nannies around to help — she has someone hovering next to her so she literally doesn’t have to lift a finger without help. I’m sorry, but most moms will not ever have that level of privilege in their lives.
“I make my children feel special by remembering that yes, they are one of many siblings, but they’re also individuals,” she says at one point. It’s a good thing to remember — no matter if you have seven kids or two — but she doesn’t exactly give practical for the average mom.
“So that might mean that I am reading a book with one of them, giving them special time, just them and me. But whatever is, I just always have to remind them that I’m always there to have them be my only child and part of the big group.” That’s great for her! But most of us can only hope to be able to give our kids one-on-one time throughout the week, so it would be nice if she at least acknowledged that she has extra privileges and help that allows her to do this.
Later, she admits she’s “terrified” of the teen years. But, don’t worry, she has a failproof way to get through them: “We’re going to have to do, like, a lot of dancer pose while pouring wine.”
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People Noticed Her Privilege
Image Credit: Jason Mendez/WireImage We aren’t the only ones who noticed Baldwin’s extreme privilege that she just took for granted in the interview.
“Wait … a bagel’s a treat?” one person commented.
Another said, “I’m just astonished at how brazen she is, and the fact that they’re interviewing her like she’s the first woman to ever in the history of womankind to have alot of kids, when we KNOW the lady had a whole army of nannies lol.”
“An exhausting article/video about an exhausting woman,” someone else wrote.
Instead of pretending to have figured out the parenting secret sauce to balancing mom life, wife life, work life, and personal life, Baldwin should have just admitted that she has a ton of wealth and privilege and help. Sure, she may still have her struggles, but trying to relate to the average mom just isn’t working. We are tired — and we have a lot heavier things to lift than a piece of paper, with a lot less help.
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