Rebecca Judd — media personality, chronic over-sharer, mother-of-four and all-round superwoman — has revealed how she and her husband Chris keep the spark alive in their seven-year marriage.
Speaking with 9Honey as part of the launch of her new book, The Baby Bible, the 35-year-old explained that simple planning and scheduling is key to their continued happiness. The duo, who exchanged vows in lavish fashion back in 2010, pencil-in a date night for themselves each and every week.
“We have a date night every Wednesday,” she said.
“We book in the babysitter and Chris is really busy and so am I [but] even if it’s just playing tennis, it’s really important to have that time together.”
Bec later added that support goes hand-in-hand with parenting success.
“Mums have enough to deal with every single day without worrying what everyone else is thinking of their parenting skills,” she said.
“As long as our babies are safe and loved, they will be okay.”
Bec may appear to have the perfect life: designers lining up to dress her, a beautiful, healthy family and a perfect home in a beachside enclave of Melbourne. But in her new book she removes the floss and filters, and opens up about the realities of motherhood and raising a brood of four.
One of the biggest misconceptions she debunks is the notion of immediate, infinite bond between mother and baby.
“When Oscar came out, I felt nothing but complete shock. I knew I was supposed to have this feeling of overwhelming, intense love … but I didn’t,” she writes of her first born.
“What’s wrong with me, I wondered. Aren’t I meant to feel like a lion with her cub?”
With the wisdom of hindsight, she knows that these feelings — or rather, absence of feelings — are completely normal.
“You hear when this baby comes out and it’s all tears and it’s almost like you can hear this magical music playing, and it wasn’t like that. I was in shock,” she explained in a recent interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly.
“The obstetrician was saying, ‘Take your baby’, and it dawned on me with a thud: he’s your responsibility.”
In her new book, Bec leans on her experience as a mother after three pregnancies and fourth children.
She said she looked at her husband and his face reflected how she felt: total and utter shock. Of course it didn’t take long for her love for Oscar to fill her heart, but she wanted to address this misconception.
“When it came, it was overwhelming and amazing,” she said.
“People don’t say that, and I want mums to know that if it’s not immediate, don’t worry, it will come.”
