Lorraine Kelly and other Sun writers reveal why kids can make you better at your job
Our columnist joins other Sun writers to acknowledge how fulfilling children can be
TENNIS champ Andy Murray might want to say a huge thank you to his baby daughter when she’s older.
Little Sophia granted him and wife Kim three nights’ solid sleep ahead of his Wimbledon final earlier this month, which he credited with helping him lift the trophy.
When you consider broken nights, squeezing in the school run and taking days off when your little one is sick, there is no doubt having children can impact on your working life.
On the other hand, one-time Tory leadership contender Andrea Leadsom suggested being a parent would make her a more compassionate Prime Minister compared to childless Theresa May.
So how does having kids affect your career? Here, AMY JONES and KATE JACKSON ask five of our top Sun writers to share their thoughts.
Lorraine Kelly
Sun columnist, mother of 1
MY daughter Rosie is 22 and has just graduated from university. Looking back I certainly think having her made me much better at doing my job.
I became less self-centred and could empathise more with the people I was interviewing.
Because of my early starts I actually had (and still have) the same sleeping patterns as a toddler.
So when Rosie was little and waking up early it wasn’t as much of a problem for me as it would be for a mum with a nine-to-five job.
I also do a lot of work from home — researching guests, thinking of questions, catching up with letters from viewers and readers and writing my column for the paper.
I was able to fit these with picking up Rosie from nursery and school, or simply just spending time with her.
But she always came first and everything else had to fit around her.
I remember stressful journeys home trying not to be late for school plays.
On one occasion, when she had been given the role of Mary in the nursery Nativity, I had to threaten to leave my radio job when they wouldn’t give me the morning off. It wasn’t easy.
I honestly can’t now recall one single show I did at the radio over the two years I worked there back in the mid-Nineties, but I still remember every single nanosecond of that wonderful Nativity.
I think because I was older — I was 34 when I had her — I was a lot more relaxed.
In my case, having a child helped me to grow up and see the bigger picture.
It was also a hugely positive thing for my job, although I do know that’s not always the case for everyone.
I’ve just been very lucky to have a smashing girl and a job I love — but I never take either one for granted.
Deidre Saunders
Sun Agony Aunt, mother of 2
I WASN’T all that good at getting my two daughters, Susie, now 40, and Phoebe, 28, to sleep through the night.
So I often felt jet-lagged and nauseous from lack of sleep.
There was no extensive maternity leave back then so I was back at my desk a month or so after they were born, but still breastfeeding.
It was a toughening experience. I learned to keep going and turn in reliable work even when I was totally knackered.
I was offered the editorship of a section of a national newspaper when Susie was six weeks old. But I effectively used the offer to blackmail the editor of the magazine I was on into letting me work three long days a week so I could cut down on commuting into London and spend more time at home with my baby.
What could have been a career setback turned out to be one of the best moves I ever made. Just 18 months later I was offered a job as a newspaper agony aunt – then headhunted for The Sun.
Having children also made me determined to try to avoid some of the traps of the way my parents raised me.
I was born just after World War Two, when it was all stiff upper lips and keeping secrets in the family.
Keeping the secret of my mother’s alcoholism had all sorts of effects on me when I was little.
Exploring those bottled-up anxieties through personal work and therapy so my own children’s lives weren’t affected by them had the valuable spin-off that I could bring better understanding to my work as an agony aunt.
In fact, I guess you could say I more or less owe my whole adult career to my children.
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Dr Hilary Jones
Fabulous Mag Doctor, father of 5
MY five kids are great and don’t seem to have held back my career in any way. Quite the opposite.
As a medical student I read the textbooks and attended lectures, but nothing can prepare you for the experience of practical parenting.
How diminished would my advice have been to my patients without knowing first-hand how it was to sit through the night with a sick child, endure weeks of sleep deprivation, cope with relentless crying or worrying about what that peculiar rash was all over their little body?
My twins Samantha and Rupert, now 24, were born 12 weeks premature weighing just 2lb 4oz and 2lb 7oz. They both had to be resuscitated a couple of times in the special care baby unit when they stopped breathing.
So I feel another parent’s pain and anguish when they worry over their child’s ill health. And it has made me an infinitely better doctor.
As a TV doctor my children have been an incredible asset. As toddlers they demonstrated how the specialist make-up artists on BBC’s Casualty can create horrific-looking injuries with wax and fake blood.
They posed as victims of near-drowning accidents for ITV’s Daybreak and proudly showed off their jellyfish stings for news reports from the Costa del Sol.
They are almost part of the TV props department!
Without the kids I’d be more detached, colder and less sympathetic. With them I’m more intuitive, emotional and warm. Good things for a family doctor to be.
Their existence hasn’t hindered me one bit. On the contrary. It has enriched and enhanced my career.
But my work has almost certainly hindered my unique role as a parent. Long nights and weekends on duty made sure of that. I only hope they will forgive me for it.
Rob Gill
Sun Motors Editor, father of 4
‘Washing, feeding, school run.. its all done with military precision‘ ... Rob Gill doesn‘t let his kids take him for a ride
I’M surprised I haven’t had a call from the FA yet.
Big Sam for England? Maybe. Or how about an organised, disciplined, caring dad who has perfected his man-management skills?
I’ll get the awkward bit out of the way first. I’m a widower. With four kids. Life can be cruel.
My children are seven, nine, 16 and 19. I’m a hero to my youngest, as well as Iron Man and Captain America, obviously.
And that motivates me because I won’t let him down. I can’t let him down. At home. Or at work. I still stroke him to sleep at night, sometimes for up to an hour. The same goes for my nine-year-old.
Those boys need me now — as much as I need them. So I have to be organised and create that special “window” for them.
Every hour of every day is planned with military precision. The washing, the school run, feeding time “at the zoo”, footie training, bath time, bed time, you name it, and, of course, work.
Time management and hitting deadlines is KING.
My kids know that when “Daddy’s on the computer” or travelling, that “I’m paying the bills”. That I’m trying my best to provide for them. And that means no half-measures.
I have the best job on the paper. I know that. But it’s down to graft. Work, work, work, work, work (copyright Rihanna) at something and you will be rewarded. I do it for them as much as me.
My 19-year-old lad wants to be a pro golfer. He knows that “luck” is really just “good preparation” — or practise, practise, practise. He inspires me.
My 16-year-old daughter is the queen of Snapchat. But I learn stuff from HER. She keeps me young and “in touch”.
I encourage all my children to chase their dreams. Like I do. You can’t tell them one thing, then do another.
So has being a parent made me better at my job? Yes. Absolutely. They make me a better person.
But they ain’t beating me at Fifa 16.
Come on, England!
Nick Francis
Sunday Motors Editor, no kids
I DON’T have kids, nor do I believe that having them is the key to being well-rounded.
I consider myself empathetic. Where did I learn that? At school, playing football, caring for my pet
Labrador, at home with my family, at the pub . . . I could go on.
All the professional strengths others consider to have gained from parenting, I have gained from other experiences. Life itself gives you them. It used to be called “growing up”.
We are surrounded by other people from the moment we are born. You don’t need to create your own to get an accurate handle on human nature.
This notion that the final pieces of personal development only come together when you are financially and emotionally ready to start your own family is, when you think about it, ridiculous.