Kim Kardashian Shares the Joys and Struggles of Single Parenting

Celebrities may have a little more help than the average single parent but there are some hallmarks of parenting and especially being a single mom, that remain no matter how much help you may have. Kim Kardashian, the mom to North, 9, and Chicago, 5, plus sons Saint, 7, and Psalm, 4, recently sat down for a candid interview with Jay Shetty on his podcast, On Purpose, to delve into all the messy, joyful and relatable parts of parenting.

One of the first parts that parents all over likely understand—the morning and evening madness. While Kardashian’s schedule during the day might differ radically from yours, she still feels the pressure to carve out “me time” in the morning before the “madness.”

“I get up really early…that’s my mental health check…that’s my time in the morning. Then there’s just a short while, she says before everyone wakes up and “it’s about 2 hours of madness from getting four kids ready in the morning, fed, out the door, on to school, I drop off school every day. Then I have a little bit of time, I’d say 20 minutes where I just blast my music, I don’t take any calls, that’s my alone time.”

The rest of the day is used to focus and get the work done until the chaos circles back around. “The madness of bathtime, bedtime, dinnertime, once four babies are asleep, I just cherish that time at night when everyone is asleep and I can watch whatever show I want and just enjoy that alone time,” Kardashian said.

When it comes to parenting adages, Kardashian also agrees that the days truly are long and the years are short. “So, like, when you’re in it, I mean, especially when they’re babies and you’re feeding … there’s madness going on. It’s like full madness. It’s the best chaos though.”

Continuing to speak candidly about her role as a mother, Kardashian told Shetty, that “parenting is the thing that has taught me the most about myself. It has been the most challenging thing. There are nights I cry myself to sleep. Like, holy shit, this f—-ing tornado in my house. Like, what just happened?”

“You know, with all the moods and the personalities and sometimes they’re fighting, and you know, there’s no one there. Like, it’s [just] me to play good police officer and bad cop,” she added around the stress of single parenting. Though she told Shetty that she is working on “being a little bit firmer” as a parent, Kardashian couldn’t help but admit, “Parenting is really f—-ing hard.”

“That’s the only way I can describe it,” she says. “It is the most rewarding job in the entire world. It is. There is nothing that can prepare you. … I don’t care how long you wait. I don’t care what you’re waiting for. You are never prepared. But, you will figure it out, and it will make you so proud of yourself that you figured it out and that you got through the day.”

Even if you don’t feel like you have it all together Kardashian asserts that that you should shed the “mom guilt” and give yourself a break. “It’s OK to feel like you are not 100% at being the best mom,” she said. “There’s no manual, they don’t come with a manual. Everyone is doing the best that they can.”