For Phoebe Burgess, it’s safe to say motherhood is her greatest role yet.
The journalist, media personality and influencer is a doting single mother to lookalike daughter Poppy, seven, and son William “Billy” Burgess, five.
Burgess lives in the idyllic NSW Southern Highlands with her young family, where her parents and sisters are also based, and having that support network around her is something especially important to her in raising her children.
“The biggest thing I wanted to do was to ensure and give them [Poppy and Billy] that feeling of being anchored somewhere,” Burgess tells 9honey Celebrity in an exclusive chat.
“I want them to know and feel every single day that they are the top of my list, they are Mummy’s priority and number one,” she says.
“Even going off to work, we always say, ‘Mummy always comes back’, and having all these people around them, my mum and dad, my sisters and eight grandkids, I just want them to know these people are here for them through it all.
“I want them to have an abundance of love, safety and security.”
Burgess, who was previously married to former NRL star Sam Burgess, says her children keep her going in her darkest of times.
“I think I’ve created an environment where my kids are the answer, if that makes sense. If something feels particularly difficult mentally, is traumatic or painful, we have these things that are our go-to,” she says, explaining the trio often have a picnic and soak up time together biking and painting on weekends.
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“I have those moments of ‘it’s all worth it, this is what it’s all for,’ and any of that darkness, you push that out and any parent, guardian or carer, any mum will understand, having happy, settled kids is the biggest achievement of all.”
“And once that’s ticked off, everything else can sort of fall into place. Kids don’t let you have a bad day, they don’t say, ‘OK Mum, stay in bed today,’ they have to get up and get going and that’s the pushing forward.
“And then you realise you’ve gotten through trauma or pain. You’re stronger, as you have to keep going, there’s no one else to do it.”
Burgess, who boasts 100,000 followers on Instagram, admitted parenting is “a constant learning process”.
“No two days are the same and not every day is Instagram-worthy, I’ll tell you that,” she says.
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“I know a lot of parents, mums and dad and guardians, have a lot more difficult circumstances than I do and it’s really important to me that I’m aware of that, but it can be quite isolating when you need to be all of the things for your kids,” she explains.
“It’s not just only play and fun, you have to raise little humans who are interacting with the world and that means boundaries and discipline and that can be a bit of a lonely place.
“I spend a lot of time in my head wondering and agonising over my approaches and if I’m doing the right thing and a lot of it is trial and error.”
Burgess is celebrating the release of her new children’s book called Zach and Zoe’s Hide and Sneeze, a collaboration with Zyrtec, which aims to raise awareness of allergic rhinitis in kids.
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It’s something Burgess can relate to, as she suffers from “all-year-round hay fever” – and their outdoorsy lifestyle in the Southern Highlands can sometimes affect it.
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“The parents can read the book to their kids in the hopes of kicking off that conversation [about allergic rhinitis] and hoping the children can see themselves and potentially any of the symptoms they’ve been feeling,” Phoebe says.
And, she mentions, her tiny tots gave the book their special seal of approval.
“I’m really proud of it, and I read it to them on the couch and they absolutely loved it,” she says.
“I would love to keep working in this space but being able to talk about something you can hold in your hands, that’s going out into the world that can only do positive things, is really special.
“And I would write and write, it has awakened the writer in me again, that’s for sure.
“Before you have kids, you have so many hopes and dreams and we’re not meant to understand the change and shift in us that parenting brings about.”
“I want my kids to grow into great humans… but I am allowing myself to have a few hopes and dreams for myself too. This project is definitely the step in the right direction.”
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