Appearing on This Morning, Grede clarified that being a 'max three-hour mum' means she spends at most an hour in the morning and a couple of hours at night with her children at weekends. 'You shouldn't be made to feel bad about that,' she said, adding that the expectations of parenting have 'gone nuts.' Grede has four children with her husband Jens, whom she married in 2012, according to media reports. She did not specify the backlash she faced but said the book was meant to provoke discussion.
Of course, I completely understand. I wrote this book not for people to read, but for people to use. It was purposeful in provoking conversation, and I think that there are such unrealistic expectations out there for women. You look at me, and you go, 'Oh she's got it all, an excellent mum, she's running these businesses'. The reality is, my life is a series of trade-offs. When I talk about being a three-hour mum, what I mean is I max get an hour in the morning, a couple of hours at night.
You shouldn't be made to feel bad about that, as a working person that is the reality of your life, you can't spread yourself so thin. What I try to do here is be honest about my reality and the things it's taken in the hope that would people would read that and not feel so burdened by the guilt and burdened by the expectations of parenting which I think have gone nuts. When I was a kid, if there was an apple in the house and a packet of crisps, the job was done. Now we're supposed to worry about everything our kids ingest and every playdate and every worrying thing, and I'm just like, I don't know that we need to do that.