Why I want to be a Warking woman like my role model mum
TV presenter Kirsty Wark has spoken of often missing out on a family life and the trials of being a working mother.
Now her daughter, Caitlin Clements, has sprung to her defence by admitting that she wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps.
The 23-year-old said: ‘I’d like to be a working mother – that’s my goal. There’s so much judgment about whether you’re a stay-athome mum or a working mum. If we stopped judging, we’d remove a lot of guilt.’
As a host of BBC’s Newsnight, Miss Wark has a 450-mile weekly commute between her Glasgow home and London, but she and her husband, Alan Clements, chose to live in Scotland among their family and friends.
Miss Clements, who has a brother, James, said she has a great relationship with her mother but there were benefits involved in not having her mother around every day, especially when she did return home. She added: ‘I could tell when mum felt bad because she’d bake manically. On our birthdays, she’d make such an effort, which I think was a manifestation of her guilt.’
The journalism student is now hoping to do a Masters degree in journalism at Columbia University in the United States. She said: ‘I grew up around journalists and journalism – it’s what I know.
‘Mum is a very big figure to live up to and I’m not sure I want to try to fill her shoes.
‘If I was lucky enough to get a career in TV I’d always be “Kirsty and Alan’s daughter” – which is why I’m focusing on print journalism. No one else will write my articles.’