Kate from Workin’ Moms opens up about modern parenting and relationships
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Workin’ Moms has been a hit on Netflix for years. In this series, four friends experience how their lives change after having a child. Catherine Reitman – who plays Kate – opens up and shares how she celebrates the ups and downs of modern parenting and relationships.
The actor, writer and producer behind Workin’ Moms is in charge of maintaining her son’s basketball team. One thing becomes clear to her in the current era of organized sports: simple orange slices are not enough. “I had to buy something with protein and veggies and put them in separate bags,” she says. “I also have Gatorade, but now I’m afraid they’re all going to think it’s a sugary drink. Do you think I screwed up? How am I supposed to know how to do it all. I grew up on Oreos and Doritos!”
It’s a moment from Catherine’s real life, but it could just be a storyline from Workin’ Moms. Catherine found motherhood isolating. She says of Jackson’s birth in 2013: “I actually had really bad postpartum depression. There was just no direct connection with him. I know you should have that instant mama bear instinct that makes you not want to leave them in the woods, but it didn’t. Instead, I felt responsibility, fear, and inadequacy.”
Confession
When she tried to open up to other moms about what she was going through, she felt even worse. Of meeting a group of mothers, she says: “I mentioned that sometimes while driving I fantasized that a car was going to hit me – not to kill me, but just to keep me in the hospital for 10 days so I wouldn’t worry. could make more. About everything. The confession was a bust. They stared at me like I was an alien.”
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“But,” she continues, “when I was walking back to my car, one of them came up to me and said, ‘I know what you’re talking about.’ over there?” She told me she had been given an antidepressant for her postpartum depression, but she didn’t want to tell the group in case they got mad at her for breastfeeding — even though you can breastfeed with that. Anyway, I was not alone, but then again I was.”
In tears
At the time, it did not occur to Catherine that she had gold in her hands for a television series. That only came during filming in 2015. She says about this: “The recordings were all men and they laughed at me because I missed my first Mother’s Day. Instead of laughing, I just burst into tears,” she says. “I went back to my hotel room and called my husband, who said, ‘I don’t think we’re seeing this in the things we’re looking at. You need to start writing.’” And she did.
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Popular
The show’s popularity didn’t take off right away, but that changed after it hit Netflix in 2019. “People feel seen,” says Catherine. Sometimes in a way that surprises her: “One time a woman came up to me at the grocery store and said, ‘I love your show. I’m pregnant but I don’t know if I should keep it. What do you think I should do?’ I was like ‘That’s not something I can answer for you!’ But I almost feel like this show had to happen with or without me behind the wheel.’”
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Source: Scary Mommy
