Helen Flanagan candidly admitted "I'm not the mother I want to be" in an emotional apology to her three children on Saturday.
Taking to Instagram, she shared a post from parenting app Peanut with a poignant quote on it. It read: "I'm okay with saying sorry to my kids, because some days I'm not the mother that I want to be.
"Some days I'm touched out and overwhelmed. I'm far from perfect and I want my kids to know that's okay. You can apologise and start again. We all have our moments, but we got this."
The former Coronation Street star went on to share pictures of herself with her three children and revealed that she was excited to go home to them after a weekend away in London.
Helen Flanagan divides fans with very extreme home Halloween decorations
Helen, 33, has been co-parenting her Matilda, eight, Delilah, five, and Charlie, two, with her footballer ex Scott Sinclair since their split.
She's made no secret of the challenges she faces with parenthood and regularly shares honest posts about 'mum life' and 'mum guilt.'
Recently, she revealed she suffered frompostnatal depression andOCD as she opened up on her mental health struggles after two of her children were born.
The star spoke publicly about how she needed therapy for the conditions in an honest social media post shared onWorld Mental Health Day.
Helen, who rose to fame playing Rosie Webster on the Cobbles, was praised by her fans for being brave in opening up on her struggle and for helping to ‘normalise mental health problems’.
The actress, took to Instagram to share an image of herself breastfeeding her youngest. Despite looking happy and well in the picture, Helen revealed she was actually struggling at the time.
She wrote: "Mental health. It's important to talk and know your not on your own and to be kind, kind as you can as life is so complicated. I struggled badly with post natal after Matilda and with Charlie x Matilda I was really unwell with after, I struggled really badly with OCD and intrusive thoughts and had CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) for a good year x."
She added: "I found an amazing book by @bryonygordon 'No such thing as normal' and I'd really recommend it x A good therapist can really help and I feel lucky I've always been able to speak to my mum and had good friends x you're not on your own x chose this pic as even though I didn't look it I had bad post natal with Charlie x."
According to the NHS, postnatal depression is a type of depression that many parents experience after having a baby. It is said to be a common problem, affecting more than 1 in every 10 women within a year of giving birth, and can also affect fathers and partners.
Helen’s fans responded to her post to thank her for being so honest and open about her struggles with postnatal depression and OCD. One said: "I wish therapy was more accessible, NHS is so limited and private is so expensive. Thank you for normalising mental health problems."
Another added: "So brave Helen I had post Patrum ocd it is the worst thing Iv ever been through."
A third said: "Thank you for sharing. I had postpartum depression and the intrusive thoughts, luckily the intrusive part only lasted a few weeks but I thought I was going mad."
Source: Read Full Article
