Barbra Streisand Quotes

I wore myself out physically and mentally over my career, and I couldn't be there for my daughters in ways I should have been.

After Mason was born, I'd feel guilty doing anything that wasn't related to work.

I just didn't work that much while the kids were growing up.

Any parent who tells their kids that they can't attend a school play or go to a soccer match because they have to work is kidding themselves. It's OK to miss a game or two or a performance here and there, but it's not all right to miss the majority of them.

It wasn't so long ago that I was a working mom myself. And I know that sometimes, much as we all hate to admit it, it's just easier to park the kids in front of the TV for a few hours, so we can pay the bills or do the laundry or just have some peace and quiet for a change.

I turned down a movie this summer because it was nine weeks in Vancouver and my oldest daughter is 14. I've got four more summers with her. I'm not giving away nine weeks of her summer to go do a silly movie.

Well, I took a sabbatical. I walked away from shooting movies because I couldn't handle the travel. I'm a single parent. I had young kids, and I found that keeping in touch with them from hotel rooms and airports wasn't working for me. So I stopped.

That said, my kids are at home right now with my husband and I'm missing something important at my daughter's school which makes me feel sick inside. It's a lot of balance and a lot of really hard decision making.

I'm having to learn to get the balance right, because if you want a full-time career, and you also want to be a mother who is there for your child, then you have to make sure that when you do spend time together, you're really there for them.

I sort of spend every moment that I'm not working doing things with my son. You do the best you can, and you make the most of the time you have.

If you want to spend weekends with your family, something's got to give.

I always feel like I want more time with my kids. But I reject the notion that you can't have it all. I think you can: just not necessarily in abundance.

I find so often, you know, just on a very mundane level; you've got a meeting and your child's acting in a school play. You can't do both things. And it's not simply that you can't do both, but whatever you do, you're going to be neglecting something that's really important.

Most women who work and have a career and a family sympathise with one another because they know just how difficult it is to try and manage it all and sometimes if the pressure's too great and you can't manage something has to give and it's either your career or your family.

A lot of mums are torn between their work and missing out on important milestones in their children's lives.

I used to work until two in the morning every night, then still get up at six. Now, I have to help my daughter with her homework, spend time with my wife.

My priorities were taking the kids to school and being a mum and being a daughter and being a sister. Just spending a lot of that time with my family that I'd probably lost a lot of, touring with the Cranberries.

It's hard, and I don't always get to see my kids. I will never catch up on that time I've missed.

I'm always worrying: 'Am I spending enough time with my kids? Am I working too hard? Have I scheduled enough playdates this week?' I don't sleep much.

There is no way to physically always be there for your children and always be at the office and always be present for your significant other and then take care of yourself. The laws of physics necessitate that somebody or some thing is going to get the short end of the stick.

My first job now is as a mother, everything else is secondary. My kids understand that I am an actress, and they are always so surprised to hear my voice on a cartoon character, or see my face on a video box. If it ever gets to be too much though, the career and the kids, I will simply set the career aside.

I spend as much time with my kids as any mom who stays home. I only work during the hours they're at school, but there is always the sense of trying to catch up with all their stuff and not only organize my work life but also their school lives.

I do consider how I spend my time off carefully because I've got two kids.

Being a mom is hard, I think a lot of working moms feel that way.

I work too much to be an appropriate parent. I feel like a bad mom to my dog some days because I'm just not here enough. I just feel like I would do a bad job if I took the time to literally give birth to a kid right now and try and juggle everything I'm doing.