Gwyneth Paltrow opens up about struggle of balancing work and being a mother in her 50s

Celebrity actress and Goop creator Gwyneth Paltrow is embracing her fifties in a variety of ways. As she gets older, she's assuming her rightful place in the world and her business is growing. Paltrow talks about the difficulties she faces managing her successful company, her marriage to producer Brad Falchuk and raising her two children, Apple and Moses, as well as her two stepchildren, Isabella and Brody, per Bustle. Like many other busy moms, she struggles to strike a balance between her job, life and parenting.

Paltrow soon came to the realization that life is still hectic despite initially thinking her 50s would be a time to wind down. She said laughing in the interview, "It's like this fulcrum of life. For some reason, I believed that I could downshift in my 50s. I was talking to my friend who's in her 60s and she's like, 'Oh, no. No way. You got 15 more years.' I was like, 'Oh, my God.'" Her days are occupied with business obligations as Goop grows to offer more reasonably priced products that are sold at Target and Amazon. In addition, she helps her kids apply to colleges, which she compares to a full-time job. Due to her busy schedule, Paltrow acknowledges the occasional household disaster, saying, "I've burned three things in the oven this weekend, just stuff like that, where you're like, 'What the f*ck?'"

In the interview, Paltrow admits that she is a product of society's expectations and that, like many women, she has accepted the idea that being busy is a badge of honor. Rather than feeling pressure to perform beyond her comfort zone, she expresses a wish to enter a phase of life marked by tenderness and discovery. She muses on how difficult it can be to unwind, a problem that many working mothers encounter. "Even when I'm trying to relax, I'll think, 'OK, I'll sit down with a great novel!' And it's like Jesus, can you not just sit down and daydream?" she says.

Paltrow is seeing a change in her role as a parent as her kids and stepchildren approach adolescence and get ready for college. Now 19, Apple has established herself on her own path and is enjoying her first year at Vanderbilt. Moses, on the other hand, has a more carefree attitude toward his college selections and believes that he will be "happy wherever." Paltrow commends her kids for having unique perspectives and morals. Apple does not currently have any aspirations to take over the company or follow in her mother's footsteps, despite the fact that she uses a lot of Goop goods.

Paltrow stresses that it's critical to support her kids' decisions, even if they decide not to follow in her footsteps professionally. She thinks their decisions shouldn't be influenced by what society thinks of them. She writes, "I just hope that my children always feel free to pursue exactly what they want to do, irrespective of what anybody's going to think or say."

With her unconventional divorce and distinctive beauty treatments, Gwyneth Paltrow's life might appear extraordinary to the outside world. Underneath it all though, she is just another mother, devoted to both her career and her kids.