Ivanka Trump's new book on being a working mother struggling to fit in massages
'I went into survival mode: I worked and I was with my family; I didn’t do much else. Honestly, I wasn’t treating myself to a massage,' says Donald Trump's daughter
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Your support makes all the difference.Ivanka Trump has revealed she was so busy during her father’s election campaign that she was forced to go into “survival mode” and forego her usual massages.
Ms Trump, the President’s second child, made the comments without a trace of irony in her new book Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success which comes out on Tuesday.
Adopting a somewhat earnest tone, the book focuses on career advice, the dilemmas involved in being a working mother, seeking personal fulfilment and her attempts to create a parent-friendly culture at her own fashion house. The 35-year-old has made it clear she will be donating all the money earned to charity and refraining from doing publicity to ensure she is not seen to be abusing her platform as an unpaid White House advisor.
Ms Trump, who is married to fellow White House advisor Jared Kushner, writes: “During extremely high-capacity times, like during the campaign, I went into survival mode: I worked and I was with my family; I didn’t do much else. Honestly, I wasn’t treating myself to a massage or making much time for self-care. I wish I could have awoken early to meditate for twenty minutes.”
Ms Trump, who is said to be the President’s “favourite” child, also explains that she felt nervous about juggling motherhood with still being seen as a successful businesswoman and initially decided to keep her family life out of the public eye. However, the first daughter then explains she had a change of heart and realised she was being unfair to other working mothers in a similar position and was keen to "debunk the superwoman myth".
“I began to wonder whether I had been doing women who work a disservice by not owning the reality that, because I’ve got an infant, I’m in my bathrobe at 7am and there’s pureed avocado all over me,” she writes according to an advance extract quoted in Fortune.
“I realised that it might be helpful in changing the narrative – even in a small way – to, for example, debunk the superwoman myth by posting a photo that my husband candidly snapped of me digging in the garden with the kids in our backyard, my hair in a messy ponytail, dirt on my cheek.”
Although the book was written ahead of the election it includes a preface which the first daughter wrote just days before President Trump’s inauguration.
Ms Trump has stoked controversy for her remarks about relinquishing massages during the campaign period.
"This is what happens when Ivanka doesn't have time to meditate and get massage ... Poor her, show some compassion people #sarcasm," said one critic on Twitter.
"Awww poor Ivanka Trump couldn't get a massage during the campaign. Most working women can't afford a message. Clueless and heartless," added another.
"#WomenWhoWork are a class you don't understand. It's not having a massage as a break but having a second to breathe... is reality," said another.
This is not the first book Ms Trump, who has been accused of failing to stand up to her father and being “complicit” in the actions of the Trump administration, has written.
In October 2009, she wrote another self-help style book titled The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life. This included everything from advice in the workplace to anecdotes about her billionaire property developer father to namedropping celebrities.
In the book, Ms Trump compares herself and her own familial privilege to a runner who is placed on the outside track whose head start at the kick-off of the race is merely an illusion. “In truth, the only advantage is psychological; each runner ends up covering the same ground by the end of the race,” she says.
Although later in the book, she appears to flip-flop and readily admits her own good fortune. “Did I have an edge, getting started in business?” she asks. “No question. But get over it. And read on.”
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