Mom of four Brooke Burke talks blended families and sleep deprivation.
‘Dancing with the Stars’ hostess Brooke Burke is the mother of four active kids – Neriah Shae, 11, Sierra Sky, 9, Heaven Rain, 4, and Shaya Braven, 3. She shares that her house is always in a state of crazy actiivity. “There’s a lot of action in my household and sometimes I’m a referee all day long. I wish I were always calm in the chaos. I have children with very strong personalities, and as elating as that is, it can also be deflating.”
“As a mother, I hardly ever get a thank you. Nobody ever says, ‘Thanks for getting up early and making me that lunch, Mom. I enjoyed what was in my lunchbox today. So when I do hear that from my kids, it feels really good. Maybe that’s why I treat the people I work with well.”
Brooke shares her two oldest daughters Neriah and Sierra with her ex-husband Garth Fisher and she says that having a blended family has unique difficulties: “Having a blended family is a challenge. Two of my children are with their father part of the week, so when they come home they want me all to themselves. Then my other two children, who have had me all to themselves, suddenly have to share me and that can make them very needy.”
The exhausted mom shares that she and husband David Charvet sometimes have getaways just to catch up on sleep: “I think that sleep deprivation is a really bad thing for a woman, not only for her skin and eyes, but also for her mood, memory, metabolism, energy, and sex drive. David and I have done ‘sleepcations,’ where we check into a hotel room simply to be alone and sleep.”
You can read the rest of Brooke’s interview in the January issue of Fitness magazine.
Photos by Wenn.com & Splash
