{"id":844962,"date":"2026-08-05T23:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T23:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844962\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T23:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T23:56:16","slug":"alex-nation-reveals-the-silent-parenting-struggle-shes-been-tackling-for-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844962\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Nation reveals the silent parenting struggle she\u2019s been tackling for years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: For nearly five years, Alex Nation<\/a> has been quietly navigating the challenges of \u2018age gap\u2019 parenting<\/a>. Now she\u2019s ready to talk about it.<\/p>\n

Nation was 19 when her first son was born and didn\u2019t have her two younger children until she was in her 30s, so there\u2019s a significant age gap<\/a> between Elijah, 16, and Max and Pearl, who are four and three respectively.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Alex Nation is a mum of three but her eldest and youngest have a 13-year age gap, and that can create unique challenges.\u00a0@alexandranation<\/p>\n

And that age gap has often left Nation, 35, paralysed with guilt \u2013 especially when it comes to her eldest son.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do struggle with guilt around being able to put the time I want to put into Elijah, because I feel very stretched between him and the demands that come with an almost five-year-old and a three-year-old,\u201d she told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

Nation\u2019s not alone, though hard data on \u2018age gap\u2019 parenting<\/a> is hard to find.<\/p>\n

Have you got a story? Contact reporter Maddison Skipper: mskipper@nine.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

The research that does exist around sibling age gaps<\/a> and how it affects parents and family units is limited, and the results are often contradictory.<\/p>\n

Anecdotal evidence suggests that having children with large age gaps can put unique pressures on both the parents and the children, as they must navigate the different needs of children at wildly different stages of development.<\/p>\n

Nation admits she\u2019s struggled with intense feelings of guilt since Max and Pearl were born, simply because caring for them means she has less time for Elijah.<\/p>\n

\u201cI often feel guilty for not having the time for Elijah that I would like because I\u2019m so caught up in the two little ones,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Alex Nation\u2019s sons Elijah (right) and Max (left) were born almost a decade apart.\u00a0@alexandranation<\/p>\n

\u201cThey demand so much more of my time than he does. They rely on me to have them fed and bathed and get them dressed and make sure they\u2019re OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s especially hard because Nation knows exactly what it feels like.<\/p>\n

Her sister Angie is 14 years younger than her and demanded a lot of their mum\u2019s time when Nation was a teenager.<\/p>\n

There was a time when Nation really resented that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like \u2018Mum can\u2019t drive me here\u2019, or \u2018Mum can\u2019t do this\u2019, or \u2018Mum\u2019s struggling to even have a conversation with me over dinner because the kids are flinging food across the table,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember feeling a little bit isolated from my mum at that age, so I think that\u2019s why I\u2019m also so conscious of it with Elijah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

When she was a single mum to one child, Nation could put all her energy into Elijah. Now family life looks a little different.\u00a0@alexandranation<\/p>\n

But being conscious of the fact her younger children demand more of her energy doesn\u2019t make it any easier to carve out one-on-one time for Elijah.<\/p>\n

It breaks Nation\u2019s heart, especially because she was a single mum to him for most of his early childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was he and I for a long time, so he was used to just having me to himself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Now Elijah\u2019s a teenage boy on the cusp of becoming a man, and he needs support to navigate this pivotal time in his life.<\/p>\n

The fact Nation can\u2019t dedicate all her time to providing that support can be hard to for both mother and son to accept.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s navigating high school, he\u2019s navigating hormonal changes, he\u2019s navigating the transition from boy to man, and the mental load of that for him can be quite challenging,\u201d Nation said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some tricky times, especially recently with his own mental health, with the pressures of school and social life and having girlfriends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Raising a teenage boy while also trying to wrangle two little ones is no easy task.\u00a0@alexandranation<\/p>\n

Nation\u2019s struggles with \u2018age gap\u2019 parenting aren\u2019t uncommon, but they\u2019re rarely spoken about in public parenting spaces.<\/p>\n

Some parents worry they\u2019ll be judged for not treating their children equally, or accused of neglecting older children because the little ones need them more.<\/p>\n

There was even a time when Nation might have feared judgement for opening up.<\/p>\n

She was a 24-year-old single mum when she first appeared on our TVs on The Bachelor and copped huge online backlash from strangers who felt entitled to criticise everything from her parenting, to her career, and personality.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Being a young mum in the public eye took a toll on Nation, especially in the years immediately after her stint on The Bachelor.\u00a0@alexandranation<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople seem to think that being a mother and owning your sexuality and feeling sexy and confident can\u2019t coexist,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of it being this empowering thing, people looked at me with almost disgust. The things that people said to me online were horrific.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parenting, even though they had no idea how I parented my son, was literally torn to pieces online.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were times when the abuse made her question herself and Nation felt constant pressure to live up to some unattainable standard as a single mum.<\/p>\n

These days, she\u2019s much more confident and assured in her identity as a mother \u2013 and, more specifically, a mother of children with a large age gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving been in the public space now for 10 years, I have grown into a woman who really knows who she is and believes in who she is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And though the challenges can be difficult to overcome, there are also unique joys that come with \u2018age gap\u2019 parenting.<\/p>\n

Joys like watching Elijah hold Max and Pearl for the first time on the days they were born, help with mealtimes, protect them and play with them as they grow.<\/p>\n

Those are the moments that make every hardship worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exclusive: For nearly five years, Alex Nation has been quietly navigating the challenges of \u2018age gap\u2019 parenting. Now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-844962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}