La Rue says balancing work and being a single mom can be a juggling act at times. Since her daughter is still young, she often takes her along to work with her. She also says that she is already starting to push young Kaya towards a career outside of entertainment.
"There was one time where I took her to work and we were shooting out at the Palisades at this big, massive, beautiful house — I mean this place was palatial," she shares. "And we walked in and she goes, 'Momma, how come we can't have a house big like this one?' And I was like, 'Because Momma doesn't make this much money.' And she goes, 'How do we make this much money?' And I said, 'You become a plastic surgeon!' I'm really, really pushing for plastic surgeon because I figure mom's going to need some work and it would be nice to get it at least half price, if not free!"
While becoming a Hollywood mom has given her a fresh, new outlook. La Rue says she often feels the additional pressures of being a single parent.
"I still feel even more driven, but in a different way to work like a fiend because I feel like, 'Oh my God, I am a single mom and when this job is over and I'm in my 40s, I'm still the only one who at the end of the day is supporting us," she says. "I need to make sure that we're going to be alright. It's just such a tough business. A plus B never equals C in this business. Just because you have a series that happens to be the number one series in the world doesn't mean when the show is over you'll automatically go onto another show."
La Rue says the pressures of being a single parent can be challenging at times, and she wishes that women would do a better job of sticking together.
"The thing that really bothers me is that women are not supportive of other women," she explains. "Had anybody told me how much guilt comes with that little package, I never would have believed it. But your whole life is run on, when you are at home, are you being a good enough mom? And when you're away and you're working, you're obviously not being a mom. So then when you're at home, you still have a house to run and bills to pay and workmen to fix whatever things, so you're not able to sit down and play that 800th game of Princess Monopoly that you'd like to be playing if you didn't have anything else to be doing. So you're just always feeling like you're not doing quite enough.
"Why not just say, this is hard, this is really hard and I'm really pressed sometimes? I want to be an awesome mom because that's the most important thing, but I also have a job and I have to provide. And I have to do that well because I can't lose my job, I can't afford to. There are days when you are doing it beautifully, but there are other days where the house is falling apart around you.
"It's exhausting. I just wish more women would say, 'Wow, it's OK that you don't feel like you can do it all.' Because I think that would make us all feel less pressure to be perfect all the time and be happy all the time."
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