Gordon Ramsay admits he’s not a hands-on father

In a Larry King Live interview, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, 40, admitted he’s not a hands-on father to his four children. Gordon said wife Tana Ramsay is the main caregiver to Megan, 8, twins Jack and Holly, 7, and Matilda, 5.

The time I have with the family is little. But it’s quality. I’ve never been one to be home, I’ve never been a hands-on dad. I’m not ashamed to admit it, but you can’t run a restaurant and be home for tea at 4:30 and bath and change nappies.

Gordon’s latest television show, Kitchen Nightmares, debuted on Fox earlier this month.

Source: PR Inside

Comments

I’m glad he has his priorities straight. I guess his reasoning for having children at all would be that someone has to run the restaurant when he dies.

- Eileen on September 28th, 2007

well, at least his admits it! that’s a bigger step than most men who become fathers. i mean, i think it’s great to spend time with your kids, but at the same time, if you find that other passion in your life, you just can’t let it go because you need your time as well. i think as long as he is there for support and for the important stuff, there’s nothing wrong with spending more time at work.

- november on September 29th, 2007

I find it very disheartening to see negative comments around here any time a parent says they do things other than parent their children.

I would like to give this family the benefit of a doubt that the children are well-cared for and very loved.

There are many of us who did not spend our childhood with both parents around all the time.. and I’m quite certain not all of us resent the parent(s) for that.

- lis on September 29th, 2007

Its true, men in the restaurant business get home after 2AM. You can’t exactly wake the kids to visit with daddy then. Somebody has to provide for the family, and I bet he has provided them with everything they need and more.

- alabamadread on September 29th, 2007

I agree with you Lis. This is a big world filled with many types of families. Anytime someone does something different they get “attacked”. I think the readers of CBB should state their opinions, and how they do things rather then “nicely” trash talking the celeb parents. There are a million other blogs where you can be as rude as possible. I specifically read CBB BECAUSE of the comment monitoring.

Sarah’s note: Agreed. I actually just removed the first comment as that was not something that I would have put through myself. Also, as of Monday, I’m not publishing any ‘armchair parenting’ type comments anymore. It’s really turned into a judgmental free-for-all rather than people actually wondering these last few weeks.

- morgan on September 29th, 2007

My father wasn’t a hands-on father and he’s the best one I ever had I wouldn’t even think about trading him in

- brannon on September 29th, 2007

He says he’s not ashamed of not spending time with his family. I’m not sure if he should be ashamed, nothing wrong with having a job, but I think he could have phrased it better- this makes it sound like he couldn’t care less. He works at night, that is what it is. But I think it’s pretty jerky of him to make a joke out of things like changing diapers or putting a child down for a nap. His comments were really offensive to me, as he was basically calling it grunt work, and unimportant. I could go on, but apparently people are not free to have an opinion here, so I’ll curb it. Children care about spending time with you, that is it.

Sarah’s note: You can, and the way you put your post was great. The previous comment people were talking about was rude though.

- Traci on September 29th, 2007

Ah, if you don’t publish ‘armchair parenting’ comments, there’s hardly going to be any commenting on this site. That’s half the reason people comment, to my eyes. If you were to take that away, and all the “OMG she’s so cute I could eat her!” comments away, there goes all commenting altogether, lol.
As for Mr Ramsay, I’m going to say, -nicely! – that it’s not the material things that he can afford to buy for his children that they will remember about their childhoods when they are older.

Sarah’s note: I agree, but we’ve been getting lots of complaints about the judgmental comments lately, and as I’m starting a new job soon, we really won’t be able to monitor the back-and-forth posts as closely as we usually do. Maybe when someone else takes over, they will be back, but I really can’t deal with it anymore myself.

- Tary on September 29th, 2007

If you’ve ever seen one of his others shows on BBC America, “Gordon Ramsay’s The ‘F’ Word,” you’ve seen the way he interacts with his kids. He appears to be very sweet and loving with them as he teaches them about where food comes from. I can’t blame him for not changing diapers–if I could get out of it I would!

- meg on September 30th, 2007