At one point Jackie Kelly and her husband Gary Clark employed two nannies to help look after their two children, and had to rely on school report cards for feedback.
"It was chaos," the Penrith resident said.
"Work dictated when things occurred."
As the first woman to have a baby while serving as a federal minister, Mrs Kelly juggled a busy political career, motherhood and a very public feud with her husband when, in 2007 he was caught distributing fake anti-Muslim pamphlets against the Labor Party in the Lindsay electorate.
She defended him during an ABC radio interview by saying it was all a "Chaser-style" prank, but she admits now that it was a mistake.
"The best thing would have been just to say nothing, deny everything until after the campaign then say sorry," she said.
"I think when marriages are faced with big challenges you can make a decision to forgive your partner and move on, or it becomes a marriage break up."
The mother of two left politics and now manages the family's finances and helps in her husband's business.
She said the time she spends at home is having a positive impact on her son's behaviour and she has been teaching her children to help with the chores.
The process of compiling her chapter in Working it Out taught her life doesn't have to be perfect.
"Kids get the mother they are born with and it is important for you to take the time for you," she said. "With four people in the family, that's 25 per cent each — take your 25 per cent with no guilt."
Last year her passion for politics was reignited last year with the Badgerys Creek airport decision and she now wants to help empower the western Sydney community to “influence their urban design policymakers”.
TV producer, mother of four and author of Working it Out Jayne Anderson interviewed more than 20 women in a period of eight years to write the book.
Her quest was simple: to give frank accounts of women dealing with small and large families, childcare, the pros and cons of working with children and she hoped to inspired more flexibility in the workplace.