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Jenna Dewan Tatum struggling with work and parenting

Written by . Published: August 26 2016

Jenna Dewan Tatum is "physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted" thanks to her daughter.


The actress is mother to three-year-old Everly, her kid with husband Channing Tatum, and while she loves her little girl more than anything, Jenna admits she was unaware of just how much parenthood would take out of her.


"There are lots of days that l am really tired, especially after becoming a new mom," she told Entertainment Tonight. "There's nothing more exhausting because physically, mentally, emotionally it requires you to be on all the time."


Jenna is also faced with the prospect of balancing her professional and personal lives - a difficult ask for a busy actress. She knows she needs to set aside some "me time", but the stunning brunette often considers herself the very bottom of the priority list.


"Having a job and being married and having a crazy busy life, I try and balance as much as I can," she said. "I do the best I can. Some days I'm not that great at it, some days I'm better, but I have found - and it's so true, a lot of people will say that - that over time, you really have to take time for yourself, and it’s the hardest thing for me to do because I (think), 'There's so many other things I should be doing, there's other people to be taking care of'."


Recalling her "normal day", Jenna admitted she looks forward to when her daughter has a nap because that's her opportunity to get things done. Other than those precious moments, though, the Step Up star has to wait until Everly goes to bed to get on top of her work commitments.


"A normal day for me is, I get up with my daughter, (and) we generally watch Sesame Street," she said. "We do some breakfast, we change. It takes a while to put clothes on my daughter, so you gotta, like, plan that out."


"Then, if I'm with her, we normally go to the park or do something fun," she adds. "And then, generally, when she naps, is when I go do things. I'll either go work out or go do my meetings, or go and do whatever I need to do for my work, and then I'm home by dinner.


"We do dinner, we do bedtime - 20 million books, 20 million songs. And then I'm lucky if I got her down on time and then I'm like, 'Ahhhh, 200 emails to return.' That's my normal life!"

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