Peta Murgatroyd has to "carve out time" for her husband now that she’s a mother.
The ‘Dancing With the Stars’ professional dancer has 20-month-old son Shai Aleksander with her husband Maksim Chmerkovskiy, and has said that the toddler now demands more of her time, which means she has to work harder on making sure she’s spending enough quality time with Maksim too.
She said: "With a toddler, you have to carve out time for your husband. I will say that has been something that I’ve needed to work on, because he has told me at times, ‘I don’t feel like you’re giving me all of you right now.’ It is such a touchy subject, and I know many couples go through this. When I wake up, my mind is immediately on Shai when it used to be immediately on him."
The 32-year-old dancer had to "put herself" in Maksim’s position to understand how he was feeling, and says the pair now cherish any "alone time" they can get.
She added: "So I definitely had to put myself in his position. Any alone time means the world to us, where we can grab lunch and then maybe see a movie."
Following the birth of her tot last year, Peta returned to ‘Dancing With the Stars’ just a few months later, and despite receiving some negative comments from critics, she believes she made the right choice for her family and for her mental health.
Speaking to Health magazine, she said: "Because I wasn’t getting depressed at home, in my sweats, with milk all over me. I went out for five hours a day, and I was refreshed to see my child.
"I think it’s important for women to keep doing what they love – even if it’s in the slightest amount of time. Because you don’t want to lose yourself. You want to feel like you still have that little glimmer of your life before."