Jennifer Nettles would describe herself as a bit of a perfectionist, but ever since she became a mother to her three-year-old son, Magnus, she says, “For a personality like mine, someone who tries to give 110% at everything that she does, it has been quite the equalizer for me on a lot of levels because you just can’t do everything perfectly.  Many times, I have said, both with a tear in my eye and a laugh in my voice, that parenting can be a daily confrontation with failure, at least in how it feels because there is no perfection and there is no control over the mind of a three-year-old- you just have to sort of surf that wave at times.”

The inability to reason and rationalize with a three year old has definitely changed Jennifer Nettles as a person.  She says, “It put me in a pressure cooker that felt like ‘wow, who am I and what is my identity?’  And then when I surfaced from that, I was starved for oxygen and came out just with guns a’blaring.  So, I feel like it has changed me wholly, and in many ways, that I was born whenever he was.”

Her latest album, Playing with Fire, featuring “Unlove You,” was a result of that resurfacing and part of her rebirth as a woman and an artist.

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Jennifer Nettles – how motherhood changed you  1:19

“Motherhood has shown me so many of my edges.  For a personality like mine, someone who tries to give 110% at everything that she does, it has been quite the equalizer for me on a lot of levels because you just can’t do everything perfectly.  Many times, I have said, both with a tear in my eye and a laugh in my voice, that parenting can be a daily confrontation with failure, at least in how it feels because there is no perfection and there is no control over the mind of a three-year-old- you just have to sort of surf that wave at times.  And the things that they need most, which are to eat and to eat well and to sleep, you can’t force them to do.  You can’t force a child to eat and you can’t force a child to sleep, and those are the two things that as human beings we need more than anything else!  So, it’s a very amazing design, I will say, and it has definitely changed me, for sure.  It put me in a pressure cooker that felt like ‘wow, who am I and what is my identity?’  And then when I surfaced from that, I was starved for oxygen and came out just with guns a’blaring.  So, I feel like it has changed me wholly, and in many ways, that I was born whenever he was.”