Olympic gold medallist Libby Trickett shares honest parenting photo

Former Australian Olympian Libby Trickett has been inundated with messages of support after sharing a “real” parenting snap.

Olympic gold medallist Libby Trickett has shared a rare photo to her Instagram.

The candid parenting snap was taken by her four-year-old daughter Poppy and shows a fresh-faced Trickett sitting on her bed in comfortable clothes attending to her other two children.

But the mother-of-three admitted it was an image she normally wouldn’t post.
“She (Poppy) takes photos like these all the time and more often than not, I scroll and delete because let’s be honest, she’s not all about capturing the flattering angles,” Trickett wrote in a caption alongside the photo.

“But this one I looked beyond what I normally hope to see in a ‘nice’ picture of me and the girls and I saw an image that I know I’ll miss in the future.”

RELATED: Libby Trickett opens up on post-natal depression

Libby Trickett’s daughter Poppy, 4, captured this snap – a photo Libby said she wouldn’t normally share. Picture: Instagram/LibbyTrickett

In the snap, Trickett is tying up 18-month-old Eddie’s hair while baby Bronte lies in her lap.

“There’s not many more days that Bronte will continue to fit in my lap and it won’t be long before Eddie will want to do her own hair (if I’m honest, she’s so stubborn she would do her own hair now if she could!).”

She said even though there was laundry that constantly needed folding, broken bones, snotty noses, new challenges and someone was generally crying about something, “I know, one day, I will miss these moments and I’m so glad Poppy captured it.”

The mother-of-three is a mental health advocate. She recently opened up about suffering from postnatal depression following the birth of her eldest daughter Poppy. Picture: Instagram/LibbyTrickett

Her post has been liked more than 5000 times since uploading it just a couple of days ago, with fellow parents commending her on the relatable snap.

“All the feels — this is my life right now too!! I’m just a couple of weeks behind you,” one woman wrote.

“I Love this pic so real,” said another.

“Beautiful photo of mothering at its finest,” wrote a third.

“I love this picture so much wish every parent had photos of them in action, doing the day to day parenting stuff.”

Trickett, who is married to former national team swimmer Luke Trickett, has always been honest about her parenting struggles, having recently spoken about her battle with postnatal depression with her first child Poppy on Channel 9’s A Current Affair.

“She’s such a beautiful little girl,” Trickett said in September. “I think when you go through postnatal depression and you do feel such guilt for missing that time, you feel like you’ve missed out on her somehow. But she does not make me feel like I’ve missed out on her at all, and she tells me she loves me every day and that is incredibly healing.”

The Aussie golden girl and mental health advocate didn’t hold back when discussing her history with depression after Poppy’s birth.

“Around four months, she decided that sleep was just not for her at all,” she said. “And the progression of the extreme sleep deprivation that she put everyone through just spiralled my mental health and my mental illness to a point that I became scared of me,” Trickett said.

“I couldn’t imagine being an eight-month-old baby and being screamed at.”

It follows the release of her memoir Beneath The Surface that Trickett hopes will help mums understand the symptoms and warning signs of postnatal depression.

The former 100m and 50m world record holder won a bag of Olympic medals, with four gold, a silver and three bronze across three Olympic Games.

She is now six years into retirement due to injury.