Getty/Pablo Blazquez Dominguez
"I think it's different when you have an office job, because it's routine and you can do all the stuff in the morning and then you come home in the evening," Paltrow naively said.
But any twinge of compassion for the Oscar-winning actress-turned-GOOP lifestyle guru quickly vanished after the 41-year-old said it was harder for her to parent than for regular working moms who go into an office every day.
"It's much harder for me," Paltrow said in an E! News interview. "I think it's different when you have an office job, because it's routine and you can do all the stuff in the morning and then you come home in the evening. When you're shooting a movie, they're like, 'We need you to go to Wisconsin for two weeks,' and then you work 14 hours a day and that part of it is very difficult."
"I think to have a regular job and be a mom is not as, of course there are challenges, but it's not like being on set," she continued.
As any human can imagine, parents were outraged at the "Iron Man" actress' comments.
One particular working mom, Mackenzie Dawson, took such offense that she penned a sarcastic open letter to the multi-millionaire mom.
"'Thank God I don't make millions filming one movie per year,' is what I say to myself pretty much every morning as I wait on a windy Metro-North platform, about to begin my 45-minute commute into the city," Dawson wrote in a piece for The New York Post.
Dawson, who recently had a baby boy, jokes that she and her friends are "always gabbing about how easy it is to balance work and home life. Whenever I meet with them at one of our weekly get-togethers - a breeze to schedule, because reliable baby sitters often roam my neighborhood in packs, holding up signs peddling their services - we have a competition to see who has it easier."
"Is it the female breadwinners who work around the clock to make sure their mortgages get paid, lying awake at night, wracked with anxiety over the idea of losing their jobs?" she questions. "Or is it the mothers who get mommy-tracked and denied promotions?"
Dawson continues to discuss how "easy" it is to find affordable child care, allowing her to come home from work "full of energy and ready to cook dinner using one of the recipes you post on your lifestyle Web site."
"So, Gwyneth, you've figured out the secret of working parents everywhere," she concludes. "Livin' la vida desk job is a breeze compared to the 14-hour days of a film set. Fourteen hours? Who in New York - especially those in the finance, law and tech professions - could possibly work 14 whole hours?"
Read Dawson's full open letter on The NY Post here >
Twitter clearly agreed:
Cry me a river, you privileged BRAT ==> Gwyneth Paltrow says it's 'very difficult' being working mom http://t.co/hGzxIeWq4E
- Liberty4America (@LibertyForUSA) March 28, 2014
I'd respond to this with "try working an office job." Gwyneth Paltrow says it's very difficult being working mom http://t.co/v5vB77zTi6
- Sarah Coppersmith (@sarahcopper) March 28, 2014
Paltrow might be the worst and might need a new publicist: A working mom's open letter to Gwyneth http://t.co/3c0tIXCqvJ
- Sabrina Pietryga (@SabrinaMVP) March 28, 2014
45 Hilariously Ridiculous Gwyneth Paltrow Quotes That Will Make You Want To Punch Something http://t.co/f7fVe8RVsS pic.twitter.com/TMDsGHVhyz
- Thought Catalog (@ThoughtCatalog) March 28, 2014