Helena Bonham Carter is taking parenting classes.

The 'Alice in Wonderland' star - who has two children, seven-year-old Billy Ray and two-year-old Nell, with director Tim Burton - confessed being a mum is much harder than being an actress.

She explained: "I'm not working right now and I need to learn to be a mum. It's much harder than being an actress. I'm taking parenting classes. You know, no one ever taught me what to do."

The mum-of-two admitted attending the classes has been as a "relief", as she has realised it is perfectly normal not to know everything about parenting.

Helena added to E! Entertainment: "The classes are teaching me some interesting things. You've got to get the children to think for themselves. It's a relief. I don't have to know everything."

In the past, the 44-year-old actress has revealed she was so desperate for a second child she took fertility drugs to boost her egg production.

She said: "If I hadn't got pregnant I think we probably would have tried IVF (in vitro fertilisation), yes. Obviously, you don't know what you'd do unless you were actually in that situation. I think we might have gone for a round of IVF, but that would have been that."