Issues around discipline, socializing, sibling rivalry and decision-making – what would Michelle Obama or Salma Hayek do? We look to women who’ve raised their children in and out of the spotlight for the parenting lessons they’ve learned help keep it all together!
“Now it’s so easy to just entertain [children] with a screen, and you don’t have to go through the complaining for an hour about dragging them places. Drag them and make them a part of your life. It’s about the human connection, and the things they can learn from participating in life. Otherwise, isolation starts to happen.” – Salma Hayek
“No one feels 100 percent confident as a parent. We’re all just trying our best.” – Reese Witherspoon
A few years ago, then-first lady Michelle Obama weighed in on a certain teen idol’s drunk driving arrest. When asked how she would have handled the situation if she were the young pop singer’s mother, she said she thought he needed more guidance and attention. “You know, I don’t know if it would be advice as much as action,” Obama said during an interview on Univision Radio. “I would be very present in his life… And I would be probably with him a good chunk of the time, just there to talk, to figure out what’s going on in his head, to figure out who’s in his life and who’s not.”
“When my daughters are playing on the monkey bars I try not to hover and say ‘be careful.’ I want them to find their own way, but I still have that balance of knowing I am there when they need me.” – Nicole Kidman
Actress Jada Pinkett Smith believes her daughter Willow has the right to make decisions about herself. After being criticized about letting her then-14-year-old cut her hair, Pinkett Smith said, “First the LET must be challenged. This is a world where women, girls, are constantly reminded that they don’t belong to themselves; that their bodies are not their own, nor their power or self determination. I made a promise to endow my little girl with the power to always know that her body, spirit and mind are HER domain.” Seems she adopted that approach from her own mom. “She let me be me,” says Pinkett Smith. “When I had pink hair and wore tons of earrings, my mother never said I couldn't go out looking like that."
“Right when you think you’ve gotten a certain routine under control, [your kids] switch it up and you have to learn something new. You have to be willing to learn. As a mother, you’re forever growing and learning.” – Tamera Mowry-Housley