10 tips on parenting from A-list celebrity mums
A-list celebrities have some of the most glamorous and privileged lifestyles in the world. Yet that doesn’t mean their lives are without their challenges, particularly for those who have children. This article will share some tips from those who’ve brought their little ones up in the most highly pressured environments.
#1 Gwyneth Paltrow
The actress and GOOP founder hasn’t been without her fair share of struggles. Having ‘consciously uncoupled’ from Coldplay husband Chris Martin in 2014, both made efforts to amicably co parent their daughter Apple and son Moses.
She said, “I think we genuinely wanted our kids to be as unscathed as possible. And we thought, if we could really maintain the family even though we weren’t a couple, that was kind of the goal. So that’s what we’ve tried to do.
“We put all the hard work in at the beginning. I would say very rarely is it difficult now. We’ve learned how to communicate with each other. We love each other. We laugh. We have the best of each other. It’s really nice. It makes you feel like you don’t have to lose.”
#2 Beyonce
Like many A-listers, Beyonce keeps her older daughter, Blue Ivy and younger twins, Rumi and Sir, whom she shares with husband Jay-Z, out of the public eye as much as possible. Yet rare interviews have given insights into what family life is like for one of the world’s most famous couples.
When she was asked by Vogue’s editor Edward Enninful about how she talks to her children about wider news topics, Queen Bey said, “It is my job as a parent to do my best to keep [their] world as positive and safe as can be…
“My best advice is to love them harder than ever. I let my children know that they are never too young to contribute to changing the world. I never underestimate their thoughts and feelings, and I check in with them to understand how this is affecting them."
#3 Serena Williams
When she’s not smashing aces on the court, Serena Williams is raising daughter Alexis Olympia, who she shares with her husband Alexis Ohanian. The boundary-breaking tennis champion has shared in interviews how she encourages her little one to be unapologetically herself, just like her mother.
She said, “I love that my child is wild, I love that because for me it’s a different world. It’s like wild is great, why is wild a bad thing? She’s curious, she has fun, she’s learning different things. So for me, I love that she wants to explore and just kind of wants to be herself.”
#4 Amal Clooney
Having built her own reputation as a top-class human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney then went on to marry one of the world’s biggest acting stars in 2014 after a whirlwind romance. After twins Alexander and Ella arrived in 2017, the couple kept them outside of the public eye and shared little details out of concerns for their safety. However, Amal did share some of the influence her mum had on her growing up in an interview while she was pregnant.
She said, “I think growing up my mother was definitely a role model, she was always a working woman and someone who is independent and cared about her career and cared about being independent, but also had balance. She never lost her femininity and she believed the balance was important and that is something that stuck with me."
#5 Jennifer Lopez
After using her many talents to build a multi-faceted career in the entertainment industry, J-Lo gave birth to and raised twins Max and Emme with ex-husband Marc Anthony. Despite her own relationship challenges, she said that she didn’t want her experience of family life to affect her own children.
She said, “It’s not really even your first love that teaches you what love is. It’s your mother and your father, what you were taught as a child that life is and love is, through how your parents are with you. Those are the things that you have to go back and work on and examine, when you are having relationships and repeating patterns and going, ‘Oh, what is this happening for?’”
She also shared some of her experiences of parenting in the pandemic, saying,“I think we all felt we were doing great. You’re working hard, you’re doing everything you can for your family, and then, this quarantine happens, and you’re home, and you realize, ‘Wow, look at all the moments I was missing.’”
#6 Michelle Obama
How do you raise the first family of the USA? Barack Obama’s first lady and self-proclaimed ‘Mom-in-Chief’ said that, despite her own work as a lawyer and right-hand-woman to the most powerful man in the world, motherhood was the toughest job role she had.
She said, “Being a mother has been a master class in letting go. Try as we might, there’s only so much we can control. And, boy, have I tried – especially at first. As mothers, we just don’t want anything or anyone to hurt our babies. But life has other plans. Bruised knees, bumpy roads and broken hearts are part of the deal. What’s both humbled and heartened me is seeing the resiliency of my daughters.”
#7 Angelina Jolie
Being the adopted and biological mother to six children isn’t easy, and still fills actor and activist Angelina Jolie with everyday worries. However, she says that her transparent and honest parenting style encourages her children to be open with her in return.
She said, "I'm not a perfect parent by any means. Every day I feel like I'm more aware of everything I don't do right. And I'm pretty tough on myself, because I feel often, 'Am I doing the right thing? Did I say the right thing?'"
"They're pretty great people, and because there's so many of them, I think they've had a very significant effect on each other. It's not like I'm the head of anything. I'm very honest with my kids. And I'm very human with my kids.”
#8 Madonna
Despite their mum being one of the biggest and most controversial stars in Hollywood, Madonna’s eldest daughter Lourdes has said that living with her mum as one of six biological and adopted children wasn’t all easy-going.
Lourdes said, “We don’t get any handouts in my family. But I think my mom saw all these other kids of famous people, and she was like, ‘My kids are not going to be like this.’ Also, I feel like if your parents pay for things, then it gives them leverage over you. My mom is such a control freak, and she has controlled me my whole life. I needed to be completely independent from her as soon as I graduated high school.”
Madonna has also reportedly advised her daughter not to feel the pressures of the luxurious celebrity lifestyle she’s grown accustomed to, saying, “Remember, this shit is not real."
#9 Drew Barrymore
Having only been a child herself when she rose to fame, Drew Barrymore has tried to protect her daughters Frankie and Olive, who she shares with ex-husband Will Kopelman, from the media as much as possible. Yet she has shared some insight into how she teaches her children to be thankful in a highly privileged world.
She said, “I’m keeping a gratitude journal, and I see it influence me and my kids. To clock good things that happen every day…it’s made us more aware of people and recognise and acknowledge all the good and then write about it at night. It’s really been a game-changer.”
#10 Meryl Streep
Sharing four children with her husband of more than 40 years, Don Gummer, actor Meryl Streep is as much of a kick-ass at home as she is on-screen. Yet she admitted that motherhood hadn’t been easy, with the only rule she followed being to follow her own instincts and spend as much time with her children as possible.
She said, “There is no road map for life. You don’t know who’s going to get sick, who’ll be born with the thing that needs to be dealt with. All you can do is live inside your own life. In my life I’m grateful to have as much time as I’ve had at home, to work in the movies. I wouldn’t trade the time I’ve had with my kids ― a lot of men don’t get that. I encourage my daughters the way my mother did.”