It comes as no surprise that keeping a good marriage in Hollywood is hard, never mind having a family and raising kids.
But some famous parents seem to have found a solution that works for them and their children, with some celebrities opting for a tough-love approach within their kids’ education, in order to keep them grounded.
Bored Panda takes a look at celebrities who have shared some of their parenting tips, with many opening up about being strict.
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Penelope Cruz
Spanish actress Penelope Cruz married fellow Spanish actor Javier Bardem in 2010.
The actors welcomed a son, Leo Encinas Cruz, and a daughter, Luna Encinas Cruz.
As a result, Penelope became an advocate of breastfeeding in public.
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning in 2021, the Vicky Cristina Barcelona actress admitted that she didn’t allow her children to have cellphones or use social media.
She said: “I really see that that is protecting mental health, but I seem to be part of a minority.
“I feel really bad for the ones that are teenagers now.
“It’s almost [as] if the world was doing some kind of experiment on them.
“‘Oh, let’s see what happens if you expose a 12-year-old to that much technology.’”
Penelope added: “There is no protection for them, for brains that are still developing and how that affects the way they see themselves, how everything related to bullying, so many things that are not the childhood that we had."
The 49-year-old movie star also shared that she let her kids watch movies and cartoons sometimes, but that they would not be allowed to have phones until they “are much older”.
Additionally, Penelope revealed that her kids would not have access to social media until they hit at least 16.
Absolutely! My kids got really aggravated that I wouldn't let them have phones growing up. We didn't have a landline, so when they were old enough to be home/out alone I bought them simple phones that could make calls & text but had no data. Now, as adults, they totally understand why I refused. People seem to forget that while the Internet opens up the whole world for your child, it also opens up your child to the whole world.
Load More Replies...The social media is interesting. As a 15 year old, I agree that you don’t need things like Facebook or Snapchat, but having a text conversation in something like WhatsApp that many consider ‘social media’ is actually beneficial
How is WhatsApp social media? It‘s just like SMS or you could say like telephoning or talking, just via text
Load More Replies...I agree with her that social media is bad for kids and teens, but that‘s hardly the fault of technology per se.
Julia Fox
Julia Fox, a.k.a. Josh Safdie’s muse, is known for her frank opinions and sharing relatable content. But last year, she divided the opinions of the public after sharing a theory on TikTok that the concept of "childhood" was created as an excuse to trick parents into buying things their children don’t necessarily need, such as toys.
She said: "It’s not really teaching your kid anything, you just end up raising a kid that’s, like, helpless and doesn’t know what to do."
The model went on to open up about her experience raising her one-year-old son Valentino, whom she shares with ex-husband Peter Artemiev.
The 33-year-old revealed that Valentino wasn’t all that concerned about his toys, but instead was more interested in the day-to-day tasks that she does.
Julia showed a mini cleaning set that she acquired for her son.
She explained: "I suggest everyone buy their kid a little mini mop, a mini broom, and start teaching them those life skills really young.
"So that when they enter the real world, they don’t have to outsource for everything, and they know how to do things for themselves."
And here we have moms who are proud of their sons who are not able to boil water or pick up a broom looking for girls who can do all the housework and raise kids and be the perfect wife 😒
So actually, a kid should not be allowed to be a kid, just fast-tracking to adulthood?
No, no, kids are just tiny adults that are missing some info. Gee I wonder where that will go wrong.
Load More Replies...That‘s actually very smart. Kids want to be with their parents and do what their parents do. It‘s good to foster that as long as it lasts. That way they have fun while learning basic live skills. And if you start that young, they eon‘t be that annoyed to do chores later, because it will be just a normal everyday task by then
YES!!! SO MUCH OF THIS!!!! I am literally watching my nibling (3F) transform from neglected, despite two parents at home and a nanny, to totally participating because grandma got into the picture. My mom has her setting the table, helping watch dishes, helping prep food, sweeping, etc. And the girl feels included and absolutely proud of her accomplishments (she should be!). She loves hanging out with grandma, and once the chores are done, there is always time for reading and playing and hanging out. Grandma is definitely her favorite.
Load More Replies...This concept has been around for hundreds of years, child development is at its pinnacle when they are learning through play in a natural environment, learning through experiences around them & watching behaviour modelled by the grown ups/parents/carers around them - it's vital for a child's ability to develop self-efficacy to face their future life challenges. Nothing new or bizarre, unless they have chosen to ban all interactions with toys, as it needs to be a holistic approach.
Mini mop, mini broom, mini stovetop and any mini-tool is an actual toy. Lots of toys are smaller, lighter, less valuable versions of adult items. It's been like that for ages. "Childhood" always existed.
Now this one I like. Encouraging kids to get involved in cleaning early and teaching them that it can be fun to tidy up is good parenting
I think he's gone ten towns overboard with the toys. If I had a little culture in all ages in history children have had toys, which even help their mental and educational development apart from the amusement of the child. I think what you are referring to is the consumerism of today's society that covers all aspects of society including toys.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Austrian-American actor Arnold Schwarzenegger shares four children with his ex-wife journalist Maria Shriver, as well as a son with Mildred Baena, the family's former housekeeper.
In addition to his political career, it is safe to say that Arnold’s hands are full, and he has no time to waste.
In an interview for People, while promoting his new book last month, the 76-year-old recalled a moment when his eldest daughter, Katherine, brought over her three-year-old daughter, Lyla.
"Katherine comes over with Lyla, and she says, 'Lyla, I told you already not to put the shoes there,’” he explained.
The dad-of-five continued: “‘Keep your shoes on, or you put them away, but you don't leave them there by the stand in front of the fireplace because you know what Daddy did?
“‘When I left my shoes there twice? The third time, he burned them in front of me and I cried.’”
The Terminator actor affirmed that the story was "absolutely" true, and even shared another tough-love approach story with his eldest son, Patrick.
Arnold recalled that when Patrick was nine, he threw his mattress outside after he had failed to make the bed as ordered.
He explained: "I opened up the door to the balcony, picked up the mattress, and threw it down with the bedsheets, the pillows, everything.
“I said, 'Don't ever make someone come in and clean your room, clean your shower, or make your bed.
"I said, 'Because I taught you how to make the bed.'"
I’m all for teaching children the right way to behave and about responsibility but this seems… unnecessarily harsh to me
The word you are looking for is "abusive". This is abusive.
Load More Replies...I think the nine year old's bed thing is a bit extreme, I mean, come on Arnie, he was nine for goodness sake. Don't you have a housekeeper.......................................?
That was my thought too. He’s 9. You have to tell a 9 year old to do pretty much everything, they’ve got the attention spans of gnats
Load More Replies...Been reading a lot about Arnold lately that makes me realized he is quite the AH.
It breaks my heart when people just casually describe abusing their children, or adults casually describe the abuse they received from their parents. I will never be able to look at Arnie the same after reading this.
The Kennedys have such pronounced features, they’re quite recognisable. But here all the kids definitely took after Arnold
Reese Witherspoon
Legally Blonde actress Reese Witherspoon shares her eldest children, Ava and Deacon, with ex-husband and Cruel Intentions co-star Ryan Phillippe, as well as her youngest, Tennessee, with ex-husband Jim Toth.
In a new interview on the "Good Inside with Dr. Becky" podcast, the mom-of-three revealed that she wanted to see children live with failure.
Reese said: "I see this a lot with parents – I don't know when we stopped letting our kids fail.
“Like I learned so much from the paper I didn't turn in or the demerits I got, so I got detention.
“I was suspended from school and my parents didn't say, ‘Uh, she didn't deserve that,' and take me out of school.
“They actually let me sit in it and feel uncomfortable.
“So, I think learning from failure is actually a valuable tool that you can't take away from kids, right?
“You rob them if you don't let them sit in the discomfort of the experience."
The Oscar winner recalled teaching her daughter a lesson when she had lost a basketball game.
She said: "'Yeah, I know. I know that probably feels really bad,'" but then added, "'You know what also? Maybe you're not good at basketball?'"
Despite her daughter being slightly upset at the moment, Reese continued: "It's actually really important to learn what you're not good at."
I don't feel like this is strict parenting at all. Kids should learn that it is ok to fail and to accept consequences for not turning in assignments. Failure is apart of life and so are consequences
What. She's part of a team, she could've done really well and still lost. What she could have done is help her daughter with basketball, and if she can't do that, ask the coach.
She also could be generally good but the opponent was better. Imagine if every Olympian quit the moment they didn’t win gold.
Load More Replies...Reese...you have pointed out the major flaw in most parents! That's right...the children need to fail to learn important lessons. My M-I-L said that children enter this world with an empty tool box and it's the parents responsibility to give them the tools for their toolbox. In other words, the lessons we teach are children are the tools. Thank you, Reese!
I had the same convo with my son's teacher this morning (he is 7). If he doesn't write down his homework, he gets upset and so she writes it for him. This isn't how you are going to teach him to take responsibility and that actions - or lack there of- have consequences. Let him not have his homework written down and let him figure out how he is going to get it.
Participation trophies should be banned. All that teaches a kid is that they don't have to work as hard as the kid that's actually great at baseball because he tries and practices. Why put in the effort if everyone gets the same recognition?
And yet sports scholarships still exist. Take a chill pill.
Load More Replies...Kristen Bell And Dax Shepard
Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have been married for 10 years, and share two daughters together, Lincoln and Delta.
The actors shed light on how they kept their children grounded.
In a 2020 interview with Self, the Frozen star said: "It’s very important to me that they share a bedroom.
“I think their lives will be easier than most other people’s on the planet, and to develop a good character, it’s important to always be going through something.
"I like the fact that they will have to figure out how to share a bedroom, figure out how to share your closet, figure out how to share your space.
"If that’s the worst thing about your life, that you have to share a bedroom with your sister, you’re going to be OK."
The mom-of-two also revealed that she had implemented strict screen-time rules, which she eased up a little on the weekends.
Kristen explained: "They’re not allowed to play with our phones or have any screens, really.
“They are allowed to watch TV on the weekends, and we’re pretty liberal with it, which I’ve been considering paying more attention to.
"But since they’re not allowed at all during the week, they will wake up at 6:30 on a Saturday morning, and they will watch TV until noon.
“I will also sleep until 9:45, which is really nice, and then get stuff done.
"But I will say, I notice how hard it is to pull them away from the TV at noon."
Imagine an actress preventing her kids to watch what she does for a living, only to have them spend a large part of the weekend watching it...
As long as they get privacy when they hit their teen years, I’m fine with this.
Tmi, but if you don't give teens their own space, 40 minute showers are unavoidable.
Load More Replies...Saturday Morning Cartoons were over before noon anyway so we would go out and play and come back just before dark.
More parents should do this. Kids these days are becoming addicted to their phones, tablets, etc..having some sort of screen in front of their face from the second they come into this world. When I was growing up that was exactly how it was, we watched Saturday morning cartoons and TGIF on Friday nights and that was pretty much it. The rest of the time was spent outside or playing board games inside if it was raining.
The more you try to restrict it, the more the kids want it. My kids have never had restricted screen time and they've always rotated between screens, playing outside, or entertaining other hobbies. They do get bored with screens. But when they were younger and they'd have friends over who weren't allowed screens, or who had restricted time, that was all those kids wanted to do. My kids would get frustrated because they'd want to go outside, play a board game, build something with Legos, etc, and their screen restricted friends would ONLY want to play computer or watch tv. I feel like modeling a healthy relationship with screens, and having varying hobbies helps the kids to self-regulate. They are restricted so they don't obsess over the screen and will easily gravitate toward other things when they get tired of tv, or computer or whatever. The kids who are restricted have no sense of self-regulation and are completely obsessed with screens.
Load More Replies...Daniel Craig And Rachel Weisz
James Bond star Daniel Craig shares one daughter with wife British actress Rachel Weisz, as well as being the stepfather to Rachel’s son from a previous relationship.
The 55-year-old actor also has an older daughter from his previous marriage to Scottish actress Fiona Loudon.
Despite Daniel’s fame and fortune, his kids won’t be receiving a large sum of money when the actor passes away.
In an interview with Saga Magazine in 2020, the 55-year-old said: "My philosophy is to get rid of it or give it away before you go.
“I don’t want to leave great sums to the next generation."
He later told Candis magazine: "Isn't there an old adage that if you die a rich person, you've failed?
“I think Andrew Carnegie gave away what in today's money would be about 11 billion dollars, which shows how rich he was because I'll bet he kept some of it, too.”
Sarah Michelle Gellar And Freddie Prinze Jr
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. met while they were filming the 1997 teen horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer, but didn’t start dating until 2000.
By the time the actors filmed Scooby-Doo, where they played each other's respective love interests as Fred and Daphne, the iconic pair were married.
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer star and Freddie went on to welcome two children together.
In a 2021 interview with US Weekly, Freddie gave some insights into how he and Sarah parented their kids.
He said: "We are strict as hell. Look, I don’t believe in whooping kids. I’ve never whooped mine. My mom whooped me. They were, like, preventative whooping, so I know how to be strict."
The actor went on to reveal that his wife also knew how to be strict as she had "100 rules" for their daughter and son.
Freddie explained: "They know they can’t break [those rules]. Friendships come and go. I tell my kids all the time that family is forever. So, we have rules, and they’ve got to follow [them]."
In 2020, Sarah told US Weekly that as parents, their "expectations are a little higher than most."
She said: "I think [our children] know what the rules are. We have [family dinner] as many nights as we can. We have no phones at the table. We sit, we all have dinner together."
Yeah, but then the example is: common dinner and no phones. Like, that's what happened at my house, but pretty sure there was nor rule about it.
Load More Replies...Ryan Reynolds And Blake Lively
In a new interview, actor Ryan Reynolds revealed how he and actress Blake Lively were raising their four kids, which include daughters James, eight; Inez, seven; and Betty, four.
The couple have yet to reveal the gender and the name of their fourth child, who they welcomed in February.
The Deadpool actor told People: “I think it’s more about talking to them about everything.
“It’s genuine when I say I take a huge interest in their days and how things are going.”
The 46-year-old also acknowledged that he, along with Blake, took the concept of “self-awareness” for their children very seriously, as they have been actively keeping them out of the spotlight.
Ryan further explained: “I think as parents, we are so much better equipped to handle the rigors of childhood through our kids now than when I was a kid.
“It’s just totally different now. People are much more self-aware.
“And that’s the thing we sort of hang our hat on the most is self-awareness with our kids. Not be happy, not be anything, just be self-aware and welcome everything in.”
Ashton Kutcher And Mila Kunis
Actors and former That ‘70s Show co-stars Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis married in 2015 before welcoming their two children, daughter Wyatt and son Dmitri.
To keep their children’s attitude down to earth, Mila confessed in a 2020 interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert how she was keeping their privilege in check.
The actress said: "I like to remind them that Mommy and Daddy have money, but they’re broke all the time.
“That is not their bedroom, it is my bedroom that I’m letting them use, so they better take good care of it.
"I say this in jest, but really they don’t have things … they’re raised on hand-me-downs from girlfriends’ kids’ clothing; we garden."
Mila went on to emphasize how lucky her kids were to be born to famous parents and wanted to establish their gratefulness.
She added: "Our kids are super-fortunate.
“Regardless, they were born at the right time to the right people, and I love them, but they’re not going to be entitled a**holes."
They didn't "support a rapist". They supported someone they thought was a friend. They probably really believed he couldn't have done those things. Once he was convicted, they came out & said they were sorry that they supported him. I remember watching the family & friends that showed up in court to support the man that violently attacked me. None of them thought he has done it. Some of them were truly convinced that he was innocent. To watch them turn away from him in anger & heartbreak when the verdict came down was wild. When some people love & care about a person, they'll hang on to every shred of hope & belief that you are a good person, until it is stripped away. That doesn't make them bad people. It makes them a loyal friend/family member.
Load More Replies...Candace Cameron Bure
Full House star Candace Cameron Bure shares three kids with her husband Valeri Bure: Natasha, Lev, and Maksim, who are now all in their early 20s.
But when they were teenagers, Candace’s children received a strict education.
The actress opened up to L.A. Parent about her parenting style.
She said: "I hope my kids would say that I’m a loving mom.
"They would also describe me as strict. We set firm boundaries, but there is always love and grace.
"I’m the mom that needs to meet the parents before my kids can go to a new friend’s house.
“I want to know who they’re with, where they’re going.
“Even now that they’re driving, I want them to text me when they arrive and when they’re heading home."
Candace went on to explain that her family "work hard to keep our communication open and talk through any situation" and they are "always willing to listen."
She added: "But I don’t always say yes.
“My goal as a parent is not to make my kids happy but to guide them to be respectful, curious, responsible, resilient, kind, giving, and thoughtful adults."
I wish she would focus on being respectful, kind and thoughtful herself first.
Oh, *another* article about celebrities that no one ever asked for! Also, the majority of this list doesn't even belong here, it's regular parenting, and some of the rest is just straight up abuse. Like, god-damned, I had no idea Schwarzenegger is such a jackass setting his kids shït on fire!
First, if you don't like the article, keep on swiping away. Second, sometimes you gotta get the message across to your kids when you mean business. Sure seems a bit harsh but I commend Schwarzenegger on his parenting style. ( It's my opinion mind you)
And also it depends on which type of kid you have. You have to know your kids. Some kids you can tell them something one time and they do it with fail and then some kids unfortunately you have to do some extreme things like yell, threaten, or make an example of them in order to do right. Sometimes talking won't work and you gotta follow thru on some consequences. Sure Arnie might of been a little harsh on Patrick but maybe the was the only way to get thru to him to make his own bed. He got the message tho.
Load More Replies...Oh, *another* article about celebrities that no one ever asked for! Also, the majority of this list doesn't even belong here, it's regular parenting, and some of the rest is just straight up abuse. Like, god-damned, I had no idea Schwarzenegger is such a jackass setting his kids shït on fire!
First, if you don't like the article, keep on swiping away. Second, sometimes you gotta get the message across to your kids when you mean business. Sure seems a bit harsh but I commend Schwarzenegger on his parenting style. ( It's my opinion mind you)
And also it depends on which type of kid you have. You have to know your kids. Some kids you can tell them something one time and they do it with fail and then some kids unfortunately you have to do some extreme things like yell, threaten, or make an example of them in order to do right. Sometimes talking won't work and you gotta follow thru on some consequences. Sure Arnie might of been a little harsh on Patrick but maybe the was the only way to get thru to him to make his own bed. He got the message tho.
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