I guess the most important thing I learned from my mother was you have to raise your own children. I try to say this without judgment, but a lot of people really don't want to do the job because it's so much work. Kids are the hardest job there is, so they just hire someone to do it and then they go to work. There's something about that whole how do you balance being a mother and working, and i f I had to choose, I'd have to choose my kids and I do.
If you can, start your own business while you're working another job so that your bills get paid. Choose something that you love, so that when you're exhausted when you come home from work, you're actually looking forward to your 3 hours every night that you can apply to your business, either after your kids go to sleep or while they're watching TV or while they're doing their homework, however you can budget your time. Instead of a chore, choose something you love so you absolutely look forward to it.
America is really tough on mothers, especially going to work again. A lot of women have to breast-pump, and they can't do that at work, and they only have two weeks' maternity leave. I'm very lucky that I get to pick and choose. And it helps that all my agents are women, and very protective of me. But for other working mothers here, support from their employers is not good enough. It shouldn't even be an issue. It's really important to be able to raise your kid without a fear of losing your job.
That's the most important thing you do in your life - raise children and try to do the best job as a parent and give your kids the best shot in life to go out there into the big, bad world.
My mom, she had a challenging job raising three kids on her own and having to work at the same time, you know that shows me a lot. It shows me how hard she worked, how much she cared about us and I want to do the same thing for my kids.
Every single person, pretty much, is taught what they're supposed to do: go to school, get a job, find someone to love, get married, have kids, raise the kids, and then die. Nobody questions that. What if you want to do something different?
Honestly, I have s much respect for single moms or anybody who finds themselves a single mother, but to even choose to be single mother is just so courageous to me. It is such a hard job to raise a child and be everything to that child without a partner. It's just admirable and courageous and brave and every other valiant word I can think of. I don't know if I could do it on my own.
Co-parenting is probably the toughest situation that I've had to deal with because my ex and I really just don't get along. So, at the end of the day, I would tell any parents listening that once you're separated from your significant other - the father of your children, the mother of your children - the most important thing is the kids' happiness.
I loved my own Grandparents with all my heart. I learned important lessons from them about how to treat people, how to cook and how to work.....they showered us kids with love and left the parenting to Momma and Daddy. That's the beauty of being a grandparent - the hard work belongs to someone else. I guess I never really understood the depth of their love for me until I became a grandmother myself... it is unlike any other relationship.
I can say that I'm a feminist and I try to be progressive and all that stuff. But I when I'm tired or when I've been thrown up on for the second time that I'm just a tired man trying to keep it together. I've had a lot of jobs over the years and people who make television - it's ridiculous how much they're lauded and paid. It's irresponsible and stupid. But it is hard work. It's very difficult to balance having three young kids and working like that. So I owe my wife an enormous debt of gratitude. I feel guilty that the kids had to be grown in her body and she hasn't been able to work.
Employers don't want to hire single moms with kids, because if the kid's sick then they can't work, and it goes on and on and on. It's really incredibly difficult to find a job in that situation.
Every woman has a mother, and every woman will have an issue with that mother and things that mother did or didn't do. It just depends on how you choose to process the lessons that you learned from your own mother.
If you ask anybody about their life, usually the first thing they talk about is how their wife is doing, how their kids are, they don't usually say "My job, my job, my job". It's really true. It's usually about your family.
Because work takes up a lot of time, you have to choose your moments for really letting rip. I hang out with my friends and my family and I spend time with my kids when I'm not working. They don't see my being an actor as exotic. For them, it's just an everyday thing. Sometimes it's amusing to them and other times, embarrassing.
I had a teacher who said something great. That was, 'Go out and collect your nos. Once you get fifty nos then you can start wondering when you can get a yes.' He said, 'It is not your job to get the job; its your job to do a consistent body of work. So, every time you go in there, just go in there and be consistent, and eventually it will get noticed and someone will hire you.'
My most important inspirational job that I do is raising those kids. That's my job. And that's where my ambition goes. But I have a life. I'm not only their mother. I'm still who I was before, I just don't get to be it all the time.
I think a lot of people, but particularly a lot of women, get to this stage when I'd say they're over 50. We face a lot of hard judgment from the world, we women. If you're a full-time mother, you should be out working. If you're out working, your kids must be being overlooked.