Actress-turned talk show host Drew Barrymore admitted during a recent interview that she had “felt like a failure” during the early years of parenting her two daughters with ex-husband Will Kopelman.
Barrymore made the comments during a recent guest appearance on the “Chicks in the Office” podcast, adding that she had often felt like other moms had everything together — which only made her feel more like she was navigating turbulent seas without a map or a compass.
“All those parents who have it all together, and they’ve got hygiene and nutrition and schedules and boundaries, God bless you. I didn’t know any of that stuff when I had my kids,” Barrymore said.
“I did not have the blueprint and I felt like a failure a lot. I felt really overwhelmed and like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing … I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m gonna have to learn on the job,” she added.
Barrymore, 47, went on to draw comparisons between the way parents behaved when she was growing up and the way parents behaved in more recent years, noting that in the 1980s and 1990s, parents had often taken a much more “hands off” approach with their kids.
“It led to resiliency,” she said of the “hand off” approach, adding, “And now we’re like, helicopter parenting and coddling and, you know, watching everything.”
“It’s funny, I was so unforgiving of myself when my kids were younger and now that they’re almost — Frankie’s almost 9 and Olive’s like 10, it’s shifted into something very different and I’m having the best time ever,” she said.
Barrymore made headlines just before the holidays when she revealed that she doesn’t do Christmas presents with her girls. Instead, she has opted to gift them “experiences” and takes them on a trip somewhere different every Christmas.
“They get plenty of things throughout the year, so I’m not like some weird, strict, cold mom who’s like, ‘You don’t get any gifts!’” she said. “I just feel like a better gift would be a life memory. I’d rather invest [in that than in] a doll house or something. It all evens out and it’s fine.”
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