Jessica Alba Says Allowing Her Kids to Make Mistakes Is the ‘Hardest Part of Being a Parent’
Jessica Alba is opening up about the challenges of parenthood.
The actress, 40, appeared on a recent episode of Dear Media’s Raising Good Humans podcast where she discussed her experience raising both teenagers and a toddler and shared what she believes is one of the “hardest” parts of parenting.
Alba, who shares daughters Honor Marie, 13, and Haven Garner, 10, plus son Hayes Alba, 4, with husband Cash Warren, says she finds it difficult to sit back and allow her kids to make mistakes, even though she knows “they’re lessons.”
“That is the hardest part about being a parent is allowing your kids to make a mistake and knowing when it is going to be too hard or too much,” she explains. “And then you’re like, I guess nothing’s too much.”
“But I also like it, they’re not mistakes, they’re lessons, and they’re meant to go through the challenges and it’s meant to bring them out the other side,” she continues. “So, yeah, that’s impossible. That’s one thing that I definitely struggle with.”
Alba also discusses the developmental differences between her three kids, especially her 10 and 13-year-old.
She says Honor’s “emotional needs, her intellectual needs” differ from those of Haven’s.
“You have sort of like the 10-year-old fifth-grader stuff, which is the beginning of the hormone shifts and the awakening of this next stage of self, and Honor’s like right in the thick of it,” she says.
“They are just at very different stages,” she continues. “And then the baby, he’s not a baby, he’s 4. He’s very cute and he just wants to play.”
