Parenting is always going to be a little bit messy. There’s no one right way to do it, and definitely no way to do it that’ll avoid every single bump along the way, even if you’re a famous celebrity or a millionaire (or even both).
Things will almost always get messy for parents when it comes to having the talk with your kids. The dreaded talk. The birds and the bees. Funnywoman and icon Melissa McCarthy shared her story of the talk with her teenage daughter, and it was more proof that celebrity moms are just like us.
Melissa recently appeared on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast with Glennon Doyle to talk about (among other things) the birds and the bees.
Melissa has two teenage daughters, and spoke about how she approached the subject with her oldest, Vivian. “Like, we’ve had the talk, which I did incredibly awkwardly because I knew it was gonna come,” she said . “I always thought, ‘I’m gonna do it so early because we’re open about anything and they can come to me for anything.'”
“But there is still a midwestern former Catholic person that’s like, ‘Talk about sex and a lightning bolt comes down,'” she laughed.
Melissa explained that growing up in the midwest and also growing up Catholic meant that most of the sex talk she received growing up was “a lot about Mary and the Immaculate Conception.”
But Melissa was determined to start her own kids off on a better foot than that.
“So I just very awkwardly, right before [Vivian] went to school the day they were going to talk about it at school, I’m like, ‘I’m certainly not having someone else initiate that conversation with my child,'” she went on .
Melissa explained it was while she and her daughter were picking up their dog’s poop in the lawn, calling it a “really a wonderful time” for the chat.
“Vivi just goes, ‘Oh dear God, is this happening?’ And I was like, ‘There’s different parts of bodies be it … uh,’ but at least I was just like, let me be awkward and get through it,” Melissa laughed.
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But she communicated the most important part of the lesson without hesitation.
“I think they know that as long as whoever you’re with is incredibly kind and respectful and only lifts you up,”
“That whoever your love will be, and it may change and you don’t have to pick a side, you can pick a side, you don’t have to pick a side, you never know what’s gonna happen. I said, ‘That person has to be incredibly happy when you succeed and incredibly supportive when you fail. And if those are ever switched, that’s the biggest red flag on earth and nothing should make you feel uncomfortable.'”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves! You can listen to the podcast in its entirety here.
