Jessica Alba on being with her kids: its about quality and not quantity
Jessica Alba and Jenna Dewan Tatum have a joint interview with E! Online in which they’re promoting flip flops they designed for Haviaianas, with 100% of the proceeds to go to Baby2Baby, an LA-based charity which supports low income families. E! asked them the go-to question for working moms – how do you balance it all? I wish more dads would get asked this question. Jessica is running her business, The Honest Company, and it’s clear that she’s a very busy person and that she’s thought about these issues quite a bit. Her responses remind me of old school Ivanka Trump, before we knew what a complicit horrible person she was, in that Ivanka used to say she worked 16 hour days and only saw her daughter at bedtime and on the weekends. That was before she had two more kids and became the botoxed face of fascism. As I said back then, that’s her prerogative as it is Jessica’s. Jenna didn’t say much about balancing being a mom and working but I don’t think this affects her as much as Jessica. She’s probably home a lot more. Here’s some of the interview, with more at the source:
“I think feeling like you’re missing moments, like, well first off, you feel bad when you realize they are wearing shoes that hurt them because you’re like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even realize that you’ve been wearing shoes that are too small for you for like 3-4 months, my bad,'” Jessica said. “Some of those milestones or moments, you want to be there for every single one and it’s not realistic when you’re working, but for me, that’s what gets me. Even the everyday little things like picking them up from school are a big deal, so I drop them off at school most mornings and try to get home for bedtime. But the weekends is really when I get to spend the time with them.”
“Yeah, for me it’s always a balancing act and learning and perfecting the balancing act is the toughest part,” Jenna said. “For me, with work, it’s interesting because it will be really, really busy and then I’ll have a little bit of time where it isn’t quite as busy, so you have a little bit of time where balancing that is easier. She’s pretty good now because she understands that now.”
“It’s like a checks and balances kind of thing where you really put in good quality time so you feel a little bit better about working the next day,” she said. “It’s about finding that, and constantly sort of not making yourself feel guilty but trying to work that out for yourself, so that your family gets lots of time and quality time together. It’s a balancing act always.”
Jessica said she thinks “it’s about quality and not quantity.”
“Totally,” Jenna said. “I say that all the time, because getting that good quality time in there assures the time you have to be away working to just feel better for you and for your kid and your family, just making that a priority.”
I often think about this, like what would my life be like if I had to work eight hours a day (at least) in an office, plus have a commute, plus have to run a household. It’s hard enough to work from home and I have the luxury of being able to pick my son up from school and do small things around the house like laundry and dishes. I can’t imagine having to run the house and work a regular job too. Alba has help though, her husband is likely there as well, and it’s not like she has to clean, do laundry or cook meals. This is her choice and it’s not one we would even be considering if she was a dad. It sounds extreme to me but she runs a hugely successful business and that’s not achieved without a lot of time and effort.
photos credit: WENN.com and via Instagram
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