No matter where you’re from, how much money you have or how famous you are, when you become a mother your whole world turns upside down. Motherhood can catapult you to the highest highs, drag you through the lowest lows and fling you around corners you never saw coming. It’s like the best and worst roller coaster ever.
Throw in dealing with your own childhood issues, and motherhood becomes an even more terrifying thrill ride. A friend recently remarked that raising kids can be simultaneously triggering and therapeutic for people with their own childhood traumas, and it’s so true. Just ask Drew Barrymore.
Barrymore, who had a famously tragic childhood and poor parenting models, has talked about how she feels her experiences have given her a strong toolkit for raising her two daughters, and how healing motherhood has been for her. But the fear of messing up our kids is real for all moms, and Barrymore shared some of those worries with Pink on her talk show.
Sitting face to face on the sofa, Pink and Barrymore shared an intimate conversation about motherhood that was refreshingly real and relatable. Barrymore’s daughters are 8 and 10 years old and Pink’s kids are 11 and 6, so they are both right in the middle of their mothering journeys, the stage when parenting becomes more emotionally demanding than physically demanding.
The conversation opens with Barrymore asking Pink, “What can I tell myself when I’m afraid my kids will do some of the stuff I did?” which leads to laughter, some wise advice and Pink admitting she carries a tote bag that says “I literally have no idea what I’m doing” to preschool drop-off.
Definitely worth a watch:
“Omg- being the mom of two single digits kids- these two women moved me. I wish I had friends like this to have deep, real conversations with,” wrote one commenter.
“As someone who has idolized Pink since I was about 14, I hang on to her every word, and that last part brought me to tears. I felt the exact same way when my daughter was born. A beautiful little girl, unscathed by the world. Wow,” wrote another.
“None of us knows what we’re doing and it’s tragic and beautiful all at the same time,” wrote another. Amen to that.
Every mom needs this kind of heartfelt honesty in her life. Thanks for giving us a glimpse of what that can look like, Drew and Pink.