Jessica Alba is opening up about going to therapy with her children. The actress and Honest Company founder appeared on Katherine Schwarzenegger’s Instagram series, Before, During & After Baby, this week and shared that her eldest daughter, 13-year-old Honor, made a surprising request during one of their sessions.
“My 13 year old, I’m struggling with not treating her like a little [kid]. I want to treat them all like babies. I want to baby them. Still my tendency is to parent them as if they are little,” Alba expressed. “I started going to therapy with her I think when she was 11. For me it was really out of, I felt like my relationship really suffered with my parents because they didn’t know how to communicate with me and how I needed to be parented. So I didn’t want that breakdown with Honor so we went to therapy together.”
“She really felt empowered to find her voice, speak her voice and own her opinions in a way and really gain confidence to say, ‘Hey, Mom, I like this, I don’t like this,'” she continued, adding that her daughter told her, “‘When you need to guide me or when I screw up or whatever, this is how I want to be punished. This is what I respond to, this is what I don’t respond to in that way.'”
Alba, who also is mother to daughter Haven, 9, and son Hayes, 3, added that Honor also told her that she would like to have her “spend more time with me alone without Haven around.”
“That was a big one,” she continued, also noting that Honor also told her, “And, ‘You need to treat me like I’m me and she’s her. You can’t mush us together.’ I have to say, I kind of still struggle with that.”
The two moms also touched on other aspects of parenting, their marriages, the advice their parents gave them about being with a partner and more. They also delved into Alba balancing work and life and why she decided to create her company.
Last month, Alba celebrated Honor becoming a teenager with a sweet post on her Instagram. “This is 13! Honor -yes you are way taller than me already, which you love to remind me. But you have a heart of gold, you are filled with compassion, you are wicked smart, silly, hilarious, and so kind… I’m just so proud of you ?… I’m sorry that whenever I look at you too long, I burst into tears – they are happy tears because the love is so deep and so profound and sad that I can’t push pause. So you are gonna have me to accept my emotional outbursts boo,” the proud mom of three shared in the heartfelt post.
