The World According to Gwyneth
Super-celebumom Gwyneth Paltrow, 35, dishes on mommyhood in two of the biggest fashion magazines around, Vogue and W. This Oscar winner, American beauty and mom to Apple, who will be four in May, and Moses,who recently celebrated his second birthday, is an earthbound spokeswoman for Modern Moms everywhere. Here are some of our favorite quotes, and you can read the full content of “Gwyneth’s Guide to Life” by Plum Sykes in Vogue this month. Thanks, Gwyneth, for showing us that celebumoms desperately seek balance, too!
On trading Hollywood high life for motherhood: Has she ever regretted taking a break to take care of her kids? “Not one time. I love it. I don’t care at all. They barfed on me, they pooped on me, they spit up everywhere; I really don’t care.”
On balancing: “I keep everything very simple. I think the thing that drives most working mothers crazy is this idea that they can’t do everything: ‘I don’t know what to wear. I don’t know what to cook. I can’t work and do this and that and the other.’ But I find that as long as you’re not depressed, if you simplify everything, you can do anything.”
On giving ourselves a break when we can’t do it all: “When I went back to work, I felt guilty about not being with the kids…I always try to do everything all at once, and to do it perfectly. I think [my recent knee injury] was the universe saying to me, ‘Just stop. You don’t have to make yourself crazy.’ It made me realize that I need to be slightly easier on myself and just be imperfect, or a mess, and it’s okay.”
On quality time with kids: “Sit down with them in the grass, look them in the eye, and just be there, follow them around, do what they want to do. For fifteen minutes. OK? That time is gold.”
On making life on the road (with hubby Chris Martin, 31, the front-man for Coldplay) child-friendly: “Say I woke up in Austin, Texas; I would go on the Internet, find out where the children’s museum was and where the park was, and go down to the pool and create a normal day,”
On going back to work: “When I had Apple, I just couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her. When I work, I leave the house before the kids are awake. And I come home and they’re asleep. So that’s why, ever since having them, I’ve never played a lead in a movie…but when Jon [Favreau] called me about Iron Man, I thought, This is the kind of cast I dream of working with, and I could go back to work and not work five days a week. It was the perfect, perfect, perfect job for me.” (Gwyneth will be playing the role of Virginia “Pepper Potts” opposite Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man, which opens May 2)
On how she keeps her morning routine simple: “I find that it is very helpful to have a sort of mother uniform…Like, I say, OK, this winter I’m going to wear mini dresses and tights and this pair of jeans and these two coats. Done. I wear either these Lanvin boots every day or gray Chloé ankle boots. It’s like I want to eliminate all of the fuss. I don’t have time anymore to sit there and be like, What should I wear? What goes with this?”
On going from a size 4 to a 6 post-baby: “It’s liberating to just go up a size or two. Once you’re over 30 and you’ve had kids, it’s very hard. You really have to work to maintain your body. I don’t just look like this. You know what I mean? I don’t!”
On keeping the magic alive in her marriage: “if you’re going to cook dinner, so that you and your husband can invest in each other, don’t make duck á l’orange. Learn six recipes that are simple, easy, that you can do when you put the kids to bed.”
On future babies: Is she planning on #3 anytime soon? “I don’t think so. . . Well, definitely not right away. I have a dream version where I think, maybe in four years I’ll have two in a row really quickly again—how fabulous to have a whole bunch of them! But then at that point, when everyone’s potty-trained and sleeping through the night, are you really going to go back? I’d also like to work now a bit. My husband really wants to adopt. So I don’t know; I’m sort of open for anything.”
