Honest Quotes About Parenthood From Kenan Thompson
When Kenan Thompson isn’t gracing the “Saturday Night Life” set or playing a single dad on “Kenan,” he’s chasing after two rambunctious kids.
The comedian and his wife, Christina Evangeline, have two daughters ― Georgia and Gianna. Since becoming a dad in 2014, he’s opened up about watching his daughters grow up, being a funny parent, protecting his kids’ privacy and more.
In honor of his birthday, we’ve rounded up 12 quotes about parenthood from Thompson.
On What Being A Dad Means To Him
“It’s everything. Along with being a husband, that was the goal. I stopped my bachelor life and just was spending a lot of time by myself because they say, when you stop looking, you will find it. And then I met my wife and we had the same ideology. We wanted to get married and we wanted to start a family and keep a family. It’s my daily focus — is everybody taken care of? And then my other focus is, how am I taking care of everybody. That’s what probably drives me to work like such a maniac. I want to personally satisfy the need to provide like that.”
On Kid Humor
“Kids are hilarious. They say the darnedest things, but that’s just because they don’t really know what they’re saying, and that just makes much more funniness happen.”
On Becoming A Parent
“I think the biggest wake-up call is how immediate it is. One day you’re not a dad and then the next moment you are. You’re just a dad from that point on. And definitely, my coolness just got sucked right out of me. I didn’t know ... I didn’t even feel it, but I just immediately started wearing black socks and shorts and just being really corny at stores and over-asking questions about items that are super obvious and in my face.”
On His Daughters
“My big girl is one of the biggest hams I’ve ever seen. She is so funny. She’s 6 years old. It’s going hand in hand, her being funny and her also being highly energized, just all over the place and just being a kid. And my baby girl, she’s such a sweetheart, but she has a real devious sense of humor, too. So I think that’s more from her mom’s side.”
On Protecting His Kids’ Privacy
“We want to be very protective of them. I’m sure they want to go to red carpets. They’ve just been too little basically to go. It’s also a lot. It’s pretty overwhelming for a kid. I just let them hang out in awesome hotel rooms. Like even dragging my wife to it, I feel a little bit guilty. Like I know she is happy to support me and stuff like that. But at the same time, she’s stuck spending her day doing what I have to do basically as opposed to us being out on a date or something. So it’s a cool thing to be able to share it with somebody. But at the same time, I try not to burden them with everything.”
On His Wife’s Role As The Funny Parent
“She makes us laugh, really. She’s the funny one. I try to make them laugh but I think they’ve heard enough from me, just from watching the show.”
On Watching His Daughter Grow Up
“Watching her progress, I remember my buddy sent her a bicycle, and I thought it was way too early. Now she’s just whipping around on that bike like it’s nothing and I’m like, ‘I remember when you didn’t understand what pedaling was.’ Now it’s just like, ‘Dad, can I ride my bike?’ I’m like, ‘Of course you can, you blessed child. Of course.’ You just sit there and watch your magic living its life and it’s unbelievable. Home life is a beautiful thing.”
On Parenting Siblings
“It helps to have an older sister to run around and teach her those things 24/7 that we can’t necessarily communicate the same kind of way. [Gianna will] just pick things up watching her sister, basically — how to walk up and down the stairs. And she’s getting so long. It’s like you really see it when they stretch out for naps and stuff, just flat on their back. I haven’t had that experience since Georgia, but they’re four years apart, so it’s been a while. But to see her coming along like that ... because kids, in their first year, are exhausting. They really are. They need everything from you.”
On Playing A Single Dad
“It’s a different kind of thing because these girls are much older. As kids grow, they become their own people very quickly. My kids are still young, so I’m still very on top of them. But my grieving, I don’t even really know if I’m coming close to portraying correctly because I’ve never even been there. I would dread the day to even have to face something like that. And I’ve tried to watch what I’ve noticed from other people that I do know have gone through something like that, but at the same time until you’ve ever experienced it … Now how we’re playing it, it’s, you know, like a year or so away from it. And it’s just a little further from the waterfall of emotion. Now it’s just about trudging through the mud.”
On Learning As A Parent
“The constant worry though is learning how to calm down and to see how resilient kids are — learning what the real warning signs are, as opposed to just being worried about every little slip and fall.”
On His Growing Family
“I wanted a full basketball team, but I think we’re good with maybe two. It’s just the sweet thing. It’s like Christmas all the time.”
On How Fatherhood Changed Him
“It just all happened at kind of the same time. We were married for three years before we had a baby, but it was always in our mind. So it was always that plan. The whole family-man thing of it all just kicked right in, and it’s just been an amazing ride. I’ve definitely grown and matured in ways that I never imagined. And then there were ways that I did imagine that come through, like dropping my kids off at school and what that experience was like, and having things come full circle like that — like watching a big girl do her homework. It’s just been amazing.”
Also on HuffPost
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
