Mariah Carey's Homeschooling Struggles Are So Relatable
We never expected Mariah Carey to have to endure anything like the rest of us have been during 2020 quarantine life. Which, for the most part she didn’t: Though she and her kids were stuck at home in her Manhattan home for most of the spring, they were also there with a full staff … in a palatial abode. But one bit of her life with twins Moroccan and Monroe will sound quite familiar to any parent in this strange year of parenting.
“I have two 9-year-olds, so it’s been a bit challenging, because you want them to have a normal life, and we wanted them to enjoy the summer, and they got through that,” Carey told Stephen Colbert on the Late Show Monday night. “Now school is back on for them.”
Moroccan and Monroe have always been homeschooled, she explained, so they haven’t been missing the classroom. But their teacher is based in L.A., so just like everyone else, they were attending classes remotely after all.
“In the beginning it was really hard, because you’ve got to make sure they’re not on the iPad doing other stuff, playing Roblox, doing what they want to do instead of actually participating in the scholastic experience,” she said. And we highly recommend watching the video of this interview because nobody can say “participating in the scholastic experience” the way Mariah Carey does.
“But they’ve been doing great with that,” she concluded, “It’s what we have to do right now.”
Carey was on the show to promote her just-released memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey. In addition to the meaningful discussions of her life’s ups and downs, she reveals some fun facts too. For example, though she and ex-husband Nick Cannon explained their children’s name inspiration back when they were born — Marilyn Monroe and one of her favorite countries — she gives the story a bit of a fresh polish in the book.
A post shared by Mariah Carey (@mariahcarey) on Apr 30, 2020 at 6:14pm PDT
“Monroe and Moroccan got their names because I wanted them to have the initials MC, like me,” Carey writes. “My precious daughter was obviously named after my childhood hero (the sonogram revealed her posed like a Hollywood starlet, reclining on a chaise in the womb!).
“We arrived at Moroccan because both Nick and I loved the name Rakim (because he is one of the greatest rappers to ever do it),” she continues. “‘Moroccan’ was a bit of a hybrid name: it rhymed with Rakim, it’s a gorgeous mystical country where I had a special experience, and it’s the name of the room where so many creative and magical moments happened, including Nick presenting me with my candy bling.”
Even in motherhood, Mariah Carey is and always will be an original.
Mariah Carey is one of the celebrities who are honest about getting help with childcare.
Launch Gallery: Celebrity Parents Who Got Real About Their Nannies & Baby Nurses
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