Sarah Jessica Parker Finds Parenthood to Be Painful yet Exhilarating
The things that I want to impress upon all of my children are the things that are the hardest for me to get right in business. [MUSIC] Francis is the character you play in Divorce. Tell me who she is. I'm not entirely sure she knows who she is, which is in some ways the reason that we wanted to tell the story. What we do know about her, what I know about her is that she is a 17 year married wife, mother of two. She is a professional Upper management. Right. In New York City in a job that isn't very interesting to her, but that's necessary for her to keep in order to support her family. She's struggled to find a professional kind of peace, she hasn't found it. She has a lot of real financial worries that I think keep her up at night. And Confuse her in terms of, meeting her own needs versus meeting those of other people around her. She lives outside the city because it's necessary, and been asked of her. So there's a huge amount of What might have been and still can be, that I haven't been asked those choice. I've been able to make choices in my life. And I'm not have those same worries. Although at times in your life you did. I did but. It's been a while but. Not since I've been a married A person or a parent. And I think that's a very different experience. It changes you in every possible way. But there's a struggle, a conflict that exists. Which is you also wanna maintain this other part of your life. And the reason it's a conflict usually is that you like the other life, too. Someone said that you've, working mothers who work outside of home feel guilty about work because they like the work. Of course. That's the issue. For many working women in this country who are working two and three jobs, it's not guilt that they suffer. Because they don't know their worth. It's worry, concern, and time away from their children. It's such a different experience. [MUSIC]
For years, Sarah Jessica Parker played Sex and the City’s self-centered protagonist Carrie Bradshaw, who made the show famous with monologues about her dating escapades and closet size. But in real life, SJP is more focused on her kids than her shoe collection. In a new interview that many parents can relate to, the celebrity says that her life revolves around her family’s schedules, not her own.
“You're in a constant state of worrying about your children … It's very painful and it's exhilarating. It's a really interesting way of living in the world. I read books differently, or I look at parents and children on the subway differently. I hear music differently or when I see something, I think, ‘I wish Tabitha and Loretta were with me now and they could see this.’ That's the good part,” Parker said on a new episode of Girlboss Radio, hosted by Sophia Amoruso, of 15-year-old son James and 8-year-old daughters Tabitha and Marion Loretta.
“It's not for everybody—there's a lot that's really hard. It's exhausting and you're basically just cleaning up after people all day. You're one big, good, old-fashioned secretary. All I do is organize peoples' lives and get them here and there and all that. It's what I wanted and with that, though, comes witnessing somebody hopefully develop into a really interesting, decent person who contributes something.”
Parker also commented on her marriage to Matthew Broderick, revealing how they make it work when they’re often in different cities. “We have lives that allow us to be away and come back together. His work life takes him here, and mine takes me there. In some ways, I think that that's been enormously beneficial because we have so much to share in a way … Relationships are hard. I always felt that I wanted to invest more. I love him and I think he's brilliant. I'm sure I annoy him. He annoys me sometimes. I'm enormously proud of the person he is,” SJP said.
RELATED: Sarah Jessica Parker Knows How to Do Sex and the City 3 Without Kim Cattrall
In the wide-ranging interview, Parker found time to comment on her involvement in the Time’s Up movement as well. “In very basic terms, the big goal is parity, equality, a safe work environment. Not very controversial, just the pillars on which we should be out in the world functioning … The idea was that we should look inward first. These conversations are happening internally in [other] industries [too]. We're not hearing about all of them because they're not all associated with names that people recognize, but ... it's a huge conversation, it's a complex one … We're hearing people really sharing—some loudly and some more quietly—really stunning and very upsetting stories. I don't think that we can retreat from it,” she said.
“How do we look at legislation and how do we develop codes of conduct so there is no confusion? There is this really big, hard question; the answers are hard, but the pursuit is good.”
Listen to the full episode on Girlboss Radio.
