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Jennifer Lopez says her kids learn by watching her actions rather than just listening to her advice
Lopez describes preparing for her twins to leave for college as an emotional and bittersweet experience
She credits a supportive “village” for helping her balance motherhood and her demanding career
Jennifer Lopez is sharing the parenting philosophy she lived by while raising her two kids in the spotlight.
While appearing on a Wednesday, June 8 episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, the Office Romance star, 56, was asked by Andy Cohen if she had any advice for ensuring that kids won’t grow up to be spoiled. Lopez is mom to 18-year-old twins Max and Emme, whom she shares with ex Marc Anthony.
“I mean, they do what they see you do. Okay? So it’s not so much what you tell them all the time,” said Lopez. “Even though I’m trying to download everything I’ve ever learned in my life, every lesson I’ve ever learned, to them right now before they leave in August, I still feel like who you are as a person, how you act, what they see you do, if you work hard, they become more hard workers.”
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“They mimic you in this weird way and learn from you even though they will act like they’re opposite you,” she continued. “Because my kids [are like], ‘I don’t want to be anything like you, I want to have my own path.’ They see this persona as such a thing.”
“But I also see them like mimic…not mimic, but just pick up things that are the good traits about you.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Lopez spoke about how her kids are heading off soon to college. She shared that it’s been an “emotional” time for her as she prepares to be an empty nester.
“It’s an emotional time. It’s been the three of us,” she said. “People have come in and out of my life, but it’s been the three of us. They’ve always been there, and I’ve always been there.”
Jennifer Lopez and her twins Max and Emme.
Credit: Jennifer Lopez/Instagram
The “On the Floor” singer emphasized that she’s grateful for the “village” that has helped her to juggle motherhood with work, while expressing that she hadn’t imagined a time when things would change.
“I just never thought they would not be there,” she said, referring to her twins. “I just never thought that far ahead. I thought, too, that they’re so independent. I’ve given them roots and wings.”
“[I thought], ‘It’s great, this is how it is … this is a healthy mom thing to do.’ And then about a couple of months ago, I just was like writing something for their end-of-the-school-year thing for them to put in the program at the graduation, and I just have not … every time it comes up, I just start crying. I could cry right now.”
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