Three of today's celebrity moms recently sat down with Life Magazine to talk about their children, their work, and making a difference in the world. Téa Leoni, Angela Bassett, and Sarah Jessica Parker all give their time and celebrity status to work as goodwill ambassadors for the United Nations–based children’s-aid organization UNICEF. In this wonderful article, they all talk about their lives, their children, and their Halloween plans. The following is an excerpt of the article.LIFE: What are your plans for Halloween?
LEONI: David [Duchovny, Leoni’s husband] and I will go out with the kids [Madelaine West, 7; Kyd Miller, 4]. There are all these other parents around. In California, it’s become a great family outing.
PARKER: I’m sure we’ll end up going out in New York. We have the pumpkins and the candy that James Wilkie [Parker’s 4-year-old son with husband Matthew Broderick] is very excited about giving out. He’s allergic to peanuts, so we buy whatever’s on sale that doesn’t have peanuts. . . . I had a costume all picked out for him the year he was born, but we were still in the hospital. Matthew drew these big eyebrows on [the baby’s] skullcap so James Wilkie actually had a Halloween costume when he was 1 day old.
LIFE: What was your favorite costume growing up?
LEONI: It was a bear, and I wore the costume for three Halloweens. The length kept getting shorter, and it got really tight in my crotch.
PARKER: Halloween in Cincinnati was a major event. We had only homemade costumes that my mother slaved over. I can’t believe the time she put into those mice and lions and crocodiles. We went out with pillowcases, filled ’em with candy, came back, got another pillowcase.
BASSETT: I used to love coming back with a bounty. It was one of the few times my mother let my sister and me loose.
LIFE: How did you get involved with UNICEF?
PARKER: From as far back as I can remember, [my brothers and sisters and I] trick-or-treated for UNICEF. And we were only allowed to buy UNICEF greeting cards and calendars. When I got older and had an opportunity to give to a charity, UNICEF was the first thing that came to mind.
BASSETT: We trick-or-treated in Florida, but it was strictly for candy. Now, years later, to be involved . . . if my presence can help in any way, it’s the least I can do.
LEONI: I grew up with UNICEF because of my grandmother [Helenka Pantaleoni was the president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF for 25 years]. I’ve had the opportunity to go to Honduras and Vietnam. It’s very confusing being a person who can afford all these things for my children, has my children so well protected, then to come into a place where I’m witnessing terrible violations against children. . . . There’s always this feeling [of] I can’t do enough. I didn’t do enough today, and I probably won’t do enough tomorrow.
LIFE: So how, with everything you have, do you give your children a social consciousness—teach them to be good citizens of the world?
PARKER: Two things in our house that I think about daily: Number one, lead by example. When your kids see you read the newspaper, they think, Wow, my parents read. Reading is fun. It’s a way to learn stuff. Number two, we talk. We talk about the world, we talk about Katrina, we talk about Bush. We talk about stuff because that’s what my parents did. For all the mistakes my parents, I’m sure, are certain they made, they made me think about the world.
BASSETT: My kids are so young [Bronwyn Golden and Slater Josiah, her twins with husband Courtney B. Vance, are 9 months old], but already I see you have to put the idea of sharing and gratitude out there. My mom was a single working parent and was gone all the time. But she [taught] us about right and wrong and responsibility and carrying ourselves with dignity. We grew up in the projects, but we always said “We’re not poor, we’re just broke.”
LIFE: How has motherhood changed you and the way you feel about the world?LEONI: I think it would be easier to name the ways it hasn’t changed me. My shoe size actually fluctuated with the 70 pounds—it just flattened the arch out.
PARKER: It doesn’t matter—big, tall, old, young, black, white. I could have a conversation with any mother anywhere in the world.
LIFE: Has motherhood affected the connection you have to your work?
PARKER: I have a completely different relationship to it now. I’m like, “No, I’m sorry. I’m spending the summer with my family.” I worked 18, 20 hours a day when I was married and didn’t have children. That’s over, and it’s so great.
LEONI: And why didn’t I have this clarity when I was 20?
PARKER: I didn’t want it then, because I loved hanging out on the set. But now I want to be with my son, my family. You cannot get that time back. I feel like it’s such a revelation. And I think men—even though they think family’s important—when you say no [to work], they’re like “What?” Intellectually they understand it. Emotionally they’re like, “How could you not want to do that?”
BASSETT: I love to work, and I waited so long to have kids because I wanted to establish myself. [But] it’s not about me anymore. If you want it to be about you, don’t get married and don’t have kids.
LIFE: Aside from this being a tabloid nation, what keeps you up at night?
LEONI: I remember thinking that once my kids weren’t feeding through the night I would sleep. I’m still not sleeping. And part of me has realized I’m never gonna sleep. You have that ear. I can’t turn off that ear.
PARKER: I’ve never slept the same. My husband and I have had one night away together since our son was born—one night—and we both couldn’t sleep. But it’s fine, man, ’cause you know what? You can sleep when you’re dead.
LIFE: How has motherhood changed the way you feel about the world?
LEONI: It’s different going into the field as a mother. It’s more devastating. There’s an understanding that’s not a father’s bond or a sibling's bond. It’s a sisterhood. Just look at us—we’ve never even been in the same room together [before].
PARKER: [laughs] We don’t even like each other very much.
LEONI: What did it take us, six minutes?
BASSETT: Not even.
PARKER: And similarly, I connect with every child. I see my son in every child: I see the age he was, I see the age he’s going to be. It’s a great connection.
Read the full article at Life Magazine.
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