Sarah Jessica Parker explains why she doesn't limit what her kids eat
"I didn't want them to have a relationship with food that was antagonistic."
Sarah Jessica Parker opened up this week about not limiting what her children eat in an effort to help them build a healthy relationship with food.
In a podcast interview Monday, Parker said she doesn't stop her children from eating sugary foods, despite growing up in a household that did.
The actress spoke to The River Café chef and host Ruthie Rogers in a new "Ruthie's Table 4" podcast episode about her own experience as a young girl and how it inspired her to take a different path as a parent.
"When I was growing up, we weren't allowed sugar in the house, and we weren't allowed cookies, and we weren't allowed chocolate," Parker, 59, said. "And of course, all we did, the minute we moved out, was buy Entenmann's cakes and cookies."
"So in our house, we have cookies, we have cake. We have everything," Parker said of what she has at home nowadays. "And I think as a result, you kind of have a healthier relationship."
Parker told Rogers and the live audience in attendance at the podcast episode recording in London that she wants her children -- son James, 21, and especially her 14-year-old twin daughters Tabitha and Marion -- to determine their own relationships with food and not control what they can and can't eat.
"When I had girls, I didn't want them to have a relationship with food that was antagonistic, or they felt like this was their enemy and that they were going to have to sort of, like, stake out a position with food," Parker said.
The actress, who is currently starring in the West End production of "Plaza Suite" in London alongside her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, said she herself had not wanted to limit her own diet choices throughout the years.
"I never was very disciplined about it. I just wasn't," she said. "I think I'm not really good at denying myself something, and I think also, I was a dancer for so long and running around, so I was able to be that way. It's certainly not the same now."
The mom of three said she hopes her kids won't feel deprived in any way when it comes to food and their body image.
"My daughters will have the figures they have and hopefully they'll be healthy," she said. "They're athletes and they enjoy food and they have different palates, and you can't make someone like something they don't like or want."
She added, "I hope that they can maintain their affection for the experience and their delight in taste and find their own ways to have that be healthy for them."
