15 Relatable Quotes About Motherhood From Anna Faris

Anna Faris has experienced the chaos, fear, hilarity and utter joy that come with parenthood. 

The actress has a 6-year-old son named Jack with her ex-husband Chris Pratt. Since becoming a mother, Faris has been open about the ups and downs from her son’s time in the neonatal intensive care unit to his love of dinosaurs and making a mess.

In honor of her birthday on Thursday, we’ve rounded up 15 of her honest and relatable parenting musings and pieces of wisdom. 

On Becoming A Mother

“As a woman, your identity changes. You are now a mom, sort of the most important job in the world and the pressure and the guilt and all the things that are wrapped up in that. I don’t think anyone can really prepare you for [motherhood] even though they try. ... I definitely grappled with the idea of ‘Who am I now?’ The way I describe it is like a tidal wave. There was before the tidal wave, and there’s after the tidal wave.”

On Wrangling Kids

“I don’t know if this is boys in general because I only have Jack, or maybe it’s both genders, but man, the distraction level. It’s like, ‘Oh, now I want to play with this ribbon,’ or, ‘Mom, I need my badge.’ I say, ‘No, you don’t need to wear the sheriff’s badge.’ I’m always like, ‘Come on, we’ve got to move! We’ve got to move!’ And I imagine that it’ll be an ongoing struggle for the rest of my life.”

On Having A Preemie

“When you have a healthy pregnancy, you never wonder if you’ll get to hold your son right after he’s born. It’s a given. I was terrified , but I also knew I had to be a soldier. ‘I have to be as strong as I possibly can,’ I thought. ‘I just have to.’”

On Cooking With Kids

“First of all, it’s a mess . He loves the fire elements of the stove, which unnerves me. ... I think when they’re involved with the cooking and their families, not only do they try more things, but maybe they’re less likely to trudge down to the dinner table too.”

On Raising A Funny Kid

“He’s a total ham . I get a kick out of him.”

On The NICU Days

“When you have a baby in the NICU, every parent has the same question every day: ‘When can we take him home?’ It’s what every family wants to know, and the nurses always say the same thing: ‘We don’t know.’ Jack spent 3 1/2 weeks in the hospital because we couldn’t take him home until he could eat on his own. It was an emotionally exhausting month — worrying about Jack and watching nurses poke and prod his gangly limbs with his impossibly tiny diapers that were the size of a Kleenex.”

On The Decision To Have Children

“I think it’s foolish for anyone to make major decisions like having a kid without a lot of introspection and examining from all angles and recognizing the complications a child introduces into your life. Because there are times when your kid really bugs you , and there are times you can’t do something you want to because you don’t have a babysitter. And there are for sure some moments when every parent wonders, ‘Why did I do this? What do I get out of having children?’ I know it’s a selfish perspective, but you can’t help but think about it every now and then. But it’s in those moments early in the morning when I’m listening to Jack giggle, or when his little fat foot starts kicking me in the back in bed, that I remember.”

On Co-Sleeping

“Even now, when Jack crawls into bed next to me, it’s hard not to kind of love it . He’ll kiss my back or pet me and I am so aware of the fact that in another year or so he’ll have no interest in cuddling with his mom, so how could I kick him out?”

On The Truth About Being A Mom

“Motherhood is like a big sleeping bag of guilt .”

On Giving Birth

“The pain was so crazy that I could barely speak. I do remember asking my OB-GYN, ‘If he’s this early and he’s going to be so little, shouldn’t it hurt less?’ She laughed at me and said, ‘Oh no, that’s not how this works.’”

On Placentas

“And just like that they whisked him away to the NICU and I had to deliver the placenta, which I didn’t get to see even though I really wanted to. Not because I wanted to grind it up and pop it in pill form but because I like gross things .”

On Co-Parenting

“What Chris and I try to do is to communicate openly. We reiterate that there aren’t rules to this. We have a lot of love and friendship, and our big goal is to protect Jack. I cherish my family, my close friends, my child that makes the rest of it worth it.”

On The Other Side Of The NICU

“Today, Jack is at a beautiful age. He has some temper tantrums occasionally (did I mention he’s 5?) but he’s a really good kid and he’s happy and delicious and likes cuddles.” 

On Mom Bias

“I wanted to be sure other people were seeing what I was — a kid who seemed largely on track for his age — because I knew better than to trust my own judgment. I am a mom, after all , and what mom doesn’t think her baby is a genius?”

On Raising A Son In The Spotlight