Jessica Albais opening up about how she decided on therapy for herself and her two daughters.
The mom of three, 42, has always been open about her family’s mental health care. Appearing on the cover ofREAL SIMPLE’s first-ever “Feelings Issue” for their January/February edition, the actress and entrepreneur recalls how she came to the decision.
“Honor was probably 11, and we were arguing all the time about dumb stuff. And I was like, ‘I don’t want to live like this. This is not fun,'” she shares.
“I didn’t want us to have a wedge between us. As her mother, when I say something, she’s going to hear it as an argument or as me trying to control her. I wanted there to be someone who could explain things in a way I couldn’t,” Alba continues.
“What I said to Honor was, ‘I want to be a better parent to you, and this is your forum to basically talk about everything that gets on your nerves that I do.'”
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Jessica Alba.Yu Tsai/REAL SIMPLE
Yu Tsai/REAL SIMPLE
Alba says it wasn’t long until both she and Honor started to see how therapy could work for them.
“It put me in check. Like, ‘Yeah, I totally do that. And I’m sorry. I’m going to work on that.’ It gave her a little bit of perspective too—that I’m not the bad guy; I’m just being a parent,” the mom shares.
“She’ll come out the other side of it, and I’ll still be here. I just wanted to get to that point, and it worked,” she admits. “And the therapist allowed me to see that it’s natural for kids to disagree with their parents and as a parent, it’s not always about being right or rational in that moment.”
“I’m not gonna front, it’s a process and I’m not perfect,” she concludes.
In addition to Honor, Alba shares Hayes, 6, and Haven, 12, with husbandCash Warren, 44.
The January/February issue of REAL SIMPLE is on sale January 19.
source: people.com
