Reese Witherspoon doesn’t know “anything” about raising teenagers.
The actress has two children with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe – 12-year-old Ava and Deacon, eight. Reese has confessed that parenting has become harder now that her daughter Ava is growing up and the star has turned to friends for advice.
“I don’t think you can get a real tattoo at 13 – but yeah you can ask for one!” Reese laughed during an interview with UK TV show Daybreak when asked if Ava has talked about getting a tattoo yet. “Fortunately we haven’t had that discussion. I don’t know anything about teenagers, so I am on big learning curve here.
“This is the time where I start asking all my friends who have kids who are older, ‘What do you do about the cell phone?’ ‘What are your rules about the computer? Oh OK.’ ‘Is she allowed to go out with friends or not?’ I learn a lot from other mothers.”
The 35-year-old married Hollywood agent Jim Toth last year. Reese is very happy with her family life and enjoys seeing her kids developing their own personalities. However, she admits they are learning so fast at school that she is struggling to keep up.
“I think it’s great to have older children, there is a little bit of sadness that they are growing up and walking away from you,” she explained. “But it kind of changes the whole dynamic – we have really funny dinner conversations now.
“They know more about certain topics than I ever knew and certainly I can’t keep up with their homework any more. My daughter asked me something about famous composers, I have no idea what she is talking about. That is kind of nice, it’s like I am learning from them. It is nice being a mom to older kids, but I like babies too. I hug all my girlfriends’ babies. They are so stinking cute.”