Julie Bowen isn’t just a mum on television. She’s also one in real life to three gorgeous little boys. She plays Claire Dunphy on “Modern Family” and her hilarious character on the show doesn’t seem to be too far off from the person she is in real life.
In a recent interview with Today she tells us all about life with her three sons — Oliver, 9, and twins Gustav and John, 6. She explains that she has many scenes on “Modern Family” that are described as the “morning rush” with Claire getting breakfast ready and the kids heading out for school. She explains that when she first started doing them, her kids were so little and her “morning rush” looked a little different. Now that her boys are school-age? She gets it.
“It’s so hard! I mean, I don’t understand why it’s the hardest thing on earth to get three boys to put their shoes on and get out the door — you would think I was asking them to climb Mount Everest.” PREACH. It’s like we’re asking them to launch a NASA shuttle. Just put. Them. On.
When it comes to how life has changed since having her kids, Bowen is spot-freaking-on about what is like to become a mother. “I’m always amazed — I am a terrible cook — and I’m always shocked when these three little people look at me and go, “What’s for breakfast? What’s for dinner?” And I think, “Oh, I have to feed you! It’s my job!””
It’s kind of a funny thing, having children. Maybe you liked to cook before you became a parent, or maybe you didn’t. And it’s not like you suddenly become Martha Stewart once you drop a placenta or two, you have to really learn how to cook and feed these tiny humans so they can grow.
Luckily, Bowen got some excellent advice from her sister, who reminded her that kids don’t come out “at age five” and that you have time to learn how to cook real dinners. “You start with boobs and breast milk, and you work your way into it really slowly. So, you figure it out as you go along. And kids basically like beige food.” We never thought about that! Beige food..crackers, cheese sticks, biscuits, chicken nuggets, cheerios, chips. You can’t go wrong with beige food. Haha.
When it comes to being humbled as a parent, it turns out that even hilarious and famous mums can’t escape their kids bringing them back down to earth. Bowen says, “It’s funny, my kids don’t necessarily think that I am funny. But they’re kids — so their job is to make you feel slightly insecure at all times about everything you’ve ever thought about yourself.”
And although they might not be too eager to flatter their mother, she certainly thinks well of them, as all mums do of their children. However, while we all think our kids are amazing and brilliant, Bowen notes that they definitely don’t always show it. She explains that her sons cause “a shocking number of unflushed toilets on a constant basis” and forget to bring their backpacks to school, as though they had no idea that’s expected every day. But as she so brilliantly sums it up, “They’re stunningly sophisticated, and yet they’re tiny, drunk animals and they don’t know what’s going on half the time.”
Spot on.
