Charlize Theron has been single for years, ever since her split with Sean Penn. I actually sort of believe that she dates or maybe has some casual hookups here and there, but Penn was her last for-real relationship. I enjoy her single-mom vibe so much because she’s so matter-of-fact about it. Except that now her two daughters are at the age where they want to know why mommy doesn’t have a boyfriend or husband. Charlize shut that sh-t down in a hurry though:

Charlize Theron’s daughters insist that she needs a boyfriend — but the Oscar winner says that she’s dating herself.

“Two days ago I was in the car with my two girls and my little one said something like ‘You need a boyfriend!’” she said Thursday on Diane Von Furstenberg’s Spotify podcast, “InCharge with DVF.”

“And I said, ‘Actually, I don’t. Right now, I feel really good,’ and she’s like, ‘You know what, mom? You just need a boyfriend, you need a relationship!’” Theron — who has two adopted children; 8-year-old Jackson and 5-year-old August — continued, telling her daughter that she’s in a relationship with herself right now. “She had this look in her eye like she had never really contemplated that that was even a possibility. Her mind was blown. But, I know that was the day that she realized there’s a different possibility.”

She said she has thrown herself into motherhood — and had wanted to adopt since she was 8 years old. She has been honest about raising her transgender daughter Jackson, alongside her other daughter August, and said: “The thing that was really eye-opening to me was, my children kind of came to me in this unexpected way, where you know — I didn’t know I was going to be the mom to two African-American girls. I didn’t know I was going to be the mom to an African-American trans girl. All of these things have kind of made me more aware of how little I know. My children have completely reopened my eyes to the world and I jokingly always say I’m back at university. I’m back having to learn every single day because they challenge me in that way.”

[From Page Six]

I would think that Jackson and August are at the age where they see their school peers and their peers’ families and wonder why there isn’t a man in mom’s life. It’s not that her daughters honestly believe that Charlize needs a man, it’s just that they don’t know what it would look like and they’re curious. But yeah, it’s best to begin the feminist indoctrination as soon as possible. Start ‘em young! Mommy doesn’t need a man because mommy is a badass who won’t settle for anything less than she deserves.

Photos courtesy of WENN.