I haven’t seen photos of Sarah Jessica Parker’s daughters in years, so I almost wept when I realized that Tabitha and Marion Broderick are already 14 years old, soon to be 15. James Wilkie Broderick is 21 years old, and as you can see, he inherited his mother’s whole face, all while the girls look more like Matthew. Anyway, it’s time for another interesting interview with SJP. Last year, SJP caused a minor kerfuffle (in our comment section, at least) when she got a bit sanctimonious about how her family never, ever orders takeout and they cook and eat dinner together every night. Yeah, I still don’t really buy that. But SJP made some new comments about how she didn’t want to repeat disordered-eating patterns with her children when it came to sugary snacks.
When it comes to food, Sarah Jessica Parker doesn’t want her daughters to follow in her footsteps. The actress has been intentional about encouraging twins Tabitha and Marion to have a “better relationship” with eating than she did growing up, she told “Ruthie’s Table 4” podcast listeners Monday.
“When I had girls, I didn’t want them to have a relationship with food that was antagonistic and to see it as an enemy,” the “Sex and the City” alum, 59, explained, noting that her own childhood home did not allow “sugar … or chocolate or cookies.” Because of that restriction, Parker and her siblings purchased “a load of cakes and cookies” upon moving out.
“I didn’t want that for them,” the “And Just Like That” star said of her 14-year-olds. “In our house, we have cookies, we have cake, we have everything. And as a result, you have a better relationship. My daughters will have the figures they have, and hopefully they’ll be healthy,” she continued. “They’re athletes and they enjoy food and have different palates. I hope that they can maintain their affection for the experience and their delight in taste.”
The Golden Globe winner, who is also the mother of son James, 21, with husband Matthew Broderick, went on to share rare insight into their home life elsewhere in the episode. “Matthew cooks. We both cook every single day,” Parker said. “We eat dinner as a family every night. And always have dinner every Sunday night. It’s just what we do.”
I actually like this approach with having cookies and cakes and desserts in the house. You can actually do the work of role-modeling a healthy relationship with food while also showing your kids that it’s not the end of the world to enjoy a candy bar or some cookies. Too many parents pass on their disordered eating habits to their children, and I appreciate that SJP has tried to break that cycle. It also sounds like her daughters are little athletes – teenage girls playing sports, I bet they eat everything that isn’t nailed down and it’s fine because “teenage metabolism.”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Getty.
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- 175176, Sarah Jessica Parker and her twin daughters Tabitha and Marion arriving for the NYC Ballet spring gala tribute to Jerome Robbins at the David Koch Theater on May 3, 2018 in New York city. Â,Image: 515150425, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – DIRECT SALES ONLY – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Darla Khazei, PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- Sarah Jessica Parker pictured with her twins daughters Tabitha Hodge Broderick and Marion Loretta Elwell Broderick attend the 2018 New York City Ballet Spring Gala at David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, Manhattan,Image: 515150487, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – DIRECT SALES ONLY – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: JP, PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- -New York, NY – 20180503 – The 2018 New York City Ballet Spring Gala, at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center -PICTURED: Sarah Jessica Parker, Marion Loretta Elwell Broderick, Tabitha Hodge Broderick -PHOTO by: JOHN NACION/startraksphoto.com This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Startraks Photo for licensing fee and rights information at sales@startraksphoto.com or call +1 212 414 9464 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Startraks Photo reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded Featuring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Marion Loretta Elwell Broderick, Tabitha Hodge Broderick Where: New York, New York, United States When: 03 May 2018 Credit: JOHN NACION/startraksphoto.com
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- Hocus Pocus 2 NYC Premiere-Outside Arrivals AMC Lincoln Square 13. Featuring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Marion Broderick, Tabitha Broderick Where: New York, New York, United States When: 27 Sep 2022 Credit: Janet Mayer/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images
I’m not a huge SJP fan, but I agree with her on this. My mom has a weird relationship with food and both of my parents have strange feelings about body image. My step-daughter’s mother and grandmother both had massive EDs (her mother nearly died from hers), so I have really tried to model healthy relationships with food. It’s not easy, though, and you realize how jacked up our society is around diet and starvation culture.
“Teenage metabolism” is not universal. In fact, feeling like I should be able to eat anything and stay thin because “teenagers can eat anything!” Is how I developed my eating disorder.
You should put an ED trigger warning in this article.
+1
I understand that eating disorders are serious and dangerous, and I’ve experienced them myself.
But no one in the article actually says anything like “teenagers can eat anything and be thin.” SJP says that she doesn’t care if they’re thin:
“My daughters will have the figures they have, and hopefully they’ll be healthy.”
Developed the eating disorder that I’ve had for 27 years now after my own « teenage metabolism » meant that I put weight on all over my body and I didn’t understand it.
let’s not perpetuate the myth that young people can eat whatever they want, because it messes people up when they think it’s true and then hate themselves.
I’m 36 years old and just realised this after a consultation with a nutritionist.
I feel like it should say “teenagers can eat anything they want”* * = in moderation
I tell my kids there is no good food and no bad food. Just some that we need to energize us and feed our brains and bodies and some we use to feel good and be happy. Those can be different for everyone.
I had a terrible eating disorder and I want them to know everything is OK – some we can eat every day, every meal – and some we just eat less often.
This is what I believe and practice. Growing up, we had sweets and salty stuff around all the time. My parents believed in moderation. I had a scoop of ice cream or a couple homemade cookies nearly every day. I could have a can of pop too as my dad worked in the industry. I don’t even drink pop anymore, and still have something sweet nearly ever day. No big deal. I have friends who went on to hoard snacks because their parents didn’t allow them to have any when they were kids, and/or they drink A LOT of pop as adults because it was denied to them. The end result is a lot of guilt on their part, then trying to restrict and breaking down or “cheating.” I don’t know if I’m right, but it works for me. At the end of the day, I just hope that I can model healthy behaviors for my own daughter.
I think that’s smart. All my friends that grew up without restrictions can have that stuff around and not be compelled to eat it. I grew up without cookies or cakes in the house hardly ever, and am just uncontrollable around them. I love baked goods! I don’t know how people bake for fun without eating all of it!
Compulsively eating all of something when you don’t want to is disordered eating. Not having huge emotional baggage around food – or having therapy to deal with that baggage – is how you avoid having an ED.
Ooh, that went to a better place than I thought. My immediate response to the headline was, “Why do you have to excuse having sweets around?” Growing up in a disordered household does make that revolutionary. Good on SJP.
That’s very sensible of her. The whole business of guilt and anxiety around food is horrible and definitely promotes disordered eating.
I didn’t have cable so no access to SATC back in the day [though I did eventually rent the VHS of S1 from BlockBuster, lol]. But I remember her NPR FreshAir interview w/ Terry Gross when the show was (I think) nearing the end
She also spoke of her family being very poor & before she started earning money to help out, the electricity may have been cut off a few times. She said her mother was very savvy to all the local scholarship programs in their neighborhood for free dance/drama/arts programs. She mentioned her mother was a very socially conscious woman of the 60s/70s, so if there was a migrant worker strike, she would boycott grapes/iceberg lettuce.
I grew up in a working-class, 1-income household of the 70s. The utilities were never cut off, but money was tight, esp when double-digit inflation hit. Economizing often meant we didn’t have the snacks that other kids had in their households.
Mom of three girls (now adults) here, my own mother had the unhealthiest relationship with food EVER…probably from her own mom, who died at 99 and still, up into her 90’s, discussed everyone else’s weight, God rest my sweet Grandma’s soul, but it’s just what she and her sisters did when they got together!
However, I had all kinds of food in the house, cookies, ice cream sure, but also fruit, carrots, hummus, veggie chips, regular chips, cheese cubes, yogurts….just food! Because my mom had diet soda and lettuce in the fridge. It was a miserable time and I never forgot it. And I love to cook, so I buy it somewhat….maybe they do some takeout, but maybe they do cook alot, who knows.
I totally get this, and wish my mother had that attitude.
In our house, my mother would stock up at a local Hostess outlet then put them in the freezer. We then weren’t allowed to eat any of them; they were allocated out like very, very occasional rewards. It lead to all of us sneaking them and trying to reseal the box, or using our allowance to buy whatever junk food options we could at school or convenience store, etc. And my siblings and I all have had weight issues, gravitate to sugary snacks, desserts, etc.
I think how we are brought up has such an influence on our relationship with food. My mother was a 70s-80s granola mom. She abhorred store-bought sweets but made dessert every night, and we all ate it. Of course, I also gorged on the forbidden sugary cereals at every sleepover. And my mother was always very much ‘your body is your machine, so treat it well’ and encouraged a variety of foods and moving every day, and that’s what I did with my kids, too. We ate dinner at the table every night and went for a family walk afterwards most evenings with our own kids. Now that my older kids are in relationships, they insist on cooking most nights and eating at the table, too. But food is never the enemy.
We have sweets in the house and our daughters have dessert every night because of this thinking. Access doesn’t seem to lessen their craving for it, they’re always dessert-obsessed, but I guess I’ll take that over banning sweets and the effects of that.
Good for SJP. Kids — like adults — always will want what’s denied to them. But sometimes parents have nothing to do with a child’s ED.
I had anorexia as a teenager, not because of anything my parents did (they were all-around wonderful and relaxed about food) but because I was just a very type A, perfection-seeking kid (again, despite reassurances from my parents that I didn’t need to be perfect).
So when I became a mom I did what my own mom did, and hoped for the best. Never mentioned dieting. Filled our pantry and fridge with a variety of healthy snacks and treats. And my daughters, who do not have my type-A tendencies, thank goodness, now have very healthy attitudes toward eating. I’ve actually tried to learn from them.
I’m glad you mentioned this, QC. It often gets buried in anorexia discussions: what/when/how often to eat becomes the one thing, the last thing young people see as something they can control in their environment. I remember one young girl describing that control as her “island of calm”
My overweight mother took to shaming me, making food the enemy and literally told me one time when eating a donut ‘Thin girls dont eat these.’ sure they do, just not often. She rolled her eyes and walked away. She shamed me for being big yet got mad and called me anorexic when I lost weight
I’m also trying to break this cycle with my daughter. Good for her for doing this, I’m still struggling to find moderation myself because of how we ate growing up. Thankfully my daughter seems to be thriving by having plenty of options available in the house. She doesn’t feel like she has to binge good stuff because we don’t deprive her.
Trying to make sense of, “We eat dinner as a family every night. And always have dinner every Sunday night. It’s just what we do.”
If they eat dinner as a family every night, what’s special about having dinner on Sunday?
Growing up in an Italian family (my step father’s family was Italian), while our 4 person family ate together at the table every night for family meals, Sunday night was always different. we walked across the street to my step dad’s Mom and Dads house, we would have a big family dinner, including the other sibling’s families, and my favorite memory was always dessert, with coffee and tea afterwards, watching tv together (WW of Dis, Lawrence Welk, Walton’s, MASH). Sunday night was always different.
I keep cookies in the house because if they’re always there I won’t eat them every day.