The award-winning actor and producer, with multiple Golden Globe, Emmy, and Screen Actors Guild awards under her belt, is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO drama/comedy series Sex and the City and the SATC movies they’ve inspired, and has appeared in hit films, including Footloose, LA Story, Smart People.
But when it comes to her family life, SJP keeps it simpler than you might expect.
No Live-in Help. Parker and her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, now have a brood of three -- son James Willkie is 9 and twin daughters Tabitha and Marion turned 2 in June. They have a nanny for the twins and a babysitter who picks up James from school if both parents are working, but they don’t have live-in help.
Parker says. “We love that we have amazing people in our lives who are willing to help care for our children and love them. But it’s nice to shut the door and know that it’s just your family. …and I like that the people taking care of my kids get to go home to their families and have time with them, and tell them what a hard day they had at our house!”
She gets the struggles of “real” working women. In I Don’t Know How She Does It, she plays a frantic, 3-a.m.-list-making mom and finance executive. “I said yes to the part because it depicted so accurately what it is to be a mother who wants a life that includes work outside the home, and how complicated those decisions are and the consequences of those choices,” she says.
"I could empathize with the conflict within her, about wanting to be well thought of professionally but also to give her children and husband what they need.”
She’s not into the mommy wars. Breastfeeding vs. bottlefeeding? Day care vs. nanny vs. stay at home? Cloth vs. disposable? Parker just thinks we all need to give each other a break. “It doesn’t surprise me that there’s competition among mothers, but I can never quite understand how we can compete and compare. My house is with my children, and your house is with yours,” she says.
(Adapted from the cover story of WebMD the Magazine's September 2011 issue. Read the entire story here.)
