Celebrities learn how to navigate novel challenges by employing coaches with all different sorts of specialties—and when Katherine Schwarzenegger got
Celebrities learn how to navigate novel challenges by employing coaches with all different sorts of specialties—and when Katherine Schwarzenegger got engaged to Chris Pratt, she apparently decided to call on the services of a specialist in step-parenting. The Jurassic World actor has one child with his ex-partner, actress Anna Faris, as well as three children now with Schwarzenegger.
“Stepparenting, like parenting, has no handbook. Because I have the benefit of being in both roles, stepparenting is extra confusing because you aren’t a parent, you’re not a nanny, you’re not an assistant. You have responsibilities in all of those areas, but you’re not either of them. It’s a confusing thing to navigate where you fit in,” Schwarzenegger explains on the Parenting & You With Dr. Shefali podcast, which she attended in the company of her husband.
“Number one thing I say is get a step parenting therapist or step parenting coach, because I got that right when we got engaged, and it’s been incredibly helpful for me and also just understanding my role as a stepparent,” explained the writer, who praised how her partner and Faris have managed to build a vigorous co-parenting relationship.
Pratt, for his part, said that although co-parenting takes a lot of work, it goes smoothly when everyone is willing to collaborate. “It takes a lot of work, but it works when everybody is willing to put in the work,” Schwarzenegger added. “And when it comes to ego, that definitely pops up for me, for sure, and I always go back to understanding that this isn’t about me, it’s about the child.”
“Children are children and they’re on their own paths,” Pratt said. “They’re probably having to continually process the fact that they are children of divorce and that can be a thing. If a parent is in there doing the hard work of creating structure for a child and holding children accountable— and it’s not a biological child—it can feel thankless. But it’s a really, really important job.”
Original story in VF Spain.
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