Drew Barrymore is opening up about her parenting style.
On this morning’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the actress-turned-talk show host — who shares daughters Olive, 12, and Frankie, 10, with ex-husband Will Kopelman — revealed how she uses comedy to lighten the mood when her kids are having a bad day.
“I definitely have moments, especially with my younger daughter Frankie, who can be like, ‘Don’t laugh right now.’ Or, ‘Don’t make light.’ Or, ‘Don’t go to humor right now. I don’t want it,'” Barrymore said. “I’m like, ‘But Franks, that’s my coping mechanism. That’s how I navigate life. It’s how I see the world and it’s how I handle things. But you can always tell me if you’re not in the mood for that in this moment.'”
Barrymore added, “And then I’ll try to leave the room with some comedic exit.”
The star described her daughter as a “vaudeville ham,” telling co-hosts Ross Mathews and Valerie Bertinelli that she’ll usually leave the room “15 times until it breaks her and she’s laughing” before she finally leaves for good.
Speaking of Frankie, Barrymore recently revealed the advice her youngest daughter had given her.
“She and I were driving here to work yesterday together and she said, ‘I think that you should tell your mom how much you thank her for giving you the opportunities that you did. Because we’re going to this place and your name is on the show,’” Barrymore recalled on the Jan. 29 episode of her talk show. “I said, ‘You know I asked for it not to be.’ She said, ‘That’s not my point.’ And she goes, ‘If she had never taken you on those auditions …”
Barrymore said she sometimes wants to ask her mom what she was thinking when she decided to throw her daughter into the Hollywood industry at such a young age.
“Whatever her wild agenda or belief system was, Frankie’s point was none of this would’ve been possible without her choices,” Barrymore said. “I know that in my heart so much but she’s like, ‘I just feel like right now is an important time for you to tell her that.’ And I said, ‘I’ve told her that throughout my life but I will.”
The Drew Barrymore Show airs on weekdays on CBS. You can check the website for local airtimes.