When Sarah Jessica Parker was growing up, her relationship with food suffered due to restrictive rules about what she was allowed to eat at home. Now, she’s trying to break that cycle with her own kids, and opened up about it during a recent appearance on an episode of the Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast.
“I [have] girls. I didn’t want them to have a relationship with food that was antagonistic or they felt like this was their enemy and that they were going to have to sort of like, stake out a position with food,” Parker said during the interview.
Parker, who shares twin 14-year-old daughters Tabitha and Marion with her husband, Matthew Broderick, said that she was never allowed to have any dessert in her house when she was growing up.
“And of course all we did the minute we moved out was buy Entenmann’s cakes and cookies,” she told host Ruthie Rogers. “I didn’t want that [for my kids].”
She continued, “In our house, we have cookies, we have cake, we have everything. And I think as a result, you kind of have a healthier relationship. My daughters will have the figures they have and hopefully they’ll be healthy and they’re athletes and they enjoy food.”
But it isn’t just cookies and cake for Parker and her family. She also talked about how she and Broderick both love to cook, and share those duties to keep the fridge and dinner table packed with delicious meals for their whole family.
“We both cook every single day, every single day. We probably eat dinner as a family every night,” Parker said, adding that things “shift around” when she’s filming a show or Broderick is acting in a play, but they still avoid eating out and try to instead rely on meals they can prep and make in advance. One favorite is soup.
“I had made during the day, I made lamb stew and Matthew made a white bean soup, so we knew we have that,” she said of a recent busy day. “I like to have it in the fridge for matinee days.”
