Kelly Ripa may have interviewed pretty much every A-list celebrity as host of Live with Kelly and Michael, but it’s hardworking moms she admires most.
This is most evident in her recent partnership with Children’s Motrin and the “My Unstoppable Mom’” campaign, which launched this week and is an extension of Live’s three years of saluting amazing moms through a segment of the same name.
“When I think back to the segments we’ve done to honor moms, it’s always amazing that these moms think that they’re just going about their daily life,” Ripa says of the five moms honored each year on the show. “But what they do is above and beyond and extraordinary to their kids and to the people they impact.”
Designed to celebrate and recognize moms through the eyes of their children for all the little things they do each and every day, the MyUnStoppableMom campaign enables kids to create their own My Unstoppable Mom book cover, and, for each book cover created, Children’s Motrin in partnership with Scholastic will donate to a family in need.
Ripa, the mom of three kids—Michael, 18, Lola, 14, and Joaquin, 12—with husband Mark Consuelos, truly believes moms are unsung heroes—and she includes her own mom in that accolade.
“I remember how my mom always baked homemade blueberry muffins for us on Wednesdays that we devoured in the car on the way to religion class,” Ripa recalls. “It meant everything to me. It was so important.”
It’s those little things that matter so much, Ripa says.
“Your kids will notice when you pick up the cupcakes for the school party or if you’re on the costume committee for the school play,” she says.
Ripa adds that she has very “specific routines” that connect her to each of her kids.
“Joaquin has a specific tuck-in routine,” she says. “It’s very sweet and I know it means everything to him. If Mark and I have a nighttime thing, our babysitter will tell me Joaquin’s waiting for me to do the routine. It’s part of how he goes to bed so I try to never have a late night event. I have to be home!”
She has connected with her son, Michael, on all things comics since he was in fifth grade.
“He knows I’m listening and paying attention when we talk about Comic-Con,” she says. “I know that he notices that.”
The key to connecting as a family, Ripa says, is to put your phone away or turn it off.
“I try to get everything done in my life and then I plug my phone in the charger in my closet and that’s where it stays,” she says. “By putting that device away, it has freed me to be present and pay attention to what my kids are doing.”
The same rules apply to the whole family though Ripa says her daughter is a bit more attached to her phone than her boys.
“It’s like taking away oxygen for her,” she says. “Lola will find an excuse to need it like ‘I’m waiting to find out what time we’re working on such-and-such project.’ I hold firm because I refuse to have a phone on the dinner table. It’s the only time we have to be together.”
While Ripa says she hasn’t mastered the juggling act, like most busy working moms, she’s certainly giving it her all.
“I haven’t met the person who juggles it all seamlessly,” she says. “I’m constantly dropping balls and I find that I’m definitely an imperfectionist.”
At the end of the day, she says she always tries her best.
“I’m only one person, I have three kids and a job,” she says. “A lot of times I think about work when I’m at home and home when I’m at work. I don’t think that’s unique. It’s just that how we’re wired in this day and age. We have more on our plates than ever before.”
So what’s a busy mom to do? Don’t beat yourself up, Ripa says.
“I don’t have any advice because I haven’t figured it out myself yet,” she says with a laugh. “If Parade readers could let me know how to juggle it all, I’d appreciate it!”
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