Melissa Rivers is currently going through that special time in her life where she’s parenting a teen (aka: the hell years). She recently opened up about what it’s like parenting her 15-year-old son Cooper on TODAY–and revealed the best parenting lesson her late mother, Joan Rivers, taught her.
When asked how she deals with the challenges of parenting a teen, Rivers joked that she learned it all from not doing what her mom did, stating:
“Basically I try and do exactly the opposite of what my mother did. I’ve been in therapy and medicated for years so I thought perhaps if I wanted to raise a well-balanced child, I would just take the opposite track.”
On a serious, and more affectionate note, Rivers said she and Joan shared an “open line of communication,” which is what she tries to replicate with her son. Making sure her son feels comfortable talking to her is key–and of course, a challenge considering he’s at that age where talking, especially to your mom, isn’t always easy.
“Being able to talk and him knowing that by sharing with me he is giving me a reason to trust him, it absolutely is the No. 1 thing.
I always make sure that my son and I are talking, and get us into situations where we can talk and openly speak and that there’s no repercussions for sharing information, even if it’s difficult information.”
Rivers joked that she’s only seen “an eye roll” from him for the past year. But that doesn’t stop her from trying to impart a few life lessons–ones that we assume she learned from her own famous mom:
“To be a good person. To just treat people the way you want to be treated. And know that everybody has something going on, and be sensitive to that. And to just live your life with your eyes open, and be aware of what’s going on around you and act accordingly.”
Those are definitely the words from a sage mom. We hope Cooper listens to his mom.
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