Amanda Seyfried’s childcare solution: ‘My mom lives with us, she’s our nanny’

Celebrity moms can sometimes make parenting look so effortless—their well-dressed, well-heeled kids sparkle in Instagram snaps from pristine, clean homes or from relaxing, exotic vacations.

But we’re here for the famous mamas who are all about giving us a glimpse into reality—the one that’s familiar to anyone with little kids at home. It’s busy, stressful and exhausting, but a little less so if you’ve got a whole lot of support. Take Amanda Seyfried, for example, who’s been open about how much help she gets from her mom, Ann.

Seyfried went so far as to call her mom “the third parent” in a recent interview on YouTube’s Molner’s Table.

“My mom lives with us, she’s our nanny,” the actress told host Josh Molner. “My life is awesome because she is the third parent for us,” she explained, detailing how she and actor husband Thomas Sedowski get the chance to sleep in while their 3-year-old daughter Nina hangs out with grandma.

It’s something that Seyfried certainly doesn’t take it for granted. “I am so lucky, I know I am,” she said.

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Her situation is similar to Chrissy Teigen’s. The cookbook author and Twitter Queen has explained on multiple occasions that she couldn’t do what she does without her mom and nannies. When asked how she does it all she got very real, tweeting: “I have HELP and a half. That’s it.”

Teigen and Seyfried have a childcare situation that is beyond enviable, especially in the age of coronavirus. Childcare has always been a huge stress for families, but the issue has taken on new urgency during a global pandemic that’s put so many moms and dads in the position of having to take over the role of teacher as well as parent, often while trying to work remotely, too.

It’s a nearly impossible situation that Americans are somehow managing to navigate on a daily basis, and Seyfried’s candor serves as a good reminder that even the most privileged among us couldn’t get by with a huge amount of support.

Support is a gift and a privilege, and Seyfried knows it. In a sweet birthday post to her mother on Instagram she wrote: “I’m still almost certain I couldn’t survive without you.”