Why Ayesha Curry puts her marriage before her kids—and you should too, say experts

Ayesha Curry has three kids, a husband with a super busy career and a super busy career herself. It would be so easy for her priority list to be: 1) kids, 2) career, then 3) Steph—but the TV host, chef, Honest Company ambassador and entrepreneurial #bossbabe says her partner still has the number one spot, even after all these years.

Speaking to HelloGiggles, Curry explains that she and her Golden State Warrior husband have seen how partners prioritizing each other can benefit a family as a whole. That’s why she and Stef don’t prioritize the kids above each other.

“Both of our parents are still married and have been married for 30-plus years, and the one thing that they both shared with us—some through learning it the hard way, some through just making sure that they do it—is just making sure that we put each other first, even before the kids, as tough as that sounds,” she tells HelloGiggles.

For the Currys, that means making time in those very busy schedules for date nights where they don’t have to be mom and dad, they can just connect as partners. Curry admits that it’s not always easy to break her brain out of mama-mode and prioritize something other than time with her kids, but she recognizes that when she and Stef put each other first, the kids benefit.

“That’s been very important, as hard as it is. Because when you become a parent, you want to put your kids first, and we do, but we do it second to our relationship. Because ultimately, when our relationship is good, the kids are happy and they’re thriving and our family life is good. We have to put that into perspective and realize that it’s not us being selfish, it’s making sure we set a strong foundation.”

Experts back Curry up

Family therapist Raffi Bilek, director of the Baltimore Therapy Center, tells Fatherly that while putting each other first may seem counterintuitive to parents, it’s important. “I think that the question of when to prioritize your partner over your kid is best answered with ‘always,'” Bilek says.

David Code is a therapist and the author of To Raise Happy Kids, Put Your Marriage First. He wants parents to lean on each other more because when we don’t our kids can end up shouldering some of our emotional needs, and that’s not fair. It’s also not fair for parents to put their relationship and themselves last every time. He believes the “greatest gift you can give your children is to have a fulfilling marriage yourself.”

According to Code, “families centered on children create anxious, exhausted parents and demanding, entitled children. We parents today are too quick to sacrifice our lives and our marriages for our kids. Most of us have created child-centered families, where our children hold priority over our time, energy and attention.”

Therapists like Code and Bilek are calling on parents to put their partners first, and stop buying into the myth that we don’t have time for our spouses.

If the Currys can find time for each other in their crazy schedules, so too can the rest of us.

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