Drew Barrymore Admits That Being a Single First-Time Mom Sucked, and We Can’t Help but Scream “Preach!”

Drew Barrymore’s life has been an open book since she played the cute little girl in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Owing to her fame and famous family, we’ve followed Barrymore for decades as she navigated her professional and personal life. Today, she’s all about keeping it real when it comes to being a single mom, often making many women feel seen and heard.

Recently, during her appearance on a podcast, Barrymore got candid about the time she became a mom. The actress has 2 daughters, Olive and Frankie, born in 2012 and 2014 respectively. Reflecting on the experience, Barrymore said that she felt lost compared to other moms.

“All those parents who have it all together, and they’ve got hygiene and nutrition and schedules and boundaries, God bless you. I didn’t know any of that stuff when I had my kids,” admitted the actress.

Barrymore added, “I did not have the blueprint and I felt like a failure a lot. I felt really overwhelmed and like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing... I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m gonna have to learn on the job.’” Pair all that with the separation from the kids’ father in 2016, and she had a real handful since from that point on, she had to deal with heartbreak and being a single mom.

Barrymore went on to compare modern parenting to the time she was growing up, pointing out that modern parents are expected to be gurus in everything that involves raising a family. She said, “When we grew up, you’d be left in the driveway for 3 hours eating rocks and nobody cared... It led to resiliency — and now we’re like, helicopter parenting and coddling and, you know, watching everything.”

Ultimately, through trial and error, the actress reached the point in her motherhood journey where she could finally juggle everything and enjoy her time with her daughters. She explained, “It’s funny, I was so unforgiving of myself when my kids were younger and now that they’re almost 9 and Olive’s like 10, it’s shifted into something very different and I’m having the best time ever. I have learned boundaries.”

What did you struggle with the most as a first-time mom? Did you feel supported in your experience or did social media twist your expectations of motherhood?