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Viola Davis and Jennifer Hudson are getting real about raising teenagers.
The two actresses spoke to each other about motherhood in an Interview Magazine article published on Monday, Aug. 25.
The How to Get Away with Murder alum, 60, shares 15-year-old daughter Genesis with husband Julius Tennon. Meanwhile, The Jennifer Hudson Show host, 43, has a 16-year-old son, David Daniel Otunga Jr., with her ex-fiancé David Otunga.
During the conversation about the upcoming season 4 of Hudson’s talk show, Davis asked the singer if she ever experiences “mom guilt.”
Viola Davis/Instagram
“I think we all do. How old is your daughter at this point? She is about the same age as my son,” Hudson responded.
Davis shared that her daughter “just turned 15,” to which the Dreamgirls actress said, “Lord, we in the same boat. My baby about to be 16 next month.”
“Oh, man. We in it,” Davis joked.
“These teenage years is a whole ’nother realm. But I’m trying to learn how to trust my teachings. I feel like, as parents, we start out making everything perfect for the children and then at some point they want to start venturing out on their own,” Hudson explained.
“We spend all of these years instilling in them and then at some point we got to fall back and see what they gon’ do,” she added.
Jennifer Hudson/Instagram
Davis shared that she’s undergoing a similar experience, and Hudson reassured her, saying, “Let them learn on their own some, because that’s what’s going to help build character.”
“And you sit up and wonder, ‘Well, why they so soft?’ Well, let them feel it. Let them experience some life on it. So, that’s the phase I’m in right now,” she said, adding that’s “where I feel my guilt a lot of times.”
The G20 actress then credited researcher Brené Brown for saying, “If your kid is going through something in their room and the lights are off, don’t turn the lights on. Don’t necessarily say it’s going to be better and problem-solve. Just sit with them and hold them.”
Davis admitted that doing so is “hard for me,” especially at her daughter’s age. “I mean, she’s still my puff-puff girl,” she said.
Hudson replied that some of the difficulties arise from their thinking their kids are “still little.”
“It takes looking at somebody else’s kid that’s around your kid’s age to realize how much older your kid done got. My child is now a junior in high school and starting driver’s ed. I’m like, ‘Okay, it’s time for you to get a job,’ ” Hudson said.
Davis, in response, shared that she recently had a conversation about work with her daughter, during which she told her, “It’s time for you to start thinking about getting a job to pay for those UGG Tasmans that you want.”
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Hudson exclusively spoke to PEOPLE earlier this month about why she wants David to get a job. “He is not a little kid anymore,” she said.
“He’ll be 16 on the 10th of this month. And it’s time for him to get a job,” the actress continued. “I said, ‘Listen, I didn’t grow up like [this]. I made it so you get to grow up this way. And I worked for everything I have and so you’re going to have to start earning your keep, too.’ Because our kids need that.”
