A recent study conducted by Common Sense Media found that teenagers spend an average of 4.5 hours daily on their mobile devices – a statistic that’s as high as 16 hours for some teens, but not if you’re living under Julia Roberts’ roof. In fact, the 56-year-old mother of three teens has rules in place to avoid that.
“So, for us, we just had sort of simple rules where we had a charging station, where everybody’s phone goes when you get home. There’s no phones at the table, certainly,” Roberts said on a Dec. 4 episode of TODAY. It’s not a popular rule, by any means, but it’s one her three children respect, follow, and obey.
Roberts shares three children with her husband, Danny Moder. The couple welcomed twins Hazel and Phinnaeus (who goes by Finn) in 2004, and welcomed their third child – a son named Henry – in 2007. Hazel and Finn celebrated their 19th birthday on Nov. 28, while Henry turned 16 years old on June 18.
Julia Roberts, who was joined by her Leave the World Behind co-star, Mahershala Ali, opened up about how her parenting style hasn’t changed much over the past 19 years and praised her children – notably the twins – for allowing her to ‘be the same mom to them’ without the eye-rolling, attitude, or backtalk.
“I parent them the same way out of the house that I parented them in the house, which is, you know, ‘Are you getting enough sleep?’ And ‘You sound like you’re sick.’ And ‘Are you drinking tea?’ And ‘Text me when you get home (so) I can see that you’re home safe and sound,” Roberts explained in the interview.
Julia Roberts Misses the Pre-Technology Days
In fact, Julia says she misses those days when it was difficult to get ahold of someone, or they couldn’t get ahold of you. There are certainly benefits to all this technology, but she believes it takes away from the face-to-face interactions we have with our children, especially when we have nothing to talk about.
“I think of a family coming together at the end of the day, and you actually have things to talk about at dinner because you haven’t been in contact all day long a hundred times… or a busy signal,” she explains – adding that she would much rather spend time with her kids away from technology and devices.
She also revealed some of the fun and exciting ways her family stays connected while she’s out of town for work or her 19-year-olds are away at college – all while her husband and younger son stay at home. For example, they recently got together on FaceTime – all five of them – for a family video chat session.
“And we all were on a FaceTime the other day together, all of us. And it was so fun. I might’ve had a towel on my wet head. We were all so happy to be together in that way that we are still so deeply in love,” she said. They might be in different time zones, but nothing is going to be breaking the Roberts family apart.
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Leave the World Behind, starring Julia Roberts (also a producer), Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon, and Myha’la, was released in select theatres on November 22 and will see its official release on Netflix on December 8. The film is based on a novel of the same name, written by Rumaan Alam.
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