When it comes to having Goldie Hawn as a mom, her kids Oliver Hudson, Kate Hudson and Wyatt Russell have shared nothing but gushing praise.
But of course, motherhood comes with its ups and downs, which the Oscar-winning actress, 80, elaborated on further during a public appearance in New York City on Tuesday, May 5.
© Getty ImagesGoldie joined social psychologist Jonathan Haidt for a talk at the 92nd Street Y, attended by HELLO!, to discuss her new children's book, The After-School Kindness Crew, her work with the mental health organization MindUp, the development of kids, and raising her own children.
When asked what kind of challenges she faced while raising her kids in the analog age versus kids now growing up in the digital age, Goldie responded: "I raised them…differently."
"When I got mad at my children, which was not very often, I got mad because they were unkind, because they weren't polite, when they didn't look people in the eye, when they lied, when they cheated."
She mentioned a few anecdotes relating back to motherhood, such as an emotional conversation she had with a young Oliver after he'd been called out for cheating on a test, when he confessed through tears to his mom later that everyone in his class had been cheating, he was just the only one caught.
"In terms of my kids, they did things that all kids do," she continued. "And I did it too! Katie took my car out one night, she said, 'I drove your Ferrari one night, did you know that?' No, no I didn't know that! And I don't need to know it now," she further quipped.
© Getty ImagesGoldie noted, though, that these things were ones she saw as "part of trying stuff out," then sharing another incident from her daughter Kate's teenage years that particularly left the audience in hysterics.
"So my daughter was having a party one night down in the house, and there were kids down there in the bar, it was about two in the morning," the actress recalled, deciding to then address them directly, going downstairs "in my night gown" as she put it.
© Getty ImagesShe opened the door to the stunned kids, and while it initially seemed like she had showed up to chew them out, something switched. "I looked at them and they were all these great kids, all at my house, having fun."
"And I started turning a few lights out, and I said, 'Lighting is everything,' and I walked out," Goldie ended, adding to the audience's laughter that they were a "laughing family," emphasizing how important she and her longtime partner Kurt Russell always found it to spend time laughing with and having fun with their kids when they were younger.
© Getty Images"We all love to be together, we didn't want anyone else to be on vacation because the kids said, 'Let's just go together.' When you have fun with your children, when you can laugh, and when you can be who you are with them, this is when you raise amazing kids. So I was lucky," she concluded.
