Being there for Birdie. Busy Philipps opened up about how she’s supporting her 12-year-old child after their decision to go by they/them pronouns.
“My mom is older and wants to understand the pronoun conversation more,” the actress, 41, told Health magazine on Wednesday, May 12. “There are some really good books out there, like What’s Your Pronoun? Beyond He & She by Dennis Baron. I said to my mother, ‘Here’s the deal: You don’t have to understand it.’”
The Freaks and Geeks alum clarified that she feels that way about “all human rights,” explaining, “You don’t have to understand it. You can choose to believe what you want, but you don’t get to have jurisdiction over anyone else’s body or belief system.”
The Illinois native told her “Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best” podcast listeners in January that Birdie was “out and gay.” The Dawson’s Creek alum added, “Birdie said that they would like their pronouns to be they them, and I haven’t been doing it. I have this public persona and I want Birdie to be in control of their own narrative and not have to answer to anybody outside of our friends and family if they don’t want to. Bird was like, ‘I don’t give a f–k. You can talk about how I’m gay and out. You can talk about my pronouns. That would be cool with me. That’s great.’”
The Girls5Eva star, who also shares daughter Cricket, 7, with her husband, Marc Silverstein, told the magazine on Wednesday that she works hard to lead her little ones by example.
“We talk about therapy in our house and never shy away from hard conversations,” the This Will Only Hurt a Little author explained. “I’ve always been open — but not in that ‘I’m not a regular mom. I’m a cool mom’ way. I don’t want to be my kids’ best friend. I want them to know by watching me what my values are and the things that are important. You can tell your kids to stand up for what’s right until you’re blue in the face. If they don’t see you doing it, they never will.”
The former Busy Tonight host also treads carefully when talking about “diet and exercise around them,” saying, “[I try] to be kind and gentle on myself. It’s not easy, you know? Expectations to take care of other people are put on girls from a very young age.”
The Cougar Town alum clarified that she meant “femme-presenting” children — not just girls — noting, “That’s what Birdie is, femme-presenting nonbinary.”
