For some kids, being sent to military school might seem like a nightmare. Rosie O'Donnell's 16-year-old son Parker isn't one of them.
"He chose on his own. He actually begged to go to a military academy. And I was like two years of 'No way,'" the OWN talk show host explained on Access Hollywood Tuesday.
"Truth is, since he was a little boy, that's his area of interest. The same way I love Streisand and Bette Midler and entertainment, he can tell you any general in any war, what kind of tanks they had, what the battles were like," O'Donnell, who has three other children, said. "So I finally gave in and truthfully, he's excelling and he's very happy."
O'Donnell, 49, admitted that she was initially hesitant to let her son leave home.
"How do you really piss off your really left wing and peace-loving mother? You join the military," the comedienne joked. "Parker was like, 'Mother, I'd like to serve the Nation.' I'm like crying, 'Serve me instead!'"
Because she misses him dearly, O'Donnell frequently sends Parker care packages, which has made him quite popular with his fellow cadets-in-training.
"[Parker told me], 'The whole platoon, they all eat the stuff you send,'" O'Donnell told Access Hollywood. "I do maybe over-mother him, but I think it's the greatest thing that ever happened to me."