Gisele Bundchen’s Best Quotes About Motherhood and Parenting: ‘We Are All Just Trying Our Best’

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Gisele Bundchen's Best Quotes About Motherhood and Parenting: 'We Are All Just Trying Our Best'

Model mother! Gisele Bündchen is one of the most famous women in the world, but to her children, she's just mom. The supermodel shares son Benjamin (born in 2009) and daughter Vivian (born in 2012) with ex-husband Tom Brady. She is also the stepmother of Jack (born in 2007), whom the NFL star shares with ex Bridget Moynahan. While fans know the Brazil native as a fashion icon, her kids don't totally understand what she does for a living. When she brought Vivian to a shoot, her daughter was perplexed by the entire situation. “She saw me with all these different hairdos and makeup — she didn’t understand why,” Bündchen told Elle in September 2022. “She’s like, ‘Mommy, you look so much prettier without all that! Why are they touching you? Can they stop?'” [jwplayer kOsH7uXZ-zhNYySv2] In December 2013, the former Victoria's Secret Angel famously posted a photo of herself breastfeeding Vivian while having her hair and makeup done on set, but she's been open about the fact that motherhood isn't always so glamorous. “When I became a mom, I kind of lost myself. It was like a part of me died,” the frequent cover girl wrote in her 2018 memoir, Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life. “I’d been this very independent person. It was all about me. But now I had this little being, and I suddenly felt l couldn’t do other things and that was very hard for me. All I ever wanted was to be a mom, but when you’re actually experiencing that, it’s a shock." The philanthropist added that juggling parenthood with a career and a relationship can be hard at times. “You’re overwhelmed and tired and then you’re not the nicest partner,” Bündchen explained. The environmental activist and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback weathered the storm for four more years, but in October 2022, they called it quits after nearly 14 years of marriage. "With much gratitude for our time together, Tom and I have amicably finalized our divorce," Bündchen wrote via Instagram at the time. "The decision to end a marriage is never easy but we have grown apart and while it is, of course, difficult to go through something like this, I feel blessed for the time we had together and only wish the best for Tom always." The Devil Wears Prada actress added that she would always put the duo's kids first, no matter what. "My priority has always been and will continue to be our children whom I love with all my heart," she wrote. "We will continue coparenting to give them the love, care and attention they greatly deserve." Keep scrolling for more of Bündchen's quotes about motherhood.

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How Meditation Helps

While giving birth to her first child, Benjamin, Bündchen practiced meditation. “I wanted to experience the transformation,” she told Vogue in March 2010. “It was the most amazing experience of my life, feeling him come through my body. And once he was born, I never felt so empowered as looking at him and thinking, 'Oh, my God, we did it together!'”

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The Most Important Job

After Bündchen sparked controversy with her comments about breastfeeding, she explained that she didn't mean for her remarks to sound as "black and white" as they did. "I am sure if I would just be sitting talking about my experiences with other mothers, we would just be sharing opinions. I understand that everyone has their own experience and opinions and I am not here to judge,” she wrote on her blog in August 2010. “I believe that bringing a life into this world is the single most important thing a person can undertake, and it can also be the most challenging. I think as mothers we are all just trying our best.” 

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Taking Care

“You know how they say on the plane you have to put the oxygen mask on first and then put it on your child? So, I think it is the same, as a mum, to take care of myself," Bündchen told The Sunday Times in December 2014. "You can feel a bit guilty. But if I put my oxygen mask on first, if I’m feeling fulfilled and present and good about myself, then I’m going to be a much more patient, loving, understanding mother and wife. You have to fill your glass so that everyone can drink from it. That’s how I feel."

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Prioritizing Her Own Needs

"As a mother, you’re always giving," the model told Vogue in May 2017. "It’s important to give something to yourself, so you can give from a place of being full, instead of giving from a place of being depleted, which isn’t healthy for you or for the family."

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Struggling With Mom Guilt

After welcoming her kids, Bündchen admitted that she sometimes felt guilty about continuing to work. “I had all this horrible, self-imposed guilt," she wrote in her book. "I thought what a terrible mother I was for leaving my child even for like a day.” Taking them with her didn't always alleviate that feeling, either. “I was feeling guilty for that too," she added. "Like, ‘Here we are on a plane and the baby is crying.’"

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Adjusting to Motherhood

In Lessons, the Taxi star revealed that she sometimes "felt overwhelmed or conflicted" when her children were younger. "I felt the massive new responsibility of motherhood. I wanted to do my best, and to do it right," she explained. "The thing is, I was an experienced mom, in on-the-job training, plus I sometimes felt torn, since I knew I had so much more I wanted to create in the world. Now that the kids are older and in school, I know that soon I’ll be ready to begin climbing another mountain."

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Not 'Just a Mom'

“If I ever hear someone saying, ‘She’s just a mom,’ it makes me angry. Being ‘just a mom’ is the foundation of everything," Bündchen wrote in Lessons. "Being ‘just a mom’ ensures that our children have the foundation and support they need to succeed not just at work but at life. Millions of ‘just moms’ are busy raising future men and women who will someday influence the world in either positive or negative ways. Our culture likes to treat the daily multitasking that women perform as something to be expected. They’re not. There are a lot of mothers out there who make everything possible and everything happen, and I think they’re amazing.”