Mindy Kaling’s Best Quotes About Raising Her Daughter Katherine and Son Spencer: ‘Can I Do This Myself?’

Mindy Kaling is the proud mom of daughter Katherine and son Spencer — and has been gushing about her little ones ever since they arrived. 

Kaling gave birth to Katherine in December 2017 before secretly welcoming Spencer three years later. She has yet to reveal the father’s identity of either child. “My feeling is that, until I speak to my daughter about that, I’m not going to talk to anyone else about it,” she told The New York Times in June 2019. 

That same month, the actress’ Late Night costar Scott Reid told Us Weekly exclusively what a great mom Kaling is. When asked if the Office alum is always calm, cool and collected, he said, "In my experience? Yes. It’s starting to freak me out. I don’t know how. She looks amazing. She’s always so chilled out and zenned out. I don’t know what’s going on inside there, but I want some.” The Veep alum added of his second son, Damon: “My littlest boy [and] her daughter are in this really sweet music class together where they just dance and toddle around. It’s really cute.” [jwplayer AVjMUKqv-zhNYySv2] Kaling’s Mindy Project costar Ike Barinholtz’s little ones also hang out with Katherine. “Our daughters are friends,” he told Us that same month. “It’s so adorable on their playdates, we get sent pictures of them.” After joking that their children “write a comedy show together [that] … sucks,” Barinholtz told Us why he believes the Why Not Me? author has been able to tackle motherhood with such grace. “It’s a joy watching Mindy as a mother,” he said. “Mindy’s always been able to handle a ton. I remember when we’d be in the writers’ room, she’d be like, ‘I have to go to a wardrobe fitting,’ and then she’d call and be like, ‘Hey, one thing about that joke.’ … She’s like a polymath. It’s amazing.”

Kaling expanded her family in October 2020 when she secretly gave birth to her second child, son Spencer. “I’m telling this for the first time, it feels so strange. I gave birth to a baby boy on September 3,” the actress revealed on an episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at the time. “This is news to a lot of people. It’s true! … His name is Spencer. I forgot the most important part of it.”

The following month, Kaling opened up about going from a mom of one to a mom of two — and joked about how the “excitement” from loved ones dies down significantly. 

"The difference between having a first child and a second child is so funny," she “told Elle in November 2020. “The first time it was like every person in my life came out of the woodwork to send gifts and cards and notes and emails. And then once you have a second kid, everyone's like, 'You're fine. You're OK.' It's definitely more of a muted excitement from everyone in my life."

[podcast_block]

Mindy Kaling is the proud mom of daughter Katherine and son Spencer — and has been gushing about her little ones ever since they arrived. 

Kaling gave birth to Katherine in December 2017 before secretly welcoming Spencer three years later. She has yet to reveal the father’s identity of either child. “My feeling is that, until I speak to my daughter about that, I’m not going to talk to anyone else about it,” she told The New York Times in June 2019. 

That same month, the actress’ Late Night costar Scott Reid told Us Weekly exclusively what a great mom Kaling is. When asked if the Office alum is always calm, cool and collected, he said, "In my experience? Yes. It’s starting to freak me out. I don’t know how. She looks amazing. She’s always so chilled out and zenned out. I don’t know what’s going on inside there, but I want some.” The Veep alum added of his second son, Damon: “My littlest boy [and] her daughter are in this really sweet music class together where they just dance and toddle around. It’s really cute.” [jwplayer AVjMUKqv-zhNYySv2] Kaling’s Mindy Project costar Ike Barinholtz’s little ones also hang out with Katherine. “Our daughters are friends,” he told Us that same month. “It’s so adorable on their playdates, we get sent pictures of them.” After joking that their children “write a comedy show together [that] … sucks,” Barinholtz told Us why he believes the Why Not Me? author has been able to tackle motherhood with such grace. “It’s a joy watching Mindy as a mother,” he said. “Mindy’s always been able to handle a ton. I remember when we’d be in the writers’ room, she’d be like, ‘I have to go to a wardrobe fitting,’ and then she’d call and be like, ‘Hey, one thing about that joke.’ … She’s like a polymath. It’s amazing.”

Kaling expanded her family in October 2020 when she secretly gave birth to her second child, son Spencer. “I’m telling this for the first time, it feels so strange. I gave birth to a baby boy on September 3,” the actress revealed on an episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at the time. “This is news to a lot of people. It’s true! … His name is Spencer. I forgot the most important part of it.”

The following month, Kaling opened up about going from a mom of one to a mom of two — and joked about how the “excitement” from loved ones dies down significantly. 

"The difference between having a first child and a second child is so funny," she “told Elle in November 2020. “The first time it was like every person in my life came out of the woodwork to send gifts and cards and notes and emails. And then once you have a second kid, everyone's like, 'You're fine. You're OK.' It's definitely more of a muted excitement from everyone in my life."

[podcast_block]

Kaling admitted in September 2022 that it makes her "emotional" to discuss her experience as a single mom. "Why am I not the person that got married? I think that's harder to talk about," she said on Meghan Markle's "Archetypes" podcast. "I'm still examining it. ... I haven't been to India since (I was) 14, but you start thinking, 'OK, what [do] my relatives in India think about this?' You know, 'Is this causing tremendous shame upon our family that I made this decision?' I think I can make myself go crazy if I think too much about those things eventually."

The producer also noted that she always pictured herself being part of a "nuclear family" when she was growing up. "I'm a highly traditional person. ... Growing up, I used to write in journals like, 'I'm going to be married to a guy named Josh and we're going to have five children and I'm gonna start having kids when I'm 24,'" she recalled. "But 24 came and went. No Josh. No marriage. No four kids. And I started as a writer on The Office when I was 24. ... I was just so focused on keeping that job and earning money and earning a good reputation professionally. And so it just happened. ... I waited until I was in my late thirties to have children because I knew I needed the resources to be able to do it comfortably."

"The 4-year-old is a little bit of a tattle tale," the Office alum revealed during an interview on Today in August 2022. "I'm excited because she was a little indifferent to her younger brother and now, he's really useful to her because she can be like, 'Mom, he ate a pretzel off the floor. Get him in trouble!'"

She added: "I'm like, 'It's OK. We don't have to narc on our little brother. He's not hurting anyone that he's eating the pretzel off the floor.'"

Kaling credited her children with giving her motivation to work out regularly. "Now that I have kids, it isn't just about looking hot because I'm an actress. I need to live a long time because I'm a single mom," she told Byrdie in June 2022.

She added, "The point is that I feel so much better mentally if I'm in better cardiovascular health. I think a lot of it was helped by the fact that I had kids."

"[My kids] normally think of their mom as, 'Oh, the slob that writes on her computer all day,’” Kaling joked to Entertainment Tonight in April 2022. “But when I had to get ready for all of these events, [to] my daughter I was like Elsa from Frozen. … She treated me completely differently. She was in awe.”

Kaling opened up about the importance of Internet security during a virtual January 2022 AT&T event, saying it was vital for “for privacy for photos of my children because I’m really private about them.”

"When it rained for that very short amount of time, it was the most exciting thing that ever happened in our house,” Kaling captioned October 2021 Instagram photos of Katherine carrying an umbrella in the backyard and in the house.

Kaling revealed her son’s nickname, “Spike,” in September 2021 while wishing him a happy 1st birthday via Instagram. "My daughter, Kit, is pretty cautious with new people. Not this guy,” she wrote. "If you happen to make eye contact with Spencer, he lights up like you are old war buddies and he makes a beeline to you. I had Spencer during COVID, and it was a strange, isolated time, but the instant I saw him, I knew he would make everything better. And he did!”

"It was a real gift to be pregnant during the pandemic,” Kaling told Access in August 2021. "I felt really scrutinized during my first pregnancy and I think that it was such a joy to spend the last seven months of my pregnancy under … cover.”

The actress added that Spencer “adores” his big sister, gushing, "All he wants to do is crawl up under her and be close to her."

Kaling honored what would have been Kobe Bryant’s 43rd birthday in August 2021, writing via Instagram: “I’m reminded of your impact daily. For instance, here is a picture of my daughter at ballet when she refused to take off your jersey and put on her leotard and tutu.”

Kaling’s daughter hilariously asked her mom "for a backpack with a clock built into it” in July 2021.

Kaling’s daughter is “not the biggest fan” of her baby brother, the actress told Stephen Colbert in July 2021. “She really hates [having a sibling]. There are moments when it feels like she will sort of tolerate him."

“Being a single mom is not for everyone,” Kaling said during a May 2021 event, explaining that she is “only able to do it” with the help of a full-time nanny and her retired dad. “We have this, like, little strange little house of intergenerational, interracial people that are coming in and out to take care of everything."

"Sometimes being a mom is just agreeing to watch Cars again with your daughter (who knows that Lightning McQueen makes it to the Piston Cup at the end but still can’t handle the anticipation) and somehow it’s more fun than anything else you could be doing,” Kaling wrote via Instagram in May 2021. "Happy Mother’s Day!"

“When did I start feeling like a mom? When I’d fall asleep watching Netflix at 9:30 at night,” Kaling wrote on her May 2021 Instagram Story.

"Just watched Toy Story 3 with my toddler, we both loved it (I had seen it before of course),” Kaling tweeted in March 2021. "She kept screaming at the screen: ‘GUYS GUYS you have to stick together!'

Kaling’s daughter "thinks it's normal that people's parents are just sometimes on TV,” the actress told E! News in February 2021. "I remember she watched me as I presented at the Oscars … and she thought I was just upstairs."

"Best compliment I ever got!” the Office alum wrote via Instagram during the January 2021 inauguration when her daughter said she looked like Kamala Harris. "It matters."

Kaling told Access in January 2021 that she goes to both Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington for parenting advice, explaining, “They are doing an incredible job. They approach motherhood in slightly different ways, but they both have such beautiful, smart, strong children."

"I hate to say it but, in terms of giving birth and having a newborn, this has not been the worst time for me," Kaling told Health in December 2020 of being pregnant amid the pandemic. "When I was pregnant with my daughter it was on camera. I couldn’t just eat whatever I wanted [or] be completely comfortable. Every day I had to show up at 6 a.m., put hair and makeup on and play a non-pregnant person.”

Kaling joked in December 2020 that “the Grinch stole [her] sanity,” sharing a meme about having to watch the movie multiple times in a row with her kids.

"When you have your own kids, you can kind of make stuff up [during the holidays] and then just decide that you’re going to do that every single year," Kaling told Tory Burch in December 2020, noting that Novak was going to dress up as Santa Claus to take pictures with Katherine. "This might become a tradition."

During an Instagram Live chat with fans in December 2020, the actress admitted that she now has her kids' bedtime stories "memorized by heart" — but has a creative way of keeping the little ones (and herself) entertained. "I read her stories every night and I usually just read them verbatim, and now because I see her so much, we started doing a thing where I'll start a story and then I'll just stop and be like: 'Kit, what do you think should happen next? Like, there is what the book says, but what do you think should happen next?'" Kaling said. "It's kinda nice because, honestly, you can get really bored as a parent reading the same stories over and over again. ... It livens it up a little bit. For parents out there, I think that's been a fun little tip."

The comedian noted via Instagram that she was asked to shoot the cover of Vogue India only six weeks after giving birth. “I was not feeling body confident, and even considered saying no,” she wrote via Instagram in December 2020. “@katiegreenthal and Vogue surrounded me with talented and wonderful people, and now I’m thrilled I have these photos as a memento of this very specific time in my life. ‘Postpartum pandemic fabulous’ is what I like to call it.”

Kaling “definitely” always wanted to be a mom, she told Vogue India in December 2020. She explained, "The best relationship I had in my life was the one with my mom. It was so pure and so fun and uncomplicated, and I hope that I can have that with my son or daughter — if I’m lucky, with at least one of my kids — when they get older."

"The difference between having a first child and a second child is so funny," Kaling told Elle in November 2020. "The first time it was like every person in my life came out of the woodwork to send gifts and cards and notes and emails. And then once you have a second kid, everyone's like, 'You're fine. You're OK.' It's definitely more of a muted excitement from everyone in my life."

Not only did Witherspoon buy Kaling’s newborn son clothes and toys, but the Little Fires Everywhere star sent big sister Katherine gifts as well. “She sent us food, so we didn't have to cook for four days," Kaling told PopSugar in November 2020. "So, that's to me just a very Reese Witherspoon-type present where it's thoughtful but in a very macro way. Like, she really knows what's going on in your life. That was impressive to me."

“When you’re drawing Diwali Rangolis and your daughter leaves with all the chalk,” Kaling hilariously captioned a photo of herself sitting next to her sidewalk creation while Katherine ran off.

"When I was pregnant, I had enough time to visualize taking care of my daughter without a husband,” Kaling wrote in Nothing Like I Imagined (Except for Sometimes) in October 2020. "That was easy. Most of my friends' husbands don't even change diapers. But not having a mom around to support me was torture. It felt especially cosmically mean that my mother had been an obstetrician and gynecologist and I had a tough delivery."

The actress added, "I couldn't even ask her questions to have her good-naturedly dispel the myth that she was a perfect, multitasking mom and doctor."

Kaling opened up in October 2020 about why she was planning to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, writing via Instagram: "#imvoting for my daughter, Kit. I want her to grow up with leaders who think and speak with integrity. Who show that measured and thoughtful responses do not show weakness. I want her to see that her elected leaders can be the children of immigrants, as her mom is. But most importantly, I want her to see a President and Vice President whose capacity for empathy is their greatest quality."

"I had to grapple with questions I could ignore when it was just me,” Kaling told The New York Times of her “kind of Hindu” lifestyle in October 2020. “Like, how Indian do I want my daughter to be? Should I start being more Indian really quick, like right now, so I can trick her into believing this has always been my deal?"

“My daughter told me I looked like a piñata and I take that as the highest compliment,” the Office alum captioned a September 2020 outfit photo.

“I’ve been outsmarted by a toddler,” Kaling captioned a September 2020 photo of herself caged in with her daughter’s toys.

“He comes over at least once or twice a week to just hang out with my daughter,” Kaling told Us exclusively of Novak in December 2019. “When he does that, I can go take a shower or go work out. … He’s great.”

The Why Not Me? author has received "really priceless advice" about balancing work with motherhood from Reese Witherspoon, she added. "If I'm tentative about making a big life decision or professional decision, she's really carpe diem," Kaling explained. "She's like, 'Just do it and don't worry about it.'"

“I don’t know where it’s coming from, this well of confidence,” the Office alum told Us of her daughter in October 2019. “Probably from being 2 years old and having no fear.”

"B.J. [Novak] is so much more like family now than a platonic friend," Kaling told GoodHousekeeping.com in May 2019 of her former Office costar. "He’s the godfather to my daughter. He comes over, like, once a week. Sometimes he’ll come over just to hang out with her."

When asked if there was a right time to have a child, the actress told Glamour in June 2019, "No, there wasn’t. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but I would have put it off and put it off. I’m happy that it happened when it did. I would have put it off indefinitely. I’ve seen firsthand the heartbreak of women who have waited to get pregnant [and then it doesn’t happen]."

"I’m in a privileged position because I have help, you know, and I know that’s not the case for all American women," Kaling told Us exclusively in June 2019. "I’m a single mom, but I have the means to have help. … It is what it is!"

That same month, the Late Night star told The New York Times why she hadn't shared any information about her baby's father. "My feeling is that, until I speak to my daughter about that, I’m not going to talk to anyone else about it," she said.

"After my daughter was born in December, I remember bringing her home and being in my house with her for the first time and thinking, 'Huh. According to movies and TV, this is traditionally the time when my mother and spouse are supposed to be here, sharing this experience with me,'" the actress said at her 2018 Dartmouth commencement speech. "I looked around, and I had neither. And for a moment, it was kind of scary. Like, 'Can I do this by myself?'"

Kaling told Ellen DeGeneres in June 2018 that she had "never been a kid person" before giving birth. "When I saw, like, a 1-year-old baby, and [someone would say] 'Mindy, come meet my baby,' I'd be like 'Hello, young man,' like, shaking hands with an infant," she admitted.

"You start wondering, 'Does she care about me? Know about me besides that I'm a food source for her?'" the new mom said of her daughter in April 2018.

Keeping Katherine under wraps! "I would kill someone who said anything about her," Kaling said in a March 2018 Today interview. "I’m such a worrier — I can’t do that. I’m far too fragile. She’ll be big enough and people will see her. Am I even doing the right thing? Maybe she’ll be mad at me later on but I’ll deal with it then."