Drew Barrymore Says George Floyd’s Death ‘Forever Changed’ How She Parents Daughters Olive and Frankie
Mom of two Drew Barrymore is heartbroken following the news of George Floyd’s death. The Santa Clarita Diet star revealed her life as a parent is “forever changed” while discussing how she plans to talk with daughters Olive, 7, and Frankie, 6, about racism.
“I feel like this is the beginning of a change and an awareness, which I would’ve assumed I had,” Drew, 45, candidly shared with “Raising Good Humans” podcast host Dr. Aliza Pressman during an Instagram Live on Monday, June 1. The Charlie’s Angels alum said she “feels so different right now” watching thousands protest across the U.S. after Floyd died while being restrained by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25.
“I feel compelled to get in this [movement] and I feel like this is a moment where my life is forever changed in the parent I want to be … ongoing is forever changed,” Drew explained, noting she’s doing her part to support the Black Lives Matter movement. “And I understand the mission … I understand all of that knowing that I don’t understand anything.”
While chatting with her friend on social media, the 50 First Dates actress — who shares her two little girls with ex-husband Will Kopelman — revealed why she’s been struggling to talk with her toddlers about racial injustice.
“I have tried to approach so much of everything in life as, ‘I don’t know this … I’m learning it with you,'” she dished. “And that’s an approach I want to take with my [children], which is different because as a parent you want [to be like], ‘I got this.’ But with this subject, I can’t do that … I can’t take that approach with my kids.”
However, the Golden Globe winner found a way to “discuss things” with Olive and Frankie without coming off richeous. “Through learning” about racism, the doting mom of two gushed she’s doing her best to “raise a thoughtful person.”
“This was the moment that made me feel like, this is what being a parent is all about,” Drew shared, pointing out how she’s making sure to teach her kids right from wrong. “When you sign up for this job, you sign up to as you say so eloquently, ‘raise a good human.'”
Drew may be one of Hollywood’s most iconic stars, but she never fails to remind her followers that she’s just like everyone else. The E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial alum previously opened up about the challenges she’s faced homeschooling Olive and Frankie in quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The minute I thought, ‘Oh, I am three weeks in, I got this,’ … I cried every day, all day long,” she told Savannah Guthrie during an appearance on Today in mid-April 14. Drew jokingly compared the experience to being the “messiest plate [she] ever held in [her] life.”
“To be the teacher, the parent, the disciplinarian, the caretaker … I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, and teachers have children?’” she wondered at the time. “Do they survive it because they get to go away and work with other kids? Have they had their children in the classroom? How did this all work? I didn’t think I needed to respect and appreciate teachers any more than I did.”
