We learn a lot from our parents! In an exclusive interview with Closer Weekly at the BAM Gala, Eva Amurri Martino gushes about her mom, Susan Sarandon, and reveals how she inspired her to be a great caretaker for her kids — daughter Marlowe, 4, and son Major, 2.

“I think just being a working mom and showing me that you can be everything you want to be unapologetically and being an example for that, so I could see that as I kind of formulated my own method in parenting which was really helpful,” she said about Susan.

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The one activity that Eva, 34, loved to do with her mom, 72, was “eavesdropping on dinner tables.” She explained that back in the day they would go to a restaurant in the Big Apple, and try to listen in on other people’s conversations. So cute!

“As a kid, we’ve gone to dinner and listened to what everyone else is saying,” the Saved! actress admitted, noting that there weren’t any interesting convos that they overheard. “There were really, really bad dates or like breakups that we would witness. There was never a dull moment in a New York City restaurant.”

Now as a mom-of-two, Eva tries to give her kids the same experiences that she had growing up. “Being a mom was always a topmost priority for me,” she recently said in her Happily Eva After column. “If you ask my friends from High School, they will all tell you that I talked about how important it was for me to be a mom one day all the way back then. I always knew it was something I wanted to do, and that I really wanted to do it well.”

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“Motherhood quickly taught me that there is no way to control what is going to happen with our children,” Eva continued. “And that surrender is the first step towards actually finding a solution.”

What a great parent!