Alec Baldwin is setting the record straight by explaining “why” he and his pregnant wife Hilaria Baldwin have such a huge family. “People comment about how many children we have and ask why,” the actor, 64, captioned an Instagram video Sunday.
“This is why,” he continued. “The thing in this life that matters most to me are these people.”
Baldwin, a soon-to-be dad of eight children, is in good company.
The actor and his wife Hilaria presently have six kids together: Eduardo and Lucia, 1, Carmen, 8, Rafael, 7, Leonardo, 5, and Romeo, 4. Later this year, they will welcome a second girl into the world.
Ireland, a daughter born in Baldwin’s first marriage to model Kim Basinger, is 26 years old.
However, the Saturday Night Live comedian has taken some heat for having such a large family.
It's not always the middle class or poor….. Alec Baldwin (actor) is preparing to have his SEVENTH child!!! And Elon Musk has SIX. WTF is going on here?https://t.co/2yS3ca9uox
One critic tweeted: “It’s not always the middle class or poor….. Alec Baldwin (actor) is preparing to have his SEVENTH child!!! And Elon Musk has SIX. WTF is going on here?”
Another wrote: “Do these people not consider the environmental issues of having such large families?”
A third described the actor’s large family as “completely irresponsible”.
Baldwin has now clarified his motivation for wanting to welcome more children into the world.
Alec Baldwin: Actor's wife announces they are expecting seventh child https://t.co/ds7aJrSSJT
Baldwin captioned the sweet post: “People comment about how many children we have and ask why. This is why. The thing in this life that matters most to me are these people.”
This week, the Clueless actress participated in an episode of The Ellen Fisher Podcast where she talked about her decades-long vegan diet and attachment parenting philosophy, among other things. She may have divulged too much information by mentioning how close she is to her son Bear.
But Alicia has admitted that previously, things have occasionally gotten a little too close.
She claimed that although Bear adored her classic movie Clueless, he later realized that showing 1995 original to a child might not have been the best option.
She told Entertainment Tonight: “He saw Clueless when he was five because it was on at the Hollywood [Forever] Cemetery… Four thousand people came to see and I couldn’t pass that experience up, of watching it under the stars, pillows on the ground with rosé.
“He was so young and it’s not appropriate, I think, for a five-year-old to watch that movie… it’s all about sex and stuff, so I just realized, ‘Oops.’ But, at the time… he loved it.”
In a personal interview, Elon Musk’s father said that he had a second kid with his stepdaughter. In 2019, 76-year-old Errol Musk claimed he had a daughter with 35-year-old Jana Bezuidenhout.
The Tesla CEO’s dad has a child from a previous relationship with his 34-year-old stepdaughter Jana Bezuidenhout, who is 41 years younger than him.
The South African engineer recently revealed that he and Bezuidenhout also shared a daughter three years ago in an interview with The Sun.
“I haven’t checked her DNA, but she looks just like my other daughters. She looks like Rose and Tosca mixed up,” Musk told the outlet.
The kid “wasn’t planned,” he continued, but he believes that Bezuidenhout conceived after giving birth to their son Elliot “Rushi” Musk in 2018. Since then, the two have broken up, but their relationship is still amicable.
“She looks exactly like Rushi and she behaves like him. So it’s pretty obvious you know,” he said when asked how he could be sure that he was the little girl’s father.
Bezuidenhout and Musk first interacted more than 30 years ago, when she was still a young child. The engineer wed her mother Heidi, and they had Alexandra and Asha.
With his first wife Maye Musk, he had already had Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, as well as Elon’s siblings Kimbal and Tosca.
He further said: “They still feel a bit creepy about it, because she’s their sister. Their half-sister.”
Elon Musk apparently did not like the situation either, and sources say that it led to a rift between him and his father.
Although there is no longer a romantic relationship between him and Bezuidenhout, the South African engineer is still going strong. He asserted that a number of women are claiming to have been the mothers of his children, and he added that for many of them, this is “very conceivable” given his philandering behaviour in the 1980s.
As for whether he’d like to bring another child into the world, Musk said he couldn’t “see any reason not to”.
“The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce,” he added.
A fast TikTok search for “grandparent limits” will turn up a variety of parents criticizing their own parents or in-laws who cross the line when it comes to their children, and how damaging it has been to their relationship.
Lisa Pontius, a digital creator, homemaker, and mother, shared a video on TikTok in which she was dancing to the song “The Joke Is On You” by Niki Watkins. The subtitles make fun of “boomers” for saying “my house, my rules,” while getting unhappy when their children, who are now parents, start setting their own rules in their homes. Take that, indeed!
Also in good TikTok fashion, there were folks responding to this in the form of comments. One of these comments pointed out that what Lisa did was effectively her own version of the “my house, my rules” idea.
In one of her viral TikToks, she said, “In case no one told you, having boundaries is not the same as keeping your kids away from your parents. That’s a whole different relationship dynamic – one that I don’t have. My parents see my kids. My parents see my kids actually kind of a lot; they live pretty close to us. I still have boundaries with my parents in regard to my children. They still have boundaries with me over when and how often and how much they’re going to watch said, grandchildren. We each acknowledge and respect each other’s boundaries. That’s how you have a mutually respectful, adult relationship.”
“Boundaries isn’t a threat. Boundaries isn’t a dirty word. Every adult relationship has boundaries – scratch that – every relationship deserves boundaries, even ones between adults and children. My parents get to see my kids because they respect my boundaries. But if someone does get cut off from their grandchildren, it’s a pretty good indicator that they didn’t respect the parent’s boundaries, to begin with!”
Lisa, who has successfully negotiated grandparent boundaries and is sharing what has worked for her to assist others, was interviewed by BuzzFeed. “I have always been interested in interpersonal relationships and family structures. I was an anthropology major in college and just always found observing these things fascinating. When I started sharing my life on social media, I included a lot of commentary on motherhood – including the very common struggle with navigating in-law relationships as a new mom.”
Boundaries can be small things, like telling the grandparent to call before they come over or asking them not to give your child sweets, according to Lisa. “Boundaries don’t have to be big or start a fight necessarily. Most boundaries I’ve set with my in-laws have been small things like that. Some have been bigger and needed larger conversations. The word ‘boundaries’ scares a lot of people, they can be seen as threatening, but in reality, they serve to protect a relationship. Boundaries are a way to navigate these relationships in a way that resentments don’t build,” she said.
Princess Audia Reggie, an AMFT therapist, and mother, has also been open about grandparent limits on TikTok, supporting parents who are speaking out. “This is a message to all the entitled grandparents out there: Having a relationship with your grandchildren is a privilege. It is not a right,” she stated in one of her TikToks.
Princess has a master’s degree in clinical psychology, marital, and family therapy. “I am a mental health therapist whose clinical specialty is intergenerational trauma and parenting. I am passionate about helping my clients identify and disrupt unhealthy patterns of behavior and communication that are often passed from parent to child through unhealthy parenting practices. In my clinical practice, I emphasize the importance of learning new skills to cope with a variety of mental health issues,” she told BuzzFeed.
Grandparents and other members of the extended family should view their relationship with their grandkids and nieces and nephews as a privilege rather than a right, according to Princess. “This will help to reduce harmful behavior brought on by a sense of entitlement such as ignoring or overstepping boundaries of the primary caregivers,” she said.
Princess said communication of your parental boundaries is key. “Boundaries operate best in three ways. The first is to articulate the boundary out loud to others. It’s a mistake to assume people can read your mind, so be sure to speak your boundaries out loud. Second, all boundaries must have consequences. Before speaking about your boundaries out loud, have a conversation with yourself and others, such as your partner, about what the consequences for overstepped boundaries will be. This must be a collaborative effort because it will require that you and your partner are on board with the consequences as well. And third, when boundaries are overstepped or ignored, the consequences need to be put into action by the primary caregivers.”
It’s also important to examine what cultural differences there may be. “A few examples of cultural differences are the way and what we eat, how and what language we speak, and how we dress. Cultural differences are not that we have passed on generational patterns of physical, emotional, and/or verbal abuse perpetrated against children. Unfortunately, for far too many people, abusive parenting practices have been normalized and accepted as ‘cultural differences’ when this is not the case,” Princess explained.
Princess added that it can be difficult for parents to negotiate this situation when their in-laws want to parent in a way that is contrary to how the parent asks them to.. “This scenario is very common, and it is crucial that the parent sit down with their partner and have a conversation about how they will directly address this issue with the in-laws. Conflicts like this with in-laws can easily turn into conflicts between primary caregivers that can have a negative impact on the relationship. It is important to move as a united front when child-rearing-related conflicts with in-laws arise.”
“As a new generation of parents emerge alongside a time when therapy has become less stigmatized and more mainstream, parents have begun to process their own childhoods as a way to find healing not only for themselves but also for generations they will never meet. When we break unhealthy generational patterns, it not only impacts ourselves and our children, it impacts your grandchildren and great-grandchildren because you’ve established a new framework for each future generation,” Princess concluded.
