Cindy Crawford: My Kids Have Made My House a Home
 Courtesy Redbook |
Walk into Cindy Crawford‘s house and there is little doubt that a family has made the place a home. That, the model tells the September issue of Redbook, has been her intention from the start. “I want my house to look good, feel good and smell good. I want it to be inclusive, to reflect the people that live there,” she says. “Nothing in my house is too formal.”
To that end, Presley Walker, 10, and Kaia Jordan, 8 next week, her children with husband Rande Gerber, have certainly made their mark in the family room. Allowed to eat popsicles on the furniture and set their drinks on the tables without coasters, Cindy laughs that her children have even been known to pull out their toddler ride-on scooters and race around the house. As for the family’s growing collection of wall art, credit can be given to the kids.
“Each year I frame one of the kids’ drawings or paintings. It’s amazing that when you put it in a frame — it doesn’t have to be an expensive one — it becomes art. In the kids’ playroom, I have all those pieces, one for each year, together on one wall. When you put them all together, they tell a story.”
Come dinner time, Cindy — who often hosts dinner parties centered around the children — Rande and the kids can be found enjoying their meal around the family table. Despite occasionally being spotted dining out, the mother-of-two insists Presley and Kaia much prefer a home-cooked meal. “I am pretty convinced that kids would rather eat at home most of the time,” she admits.
“You think it’s special to take them out to dinner, but after 20 minutes they are like, ‘Are you done yet? Can we go?’ They might like the food, but they don’t like the experience.”
While he may not enjoy the restaurant atmosphere, Presley recently showed off his skills in the kitchen. During a baking contest with his mother, he won the judge’s approval! “He made strawberry rhubarb — I gave him my recipe, but I didn’t touch his pie — and I tried a new one: peach blueberry,” Cindy explains. “And I said, ‘We won’t tell who made what, and we’ll have a vote.’ And his pie won. I was outbaked by my 10-year-old!”
Click below to read about games the family plays and how Cindy deals with bedtime.
After making sure the homework is completed — a responsibility Cindy happily takes on “not because I like homework, but because they don’t” — the family of four spend their downtime in the great room playing I Never and Two Truths and a Lie. However, some nights, the games are less structured and made up on the spot! “My kids…don’t need a big production,” she says. Case in point? Sock potato!
“One night we sat on the couch and my son had taken off his socks, and we ended up throwing the socks at each other like Hot Potato for 20 minutes.”
Once the lights are out and the kids are in bed, Cindy and Rande love nothing more than a date night. While the idea may seem perfect, the couple have quickly realized that the logistics, as their children get older, are becoming increasingly difficult! “The kids go to bed at nine, and we also have that hour and a half at night before I go to bed, although in the summer the kids want to stay up later,” she says. “I remember being a kid in the summer and having the whole summer ahead of you. I want them to be able to stay in their pajamas all day if they want. That’s what summer is for. But we’re still figuring out bedtime, because I want that time alone with my husband.”
Clearly elated with her role as a mother, Cindy is determined to live her life in the moment. For the 43-year-old, that means time spent with Presley and Kaia is time spent away from her Blackberry, while a day spent apart from the two means she is not feeling guilty about missing out on their adventures. When the going gets rough, however, Cindy relies on a good work-out or a great book to relieve the stress.
“I always like to read in a sitting room upstairs off our bedroom. When I’m on the main floor of the house, it’s, ‘Okay, I am ready for anything.’ If I’m upstairs, then it’s, ‘Don’t bother me unless you need something or if you’re bleeding.’”
Partnering with JCPenney to launch Cindy Crawford Style, there is little doubt that Cindy works hard, but to balance out the demands of her job, she plays just as hard — a part of motherhood she cherishes. “I like hanging out with my kids,” she shares. “When we went to Disneyland, they wanted to go on the same rides I did. You get to re-experience all the fun things through their eyes.” As a result, the lesson she has learned is a hard one!
“You realize how jaded we can become as adults. Just watching them when they get excited and their whole body is shaking and they can’t even contain it — as adults, how often do we get that excited?”
Everything, however, is not all bliss when it comes to raising children, Cindy notes, adding that in today’s society the task has become that much harder. “I had kids before I had dogs, and when I got a dog, the trainer said, ‘You just need to establish yourself as the leader.’ God, I wish I had known that before I had kids,” she jokes, sharing that her own mother has been known to raise an eyebrow at Cindy’s tendency to over-explain her kids’ behavior.
“Now, even though I want the kids to be a part of the family and have a voice, we have the last say. We build them up so much that sometimes they think they have the last say.”
That said, Cindy nurtures each child’s distinct personalities and has learned to accept the obvious differences between the brother-sister pair. “For instance, I was a valedictorian, always sitting in the front row of class with my hand raised. And my daughter has some of that in her, but my son doesn’t,” she reveals. “He does fine, but he says, ‘Extra credit? I don’t have to do that.’ I think, ‘Why wouldn’t you want to?’ But I can’t make him or trick him into wanting it.”
Fortunately, Cindy isn’t worried about her children’s future — both have already expressed interest in possible career paths! While Presley has stated he hopes to be a Navy SEAL, Kaia has opted for a more eclectic mix of some of her favorite professions. “My daughter says she wants to be a singer and a dancer, but — and the way she said this was so cute — she might model first because you don’t have to have any special skills. And then she wants to end up being a teacher…we’ll see how that works out for her.”
The proud mama’s hopes for both Presley and Kaia, however, reach far beyond their future careers.
“I hope they are kind and respectful and can function in the world and still be individuals, not necessarily leaders, but not followers.”
Source: Redbook
– Anya
