Celebrity Baby Blog /

Joey Lawrence Says Parenting is Exhausting

Carlos Diaz/INF

There’s no denying that some celebrity dads set a better example than others, and for Joey Lawrence, the dads worth emulating are the dads we hear little about. “I know with my family, we keep our private life private,” the 33-year-old Dancing With the Stars alum tells Spotlight to Nightlight. “Being a public figure, people have a right to know about your public life but [with your] private life I feel there’s kind of a sanctity. You need to keep quiet.”

Still, Joey couldn’t help but dish on the trauma he had just endured with daughter Charleston ‘Charli’ Lawrence, 3. “We had a fit this morning,” he shares. “She wanted Mike and Ikes…She found ‘em and she wanted ‘em.” As Charli repeatedly asked for “a treat,” Joey held his ground. “I said, ‘You’ve got to eat your breakfast’…I said, ‘This is your magic moo yogurt,’” he recalls. When that approach failed, however, Joey brought out a very big bargaining chip indeed!

“We were going on a trip with our friends, and I had to call them and say ‘We can’t go to Hawaii because Charli won’t eat her yogurt. [Charli cries] ‘Oh no…I’m eating it!’ It’s breakfast, I’m sweating, I got a whole workout…and that’s parenting. By 8:30 in the morning you’re exhausted…and that is parenting.”

When it comes to playing good cop vs. bad cop, Joey says that there is “a fine line” he walks just like everyone else. “I think being friends is awesome and I want to be great friends with my kids, but at the same time, there has to be respect,” he explains. “If that’s not there, then you’re never going to get it, and you’re never going to have it and when you need to have it, it’s going to be a lost cause.” Even when he’s being the disciplinarian, however, Joey makes a point to savor each and every moment spent with Charli.

“My father-in-law said something to me: ‘Sometimes the days seem long, but the years are so very short. Just keep that in mind.’ Already it’s been three years. I’m thinking about it, and I’m going, ‘Wow…Three years, it’s like a blip, and before I know it she’s going to be six, and then 13, and then you’re done.’ It’s going to go so fast.”

With that in mind, Joey says that tucking his daughter in each and every night remains a priority. “She’s a huge fan of those Little Golden Books,” he shares. “We read two …She’s allowed to read one and she pushes it to two because she loves to read, which is great, and then we say our prayers.” He adds,

“I try to get home. I’ve only missed — just from work, and stuff — three nights with her since she’s been born.”

Charli is Joey’s daughter with wife Chandie.

Source: Spotlight to Nightlight

– Missy