Bridget Moynahan Says Son Is a Bookworm Already

Stephen Lovekin/Getty

Playing Mrs. Quimby in Ramona and Beezus was a thrill for Bridget Moynahan. Not only was the actress a fan of the Ramona Quimby series as a child, her 2½-year-old son John Edward Thomas is a fan of books in general!

“I have pictures of him looking at books and flash cards when he’s just sitting up,” Moynahan, 39, recalls. “I have one picture where I was reading a book on Buddha and Buddhism and his face is in there, looking at the words.”

Just the night before her interview with USA Today, conducted in a Barnes & Noble, Moynahan says that Jack emptied his bookshelf in anticipation of story time with mom. “We went through four books,” she notes.

“He’s known his numbers and alphabet for some time now, and it’s clearly from reading, unless he’s going to accounting school on the side,” she adds.

As for her split with Jack’s dad — New England Patriot’s quarterback Tom Brady — Moynahan says that Jack is no worse the wear. “Our structure has always been two homes, and that’s all my son has ever known,” she points out.

“If you go from a structure where you have the support and that partner and that construction of a family and that’s broken apart, I think that’s probably a lot harder than always being a single mom and having the father being a support in another area,” she muses.

Comments

I have a similar photo w/ my dad when I was about 6 months old. I look like I am reading “A Bridge Too Far”.

- Christy on August 1st, 2010

LOVE Bridget, she’s such a natural beauty and she handled the Brady situation with class.

- Diana on August 1st, 2010

She’s kidding herself if she thinks it doesn’t affect a kid to grow up in a one parent household just because it didn’t start that way. My parents split before I was 1, and I did the two houses routine. However, seeing your Dad move on and raise a kid in a two parent household is going to be awfully hard on him to understand. He won’t talk about how he doesn’t get it now, but in the future it will play out. People need to wake up and realize that it does make an impact instead of trying to console themselves and ignore it, just because he can’t express it when he’s young, doesn’t mean it doesn’t cause confusion for him now and into the future.

- LuLu on August 1st, 2010

@LuLu: That may be the case. But what are her option. Her sons father has moved on and is in another relationship.

She can’t force him back and she certainly can’t force another relationship just for the little guy to have a new father. That would never work out and the kid would be hurt even more in the end.

And while it may not be true that it does not effect him I also believe that it is true, that it would be worse if he had known a different kind of family before.

- Mari on August 1st, 2010

Agreed Mari! It would be harder to have known one kind and then lost that. I think though if I can suggest anything is to make sure single parents talk to the kids as they are growing up, and make sure to not assume that the kids understand why other kids get two parents full time and they don’t. It’s so rough seeing your Dad raise your half sibling full time, and you only get them part time. I think it’s something that people assume if the kid isn’t acting out, doesn’t affect them, but it always comes back around in the end and should be addressed the whole way through childhood to prevent a backlash at a later age. Just my opinion from personal experience.

- LuLu on August 1st, 2010

I think she’s right. I know my experience with having parents who broke up when I was two was much different then that of my brother who was twelve. As far as the two household situation goes, it’s up to the parents. If they can parent in a way that their child sees them behaving cordially as opposed to acrimoniously, that will make all the difference. Any of my own issues comes from my father’s lack of parenting abilities, not the divorce itself. John doesn’t look like he will have that problem.

- meghan on August 1st, 2010

I think it’s better that Jack have his father in his life and have his parents separated, than to see his parents argue constantly or to not have his father at all. But I do agree with Lulu.

- Luna on August 1st, 2010

I agree with her 100%, but I will add that I think it depends on the parents and how they decide they will co-parent. If the 2 parents are civil to one another and have continuity in how they raise their child in both households, it isn’t always a bad experience. My parents split when I was 2, I’ve never known anything different so I don’t have any negative feelings about the divorce. In fact, I’m happy they are divorced. I LOVE my stepmom and my step-brother and my half siblings and I can’t imagine a life without them. My parents definitely aren’t bffs, but they never talked bad about each other in front of us and they always made sure the rules were the same no matter which parent we were staying with.

That being said, I’ve known people whose parents split when they were babies who still fight all the time, and that causes a lot of problems even into adulthood. It all depends on how the parents handle the situation.

- DD on August 1st, 2010

I agree with Bridget,who happens to be my favorite celebrity mom.This woman has always handled this situation with grace and dignity.I was in Bridget’s exact same situation,my ex-husband left when I was 3 months pregnant with our second child.I would have loved nothing more than to have my children raised in a two parent home.However that was not how it turned out.I look back and thank god he left when he did,as I did not want my children to withness abuse etc.All they have ever known is a loving mom and dad who live in different homes.By the time they were old enough to understand this my ex-husband and I had made peace with the bitterness that existed between us.They were spared the heartache of withnessing their parents splitting up.Now they have started asking questions and we encourage them to ask questions.As much as we would like to argue/dis-agree divorce has become a fact of life for many families( I will leave it to others to argue the wrongs of divorce etc etc)I have seen the pain,confusion,hurt and anger that children go through when they withness their parents split up and I thank god my children were spared.If your children are in a loving two parent home count your blessing.If you are a single parent like myself stay strong and make the best of your situation,and ignore the judgement of others.

- Nina on August 2nd, 2010

@Lulu – My parents split when I was 2 and I never remember them being together. My Dad got remarried to a woman with two sons from a previous marriage. My sister and I visited our Dad every second weekend while he essentially raised my stepbrothers as they lived with him and my stepmom and rarely saw their bio dad. I have never once felt jealous of their relationship with my Dad (they have always called him by his first name) or felt out of place in their home.
Blended families can work if all parties involved make the effort.

- Lorus on August 2nd, 2010

Wow, there realllly must be something in the water for those Brady babies! Lol. First Benjamin is “completely potty trained” at six months (insert eye roll) and now Jack could “read” as soon as he could sit up!! I get that all parents think that their children are geniuses, but come on….

- Patrice on August 2nd, 2010

I think that in an ideal world a child would have two parents who live together, but we don’t live in such a world. Bridget is doing the best she can under the circumstances, and as someone else pointed out, her ex had already moved on by the time their son was born. As long as things are kept civil I think that Jack will fine.

- Louise on August 2nd, 2010

Patrice- Bridget didn’t say that Jack could read as soon as he could sit up. What she said was ““I have pictures of him looking at books and flash cards when he’s just sitting up.” . Looking at books (even looking at the words in books, as Bridget goes on to mention) is not the same thing as actually reading them!

I’ve known several babies that love looking at books…..and I was that way myself as a baby. There are several pictures of me laying on my back on the floor looking at a book when I was around 1 or so. I look as though I’m reading the book….but of course I wasn’t. I’m guessing the pictures Bridget has of Jack are similar.

- CelebBabyLover on August 3rd, 2010

Good for Bridget. She’s making the best out of what life dealt her. She is positive about her son’s father and step mother. Nothing more you can ask for. Jack will grow up knowing that while Mommy and Daddy are not together, they both love him and made the effort to make his childhood as pain free as possible. Those who want to critize her about saying her son is luckier than most as he never knew a two parent household should consider this. We as adults have trouble adjusting to things we lost so why would it be any different for a child. If all Jack knew was that he lives with Mommy and gets to visit Dad in his own house with his stepmother and stepbrother, why would he be worse off?

- Calla on August 3rd, 2010

I agree with Lorus and DD. My parents split when I was still a baby and my father eventually remarried and had another child, and I have never had a hard time with it, neither have most of my other friends who grew up in similar circumstances (especially those whose parents split when they were very young). I thought it was fun to be both a sibling and an only child, I didn’t mind having different rules in my fathers and mothers house because that was life as I knew it. I never felt resentment towards my friends whose parents were still together and I never wondered why I didn’t have parents who were living together, and I think that part of it was that no one made a big fuss out of it. No one tryed to psychologize it, no one ever felt sorry for me, it was just how it was. I think the important part is to answer questions truthfully at a level the child can understand, but not to make an issue out of it. A pscychologist friend of mine once said with regards to children whose parents are homosuexual that the big problem was everyone making such a big fuss about it and that the only children he ever saw who had a problem with their parents being homosexual were either children whos parents had come out of the closet when they were already older, particularly when they were pree-teens, teenagers or adults, and children whose sorrounding had made a big issue out of the fact that their parents were homosexuals. I think this can be applied to children in blended families as well, don’t make a big fuss out of it, and it will most probably not becom an issue either.

- MiB on August 4th, 2010