Celebrity Parenting Styles: Kate Hudson, Gabrielle Union, and More

Fact checked by Karen CilliFact checked by Karen Cilli

No matter how you choose to parent, raising kids is a journey and an adventure—and celebrities would agree!

While famous folks typically have an extreme advantage when it comes to parenting given their access to nannies, chefs, tutors, and the like, many stars are also hands-on parents who practice a variety of parenting techniques with their offspring. And because they’re famous, they’ve talked about said techniques to share their feelings with interested fans. You may even find you’re on the exact same page re: parenting as one of your favorite stars!

There are four main parenting styles as defined by experts: authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved. There are also plenty of offshoots, including the millennial favorites: gentle parenting, attachment parenting, and “free-range” parenting. While most parents don’t fit neatly into a little box, there are specific principles that resonate.

Below, learn what celebrities have said about their parenting style.

Attachment Parenting

Attachment parenting is all about closeness, both emotional and physical, and prioritizes empathy and a deep connection between parents and child. Parents who practice attachment parenting often incorporate breastfeeding, babywearing, and co-sleeping, while eschewing sleep training.

Kourtney Kardashian

Kardashian practiced attachment parenting with her youngest son, Rocky, spending the first 40 days cozied up at home with him.

"In many different cultures, women don't leave the house after having a baby for 40 days, to let your body have that time to heal and beyond that," Kardashian said on her series, The Kardashians. "I'm really into attachment parenting. I really don't separate from him. I love being at home right now, like my time is dedicated to taking care of my baby and bonding with him."

Mayim Bialik

The former Jeopardy! host believes so strongly in attachment parenting practices that she wrote a book about it, Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way. Bialik did not employ nannies when her children were young, and practiced co-sleeping and long-term breastfeeding. “Personally, I have faith that a culture that embraces the natural hormones during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding might cultivate humans that are closer to their natural nurturing states than we have now,” she told Green Child Magazinein 2012.

Bialik is also a fan of gentle parenting, as she explained. “Gentle discipline to me is not permissive parenting, which implies that parent and child are peers. It’s more about communicating your needs to your child and respecting his needs at the same time,” she shared with Green Child Magazine. “It’s using the same logic with your children as you would use with a boss, friend, or your spouse. Children aren’t stupid, and they feel valued when we treat them with respect.”

Alanis Morrisette

The musician used attachment parenting techniques with her three children Winter, Onyx, and Ever, including co-sleeping and unschooling, where kids learn on their own terms and schedule based on their interests. "For me, attachment parenting is, on a very basic level, eye contact, skin-on-skin, responsivity, gentleness," Morrisette shared in 2020. "The word 'attunement' is [important] in parenting, but also in marriage and best friendship and professional relationships. ... If we're not attuned to each other and we're missing each other like ships passing, there's not a chance for that deep connection that will be the hotbed for their whole life."

Alicia Silverstone

Clueless star Alicia Silverstone is another well-known fan of attachment parenting and has also written a book about pregnancy and childbirth. She described attachment parenting as "getting back to basics and doing away with excess” in child-rearing. "You are your baby's food, solace, entertainment, transportation, and education, and all of that brings you and your baby closer together than you could ever imagine. It strengthens your bond with your child and helps him develop a sense of contentment and belonging in the universe."

Gentle Parenting

As its name suggests, gentle parenting is all about leading with empathy and essentially collaborating with your child to set consistent boundaries. Gentle parenting can help reframe behavior in a way children understand because you’re getting down to their level and listening to their feelings.

Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade

The actor and NBA star use gentle parenting techniques with their daughter Kaavia to encourage her to stand up for herself, set boundaries, and learn self-compassion. “We give her the freedom to have a say in her space, her appearance, and the things she wants to do,” Wade explained to Parentsin 2023. “The only way we’re going to know our child is by listening to her, watching her, and seeing what she’s interested in.”

Jordin Sparks

American Idol winner Jordin Sparks uses gentle parenting techniques in raising her son DJ, including lots of communication about feelings. “I talk to him through everything pretty much, and then we sing and we laugh. If there’s something that’s happening, or he’s frustrated or feeling irritated, I try to talk him through those feelings, but if that doesn’t work, I try to do something funny,” she explained.

Free-Range Parenting or Independent Parenting

Free-range parenting encourages kids to be kids and is the antithesis of helicopter parenting. Free-range kids are allowed to roam freely and learn independence, which will set them up to be more self-sufficient when they’re adults. While most free-range parents do set boundaries for safety reasons, they allow their children to learn from their actions.

Angelina Jolie

When her children were small, the family traveled the world, and Jolie enjoyed giving her children room to explore and learn on their own schedule. “We travel and I'm the first person to say, 'Get the schoolwork done as quickly as possible because let's go out and explore,’” she said in 2011. “I'd rather them go to a museum and learn to play guitar and read and pick a book they love."

Jada Pinkett-Smith and Will Smith

Jaden and Willow’s parents raised their children with a great deal of independence and allowed them to learn from their decisions and actions. "The way that we deal with our kids is, they are responsible for their lives,” Will explained in 2013. “Our concept is, as young as possible, give them as much control over their lives as possible and the concept of punishment, our experience has been—it has a little too much of a negative quality.”

When Jaden was 15, he wanted to move out and become emancipated from his family. In 2018, Jada looked back at that moment on her show Red Table Talk, saying she allowed it because she knew it was important for her son. “Every child needs something different,” she explained. “Being in this lifestyle, in this world is a bubble and he wanted out. I understood that because I didn’t have the bubble. I knew what having my freedom outside the bubble, what I gained from that. I knew the sooner I let him go, the faster he was going to come back.”

Permissive Parenting

Permissive parents rarely use the word “no” with their children. This parenting style prioritizes the happiness of children and parents who practice permissive parenting want to be seen as their child’s friend, not a disciplinarian. Permissive parents are typically very warm, welcoming, and fun, though children raised in a permissive environment don’t always learn responsibility or deal with boundaries and consequences.

Kim Kardashian

In late 2023, Kardashian shared her struggles with permissive parenting and trying to establish more strict rules and boundaries for her four children. "Like why can I run these businesses and be really firm and I just turn into a big p---- when I’m at home? I can’t do that,” Kardashian shared on an episode of The Kardashians. “This is my most important job, I can’t have anyone run over me." She added that if she could “do it all over again” she’d take a stricter approach.

Firm or Strict Parenting

Firm or strict parents believe in rules, consequences, and establishing firm boundaries and limits for their children to help them grow. (This is not to be confused with authoritarian parents, who are extremely strict with equally high standards for their children, who are taught to obey without question.)

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.

The longtime couple consider themselves “pretty strict” parents to their daughter Charlotte and son Rocky. The children have chores and responsibilities and were not allowed to use social media. "They have to understand the value of working for stuff," Gellar previously told PEOPLE Now. "And so I don't believe in paying kids for chores, I feel like that's part of living in a house and you're responsible for keeping the house."

In 2021, Prinze told Us Weeklythat he and Gellar are “strict as hell” and have “100 rules” for their kids. “They know they can’t break [those rules],” he explained. “Friendships come and go. I tell my kids all the time that family is forever. So we have rules and they’ve gotta follow them.”

Kate Hudson

Hudson, a mom of three, has joked that she’s much stricter than her mother, fellow actor Goldie Hawn, was with her. In a mother-daughter interview with PEOPLE, Hawn told her daughter that she was “more structured” than she was as a mom. “You draw your roadmaps very firmly.”

Khloé Kardashian

Unlike her sister Kim, who is working on her parenting style, Khloé Kardashian is a firm, strict parent who believes in sticking to a schedule for her kids True and Tatum. "I am really strict. I have a schedule. I’m very militant with how I parent True and I believe that a schedule saves everything,” Khloé has previously said of her approach.

For more Parents news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Parents.