17 Too-Real Parenting Quotes From Zoe Saldana That'll Make You Love Her Even More

Zoe Saldana is not going to sugarcoat it for you: being a mom (yes, even in Hollywood) can be complicated, draining, and messy. Of course, all that matters to the Puerto Rican-Dominican actress is being there for her 1-year-old twins, Cy and Bowie [1], giving them all the care and support they need — but Zoe will be the first to tell you she's probably doing all that loving with a little poop on her hair [2]. Now that Zoe has welcomed her third child, Zen, it's back to the trenches with the little one.

From the emotional process that is sleep training [3] to the hurdles of wanting to pass along her native Spanish and her husband [4]'s Italian to her kids to negotiating with Hollywood studios [5] to pay for her daycare, scroll ahead for 17 times Zoe was deadpan honest about her experience being a mom.

On the Struggles of Parenting Twins

"A blowout? I can't do it — I end up with sh*t everywhere [7]! There is sh*t on the boy; there is sh*t on me; there is sh*t in my hair. And I'm like, How did this happen?"
"You put one to sleep and you lay him down, and the other one has been asleep, but then that one wakes up and the other one wakes up so then everybody's crying [8], then my husband and I are crying . . . You're like, 'Oh, my God!'"
"We put them down, say 'mommy and daddy love you' in Italian and Spanish — we'll get to that later — and then we walk out and they're having a meltdown [9]. So then you have to time it, then you go in. And my sister, I'm like, 'Can we go in? Can we go in?' 'OK, go in now.' And we go in and I'm like, 'What do we do?' No eye contact, just say 'mommy and daddy love you' — in Italian and Spanish — and she would come pull us out. So by the third time, it had been 45 minutes already. We were kind of buzzed. It's heart wrenching. My husband doesn't drink and he's like, 'Gimme that bottle!'"
"We have a tribe. Whenever we're overwhelmed – and when you have twins, you get overwhelmed quite easily [10] and really quickly – you send out an SOS, man. And they will cancel. They will find a nanny for their kids."

On Hollywood's Attitude Towards Moms

"The tone changed in the negotiations. I was starting to feel that I was . . . difficult. [For babysitting to be] considered a perk, or 'Give this to me; I'm having a diva fit'? No. This is a necessity that you must cover [11] for me in order for me to go and perform my job. The fact that there are women working in these studios — and they're the ones [enforcing] these man-made rules. When are we going to learn to stick together?"
"We were all reaching out to each other [12]. I got an email from Jessica Alba [13] — who I only know from conversations in the bathroom at events — saying, 'Hey, congratulations. This is my to-do list of how I did things. Maybe there will be something you can use.'"
"The productions I was slated to work on sort of had a panic. I heard through the grapevine there was even a conversation of me being written off of one of the projects [. . .] I was like, 'Oh, my God, are you kidding me? It's this bad?' Right when I just feel super-duper happy, is that inconvenient for you? That me, as a woman in my thirties, I finally am in love and I am finally starting my life [14]? And it's (screwing) your schedule up? Really?"
"But then a woman comes in going, 'OK, I have a child. You're taking me away from my home. You're taking my children away from their home. And you're going to make me work a lot more hours than I usually would if I was home. Therefore, I would have to pay for this nanny for more hours — so I kind of need that. And they go, 'Nope, we don't pay for nannies [15].'"

On Raising Her Kids Latino

"Oh my God, it's just who I am every day. So they're going to get a part of who I am naturally [16]. English isn’t even Marco's second language. It's his fourth. We only speak English when we have people around us that we have to speak English. But if it's just Marco and the boys, it's a combination of Italian and Spanish at all times. I speak a very Dominican Italian."
"I don't know what they're gonna speak, because right now we're talking to them in English, Italian and Spanish [17]. What's most confusing is my mom would like to be called a certain way as a grandmother, in Spanish — it's mamá. So I'm mami. And then his mother is la nonna. So I'm like how are they going to do this between la nonna, mamá, and mami — Italian, Spanish, and English. I kinda have a feeling their first words are going to be 'Ugh, English, English, this is America.'"
"Spanish was my first language. Then you go to school, and within a month you're completely an English baby. So that's the battle [18] you're always having: It's English out there and Spanish in the house. I don't say mommy, I say mami."

On Getting Fit Post-Pregnancy

"I feel bad for those women that get super desperate and want to bounce back three months after having a baby. And it's more like breastfeed, stay home, sleep. Your kid is only three months old. Like what are you going to the gym for? I definitely took a break [19], and I trusted that my body was going to bounce back when it was ready. I never wanted to push myself."
"It pays off to work hard! [20] I mean it mommies of the world, if I did it you can too."
"Almost there! It's been difficult but so rewarding. I feel strong [21]. All it takes is determination! Mommies we can all do it, damn it!!!"
"I was inspired by so many mommies around me to get back into shape because they shared their journey with me. We are stronger when we stick together [22] — wishing each other good, cheering each other along."
"Be easy on yourself and embrace the place you're at in life [23], and that also involves embracing where your body is at, and just waking up every day with a determination to get to where you want to be."
"I've witnessed, throughout the years that I've been in this business, women that hide in a cave and they don't come out until they're a size zero. And that is a very misleading message [24] to send out to women, especially when women here in Los Angeles are the skinniest women out there."

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