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Busy Philipps is teaching her mother about different pronouns after revealing her daughter is non-binary.
The 45-year-old actress revealed in December that her eldest child Birdie Leigh, 12, came out as gay when she was 10, and also said they use they/them pronouns.
And now, Busy – who has Birdie, as well as seven-year-old Cricket Pearl, with her husband Marc Silverstein – has said she’s doing her best to help her own mother “understand the pronoun conversation” so she can properly address her granddaughter.
Busy said: “[My] mom is older and wants to understand the pronoun conversation more. I said to my mother, Here’s the deal: You don’t have to understand it.’
“That’s how I feel about all human rights – you don’t have to understand it. You can choose to believe what you want, but you don’t get to have jurisdiction over anyone else’s body or belief system.”
When it comes to teaching her own children about taking care of themselves, the ‘Dawnson’s Creek’ alum believes “the secret with kids is leading by example”.
She added to Health magazine: “I make a concerted effort to be aware of how I talk about diet and exercise around them – like, what my intention and goals are with those things. I’m also lucky that I have a partner in Marc, who does cycling and works out for his own mental health.
“We talk about therapy in our house and never shy away from hard conversations. I’ve always been open – but not in that ‘I’m not a regular mom; I’m a cool mom’ way.”
In December, Busy revealed Birdie is “gay and out” whilst also admitting she was having a tough time adjusting to her daughter’s preferred pronouns.
She said: “I said, ‘You know, Bird, I’ve been doing a bad job with the pronouns.’ Because Birdie said that they would like their pronouns to be they/them, and I haven’t been doing it, and I said because I have this public persona and I want Birdie to be in control of their own narrative and not have to answer to anybody outside of our friends and family if they don’t want to.
“Bird was like, ‘I don’t give a f***. You can talk about how I’m gay and out; you can talk about my pronouns. That would be cool with me. That’s great.’ So I said, ‘Okay, I can talk about it on the podcast.’ “
