15 Celebrity Parents Who Are Surprisingly Strict With Their Kids

One half of the Fixer Upper duo, Chip Gaines, revealed to People that he’s not only a strict dad, he’s more strict than he expected to be. “I grew up in an environment that was pretty much ‘back by dark’ — my parents didn’t generally know what we were doing, and it was all good, clean fun. So I thought, ‘Oh, I’m gonna be a wild parent,'” he explained. “And when I got to be a parent, I don’t know what it is about it, but I feel a little bit like a drill sergeant sometimes.”

Jennifer Garner seems like one of the most down-to-earth celebrity moms (she shares three kids with ex-husband Ben Affleck) and she chooses her battles when it comes to being strict. One line that she’s drawn is around junk food in the house and making sure her kids eat the rainbow. She told People magazine, “I’m not worried so much about junk food because we don’t have it in the house — although I don’t want to be a freak about it so that they just want to get their hands on it at all costs. It’s more that you just want to make sure they’re getting a rainbow of flavors and foods.”

Modern Family star Julie Bowen isn’t afraid to set limits for her kids. In 2013, she told People that she’s learned that being your kid’s best friend is not always the best parenting choice. “It’s not about everybody being happy all the time. It’s about setting limits. In my house that makes my kids very unhappy, like tantrums-on-the-ground-twice-a-day unhappy. But the limits are set,” she said.

When we were growing up, our strict parents wouldn’t let us watch Madonna music videos. It turns out that the nightmare woman for strict parents of the 1980s is actually a strict mom herself! In an interview with Interview, Madonna’s oldest child, daughter Lourdes (who is now 26) said her mom was so strict that the list of things she wasn’t allowed to do was “neverending.”

Candace Cameron Bure has been famous almost her whole life, but she has said that being a mom is her top job. She describes her parenting style as loving, but strict. “I hope my kids would say that I’m a loving mom. They would also describe me as strict. We set firm boundaries, but there is always love and grace,” she told L.A. Parent.

“I’m the mom who needs to meet the parents before my kids can go to a new friend’s house. I want to know who they’re with, where they’re going. Even now that they’re driving, I want them to text me when they arrive and when they’re heading home. We work hard to keep our communication open and talk through any situation. I am always willing to listen. But I don’t always say yes. My goal as a parent is not to make my kids happy, but to guide them to be respectful, curious, responsible, resilient, kind, giving, and thoughtful adults.”

Nicole Kidman is a strict mom when it comes to limiting screentime and social media access for her two youngest daughters. In a profile for Vanity Fair, she talked about keeping her kids phone-free. “They don’t have a phone, and I don’t allow them to have an Instagram. I try to keep some sort of boundaries.”

Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis has shared that she and husband Julius are determined to raise a daughter who isn’t spoiled. She told People that her “No. 1 fear” for her daughter is “entitlement,” so she makes sure her daughter is “accountable for everything.” She also prevents spoiling by keeping it basic on things like clothes. “I do shop at Target — I buy all her clothes at Target or H&M. And maybe, if I’m feeling really good, Nordstrom Rack.” We love that anti-Kardashian energy!

Sometimes strict parenting starts with being really clear that we are not supposed to be our kids’ friends. Kelly Ripa subscribes to that theory and, as she once told Wendy Williams, she’s not afraid to enfore the rules, as her daughter, Lola, found out. “She recently lost her computer and phone privileges, so it’s like taking away oxygen,” Kelly said. “I don’t think she likes me, but I don’t care. I’m like, ‘I’m not your friend! I’m your mom.'”

She may be known as Posh Spice, but that doesn’t mean that Victoria Beckham — and husband David — aren’t trying to raise kids who are a little more grounded than other celebrity kids. “We’ve always been strict with the children,” Victoria told Good Morning America. “They have great manners. They always say ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ and I think that’s very important.”

Penélope Cruz and partner Javiar Bardem are strict when it comes to keeping their two kids off of social media. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Penélope explained: “I really see that that is protecting mental health, but I seem to be part of a minority. I feel really bad for the ones who are teenagers now. It’s almost as if the world was doing some kind of experiment on them. ‘Oh, let’s see what happens if you expose a 12-year-old to that much technology.’ There is no protection for them, for brains that are still developing, and how that affects the way they see themselves, how everything is related to bullying … so many things that are not the childhood that we had. My kids can only watch movies sometimes or some cartoons.”

Sarah Michelle Gellar shares two children with husband Freddie Prinze Jr., and the couple is super tough on screentime rules and more. “Our rules are probably stricter than most. Our kids don’t have social media,” Sarah told Yahoo’s So Many Ways. “Sometimes, our kids will be like, ‘You guys are the strictest household!’ But I say, ‘Yes, but everyone still wants to come here.”

For Sarah, good parenting is about having clear expectations. “I believe kids need to know what their limitations are, and they actually thrive in that environment. We’re not mean, we’re not unnecessarily strict, but we have rules. And the same way I abide by my code of rules, I expect the same from our children,” she explained.

Michelle Obama is a strict mom, and we heard that from a very reliable source: her own mom. In a 2009 interview, Marian Robinson told People, “I follow the rules at Michelle’s house. At my house, they’re my rules. I know Michelle is strict. When I’m at their house, the girls are doing all the stuff their mother has told them to do, there’s not much left for me to do. But when they’re at my house, they don’t have to scrape the dishes — and they get to watch TV.”

Jennifer Lopez mixes being strict with having fun by creating a tradition known as Sunday Funday for her kids. In an interview with E! News, she described a typical Sunday at her house. “It starts with a late breakfast. We sleep in, even the kids sleep in. And Sunday Funday, they work towards that because they don’t get to use their iPads during the week. Or play video games or anything because it’s school time. And they have to be good in school and then they get Sunday Funday. It’s something I made up so they could work towards it and behave.”

Denzel Washington is a father of four, including son John David, who is starting to make his own mark as an actor. In 2010, Denzel told The Guardian that he was intentional about being a strict dad. “I think children are born good. But a child doesn’t know right from wrong, so moral instruction is important,” he said. “I remember my eldest boy saying, ‘Dad, I always thought you were so strict — now I appreciate it.’ Free will can be a double-edged sword. By the age of 21, my son could see that.”

Actress Cate Blanchett keeps her family life pretty under the radar (we didn’t even realize she had four kids!), but she did open up a little about her strictness in a 2011 interview with The Irish Examiner. “I don’t enjoy being the bad cop, but sometimes I have to be. My husband and I worry about our generation trying to be friends with their children rather than parents of their children. If you’re going to try and make your children like you, you’re in dangerous waters I think.”