10 of Our Favorite ’90s Stars Who Inspire Us as Parents

The Dawson's Creek star stole our hearts away in the '90s when he played the titular Dawson on the show. Back then, James was just 21 years old and in his acting prime. He would go on to star in some other projects and even compete on Dancing With the Stars, but he'll always be Dawson first and foremost.

With five kids, James Van Der Beek's dad days are super busy. But even with so many young ones demanding his attention plus a career that requires his focus, he always makes sure to be there for his family. He's a super involved parent, especially for things like soccer days, where he can be seen with his son by his side and carrying a cooler presumably filled with orange slices and gatorade.

Like her Dawson's Creek co-star, James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes first rose to fame on the '90s show. She's gone on to have an illustrious career coupled with intense media scrutiny following her marriage and divorce from Tom Cruise, but she takes it all in stride and keeps on living her best life.

Now that she's no longer with Tom Cruise, Katie is a single mom to her daughter, Suri — and what a mom she is. Even though she's a celebrity, she strives to give her daughter as normal a life as possible, with slumber parties, beach days, and trips to Disneyland. She also focuses on raising her daughter to help others; Katie and Suri even recently went to Greece to help at a refugee camp.

For seven seasons, Sarah Michelle Gellar kept people safe from vampires on the classic show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. When the series started in 1997, Sarah Michelle was 20 years old. Now, over 20 years later, she's married to her I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scooby Doo co-star Freddie Prinze Jr. with a family of their own.

Sarah Michelle has two kids with Freddie: daughter Charlotte Grace, and son Rocky James. Through raising two little ones, she's encountered a lot of ups and downs, and she has the best advice for parents. "Add 'for now' to the end of every sentence," she told People magazine. "So like 'I'm getting no sleep for now' or 'I can’t button my jeans for now' or 'My kid doesn’t want to listen for now.' It's all going to change and when you look at it that way, it's much less daunting."

We first met her when she was just Candace Cameron playing DJ Tanner on Full House. Back then, she was just a kid herself. Now she's raising three of her own — just like her fictional dad, Danny, did. Instead of getting help from Joey and Jesse, though, Candace is parenting her children with her hockey star husband Val Bure.

Candace has that perfect balance of knowing when to have fun and when to put on the mom hat. She even regularly appears on her daughter Natasha's YouTube channel, and got the "cool" stamp of approval from Natasha herself. "She's like a cool mom," Natasha told Entertainment Tonight, adding that her mom also knows when to lay down the law. "She's hip, but she's strict. Like, she's definitely strict."

In 1990, the world met the fictional Will Smith, whose life got an upgrade when he went to live with his wealthy aunt and uncle on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The actor Will Smith was also new on the Hollywood scene. Over the show's six seasons, he would go on to make a name for himself that has since translated into one of the most successful film and TV careers around.

Will and his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, are now parents of three, with Trey (Will's son from his previous marriage), Jaden, and Willow all following in their show business footsteps. One of Will's biggest things when it comes to raising his kids is listening to them and allowing them to be their own people. He told BET, "What I do with my children, that I feel that the greatest gift that I can give my children, is the freedom to be who they are. Jada and I are very serious about finding what they are, and encouraging them to be what they are because you can never be happy being what you're not."

When Boy Meets World began in 1993, Danielle Fishel was just 12 years old and playing young Topanga. Years later, she reprised the role as an adult in the spin-off Girl Meets World, where Topanga and Cory were married and had a 14-year-old daughter of their own named Riley.

Last June, Danielle became a first-time mom to her son Adler. His birth wasn't an easy one, with him coming a month early and requiring a 21-day stay in the NICU. But he's doing well now, and Danielle has even returned to work. About her decision to be a working mom, she told GMA, "I truly have to remind myself that what's best for him is what's best for me. And I'm not my best self when I'm just home with him all day." She added, "I have so many interests that are outside the house. And I also think that for our family, it works best for us that I teach him … I'm not only his mother. I am other things."

Way before she was Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls, Lacey Chabert played Claudia Salinger on the '90s version of Party of Five. She also played Bianca Montgomery for 10 episodes of All My Children, in her first television acting role. Since growing up, she's mostly transitioned to being a Hallmark TV movie star.

It may be hard to think of Gretchen Wieners being a mom, but Lacey Chabert is! Her daughter, Julia, is now 3 1/2. Lacey is a super honest person about the ups and downs of parenting, including pretending to be asleep so her husband will care for Julia when she cries. "Like more time than I can count," she said to E! News. "Like maybe yesterday." She also admitted she's gone "all mean girl" on other moms at times for being overly judgmental. We're all just doing our best — give a girl a break!

From 1989 to 1992, Mark-Paul Gosselaar played Zack Morris on Saved by the Bell. Even though that role ended so long ago, it's still one of his best-known projects. In fact, he's even going to reprise the character in the upcoming _Saved by the Bell_ reboot due out this year.

No longer a kid himself, Mark-Paul now has four children of his own: two girls, and two boys from two different marriages. The very involved dad is now earning brownie points at his kids' school because he starred in the classic show. "My 14-year-old son goes to school and is like, 'Dad, the girls love you!' and I'm like, 'No, they love Zack Morris,'" Mark-Paul told People magazine.

Melissa Joan Hart was actually 20 when she was playing 16-year-old Sabrina Spellman on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, a '90s series we loved after her other popular show, Clarissa Explains It All. Over the show's seven seasons, her character graduated from high school and college. Melissa was 27 when it ended. Now that over 20 years have passed since the start of the show, Melissa has some teens and preteens of her own.

The actress is raising three sons — aged 14, 12, and 7. In an interview with INSIDER, she explained that her approach to parenting is pretty laid-back. "One of my favorite things was … making sure that they could sleep anywhere as opposed to only in their crib," she said. "If I'm out at dinner and ran a little over their sleep schedule, it wasn't the end of the world." She added that she wanted to make sure the kids fit her and her husband's schedule instead of dropping everything to cater to the whims of her children.

Actor Neil Patrick Harris was 16 when he portrayed 14-year-old Doogie Howser on the show of the same name. Since then, Neil Patrick has literally grown up before our eyes going on to star in How I Met Your Mother and A Series of Unfortunate Events, and in movies like Gone Girl, in addition to several turns in Broadway plays.

In 2010, Neil welcomed twins Harper and Gideon with his husband, David Burtka. All year long, they're both great parents to them, but on Halloween, Neil really goes all out. It must be the actor in him because he totally commits to their family costumes every year. They've all gone as Wizard of Oz characters, circus performers, people from Alice in Wonderland, and more. We can't wait to see what he cooks up for 2020.