Sunny Leone's Mom Life Secrets Revealed

0:00 Today we have a guest who I have really manifested to have on the show for a very long time. You're a very I must say you're very organized. You're very disciplined. You're very well researched about who and what you're going to get. Welcome Sunny. Welcome to the Kids Stoppers podcast. [Music] Drop offs and pickups. Do you know that? Drop offs to school, pickups after school, all their, you know, different events. If parenting came with a warning label, what would yours say? The poop does come out of the diaper. And it goes everywhere. Daniel and I wanted to start a family. We thought, okay, well, let's maybe try a surrogacy. So, we had four girls and we had two boys and the four girls didn't work out. That's heartbreaking. You know, the the doctor's doing the ultrasound and the sacks were empty and the whole car ride home, you're going, did I do something wrong? You know, like, is my karma bad?

0:57 I just turned to Daniel. I said, "Why can't we just adopt a little girl?" You know, I knew in that second that that was going to be my daughter. I was bringing her home. [Music] Wow. Hello and welcome to the Kids Stop Press podcast. And today we have a guest who I have really manifested to have on the show for a very long time because she's not only beautiful but she is extremely brave to have three kids, many pets many and a husband and a thriving career in value for over a decade.

1:32 Welcome Sunonny. Welcome to the Kidstoppers podcast. Thank you. You know I always believe that who we are in our adult life the seeds of that is seown in our childhood. Uh tell me about childhood and the growing up years. How was school? How was home? About everything about what you always wanted to do as a child. What did you dream of? Um well I I grew up in an area where you know it was really nice for kids. My parents put us in sports. my brother and I in sports all year long. We could run outside and play all day long. And as soon as it started getting dark, we knew we had to go back inside. Why the seeds of metabolism are sewn in your childhood? That's why you're so fit.

2:17 Yeah. I played a lot of sports growing up and running around and um you know, we just always had you know, family dinners. We're always together. Um and we did a lot of a lot of family things together, which was very nice. And that those are the things that I want for my children as well. Right. Um tell me when you look back at your childhood, what are some of the things that you feel like this part of my childhood is what I want or wish for my children? Yeah, of course. Um school drop offs. Um any any sporting, you know, activities or or things that they're doing. Um my parents always dropped us off. They were always, you know, present. um cooking at home for the kids, uh sitting at the dinner table together, no phones. I mean, at that time there was no um you know, sitting on the internet or sitting on a phone or a tablet. And we always ate dinner together. We always cleaned up together. I was in charge of the dishes.

3:15 I hated it. Um but it was always, you know, that that sense of family together. And besides all the nonsense that goes on in every single family, these are, you know, some of the things that, you know, I I definitely want you do the drop offs and the pickups. Do you do that? Drop offs to school, pickups after school, all their, you know, different events. Some things we don't go to, but WhatsApp mom WhatsApp moms, uh, you know, who who are very clued on to the groups and who follows it and or or you're the one like me who misses many messages very often. No, I I'm there on the messages. I feel like if I miss something, I don't want my kids to miss, you know, miss out on any activity or information. Speaking to a parent who's extremely handson and she doesn't miss a message and you're speaking to a parent who misses a lot of messages and goofs up all the time. Yeah. I feel like have a little bit of OCD when it comes to the kids. I just feel like, you know, there's certain things I know that they like or would want to do or if there's information being passed that's important to, you know, the children or their class or maybe I forgot something, maybe Daniel forgot something, you know, in an email. So, it's I feel like it makes me feel good knowing that we're on top of it, right? Um tell me in in a space where you know you've grown up with sports and extracurriculars and outdoors how do you kind of balance that with your children where screens has become such an important part of their lives? Um there's no screens at the table the dinner table any you know any of the meals. Um I we realized during co um when we were going to come back that the boys had no idea what a tablet was.

5:02 Um they had no idea how it works that if they press a screen they can you know watch a video. How did you achieve that? Uh they just didn't we just never gave it to them so they knew nothing different but they were watching you. Um they knew that we had a phone but they weren't they weren't interested in it cuz we were always doing different things or playing with them and keeping them engaged. So it's not something uh that we wanted. Or if let's say their grandmother was showing them things on only on the phone and we're sitting and watching, okay, a couple minutes is fine, but when it turns into five or 10 minutes, we're like, okay, they're not allowed to be on the tablet. They're not allowed to be on the phone. Go play a game, go do something, go play outside, you know, go engage with them in a different way other than on a tablet because they're going to be on the tabs and they're going to be on phones. And I just feel like if we can just like hold on to their innocence a little bit longer without a tablet and teach them how to keep themselves entertained without that then it's great. Yeah. And you said when we moved back in co so you were not around when so we were here then we went back to the US and then we came back. How is it different in the US versus here raising your children?

6:23 Um, well, it was during CO we were all kind of locked in, so I don't think it mattered anywhere you were in the world. But at least in Los Angeles, we had a backyard, we had grass, we had fresh air. Um, we weren't here. We were running them around a parking lot, you know, getting them outside, getting them to get fresh air and stuff and telling them don't touch anything because everything is public, you know. So at least at least in Los Angeles we had that open free air and just they could just play, touch the grass, roll around in it, right? Um tell me as a family um before you and Daniel decided to become parents. Did you ever know what kind of parents would you guys be? Or did you think, okay, I'm going to be like this.

7:11 I'm going to be like this as a mom and I'm going to be like this like a dad and these are going to be our set of core values. Was it what was what was your thought process before you guys decided to be parents or you didn't overthink it? Oh, we didn't really overthink it that much. We knew that we wanted to share our life with a child and at that time we were thinking one. We're like all right let's have one and then maybe we thought let's have one through maybe surrogacy and in like I don't know 2 3 years or something we'll think about um conceiving myself and um it didn't turn out that way. So, you know, as far as like our parenting style, I mean, I know Daniel's parents and I know what kind of human beings they are. I know what kind of son they raise. So, it wasn't so much of a concern of what kind of parent my husband was going to be. And then for myself, I mean, you just never know what kind of parent you're going to be. Um and for me information was something that I believe helped me understand my children more you know so that was something that was extremely important like when Nisha came home she was 18 months so when she came home she was understanding Morati and speaking a couple of words in Morati. So the first things that I taught her was sign language, you know, like simple things like, "Do you want to eat? Are you done?" You know, like simple like baby sign language to help her communicate.

8:46 And then within like a couple of weeks, she started understanding everything we were saying. And we would only speak in English so that at least we have one common language between us. So, you know, I think like you just don't know what kind of parent you're going to turn into. But for me, information, gathering information helped me like understand my children more and their psychology. You're a very, I must say, you're very organized. You're very disciplined.

9:14 You're very well researched about who and what you're going to get into. Is that correct? Well, we wanted to, like I said, we wanted to start a family. And we didn't start a family the traditional way of starting going, "Oh, wow. I'm pregnant." Yeah, like a surprise. Um, it was it definitely was planned and um I feel like it's important to be the only way for me to be the best that I could be would be to do the research, right?

9:47 Tell me, how did you decide to adopt? Like how did like what was the thought process? You knew that you wanted to be parents and this is the partner you want to have your kids with. like how did you guys agree on adoption? How did you know? And and it wasn't like you couldn't conceive naturally, but you chose to adopt a child. Uh, and this is a very important conversation, Sunonny, for me and for the community at Kidstop Press because I've usually seen parents op uh, you know, opt for adoption either if they are single, they're looking, they're not being able to conceive or one of the two of the partners have have always wanted to adopt, but they don't look at adoption as their first choice.

10:38 How did that work for you? And how do you know that yes, I want to adopt a child? So, when Daniel and I wanted to start a family, we thought, okay, well, let's maybe try uh surrogacy. And uh we had in America, you know, the gender of your embryos. So, we had four girls and we had two boys. And the four girls didn't work out. And that's heartbreaking. And it takes, you know, for any of the women that are listening or or fathers that are listening that have gone through IVF, it's a long process start to finish. It's months and months. And if you do it multiple times, it turns into maybe years or a year and a half or 2 years. So in this time of losing these perfect four little girls, you know, like embryos, um we were doing charity work with um this all girls ashram. And I just turned to Daniel, I said, "Why can't we just adopt a little girl?" And he like paused for a second.

11:39 And he said, "Okay, let me let me look into it. Let's let's do it." So it wasn't some long conversation. It wasn't some sitting in the middle of the night, us having this deep discussion. It was a thought and a thought that he was okay with. And um you know, especially when you go visit some of these ashrams and you see these tiny little babies that have been dropped off and you just feel like I definitely would not see um like DNA or biological anything to give a child love. Like that wouldn't stop me from loving a child um or treating them different. So he said, "Let me look into it." And that's when, you know, the whole process started. And it's not an easy process. There's no way to get around it. You can't pay anybody to go to the top of the list, by the way. Um, you have to wait like everybody else.

12:35 You have to submit all the paperwork. You have to do your home study. You have to go through all the paperwork. It's like millions of pa not millions but thousands of pages of of paperwork um that you have to go through fill out meet um you have to make sure they have to go to your home they have to you know check all these different things when you do a home study um so that's when the process started and in that same process we had two boys left so um after going through all these different things um I was I was actually shooting for Splitz Villa and my husband had gone home for the last two embryos for our surrogate for the IVF. And when he landed, he got an email saying that we were matched with a little girl on the same day as our IVF transfer. Yeah.

13:31 So when we found that out, he said, "Well, what do you want me to do? Should I go to the IVF transfer? Should we do this?" And I said absolutely because we've gone through so much emotional like not I wouldn't say trauma but it was definitely very very difficult losing you know potential children. And um I said absolutely go to the IVF transfer. Just because they sent us a letter saying we've been matched with a little girl, it doesn't mean that we're going to um that little girl is going to come home because there's so many things that can go wrong. this is a government system. Um, one piece of paper could turn everything around or you know, you just never know. And this was before we met Nisha. So, he went home, he did the IVF transfer and then I was finishing the show. It was less than uh maybe like 2 3 days and I called uh my manager. I said, "I need a private plane. We need to fly to Lour. We need to go meet this little girl. uh I want our family doctor with us and um that's you know that's how it all started and as soon as you know I saw Nisha she goes like this I I think that's mother and maybe they taught her to do that I have no idea either way uh she was very very cute very you know friendly and just so beautiful and um you know I knew in that second that that was going to be my daughter I was bringing her home wow it's a long story. Sorry, it's so beautiful. I I am just sorry. I'm just so overwhelmed and buzzing with so many questions. So that you just toss out.

15:12 Yeah, I can just toss this out. But and and this is a very important question, Sunonny, because I know so many parents who go through the IVF process. And we had a guest before who actually sat on this very same chair and she said, man, I don't know why people are so scared to talk about it. And she said that every cycle that she went through it and losing that child was so traumatic for her. Yeah. And I I want you to share it uh as well that when you lost those four embryos like what's how do how do you process that?

15:54 Like how hard is it? And and what do you tell yourself? Do you say that this is okay and it'll bounce back? What's the kind of conversation that happens in your head and what's the kind of conversation that happens with your partner and how do you become resilient saying no we're going to continue because we want to be we want to be parents. Yeah. So one of the big differences between doing it naturally and IVF is you're there from day one.

16:19 So you know you finally get to a point and you're like for us it was a surrogate. So, our surrogate worked in a doctor's office and she messaged maybe like it was four or five days later and she's like, I know I'm not supposed to do this, but I went I took a I took a pregnancy test from the doctor and you know, it shows that it's positive. And we're like, holy like you're pregnant, you know. And um then she took another one a few days later. Then she took another one. And by the time she went back to the fertility clinic, they said, "Yes, you are pregnant." We're like, "All right, this is amazing." So, you're building up hope all this while.

17:04 You build up hope the second the embryo is transferred into either your body or, you know, your surrogate's body. So, it that's day one. You're watching, you know, like that's the second that that hope comes from. You know, you're already in your head planning like I got to make their nursery. What are the names going to be? Let's pick boys and girls names. We don't know what it's, you know, so you go through this whole thing in your mind emotionally. It's very, very crazy. And when we got to the ultrasound the first time we got in there and all three of us are sitting in the room and he's doing, you know, the the doctor's uh doing the ultrasound and the sacks were empty.

17:49 So, it was like so heartbreaking. And were you there for that ultrasound? Yeah, was we were there. We saw it. It was It was empty. There was no babies there. There's not one baby. There's not two babies. Um, so we had driven like I think it was like 2 3 hours to get to this doctor's appointment and the whole car ride home, you're going, "Did I do something wrong? Did you know like is my karma bad? Um, is God punishing me? Am I doing the wrong thing? I'm like defying this natural process that's been going on for millions of years and I'm doing things through a test tube. What what like so you go through a lot of like I think parenting begins where we play the blame game and hold ourselves as I am the bad one right from even before our child is born right we hold ourselves responsible for every little thing that doesn't go right yeah so it's definitely not you know not a front process at all and then the second time with the second two embryos um it she just didn't get pregnant so it was like a failed attempt Right. So then we had two boys left.

18:59 Yeah. And those two boys are here. Yeah. Yeah. And tell me that like but how was it when you Daniel was there and you were here in Lur? So how did how did that happen? Like so he went through the process and he was in the room watching like on the camera and the doctor, you know, she said, uh, it was a different doctor from the other ones because we figured, all right, maybe we're using the wrong person. So we went to a new doctor for the boys and she was very meticulous like every tiny little detail and then doing mock trials to see how her body would react you know not putting the embryos in but going through the entire process it's a lot and um so when he was there she's like you you know it's very rare I actually saw the embryo attached inside you know on the lining blah blah blah and we're like yeah yeah you're not getting my hopes was up this time. Let's see what happens. And you know like 7 days later Nisha was coming home like that was set and you know that woman was extremely pregnant with twins. Amazing.

20:11 And tell me this side of the story where you you went through the adoption process. You did all this paperwork by the way which India is very very strict about. Um and and they should be and they should be rightly that I was very proud of. I was really proud of the fact that is one of the toughest systems to to get through for adoption. Um, and how do you know and and again this is for all families who are contemplating and it's like arranged marriage, right? You don't know if you're finding, you know, you you just have to feel it like this is you just have to have that energy exchange or that vibe that this is the one, this is my child or what what really happens in that process like do you get to choose a child? Are you matched with a child? Like um so India does not allow you to choose. Okay. So what happens is you fill out a form filling out criteria of you know um like what stage or boy, what girl. Yeah. Like what gender, uh, what state you want your baby from. Um, uh, so many other personal questions they'll ask you. And, um, I think they even asked religion.

21:23 Maybe like for us, we didn't care. A child is a child. And that that didn't matter at all. We knew we wanted a little girl. And um what I didn't know and maybe we would have gotten a child sooner is that when if there's anybody out there filling out the forms, don't click what state you want the baby from. Leave it as all the states because then uh your chances of moving up faster on the list um becomes less. So just future knowledge. Oh, that's that's a great piece of information for for people out there that are actually going through this process. So, um you fill out all this paperwork and then you get sent one option which was the option that was sent to us which was Nisha. So, they send her profile, they send you where she's from, they send a little picture. She's adorable and then um you click yes or no and that's it.

22:24 And tell me does does maternal instinct kick in immediately? Like when you have one of your own? I know women who say that I didn't feel love at first sight looking at my baby that I've just delivered. When you are looking at a child that you've just adopted and these are hard questions, Sunny, these are really hard questions. I think very very few people actually want to say it out loud. But does the maternal instinct kick in straight away?

22:51 Absolutely. I mean it did. It did for me. Um, the second that I saw Nisha, um, I I I knew in my heart that this was going to be the little girl I'm going to take home. This is my baby. That's my little girl. And um, I we did like a video call with Daniel and he got to see her. And so she was very, very cute. And, you know, that was it. and I went home and we just we just knew that Nish was going to come home. Amazing. And then 9 months later, the twins enter.

23:28 Yeah. Right. And how was that? How how was that like she was really excited about her two younger siblings and two babies coming home. Yeah. I gave her twin baby dolls before. Okay. And I went back back to my research. I was like, "How how do we make this transition as easy as possible for a 2-year-old?" Yeah. Um, and so that was one of the things I did as well. I gave her one baby named Noah and one baby named Asher. And I said, "Here, are you going to take care of your babies?" And we would take care of them together. and um you know she they're so small like they don't really know you know a a lot of different things about you know I don't know the psychological effects that maybe some children have you know for us she's just with us for yeah like 9 months and then you know she had two more babies you know so we turned to a very big family very fast so Demi um how do you manage you know that child who's just come home 9 months ago and now suddenly has to share their parents with two more kids.

24:38 So how did you make sure that every child was getting their time? Yeah, something that was really important is that both Daniel and I gave Nisha her alone time like she definitely was not short of having alone time with either myself or with Daniel. And you know, the thing is is with small babies, as bad as this is going to sound, they're just sleeping, eating, and pooping when they're newborns. So, even if it meant that, you know, for an hour or two, we spent that with Nisha and not with the boys, it was it's okay. You know, we had, you know, either Daniel's mother was was there or we had really good help with us. And so, we made sure that Nisha got Nisha time. Yeah. Amazing. And tell me did you take a backseat because you were managing three babies at one point in time. Did you like take a step back at work or or was So we were the boys were born in the US and uh we couldn't travel until they were done their first um shots, right? So that was about 3 months, right? So for the first only after their first vaccinations could I then start work again and I did. Yeah.

25:51 So I I sloughed them all all with me. Yeah. And took them to uh I was shooting in Cape Town in Africa. I took them to Cape Town, had a very nice, um, you know, living accommodation for the children and myself and that was it. Yeah. Super. Tell me, um, what has adoption taught you about parenting? Um, to be very patient. U you know you just like there's certain moments where we look like Nisha will do something and we will not understand where is this coming from.

26:29 Yeah. You know and then we have to like step back and analyze it and you know just in our heads go this is who she is and we have to accept who she is even though it might not make sense to me um for her it makes sense. example. Um I don't know just certain like certain manorisms because you know with the boys you see them and they act just like Daniel and I do or they'll do things that like oh yeah I did that when I was younger. Um or you know like Nisha's I can use a really positive one.

27:03 Um Nisha's extremely intelligent like extremely intelligent. And Daniel and I are always sitting there going oh yeah we were not intelligent people growing up. I was like, I definitely wasn't. I was like, Nisha, you need help with your homework, go ask your daddy cuz you're so more advanced than I was u when I was your age, you know. So, she just she's extremely extremely intelligent. She has like, you know, that kid in class you don't like because they just know all the answers. Yeah. She's that kid. She's that kid. I was not that kid. Neither was Daniel. And we were like Daniel and I when we were you know a lot younger like for I'll talk about myself. I had trouble reading when I was younger. So one of my boys has trouble reading you know and I have to work extra hard with him. Um but Nisha we're like she started you know reading and just she just got it you know and unfortunate unfortunately for the boys um Nisha's so smart that they're playing catchup.

28:05 Well, you know, it's really hard not to compare. We have to always like sit back and go, okay, we're not comparing Nisha. You cannot compare Nisha with the boys at all. She's on like another planet. I can see that. And and she's she's one of nine and she's an entrepreneur already. So tell us about the the Boo Box that she's founded and how did the idea come about? Uh the Boo Box. So Nisha because we live in Mumbai um I don't know if it's a Mumbai thing or whether it's um just part of her she has really bad allergies so maybe it's dust allergies a pollution and uh I would come home and she'd be sitting in front of the TV with a pile of tissues all around her. I'm like, Nisha, stop being lazy to pick up the garbage and put it in the trash. And you know, of course, she'd get up and throw it all in the trash. And then the next day comes, the same pile is there again, again and again. And then one day, probably after both Daniel and I sank, come on, you can't leave, you know, trash laying around everywhere. Just pick your tissues up. She took a a plastic cup and some tape and she taped the plastic cup onto the tissue box and made that her trash can so that she would so intelligent. It is beyond intelligent something. Like I said, she's on another planet. She's like so so smart. And um Daniel came home and he saw that and he's like, "This is just too funny. Um it's a great idea. It's too funny, but I'm sure they have something like this online. let me go buy it for you. And they both went on, you know, all these different websites and online and there was nothing. And then he turned to her and he said, I think you just, you know, made your first invention. You made something that is not on any e-commerce site that cannot be purchased. And there's this is one of a kind. Yeah. And um the deal with Nisha was is we will help you facilitate this idea. We'll nurture this idea, but you're going to do it all yourself. Yeah. So that means I will take you to uh the lawyer. We will get you know your idea patented.

30:21 It's it's copyrighted and then you will um work with the um person on AutoCAD to create the you know drawings. You will go look at materials yourself. I will take we'll take you you will go look up like different materials. What do you want the boo box made out of and you will design it yourself and that's what she did. So that was our deal with her and um you know we just helped facilitate and nurture this her idea and it turned into reality this year.

30:53 Amazing. And then so where can one buy this? You can buy it on Amazon. Amazing. And I'm just going to pick this up and actually tell you what this really looks like. This actually looks like this. And then here's the trash dispenser. Oh, sorry. Okay. This is where the trash actually goes. And then you shut it. So I I Yeah. And it detaches if you need it to. Detaches. I'm not going to detach it right now, but it detaches and then you can obviously throw. This is so smart because I actually do this with my kids where I make them sit with a plastic bag or a trash bag little cleaner. Little cleaner. And this is really really smart. And this child is all of seven back then and now she's nine. She started when she was why why Sunonny kept saying that she's on a different planet and she's a different league all together. Exactly. This is amazing. And and tell me how it is. How do you prepare yourself as a family for adoption? Because you have does she ever ask the why don't I look like you guys?

31:56 Like how do you break do you break the news to the child or you don't break the news to the child? Um I we believe in full transparency and ever since Nisha came home. So what I what I did is I created cuz she was 18 months so reading something would not make sense. Um, I created a picture book for her which has all the pictures of her entire journey before she came home or until she stepped in in our house. and it's where she was from, the people that were around her, um the pictures of us picking her up, the pictures of the adoption uh letter that came to us, and we also had made I also made her like I edited a video of all the videos that we took and pictures and everything that she could see. So, every day, every year on July 15th, we celebrate what we call her Gotcha Day. It's the day we got her.

32:51 So, it's called Gotcha Day. And she's always been so excited. She's like, "It's my gotcha day." And um up like every year that had passed, we would always ask, "Do you have any questions?" Because you don't want because she's so young, you don't want to fill her head with what my questions answers would be cuz it's a lot more advanced. Um, and so I think deeper questions will come soon. Uh, they haven't yet like like deeper questions about why um why why did this happen? Why did they not want me? Why, you know, did they not love me? Did they not, you know, like all these different questions I'm sure will come in the future. They haven't come yet. And I do believe her understanding is is like she understands like she gets it and she accepts it and she you know she's she's okay with it right right now. I think once hormone starts and puberty starts I mean it'll be like another level maybe. I have no idea that's still to come. But as of now like we will talk about anything with her. We always ask her, "Do you have any more questions? Do you want to talk to me about something?" We got her a lot of adoption books um that we have read to her. And so it's an open channel. It's not something that's hidden. And a simple question like do the boys ask that why does she now look like us? No, they we talk about that Nisha is adopted, right? And like you know, so the boys are also sensitized. Yes. So the key for parents is to talk to both children about it. Absolutely. I think like some of you know these um psycho psychological issues that might happen is happening maybe because people are keeping information from them. They're going to have those deep serious conversations with you or questions but everything has to happen at different stages. M if I fill her head with, you know, those people didn't want you, you dropped off the second day after you were born. Um, that's going to be hard.

35:12 It would make her feel bad. But there are other words I can use, you know, that, you know, she'll understand at the age of 2 3 4 5 6 7 You know, so it just depends on your child and how, you know, forthcoming you are. Interesting. And um another quick question. How does society both here in India and back home in Los Angeles or the US, how do people react?

35:43 Does that bother you or does do you feel like why are people so insensitive or are they accommodating? Um I think the only like her school's really good so far, so we haven't had any issues there. her friends are really understanding. Our close circles are understanding. So, we haven't like seen too much of that from our immediate circle. Um but sometimes like um like when we're outside of India and you get like a comment or two and then we'll go no she's adopted she's our baby. Tell me um how is it to be on social media and to be this big Bollywood celebrity and do kids know who you are that you're this mega star and you have so many people following you and and do they feel entitled or privileged or is their sense of privilege? Only when we go to the airport they're like where's the buggy?

36:48 But uh no, they know who I am. Um I don't think they understand in detail who I am and like what I do cuz I don't we don't watch it at home. Um we're still on children's movies. Yeah. And so uh they they get it, they understand. And it took me a long time to make them understand. They're like, "Why does that person want a photo with you?" I go, "Remember when we were at Universal Studios and you wanted a picture with the Transformer?"

37:16 Yeah. Well, I'm like their transformer. Oh, so they get that. They get that. So, you know, like then they started under understand and and they're pretty understanding like really really good kids. So, I got lucky. Does it bother you about their safety security when people are actually taking their pictures? Does that bother you or you understand that it's part of my job? And uh I usually push put them to the side and then take a photo with who wants it and people respect that. Yeah. I'm like you don't need a picture of the kids. I mean it really depends on the situation, right? Um tell me um in in one of your recent interviews you mentioned that you will support your kids no matter what they choose to do. Do you see I mean Nisha we've spoken about you see Noah and Asher have distinct interests as well. No they're still figuring it out.

38:08 They're not like Nisha. They're lovely boys but they're you know they're seven you know. They're still figuring out how to you know play soccer with their teammates and not you know um so they're they have you know different interests and and different things. Like this actually this weekend I found out that you know Noah won a gold medal for his art at school. Tell me about a day in the life of Sunny as mom.

38:38 Um, Sunny as mom is very difficult question because every single day is different, but um I I love spending time with my kids and I think it's so much fun and um you know we try and do things with our kids all day long doing different activities or art or going different places. So that's something that I want to spend as much time with them as possible before they tell me they don't want to spend time with me again anymore. Um because I know that I mean based on all the information that I've gotten from different parents and they're always saying you know just cherish it now because come a few years from now I have two I have 16 and 12year-old and you aren't too far from them wanting to spend time on their own.

39:26 Yeah. So, I'm afraid of that and they still need me and which is good and I need them and um I think it's important for me to spend that time with them and keep them busy and do different art and and um teach them things and be there for their reading and their homework and all this. Okay, very quickly on the rapid fire, what's the last thing that you Googled? Um, what kind of parrot landed on my balcony this morning?

39:56 What's the last thing your kids did that made you laugh out loud? I mean, they do something every day that's that's super funny. Um, usually when one of my sons says he wants to do um a dance party and starts dancing, it's just so funny. Okay. Describe parenting in a word. Yeah, I don't think you can. Fun. I don't know. Yeah. If your kids could describe you in three words, what would they say? I hope they had something nice to say. Okay, but what would they say? I don't know.

40:31 Um that I'm loving. Maybe no nonsense. Um and um I don't know. I hope they say hardworking. Okay. Diapers or sleepless nights? Which was harder? Sleepless nights. Okay. One parenting hack you swear by? Um sleep training. Okay. The messiest kid in the houses, Nisha, Noah, or Asher? Um, it would definitely be a Noah. Okay. Who's the stricter parent, you or Daniel?

41:05 Um, I don't know. Me? I don't know. Yeah, mom's always the bad guy. Always. What's your go-to bribery trick to get your kids to listen? There's no bribery trick. I have a rule that no means no. Okay. one food your kids refuse to eat no matter what. Um, my one son refuses to eat onions, but onions are in every food no matter what. He just doesn't know it. Um, one refuses to eat um uh soy balls. One refuses to eat chicken. Okay. I wonder what you cook at home with every child wanting to eat something different or not wanting No, no, we don't. I have I don't believe in, you know, different food for different people. We all eat the same thing. Okay. What's the cutest thing your kids have ever said to you?

41:58 The cutest? I don't know. That they love me. In if parenting came with a warning label, what would yours say? Um, the poop does come out of the diaper and it goes everywhere. What's And your child is going to barf on you. It's going to happen. Yeah. What's the most repeated phrase in your house? Oh, I don't know. Isn't clean up? Yeah, I guess. Maybe clean up. Clean up your mess. Maybe. Yeah. I don't know.

42:30 I'll have to ask them this question. Okay. Which of your kids has the biggest personality? Um, it would be Asher. Okay. If you could swap lives with your kids for a day, what's the first thing you'd do? I can't say it out loud. Say it. Say it. No. Um, the first thing I would do, I don't know. I guess I would um I just would want to be in their brain like how are they think I would actually want to know why Ed takes Asher so long to eat his food? Like what is he thinking about when he spends that much time at the dinner table? Yeah. Then complains that we all got up and didn't sit with him for dinner. Okay. If you could create a secret something like a hack or a magic potion, what would that be for you as a parent? Oh, as a parent, um, patients potion. Okay, that's a good one. I actually wanted to create like an injection that would actually have all the vitamins that if they didn't eat what was cooked or sometimes, you know, when they refuse to eat and they have like a meltdown moment, the food is done, nutrient didn't take.

43:43 If you could say that's a good one. Yeah. What's your guilty pleasure as a mom? Like what do you mean like not it's not food but what food? It's like either it's time on the phone or is it like just sleep in or is it just a piece of sleep? Um guilty pleasure. Yeah. My cup of coffee in the morning. Uninterrupted? No, it's definitely interrupted. It is interrupted but if you would I'm okay with it cuz they're so cute. So, it's like in the morning time like she's she's not real. She's not for real. Just come. If you're going to come interrupt me, then you have to hug me and you have to hang out with me. Okay. If you had an extra hour in the day just for yourself, how would you spend it? Um, I would spend it uh probably doing some art, painting, something interesting. What's the one thing you swore you'd never do as a parent, but totally do now?

44:35 My son comes in the night to want to sleep with both my husband and it's very hard to say no. So since they were born, I've done sleep training. So they have slept in their bed their entire lives. Come 6 months ago when my husband says to the boys, he says, "Why are you guys why do you guys keep calling us to come in here for these weird questions?" And it could be that I can't find my sleeping mask or the blanket is not on properly or it's like some really silly thing that they will ask for. So my husband has told them that you don't need to call me from your bed. You can just get out of your bed if you need something. So since that has happened, I didn't instill this all Daniel. And um ever since he's done this, in the middle of the night comes this tiny little creature that says he wants to snuggle and uh it's very difficult. Oh my god.

45:27 to say no. And they're still so tiny. So then they're, you know, it's so cute. So this is I sleep better with my kids though. So this is only I don't sleep. I get squished like this in the middle of You know, moms can sleep anywhere, anytime. Like moms are made to be trained to be sleep athletes. No, I'm not. You're not a sleep athlete? No, I can't sleep. If they're in my bed, I literally I I you know, when they were smaller, if they were sick, we would call, you know, like they would be in our bed with us. um if they had like a really high temperature or something just so we could keep an eye on them and I would ne I could never sleep. Okay.

46:02 And now when he comes I really can't sleep because I have this hand over here. So this one's pushing me. My husband is a furnace next to me and so I'm stuck in the middle like what is happening? It's just called motherhood. But but in between I'll get like a a a little squeeze from Ash or Okay, last one. What's the best part of being a mom? I think it's the I love you and that squishy hug you get um you know when when they're around. Thank you. It's been an absolute pleasure and your story is so inspiring and I'm sure so many families are going to benefit from this chat. So thank you so much for sharing this. Thank you. Parenting tips, celebrity interviews, recipes, conversations with experts, DIYs, and lots more. Subscribe to Kids Stop Press