Jessica Alba Says Therapy Helped Her Teen Daughter Ask for More Mom Time

Jessica Alba says that a professional helped 13-year-old Honor ask for what she really needs from her mom — details

Mom struggles. Jessica Alba is the mother of three children in addition to being an actress and the CEO of The Honest Company, and she admits that it’s hard to balance everything. She was open about her missteps as a parent — especially with teen daughter Honor.

“I’m struggling with not treating her like a little — I want to treat them all like babies,” Alba, 40, admitted of her daughters on the July 22 episode of Katherine Schwarzenegger‘s Instagram series Before, During & After Baby.

Jessica Alba Says Therapy Helped 13-Year-old Daughter Honor Ask for More One-on-One Time — Katherine Schwarzenegger and Jessica Alba. Courtesy of Katherine Schwarzenegger/Instagram

The LA’s Finest star shares daughters Honor, 13, and Haven, 9, as well as son Hayes, 3, with husband Cash Warren, who she married in 2008. Alba said she started going to therapy with her eldest daughter two years ago because Alba felt it would’ve benefited her and Honor’s grandparents as she was growing up.

“I felt like my relationship really suffered with my parents because they didn’t know how to communicate with me and how I needed to be parented,” Alba explained. “So I didn’t want that breakdown with Honor so we went to therapy together.”

After starting to see a professional, the young teen “really felt empowered to find her voice, speak her voice, and own her opinions,” Alba said.

That means that she was able to point out what her mom needed to change. The Dark Angel alum says her daughter really just wanted some one-on-one time.

“[She was like,] ‘You need to spend more time with me alone without Haven around.’ That was a big one,” Alba said. “And, ‘You need to treat me like I’m me and she’s her. You can’t mush us together.’ I have to say, I kind of still struggle with that.”

Their therapist recommended the Sin City star set aside half an hour of one-on-one time each week with each of her three children.

“I haven’t started this practice, yet. I have a hard time with consistency so that’s another thing that I’m working on,” Alba admitted. “It’s not just doing sort of the, well we ate dinner together, and we did homework together, and going through the motions of day-to-day, but we’re going to cover up 30 minutes we’re gonna do whatever you want.”

Honor entered her teenage years in June, and her mom posted an Instagram slide show with a lengthy emotional message to her first child. In the post, the author of the upcoming children’s book, A Bear to Share, admitted that she was having trouble accepting that her daughter is growing up.

“[These] are happy tears because the love is so deep and so profound and sad that I can’t push pause. So, you are gonna have to accept my emotional outbursts boo,” she wrote at the time. “You choosing me to be your mama has been one of the greatest gifts in life, baby girl! I hope your teens are everything you hoped for and more, remember to soak up every moment. I love you with my whole heart and soul.”