Celebrity Parenting: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Penélope Cruz: RIE Parenting

Penélope Cruz and many others including Tobey Maguire, Felicity Huffman, and Helen Hunt have been known to practice RIE, or Resources for Infant Educators. This parenting style is a teaching method of various techniques that fall under one big umbrella rule: stop treating children like children. Basically, it encourages long adult conversations with pre-verbal kids and baby talk is strictly forbidden.

The theory behind RIE is that treating babies as a unique human being rather than as an object demonstrates respect, makes your baby feel secure and enables them to be more autonomous and competent. Instead of simply changing a baby’s diaper when they cry, you would talk them through it: “I’m going to change your diaper because it’s wet.”

Penélope: Don’t Baby the Baby

Penélope doesn’t allow bouncers, sippy cups, baby carriers, swaddles, or walkers as all of these things “disrespect the baby.” For Penélope, the following are also banned: toys including baby mobiles and rattles as the baby did not make the choice to have these things.

While it might seem a little over the top, the toy industry is worth $16 billion a year and the baby business nets $49 million a year. Maybe all those talking toys, interactive tablets, and hunks of plastic junk parents shell out good money for aren’t totally necessary. Then again, not many of us would want to get between new parents who don’t have money for a nanny and their baby’s pacifier.