Thoughtful Quotes About Motherhood From Amanda Seyfried

Amanda Seyfried doesn’t shy away from discussing parenthood.

The “Mamma Mia!” star has a daughter, Nina, and son, whose name has not been announced, with her husband, Thomas Sadoski. Since becoming a mom in 2017, she’s shared her thoughts on breastfeeding, work-life balance and more.

In honor of her birthday, we’ve rounded up 11 quotes about motherhood from Seyfried.

On Feeling Empowered As A Mom

“I feel more empowered. Like, I’ll say no, I can’t do that press trip, because I’m spending time with my daughter. ‘Oh, you want my top off for that part? How about we scrap that sex scene altogether? And no, I’m not wearing those thongs!’”

On Nursing

“Breastfeeding is awesome. Formula is awesome. Feeding your baby is awesome. Not awesome? Judgement.”

On Family Goals

“I definitely want more babies. Maybe three? Or four? Or five?”

On Work-Life Balance

“I live for her now and my priority is about raising my child in a very safe and happy and loving environment, and I do the best I can. I do work. I have to work. I have to work to be happy, and my husband has to work to be happy. It’s more about creating a space to feel safe, and if I don’t feel safe, how is my daughter going to feel safe? I realized it’s so much easier to feel safe when you see what you have, and throw away the things that aren’t helping you.”

On Having Help

“My mom lives with us, she’s our nanny. My life is awesome because she is the third parent for us. I am so lucky, I know I am.”

On Becoming More Present

“I realized my power with actually delivering a child. That’s one thing that kind of changed the whole thing for me. I’m a very anxious person and I’m terrified of so many things, and I realized that I was wasting a lot of time worrying about things that didn’t matter and things that didn’t impact me. I’m more present.”

On Reconnecting With Meryl Streep As A Mom

“It’s crazy, because I was a kid back then, so Meryl was more maternal. But now I have a kid, so we relate as moms.”

On Advocating For Other Families

“I think it’s important — we have a kid obviously — when you have a kid, everything kind of changes and your priorities do change. I’m very, very, very involved with Best Friends Animal Society. I’ve always been an advocate for animals because they don’t have voices and for all of the reasons, right? But Tommy has always been involved with the refugee crisis and trying to support that. So when I met him, I saw how passionate he was about that, and then we had a kid and it all just makes sense, we need to be doing as much as we can. We are compassionate human beings and we can make a difference, especially in larger groups and getting people involved. Everybody is aware of the refugee crisis. Everybody is aware of these children not having homes, and these women and children, especially, their lives being destroyed by war — this entire humanitarian crisis, that you can’t ignore.”

On The Joy Of Parenthood

“Man, I love being a mother. I love my family so much. I couldn’t be more in awe of my life.”

On Opening Up About Mental Health

“At first, my publicist said, ‘Don’t talk about your anxiety.’ And I thought, f**k you, actually. I want kids who are having weird thoughts to share them without stigma. And if that affects my career, so be it.”

On Changing Job Choices

“I have no time for unnecessary nudity or sex because as you get older you realize it’s not easy. It can be funky and uncomfortable. ... I feel really empowered just for the fact that I’m able to present those things, and choose what I want, as opposed to what I think somebody else wants just to make them happy. It’s not about them anymore. It’s about the consequences of it, and how I’m going to feel, and how is [Nina] going to feel indirectly. In terms, of those things — graphic stuff — I don’t necessarily need. It’s more about, I want to choose to do things when I leave my daughter 16 hours a day, to do something that I desperately want to do with all of my heart, and I’m just kind of more interested in doing animated film.”