Olivia Munn may have two children under the age of 4 in the house, but they will not be watching most of the programming tailored to that age group — though there is one exception she’s found to her strict rule.
Most parents of young children know all the preschool television programming that’s out there — and some of it by heart after hours and hours of sitting through it with their wee ones. Olivia Munn is taking a different approach. How about no.
Speaking with People for its latest cover story, Munn said that she has pretty much banned almost all kids shows for her children, Malcolm, 3, and Méi, 8 months. That includes the growing popularity of Ms. Rachel, the popular YouTuber who just launched on Netflix.
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“I know kids love [Ms. Rachel], but the thing is, if I can’t watch it, I’m not going to spend the rest of my life going crazy,” Munn explained. And it’s not just Ms. Rachel, either, as she added, “These kid shows drive me crazy.”
The cartoons aren’t much better for the actress, either. “Malcolm asked for Blue’s Clues [recently], and I don’t know who showed him Blue’s Clues, but they are on my s–t list now,” Munn said. “I said, ‘Hell no. Not in my house.'”
Even more sophisticated cartoons aren’t going to cut it for Munn, who said husband John Mulaney “got him into the Spider-Man cartoons, which is not interesting to me.”
As such, when she’s with Malcolm, animated Spidey isn’t an option. “I put on Tom Holland’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and was like, ‘If you want to watch the real-life ones, then we can watch that,'” the X-Men alum explained. “It might be a little too old for him, but I can’t take the cartoons.”
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She did ultimately admit that she has found an exception to this rule in Mister Rogers spinoff Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Calling the popular PBS show a “great program,” Munn said she found it was a great way to help Malcolm prepare for the arrival of Méi as a new little sister this past September.
“Daniel Tiger has a little sister, and we’d tell him, ‘There’s a baby sister coming,'” Munn said of Méi, who arrived via surrogate.
And when Méi did finally arrive, Munn said that she and Mulaney were very intentional in making it as smooth and fair an adjustment for their son.
“A lot of times people will be like, ‘Oh, you’re a big brother now. You’re not the baby anymore. Now you can help mommy get the diapers,'” Munn said. “So, all of a sudden, he has all these responsibilities, and he doesn’t just get to be carefree anymore.”
That wasn’t want they wanted to have happen at all. “Instead, we would say, ‘Now we have two babies. There’s baby Méi Méi and baby Malcolm.'”
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She said the couple was also cognizant of giving equal time to both of their children, rather than perhaps favoring the younger baby more. “He would say, ‘Mommy, come over here. Daddy, come over here,’ and if we were holding the baby, we would put her down so that he wouldn’t feel that all of a sudden now we can’t be there for him,” Munn shared.
“It’s not that we were trying to teach him that everything he says goes, but we wanted him to have the transition with her to know that we’re still here whenever he needs us,” she added. Then, eventually when he’d say, ‘Put Méi Méi down,’ we’d say, ‘No, she wants to see her mommy too.’ He smiles, and he understands.”
They also don’t appear to have to worry about any issues between the siblings — and least, not yet — as Munn says that Méi loves her big brother and “lights up” when he’s around. Malcom is also teaching his little sister to talk, with Munn sharing, “We have this great video of him telling her to say dada, and she says dada right back.”
“It’s amazing and fun for him because he gets instant feedback and gratification from her doing the thing that he’s teaching her to do,” Munn said, quipping, “I asked if he could teach her mama, but he said no.”
