Chelsea Freeman Feels The Pressure Of It All, Too

Raising kids is a joy, a gift, a privilege — but it’s also stressful as hell. And the pressure, whether we put it on ourselves or absorb it from society, can be overwhelming. Depending on your circumstances — being a single parent, having a kid with special needs, struggling to make ends meet — those stress factors can change, but really, all of us are doing our best. Chelsea Freeman, a mom who lives in the public eye thanks to her Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman of a husband, Freddie Freeman, is, too. In a world where so many celebrities seem out-of-touch and completely unrelatable, especially when it comes to parenting, Freeman feels pretty authentic — and it’s because she’s worrying about the same things as you. She and Freddie share three boys — Charlie, 8, Brandon, 4, and Maximus, 4.

When I chat with Freeman, she’s just begun a partnership with OFF! bug spray to share information about their new line specifically formulated for kids and adults. As a girl who grew up in Florida and then spent a large part of her adult life raising kids in Georgia, Freeman gets it more than most why bug spray is an essential part of parenting in warm weather. “My mom actually had misdiagnosed Lyme's disease and it was from a tick bite,” Freeman says. “It was from a camping trip and we didn't know what it was, but she got super, super sick after. I was only 4 years old. So I grew up with seeing her in a wheelchair. It was completely debilitating and I didn't know what it was for a long time. So obviously prevention is key, and as a parent, you obviously want to do anything to protect your kids. Bug spray is another layer of protection for us.”

But she tells me one of the most surprising parts about this partnership is learning, via a survey conducted by OFF!, that 56% of parents say their kids would choose an extra hour of screen time over an extra hour of outdoor play. It feels wild, but honestly — play is hard. It’s a lot more work than you think to use your imagination and entertain yourself outdoors, and honestly, it can be hard for parents, too.

Scary Mommy: I don't know if you feel this way, but I find it's harder to have the simple childhood we did. I can't just let my kids go outside without knowing where they are.

Chelsea Freeman: I know. I’m like, I don’t know how we survived, honestly. I used to ride my bike to my friend’s house down the main road.

SM: With no helmets! So do you find that getting the boys outside is a thing you have to actively work on?

CF: Yeah. Absolutely. I've learned that you have to compromise a lot to get your kids outside. Charlie started Little League and then getting outside was really easy. It's no longer a battle and it's something that we all look forward to as a family, like getting outside practices, even the younger kids going to practices and tournaments on the weekends. I always recommend Little League to anyone who wants to get their kits outside more.

And my boys are homeschooled, too, so that's why putting them in sports is so important, just socially. So Charlie has all his friends and then you learn how to work as a team and listening — it's such a good outlet for him to be social, you’re staying in shape, and you're learning all these fundamentals of baseball.

SM: I love that. Do you feel any pressure to have the boys be in intense baseball or having to really push for them to be baseball superstars right now?

CF: I mean, a little bit. Charlie’s games will literally have other teams that stop and watch him. They’ll be chanting his name and it’s crazy. But I’m lucky Charlie loves that. He likes attention. And he’s good at baseball, which is great. Luckily, he’s into it all right now. But it is interesting. When we were in Atlanta, Charlie was still in T-ball and it was less pressure, and now it's like he's 8, so it's crazy how intense it can get. But Freddie always says, "The kids just need to be having fun at this point," because it's even changed so much since he was in Little League growing up. But now there seems so much more pressure on kids and families, and I don't think it's all completely necessary.

SM: It’s hard to gauge! Our girls play rec soccer, but there are tons of academies and tournament teams around us. And it’s hard to know if it’s worth it.

CF: I know. It’s hard to find the balance. I only played rec soccer and then went to high school varsity and that was it.

SM: It’s always good to remember that kids can just play sports without there being a future in it.

CF: Yeah. Exactly. And 99% of them probably aren't going to be professional. So it's like you make sure they're having fun, be social, don't burn them out.

SM: Speaking of burnout and pressure, I feel like you and Freddie have always been really open and vulnerable on social media and in interviews about the highs and lows of life. Do you guys work on it at home to make sure the boys know they can have their feelings and feel safe and important?

CF: Sometimes if I start thinking about the big picture and everything, I get overwhelmed. So I just simplify it and try to be day by day and with three kids, it gets so overwhelming that I'm like, "Just get them through the day. Focus on being yourself. Good morals. Basic fundamentals." Freddie lost his mom really young, he was 10 years old, to melanoma cancer. So I think that had a lot to do with him being so emotionally vulnerable and a good person because he realized how short life can be. So I feel like he... obviously we both try to be really just good examples for our kids.

SM: I love that.

CF: Because at the end of the day, it’s like, just be a nice person. I feel like we're the same as every other parent — a little different — but every day, we're trying to be the best parent. You question yourself. And you're just trying to do the best for your kids.

SM: I mean, you guys seem normal, raising normal kids.

CF: Normal... and then baseball season is thrown in.

SM: Being a baseball wife and having three kids seems really hard.

CF: It goes from level one to 10 with kids. So baseball without kids I thought was crazy, and then with kids I'm like, "Oh, my gosh. This is really, really crazy schedule."

SM: Yeah I always thought it would be so fun. My husband originally wanted to be a high school football coach, and I thought it would be really cool. And then we watched Friday Night Lights and saw them moving around and I was like, nope!

CF: I know, I know. It's fun, but it's... it’s like sometimes we crave normalcy or a normal schedule, blah, blah, blah, but then I know that — I mean, hopefully he could play another five years, but I know that we're on our last little leg of his career, so I'm trying to just enjoy everything. And that's why homeschool the kids so that they could travel with us and just try to take everything in.