These Jennifer Lopez Quotes On Motherhood Prove She Totally Gets It

Reading Jennifer Lopez quotes about motherhood accomplishes two things: It can give you the encouragement you need on a tough parenting day, and it reminds you that being a mom is a universal language. Why Lopez? Really, when it comes to celebrity moms, you can’t get much more captivating (or likable) than Lopez. The multi-hyphenate star got her start as a dancer on In Living Color and then embarked on her very own singing and acting career. She’s been in the business for decades, and whether it’s her red carpet looks, her ever-fascinating love life, or just looking so healthy and glowing all the time, J.Lo is an inspiration to everyone. But of all Jenny from the Block’s accomplishments (and there are a lot), our favorite journey for her is motherhood.

Lopez shares twins Emme and Max with ex-husband Marc Anthony, and she’s made it abundantly clear over the years that her little “coconuts” are the most important thing in her world. Like many of us moms, the pandemic put into perspective for Lopez just how much she enjoys connecting with her kids on a daily basis — and that’s just one of the reasons she feels relatable as a parent.

So, in tribute to one of Hollywood’s coolest moms, we rounded up her most resonant parenting quotes.

Jennifer Lopez’s Best Motherhood Quotes

1. “Through the kids, I had started to understand more about love and what it was to truly give love and receive it. I learned that there are certain things it’s not OK to accept, and that was making me feel powerful and strong.”
2. “My kids are the ones who inspire me every day. They teach you so much. They’re constantly challenging you.”
3. “The doctor says, ‘You see that right there, that little grain of rice? That’s the baby. You see this other little grain of rice over here? That’s the other baby.’ I was like ‘What.’ I started laughing hysterically. I just laughed out loud, I couldn’t believe it. And that’s how I found out I was having twins.”
4. “They just made my life so much better. I’m forever grateful that … you know, I didn’t have kids until later and so I almost thought that it wasn’t going to happen for me, so I’m very aware that I was blessed with that. It could have been something different. I don’t take it for granted one day.”

1. “I want them to be independent, good on their own, first. Like, whole people, what they have to contribute, what they have to offer, just as if they had nothing, just as the person they are. “
2. “When I was pregnant and I had my kids and they were little, everybody has advice for you. And honestly, you’re like, ‘Just leave me be and let me figure it out myself.’ Which you will, and you do. I’m just like, ‘Yay! You had a baby. She’s healthy. That’s all that matters.'”
3. “I love what I do. I love my kids and they come first, and everything else falls into place after that. I take it one day at a time, trying to do the best I can.”
4. “Their love and loving them and them coming into my life really made me reevaluate what I was doing with my life, and the relationships and the choices I was making in relationships sometimes, that only had to do with me, not the other person.”
5. “By nature, I am not tough, believe it or not. I am a lover. And with my kids, I am even softer. I realize with my son, I have to sometimes be tough, especially now when he’s pushing boundaries. With my daughter, I can get a little stern with her and she pretty much will listen. But my son will just scream and yell and run. I’m like, ‘Aaaaah, what do I do with this?'”
6. “I think a lot about teaching my kids to work hard. I’ve learned something about kids — they don’t do what you say; they do what you do. I watched my parents. My dad worked nights, and I was aware of how much he was doing for us. My mom was a Tupperware lady and also worked at the school. I always felt that I couldn’t let them down. And I had a natural discipline from early on. I was always training for something.”
7. “It starts with a late breakfast. We sleep in, even the kids sleep in. And Sunday Funday, they work towards that because they don’t get to use their iPads during the week. Or play video games or anything because it’s school time. And they have to be good in school and then they get Sunday Funday. It’s something I made up so they could work towards it and behave!”
8. “When I had my children and I felt that type of love… it made me understand there was a purity to love. That there is an unconditional love.”
9. “We’re realizing, the world is realizing, that women are not even coming into their own until they’re in their 40s. That they have so much to offer. That you can stay in shape, that your life is not over once you have kids and it becomes only about your kids. That to be a great mother or great parent or great woman in this world, you have to be a great individual first, you know what I mean, and that’s very empowering, and we’re all realizing this.”
10. “You cannot imagine what it’s like to be a mom until you are a mom.”
11. “They do something to you where you want to do everything right for them. And obviously, no parent does everything right. It’s this weird thing that happens where you are striving to be as good as you can be so that they turn out well. And that requires that you be a really great, evolved, aware person in every moment. Which is pretty awesome. But it’s also putting tremendous pressure on yourself — which is why women feel so guilty.”

1. “I used to give my friends who have kids advice all the time, and they would look at me like I had three heads. And then when I had you two, the minute I had you two, I literally apologized to all of my friends.”
2. “It wasn’t until I had two little angels come into my life that everything changed. You know, I knew I had to be better. I knew I had to go higher; I knew I had to be stronger than I had been before. It was through that unconditional love that my career, that my whole life, became clearer in every way. And now, today, I stand here stronger and better than ever. So thank you, Max and Emme. There is so much more to do, and I know in my heart that the future is even brighter than anything I could have accomplished up to now because of you.”
3. “Listen, I’m aging, like every mom out there. You have to juggle the kids and the working and the taking care of yourself. It’s not an easy thing.”
4. (On ex-husband Marc Anthony) “We’re still friends — and we’re parents. But it’s going to take time. It’s tough. But for the most part, I feel very proud of the way we’re handling it. We are doing the best we can for the kids.”
5. “We don’t have super set routines. I think we just try to do things that we can do together as a family. One of them is doing dances online, on their socials, we love when we do dances with them.”
6. “They need us in a different way [since the pandemic started]. We have to slow down and we have to connect more. And, you know, I don’t want to miss things. And I realized, ‘God. I would have missed that if I wasn’t here today.'”
7. “The best part of having two babies at once, a son and a daughter, is mostly everything. You’re just having that feeling of love inside you all the time and motherhood is such a fulfilling place to be. I kind of wish it would have happened to me earlier in my life.”
8. “Honestly, I have so much respect for single moms or anybody who finds themselves a single mother. But to even choose to be a single mother is just so courageous to me. It is such a hard job to raise a child and be everything to that child without a partner. It’s just admirable and courageous and brave and every other valiant word I can think of. I don’t know if I could do it on my own.”
9. “When you have children, you realize you can’t plan anything. There’s no Plan A, no Plan B. Life will happen and you will go with it.”
10. “Even just when I was at home with them and going to take a shower, I’m like, ‘OK, I’ll be right back!’ Going out for lunch when you first have them as well… I was like, ‘I have to go back to the babies!’ You feel tremendously guilty all the time.”

1. “I am positive — determined to move forward with my life, bring up my babies, and do the best job I can as a mother, entertainer, and person.”
2. “I can’t help but be a different person now that I’ve had kids. That really does change your whole perspective on life for the better.”
3. “I am busy and they know it. And they know part of their job is helping me get sleep. If I’m sleeping in, they’re very quiet, like, ‘Mommy needs to sleep! She worked late last night!’ We’re a team.”
4. “Being a mom is my greatest joy and happiness, my biggest challenge and my greatest triumph.”
5. “Your whole perspective on the world changes. It’s all about them. How can you be better for them? How do you need to be better for them? How can you make them laugh? How can you make them smile? How can you make them confident? It’s actually a really beautiful, easy place to be because nothing is confusing anymore. You know exactly where the priority lies.”
6. “My favorite thing about Max is his sense of humor and his incredible vocabulary. Also, your big heart. My favorite thing about Emme is her joyful demeanor — she’s always happy — and her artistic qualities, and I love to hear her sing.”
7. “I think [Max and Emme] would describe me as loving, patient, but also, I think, they wish I didn’t work as much. But I also think they appreciate all they have because of it. Just like anybody’s life, it’s not perfect, but we make the best of it.”
8. “Here’s what changed my life: I had given birth. I had given birth, and the kids honestly just gave me a new direction. They just made me realize what was real and what wasn’t real, and they just changed everything.”
9. “Kids are so beautiful and open to love and new friends. I was so loving to his kids, and he was so loving and accepting of mine, and they embraced each other right away.”
10. “Here’s what I know about doing what I do ― and obviously their dad is the same way. If they’re going to do it, there’s nothing I can do to stop them ― and I’ll support them. But just like my mom, I’m going to make them go to school, and I’m going to let them make that decision when they’re old enough to make that decision. I don’t want them to be in the business at a young age."
11. “I came in from my first two appointments, and I had to start getting ready for this, and when I left, [my kids] were eating hot dogs, and I was like, OK, I’m going to let that go. And then I got back, and they suggested tacos for dinner, and I said, ‘No! Let’s be serious here. Just because I’m working today doesn’t mean it’s taco, pizza, hot dog day.’ It was crazy. I just try to do the best that I can.”