Gwyneth Paltrow insists on a daily family dinner with her teens - and a ban on phones
Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed she has banned her children from having mobile phones at the dinner table and insists on the family having meals together each evening.
That's something she has learned the importance of from her own childhood, when her and her brother always joined their parents Bruce Paltrow and Blythe Danner at the table.
Speaking to Ruth Rogers for the River Cafe restaurant owner’s podcast, Ruthie’s Table 4, the actor turned wellness entrepreneur, 50, shared that she looks back fondly on the family time together.
"We felt special being included at the dinner table even though it was a nightly event," she says. "If they had friends over then we sat with them at the table and had long conversations."
The Goop founder went on to reveal it is a tradition she has stuck to with her own children, Apple, 18 and Moses, 16.
"It’s something that I have carried on with my kids as well," she explains. "We always have dinner all together, as a family, no phones allowed at the table."
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Paltrow explains that from her own experience this allows parents to have some great conversations with their children.
"You get into great discourse with them and hear what they think about things," she explains. "I think my father made me feel that I was valuable during those dinners, because he really elicited our opinion. He asked questions, and my brother and I were very much a part of, of the conversation."
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The Shakespeare In Love actor went on to reveal that she still cooks for her children on weekends, as she is generally too busy to cook during the week.
"I cook for both," she says. "Apple's really interesting because now she's kind of very independent and she likes to cook for herself a lot.
"So she's vegetarian and she has like really specific food ideas which is so great."
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Paltrow says the meals her daughter asks her to make most regularly include lemon pasta and breakfast potatoes.
"During the week I don't I don't have time to cook very much but I cook kind of all weekend long," she explains. "And I really love it. Especially Friday nights. It's like how I transition from my week to being like a woman in a body."
While her children do sometimes cook with her, she explains that they particularly enjoy being cooked for by their mother.
"When we were living in London, before I started Goop I cooked all the meals and so they have nostalgia around me cooking them all the meals."
The wellness entrepreneur believes this is also something she has picked up from her parents, particularly her father.
"It [cooking] was such an unabashed expression of my father's love for us like there was no denying it," she tells Baroness Rogers. "And when someone is so excited about like, the sear on their baby back ribs, you know, it's so imbued with love that it's undeniable and so you learn it as a love language."
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This isn't the first time Paltrow has shared some insight into her family life. Earlier this year, the mum-of-two revealed she wanted her children to be as “unscathed” as possible by her divorce from Chris Martin.
The Goop founder went on to say she still loves the Coldplay singer as they continue to co-parent together.
Back in September she told CBS: “He’s completely my family, and I love him. And he would do anything for me. I would do anything for him.
“He would do anything for our kids. We really did commit to wanting our children to be as unscathed by the divorce as possible.”
Last year Paltrow revealed she finds Christmas shopping for her children easy because they send her a spreadsheet of what they want.
The Iron Man actress likes to start her Christmas shopping early every year, and although she struggles with what to buy her now husband, Brad Falchuk, a gift she has no problem with her two teenage children.
"I am disciplined about it," she told PEOPLE about gift giving. "I make it a project. Brad can be hard to shop for. I'm getting him a wellness thing this year. My kids are super easy, because now they send me like an Excel spreadsheet of what they want!"
