Here’s How Alicia Silverstone ‘Reprimands’ Her Son

Alicia Silverstone is opening up about a parenting technique that works for her in disciplining her son’s behavior on the rare occasion he needs it. The Clueless star told PEOPLE that she and Bear Blu, 8, have a mutual “respect” that stems from how they interact.

“Because of the healthy lifestyle that we lead, he didn’t go through terrible twos and terrible threes. There wasn’t really much of that,” Silverstone, 43, said. “When you’re really meeting their needs, and you really understand what they want and need … I didn’t find any of that.”

“There [have been] moments where there were things we had to redirect and correct, of course, but it wasn’t the fight that you hear about,” she continued. “The most I have to say is, ‘No thank you, Bear.’ And he goes, ‘OK.’ … That’s my reprimanding.”

“And he’s got it. Because he respect me and I respect him,” she added.

Silverstone also discussed the importance of being present for her son, who she says “reminds [her] to be absolutely present, because I don’t want to miss a moment of him, and I don’t want him to feel like anything is more important than him” during times when “he has the balance of knowing that Mommy has to work, and life is not revolving around him.”

“It’s not some kind of spoiled thing. It’s just that when you love someone, you want to take them in and soak them in. And many of us didn’t get that,” she said. “If he starts to cry, I listen. If he’s upset about something, I stop and I talk to him about it. You’d be surprised [at] how much [you notice] that other people don’t.”

When Silverstone and ex-husband Christoper Jarecki welcomed Bear in May 2012, she said she “had so much going on in my world and in my emotions, and when he was born it was like the whole world stopped. Everything froze, and it was just absolute bliss being with him and breastfeeding, being connected to him. Just taking care of him was just such a pleasure. That’s remained the same all along.”

Silverstone filed for divorce from Jarecki in May 2018, revealing in divorce documents that they had been separated since March 2016. The two were officially married for nearly 13 years and together for two decades.

“They still deeply love and respect each other and remain very close friends but have mutually decided to separate after being together for 20 years,” Silverstone’s representative told E! News at the time.

Last year, Silverstone and Mark Feuerstein were cast in lead roles in Netflix’s upcoming revival of The Baby-Sitters Club, a live-action series adaptation of Ann M. Martin’s bestselling book franchise of the same name. TV Guide reported in August that Silverstone will take on the role of Elizabeth Thomas-Brewer, the mother of BSC founder Kristy Thomas. Feuerstein is set to portray her onscreen love interest, Watson Brewer.

Production on the single-camera family has already begun in Vancouver, but does not yet have an official premiere date.

Photo credit: Michael Hickey / Contributor / Getty