Shawn Johnson East is now a mother of two young children as her son Jett was born on July 19. Along with East’s 1-year-old daughter Drew and her husband Andrew, the gymnastic legend’s family is growing. In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, East reveals the lessons she has learned from being a mother of two children under the age of 2.
“I think the number one lesson I learned with my daughter was that every parent parents every child differently,” East said to PopCulture. “So to all the mom shamers and the opinions and the controversial topics of this way is right, and this way is wrong, you can throw it all out the window because whatever decision you make for your child is what’s best for your child.
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“And as a new parent, it can be really overwhelming because you can be consumed by this idea that I’m going to mess it up for my kid. I really don’t think you can. If you truly love your child, and you’re just trying to do what’s right for them, you can’t mess it up. And so with my son, I just had a lot more confidence in the decisions I made because I was making them for him and not for every child in the world.”
East, 29, also shared the biggest challenge she faces as a mother. “I think the biggest challenge is spending time with my husband,” she said. “Because it’s man-on-man cover right now. So it’s, it’s hard to find time, but I think that’s probably the hardest transition, is trying to figure out how to be a husband and wife again and not just a mom and dad. And that takes time we learned that with our daughter, it just takes a couple of months, a few months, a year to kind of figure out that dynamic again. But we’re slowly, we’re slowly getting there.
One of the things that have helped East through her parental journey is partnering with Philips Avent, a top brand of mother and childcare products. Earlier this month, Philps Avent debuted five new products — Philips Avent Natural Baby Bottle with Natural Response Nipple, Philips Avent Soothie Heart, Philips Avent Soothie snuggle Sloth and Koala and the Philips Avent Double Electric Breast Pump, Advanced.
“Their new, natural, nipple bottles are awesome because they allow babies to actually feed off the bottles and not have any of the milk come out unless they’re actually nursing,” East said. “Their Soothie snuggles are amazing which are, they’re like pacifiers attached to their little stuffed animals. Those are my daughter’s favorite. Their ultra soft pacifiers are what my son loves. You literally can’t go wrong. I have one of everything. Probably two of everything that they have at my house.”
