Hilary Swank says she has a 'more fitting' term to describe her twins entering their terrible twos
Robin L Marshall/Getty Images
- Parents, forget the terrible twos — Hilary Swank is choosing to think of it as "teachable twos" instead.
- The actor welcomed her twins, Aya and Ohm, with her husband, Philip Schneider, in April 2023.
- "My thing is, I think it's really important to regulate yourself and just stay calm and hold space for them," she said.
Hilary Swank's twin toddlers are entering their terrible twos — but she's choosing to see it in a positive way instead.
"There are moments of it, but I call it the teachable twos," Swank, 50, told People.
"Because I feel like they're just in this place where they're recognizing so many new things," the actor said. "And it's gotta be really overwhelming to have everything that you see is new."
Since toddlers don't have logical reasoning skills yet, their behavior is often driven by their feelings, Swank said.
"So when you want something, you just want it, you don't have logical thinking skills. So to me, teachable twos is, I think, more fitting," she said.
The best way to approach her toddlers having a meltdown is to be patient.
"My thing is, I think it's really important to regulate yourself and just stay calm and hold space for them," she added.
Swank welcomed her twins, Aya and Ohm, with her husband, Philip Schneider, in April 2023, when she was 48 years old.
In September, Swank told Business Insider that she was glad to be an older mom.
"The person that I was in my 20s and even into my 30s would've been a very different mom than I am now," Swank said.
"I'm in a place where I just have a lot more patience and a lot more grace to give, not just my children, but others around me," she added. "I can give them so much more than I could have at that point."
Kristin Gallant and Deena Margolin, founders of Big Little Feelings, an online parenting platform, previously told BI they had several tips for dealing with toddler tantrums.
One key way to manage a tantrum-throwing child is to avoid negotiating with them and escalating the conflict. Instead, parents should try their best to channel their inner calm. However, it's also crucial that parents avoid invalidating their children's feelings, they said.
A representative for Swank did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by BI outside regular hours.