Gwen Stefani Feared She’d Be Too Self-Obsessed to Care About Her Kids
Gwen Stefani having children was life-changing for the actor. But initially, she wondered if she’d ever have the right mindset to be a parent.
Gwen Stefani once opened up about her biggest motherhood fear
Stefani eventually ended up having three children with her ex-husband Gavin Rossdale. They had each of her sons on 2006, 2008, and 2014 respectively, before their divorce in 2015.
Stefani was very grateful for her family, as becoming a mother was something she aspired to be for quite some time. But the idea of motherhood also worried her, as Stefani wasn’t sure she’d have the right level of maturity to be a parent.
“My biggest fears about motherhood were: ‘How would I fit him into my life? Would I be too self-obsessed to be able to care about him enough? Would I be too self-obsessed to be able to care about him enough?’ I have a really extraordinary life and I obviously have a lot of passion about the things that I do. So I didn’t know if I could be selfless enough,” Stefani once said according to the Irish Examiner.
But Stefani proved herself to be more than a capable mother.
“It’s the most amazing thing that has happened to me,” she said.
Gwen Stefani wasn’t sure that Blake Shelton would’ve wanted to be a stepfather when they started dating
Stefani would eventually start dating Blake Shelton after meeting him on The Voice. Their chemistry was almost immediate, but Stefani being a mother to three kids soon became a topic of discussion. Shelton once confided that Stefani didn’t even think their relationship would go the distance because of her obligations as a mother.
“I think Gwen thought, when we first started seeing each other, that it was just gonna be a moment in time because of that,” Shelton said.
But Shelton was more than receptive to his new role as a step-father. Ironically, he learned from his own father. Shelton’s dad married his mother when she already had someone’s child. Watching how his father raised his late brother Richie was both inspiring and informative for Shelton’s own future as a parent.
“He took Richie on and raised him from the time he was 1 year old, and my brother never thought of my dad as anything other than his dad,” Shelton once said according to People. “The example that my dad set for me was that [child] was not even a consideration [in a romantic partnership]. You got three boys? Awesome! My dad did it. My dad raised me. I could do this. I didn’t know what I was signing up for, but I was all about signing up for it. And every day I’ve fallen in love with the boys as much as I do with Gwen.”
Although Shelton asserted that welcoming his new sons to his very rural lifestyle took some adjusting to.
“The two of them were like, ‘Well, what do we do now?’ I go, ‘Go out that door and don’t come back till you’re too tired to go any further.’ Well, they can’t even imagine just going down to the creek with a net or turning over rocks or getting on a buggy and driving around,” Shelton said.
Blake Shelton knows to step back when needed as a step-dad
Shelton realized he’s had to strike a delicate balance with his new kids after becoming their step-dad. It wasn’t easy, but he called upon experiences he had with his own step-father, who Shelton idolized, to help guide him.
“I’ve had stepparents,” Shelton once told Today. “I think it’s, in some ways harder, more difficult. I try to be careful about when to step back, and be smart about when to step back and just talk, but no matter what, always be there if I’m needed.”
