Joanna Gaines Admits She’s a Different Parent to Son Crew Than to Her Other Kids

Joanna Gaines said she’s a lot different as a parent to her son Crew compared to the way she parented her other kids. Gaines has learned some important lessons from her 4-year-old about how to slow down and appreciate the little things.

Joanna Gaines is approaching life in a new way

During a Nov. 8 interview on the Today show, Gaines chatted about her new book, The Stories We Tell, and revealed the lessons she’s learned along the way.

Gaines touched on how she’s having more fun in her life these days. “I feel like, once you get past all the stuff, the junk, and then you realize, ‘I have this one beautiful life to live and I can choose how I live it.’ I can choose how I carry and hold my story,” she said.

The Fixer Upper star added, “It’s just so much worth the work so that I step in as whole as I can. So that I can see things and I can enjoy moments in a really rich and intentional way.”

Gaines admits she is a different parent to her son Crew

Gaines shared how her oldest child will be going to college soon. “The perspective of having an almost 18 year old and then this 4 year old — I feel like it’s such a gift,” she said.

Gaines said that Crew has taught her new things about life. “I can learn more from Crew, just the way he teaches me to live and to notice things,” she explained.

When host Hoda Kotb asked, “Are you a different parent with him than you were [with your other kids],” Joanna admitted she is, telling her daughters who were in the studio, “I’m sorry girls.”

She explained, “I’m a little more light and a little more airy, not so controlling.”

Chip and Joanna Gaines said their son Crew gave them a fresh perspective

During an October 2022 interview with ET, Joanna and Chip Gaines shared how Crew “has been a gift.”

“I mean, we’ve always been busy. But then, we were busy trying to build a business and then we had four kids on top of that … I mean our lives were very chaotic,” Chip explained. “Then we had about eight years where we thought we were done with new babies and we were raising the four that we had.”

He continued, “Crew, really, just something about him was almost like a parachute at the end of a race car. It didn’t force us to slam on the brakes, in the negative sense, it allowed us to really stop. And I will say, we notice things about him that we might not have caught on the first four.”

Gaines said Crew has helped her slow down and enjoy the small things. “I’m typically, ‘Go, go, go!’ I have just wanted to kind of step back and say, ‘I’m gonna look for these moments of wonder.’ Because this is what my 4-year-old toddler has taught me,” she explained.

She added, “Crew has been a gift in so many ways.”