John Mulaney Learned Newborn Parenting Hack From Jason Bateman in ‘Ozark’
John Mulaney says he’s good at swaddling his newborn son Malcolm, and he learned from the best – Jason Bateman in Ozark.
Mulaney and girlfriend Oliva Munn welcomed their first baby in November 2021 and he’s discussed the joys of fatherhood in recent months. During an appearance on the Smartless podcast, Mulaney mused about what he’s getting right as a dad and who he thinks will be the tougher parent.
John Mulaney said he learned how to swaddle his son from watching ‘Ozark’
Smartless host Jason Bateman asked Mulaney about his dad skills. “I am a good swaddler,” he remarked. “I learned to swaddle, somewhat from watching Ozark from when you give a brief swaddle tutorial if you recall.”
“John … ” Bateman said. “You’re not supposed to watch that.” Adding, “What was your favorite episode?” Mulaney said he loves “the part where you’re laundering all the money.”
Mulaney said he’s also on top of when “tummy time” is over for Malcolm. “I know when tummy time is over before little Malcolm gives me that look like ‘Jesus man, are you going to get me out of here?’ I know that big head is starting to get a little tired of bobbing up and down.”
John Mulaney worries about how to parent during his son’s middle school years
Mulaney admits he worries about how he’ll handle his son’s early teen years. “I probably am worse at overthinking how to approach him as an adolescent, which I really don’t need to worry about for the next few years. But I am. I’m constantly running scenarios of what kind of parent I’ll be when he’s 11,” he admitted.
Bateman said Mulaney is probably mulling over the balance between being a dad and a friend. “In my mind I was like, I’m going to be this like semi stern [dad],” he said. “I’m going to kind of be like my dad with him. And that’s all falling apart in four months. And I can’t imagine ever criticizing anything this kid does.”
Long before Malcolm was born, Mulaney would joke about how tough his dad was, sharing in his standup that his father once went through a McDonald’s drive-through with a pack of kids and only ordered one black coffee.
Who will be the tougher parent?
So after having a stern father, who does Mulaney think will lower the boom when Malcolm gets older? The podcast hosts joked about how Mulaney could be wading into tricky territory with Munn by answering the question. “Oh, that’s a good question,” he said. “She’s such a wonderful mother and so nurturing and … I mean, right now she’s extremely nurturing. But she can be extremely organized. She has packing cubes …”
“She’s very organized, very disciplined in a way that I’m not,” he continued. “However, I don’t know when it comes to Malcolm. The ideal I have for myself is that I come home in a suit which is going to be hard working at home. And that there’s some expectation of your dad is home and therefore that’s intimidating. But I absolutely will never follow through with that.”
