Parenting is a journey, and Jeannie Mai's 2-year-old daughter Monaco always keeps things rolling—literally
"My daughter's an adventuress," Jeannie told E! News in an exclusive interview last month. "She's scootering. She's skateboarding. I'm teaching her how to ride a bike right now."
Though they're constantly on the go, the mother-daughter duo enjoys the still moments, too.
"She's also really learning how to do things to self-soothe, which I'm really into," Jeannie continued. "She's into meditating. She's into counting down her feelings until she's in a calm place. That's such a really big deal for me because I learned how to emotionally regulate, like, last week and I'm still just starting. So for us to learn together is so huge."
And that's not the only shared like-mother-like-daughter traits.
Asked about their similarities, Jeannie noted her daughter's "enthusiasm, her electricity and her excitement. She's so emphatic and so excitable. I know that comes from me. When she's got that squeal, when she's got that 'O.M.G,' when she's got that cunning little glisten to her eye that she was up to do things a little differently than I taught her, oh, I already know that's me 100 percent."
Jeannie welcomed Monaco with then-husband Jeezy in January 2022 (he filed for divorce in September 2023). And since becoming a mom, the Hello Hunnay YouTuber has seen a shift in the way her own mother parents.
"What's really great is asking my mom to take pause with the way that she raised me to learn a different way to raise Monaco," she explained. "I didn't think that my mom would be open to that because she's three kids in. Most moms are like, 'Don't even tell me what to do. I already know how to raise my kids.' Like, they think that, and I think that's right in a lot of ways. But I also think it's important to be open-minded to the new ways that you can teach kids. And she's open to that, and I find that so respectful."
It's a path Jeannie hopes to follow herself if Monaco ever has children one day.
"Even when Monaco has kids, I have to be mindful about how she wants me to be a grandmother, and that's really important to me," the 45-year-old added. "So my mom chilling out and not doing what Mamma Mai thinks is right but just doing what Monaco needs is very meaningful to me."
But as she focuses on the present, Jeannie strives to ensure Monaco gets the most out of her day-to-day.
"Right now, what I'm worried about most is I'm making sure that Monaco gets to experience everything there is to experience, especially the things that she likes," she said. "So if it's traveling, if it's visiting her grandparents, if it's taking a walk and counting the different daffodils that are lined on the street, if it's snowboarding, whatever it is that she really likes, I want her to experience it, and then I want to provide as much as she can in that arena so that she can see what she likes and take from it what she wants."
One of the experiences they recently shared together was a trip to Vietnam with Smile Train, a nonprofit that provides surgery and care to children with cleft lips and palates. Jeannie also hosted the organization's 25th anniversary gala in New York May 8.
It's a cause that's near and dear to her heart as one of her relatives was born with a cleft lip and palate, and she learned what it was like to live with the condition.
"Having followed Smile Train's work for their last 25 years, having really understood how dedicated they are to the 90-plus countries that they support, all of the doctors and medical professionals that they really equip in order to do free surgeries," she said, "I had to not only jump on board but also to be a part of this 25-year celebration."
To see more celebrity parents and their mini-me's, keep reading.
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