How Ashley Graham Is Avoiding Raising "Sneaky Kids"
"My mom and dad were not communicators with each other or with us."
Ashley Graham knows exactly how she wants to raise her kids—and her parenting method is largely inspired by her husband Justin Ervin's upbringing.
"My mom and dad were not communicators with each other or with us…their answer was 'just because we said so,'" the iconic supermodel tells Marie Claire in a cover story for our Motherhood Issue.
With her own children, the goal is to avoid them turning into "sneaky kids" like she was when she was younger.
"Justin and the way he was raised, his mom and dad said, 'Open door policy. You can ask us anything, talk about anything,'" Graham explains. "That's really what I strive for, even at this age, all the way through until the day I'm dead. Just building that respect with [my kids] and trust."
Graham and Ervin tied the knot in August 2010. They welcomed their first boy, Isaac, in 2019, followed by twin boys named Roman and Malachi in 2022.
In her Marie Claire interview, the star generously dispenses parenting advice to pregnant editor Neha Prakash—and shares about her own parenting journey, including her approach to the messiness of having three young children at home.
"When everything gets dumped out of a drawer, I laugh. I'm like, Who cares it's a mess?" she shares. "I know that I'm gonna miss the messes. I know I'm going to miss the: 'Mommy, where are you? I need a hug.'"
She also opens up about safeguarding her kids' privacy, including not letting natural-born performer Isaac participate in her Marie Claire photo shoot.
She'd much rather the boys play in their family backyard than, say, start a YouTube channel.
"That's exactly what it should be as kids," she says. "Go out and explore and get dirty and come back home when you're filthy and you have to soak in the bath to get the dirt from underneath your nails."
