Parade cover

Witherspoon appears on the cover of a November 2008 issue of Parade magazine. She talks about her divorce, her biggest problem in life, and giving her kids a good value system.

I’m teaching the children what we were taught growing up—a real set of rules, discipline, and love. Children thrive with a sense of structure, and they’re frightened without it. The ways you behave, how you speak to other people—those things don’t leave you… The other day my son said to me, ‘Mama, why do I have to take off my hat in the house?’ I was like, ‘Because it’s respectful. That’s why you take off your hat.’ And he goes, ‘And I always have to take off my hat in church, too!’ It really bothered him. But those values sustain a life. Respect. Faith. Empathy. Compassion.