Keke Palmer Sets Boundaries With One Easy Sentence: “Honey, I'm A Mother”

Everyone finds their way to parenthood differently. Some people take a little more time to find their groove as a mom while others, like Keke Palmer, just know how to find the best parts right out of the gate. Like being able to pull out this argument-ending sentence whenever you need it: “I’m a mother.” Her baby boy is only a few months old, and already Palmer has found the keys to the kingdom of parenting all wrapped up in one cool boundary-setting sentence.

The Big Boss star welcomed baby boy Leodis “Leo” Andrellton Jackson with boyfriend Darius Jackson in February, and since then she has been keeping us entertained with her amazingly positive parenting takes. Now don’t get me wrong, Palmer keeps it real. She shared an emotional post praising single moms because she couldn’t imagine “how [they] did it.” And of course she and Jackson are getting accustomed to new parenthood together. But for the most part, Palmer is really digging into some great advantages of becoming a parent.

Palmer said during an interview with 360 With Speedy Morman for Complex that life has a different perspective since she had a baby. “I feel like I have a totally different vibe to myself that I didn’t have before, like a certain ease. I’ve been doing this for 20 years, entertaining, but I didn’t know the confidence I could reach with having my baby. Now everything is in perspective in a really big way. Nothing really matters as much as my child,” Palmer said.

When asked if she’s now more “discerning” with the projects she chooses to do, Palmer explained that she “used to always wonder why people would bring up ‘I’m a mother’ in any random scenario” but now she gets it.

“Now I’m mothering people the f*ck out. Like ‘Honey, I’m a mother. I don’t have time for this.’ It’s like the perfect excuse but also, it’s real.”

Morman then asked her when she last used the “I’m a mother” excuse last and it was just the other day. “Oh man, this meeting the other day I didn’t want to do because I’m like ‘I’m a mother, I don’t have time for this. There’s a lot of other stuff I could be doing ... I don’t have time to be talking about this bullsh*t.’”

“I’m... a mother,” Palmer declared.

To be fair, Palmer made it clear even before she had her baby boy that she planned on dropping “I’m a mother” into any situation where she felt like she was being asked to do too much. She told E! News when she was pregnant with her son that she liked the “idea of knowing that you’re gonna be somebody’s mom. She added, “My friends and I talk about how a mother loves when she gets in an argument with somebody [to say], ‘At the end of the day, I'm a mom.’” In this instance, Palmer elaborated, saying “I’m a mom” was like saying “Honey, I’m above.”

There’s nothing wrong with setting a healthy boundary, and reminding people that you’re a mom might be the quickest way to get around any kind of argument on the subject. Lesson learned, Keke Palmer.