NEED TO KNOW
- Freddie Prinze Jr. reveals his wife’s parenting superpower
- “The practicing of patience in the face of teenage power is a tough battle,” he says
- The I Know What You Did Last Summer star has partnered with DoorDash for its five-week Summer of DashPass promotion
Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar know exactly what their two kids are doing this summer, and it’s a “tough battle.”
The couple, who married in 2002, share a daughter, Charlotte, 15, and a son, Rocky, 12. Both kids have hectic social schedules, particularly in the summer when school isn’t there to take up a portion of the day.
“You get a little unbalanced because a lot of kids’ friends are on vacation, or they go to camp at someplace else, or they’re busy with camp locally, so you are more present,” he tells PEOPLE of summer parenting. “They’re not running away from you as much. Like, ‘Dad, can you take me here? Can you take me there? Can I see this guy? Can I see that girl?’ We try to keep our kids pretty active. You’re definitely more necessary, and you might feel like a chauffeur, and that’s a normal feeling for a parent to go through, but you’re definitely more necessary in the summer.”
The key to it all, Prinze, 49, says, is patience, which he says is his wife’s parenting superpower.
“The practicing of patience in the face of teenage power is a tough battle. It’s like All Might versus whatever horrible villain he was facing in My Hero Academia, that level of difficulty,” Prinze says, referring to the popular anime series. “Patience, I think, is the ultimate power, and if you don’t have it, it’s a muscle you have to work out. So, definitely put the time in because it will help you win all the arguments.”
While Gellar, 48, is a natural at patience, it wasn’t something the I Know What You Did Last Summer actor mastered early on.
“I had to learn it more than I was born with it. Sarah was better with it initially,” he acknowledges. “Patience was something I learned and got better at over time, like anything else.”
One thing the Scooby-Doo star has always been good at, though, is cooking. As the chef of the house (who even has his own cookbook), he finds himself often cooking painstaking high-end meals for his kids.
“They have a lot of different requests, man. French onion soup is a big one. We make that from scratch,” he tells PEOPLE. “I got a creamless tomato soup that my mom taught me how to make back in the day that they really like, but these are all things that take a long ass time to cook. So, all their favorite stuff takes hours to make properly. They like when I make New Mexico green chili chicken enchiladas. I’m like, ‘Yo, that’s six hours over the stove. Are you kidding me right now?’ But that’s what they like, so that’s what they get.”
He admits that the children do enjoy a simple grilled cheese sandwich, but adds that they prefer to pair it “with the soup that takes me an hour.”
In an easier world, the She’s All That actor would just order DoorDash, with whom he’s teamed up this summer for the five-week Summer of DashPass promotion, which gives DashPass members discounts of up to 50% off meals, groceries, electronics, and summer essentials.
“I’m not trying to cook seven days a week. We try to go out someplace nice, maybe once a week if we can, once every two weeks, depending on schedules, things like that,” he says. “Dude, [DoorDash] is simple and easy. Everybody uses these apps, so they know how easy it is. This is just an extra savings that you guys can get during the summer.”
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