As anyone who looks at her schedule can probably guess, Kelly Clarkson is one busy lady.
A music superstar and children's book author, she also has four children to keep an eye on — and that combination requires a lot of energy and planning.
But as Clarkson admitted, she's not so good in the planning department: "Time management has never been something I'm amazing at," she told TODAY.
"I'm the kid who always wanted to do everything," she added. "I stack my plate pretty full with all these things I'm excited about or want to accomplish. I think of all these things I want to do — and I can't do everything."
Fortunately, she has a secret weapon in husband Brandon Blackstock. The pair married in 2013 and have two little ones (River Rose, 2, and Remington, 6 months); Clarkson's also helping parent his two children from a previous marriage.
"I married someone who's good at saying, 'If you want to do this with the kids, let's do this thing now, and that thing with the kids later,'" she noted. "Having a partner in life who helps me map it out is so important."
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But she does have specific ideas about how she wants to raise the children — like, no baby talk. "I'm a parent, that's the key thing," said Clarkson, who spoke with us after participating in a panel discussion at the S.H.E. Summit for Women's Empowerment in New York on Friday through her role as a brand ambassador for Citizen Watch. "That doesn't mean we can't have fun, but I talk to my 2-year-old like an adult. I don't baby her. I don't baby our 9-year-old, either. My mom did that to me, and I turned out all right. Of course, I could still screw it up."
Fortunately, she also has help outside the home, and says that's been instrumental in keeping her on track. "You definitely need to have a group of women or men who have kids around you to be able to say, 'We tried this and it didn't work,' or 'we tried that and it did work.' It's important to surround yourself with a group of people who take the ride with you."
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Still, while there may always be a full plate of things she'll have to juggle as a parent and superstar, her personal appearance is not one of them. Losing the baby weight? She's got other concerns.
"With weight in general, I say go at your own pace," she says. "Whether you're a mom or whatever. It's your life; you should do what you're comfortable with. I'm not a vain person — I'm not sure that's shocking. I just rock what I've got."
And we think she rocks it well!
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