Stephanie Tanner, who? Jodie Sweetin may have played a defining role of many people's childhoods thanks to her work as Stephanie Tanner on "Full House" and later on "Fuller House," but her own teenage daughters are not impressed.
“They don’t really care,” Sweetin, 41, tells TODAY.com. “I mean they’ve watched it before, they used to come to tapings, but at the end of the day, it’s mom. They’re not really that impressed.”
"The Jane Mysteries" star is mom to Zoie Herpin, 15, and Beatrix Coyle, 12. In a recent photo the actor shared for Zoie’s birthday, fans quickly spotted the two’s close resemblance.
“She’s your twin,” Molly McAleer wrote. “So beautiful. Happy birthday.”
“Your daughter looks just like you,” another commented.
Sweetin thinks her younger daughter looks even more like her.
“(Beatrix’s) hair has gotten darker all of the sudden and it looks a little bit less like that little Stephanie Tanner, but both of my girls have my smile and all that,” Sweetin says. “So I definitely see Steph hiding in there, especially in their attitude.”
But Sweetin's intention isn't to raise miniature versions of her. She says she doesn't exist as a mother to “make them into small versions of myself,” but rather to be the best versions of themselves.
“People want to raise mini versions of themselves. I just try and remember, ‘This is your own journey and I’m just here to help,’” she says. “I’m just here to allow them to figure out life on their own and be kind of the bumper rails for it.”
Now that they're out of the middle school years, which Sweetin calls the "hardest time" to be a kid and a parent, she says all three have "a really great relationship."
"We have fun together. They trust me. We have a really open relationship," she says. "I’m really grateful for that."
As for the art of getting teenagers to trust their parents? Sweetin says she tries to be transparent.
"One thing I have always done with my girls is admitted that I’m not perfect and that I don’t always have all the answers and that I’m just trying to do my best," Sweetin says. "Because I think it’s important for kids to know that we’re human too."
Sweetin says she's taught her girls by example to acknowledge when they've too harshly reacted to a situation and apologize. She says this practi helps them maintain an "open line of dialogue."
During those hard conversations, she puts on her "mom face," an idea she got from former first lady Michelle Obama.
"(The 'mom face' is when) your kids tell you something that is semi-horrifying but you’re glad that they’re being honest. You just kind of have to have the mom face of like ‘Oh! Right! Yes! I am not at all freaking out. I’m listening. Oh my God,'" she says.
Sweetin wants her kids to be good people – and people make mistakes, just like she has.
Above all, she hopes her girls know this: "I have done a lot of stupid things throughout my life and don’t ever think anything that you do or say is going to shock me or freak me out to the point that I won’t be here for you."
CORRECTION (5/12 at 11:37 a.m.): TODAY mischaracterized Stephanie Tanner as a neighbor on "Full House."
