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Drew Barrymore explains why she chooses 'the army of optimism' during quarantine

“Happiness is a war you fight every day," the actress and mother of two said.
/ Source: TODAY

Like millions of parents around the world, Drew Barrymore is feeling the stress of raising kids while quarantined.

The “Boys on the Side” actress, who shares daughters, Olive, 7, and Frankie, 5, with ex-husband Will Kopelman, is being pulled in all directions while she runs her makeup company, takes care of her kids and home-schools them.

“I don’t know if there are good days and bad days. I think there are good hours and bad hours,” she told Savannah Guthrie Tuesday on TODAY.

Barrymore founded the Flower Beauty brand, which has teamed up with more than three dozen other beauty companies to form Beauty United in order to raise money for coronavirus relief. To date, the coalition has raised more than $6 million, with a goal of reaching $10 million.

While she is pulled in multiple directions and was overwhelmed at first, Barrymore, 45, managed to get into a rhythm before she was thrown a curveball by having to teach her kids.

“I just tried to find routine with my kids. Go on a bike ride, take a car ride, break out the chalk and do hopscotch, board games, do seeding things in little cups and make signs and be inventive,” she said. “And then school started. And it all went out the window. The minute I thought, ‘Oh, I’m three weeks in. I’ve got this,’ I cried every day, all day long.”

Barrymore said it was a real wake-up call that made her look at teachers with more awe than she already did.

“It was like every church and state," she said. "It was the messiest plate I’ve ever held in my life, to be the teacher, the parent, the disciplinarian, the caretaker. And I thought, “Oh my god, and teachers have children.’ Do they survive it because they get to go away and work with other kids?

"I didn’t think I needed to respect and appreciate teachers any more than I did and then you start to get some systems and you see people on social media making lists and you’re like, ‘Aaaghh!’ You find your way. You’re resilient.”

Despite all the uncertainty that we’re all faced with and a new reality in our daily lives, the actress maintains an upbeat attitude.

“Happiness is a war you fight every day and the victory is if you accomplished any of those wins, that is a win.”

“I march in the army of optimism and I am looking for recruits, but I am very real about it,” she added. “I am not some vapid hippie who’s like, ‘You just gotta be happy, man.’ This is the way and the direction I will point my compass.”