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Mandy Moore says she’s a better mom for prioritizing her health: ‘I am human'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 25: Mandy Moore attends the NBCU FYC House closing night music event at NBCU FYC House on May 25, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)
Mandy Moore is getting real about the importance of taking mental health breaks. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

Mandy Moore is sharing some of the lessons she's learned as a parent.

On Thursday's episode of Chelsea Handler's podcast, Dear Chelsea, Moore, 38, opened up about life on tour with her husband Taylor Goldsmith and their two sons August, 1, and Oscar ("Ozzie"), 2 months.

Moore acknowledged the biggest difference between working as a young pop star and now as a mom of two is the dedication to prioritize her physical and mental health when working long stretches of time. In June, Moore canceled her remaining tour dates, telling fans that being pregnant on tour "made it too challenging to proceed."

"I know that I have to put my family and my health (and the health of my baby) first and the best place for me to be right now is at home," she wrote on Instagram.

"I feel like in any other chapter in my life, until now, I definitely would have ignored that little voice," she explained. "I would have said, 'Nope, I'm gonna put everyone else's expectations ahead of my own' and I would have just like soldiered on. It probably would have been fine, but I feel like I'm a better woman and wife and mother and all of the things because I sort of listened to that intuition and took that time for myself."

The This is Us star later noted the importance for mothers to see other moms prioritize themselves.

"As women, it's good for us to see examples of other women drawing those boundaries, and delineating between, 'Nope, I can only do so much. I am human. I am fallible. I need to listen to myself and listen to my body,' and that's sort of what I did," she said. When you do that, she explained, "you're giving other people [the idea] to give themselves that same permission."

Moore has spoken publicly about how prioritizing her mental health has made her a better mom.

Speaking to Yahoo Life in September, just a few weeks before giving birth to Ozzie, Moore opened up about balancing her work and home life.

"I totally understand the privileged position that I'm in," she shared. "The fact that I was able to have my child, and then be in a position with a job where I was allowed to bring him with me — obviously with support — so I could bond with him and I could nurse him and feed him and spend time with him when I wasn't working — I know that is not the situation that most parents find themselves in. So I'm very grateful and acknowledge that. But yeah, I think like any working parent, it's really hard to find that balance and the guilt is real."

Soon after Ozzie was born in October, Moore gave an intimate look inside his birth by taking to Instagram to share a series of photos from the hospital bed with her newborn.

“One month with our Ozzie," she captioned the post. In it, she included photos of Goldsmith cradling their newborn as well as a pic of Moore, Goldsmith and Ozzie with their doctors and nurses.

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