iVILLAGE Features Steve Carell as Guest Editor

iVillage, the largest content-driven community for women online, today launched a special father-focused guest editorship featuring one of America's favorite and funniest award-winning actors, Steve Carell. All week on iVillage, Steve will talk about his down-to-earth parenting style, how being a celebrity impacts his family, and the best advice he ever got about being a dad.

"We're thrilled to have Steve Carell as a guest editor - he's got a great outlook on parenting and it's rare to hear him discuss his life as a dad, so I'm especially excited to be sharing his advice with our readers." said Liz Zack, Editorial Director of iVillage.

iVillage sat down with Steve for an exclusive interview, during which he discloses his words of wisdom on raising children and reveals that his kids are even funnier than he is. With a daughter entering her teens, Steve cherishes each moment rather than freaking out: "she still enjoys holding my hand". These video interviews will be featured across iVillage throughout the week. Find out if Steve is as funny at home as he is in the movies, and visit iVillage.com. Below are exclusive quotes from the interview (if used, credit: iVillage):

On the best advice he received from his dad:
Before my first date ever, he said, 'Listen and ask questions. Don't talk about yourself. Just find out about her, and at the end of the night, even if you've said nothing about who you are, she will think you are the most interesting person she's ever met.

On savoring the moments while watching his kids grow up:
You know, it's like, 'Oh, we have to videotape this, because it's such a monumental moment.' And then you take out the video camera and it's over. So I ... try to memorize moments more than anything. I take a mental picture of things. Someone actually gave me that advice on my wedding day. [They said], 'It's going to go by in a flash, and you won't remember a thing, so every so often, just take a mental picture of what she looks like walking down the aisle, what that first dance was, what the song was. Just take these mental snapshots, and that's what you'll have.'

On not being too overprotective when it comes to his kids:
I don't want to be that weird dad. I don't want to be that guy who is overly sizing up every suitor that [my daughter] has. ... That seems like such a cliché to me. I may end up being that guy but I hope I'm not.

On that moment he realized he had become his father:
You fight against it, and I think earlier in my life, like when I was in my teens, my 20s, I thought, 'If I have kids, I'll never say that to my kids. And you do. You find yourself saying things like, 'Don't make me come back there. I will turn this car around right now.' That doesn't scare kids but you think it does.

On social media and his kids:
It's interesting trying to decipher when that should all happen, and when a kid is ready for that, because just because a kid says they're ready or asks for something, doesn't mean that it's time for that to happen. [Social media is] a very powerful thing, and it can be a very scary thing. I don't think it's a bad thing. I think it can be in the wrong hands.

On raising a family in Hollywood:
I don't really worry about it because I think it's the friends that you surround yourself with, and the relationships that [your kids] have and that you introduce them to, and also what you as parents bring to the table.

Steve says he and his wife Nancy have "nothing against Hollywood" but "it doesn't define" who they are.

About iVillage
iVillage is the largest content-driven community for women online. Every day, women come to iVillage to connect, share advice, find life tools and engage in conversations that matter most to them in the areas of Pregnancy & Parenting, Health, Food, Entertainment and Beauty & Style. Additional businesses and brand extensions within iVillage include Astrology.com and GardenWeb.com. Based in New York City, iVillage Inc. is part of the NBC News Digital Group portfolio. Join iVillage's Facebook group at www.facebook.com/ivillage and follow us on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/ivillage.

To post a comment, you must register and login.