Poppy Montgomery Dishes on Her Boundary-Pushing Boy
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Time moves fast, and Poppy Montgomery wants to make the most of hers with son Jackson Phillip Deveraux, 20 months. “I have been working since he was born,” she told Celebrity Baby Blog at the Pink Party to benefit the Cedars-Sinai Women’s Cancer Research Institute in Los Angeles on Saturday, “so I am going to take the rest of this year just to be with him.”
Although she will “re-evaluate” the situation in January when Jackson begins preschool, for now the twosome have been passing the time much like any other mother and son. “We’re just hanging out,” Poppy shares. “We have a toddler group and we go to the park…I’m just ‘Mom,’ which has been really fun for me.”
Most of the time! Jackson is “testing every boundary under the sun,” Poppy concedes before adding:
“Everything he is not supposed to do, he wants to do. I’m like, ‘Good for you, buck the system, rebel!’”
When it comes to reclaiming her pre-baby body, Poppy says there is no magic answer — just “really hard work.” Staying in shape is “not easy” for the 37-year-old former Without A Trace star, and life with a newborn wasn’t conducive to her weight-loss regimen.
“It’s harder because it’s easier to eat fast food with the baby because you never have your hands free, you’re always sort of grabbing,” she notes. “You have to force yourself to sit down and eat well.”
As for her advice to other new moms, Poppy says to remember that you’re not alone.
“It’s really hard, and everyone goes through it, I don’t think it’s easy for any woman. So if you feel like it’s impossible, we all felt that way.”
Jackson is Poppy’s son with partner Adam Kaufman.
– Missy with reporting by Nicholas White
- Posted on Sep 22, 09 at 8:00AM
- Permalink
- 21 Comments
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:39 am
Wow. Didn’t know a child could start ‘preschool’ at age 2. Thought it was still considered daycare at that age.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:55 am
Former Without a Trace star? Did she quit the show or did the show get cancelled?
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:15 am
Tess, it was canceled this year.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:19 am
oooh, the terrible twos, they should never be in preschool. folks, don’t try this, you’ll spend more time trying to solve problems at the preschool than it is worth.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:24 am
he’s not going to be a baby for much longer anymore. good to know she’s going to take at least a couple months to hang out with him before he starts ‘pre-school.’
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:57 am
Liliana – thanks, hadn’t heard.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:22 am
Preschool at 2 is just ridiculous to me.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
in France kids generally start school at 3 but some of them start at 2. They have to be potty trained to be admit though. It’s not like day care because the kids don’t just hang out playing. Some kids go at school only during the morning and the one who goes all day, take a nap the afternoon.
I think it’s good to start early, and in most school first year is mixed with 2nd and 3rd years (i don’t know how you call the class in the US – in france it something like little section, middle section and big section).
so i guess it’s different from place to place. however i would not be able to say which system is the better.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I just never understood why kids are going to school earlier and earlier. He is going to be in pre-school at age 2? I judt done see why that is so necessary. Sometimes, well a lot of the times, I feel that people are making their kids grow up to fast and from the experience I have had as being a nanny it hurts the kids in the long run. I can understand if it is because the parents have to work to raise their family but in Poppy’s case she doesnt have to and she is already planning on putting Jackson in pre-school in 4 months. Just doesnt sit well with me.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
whew i am glad to hear most here in the us don’t send their kids to preschool at 2. 3 makes much more sense to me.
i was sad the show got canceled, i loved it, but it was a really nice ending and i’m glad poppy has more time to spend with jackson now.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Preschool at two years of age? That is really odd. Cognitively, how would a child at that age even excel in preschool. I don’t understand that at all. strange.
Glad that her show got cancelled. It was time and the show only revolved around her character which was a bore.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I didn’t realize preschool at the age of 2 was new phenomenon… I was born in the 80s and went to preschool when I was 2, ‘graduated’ when I was 4, and started kindergarten when I was 5. I think some kids are just ready to go to school; I have a brother that’s 22 months older than me and I ALWAYS wanted to do exactly what he was doing in school.. which is probably why I started reading before I was 3. And it definitely was different from daycare, but maybe it’s a regional thing?
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Maybe she’s just calling it pre-school to her son, but it’s actually a daycare type setting. My DS goes to daycare, but he always calls it school.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I also agree it’s not a new phenomenon. My son, who turned two in May, began a learning development program last week. Some may consider it preschool but he attends class Tuesdays and Thursdays for three hours each day. My eldest started his education out this way and it proved to be beneficial.
Making the assumption that I want him to grow up quickly is completely false. The school I chose fosters imagination and allows him to socialize with children his age. They read stories, play music, and do various art projects, among other things.
I highly doubt Poppy’s sending Jackson to school Monday through Friday, seven hours a day.
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:13 pm
yep, Lilliana (beautiful name, by the way!), your sons program is exactly what my program was like 20 years ago; a few hours a day, a few days a week and the “curriculum” was pretty much identical… it’s not like I was there learning foreign languages and how to multiply haha. And I definitely think being in an organized and structured classroom at such an early age was very beneficial.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Back home everyone starts preschool at 2.Imagine the shock of my parents when they came here and found out school started at 4 lol. I know we start school earlier and we do almost condensed learning with far tougher subjects.In what would be considered grade 2 and 3 here, we were learning about shakespeare and things.
My Canadian teachers were always confused as to how I knew and excelled more at difficult subjects like algebra, pythagorean theorem and calculus, but I struggled with something so basic like long division and fractions.The response my parents got from my teachers was that I was not “applying” myself hard enough,not that I really didn’t know too much about them.
I think what happens though is alot of the “fun” stuff is taken out of caribbean schools.I remember turning to this girl and asking her what was “journal writing”.I was so stunned lol, I was like “I get to write about my feelings and what I did on the weekend ?, you mean, no workbook lessons ?”LOL, I was so excited. School back home to me as a child seemed very military.School up here seems very relaxed and casual.
In the end, I do think it is a great idea.I have much family back home that are young and teaching and doing so many things because they started school early and got out of school early. It basically gave them a good (younger) start at life.My cousins back home seem to believe that it is awful that we are so “behind” up here.Ah well.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Liliana and Marimel, that sounds exactly like my preschool back home !I remember coming home so excited that I knew my 1 times tables haha
Lily, you would be so surprised what children learn when they are so young.Scientists are finding facts that children learn at a much faster,better rate than adults.In the same way a 3 year old I know can play Bach on the piano,the same way my 4 month old started to crawl and at 7 months was starting to walk, you expose them and teach them things,if it perks an interest, keep at it.I swear, you should see so many of the kids I know.Plus there are some kids that just need more and more fuel, so once they are done with one, they just want to keep going.Allowing them to do so, or even pushing them, I don’t see as a bad thing at all.
Maybe it has to do with where and how you grow up.For us, we still play and we are still kids,allowed a great childhood, but we know when it is time to learn also.And most kids enjoy it because they think it is fun.I know back home I think it is more to establish people at a younger age so that they can enjoy their lives and have an earlier start.
You carry on with learning as a positive thing from the start and so many kids enjoy it and continue it.The same way my mom did with my brother and I (instead of leaving us to play by ourselves and stuff,she would read with us, teach us things) from the time we were babies and then do all her house work and stuff when we napped and taught us vegetables and stuff while she cooked.When there was 4 of us and she was working full time, my brother and I carried it on with our younger siblings (I was 9 and he was 7) teaching them french,and how to read and write and talk and spell etc.It was a game to us. We called it playing school.I don’t think we missed out at all.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:34 pm
My son started preschool at 18 months – 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. Full curriculum. He is now 3.5 and reads fluently, speaks basic Spanish, can add and subtract single digit numbers, name every instrument imagineable, etc. He also has friends and a full social circle. Best thing ever for HIM. Not saying its ideal for everyone or that everyone has such an amazing school in their area, but as we do, can’t imagine not sending him. He is devastated when he can’t attend for some reason or another.I’m certainly not pushing him to grow up or threatening his love of school – I’m a teacher! – but I do feel I’m giving an edge as well as an appreciation for learning in a fun, creative AND academic setting.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Two seems young to me! Here in NZ the standard/more structured preschool (excluding personal options of creche etc) is from age 3 onwards (which they attend for two years, until 5, when they then start school – also referred to I presume as elementary school US, not sure?), which is more like it IMO…
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 am
Sam & Freya’s Mum- Yes, 5 years old is considered Elementary school here. It’s the age most kids here start Kindergarten.
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Cheers CelebBabyLover!, wasn’t 100% sure..Thanks for clearing that up.
Two years still seems young to me, let kids be kids, I say. I’m for kids learning of course, new experiences, socialising her and my 20 mth old goes to Mainly Music and local playgroup, storytime at local library etc, each only on for an hour or so, once a week, which I stay with her at as opposed to ‘preschool’, and she’s doing perfectly fine. Besides, being our last baby it’s flying by too quickly, before I know it she’ll be 3 years and attending Kindy anyhow – no hurry, JMHO…