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"Definitely like a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing."
Mindy Kaling is opening up about motherhood.
During a virtual conversation with UCLA's associate professor of psychiatry, Dr. Robin Berman, at Thursday's #WOW2021 event, the actress got candid about her life as a mother and her parenting style.
Kaling, 41, is mom to 3-year-old Katherine ("Kit"), and 8-month-old Spencer.
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View Story"It has been wonderful," she said of motherhood, according to PEOPLE.
"I don't know if I recommend everyone having a secret pregnancy during a worldwide pandemic," she joked, before adding, "but I will say I learned a lot from it. Definitely like a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing."
As for her parenting style, Kaling shared that she's "inspired by parenting where the parents don't scream. If you can not scream at your children, I think you're a good parent."
"To me, people who do not blow their top and also can stay on a consistent message," she added. That to me -- I'm the most impressed by those people."
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"The Office" star later admitted that she finds it hard to not try to "eliminate all risk" for Kit and Spencer.
"My parents were immigrants, and they both worked, and they had a different kind of more immediate fear, which is like 'Okay, we've got to put food on the table, build our careers over again.'" she said. "I sometimes try to summon that feeling that my parents had, which is like, if I could just extricate myself a little bit from this, and allow them to experience risk, I think that would be the best for them."
Kaling said "being a single mom is not for everyone" and shared that she's "only able to do it" because she has a full-time nanny -- as well as a retired father -- to help her out.
"So we have this like little strange little house of like intergenerational, interracial people that are coming in and out to take care of everything," she said. "I feel my life is so rich."
The "Never Have I Ever" creator said parenting has brought back memories of her own childhood.
"That has been one of the most unexpected pleasures of having children, is being able to tap back into my own youth," Kaling said.
