New York City native Andrea Rosen is the star of the NickMom docu-comedy “Take Me To Your Mother.” Rosen is a first time mom, actress, writer and comedian–she also serves as a Mom Ambassador for the new Old Spice Re-fresh Body Sprays. Her mission? To communicate the concept of Scent Responsibly as cute little boys become manly men.
“Take Me To Your Mother” is a docu-comedy series that is equal parts about Rosen’s own experience as a first-time mom, and about showcasing the vast array of amazing motherhood situations present around the country. The mom-to-mom advice is as heart-warming as it is hilarious! Season two of the show will air on Saturday, February 1, 2014, at 10:30pm on NickMom. We recently caught up with Rosen about season two of TMTYM, her son’s second year, family fun, and much more…prepare for laughter and plenty of new mom solidarity and reassurance!
What can we expect in the new season of “Take Me To Your Mother”? Are there any favorite moments or is there anything new on the new season that’s different from last season?
I would say this season I’m more talking to people. It’s less about cultural topics and more about, not jobs, but worlds. So I’m talking to fisher-moms, I’m talking to geeky moms, I’m talking to moms of valedictorians. I’m talking to moms about different birthday parties. There will be some cultural stuff, because I’m going to be talking to Hare Krishnas, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Oh yeah, there’s also biker mom. I talk to moms who work the night shift. I talk to moms who work at the circus. So, this season I would say is more about pockets of moms who are in worlds versus what world they come from.
How do you track down the different moms that you talk to on the show?
Well, it all stems from whatever I’m experiencing. So, for night shift moms for example, ever since I had a child I’ve been extremely tired all the time. Just so zonked. And then I was thinking: “This is crazy. How do moms do this who actually work at night and then go home and take care of their kids?” I was just so tired. So, I wanted to meet other moms who work even harder than I do, and these night shift moms work crazy hard. I talked to one woman who was a baker and she has five kids, so she works all night long and then she goes home to her kids—two of them are one-year-old twins! So crazy. And I was like: “Why do you do this?” And she was like: “I choose to do it. I love my job. I love baking bread. I love my kids.”
The tagline for the new season is “Bigger Kid, Bigger Questions.” Is there one particular bigger question that has loomed largest for you now that your son is two?
I think it’s sort of the same initial question, which is how to not raise a total douche. I guess the question is a little bit more real now that he’s turning into a person, and you see other kids his age turning into people… The world is a big place filled with all kinds of different people and you just hope and pray that you’re doing the best job you can to make sure your kid is an awesome, healthy, confident guy, who’s nice to women, who is interested and interesting. Now that he’s showing his interests and becoming a person, all that stuff is looming bigger in my face.
He’s going to school a little bit now, and he actually has friends now, he has interests now. He’s super into sports, which is something we did not see coming. Because my husband and I are not sporty at all—but my son is—which is weird, but we’re embracing it. So, that was one of the episodes we did, because my son is turning into a jock, and I really had nothing to do with it and neither did my husband. We are not sporty. One of the episodes is I went to go see the Baltimore Ravens, the football team. I didn’t even know they were a football team before this… They taught me the rules of football, and why it’s a cool thing if your kid is into sports.
What are some activities that your family likes to do together that you all enjoy?
We go to the zoo. We got to the farmer’s market every weekend and my son likes to eat samples. It’s so funny to hear a two-and-a-half-year-old say “I eat samples.” It’s so savvy. We go to these botanical gardens a lot. We just moved to L.A. from New York, so we’re all experiencing L.A. stuff. We went on a hike last weekend, which really meant that my husband carried my son the equivalent of five city blocks, and then we sat down and ate avocado sandwiches. So, not so much of a hike. We do a lot of hanging out and snuggling together.
If you had to describe the show to someone who had never seen it, what would you say in a nutshell?
I would say it’s a comedy documentary where I go around and talk to all different kinds of moms about how to raise an awesome child.
Do you have a core audience or a quintessential viewer you keep in mind while filming?
When I’m filming, I feel like I’m the audience because I’m the person who’s asking these questions and trying to glean the answers from the people I’m talking to, and hopefully it resonates with other moms. I never have been the kind of mom who thinks they know more than anybody else. I always actually think I know less than everybody else. I approach all of the moms like: “You know more. I want to know what you know and what you think is important.” It’s a really daunting job and I don’t know how to do it… I think I’m doing a good job. But I’m not one of those moms who would ever dish out advice or be like: “This is how you do it.” I would always say: “This is how we did it and whatever works for you works.” In terms of when we’re shooting, I’m always coming from a place of: “I have a question, and hopefully you have an answer, or some insight.”
I think my questions and my concerns and anxieties are pretty universal.
Tell us about being an Old Spice mom ambassador.
The most recent [commercials] are really, really funny, where it’s basically moms blaming Old Spice for turning their sons from boys to men. And they do it in song, which is really funny. I think the root of it is you have a child, specifically a son, and someday he’s gonna grow up, as he should, but it’s still completely devastating and heart-wrenching, the idea that he’s going to turn into a man. Right now my son is two-years-old, and all I do is squeeze his little tushie and hug him and love him, and you know, nuzzle him, and dress him. He’s just the sweetest thing. It’s horrifying and totally exciting to think of him being a dude one day like: “I’m going on a date with Jessica” or whatever. You want that to happen obviously, but it’s also horrifying… I mean my son happens to be extremely cute. It’s just so weird to think that one day he’s gonna be like: “Mom, you didn’t get enough cereal.” I don’t know if he’s going to say that, but just that attitude versus the snuggliest, huggiest moment in time.
I guess my job as the Old Spice ambassador is to talk to other moms about that kind of transition. And I’m years away from it, but I see the writing on the wall. Just the other day my son was like: “I like girls” and I was like: “What?!” I’m so glad he’s in touch with his feelings and loving, and expressive, but at the same time I’m like: “No, stay exactly how you are!”
