The actress says she has to be "in the place that makes me happiest" right now, and we completely understand.
Sandra Bullock, like millions of other mothers, has always prioritized her job and parenting. She claims she's putting acting on hold for the time being in order to devote her whole attention to her two children, Louis, 12, and Laila, 10. The Proposal Actress said that her professional hiatus will be indefinite and that she is making the decision for herself and her family. In a new interview with "ET", Bullock revealed she is taking a break from her acting career in order to be “in the place that makes me happiest." “I take my job very seriously when I’m at work,” the actor, 57, told the outlet, adding that it is a "24/7" job. “Right now — and I don’t know how long it will be — I need to be in the place that makes me happiest,” says the Oscar winner. “I take my job very seriously when I’m at work, and it’s 24/7. And I just want to be 24/7 with my babies and my family. That’s where I’ll be for a while.”
Bullock, who co-stars in the forthcoming film "The Lost City" with Brad Pitt, Daniel Radcliffe, and Channing Tatum, said that she's ready to tackle her kids' to-do list. “Servicing their every need,” she said, describing how she will spend her days away from Hollywood, according to TODAY. “Their social calendar.” The mother of two described herself as "the crazy lady with the pandemic" among the parents in her group because of her COVID-19 preparations. “They know their children will return without COVID when they’ve come to our house," Bullock said.
Bullock, who adopted Louis and Laila, told TODAY's Hoda Kotb in December 2021 that she has considered how being a white mother may affect how her Black children perceive her. “That was on my mind when they were very, very, very young — will they love me less because I don’t represent their culture?” Bullock said. Later that month, on "The Kelly Clarkson Show," Bullock expressed her desire for more people to pursue adoption. “If it wasn’t for adoption and foster care, I wouldn’t have my family, so this film really struck a chord in that there are millions upon millions of babies and children on this planet that have no one to love," Bullock said, referencing her 2021 drama "The Unforgivable." "That have no one to let them know they are the most amazing thing when they walk in a room." Bullock became a mother through adoption. When she brought her son, Louis, 11, home, he was a baby, and her daughter, Laila, now 8, was three and had been through three foster care systems.
Bullock discussed caring for her 8-year-old daughter, Laila, whom she adopted in 2015, in the most recent edition of the Facebook Watch show "Red Table Talk." Laila had been in three different foster care systems by the time she was two and a half, and the toll it had on her was obvious from the start. "I had my kids in my [walk-in] closet with their little beds because I was so afraid to not have them super close to me," Bullock explained. "And I would walk in and I wouldn't be able to find her. She'd be in the closet, with all her clothes on, she'd be on a bookshelf, she'd be hiding and she'd always be ready to leave. She was always telling me she was leaving." As per reported by TODAY, Bullock admitted that while it was amusing at times when her daughter declared her departure from home because "she's all power," it was also an exercise in building a new sense of normality for her kid. "She'd say, 'I’m leaving you.' And I’m like, 'OK, I’m going to be right behind you. So just know that you can leave but I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere,'" Bullock said. "I saw triggers on a daily basis," Bullock explained. Bullock admitted that she couldn't help but take Laila's actions personally at times, but she eventually realized that her daughter's survival instincts were at work.
"Laila would hide food. It's survival. Absolute survival. Her spirit and just who she is has pushed [her] forward beyond the triggers and the fears," Bullock said. "They’ll come up for the rest of her life, there will be fears that she has, but she knows that wherever she chooses to go to school, I'm moving there. That's the joke in the house. You guys need to pick the same college if you go, the same city to live in, because I'm gonna be living there." Bullock stated that, while being a parent is difficult, she always knew she'd be a mother. She also knew she wouldn't become a mother at such a young age. "I am so glad the universe had me wait," the 57-year-old actor said.
References:
https://www.today.com/parents/sandra-bullock-s-daughter-hid-food-dealt-trauma-after-foster-t241827
https://www.today.com/parents/moms/sandra-bullock-stepping-away-acting-rcna19985
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Jamie McCarthy / Staff
