“It's way too expensive and silly, but it makes everybody happy.”
Melissa Joan Hart is opening up about how her parenting philosophy has changed over the years.
The 49-year-old actress, best known for her role as Sabrina on “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” shares three sons — Mason, 19, Braydon, 16, and Tucker, 12 — with her husband Mark Wilkerson, per People.
In an interview with TODAY, published Sept. 16, she shared her thoughts on “natural consequences.”
"I'm very much about natural consequences now, and I feel like I kind of missed the boat a little bit on my older kids," she said of her parenting style.
She went on to explain how they “saved” her kids in a lot of situations, especially with school — and admitted that not making them “problem-solve or troubleshoot” was “detrimental to their development.”
According to The Melissa Institute, there are two types of consequences in parenting: natural and logical.
Natural consequences are those “that occur in response to a behavior without parental influence,” while logical consequences are those “that are set by an adult,” per the Institute.
For example, feeling tired and groggy is a natural consequence of staying up late on a school night. Being grounded for a week after coming home past a curfew would be a logical consequence.
"I let them get away with stuff, or helped them through stuff, when they probably need to figure it out themselves,” Joan Hart told TODAY of her one major parental regret.
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“You kind of give up on it,” she said of natural consequences. "They're your personal baby, so of course you want to forgive them and move on and let them go to that football game.”
As for her parenting advice, Joan Hart also believes parents should normalize grounding kids — and not wavering once those punishments are set.
But while consequences are great, Joan Hart warns that kids can (and will) find ways around them.
While talking to TODAY, the “Clarissa Explains It All” alum admitted that her three boys are getting “smarter and wiser” with age. As a result, her consequences don’t always go as planned.
And that was certainly true when she turned off the wifi as a form of punishment — until her kids turned it back on without her knowing.
But even then, Joan Hart admits that she sometimes relieves her kids of certain consequences.
She recalled a time when her son needed to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy — something he could’ve done himself if he didn’t have work. So, she decided to help him.
"But he had work and I didn't want him to leave work, so ... " she told TODAY.
Joan Hart and Wilkerson met at the 2002 Kentucky Derby, got engaged later that year and tied the knot in July 2003 before starting a family three years later, according to People.
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The couple’s eldest son, Mason, graduated high school in 2024 and decided against a college education in lieu of becoming a pilot, per the outlet.
