Inside Macaulay Culkin’s Painfully Honest Approach to Fatherhood
After a childhood scarred by a strained relationship with his father, Macaulay Culkin is determined to rewrite the script of parenthood—crediting wife Brenda Song for helping him turn old wounds into resolve to be a better dad and a better man.
Macaulay Culkin got real about dad life in a new chat and, yeah, it hits hard. He looked back at the rough parts of his own childhood, talked about what he is doing differently with his kids, and credited Brenda Song for leveling him up as a parent and a human. It is candid, sweet, and a little painful in the way honest stuff usually is.
The word he hardly heard growing up
On Mythical Kitchen, Culkin said there is one word he makes sure lives in his house now because it was basically missing from his own: proud. He joked about how he could headline the number one movie in America as a kid and still not get the P-word. So with his boys, he does the opposite. He says it out loud, often.
The recital moment that says everything
He told a story about one of his sons at a school recital. Curtain goes up. His kid is supposed to be a bug who gets the egg. Instant stage fright. Tears. Exit, stage left. Culkin scooped him up and went straight to reassurance mode: I am proud of you. You were brave. You did it. Love the costume. Proud, proud, proud. It is simple, but you can hear how much it matters to him to rewrite what those moments look like.
'Brenda's such a good mother. She makes me want to be a better father, a better person, but a better father because I see how good she is, and I see how happy our kids are.'
Breaking the cycle, on purpose
Culkin did not sugarcoat how long shadows from childhood can hang over you. He said that kind of generational damage can haunt a person. But he also said he is proud of himself for being able to provide for his family in the right way now, and he gives Brenda a lot of credit for showing him how to do it better.
- Where he said it: Mythical Kitchen
- The family: two sons with Brenda Song — Dakota, 4, and Carson, 3
- His age: 45
- Career touchpoints: Home Alone, Richie Rich, My Girl; he is an actor-musician
- His parenting reset: uses proud often because he rarely heard it as a kid, even during the 'number one movie in America' days
- What he is owning: that old trauma can haunt you, but he is proud he can provide in the right kind of way now
It is a small thing to tell your kid you are proud when they melt down in a bug costume. It is also kind of everything, especially when you grew up not hearing it yourself.