Sarah Michelle Geller and Freddie Prinze Jr. have been together for 27 years and married for 22 years. They have two children, Charlotte, 15, and Rocky, 12. Sarah and Freddie are a low-key couple and hands-on parents. As we talked about the other day, summertime’s here, and that introduces a whole new set of challenges for parents. Sarah and Freddie are no different! Both of their kids have a lot going on this summer. Thanks to all of Charlotte and Rocky’s many activities and social engagements, the Prinze parents are currently feeling like they are in their Chauffeur Era.
Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar know exactly what their two kids are doing this summer, and it’s a “tough battle.” The couple, who married in 2002, share a daughter, Charlotte, 15, and a son, Rocky, 12. Both kids have hectic social schedules, particularly in the summer when school isn’t there to take up a portion of the day.
“You get a little unbalanced because a lot of kids’ friends are on vacation, or they go to camp at someplace else, or they’re busy with camp locally, so you are more present,” he tells PEOPLE of summer parenting. “They’re not running away from you as much. Like, ‘Dad, can you take me here? Can you take me there? Can I see this guy? Can I see that girl?’ We try to keep our kids pretty active. You’re definitely more necessary, and you might feel like a chauffeur, and that’s a normal feeling for a parent to go through, but you’re definitely more necessary in the summer.”
The key to it all, Prinze, 49, says, is patience, which he says is his wife’s parenting superpower.
“The practicing of patience in the face of teenage power is a tough battle. It’s like All Might versus whatever horrible villain he was facing in My Hero Academia, that level of difficulty,” Prinze says, referring to the popular anime series. “Patience, I think, is the ultimate power, and if you don’t have it, it’s a muscle you have to work out. So, definitely put the time in because it will help you win all the arguments.”
While Gellar, 48, is a natural at patience, it wasn’t something the I Know What You Did Last Summer actor mastered early on.
“I had to learn it more than I was born with it. Sarah was better with it initially,” he acknowledges. “Patience was something I learned and got better at over time, like anything else.”
One thing the Scooby-Doo star has always been good at, though, is cooking. As the chef of the house (who even has his own cookbook), he finds himself often cooking painstaking high-end meals for his kids.
“They have a lot of different requests, man. French onion soup is a big one. We make that from scratch,” he tells PEOPLE. “I got a creamless tomato soup that my mom taught me how to make back in the day that they really like, but these are all things that take a long ass time to cook. So, all their favorite stuff takes hours to make properly. They like when I make New Mexico green chili chicken enchiladas. I’m like, ‘Yo, that’s six hours over the stove. Are you kidding me right now?’ But that’s what they like, so that’s what they get.”
He admits that the children do enjoy a simple grilled cheese sandwich, but adds that they prefer to pair it “with the soup that takes me an hour.”
Charlotte is 15 years old, which means she is almost old enough to get her driver’s license. It’s totally a rite of passage for parents to start to feel the toll of driving their kids everywhere in the year or so before their eldest can drive, right? I bet Sarah and Freddie are starting to feel that itch. My parents were very overprotective, and even they got to a point where they couldn’t wait for me to be able to drive myself to my various activities. My kids are still close enough in age that they are doing camps and meeting up with friends in the same locations. That will all change next summer, but I am enjoying how uncomplicated their activities schedules are this year.
Also, I somehow missed that Freddie is a master chef with his own cookbook! It’s pretty endearing that he’s so into cooking that he’s willing to spend that much time cooking for his family. I don’t love cooking, but I also don’t mind doing it. (Anything is tolerable if you can do it while listening to a good podcast!) My food love language is bread and cheese, so I would totally give his French onion soup and grilled cheese recipes a shot.
photos credit: Faye’s Vision/Cover Images, Getty and via Instagram