Happy Chaos by Soleil Moon Frye Page B

rolled into one. The other kids on the show and I would ride around the lot on our scooters, we’d pogo-stick around the Santa Barbara set right next door, down the hallways, off of furniture, and through the makeup room. It was so much fun, and it never felt like work.
    When I wasn’t taping Punky , I attended a free-spirited private school that was all about hands-on learning. I went there from preschool to junior high. I became a total mad scientist in sixth grade, thanks to my amazing science teacher. When we were dissecting rats in school I got so attached to mine that I named it Mellow Yellow. My teacher let me bring the rat back to the Punky set with me to show everyone. I then took it to my friend Cherie’s house for a sleepover that night. I forgot to tell Cherie’s mom that I’d stuck the formaldehydesoaked rat in her freezer, so when Mrs. Johnson reached in for a Popsicle later that night and came out with Mellow Yellow instead, she actually fainted. Oops.
    That same science teacher taught us how to grow wheat, and then how to make alcohol from the wheat (and if we had a note from our parents, we were allowed to bring a sample home). I loved chemistry, so my teacher supplied me with ingredients to take home and experiment with to my heart’s content. I gathered all our neighbors around, mixed judicious amounts of sulfur and magnesium together, and blew up a nearby manhole cover. It was a huge hit on our block.
    I hope my girls get to learn from someone brilliant just like my science teacher, maybe minus the vodka making. He inspired me and all of his students to go out and follow their passion, and that’s the kind of parent I want to be. Poet loves performing, so we give her every opportunity to dress up and express herself. Jagger’s a little comedian—so who knows, maybe she’ll grow up to do stand-up. Or not. Wherever their passions lead them, we want to be there telling them to go with their gut and do what they love.
    I think a big ingredient in good parenting is having the confidence to follow your gut, and the flexibility and courage to let your kids follow theirs. I was inspired to follow my gut by the unique people in my life and also from my mom, who could have discouraged me from pursuing my dream of acting, but instead went with her gut and let me go with mine.
    Thanks to her, I got to know myself really well, and I’ve always been able to stay true to myself and what’s best for me. I remember when Jason and I got together, we were such opposites. When we told my mother that we were getting married, she said we’d be lucky to make it ten years! She has never lived that down, but I definitely don’t blame my mom for being worried—I was only twenty-one years old, and although my mom loved Jason, she felt like we were so young. I was still her baby, after all. But thankfully I followed my heart (just the way my mom raised me to do), and I knew that Jason was the one.
    For me, parenting has been the same—I believe in trusting my instincts, and so far they haven’t led me wrong. When Poet was really little, she was incredibly shy (like mother, like daughter). She had so many fears. Fears of people, places, and things—especially fireworks. To this day she has incredibly sensitive ears. I suppose we could have pushed her into situations where she’d have to learn to adjust to new people and big sounds, but trying to negate her fears just never felt right to me. In my heart I knew that when the time was right, she’d get past them.
    Just last week, we went to Disneyland with the girls and my nieces. My nieces are older than Poet, and I could see Poet wanting to follow them onto the bigger, scarier rides. And then the moment of truth came—Space Mountain. I kind of looked at Poet sideways to gauge her response. She said she really wanted to go, and I thought— all right, if she says she’s ready, then she’s