Serena Williams Reveals How She Knows Baby Adira Is So ‘Tough'

You hear all the clichés about first-time parents, but you don’t actually realize how many of the stereotypes you fall into until your second child is born. Suddenly, you’re wiping a pacifier off on your shirt and handing it back to the baby or letting them cry for just a minute so you can clean up your messy toddler. It’s that you’re actively choosing to be more laidback — at least, it wasn’t for me — it’s that necessity demands a little multi-tasking with more than one kid, so you adapt. Celebrity parents go through the same thing. And when Serena Williams welcomed her second daughter Adira back in August, she realized that her now 10-month-old baby is actually pretty “tough” already.

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At the Thursday night premiere of her new docuseries, In The Arena: Serena Williams , the retired tennis pro opened up about how parenting Adira is different than parenting her 6-year-old daughter Olympia, both of whom she shares with husband Alexis Ohanian. “I think [the] second time around is — I’m a little but more like, you know, if Adira falls, I don’t die like with Olympia,” she told Entertainment Tonight. . “Now I’m like, ‘Oh, she’s tough, she’ll be fine.’ And she is tough.”

Oh, she is so real for that! Of course you don’t want your baby to get hurt or cry. But at the same time, you realize that your little one really will be OK without you anxiously hovering over them every second of their lives. And you know what? They are better off for it!

Williams wishes she could be more chill about other parts of her life too. The outlet asked what she would tell herself at 14, and the 23-time Grand Slam champion replied, “Relax a little bit more.” The Wyn Beauty founder explained, “I was so intense on the court and wanted to be perfect at every moment and obviously that’s not possible. So, just take a deep breath and just relax and, you know, I think that would have helped me out a little bit.”

In a March interview with Byrdie, Williams shared that her kids bring her the most joy in life. “I can’t say that a Wimbledon trophy holds a candle to volunteering at my kid’s school,” she gushed. At the same time, she wants her daughters to be inspired by her career.

“I want my daughters to look at my career and learn that being authentic to themselves is really the most important thing,” the Serena Ventures founder said. “You don’t have to be the best as long as you do your best. I also hope my daughters see how many different passions I have — from tennis to beauty — and learn that they can lead dynamic careers and lives across their many interests.”

Being tough is clearly in their genes!

Before you go, check out Serena Williams’ sweetest mother-daugther moments with Olympia.