Patrick Dempsey has been opening up about fatherhood.
The Grey’s Anatomy star shares three children with his wife Jillian Fink- 16-year-old twin sons Sullivan and Darby, and a 21-year-old daughter named Talula.
As he opens up about raising his children in Hollywood, Patrick describes them as ‘polite’ and highlights the importance of ‘keeping them grounded’.
While chatting to People, Patrick admitted his children “want to have their own identity, separate from me and that shadow”.
“They all have unique qualities and they have their own goals that they need to develop and harvest themselves and we just try to model our behaviour and hopefully they’ll pick up on that”.
Dempsey continued, “They’re all athletic, they like to move. They are all very disciplined on that and you just try to instil the right values”.
“Hopefully, they have the right manners and when they come back in and other parents go, ‘Oh your children are very polite’, you’re like, ‘That’s nice to hear’. And you know are they grounded”.
While describing what it’s like to be in the limelight while raising a family, the Enchanted actor revealed it’s, “Very challenging having your children grow up in Hollywood and to be in that environment”.
“I just read something about how important it is when you have children, the environment that they’re in will be the most important thing for them and their development. So trying to keep that a good calm loving safe environment for them”.
The 57-year-old then shared an insight into the difference between raising children when they’re younger compared to when they are teenagers.
“Because you need to be around, but they don’t want you around because they’re fighting for their independence, which they should. They need to find out how they interact in the world, they need to learn those boundaries, they need to make mistakes. And you need to be there for them and allow them to learn from that”.
“They keep me very active. I need to stay in shape to keep up with them. The older you get, the more work you have to put in”.
