Maggie Gyllenhaal is a beautiful actress and is also the mother of a nearly 4-year-old girl (Ramona) with her husband Peter Sarsgaard.

The actress and mother, who is currently starring in Nanny McPhee, told the Orange County Register that she was in no way prepared for what motherhood would be like.

"I just didn't have a clue. I don't think that's something you can know. There's no way to prepare for the challenges, the immense joys, the surprises, the disappointments, and the shocks. Your heart just rips open. It's amazing."

Later in the interview, she also said that motherhood -- and aging (she is now 32) -- have made her a much stronger actress.

I know what she means. Motherhood is nothing like I imagined.

I had a whole idea of what it would be like, a road map, if you will. It's all gone now.

The things I thought I could control -- bedtime, candy consumption, my daughter's preference for her father -- have become the battles that aren't worth fighting. Sometimes I'm no match for my daughter's will and I have to choose which rules I don't bend on very wisely.

I've also become much more career- and work-focused. Before my children were born, work was something I did from 9 to 5, but as soon as I could bail, I would run. Now work often feels like a lifeline and it has become something I care about so much more.

Children have brought more, more, more -- just more. They have brought more frustration and tears than I had before (from all of us), but they have also brought more laughter and fun. There's more love and more adventure, more smiles, and more exhaustion.

They have enriched my life in ways I never could have foreseen before I became a parent.

What do you think of Maggie Gyllenhaal's statement?

 

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