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The ONE thing James Van Der Beek Would Do With 45 Minutes of Free Time

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Flu season is coming up and actor James Van Der Beek is not taking any chances with his growing brood. The longtime TV star (Dawson’s Creek anyone?) and father of three, Olivia, 4, Joshua, 2, and Annabel, nearly 9 months, is spreading the word on fighting influenza with FluMist Quadrivalent, a needle-free flu vaccineParents took some one-on-one time with James to talk TLC, how being a dad to daughters has changed him, and the one thing he would do if he had 45 minutes to himself.

P: We’re here for FluMist. Vaccines have been a big buzz topic. What is your take on vaccines and what do you say to parents who might not be with you?

JVDB: I totally understand the debate about vaccines. They certainly have a utility. My wife and I went back and forth on the whole vaccine issue, quite a bit, but when it came to the flu vaccine specifically it was something we decided to do. Initially I was afraid you could get the flu from a flu vaccine. You actually can’t. It’s impossible. That was new to me. When I found that out, I realized there are a lot of myths about the flu that even I had—as health-conscious as I am. When I found out that it hospitalized 200,000 people a year and that it’s responsible for the hospitalization of more children than any other vaccine-preventable disease, that’s when I thought this is something that I can really get behind and help spread the word. And [FluMist] is needle free. Kids don’t like when you stick needles in them. Go figure. My 4-year-old did it and didn’t cry and was really proud of herself. We did not vaccinate our kids last year and I had two kids with the flu and my wife was pregnant. And G-d forbid it can lead to some bad complications.

Click here for Parents recommended vaccine schedule.

P: With vaccinations your home will be flu free, but there are always the typical coughs and colds. What is your go-to thing as a dad to make your kids feel better on a sick day?

JVDB: We take a very holistic approach to it. We make them some special tea with some good homeopathics in there. We give it to them with a lot of love. I think that counts for a lot.

P: You have two girls and a boy. There’s been a lot of talk about how having a daughter, specifically, changes a man. Is that something you feel?

JVDB: Well my first kid was a daughter, yeah you do start to be more concerned with the world in general knowing your kids are going to go out in it. You start to really look at other people’s attitudes towards women especially, and you’re a lot more hyperaware.

P: Have you seen the YouTube videos of the daddy-daughter dates? Would you take Olivia or Annabel on a father-daughter first date?

JVDB: I feel I do that all the time. It’s tricky with three, but I really do try to make sure they all have some good one-on-one time because that’s when you really get to see who they are outside of siblings and outside of the environment that they’re usually in. You get some really great clues into their personality. And they just love it. It’s a really big priority for me to take those moments.

P: Speaking of personality is there anything that any of your three do that makes you think “That’s just like when I was a kid?”

JVDB: All the time. Whenever they make goofy faces or love to dress up in their Halloween costumes or tell me a story that’s a complete fallacy that they’re making up but they’re doing it so well.

P: Were you a little fibber?

JVDB: I just loved stories. I loved to have a story to tell and my kids will tell me a story and the only way I’ll know that they’re making it up is that there’s a dragon in it. Everything else is really believable until a dragon makes an appearance and I say, “Oh ok you’re making this up.” I turn to my wife and go, “Sorry…my bad.”

P: You’re three kids in, what do you think you’ve learned and you’re doing better with the third than the first?

JVDB: I’ve come to just realize how important it is to embrace the chaos. There might be parents out there who are able to manage everything neat and tidy, but that’s certainly not us. Fighting to really find that appreciation in all of those moments is so important because it really does go by so quickly. It’s a big cliché and it’s so true. There are those times when you’re just so frustrated and you just think to yourself “Really?!” Especially those moments: sit there and think I’m gonna miss this when it’s not happening.

P: What still continues to baffle you? Is there anything you wish someone would tell you the secret to?

JVDB: How do kids have that much energy?

P: I think we should institute adult naptime.

JVDB: I would LOVE adult naptime. I would endorse that in two seconds.

P: You recently had 45 minutes to yourself and you didn’t know what to do. If you had 45 minutes again, do you know what you would do?

JVDB: I should work out because that’s catch as catch can. What I would love to do is to see if I’ve got a football game recorded that nobody has ruined the score for me and just spend 45 minutes going through that. That would be something…. That’s so pathetic. Better than doing the dishes, which is what I think I did last time. I find myself doing dishes saying, “Why am I doing dishes right now? I could be doing anything.”

P: Despite the lack of free time, you seem to be very happy as a father. Was there one moment when you went “Wow. I’m a dad.”

JVDB: Yeah. First moment my first one was born. That was it. It was pretty instantaneous. I’d wanted that for a long time so when it did happen it felt like the resolution to a lot of unanswered questions in my life.

Photograph: Via Instagram with permission from James Van Der Beek


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