Every time I think I have something under control, it changes and I don’t have it under control. I think it takes several years to get there. Jade is 19 months old, so right now I’m on alert all the time. And as a mom I think you’re constantly worrying about things.

Giada De Laurentiis is reflecting on early motherhood and the unpredictability of parenting while her daughter, Jade, is still a toddler (19 months old). The remark fits the period shortly after Jade’s birth (born 2008), when De Laurentiis was balancing a high-profile television career with new parental responsibilities. In this context, “control” refers less to professional competence than to the shifting routines, developmental changes, and constant vigilance that accompany caring for a very young child. The quote captures a candid, interview-style moment in which she frames maternal anxiety as normal and ongoing rather than a problem that can be solved quickly.

The quote emphasizes that parenting resists mastery: just as a parent adapts to one phase, the child changes and the old strategies stop working. De Laurentiis’s language (“on alert all the time”) conveys the heightened attentiveness and low-level anxiety that often accompany caring for toddlers, where safety, health, and development feel perpetually at stake. Her admission also challenges the cultural expectation that competent adults should be “in control,” suggesting instead that good mothering may involve accepting uncertainty, staying responsive, and tolerating worry. The line “it takes several years to get there” implies that confidence in parenting is gradual, earned through experience rather than instant instinct.