Reese Witherspoon: 'Not Enough Hours in Day' with Kids

"I feel like what I can mostly do is listen and be there for them," she says

How does Reese Witherspoon stay grounded? By having children who’ve barfed on her shoes before award shows.

Nevertheless, the Walk the Line Oscar winner – and now-single mother of 8-year-old Ava, and 4-year-old Deacon – says she’s glad she’s got time at home with them.

“Like every working parent, I sometimes feel that there are not enough hours in the day,” Witherspoon, 31, tells Marie Claire for its February issue. “But overall, I’m very fortunate that my job has a lot of flexibility. I spend a lot of time with the kids, just around the house. They’re still pretty young, so I feel like what I can mostly do is listen to them and be there for them.”

As a mom, she says, “I worry about my kids growing up and how the world might hurt them. But at the same time, I absolutely do not worry about them growing up – because they have great values and a great sense of self.”

The New Orleans native learned her parenting skills from her own mother and father, who were both doctors.

“I had parents who believed I could do anything – and I know how that made me feel,” says the actress “I think both my parents, having careers in the medical profession, feel they are helping people on a daily basis, and that was inculcated in me as a value. I had to struggle with giving up the idea of becoming a doctor myself.”

As for fun around the house – besides messing up mommy’s shoes – Witherspoon says her family s guilty pleasures are “game shows like the new Crosswords and Deal or No Deal. And Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? is very popular in my house.”