Madonna Needs Me: The Material Girl Wants to be a “Tougher” Mom

So, I heard that Madonna, single mother of four, was on the Today Show the other morning, explaining to Harry Smith that while she believes she’s a pretty strict mother, she obviously can be tougher, given that paparazzi photographs surfaced recently of her 15-year-old daughter, Lourdes, smoking.

Madge is not a fan of smoking (good for you, Madge).

Here’s the clip from the show.

Now, let’s leave aside questions of whether you can lump the famous, wealthy-into-the-stratosphere Madonna in with your average single mother of, well, any number of kids. Certainly, she has plenty of help with her brood. I bet,for example, she had no trouble getting a babysitter for Super Bowl Sunday. But her wealth and fame and fabulousness doesn’t stop her from facing the same problems as any other mother, single or not.

Who knows why Lourdes was puffing on a cigarette: is she testing her limits? Is she already addicted? Was she showing off? She is, after all, 15. And I’m going to make a wild guess that Lourdes is far from sheltered.

But still. If Madonna wants to be tougher with Lourdes and the rest of them (I actually didn’t know she had four), it’s still her job. In the clip, she says that tough is, you know, tough. She says, “It’s hard, though. It’s hard. Every day is a negotiation.”

Referring to the “many” Madonnas there are in the world (singer, actor, clothing designer, all-around provocateur), Madonna tells Smith that, to her children, she is “…mostly the one who says, ‘Have you done your homework?’ and ‘Why are you wearing that?’ and ‘Why did you say that?’ and ‘What are you eating that for?'”

Geez, I hope that’s true.

Now. Where do I send a copy of Mean Moms Rule to Madonna? Anyone?