Michelle Pfeiffer has notoriously kept her family out of the public eye, but she now proudly talks to Good Housekeeping in its July issue about her and husband David E. Kelley's children, Claudia Rose, 14, and John Henry, 12, who cannot wait for their mom to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this summer. The Hairspray star, 49, talks about raising teens, who the "bad cop" is in the household and adopting Claudia just as she was starting to date David.

At one point, the interviewer recalls a "great lesson" Michelle taught her years ago when the actress corrected her for calling Claudia her "adopted daughter" when she is just her daughter. Michelle acknowledges that she never did it again and applauds her for that.

Here are the highlights:

On raising teens: I know, can you believe it? To tell you the truth, I feel like it's more difficult to be working now that they're older, even though I had actually thought it would be the other way around. When they're babies, you just sort of throw them in the car seat and they go where you go. I mean, I literally used to bring Claudia everywhere. In restaurants, I used to just plop her down on the table in her car seat -- she was like a centerpiece! But now that they're older, they have their routines and their schedules, and their interests and their friends. And I don't really want to disrupt that, because I want them to have a sense of continuity and normalcy.

How they feel about her returning to work: They're very encouraging, because they know it makes me happy. And also, since I haven't been working so much, it's not as if they've spent the past years saying to me, 'You're always gone.' And now that they really understand more about what I do, I think they're more curious than ever. Because frankly, in the past, they could not have been less interested. Most people in the world have seen more of me on-screen than my kids have.

On Claudia: Boy, there's nothing typical about my girl. She's a force to be reckoned with, and an amazing human being. I wanted her to be a really independent, outspoken young woman, and I sure got that! She's also very creative and inquisitive. And what's exciting about this age is that she's really coming into her own. She's everything I'd hoped she would be.

On becoming a mom: Well, one thing that's great about having kids, especially given my career, is that it forces you out of your narcissism. I mean, I'm in a career where my product is me. So it was nice to have something, someone, come along and take the focus off me. I really needed to give myself some distractions from myself.

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On meeting David as she was adopting Claudia: The adoption process was already in motion when he and I met. So when she came, he and I had only been together for about two months. So we had this child with us right away, and most people don't have that. But I really got to see him in a situation that certainly would separate the boys from the men. Obviously, he really rose to the occasion. And, you know, we were both adults. It's not like we were kids anymore, and we were both at the age where we were ready to start a family. So we both got to see each other as parents before we progressed in our relationship together, and in a strange way, it took the pressure off us, as a couple. We had something else to focus on. It was sort of perfectly timed. I mean, it's a real testament to the kind of person he is, but also to the fact that sometimes the traditional way of doing things isn't always the best way.

On Claudia and John's relationship: Yes, they do [get along]. They've been close their whole lives, and they're close in age. But don't get me wrong: They have their moments of sibling conflict.

On gender differences: I remember, before I had them, I didn't really believe much in gender differences, or that little boys were inherently all that different from little girls. But I certainly believe it now, because when they were little, they couldn't have been more different -- John was into trucks and Claudia was into kitty cats, and he was eating bugs and she wasn't. But I just feel like I've been so blessed to have these two children.

On discipline: I'm probably the bad cop in the house, yeah. Because Dad is the one to say, 'Oh, OK.' I don't want to be the bad guy, but I am definitely more of the disciplinarian, the strict one, by default.

On taking after her parents: It's funny, because the older my kids get, the more I refer back to what my parents did. I started out thinking, 'Oh, I'm not going to do it the way my parents did,' and then as I got into parenting, I realized -- Hey, maybe they did know a little something.

On her hopes for her kids: I want them to be fighters; I want them to be survivors; I want them to have something they believe in, and to stay true to themselves. My grandmother raised five children during the Depression by herself. At 50, she threw her sewing machine into the back of a pickup truck and drove from North Dakota to California. She was a real survivor, so that's my stock. That's how I want my kids to be too.

What she'd change about motherhood: Oh, I'd love to get more sleep. After Claudia was born, I thought that once she started sleeping through the night I'd be able to catch up, but then John came along. I kept thinking that eventually the day would come when I wouldn't feel exhausted, but now I've come to the sad realization that it's not gonna happen.

On relocating the family from L.A. to northern California: Well, I think all of us miss what was familiar about living in L.A., and, obviously, we miss our friendships. And I have a lot of family there, so I miss them. So some of the adjustment has been hard. But overall, I'm really happy we made the move, and I think that it was definitely the best decision for our family...Probably the biggest difference is that we don't feel as though we have to go to this screening or that benefit or whatever. We can spend more time together as a family because there just aren't as many distractions. I really feel a huge release being up here.

On baking with John: Actually, I do bake. In fact, John and I made a cake not too long ago -- it was a banana cake with butter-cream frosting. It was disgustingly delicious. And worth every calorie!

Source: Good Housekeeping