Ryan Reynolds Shares How He Knows He & Blake Lively Are Doing an ‘OK Job’ Raising Their 4 Kids

“Am I doing this right?” is a question that plagues all parents and caregivers. As in, “Am I raising my kid the right way?” “Are they going to turn out alright?” And yada, yada, yada. Luckily, Ryan Reynolds just shared the gauge with which he measures the success of his and his wife Blake Lively’s parenting, and we’re taking notes.

The A-listers share kids James, 9, Inez, 8, and Betty, 5, and Olin, 1, and Reynolds told The Hollywood Reporter it’s all about their kids’ demeanor.

“They’re already very much in touch with gratitude and understanding the world enough to have a strong sense of empathy,” the dad of four said. “Those are the things that I would think [would indicate] we’re doing an OK job – if our kids can empathize with other people and other kids.”

Because, while experts don’t have a definitive answer on whether empathy is innate or learned, Reynolds and Lively have to be doing something right if it’s an integral part of their kids’ personalities. And it’s something many parents hope to see in their own kids.

As for gratitude, it sounds like it’s something the Deadpool star is especially happy to see given the kids’ very public, very privileged upbringing. Despite trying to “give them as normal a life as possible,” there’s nothing normal about the public scrutiny, the hundreds of millions of dollars on hand, and having Taylor Swift as their godmother.

“I try not to impose upon them the difference in their childhood to my childhood or my wife’s childhood,” Reynolds told the outlet. “We both grew up very working class, and I remember when they were very young, I used to say or think, like, ‘Oh God, I would never have had a gift like this when I was a kid,’ or, ‘I never would’ve had this luxury of getting takeout,’ or whatever.”

“Then I realized that that’s not really their bag of rocks to carry.”

Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively at arrivals for Rei Kawakubo & Comme des Garcons Costume Institute Gala Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY May 1, 2017.

Earlier this month, Reynolds revealed the thing that sort of makes him “die inside” as such a busy parent.

“I don’t ever want to be an absentee [dad], and I don’t ever want to miss stuff,” he said. “I, like, kind of die inside when I see their face and they have a competition or they have a sports thing or something and I missed it.”

It’s certainly a gut-wrenching feeling, but if what insiders say is true, Reynolds won’t “die inside” nearly as much in 2025.

“Ryan is signaling to his Hollywood pals that he and Blake are jumping off the treadmill, retreating to their country home for the holidays and focusing on family for the foreseeable future,” a source told Life and Style Magazine. “It was a crazy year for both of them and they need time with their kids.”

“…They both had to spring like crazy to get their 2024 movies finished and in shape for release. But now they’ve cleared their schedules and are serious about family coming first.”