• Ali Wong said she takes her mother and her children on tours.
• She said she sometimes struggles with being seen as a “non-traditional” mother to her own mother.
• But Wong still credits her mother and ex-husband for helping with the kids when she’s on tour.

Learning how to lean on her mother and ex-husband while raising two children has helped Ali Wong continue her success as a working mother.

In an interview with InStyle published Tuesday, the comedian said she brings her mother and children on her stand-up tours.

“I met Lauryn Hill a few years ago and talked to her about touring with kids, and she told me how she took her mom everywhere with her too,” Wong, 42, said.

Wong, who shares daughters Mari, 8, and Nikki, 6, with her ex-husband, Justin Hakuta, didn’t see motherhood as the end of her career. “It was this expansive beginning of so many new chapters. I have to be grateful for that too,” Wong said.

But the ‘Always Be My Maybe’ star said her 84-year-old mother had different expectations for balancing career and motherhood.

‘In her day you weren’t really supposed to live a life for yourself. It was all about sacrificing and serving everyone else before you,” she said.

After having children, Wong continued to pursue her career in comedy and acting. She went on to win two Emmy Awards for her role in the Netflix series “Beef.”

Although she said she doesn’t care what others think, she worries about how her own mother feels.

“It’s mainly because of her and the father of my children that I’ve been able to do everything I do,” she said. “But it’s also because of her that I sometimes struggle with being ‘non-traditional,’” she said of her mother.

Still, taking her children on tour has given her more time with them.

“Taking kids out on the road is so beautiful. It’s the opposite of film and television where I’m just gone all day,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023.

“It’s a really fun family adventure because basically I perform in the evening and during the day we go on an adventure to the children’s museum or the gardens, or we see family friends. It’s really cool that they’ve seen so much of America.”

Balance between work and parenthood

For many parents, they depend on grandparents for childcare can help with the high costs of childcare.

Stephanie Ross, an attorney and mother of triplets, previously told Business Insider that her mother moved in with her to provide child care.

She said getting childcare would have cost the equivalent of a second mortgage. “As for mom, she’s happy. She’s developed an incredible bond with her grandchildren,” she said.

But not all grandparents are willing to babysit. Nirmala Sequeira, a grandmother of five, never babysits her grandchildren. She feels like she has already done her duty as a parent. “I don’t feel any guilt or obligation. I feel sorry for grandparents who do that,” she wrote.

For some parents, outsourcing help can give them more time to pursue their careers. Jennifer Biggs, who works full-time, relies on a ‘paid village’ to help with her three children.

“Paid childcare keeps me from burning out under the pressure of doing everything. It protects my mental health so I can work and parent without having to rely on grandparents,” she said.

A representative for Wong did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.