Mario Lopez Instills Immigrant Parents' Strong Work Ethic Mentality in Parenting

Despite his busy schedule, Mario Lopez admits he takes time to have breakfast with his wife and kids and makes sure to come home for dinner. He also takes his sons to Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling practices, and his daughter's gymnastics meets on weekends.

Lopez and his wife, Courtney, have three kids - Gia, 11; Dominic, eight; and Santino, two.

The Peacock's Saved by the Bell actor says that he can continue his work and take care of the kids because he has a supportive wife and his parents and his wife's parents live nearby, Yahoo Life reports.

His parenting style

According to Lopez, his parents inspired his parenting style. His parents were strict and tough disciplinarians, and he loved them dearly. With his kids, he says that he is the disciplinarian. He says he comes from a place of tough love, and he thinks there is nothing wrong with that. He said that there is no democracy in the house, and he runs on a dictatorship style like Castro.

Lopez said that his parents also instilled in him a strong work ethic. Although his kids are growing up in a much different environment, he still wanted to instill a strong work ethic mentality. He said he will also teach them never to forget where they came from and always try to be better.

Growing up, he said that his parents were immigrants from Mexico. He remembered that they were always busy working, so he spent a lot of time at the local Boys and Girls Club.

His father worked in the city, while his mother worked for a phone company. He was a hyper kid and had the potential to get into trouble. But going to the Boys and Girls Clubs kept him out of trouble and impacted him growing up. The club inspired his passion for arts and wrestling.

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Despite being a disciplinarian, the Saved by the Bell actor is also a doting dad who is mature enough to talk to his kids about life. According to Honey9, the actor and his wife were left red-faced when his ten-year-old daughter caught them engaged in "adult fun." They were horrified when they were interrupted by their daughter, Gia, who was looking for them.

They said it took them a while to look for Gia after. He said they could not find her for an hour. When they eventually found her, he asked his daughter if they could talk about what had happened.

They then had "an honest conversation about what love means."

Active kids

In Hello Magazine, Lopez said that the kids are very active in everything: dancing to wrestling. He also shares that they are very creative kids. His daughter has done a lot of correspondent work for his shows, and his son also gets involved.

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