What To Know About Raising a Child Actor

Par­ents who moti­vate and direct their children’s act­ing careers face a wide range of obsta­cles, from play­ing the role of man­ag­er and par­ent to deal­ing with the emo­tion­al toll of the spot­light. So, what’s the best advice for han­dling every­thing that comes with rais­ing a child star? and what to know about rais­ing a child actor. In this arti­cle, we’ve got you cov­ered with tips and rec­om­men­da­tions that will help in rais­ing a hap­py, suc­cess­ful kid actor. Let’s get started!

1- Watch For Signs and Don’t Rush The Process

As your kid actor grows and devel­ops, make sure act­ing remains their focus and pas­sion. If this indus­try is some­thing your kid is pas­sion­ate about, then he/she will find the bal­ance on her/his own. If you find your­self being more dis­ap­point­ed than your kid, or you start see­ing it affect his/her grades and over­all mood, then it’s time to pull back just a lit­tle. Always remem­ber, forc­ing a child to do some­thing just makes every­one around them mis­er­able — includ­ing you! Many par­ents rush their chil­dren to go to audi­tions or get an agent. Sup­pose a child is not emo­tion­al­ly and pro­fes­sion­al­ly ready. In that case, the process can be too fright­en­ing, shut the child down, and make them want to quit. You can­not take ten act­ing class­es and be ready for the start­ing line. Check-in with your kid’s act­ing coach and trust their advice if your kid is ready or not yet. Just like with every­thing in life, we all have our spe­cial and unique process, and every­one is dif­fer­ent; some take a short time, and oth­ers take a long time to be ready.

2- Training Is Your Golden Key!

If your kid actor is not prop­er­ly trained, they are not an actor. Act­ing is absolute­ly fun, but it is not a part-time hob­by. Sup­pose your child is seri­ous about pur­su­ing this field. In that case, you must cul­ti­vate a mind­set, as one would do when becom­ing a pro­fes­sion­al musi­cian, ath­lete, or dancer. Your child must train con­tin­u­al­ly to stay com­pet­i­tive and, most impor­tant­ly, cul­ti­vate an under­stand­ing of the whole process. When a kid is in school sports, par­ents are dili­gent about nev­er miss­ing games or prac­tices. How­ev­er, when it comes t act­ing class­es, many par­ents do not fol­low the same discipline. Your kid actor needs to train at a pro­fes­sion­al act­ing acad­e­my or school, and this train­ing needs to be through­out the entire year. You will not find a set sea­son where you take an entire sea­son off. It’s encour­aged to take breaks now and then for a few days for a fam­i­ly time vaca­tion or a week­end off to bal­ance out act­ing life and step away from the field. Still, in between, year-round, your kid actor has to be ready and prepared.

3- Each Audition Is A success!

With every audi­tion, your kid actor has already achieved suc­cess. When your kid is ready to begin audi­tion­ing, please under­stand that it can take up to 25–100 audi­tions before book­ing a job. If your kid actor is train­ing, can take direc­tion well, and has con­fi­dence in her/his craft, they will raise their chance of book­ing a job. Each audi­tion makes them stronger at what they love to do. The audi­tion brings them into the field of new cast­ing pro­duc­ers and directors. Some­thing to put in mind and the amount of prac­tice time before audi­tions have to be pro­fes­sion­al and ade­quate. This can­not be over­looked or done halfway. They need to con­cen­trate and persevere.

4- Fuel Your Passion Because Your Positive Support Is Needed

The prime thing you can do for your child actor as a par­ent is to take their audi­tions with pos­i­tive sup­port, regard­less of how stress­ful the process can be. The traf­fic on your way to the audi­tion, try­ing to get off your work, or need­ing to get to your oth­er kid’s league prac­tice or game, please try to keep this stress to your­self because your kid will feel it. Some well-known book­ing actors men­tioned their abysmal per­for­mance in audi­tions because they felt ter­ri­ble and guilty at the stress they were caus­ing their fam­i­lies. For all par­ents, please let your kid actors do the job hap­pi­ly and with no pressure. One of the biggest strug­gles you might face is mak­ing sure that your kid actor stays moti­vat­ed. Part of that is because he/she lacks parental push and sup­port. Find ways to keep excit­ed and moti­vat­ed about your kid’s suc­cess; doing so will keep your kid hap­py and motivated! Show up to the audi­tions and shows, cel­e­brate the suc­cess­es no mat­ter how small, and always remem­ber to uplift and encour­age the down days. Remem­ber, your kid actor feed off your ener­gy, and they have to be taught the per­se­ver­ing spirit!

5- Let It Go, and Don’t Stress It Out!

Let­ting it go is con­sid­ered one of the most chal­leng­ing things about the audi­tion­ing process. This mind­set is manda­to­ry for the long-term suc­cess of your kid actor. When the audi­tion is over, don’t talk about it unless your actor wish­es to dis­cuss it. The prime thing to do is just move on with all that is amaz­ing in your life.

6- Find The Balance

Once your kid actor begins to work, our very best advice is: remain their par­ent. Remem­ber, this is your team’s job. You are there for your kid’s emo­tion­al sup­port. You are there to ensure he/she is safe. As a par­ent, you need to know how to bal­ance being a mom and dad ver­sus a man­ag­er. Plan to write down the duties of those two roles and always have them to men­tion when it gets tough and hard to man­age. That will ensure that the rela­tion­ship stays pos­i­tive and productive.

7- Trust Your Kid

When your kid actor has achieved the prop­er skillset, they know their busi­ness. They know what to wear for audi­tions. They know how to pre­pare their sides. Please do not coach them!  Do not expect that your kid actor will land a role in a film or on TV in the first year. It takes most child actors 4–6 years to land a role. So please be rea­son­able with your expec­ta­tions and have faith. A few kid actors will get cho­sen in their first year for tv, films and com­mer­cials; yes, this hap­pens for some. But most kid actors take 4–6 years to become more sea­soned and pro­fes­sion­al. Most actors actu­al­ly take 3–6 years to even land their first role in film, TV, or com­mer­cials. Trust your child and let he/her know that you always expect the best from them.

Final thoughts

It’s not easy to be a parent of a young working actor. You’re basically required by law to be on set, within sight and sound of your kid… but you are also expected to be seen and not heard!

That can be challenging for many parents. Unlike other activities your child might be involved in— gymnastics, soccer, or whatever—you can’t just drop them off and come back when the session is over. You need to be there for the whole duration, and that may mean all day!

Help your kid con­tin­ue to get work by con­scious­ly stick­ing to your job—being their parent—and resist the temp­ta­tion to cross that bound­ary. Every­one on set thank you, and your child’s future does too!