HGTV Star Tells Parents to Prioritize Kids Over Work: ‘Children Can’t [Wait]’
By Movieguide® Contributor
HGTV’s Nicole Curtis is encouraging fellow parents not to “chase money” and miss out on valuable time with family.
“The best advice is they can all wait. Your children can’t,” the REHAB ADDICT told Fox News. “When we were first shooting the show, my son was in sixth grade. And I wasn’t chasing fame. I know there are a lot of influencers now and everything that – they just want their face on camera. They want a TV show. They want to do that. And I just wanted to live comfortably.”
Curtis explained that she wanted to give her son Ethan, now 26, “a life that he could enjoy things in life without seeing me struggle,” and sometimes, that meant “put[ting] the show first.”
“I was chasing the money,” she said. “I was chasing that money hard because I wanted a better life for us…that’s something I will not do this time.”
Curtis continued, “I don’t care what it is. You cannot put a check in front of me that is going to take time away from my family. So I think that’s absolutely the thing I would tell my younger self is that, you know what – you’ll figure it out. You’ll figure it out. And I did.”
“If I could get those years back, I would trade everything in a heartbeat,” she concluded.
That’s why, after years of working hard on her variety of REHAB ADDICT home improvement shows, she decided to take a break and step away from the world of TV.
“I had a very chaotic ten years. I didn’t want to go down that path again,” Curtis told PEOPLE. “I’m hyper-focused right now on remembering where I want to be, what matters in my life, what my priorities are.”
Now, she is slowing down and doing things on her own terms with her own production company — but that doesn’t mean she’s written off her television career.
“We’ve been filming but not specifically for anyone,” she told House Beautiful. “So even when I say I’m taking a break, and I do, we still roll cameras on really cool things because I’m like, ‘Eh, I’ll use it later to come back.’”
Curtis added, “What I would really love to be doing is a travel show. That’s our dream show, but we’re going to work on what we know for now and then expand later.”
“I promise we’re coming back,” she told fans. “Otherwise, I’m making some very expensive home movies.”
