Adrienne Bailon-Houghton Says She’s Already Teaching Son Ever, 3, About ‘Consent’ (Exclusive)

For Adrienne Bailon-Houghton, being a “boy mom” is incredibly special.

The Cheetah Girls alum, 42 — who shares son Ever James, 3, with husband Israel Houghton — exclusively tells In Touch that she’s learned “so much” raising a boy after growing up in a family full of women.

The actress, who sat down with mom Nilda Felix to discuss their partnership with Finish to celebrate the launch of the cleaning brand’s Finish Ultimate Quantum, says she was “so sure” she was going to be a ‘“girl mom” just like her mother, grandmother, aunt and sister.

However, that all changed when she and the Christian music singer, 54, welcomed son Ever in 2022 via surrogate.

“There was a part of me that was like, ‘This is going to be so different. I’m not sure what to do with boys,’” she admitted. “And then you become a ‘boy mom,’ and it’s like, ‘What did I ever do without you?’”

Raising son Ever has put a lot of things into perspective. “There is a part of my heart that I think — this may sound silly, but even boys that have broken my heart, I’m now raising a man, and there’s things I’m understanding. Being able to love on a little boy is so healing.”

Thinking about how one day Ever will grow up to be “somebody’s husband,” the former 3LW singer says it’s even allowed her to give her own husband “more grace.”

Bailon-Houghton says she is also starting to teach Ever valuable life lessons, like how playing with his “padrino” (or godfather, in English) — and ending up “in a headlock somewhere on the floor,” she says — is different from how he should play with girls.

“I’m teaching him consent from this age,” Bailon-Houghton explains. “He walks around, and he’ll slap me on the booty, and I’m like, ‘You could do that to me, but you cannot touch someone else that way.’”

“There are conversations and things that I’m instilling in him,” she says, “and you don’t realize that those things are important to start even at such a young age.”

Some lessons that she’s teaching Ever have come directly from her mom. “Simple things like teaching me [to] clean as you go along,” Bailon-Houghton says, “has been great for me — just [with] my mental space, especially now having a son and running a household of my own.”

Cleaning is key for Bailon-Houghton and her mother, who are also hosting the Finish Cookbook Club, which pairs creating new recipes with tips and tricks on how to clean up.

“I think things that are organized and in place allow me to live a better life in my head,” Bailon-Houghton says.

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