Drew Barrymore Says She Often 'Felt Like a Failure' in Early Years of Motherhood: 'I'm Flawed'

Drew Barrymore is opening up about how her feelings about her parenting have evolved as her kids grow up.

The mom of two, 47, recently appeared on the Chicks in the Office podcast, where she admitted to "feeling like a failure" as a mom when daughters Frankie, 8, and Olive, 10, were younger.

The conversation began with the talk show host recalling her daughters wanting McDonald's and sharing that they were "ordering it too often."

"All those parents who have it all together, and they've got hygiene and nutrition and schedules and boundaries, God bless you. I didn't know any of that stuff when I had my kids," Barrymore said.

Admitting she "did not have the blueprint," Barrymore recalled that she "felt like a failure a lot."

"I felt really overwhelmed and like, 'I don't know what I'm doing…I don't know what I'm doing and I'm gonna have to learn on the job.'"

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Recalling the leniency of growing up in an earlier era, Barrymore said, "it led to resiliency — and now we're like, helicopter parenting and coddling and, you know, watching everything."

Barrymore noted that while many people assert that parents should just know what to do, that isn't her reality as a parent.

"I'm like, 'No, I don't know what to do.' Where are the parents out there, who are admitting that? This is humorous, embarrassing, humbling, wild," she said.

"It's funny, I was so unforgiving of myself when my kids were younger and now that they're almost — Frankie's almost 9 and Olive's like 10, it's shifted into something very different and I'm having the best time ever," the actress shared. "I have learned boundaries."

Barrymore touched on being more public with her life, both on her talk show and social media, calling it "empowering."

"I want to admit that I'm flawed or I don't know things. I am a work in progress, I had to learn to like parent myself, but that parenting style wasn't going to work for my kids. That was much more survival and you know, not what I would want for my kids," she continued. "But I do want to figure out how to be more patient, more kind more rational."

Admitting that her "reaction is something that's really important to me," she added, "whenever I f--- that up, I can't even tell you how mad I am at myself, if I don't react like with patience and grace. I don't like it, but it happens. I'm a human being."

Barrymore continued, "I fail here and there, but I'm like, can I learn from that? The way you treat people in life? To me, is sort of everything."