Originally appeared on E! Online.
For Hailie Jade McClintock, it’s been a year of losing herself in the moment.
Eminem’s daughter welcomed son Elliot Marshall McClintock on March 14, her first child with husband Evan McClintock. So, while this Christmas (not to mention Hailie’s 30th birthday Dec. 25) is destined to be special, it’s already been the epitome of a life-changing time.
Which, as the myriad TikToks she turned to for advice and validation would agree, was to be expected.
“I am constantly Googling stuff,” McClintock said on the Dec. 5 episode of her “Just a Little Shady” podcast, her first since becoming a mom. “‘What are babies supposed to be doing at six months?’ And obviously every baby is different, so you’re not going to go straight off of that. But it has made me feel a lot more calm about parenting.”
So, social media has been there for her, even though McClintock’s not sharing much on her end when it comes to baby pics.
Well, a sweet video she posted from the Detroit Lions’ Thanksgiving game, featuring Elliot in massive noise-canceling headphones, was an important exception.
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But while she and Evan are still snapping monthly photos to document just how quickly he’s growing, “I stopped posting those,” McClintock explained to podcast cohost and bestie Brittany Ednie. “Because the one day that I had missed…as soon as I didn’t post the picture, I got some creepy messages being like, ‘Where is the pic?’ People being angry that I didn’t post…So we’re taking a break from all that.”
“But,” she added, “I’m sure in the future I’ll still be sharing more and talking about all the fun things he’s doing.”
Suffice it to say, McClintock has said that she now gets why her father (born Marshall Mathers III) has had a wary relationship with the public eye over the course of his 30-year career.
“Over time, I’ve come to understand the struggle my father faced — wanting to protect our privacy while also feeling proud and wanting to celebrate his kids,” McClintock told People in June. “I feel the same way now. I want to share the proud, joyful moments that mean a lot to me, especially as a parent, but I’m also intentional about keeping certain parts of our lives just for us.”
Eminem, who’s also dad to Alaina Scott (expecting her first child) and Stevie Laine Scott, has never been one to share too much publicly — aside from his deepest darkest demons, that is, mainly in the form of self-deprecating lyrics that reflected his fear of failing McClintock. But the 53-year-old’s 2024 video for “Temporary” gave a glimpse of their bond, including the moment when pregnant McClintock presented him with a personalized “Grandpa” Lions jersey.
“When I think about my accomplishments, that’s probably the thing I’m the most proud of is being able to raise kids,” Eminem said on a 2020 episode of Mike Tyson’s YouTube show Hotboxin’. “It’s important to keep your kids grounded when they’re in a situation like I have, it’s very important. People also think, too, that money just buys happiness — that absolutely is not the truth. You’ve got to be right inside otherwise none of this s–t means nothing.”
And McClintock is nothing if not bursting with pride about where she comes from.
When it became apparent Elliot was arriving earlier than his April 4 due date, McClintock said on her podcast she was rooting for either March 13 — “313, which is Detroit’s day,” she explained — or March 15, her late nana’s birthday.
Pi Day (3/14) proved to be “the happy medium.”
But while she described the day Elliot was born as “perfect,” her postpartum experience was a roller coaster. McClintock shared that she had “a lot of intrusive thoughts and anxiety,” her worries ranging from a fear out of nowhere that she might trip while walking, to falling asleep while Elliot was in his bassinet and waking up wondering why he wasn’t in her arms.
And when she needed extra help, she admittedly turned to TikTok.
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“As much as we’re like, ‘Our phones are spying us,’ every time I was in need, desperately, of like a specific video to pop up, it always did,” McClintock explained. “I would have a specific thought, like, ‘Oh my gosh, am I a bad mom if I go work out?'”
And TikTok was always there to assure her, she recalled, “This is normal, calm down, you’re OK.”
Becoming a mom, McClintock said, “makes you have so much more appreciation for your parents and also just your current friends who have kids.”
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Not least because, while her sleeping situation was better eight months in than when she first brought Elliot home, she no longer had all that brand-new-mom adrenaline that kept the exhaustion from truly sinking in.
“Sometimes we’ll get a good night, sometimes we won’t,” she said. “When we get a good night and then don’t, I’m like, I forget how to function.”
And on the Dec. 12 episode of her podcast, having taken Elliot on a plane ride to Florida (“great”) and back (“not so great”) for a destination wedding, McClintock shared another one of her ripped-from-experience lessons.
“Traveling with kids,” she noted, “if you get stressed that there’s a baby crying, the mom is a million times more stressed than you. So, please don’t react out loud.”
Overall, McClintock reflected, “It’s been eight months of a lot of ups and downs, and learning and fun. And just a new life, and a new appreciation for things.”
