Why Olivia Munn Doesn’t Let Her Kids Watch Ms. Rachel (Exclusive)

Ms. Rachel is for littles — but not Olivia Munn‘s.

The Your Friends & Neighbors actress, 44, tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story that she doesn’t let her kids Malcolm, 3, and Méi, 8 months — whom she shares with husband John Mulaney — watch the YouTube creator’s videos, or most kids’ shows in general.

“I know kids love [Ms. Rachel], but the thing is, if I can’t watch it, I’m not going to spend the rest of my life going crazy,” says Munn. “These kid shows drive me crazy.”

Munn also isn’t a big fan of cartoons.

“Malcolm asked for Blue’s Clues [recently], and I don’t know who showed him Blue’s Clues, but they are on my s— list now,” Munn says. “I said, ‘Hell no. Not in my house.’ John got him into the Spider-Man cartoons, which is not interesting to me. I put on Tom Holland’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and was like, ‘If you want to watch the real-life ones, then we can watch that.’ It might be a little too old for him, but I can’t take the cartoons.”

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Munn says the only exception is PBS’ children’s show Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, which she describes as a “great program.” Before Méi’s arrival via surrogate last September, Munn and Mulaney, 42, let Malcolm watch the show to help him prepare to become a big brother.

“Daniel Tiger has a little sister, and we’d tell him, ‘There’s a baby sister coming,’ ” Munn says.

When introducing Méi to Malcolm, Munn says she and Mulaney made sure not to “change his world and identity and responsibilities.”

“A lot of times people will be like, ‘Oh, you’re a big brother now. You’re not the baby anymore. Now you can help mommy get the diapers.’ So, all of a sudden, he has all these responsibilities, and he doesn’t just get to be carefree anymore,” Munn says. “Instead, we would say, ‘Now we have two babies. There’s baby Méi Méi and baby Malcolm.'”

Munn and Mulaney also focused on giving Malcolm and the baby equal attention.

“He would say, ‘Mommy, come over here. Daddy, come over here,’ and if we were holding the baby, we would put her down so that he wouldn’t feel that all of a sudden now we can’t be there for him,” Munn says. “It’s not that we were trying to teach him that everything he says goes, but we wanted him to have the transition with her to know that we’re still here whenever he needs us. Then, eventually when he’d say, ‘Put Méi Méi down,’ we’d say, ‘No, she wants to see her mommy too.’ He smiles, and he understands.”

Munn says Méi “loves her brother.”

“Anywhere he goes, she lights up,” she says. “He’s teaching her how to talk. We have this great video of him telling her to say dada, and she says dada right back. It’s amazing and fun for him because he gets instant feedback and gratification from her doing the thing that he’s teaching her to do. I asked if he could teach her mama, but he said no.”

After all she’s been through in the last several years, Munn — who faced postpartum anxiety after Malcolm’s birth and has gone through multiple surgeries and treatments since her breast cancer diagnosis in April 2023 — is able to take all of the toddler antics in stride.

“Everything is funny and light and airy to me now, like 95 percent of the time, because it was so much to handle back-to-back,” she says. “And, the things that kids say are so funny. Malcolm said, ‘Mama, I love you a little bit. But you love me so much.’ I said, ‘Yeah that’s true.’ He goes, ‘But I only love you a little bit.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ And he goes, ‘But do you still love me so much?’ I go, ‘I’ll always love you so much, no matter how much you love me.’ He says the silliest things, and sometimes he says really mean things which I won’t repeat, that make me laugh.”