Jemal Countess/Getty In the effort to balance working motherhood, Tina Fey keeps her approach simple. “Whenever you can, just go home,” the 30 Rock actress, 40, advises Time Out New York Kids.

Jemal Countess/Getty
In the effort to balance working motherhood, Tina Fey keeps her approach simple. “Whenever you can, just go home,” the 30 Rock actress, 40, advises Time Out New York Kids.
It would undoubtedly be a hard mantra for her character on the hit NBC show to adopt, but Fey insists that  workaholic Liz Lemon nonetheless “would make a great mom.”
“She’s used to sacrificing her dignity for others, which is parenting in a nutshell,” Fey quips.
Daughter Alice Zenobia, 5, is keying in to mom’s high-profile career, including her former role on Saturday Night Live.

“She thinks Amy Poehler is a lot funnier than me,” Fey shares. “The other day, she came up to me very worried and asked, ‘Mommy, why does Date Night have so much love in it?’ If she sees me doing a scene with a man who’s not Daddy [composer Jeff Richmond], she gets very upset. It’s nothing against Steve Carrell; Alice is just looking out for Daddy’s best interests.”
What’s in Alice’s best interest is growing up a New Yorker, according to Fey, who calls the Upper East Side “a great place to raise a youngster.”
Admitting that “there’s a little La Leche pressure when you’re with a newborn there,” Fey says she loves that in her neighborhood “kids are allowed to be kids.”
“They get to dress sloppy, spill things on themselves, run around and play in the park,” she continues. “There’s no preciousness; it’s all very normal.”
While cramped living quarters remains a drawback — “the lack of toy management at my house because of that fact is, frankly, stunning,” Fey admits — cultural opportunities abound.
“When I was growing up [in Upper Darby, Penn.], going to a museum was a big deal,” she explains. “It was a major day trip that you had to plan for. Here, you walk out your front door and five minutes later, bam! You’re staring at dinosaur bones. The proximity is great. Of course, if you ask Alice, she’ll say that all she wants is a yard.”

Tina Fey Describes ‘Parenting In a Nutshell’