Cardi B is all hands with raising her two children, four-year-old daughter Kulture Kiari and almost one-year-old son Wave.

While other A-list celebrities hire nannies to look after their little ones as they work, the Bronx native chose not to and found a way to balance her demanding music career and motherhood instead.

 

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“It’s been very stressful,” she said to VOGUE Singapore about managing her time between being present for her two children and working on a new album.

 

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“When the baby got here, I couldn’t even think about getting a nanny because I was afraid of anybody being around her besides my family. I’ve never had a nanny for Kulture,” she said.

Before her first pregnancy, Cardi was at the pinnacle of her career-fresh off of VH1’S Love and Hip Hop show and dropped her hit single Bodak Yellow. The artist’s team was highly skeptical of how Cardi could do both, especially at the start of her musical journey.

 

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Despite the advice she was given, Cardi was optimistic about having a nanny at the time until her daughter was born.

 

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“There weren’t a lot of artists out there who had babies at the beginning of their career. I didn’t have an album out when I found out I was pregnant,” she said. “Everybody was so nervous for my career and future, but I kept telling them, ‘It’s easy. Trust me, I’m going to have a nanny, and she’s going to travel up and down with me. It’s not even going to be a hassle,” she added.

Cardi has a few trusted caregivers, one being her mother, and she noted that she doesn’t always have her mother watch them because she respects their free time.

“Your parents have already lived their life and raised their kids. They are older and don’t have the same energy as someone in their 20s. I’m never far from my kids because that’s my responsibility as a mother,” Cardi B said.

 

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Being a parent has opened Cardi to new perspectives and viewpoints on the world.

“I’m more compassionate for people. I feel like I understand people more,” she said.

“I have so much compassion and love and appreciation for all mothers in the world,” Cardi said. “There is no excuse, we have to do it. I have compassion for good mothers who get up and hustle and work, or even not work — having kids is work. Raising a kid is work. I have so much hatred for deadbeat mothers and fathers. It’s like, yo, bringing a baby into this world isn’t just like ‘I’ll figure it out.’ You have to be ready because you as a parent is all they got and all they want,” she added.

 

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Like most parents, Cardi wants her children to be better than her and her husband, Offset. This summer, Kulture is enrolled in a multitude of extracurricular activities like swim, dance and private tutoring.

“I want her to have a little bit of something forever. I can’t swim, so I want my daughter to be able to swim,” she said. “I want her to do amazing things when she grows up. She can jet-ski or go on a boat. I want her to be smarter than me — just be the better version of me.”

 

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Cardi B is showing firsthand that she can do it all — perform, put out number one projects and be a top-notch mother.