By Jessica Wedemeyer
12:18pm PST, Nov 21, 2017
Melissa Joan Hart may not be done adding to her brood! The former child star revealed that she hopes to eventually adopt a little girl while chatting Jif Peanut Butter's "Imagine If, With Jif" campaign with Wonderwall.com. As part of the program, which aims to "fuel and nourish the potential of the next generation," the "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" alum teamed up with Jif and Indiegogo to fund three kids' philanthropic endeavors. (Jif has given each of the three inspiring kiddos $10K in seed money to launch their projects.) Keep reading to see what else Melissa told us about how she encourages her own kids to be philanthropic, why she's not encouraging them to pursue careers in showbiz, how she's dealing with them turning into teenagers, what she really thinks about the upcoming "Sabrina" reboot and more!
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Melissa Joan Hart on how she encourages her sons with husband Mark Wilkerson to be philanthropic at early ages:
"They do a certain amount of giving back in different ways. Some of their allowance — a dollar a week — goes towards charity. They can either drop it off in the church donation or they can donate it to different causes. Then a lot of their birthdays, we've done [donations]. One of my sons, his birthday's right after Christmas, and pretty often, he's gotten everything he wants for Christmas, so there's no need for presents for his birthday. … So my kids get to pick a different charity each year if they want — they still get one gift — but the money that they raise for their birthday — it'll be like $200 or $300 — instead of a bunch of new junky toys that we'll end up throwing away or get doubles of, they get to do something really great."
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Melissa Joan Hart on the causes that are near and dear to her kids' hearts:
"After Hurricane Sandy, the aquarium up near us [in Connecticut] had a lot of trouble getting back up and running because of the flooding — animal cages were ruined. So I told my son, 'Do you want a birthday with a bunch of presents that you probably already have, or do you wanna save your aquarium and be able to go pet the sharks?' So he got $10 donations — everyone brought him $10 — and he went down to the aquarium and handed off the money to them. I think it was a really good lesson for him. When they said thank you to him when he brought them the check, he was really proud of himself."
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Melissa Joan Hart on her kids' entrepreneurial sides:
"They love things like 3D printing and some of the fun new things that are driven by technology. My sons are always trying to come up with ways to raise money or help in any way. They were really into Rainbow Looming for a while. My son met a boy named Max who does the MaxLoves Project. When he's in the hospital, he likes to Rainbow Loom in his hospital room. My son just couldn't get over the fact that Max had brain cancer. … So he started Rainbow Looming on the set of 'Melissa & Joey' and charging people a dollar per bracelet. One night, he raised $120 to give to Max. So instead of a lemonade stand, he does a Rainbow Loom stand, or sometimes they actually do rock stands, which cracks me up. They'll go out and find quartz rocks, break them up into pieces and try to sell quartz rocks on a street corner. I try not to encourage that one. But they do come up with some crazy ideas."
Melissa Joan Hart on her not-so-secret desire for one of her sons to grow up to be an architect:
"They're diverse in their different abilities and their different interests. They all love fish and marine life. One wants to be a 'mean' biologist — he means marine biologist. They talk about engineering and architecture all the time, so maybe I'll get my wish."
Melissa Joan Hart on whether or not her kids are interested in careers in Hollywood:
"My oldest one has a musical ear like his dad. He is really talented when it comes to music — it's kind of crazy. He definitely doesn't get that from me. He wants to be an actor, but he wants to do it for the wrong reasons. I think he thinks it's an easy lifestyle and that you get rich and famous and it's great. I don't think he gets the artist nature of it yet, so I don't encourage it. I would probably do like what Ron Howard and some other people did with their kids: They go to school, they go to college, and then if they're still into [acting], they can do it. We have a great high school theater out where we live that does these amazing plays and stuff, so if they wanna do it, they can do it in those ways. I'm not ready to be a stage mom bringing them to auditions."
Melissa Joan Hart on her children turning into teenagers:
"[My oldest] moving up to middle school was a big shock. That sort of felt like the entrance into the teen years. His attitude definitely does. We're getting a little taste of it right now, for sure. … It's really hard to negotiate with a boy who's your size. And there's not a lot of things I can take away from him. He's not a big electronics junkie. He doesn't really have a phone. There's not a lot of stuff I can really take away from him except riding his bike around the neighborhood — which punishes me as much as him. It's such a healthy thing. So it's really hard to negotiate with him. He has more patience than I do, I think, so he can wait me out on a lot of different topics."
Melissa Joan Hart on whether or not she hopes to expand her brood:
"I think we're pretty complete right now. I never say never, but I'm getting a little older. I'm ready to travel with my kids — not sure I wanna go back to the baby phase. Ultimately, I would love to adopt a little girl who's a little bit older, but it's such a long process. We're not there yet, but that's something I'm into. I gotta get my husband on board."
Melissa Joan Hart on the upcoming "Sabrina" reboot on The CW:
"I figured [it would happen eventually]. It's fine. It's a spinoff of 'Riverdale.' I'd heard mumblings of it just like everyone else had. I wasn't shocked, and I'm not disappointed. I kind of have no feelings about it really."
Melissa Joan Hart on whether she'd be interested in working on the upcoming "Sabrina" reboot:
"I never say never. It would depend. There'd have to be some smart way into it. I obviously wouldn't play Sabrina, so who would I play? What kind of role would it be? I don't know. It would really depend. I have no idea if they would want to do that — or if I would want to do that. … I would love to play a villain. That would be fun. But there would have to be a smart way in because it's such a hard thing to do, to go backwards like that. And someone else is playing the lead role. I don't know. It would be weird. But I would be open to it if it was a really smart thing."
Melissa Joan Hart on the recent "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" reunion:
"What's so crazy is that we're all parents now. We went from being, like, wild and free and basically just dating — some people had spouses, but it was early in relationships and whatnot — to all of a sudden having all these kids around."
