Sandra Bullock Wants to Be 24/7 Mom & Finally Decides to Leave Career behind for Her Kids

Sandra Bullock has had an incredibly successful acting career. But she recently announced that she's stepping away from her career to devote all her time to her children.

Sandra Bullock is an Academy Award-winning actress known for her roles in films such as "Speed" and "The Proposal." She was born in Arlington, Virginia, on July 26, 1964. Her parents were a voice teacher and an opera singer, and she studied music and dance while traveling through Europe.

She first became widely known for her role in the 1994 film "Speed." She won a Best Actress Academy Award and Golden Globe for the 2009 film, "The Blind Side." Following an acting break after her Academy Award-winning performance, she returned to film in 2013 with the box office hit "The Heat" and has since starred in numerous other commercially successful films.

WHY SHE DOESN’T HAVE BIOLOGICAL KIDS

Bullock married Jesse James and became a stepmother to his daughter, Sunny, in 2005. The child's biological mother, Janine Lindemulder, was arrested for tax evasion in 2009, and when she was released, she got into a fierce custody battle against Bullock and James. The couple accused Lindemulder of being an unfit mother due to substance abuse and abusing Sunny.

In a letter to the court, Bullock argued that she had plans to have a child with James but put those on hold due to Sunny's unstable home environment with her biological mother. She added that she had an amicable co-parenting relationship with James's first wife and their children and would not want to keep Sunny away from her biological mother completely.

Bullock never mentioned an interest in having children before her marriage. She admitted that she put her career before children to avoid losing out on acting opportunities. She also said other childfree celebrities like Betty White inspired her. " I went, 'Wow.' When everyone is going 'You should have a baby now,' I'm like, 'I could. Maybe I should. But do I need to?" she said.

HER BEAUTIFUL ADOPTION STORY

Bullock adopted her first child, Louis, at three and a half months old in 2010. She said, "Katrina happened in New Orleans, and something told me, 'My child is there.' It was weird." She added that it felt as though he had always been in her life when she first saw him. She raised Louis, and when he was three years old, she was inspired by her son to adopt her second child.

Bullock said that one day when she was at dinner with her friends and son, Louis told them that they would soon have a baby despite no plans on Bullock's part to adopt a child. In 2015, Bullock adopted three and a half-month-old Laila, who had been living in foster care in Lousiana. "It’s Louis' way. Louis has a very strong way. He's a fine leader, and he led me to Lai," she said.

STEPPING AWAY FROM ACTING FOR HER CHILDREN

Ever since she became a mother, Bullock said that she had dedicated her achievements to her children. She dedicated her MTV Award win for the 2018 film "Birdbox" to them. She told them that they were the most important part of her life and that she would move mountains to make sure they were always safe.

Following her most recent film, "The Lost City" in 2022, in which she starred alongside Channing Tatum and Daniel Radcliffe, Bullock announced that she would be stepping away from acting for an indefinite amount of time. She said that since she had always taken her job very seriously, she wanted to dedicate all that energy to her children.

"I just want to be 24/7 with my babies and my family. That’s where I'm gonna be for a while," she said. She added that the Covid-19 Pandemic also influenced her decision to step back from acting. "They know their children will return without COVID when they've come to our house," she added.

ALWAYS A PROTECTIVE MOTHER

Bullock has always been fiercely protective of her children. During a conversation with fellow actress Jeniffer Aniston, she mentioned her worry about raising her children as they grow older. She questioned how parents could raise their children to know the difference between right and wrong with the prevalence of screens and the endless stream of information.

She added that she gave her now pre-teen children only three choices with regards to their college education:

“ I gave them the places where they can go to college because that’s where mommy feels comfortable living. I said, “You can go to these three colleges because I’m going to buy an apartment down the street.”

Having adopted African American children, Bullock is no stranger to the racial prejudice aimed at her children and criticism aimed at her for her choice to adopt children of a different race from her. During an interview on "The Red Table Talk" with Jada Pinkett-Smith, she said that she sometimes wished her skin matched with her children so that it would be easier in how people approach them.

"Maybe one day that will go away. Maybe one day we will be able to see with different eyes," she reflected. She also spoke about her anxiety around the racism she anticipated that her children would face. She added that she wanted her children to be safe and wanted her son to be judged for the person he is and not his skin color.

Following her divorce from Jesse James in 2010 after cheating allegations on James's part, Bullock is raising her two children with her boyfriend, Bryan Randall, and his child. The couple has been together since 2015, and Bullock said she feels no pressure to remarry.