Maggie Gyllenhaal not judgemental of parents anymore

Maggie Gyllenhaal has learned to stop judging mothers on their parenting skills after giving birth to her first child and realising just how tough a job it really is.

The Dark Knight star admits she used to be highly critical watching parents and their kids out and about, and it was only after becoming a mom to little Ramona in 2006 that she began to accept she had been wrong to pass comment all along.

Maggie Gyllenhaal tells Parent & Child magazine, "I used to be judgemental of the way other people would parent.

"I would look at someone talking on a cell phone while her baby was asleep in a stroller and think, 'How can that mother have her cell phone out?' Then you actually have a baby and you're like, 'She's sleeping; I have 10 minutes; I'll make three phone calls.'

"I think so much of my judgment - not only about how people parent, but about people in general - went away when I became a mom."

The actress, who had a second daughter named Gloria earlier this year (12), also had to come to terms with her own realistic terms of parenthood and the star has now adopted a more relaxed approach to motherhood.

She says, "I was 28 when Ramona was born, and I had this idea that I think a lot of people in their twenties have, that I was supposed to do it perfectly. At least, if not perfectly, then exceptionally well. I've realized that that isn't possible and that part of being a human is making mistakes - and making lots of them."