Melissa Peterman Gets Emotional as She Says She Wishes She ‘Enjoyed Every Moment’ of Parenthood More (Exclusive)

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Melissa Peterman attends the opening night of “La Cage aux Folles”

Melissa Peterman is opening up about her relationship with her teenage son.

In an exclusive clip shared with PEOPLE from a new episode of I’ve Never Said This Before with Tommy DiDario podcast, out Tuesday, March 17, the Happy’s Place actress, 53, was asked by host Tommy DiDario to talk about something that she’s never shared in interviews before. Peterman, who is mom to 19-year-old son Riley, began to get a little emotional as she spoke about balancing her career and being a mom.

“I think something I’ve never said before is I was always the mom I wanted to be. It’s hard to balance everything,” Peterman said.

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Melissa Peterman

Asked if she ever doubted that she was a good mom, Peterman explained that every parent will always doubt how they did.

“My son is great. He’s great. He’s 19. And I know I was there more than you could always have been because I had the luxury of not 9 to 5. But sometimes you just wish…I don’t know. I think I was always the best mom that I could be in that moment,” Peterman said. “But as a parent, I think maybe…I’m an empty nester right now. So he just left, so I’m really missing him. So I think I just wanna go back and do moments again.”

Peterman went on to say that it “goes so fast” and that everyone always says to enjoy every little moment but adds that it can be hard to remind yourself of that sometimes.

“And I wanted to say that because I think everyone thinks you can do it all every second and the reality is every day you can do one thing really well and one thing kind of well. And the next day you might do the other thing really well, and the other thing kind of well,” Peterman explained.

“So yeah I don’t think you always get the luxury to be the exact parent in every moment. You’re like, ‘Ah, I wish I didn’t have the phone that day,’ or you know, there’s just little…nothing tragic or anything like that. Just embrace those moments, you know?”

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Melissa Peterman and Reba McEntire

DiDario then again asked Peterman if she ever felt like she wasn’t the mom she was trying to be, since she was getting increasingly more emotional. However, the actress explained that she knows she was a good mom and that it was more about wishing she could go back.

“I was always there. And I didn’t miss a lot of stuff or time. I really didn’t. It’s not even about my job. It was just about, it went so fast,” Peterman said.

“I do that thing where I will look at baby pictures and go like, ‘I want that moment back!’ So I think it’s just being present in moments, sometimes,” she went on. “We rush things, we fast forward through things, even little moments like, ‘I can’t wait till this birthday party is over and I can clean up.’ No, don’t.”

“So no, I don’t think it was any moment where I thought I was a bad mom, just in hindsight I wish I enjoyed every moment a little bit more. But I think we all have those.”