Rob McElhenney got parenting advice from Danny DeVito to avoid ‘nepo baby’ trap

Being a parent is hard. And parenting amid the nepo-baby discourse as two famous actors poses its own unique set of challenges. Thankfully for Rob McElhenney and his wife and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” costar Kaitlin Olson, who share two children, they have good role models in Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman.”Having Danny DeVito and Rhea in our lives, who have raised three wonderful kids, has been really helpful,” McElhenney said in Business Insider’s latest digital cover story.”Really, the trick is not much of a trick at all,” McElhenney explained of DeVito’s advice. “It’s just, show up, be there for them, make sure that they know that they’re the most important thing in your lives, which they are.”DeVito and Perlman know a thing or two about raising kids in the public eye.Their eldest child, daughter Lucy DeVito, 41, is an actor who’s appeared on “Always Sunny” and did voice work alongside her famous father for the 2022 animated show “Little Demon.”DeVito and Perlman also share another daughter named Gracie DeVito, 39, and a son named Jacob DeVito, 36.Lucy and Jacob executive produced “Little Demon.” Gracie isn’t an actor, but is in a similar creative field as a painter and performance artist.McElhenney and Olson met when Olson was cast as Sweet Dee on McElhenney’s FX series. In Business Insider’s cover story, Olson said watching McElhenney work on the show was “definitely when I started to fall in love with him.” The two have been married since 2008 and have two children together: sons Axel Lee (born in September 2010) and Leo Grey (born in April 2012).While both kids have made appearances on “Always Sunny,” McElhenney isn’t worried about his sons becoming stereotypical nepo babies or running into the dangers of stardom.”We’ve been very fortunate because we have a lot of people in our lives who were either raised by people of great affluence or celebrity or people who raised kids in that scenario who turned out great,” he said. What it boils down to, he added, is that the parents are present.”If your parents are around, they show up, they give you unconditional love with boundaries and respect you and spend time with you, you’re probably going to be OK.”