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The Wades have spent much of the pandemic perfecting that art of being one big blended family, their way. The head lady at the table, Gabrielle Union, has somehow managed to balance her career with being a good--and progressive--wife and mother. Union currently lives in Los Angeles, with her husband, former NBA star Dwyane Wade, their two-year-old daughter, Kaavia, and Union's sister, who is a live-in babysitter for Kaavia. Union is also the stepmother to three kids from Wade's previous relationships—Zaire, 18; Zaya, 13, and Xavier, 6. They've also raised Dahveon, 18, Wade's nephew, for the past 12 years.

How sis manages to wrangle this household down at the end of the day, we'll never understand, but she did tell us what happens. In a recent interview, she described how she likes to wind down her evenings, and it's household goals!

Operation Shut-It Down starts at 6pm.

Gabrielle Union toldSELF:

"We call it Operation Shut-It-Down. Sometimes, we call it Operation Shut-It-The-Fuck-Down."
"Operation Shut-It-Down starts around six o'clock when Kaav goes in for bath time.That's kind of when the noise levels drop; everyone's moving in to prepare for the end of the day. By 6:30, Kaav is out. We don't mess with her schedule at all, no matter what happens."

Gabrielle then plays a little R&B to wine down. 

"I play my chill-out mix, which is a lot of '80s R&B. It's a lot of Phyllis Hyman, a lot of Anita Baker and Gregory Abbott, that kind of '80s R&B vibe. We might watch some TV and then the candles will start to get lit and we retreat to our separate corners in our bedroom for the nighttime. I light my palo santo, a little sage."

Up next is the beauty routine, because...skincare.

Gabrielle Union's very detailed skincare routine is up next, complete with products to set you up right:

"Then I start my evening beauty routine. I'm not sure if you're familiar with this company called The Things We Do, which I'm obsessed with. I wash my face with the Glow Scrub Cleanser. Then there's this product called Do Over, which, no lie, it is a game changer. It's a retinol, and it's everything. It doesn't leave me irritated, but I generally use it at night, not in the morning, a few times a week.

She plays a guided meditation throughout the house.

"Sometimes we'll put the guided meditations on throughout the house, or meditative music throughout the house.We sort of force everyone to do it with us. We do a guided meditation or just a meditation."

She continued:

"Just give yourself that time to center yourself. For me, instead of looking at social media, because obviously I need my phone to get my guided meditation, I just go straight to my guided meditation—in the bathroom—and just have that time. Before you check and see that the murder hornets are making their way to your hometown, give yourself that space."

Gabrielle encourages everyone in the house to put away their electronics before bed.

The Wades also prioritize therapy and putting away the electronics.

"It started with Zaya, because she would literally be up all night, like overnight, and be dragging during school, and it was just increasing her anxiety. Constantly looking at social media—between the FOMO and feeling like you're not doing a pandemic right, all of that—it was just increasing her anxiety. So we started just putting them away. Just putting our phones away has greatly changed the sleep routine for all of us. And then when you wake up, don't reach right for the phone."

Union also discussed her entire beauty routine, the importance of therapy, and more. Read the full interview here.

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Feature image via Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com

 

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