Tea Leoni may have a hit television show on her hands with Madam Secretary, but she is very clear about where her priorities lie.

“My job security is really as a parent,” Leoni told Emmy Magazine recently. “This show is the icing on the cake.”

Tea Leoni laughs about hos much she dotes on her kids, even to the point that it makes them uncomfortable.

“I am just staring at my children all the time,” Leoni tells the magazine. “The other day they said, ‘Mom, it’s creepy.’ I’m like, ‘I just want to watch you watch TV – I’m desperate for this time.’ And they’re like, ‘Seriously, knock it off.’

Between playing Secretary of State on television and being a mom, Leoni burns the candle at both ends.

“I actually believe my job and John Kerry’s job are comparable in terms of the hours,” Tea Leoni says. “I’m sure he spends more time on a plane, but I’d kill for a plane ride right about now. I would love for somebody to say, ‘It’s a 13-hour flight, and all you have to do is sit back in a reclining seat with a cell phone that can’t ring.’ Hallelujah!”

Wanna know who is utterly gorgeous? Téa Leoni.

— ☾ (@poetsinmyheart) August 11, 2015

Her kids are teens now, but Leoni says that does not necessarily mean that her job is any easier.

“It was easier when I could fit them into a backpack,” she says. “Now, around 10:15 at night, I wonder just how much they’re destroying the kitchen. What kind of slick goo am I going to walk into when I get home? But I’m lucky I have two extremely rational, fair, hilarious children who don’t seem to need to inflict a lot of pain on me, as I did to my mom.”

As any parent, Tea Leoni wears the badges of honor of being a mom, the scars and marks of raising children.

“I earned every line on my face,” Leoni says. “Every mistake, every sunburn, every stress, every beautiful moment, every minute of a 30-hour labor – that was the first one – I’m wearing it. And I wonder why that isn’t considered, in its own way, gorgeous.”

She does stay in shape, but not to look glamorous.

“Now I don’t exercise for my ass, but so my heart doesn’t stop,” she says. “Things change.”

Tea leoni is so cute I need to watch madam secretary

— L (@sigourneyweavr) August 11, 2015