Friday, 5 June 2009

Hugh Jackman reveals his bedtime secrets – for his kids

Give them a good workout says the X-Men star

Hugh Jackman is a big kid | Now Magazine | Celebrity Spy | Pictures

Hugh Jackman attented the Baby Buggy Bedtime Bash in New York's Central Park

How do you get your kids soundly asleep? Give them a good workout before bed, Hugh Jackman suggests.

"First of all, you gotta run them around before the bath. Play a game of hide and seek or wrestle or muck around," Jackman, 40, tells PEOPLE. "Then they're exhausted. Then we all fall asleep on the bed!"

The star of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was in daddy mode Tuesday night as he pushed his sleeping 3-year-old daughter, Ava, in an orange stroller – with his wife Deborra-Lee Furness by his side – to the Baby Buggy Bedtime Bash in New York's Central Park. The event raised $282,000 for Baby Buggy, a charity founded by Jessica Seinfeld (and supported by husband Jerry) that provides everything from cribs to diapers to families in need.

Describing the bedtime routines of his two kids, Ava, and Oscar, 8, Jackman, who is headed back to Broadway this fall with Daniel Craig, quips, "They go to bed, bath and beyond!"

So what does he think every parent should have in their arsenal of parenting goodies? "Stroller!" he says.

"No amount of gym work readies you for the dead weight of a child who's asleep for an hour through the park. And I've done that before. We have a nice, cheap, 20-buck stroller. We lose them everywhere. We leave them places. So there you go!"