Little meatballs! Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi may not have been the best employee in Shore Store history, but there’s at least one job she’s incredible at: motherhood.
The Jersey Shore: Family Vacation star and her husband, Jionni LaValle, are the parents of three adorable kids: Lorenzo (born in August 2012), Giovanna (born in September 2014) and Angelo (born in May 2019). While the trio have occasionally joined their mom on her MTV reality show, they don’t quite understand what she does for a living.
“Both [of my eldest two] kids think I’m an actress,” the Snooki Shop founder told Us Weekly in June 2021. “I tell them that it’s not real. I’m just acting, like, I’m playing a role, that’s what they think. … I don’t think they’re ready for that yet. So as of right now, I am an actress.”
The Shore Thing author explained that she plans to reveal the truth to the kids once they’re well into their teenage years. “They’ll kind of get it [then],” the reality star joked. “Like, ‘Listen, Mommy had some crazy years before she was a mommy. She let loose. So, whatever you see on TV back then, just do the opposite of what I did.’”
Lorenzo, however, is already old enough to have opinions about what he’s seen of Jersey Shore — even if he thinks it’s all fictional. “He’s definitely on YouTube a lot because he watches WWE and all of that, and sometimes he does come across Mommy running around, going crazy from clips of [Jersey Shore],” the Messyness host told Us in August 2021. “He doesn’t really judge me. He’s just like, ‘Mom, you’re a mess. Mom, you’re embarrassing.’ And I’m like, ‘Alright, whatever.’”
The Dancing With the Stars alum and LaValle tied the knot in November 2014 after getting engaged two years earlier. Though Polizzi’s Jersey Shore antics are now legendary — “where’s the beach?!” — she’s said that becoming a young mom helped her put her wild days behind her.
“Once I became a mom, I realized there’s more to life than just being selfish and partying and going crazy,” the Messy Mawma founder said during a January 2022 appearance on The Nick Cannon Show. “I love mom life, I love my babies.”
Though her days of beating the beat up might be over, Polizzi still finds plenty of time to hang out with her roommates, especially now that many of them are also parents. Giovanna, for her part, is BFFs with Jenni “JWoww” Farley‘s daughter, Meilani (born in July 2014).
“They FaceTime each other almost every day,” Farley told Us in April 2021. “They love being around the cameras, so I have a feeling they’re going to end up in the entertainment industry somehow in some way.”
Keep scrolling for more adorable photos of Polizzi and LaValle with their brood.