Mom Knows Best: The Mothers of Successful Philadelphians Tell All

Barbara Vetri

Mom to Marc Vetri, chef, international food superstar, and owner of Vetri Cucina and Fiorella

Being a mom and working full time was … frowned upon in those days. I’m an attorney, and I just never wanted to give that up. But I was always at the parent-teacher conferences!

When people ask me if Marc learned to cook from me … I laugh. I’m neither a good cook nor a bad cook. I just don’t cook.

The thing I think I did most right as a mom was … not hovering. I let all three of my kids make mistakes and make their own choices. When they were quite young, it would be six o’clock, and I’d say, “Do you want to go to bed now or at eight o’clock?” Naturally, they would choose eight. But I gave them that choice.

One thing about Marc that makes me proud is … how he’s been a mentor to so many chefs who went on to open their own restaurants, win James Beard awards. He truly wants to help people succeed.

Marc doesn’t know this, but … he refused to let me walk him to the bus stop. He was so independent. Every day I’d let him walk to the bus stop. An hour later I’d call the school to make sure he got there.

My advice for moms out there is … teach self-confidence. A lot has changed from 1926 to 1966 to 2026, but one thing remains the same: Your kids need to be self-confident.

Sharyn Holley

Mom to Alex Holley, Good Day Philadelphia co-host

The last time I talked to Alex was … this morning. [Laughs] My husband and I watch her from our home outside of Dallas every morning. There was something not quite right with her hair, so I texted her during the show. She fixed it during commercial break.

A family tradition we’ll never let go of is … me bringing her real Texas food for Thanksgiving each year. Barbecue, tamales, broccoli salad. I pack it all right up in my suitcase.

One parenting regret is … letting her quit karate. She’d be a black belt by now!

I wanted her to grow up to be … a pilot. When she said she wanted to be on TV, I said, “She’s forever going to be in our pocketbooks.” Then one day, she announced she was paying for our meal. We were like, “Really? I guess she’s gonna be okay.”

Alex’s teenage years were … quite easy. But she was raised by a village and she knew it — if she was doing anything she wasn’t supposed to be doing, somebody would see it. She had many surrogate mothers.

I wish I had taught her … sewing. And work-life balance. She has an incredible work ethic.

My advice for moms out there is … let your kids question you. And instill in your kids this: Don’t let anyone take your joy.

Rose Ingelsby

Mom to Brad Ingelsby, Main Line creator of HBO hits Mare of Easttown and Task

As a kid, Brad was always … playing basketball in the kitchen with his two brothers. He was very into basketball all through high school. My husband played for the NBA, one of my sons is the basketball coach at the University of Delaware, and one of my daughters is married to the basketball GM at Villanova. You could say we’re a basketball family.

When he majored in business at Villanova … I was very glad. He always said he wanted to be a writer — and we were always asking him to help us with our writing when he was a teenager — but we wanted him to have something to fall back on.

I raised him to be … nice. Simple as that sounds. He attracts nice people because he is nice. If you go onto his set, he’s friends with the girl serving food, the guys moving the trucks — everybody.

He wanted to be … different. All the other kids wanted cherry popsicles, so he’d insist on orange.

If you make me pick between Mare of Easttown and Task … oh, Task 100 percent. I very much enjoyed Mare as well, but there’s something about Task. Truly, I loved both. I love things that haunt me.

My advice for moms out there is … know who your child’s friends are. That’s so important.

Radha Srikantaiah

Mom to Nikil Saval, state senator who represents Center City and most of South Philadelphia

By the time Nikil came along … we were living in Santa Monica. We had originally moved from Bangalore, India, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1970, and I had obtained my master’s degree in immunology and microbiology. I already had a son, Kishore, who is eight years older, and juggling both of them with my work in a lab at UCLA was a lot.

Having an older brother was … so wonderful for Nikil. His brother really wanted us to have another child, and he spent so much time reading to Nikil that Nikil was able to read full sentences by the time he was three years old.

Having kids as immigrants was … not so easy! You have to remember that we came here with no one. We had no family around to help. Now we live in Cherry Hill and Nikil lives with his family in Philly, and I just picked up my grandkids from school yesterday. We see them a lot. We moved here to be near them all.

When Nikil said he was going to run for state Senate … I really couldn’t comprehend how that would work. He was already a ward leader, but his opponent in the state Senate race was a three-term incumbent and had raised a million dollars. But I think people realized that Nikil has true compassion. He truly wants to help the underdogs.

If I’m cooking, Nikil wants me to make … dosa and rasam. I just brought him some rasam the other day because he was sick.

Nikil’s main talent as a child was … piano. He still plays. So beautiful. I love it when he plays anything by Bach.

My advice for moms out there is … to get them off the screens! Nikil and his wife, Shannon, are quite strict with TV. But as grandparents, we do let them watch a bit. We have to spoil them, no?

Claudine Nézet

Mom to Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra

When Yannick was born … everybody was so excited. He has two older sisters, and before Yannick, I also lost a baby. Yannick was kind of their little boy, their little baby.

Yannick gets his musical genius from … an unknown source. My husband and I have had musicians on both sides of the family, but nobody’s done it seriously. But when our first child was born, even though we didn’t have much money, we insisted on buying a piano, because it was important to us that all our children learn music.

I really tried to teach him to be … helpful. He was always done with his assignments before his classmates, so I’d tell him to help them with theirs. It remained with him. He is so helpful today.

We knew this was going to be a serious thing … when he was 10. We’d take him to see the orchestra in Montreal, and he would make these beautiful drawings of the orchestra. At 10, he pointed at the conductor in his drawing and said, “I want to do that.” And he never gave up on that dream.

As a teenager, Yannick was … quite popular. He was always dancing, making theater. He had so many friends. Sports, he didn’t enjoy that much. My husband took him to hockey games, but Yannick really disliked it. He didn’t like the violence with the stick.

I see him … frequently. When he’s not in New York or Philadelphia, he’s living in Montreal, where we reside. We go see him for performances; we’ve also gone on tour with him. We’ve gotten to know many of the musicians very well, and they are like our children too.

My advice for moms out there is … to listen to their children. Don’t impose. Listen to what they want, what their dreams are, and do everything you can to help them realize those dreams.

Monica Luzardo

Mom to Jesús Luzardo, Phillies pitcher who just signed a five-year, $135 million contract extension

My earliest memories of Jesús and baseball are … when my husband bought him a bat and ball when he was two, and Jesús started playing with both immediately. And just never stopped.

I knew he was going to make it into the big time … in his junior year of high school. All these scouts started showing up to watch him pitch, and I looked at Jesús and said, “We’re going to need to have a conversation.” He had full scholarships to dream colleges but instead went into the minors at 17 and the majors when he was 20.

When Jesús was a kid, he loved to … charge his sister $1 to sleep on the floor in his room. She’d watch scary movies and not want to sleep alone. He earned a lot of money that way.

The first time I heard Jesús booed … was in Philadelphia, of course! He had a bad outing during his first season, last year. He had bad outings with the Nationals, Athletics, and Marlins, but it took coming all the way to Philadelphia to have him get booed. It was really tough for me.

One thing he did as a kid that got on my nerves was … always needing to know what’s for lunch when he hadn’t even finished breakfast yet.

I see Jesús … all the time. He’s chosen to live five minutes from me in Parkland, Florida, so I see him literally every day during the off-season. And during the season, we go to Philadelphia and any away games where he’s starting, so I see him at least once per week.

My advice for moms is … keep the lines of communication open. Talk about everything. You need them to feel comfortable coming to you. This is simply a must.