Jessica Alba has a fantastic outlook on her experience with motherhood.
 
Though the Honey alum—who shares kids Honor, 15, Haven, 12, and Hayes, 5, with husband Cash Warren—has moved past the baby stage of parenthood, she's still learning something new each step of the way.

"I think every stage of parenting has brought me tremendous amount of joy," Jessica told E! News' Francesca Amiker in an exclusive interview. "My kids school me for sure. They each have their own little needs or what they need from me or what they want from me. I love that they aren't shy about letting me know."

And she's taken the lessons she's learned from being schooled to heart. As the Fantastic Four star explained, her son Hayes taught her to "laugh more and to be more unapologetically joyful."

"This guy, he just runs non-stop, and he just wakes up and he's on the go," she continued. "He's not self-conscious at all and I love that about him. But then he still has that tender side and likes to cuddle. I love it, I love every second of it."

photosJessica Alba Through the Years

On the other hand, the mom of three has a different perspective when it comes to her and Cash's two girls.

"I feel like I'm constantly learning from them, just how to be more connected to my feelings on an ongoing basis because they both need such different things from me," the 42-year-old noted. "I think empathy and compassion are things you learn—you can't learn enough."

Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Baby2Baby

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Naturally, the Honest Company founder—who recently partnered with BabyList, a new experiential shopping space in LA that carries everything a new mom needs for her babies—is also focused on making sure her kids learn from her life experiences.

BabyList

"I have been fortunate enough to actually bring a kid along on business trips, not everyone can do that, so I totally understand," Jessica—whose brand Honest Company includes everything from Clean Conscious Wipes to Clean Conscious Diapers and Healing Head-To-Toe Ointment—explained. "But I actually like them to see me working. Sometimes they'll sit in the corner and I'm doing a boring meeting but it's in Italy and I'm there for three days. We bond when we're on the plane, on the way there and you get to order room service, watching movies in bed and even if you're a little jet-lagged, just getting them outside of the everyday routine."

And she also wants her kids to realize that life simply "isn't free."

"There is a cost," Jessica added. "I think it's also good for your kids to connect with what that means."

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