Maggie Gyllenhaal confessed that she "used to be judgmental" of other parents.

The 34-year-old actress is mother to two daughters with her husband Peter Sarsgaard; Ramona, five, and four-month-old Gloria Ray.

Maggie's condemnation of other progenitors has now abated.

"I used to be judgmental of the way other people would parent," she told Scholastic Parents & Child magazine's upcoming issue.

"I would look at someone talking on a cell phone while her baby was asleep in a stroller and think, How can that mother have her cell phone out?'

"Then you actually have a baby and you're like, She's sleeping; I have 10 minutes; I'll make three phone calls.' I think so much of my judgment not only about how people parent, but about people in general went away when I became a mom."

Maggie now forgives herself and others for making occasional parental blunders.

"I was 28 when Ramona was born, and I had this idea that I think a lot of people in their twenties have, that I was supposed to do it perfectly," she explained.

"I've realised that that isn't possible and that part of being a human is making mistakes and making lots of them."