How Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. Are Slaying the "Learning Curve" of Parenting

Try not to be too shocked, but Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. are big Halloween people.

"The running joke is we're actors, of course we put on costumes," the actress told E! News in an exclusive interview, noting how she and her husband are known for their couples' ensembles, such as last year's Princess Bride-inspired pairing. "But this year we're stepping it up. We're finally ready for [the family] to do Knott's Scary Farm. It's their 50th anniversary so it's going to be, like, spooktacular."

Daughter Charlotte, 14, "suddenly loves everything horror," Gellar said, while son Rocky, 11, is on a case-by-case scary movie kick, whichever ones Mom and Dad—who are kinda experts on the subject—allow him to watch. 

As for getting into the spirit of the season, Gellar's had some extra help this year from her new partnership with home services site Thumbtack, which aims to make a daunting to-do list of repairs and maintenance less of a horror show. But it doesn't need to be Halloween for the Wolf Pack star to be on alert for things that go bump in the night.

"I grew up in an apartment in New York City," she said, chatting over Zoom from her Los Angeles home and reflecting on the eye-opening realization that "houses make noises. Floors creak, and it can be really unsettling."

Not that she would be spending much alone time in a place that didn't feel right, mind you.

"I am very big on energy," Gellar explained, "so when I'm looking at a house, I feel the energy when I come in. Obviously, no previous homicidal deaths would be a big No. 1 for me. But our house now was only owned by one other family who we know and they're still happy, so this house has that energy."

That didn't, unfortunately, make it immune from a tree falling on the roof during the inordinately heavy L.A. rainfall earlier this year, or from routine wear and tear. Hence Gellar's enthusiasm for slaying her to-do list with Thumbtack, which suits her both as a planner and a busy mom who needs that water heater fixed now.

However, if the house was under threat by forces more nefarious than clogged gutters or a leaky faucet, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum cracked that her advice would be, "Move. Get out."

But, she noted, "to keep the integrity of a house, you have to do that constant maintenance or it will literally implode on you."

Which, incidentally, sounds a lot like her approach to another important structure in her life.

"I think any relationship, whether it's a romantic relationship, whether it's a partnership or whether it's a friendship, is you have to put work into it," Gellar said when asked what helped keep her enviable marriage so solid (aside from separate bathrooms). "And if you're not willing to do the work, then it's not going to succeed. And that's the truth of anything."

She and Prinze, who met making the 1997 horror classic I Know What You Did Last Summer but didn't starting dating until a few years later, celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary on Sept. 1—a testament to starting with a strong foundation and all the TLC they've put in along the way.

And the united front will come in handy more than ever now that they've got a teenager under their roof—one whose birthday wish came true last month when Gellar treated Charlotte to an Ed Sheeran concert at SoFi Stadium.

Not all moments can be like mother and daughter swaying dreamily to "Perfect," arm in arm, but Gellar considers the inevitable clashes to just be part of a greater whole. 

"It's day to day," she said of parenting a teen, miming the motion of a wave. "It's a learning curve and, you know, all of the ages are wonderful."

And, Gellar added, "they're scary and traumatic, and I'm just lucky that I have two healthy, wonderful kids—and that we're going to navigate all of this together and somehow manage to work and have fun and do all the things."

They have had a little more time lately to do all the things, for better or worse.

Acknowledging that the circumstances were bittersweet, knowing that she wouldn't be on a set this past summer due to the ongoing actors' strike, her family took the opportunity to book and actually go on vacation to Italy in August. (Unlike the time they had to cancel a whole planned trip to Japan.)

And yes, as evidenced by the photos Gellar shared of their travels through Florence, Tuscany and Positano, it was friggin' amazing.

Though that's not to be confused with wildly relaxing because, as Gellar said, "if you don't plan it out, you're not getting a table at dinner and you're not getting into a museum."

To truly let go, she noted, her family goes to Hawaii whenever possible, "because that's the place where, we always say, the mana of the island just gets us. We can enjoy and relax and not have to plan, and really just feel the spirit."

And so long as the spirit is on their side, consider Gellar at home.

Meanwhile, to jog your own spooky season energy, keep reading to see some of the best celebrity Halloween costumes of all time:

as Dorothy from Wizard of Oz 

as Guy Fieri 

as Harley Quinn and The Joker 

as Adele

as Monsters, Inc. cast

as a Flaming Hot Cheeto

as Madonna

as a the cast of Coming to America

as Zoolander

as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

as The Mask

as Jessica Rabbit

as the Powerpuff Girls

as a Fembot from Austin Powers

as Post Malone

as Barbie and Ken

as Dionne from Clueless

as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen

as a Loofah

as Pennywise

as Beyoncé and Jay Z

as Christina Aguilera

as the Corpse Bride

as Bring it On cheerleaders

as Karl Lagerfeld and his cat Coupette

as Beetlejuice and Lydia