Katharine Mcphee thinks she has "more patience" as a parent than the generation before her.

The 39-year-old actress has two-year-old son Rennie with David Foster, 73, and explained that while she wants to bring him up to be "nice, polite and obedient", she also favours a more modern approach to parenting that differs slightly from her husband.

She told UsWeekly: "We don’t put up with any BS. We don’t want him to be an A-hole. He [needs] to be nice, polite, obedient, have his own voice and all that, but just [be] a good kid. We just have different ways of approaching the boundaries. I would say I’m more of that newer generation of gentle parenting and explaining and having a bit more patience in just a new way than what I think the older generation was taught how to parent. When I have a different approach, [I] try to get him to be more like my approach without wanting to take away from how he wants to parent."

The former 'Smash' star - who shot to fame as the runner-up on 'American Idol' in 2006 and went on to star on Broadway in 'Waitress' - went on to describe changing a toddler as the "hardest" thing she has ever done and compared the experience to that of an exercise class because the little one is so strong.

She added: "“It’s so funny. Literally changing a fricking two-year-old is the hardest thing. First of all, he’s so strong and it’s hard. It’s like an aerobics class. … I mean, he’s never liked having his clothes changed or whatever. So sometimes it turns into a game, sometimes it turns into a struggle, but honestly, just who knew changing clothes would be so difficult