AceShowbiz - Mariah Carey is opening up about her parenting. The pop diva, who shares twins Monroe and Moroccan with ex-husband Nick Cannon, shared in a new interview that while she didn't want to be the bad guy when it came to the parenting, she noted it was almost impossible to be a "cool mom."

"I'm going to have to quote 'Mean Girls' and be, like, 'I'm not a regular mom. I'm a cool mom.' There are no rules in this house," the 52-year-old star told Us Weekly while promoting her Mariah Menu at McDonald's. "No, there are rules in this house, that's the difference. Like, I want to be that - I don't like being the bad guy, I have to say. I really don't, like, I hate that more than anything."

The "All I Want for Christmas Is You" hitmaker went on to say, "So, you know, I do want to be, like, "I'm not really a mom, I'm a cool mom.' But you're never a cool mom, like, you just never are."

Mariah added that her kids are "aware of the success, the records and this new diamond certification." She continued, "They see these things and they see it on a list with songs of like the most current artists. Then they see it at No. 1 and they're like, 'What in the world.' Because obviously, everybody knows I wasn't born. I was just here, here I am. And I'm not even a real person. I'm just an animated character."

Later in the interview, Mariah revealed her family's unusual Christmas tradition. "Me sleeping. Here's the thing, I stay up really [late]. We have a lot of traditions and we start doing them all on the 23rd and then every night there's, like, another thing. So Christmas morning I've already been up since 5 A.M. getting everybody's packages together and this and that. [So] I'm just like, 'You know what? I'm not opening my stuff until the next day,' " the New York native explained.

"So, we do breakfast and the kids open their presents and whoever wants to open their presents can do it. I just prefer to wait until I can actually look at it and, and be, like, 'Oh, this is amazing.' That means not when I just haven't even slept. I go back to sleep and then, like, have the afternoon kind of moment," the Grammy winner said, adding that her daughter texted her Christmas list which included "66 items."