Tamera Mowry Calls Scouting for Christmas a ‘Beautiful Example’ for Working Moms: ‘Life Is Not Perfect’ (Exclusive)

As a working mom for over a decade, Tamera Mowry-Housley acknowledges that some days go better than others.

“There are some days you got it and you’re like, ‘Wow, I am Supermom.’ Then there are days where it just doesn’t work out because life is not perfect,” the mom of son Aden, 11, and daughter Ariah, 9, tells PEOPLE. “You just have to embrace, pivot, love and get through.”

Mowry’s character in her new Hallmark movie Scouting for Christmas knows that well. The actress, 46, plays Angela, a single mom who struggles with balancing her real estate career with getting her 10-year-old daughter Brooklyn to her extracurriculars, like Sunny Scouts, on time.  

But “she never gives up,” Mowry says of Angela. “You have the moms who are able to be there every waking moment of their child’s life, and that’s wonderful. There’s also working moms trying to make ends meet and live out our dreams. Everyone has different avenues, and you have to do what’s right for you and your family. But as long as you are doing your best, you are doing enough.”

Angela also doesn’t let one particularly judgy troop mom — the kind who will send a strongly-worded email to a teacher when their child receives an A- — bring her down.

“She lets them know that, ‘Hey, I’m doing my best. I love my child and we got this,’ ” Mowry says. “Because quantity and quality are two different things. There are families that spend lots of time, but they’re not really spending that quality time. Like, are you present? Are you really there?’ That’s what’s important.”

Mowry admits she’s received some slack herself from fellow moms for being a career woman.

“I have experienced that, and when I was acting, I was thinking of a mom who’s like that,” she says. “I call them ‘momsters,’ moms that believe that their way is the only way. What I love about this film is it shows that that’s not true. I wanted to give that beautiful example for us working moms that it’s okay. The balance is never truly perfect.”

The Sister, Sister alum also likes that Scouting for Christmas shows “what a modern family looks like.”

“It’s about a mom doing anything and everything just to make sure her daughter has the best life after a divorce,” Mowry says. “It’s about the love that she has for this girl, and that is her main priority.”

Brooklyn wants the best for her mom too, and she tries to set Angela up with the owner of her favorite bakery. “Even though Angela has gone through this heartache, she opens herself up, possibly, to a new romance,” the Twitches star says.

Playing Angela gave Mowry the opportunity to live out a childhood fantasy as well. “I personally have always wanted to be a Girl Scout,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to say, ‘Scout’s honor.’ I’ve always wanted to wear the little sash and the cute little beret. So at least I got to play a mom to a child who is.”

Mowry acknowledges that Scouting for Christmas’s Oct. 20 premiere might be a little early to kick off holiday festivities, “but in my heart, I’m here,” she says. “Hallmark and Mariah Carey, they really have a way of putting you into the Christmas spirit.”

Scouting for Christmas premieres Sunday, Oct. 20 at 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel.