Mama's family -- Rosie O'Donnell style

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PASADENA, Calif. --  Notably trimmer but no less opinionated, Rosie O'Donnell's latest venture puts out the message that a family's composition is irrelevant. All you need is love, whether you're a child being raised by two moms, two dads or a single parent.

A Family Is A Family Is A Family: A Rosie O'Donnell Celebration, modeled after the  1974 Marlo Thomas special Free to Be . . . You and Me, premieres Jan. 31st on HBO. At the recent Television Critics Association "press tour," O'Donnell appeared on a hotel ballroom stage with the oldest of her four children, 14-year-old adopted son Parker Jaren.

O'Donnell, who recently separated from her partner, Kelli Carpenter, said she has come to realize that "life comes down to one basic choice over and over again: faith or fear. And you have to serve somebody, the dark or the light.

"I don't spend too much time wondering what the people in the dark think. I try to sort of live my life and hope that people can be inspired by it and that my children are not damaged by it."

O'Donnell, 47, has warred in recent years with both Donald Trump and her co-hosts on ABC's The View, which she abruptly left in 2007. Last fall she took her unbridled opinions to Sirius satellite radio, where the two-hour Rosie Radio airs Mondays through Fridays. Her studio is in her Nyack, NY home.

"Authenticity is essential for me," she says. "And I think that the voice I get to use on the radio show is as close to a merged persona of truth that I've ever presented . . . So I don't imagine I'll go back to television, although there's been a lot of talk lately with Oprah Winfrey going to do her own channel. But I can't imagine doing it. I really enjoy being home, and with four kids."

Son Parker for the most part sat quietly by her side. But a spontaneous, slice-of-life interchange between the two kicked in after locatetv ventured a question about "being at a rebellious age right now, whether you've got two moms, two dads or whatever."

Here's how the rest of it went:

LOCATETV: What's your relationship with your mom? Does she know as much as maybe you thought she did a few years ago? (laughter) How do you guys get along?

PARKER: I'm going to get in trouble.

ROSIE: No, take it. Say the truth.

LOCATETV: Be honest now. (laughter)

PARKER: Well, me and mom have been close probably, yeah, since I was born. (laughter) Yeah. So I would probably say I talk to her a lot about a lot of stuff that's going on. And she probably knows most of the stuff that she needs to know. (laughter)

ROSIE: And I have spyware on his texting. (laughter) Which I recommend for all parents of teenagers.

PARKER: I don't.

ROSIE: But he is really an absurdly well-balanced child. And people always say to me, "Is it nature or nurture?" And I say, "With him it's completely nurture."

PARKER: Thanks, mom.

ROSIE: No, I'm kidding, honey. (laughter) But I don't know. I have a 12-year-old daughter who is much more rebellious than my son ever was. Although I did hit him in the head with a soft-cover dictionary two years ago. And then I . . .

PARKER: I don't think it was a soft-cover. (laughter)

ROSIE: OK. Maybe it was a hard-cover. But flexible. (laughter) And then I took to my bed for two days crying. And I told him that, you know, most mothers are able to deal with teenage angst, but I am not emotionally stable enough. And I could end up in a mental hospital in a straitjacket, so he better watch it.

And we haven't had a fight since then. So he's going to write a great book when he's older -- "My Insane Mother: How I Survived." But he's been an amazing gift to me since the day he was placed in my arms. And he is, without a doubt, the best thing that's ever happened in my life.