Melissa Gorga Says She's Hanging Out with Daughter Antonia 'Like She's a Girlfriend' as She Grows Up-quang

The mom of three shares her children, Antonia, Gino and Joey, with her husband Joe Gorga

Melissa Gorga and her daughter Antonia.

Melissa Gorga's kids are growing up!

While speaking exclusively with PEOPLE about expanding Let’s Sprinkle by MG to include a Sprinkle Coffee Cake, the Real Housewives of New Jersey star, 46, opened up about how her three children have essentially grown up on the Bravo reality show. Gorga, who shares her children, Antonia, 19, Gino, 17, and Joey, 14, with husband Joe Gorga, says that she even started to treat her daughter Antonia "like a girlfriend" instead of just her child.

"She just came home because she's on spring break, and ... she seemed so adult to me and grown," she tells PEOPLE. "I have like a new friend, this is now gonna be, she's like a girlfriend. Now, instead of a child, even [though] obviously she's my child, but it's like you can start to hang out with her now and talk about things and discuss things that are going on in her friends' lives."

Melissa Gorga and her daughter Antonia.

Gorga has always had a close relationship with her daughter, Antonia. In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE in May 2024 ahead of the Real Housewives of New Jersey season premiere, she shared that fans can expect her to get a little emotional during the show as her daughter Antonia heads off to college.

"That was so bittersweet," she recalled. "And I feel like it's going to be so relatable for so many moms out there because I was happy for her, but I was also emotional and sad. It also felt like something was happening in my life because I'm like, 'Where's my child going? What point are we at here? Nobody needs their diapers changed. What's happening?'"

"And to see her go, I was so emotional. I know that it's going to resonate with a lot of moms out there that are about to send their kids away or their kids just left," the mom of three continued. "It's hard. It's so bittersweet because you're so excited for them. And then you're also just...you just can't stop crying."

In addition to all of her children getting older, the reality star is also embracing this current era of hers. Gorga, who recently celebrated her 46th birthday in March, is "looking forward to just being content and happy."

"I feel like, as you get older, you start to realize you need to appreciate what you do have. I am a big reacher," she tells PEOPLE. "I'm a workaholic. I always reach for more, but I also have to sit back sometimes and realize like how far I've come and what I've accomplished and these businesses that I've created from the ground up and just kind of sit back and be proud."

"I think it's okay to be proud and grateful and realize, like 'Wow, I've done a lot in the last decade,'" she says. "It's in my blood to keep reaching higher and going for more, but ... I think it's time [for] all of us to give ourselves a little."