Jennifer Lopez compares her experience as a single mom to sister Lynda Lopez’s

Relatively speaking, Lynda Lopez’s parenting situation isn’t that bad. As an Emmy Award-winning journalist in her early 40s, she was in a solid position to welcome daughter Lucie with her (now former) boyfriend Adam Goldfried in 2008. Still, big sister Jennifer Lopez admits Lynda’s road as a single mother has been more difficult than what she experiences in parenting Max and Emme.

“I just love and respect her so much. She’s a single mom but not like I’m a single mom,” the American Idol judge told Cosmopolitan. “I have a lot of help — she doesn’t.”

Seeking to ease some of Lynda’s struggles, Jennifer recently invited her sister to come work for her in Los Angeles. Now that the sisters are both on the same coast, Jennifer said she’s in a better position to help her sister out — although Lynda generally declines.

“I always ask, ‘Do you need anything?'” Jennifer said for the October 2013 edition. “And she’s like, ‘I’m good.’ But I know she’s exhausted.”

^Jennifer was joined by her sister, her niece, her parents and her children while getting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame earlier this year.

Although Jennifer and Lynda grew up in a “traditional” household with a mother and a father, Jennifer said the sisters are both making their situations work. Speaking to ABC News last spring about how her separation from Marc Anthony affects the twins, Jennifer said the key is to let them know they are loved.

“It’s about love and that’s what I constantly remind myself of because I kind of let society get inside my head, ‘Oh, it shouldn’t be like this. I did this, I did that. I failed.’ And it’s like, no. They’re happy, they’re healthy, they’re loved more than anything in the world and they’re going to be fine.”