Britney Spears Opens Up on Career, Children

From her nasty divorce and custody battle, to her "performance" at the 2007 VMAs, to shaving her head, to falling under the spell of evil Sam Lutfi, to her liaisons with Adnan Ghalib, it's been a rough two years for Britney Spears.

And now, one year after an erratic and distracted Britney stormed out of an OK! Magazine photo shoot, a very different woman sat down to talk about her two adorable sons, her dad and the future of her nearly sidetracked career.

First off, the 26-year-old mother of two says that she hopes her boys, Sean Preston and Jayden James, do not choose a career in entertainment.

"I’d love them unconditionally if they wanted to," Britney Spears explains. "I’d just as soon they have a more normal childhood."

Perhaps some of Britney's reluctance comes from seeing little sister Jamie Lynn Spears have to face so much scrutiny over her recent pregnancy. "

I was shocked a little bit," says Britney. "She’s always been the baby, and now the baby was having a baby. It was mind-boggling."

The pop star wants her boys to be close to her newborn niece. "I’m sure the boys will be like big brothers to Maddie Briann," Spears says.

Britney Spears also talks about how her downward spiral in recent years ultimately helped her grow closer to estranged parents Lynne and Jamie.

"God has a way of taking something bad and turning it into something good," explains Jamie Spears, who also spoke to the celebrity gossip mag.

"If this hadn’t happened, I would never have been able to get back with my daughter and have this relationship I have with these two little boys."

Another positive that's risen out of her darkest days is Britney's new album, which she expects to hit stores in six to nine months.

"I think it is more urban," she says. "I’m writing every day, right here at the piano in this living room... This is my best work ever."