When it comes to parenting her children Jaden, 14 and 12-year-old Willow, actress Jada Pinkett Smith takes a non-authoritarian approach.
“I think that old school style of ‘I’m your parent and I’m greater than you’ doesn’t work,” she reveals to PEOPLE. “What I establish with my children is a partnership. I’m not necessarily dictating what is happening in their lives.”
Although the 41-year-old Reign Over Me star and her hubby, Men In Black actor Will Smith, 44, are veterans in the Hollywood limelight, her children are just learning to handle living in the spotlight.
So how does this mama prepare her kiddos for criticism from complete strangers?
“By instilling in [Willow] the power for individuality,” she answers. “We … communicate with our kids in a way that our message overpowers any other message that they get out there.”
“We can’t control what our kids learn anymore,” she adds. “We have to inform them and have real conversations … and [create] that foundation of them feeling assured in themselves. I think for our children … they feel like we really care and they come to us and go, ‘Mommy, I’m having this problem,’ “And it’s like, ‘Okay, let’s figure this out together.’ And it empowers them.”
Jada is also step-mother to Will’s son Trey from a previous marriage.
Really? A partnership? How about being the boss. That is what a parent is supposed to do. Not let their kids be equal partners. Kids need guidance and do not have the physiological ability to think like (and act like) an adult. Be a parent.
You do realize that some parents don’t feel that they need to be dictators, right? That you can give a child all the freedom in the world and with the proper guidance, they can grow to be independent, free-thinking, rational, productive members of society.
They don’t need you to tell them every single move they should make. Try trusting your kids, you might be surprised. (And you might not if your kids haven’t learned to think for themselves).
why is Jaden always look like such a jerk? He is so full of himself!!
kids need parents…not more blooody friends
what a bunch of pompousass ugly selfentitled morons.