Will Smith Talks Parenting His Children: ‘We don’t believe in punishment’

We know by now that Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith aren’t the most traditional parents, but in an interview with The Sun, we learn that their two children, Jaden, 14, and Willow, 12, don’t ever get punished for their actions.

He said: ”We generally don’t believe in punishment. From the time Jaden was five or six we would sit him down, and all he has to do is be able to explain why what he did was the right thing for his life.”

Despite being young, Will – who also has 19-year-old son, Trey, from his previous marriage with Sheree Zampino – wants his children to take responsibility for their own lives and has revealed the extra freedoms they have been allowed has encouraged his actor son Jaden to ask for a house of his own for his 15th birthday in July.

In an interview with The Sun newspaper, Will explained: ”He says, ‘Dad, I want to be emancipated,’ I know if we do this, he can be an emancipated minor, because he really wants to have his own place.”

The ‘Men in Black 3? star’s own father Willard – who ran a refrigeration installation business in Philadelphia after leaving the US Air Force – was a very strict parent who believed his son should be seen and not heard so Will was keen for his own offspring have a completely different upbringing to him.

He said: ”I was brought up with, ‘You don’t even talk to your parents about what your opinion is, you are not allowed to have an opinion. When you pay some bills, you can have an opinion.’ … My parents let me talk now.”

What do you think about this alternative parenting style?

via Daily Mail