During an interview on Tuesday with disc jockey A.Dot on BBC Radio 1Xtra, Will Smith admitted it was not easy to rais his children as self-expressing people.
Between laughs, the famous actor said: “Yeah, I think it may have been a mistake” when the host asked him about how he and his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith manage to raise their kids with a lot of freedom of expression. “I think we may have gone too far,” he added.
The conversation got a little bit more serious when A.Dot began to talk about Jaden’s recent photos modeling women’s clothes for Louis Vuitton, and how he handles jokes about his son.
Smith said that as parents, they encourage a “powerful internal quality” their children have as artists. He understands that artists need to go to the edge and try new things, and need to not be afraid of failure or doing things people will not like. He said that his son is “100 percent fearless” as he would do anything to live his life by his “own artistic decisions”.
He then was asked how he balances encouraging his kids’ artistic expression while still setting limits. Smith admitted that this one was a difficult issue at home.
Smith compared his two younger kids saying that Jaden, who is 17 years old, usually goes out with a huge group of “dudes”, referring to them as a “small army” when they go out which allows them to have a little bit more of freedom. As a contrast, the 15-year-old Willow has a curfew set from 11:00 or 11:30 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, which she pushes adding 15 more minutes.
Smith said that he and his wife try to have the same rules for all their children, but the girls’ world is different and has made them struggle.
Source: ABC News