Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith aren’t your average parents. When their kids do something wrong, there are no punishments handed out, no scolding or docking of allowances.
The superstar couple instead chose to let their children – Jaden, 14, and Willow, 12 – make their own mistakes.
“We generally don’t believe in punishment,” Will told The Sun
“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.”
Will and Jada’s different style of parenting has prompted their actor son to ask for a house for his 15th birthday this July.
“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,” Will said.
The couple’s parenting style is completely different to the one that Will himself experienced as a child. His father, who ran a refrigeration installation business in Philadelphia after leaving the US Air Force, was extremely strict and believed in children being seen, but not heard.
Will said he certainly wanted to bring up his own children differently. “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,” he said.
