Jada Pinkett Smith on raising kids in spotlight: ‘I would have held off a bit’
Adrienne Banfield-Jones, Jada Pinkett Smith and Willow Smith openly discuss taboo topics on “Red Table Talk.” Image: Facebook/@redtabletalk
Knowing what she knows now about social media, Jada Pinkett Smith said she would have held off when it came to allowing her children Willow and Jaden to be in the limelight.
Smith and her mother, Adrienne “Gammy’” Banfield-Norris, guested on American model Ashley Graham’s podcast “Pretty Big Deal” where they had an “intergenerational conversation” about parenting, relationships and representation. Graham’s mother, Linda, also joined the podcast, which was uploaded on Apple Podcasts on Dec. 15.
Graham shared to the women her concerns about social media. The model said she has not shown the face of her baby Isaac on social media, but knows that he’s going to be a child that would be in the spotlight in some shape or form.
She then asked Jada if she would have let her children be in the limelight knowing what she knew now about social media, but Jada interrupted her before she could finish her question.
“No. Life is an unfolding, it really is. We wish we could know everything at once and had all the information that we need, especially when it comes to parenting. Fortunately and unfortunately, you just have to go into things to recognize or realize what works and what doesn’t,” said Jada.
Jada adde she recognized her children were not conventional because she and husband, Will Smit
do not live conventional lives.
“Will and I have never really lived conventional lives or had conventional ideas about life. Knowing what I know now though, I do think that I would have held off a bit in regards to how much they were allowed to be in the spotlight,” said Jada.
She said she was lucky that Willow and Jaden have “a certain fortitude to be able to have controversy, to be able to have criticism” and have helped her on how to navigate her relationship with social media.
Graham also asked about Smith’s and her mother’s differences in parenting. Banfield-Norris, endearingly known as Gammy, said she comes from an era where “children are to be seen and not heard” and it was challenging for her to help raise Jada and Will’s children.
Norris recounted a time when she told grandson Jaden to go to bed early for an 8 a.m. call on set the following morning and how Jaden called his mother on her all the time.
Jada, however, is a firm believer in giving children some freedom and letting them decide for themselves.
“I understand but he has to learn. If he says he can stay up til 12 o’clock and go to that set tomorrow and put in a good day’s work, fine, but he’s got to make that decision, he’s got to learn his limits,” said Jada.
“I’m a firm believer that you have to give kids a certain amount of room to understand their own limitations and to make decisions for themselves in a way to better their lives. We have to spark his self-determinism. I don’t want him doing things because somebody told him to.” Cody Cepeda /ra
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