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While visiting The Breakfast Club on Monday, Tia Mowry opened up about her parenting style and how it contrasts to what she saw and experienced growing up, specifically when it comes to discipline.
“You know, I was whooped,” she told the hosts. Because of that, she decided to take a more non-traditional route when it came to disciplining her kids.
“My mom, she was very, very strict, still is,” she said. “I grew up being spanked. It’s awesome and it’s great to an extent if that’s the way you want to parent, but I see it differently. If you’re spanking your kid, in my opinion, it’s because of you; it’s because of you and where you are in your head space. You’re impatient, you just want to get this done and over with whereas I feel like if you don’t spank them, then it takes more time, you have to talk to them, you have to explain. But I feel like there is, in my opinion, a better outcome because you’re explaining and you’re saying why as opposed to just hitting them. But that’s just my opinion.”
While she sees herself as nonconventional, she said Tamera definitely is fine with spanking her kids.
“She does, she spanks her children,” she said. “I don’t.”
And while Tia respects the way her sister chooses to discipline her kids, she made it clear that she would never let her sister spank her son Cree or daughter Cairo.
“Huh? Oh no no no no no.”
Overall, Tia just doesn’t want to base her parental relationship with her kids on fear.
“That was then and this is now and so far, it’s just the way I parent and so far it’s good,” she said. “Not that I’m afraid of my mom, but I don’t want my children being afraid of me. I want them to be able to come to me and tell me anything. Of course, there will be times when they’re like, ‘I don’t want to tell my mom.’ But I want them to be able to not be afraid of me.”
Still, she gives major kudos to her parents for the way that she and Tamera and her brothers Tahj and Tavior were raised, especially while attempting to navigate the Hollywood bubble.
“We are very grounded and I do give a lot of credit to my parents,” she said. “It wasn’t about about who popped us, it was about also what they taught us. What they always taught us or teach us is…we never allowed the business to define who we are as people. A lot of young stars they can get caught up in that.”
Tia said they were taught not to make fame, money and attention the end-all, be-all because it’s all so fleeting. They’ve gone through the waves of working and not working and managed to not be idle or fall into the dangerous traps other child stars embraced, thanks to their parents.
“I never defined myself with fame.”
