‘Don’t Do It!’ — Will Smith Gets Real About The ‘Terrible’ Parenting ‘Mistake’ He And Jada Regret Most

Will Smith is keeping it real about the parenting “mistake” that he and Jada Pinkett Smith, 53, made with their kids. 

Ever since they got married in 1997, the Smiths have been raising a blended family of three children. Trey Smith, 32, is Will’s first son from his ex-wife Sheree Zampino. After he and Jada jumped the broom, they welcomed their son Jaden Smith, 26, and their daughter Willow Smith, 24. The trio appear to be doing okay for themselves. However, Will admits that he and Jada didn’t do everything right as parents. In a June 13 interview on Heart Breakfast with Jamie and Amanda he warned listeners of one parenting rule that he now regrets.

“We made a very, very, very terrible mistake with our children and we went with radical honesty,” he said. Smiling ear-to-ear, the 56-year-old Seven Pounds star made sure to re-emphasize his point, so he would be taken seriously. “Don’t do it. I’m not advocating for it,” Smith said.

“We made a deal from really young with our kids. The deal was if you tell the truth, you won’t get in trouble. The only way you can get in trouble in this house is if we find out you did something and you don’t tell the truth.”

Though it may sound like a fair deal to avoid any secrets between a parent and a child, Smith called it a “mistake.” 

“It’s terrible because they do whatever they want and they just come tell you. It’s awful,” he said. Without going into detail about what his kids have said or done, the Men In Black star assured fans again. “You want your kids to lie. You don’t want to know some of the stuff your kids are thinking and doing.”

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Jada used her now canceled show called, The Red Table Talk, to have similar honest conversations with her own family and other celebrities. In one 2018 episode, she invited Willow and Jaden on to discuss her and Will’s shortcomings as their parents.

Willow looked back to her “Whip My Hair” era in 2011 when she made a rebellious move to shave her head. Following her performance during a Justin Bieber tour, she expressed to her father that she didn’t want to continue. Will, seeing it as a chance to teach her about commitment, insisted she finish the 30-day tour. Her reaction was to shave her head and Will finally understood that he was pushing her too hard. 

Explaining their perspective, Jada said she and Will thought they were making the right decision by having their kids start their careers early. 

Trey is now an artist. But he made an early appearance with his dad on screen including in his 1998 music video “Just The Two Of Us.” Jaden was about six years old when he co-starred in the film Pursuit of Happyness with Smith. He began his rap career as a pre-teen and has since gone on to star in other movies. Willow also started young when she played opposite of her father in the 2007 I Am Legend movie. She too transitioned to having a music-focused career.

“Your dad and I, we were like, ‘Oh man, she’ll be set up for life, this is her start,” Jada said. 

Later on she added, “I think parents have to give themselves much more forgiveness. When you become a parent, you have these huge ideals, even for yourself, because we all are coming into parenting with our own childhood traumas. And you’re hoping you can fix all that through your own rearing of your children, and you can’t. Your kids are gonna have their burdens. And even though I see how it might have hurt you, it’s what I knew.”

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